Author: Hovhannisian John

ARMENIA’S COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN STRUCTURES SUCCESSFUL IN 2007

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.01.2008 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Cooperation between Armenia and the European
structure was successful in 2007, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian told a news conference in Yerevan.

Implementation of the Armenia-EU Action Plan was launched in 2007,
he said.

"Relations with the EU are of strategic nature and offer a possibility
for economic cooperation. Besides, the EU undertakes to provide a
share for Armenia at the internal market," the Minister said.

THEY PURSUE THEIR OWN INTERESTS

Lragir
Jan 7 2008
Armenia

The conclusion of the international observers opposed to the
opposition’s protest against the outcome of the Georgian presidential
election and statements on election fraud. The observers said the
election was legitimate, and only pointed to some drawbacks which
should be eliminated. The same picture was in Armenia during the
parliamentary election and will probably repeat in the presidential
election after February 19 when the outcome of the voting is
released. As to whose interests the international observers will
pursue in the presidential election, we tried to find out the opinion
of our readers who were offered three options of answer over the
past three weeks: government’s interests, society’s interests and
their own interests. The majority of our readers, 85 percent, voted
their own interests. 6.4 percent think the observers will pursue the
government’s interests, and 8.6 think the observers will uphold the
society’s interests.

BUSH SUPPORTS TURKEY BID TO JOIN EU
By William C. Mann

AP
8 Jan 08

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush gave Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union a glowing endorsement on Tuesday and called the Islamic
nation a "constructive bridge" between the West and the Muslim world,
offering a much-needed boost to U.S.-Turkish relations.

"I think Turkey sets a fantastic example for nations around the world
to see where it’s possible to have a democracy coexist with a great
religion like Islam and that’s important," he said.

Bush spoke to reporters following a meeting with Turkish President
Abdullah Gul. The two appeared together on the South Lawn, where Bush
said he supported Turkey’s efforts to fight the Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK rebels, in northern Iraq.

Bush called the PKK an enemy to Turkey, Iraq and "to people who want
to live in peace."

At a news conference, Gul dismissed any easing of Turkey’s military
strikes against the PKK. He said the Iraqi government is not able
to constrain the group as it targets civilians and security forces
in Turkey.

Asked if he and Bush had discussed finding a political solution to
the conflict with the PKK, the Turkish president said, "We did not
discuss this issue in that context and neither would we discuss this
issue in that context."

Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
Gul rejected any suggestion that Muslim fundamentalism was on the
rise in Turkey.

"It is not in the mainstream in Turkey," he said. "The young people
are more interested in modernity."

He said Turkey and the United States are partners in Iraq. Asked
about Iran, he said Turkey seeks good relations with countries on
its borders.

Gul’s visit to the White House is seen as a major sign of improved
relations between the two NATO allies after five years of acrimony over
the Iraq war and U.S. policy on Turkey’s fight against Kurdish rebels.

It follows a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan two
months ago that resulted in a commitment by Bush to share intelligence
on PKK and not to object to Turkish airstrikes against the Kurdish
guerrillas’ installations in northern Iraq.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that a key item on Bush’s
agenda was encouraging Turkish leaders to pursue a "long-term political
solution" to the PKK problem, cooperating with Iraqi leaders who
also are concerned about the group’s activities. She said that the
U.S. doesn’t have any particular solution or process in mind, but
wants to play a constructive role in ending a long-standing dispute.

"We are just going to encourage an open dialogue, which they have
had over the past couple of months. And it’s sometimes been in fits
and starts, but overall, a good cooperation," Perino said. "This has
been going on for so long that it’s time to try to put a stop to it."

The PKK has been fighting for two decades to win a Kurdish homeland
in Eastern Turkey.

The meeting with the Turkish leader comes as Bush prepared to leave
later in the day on his first major trip to the Mideast to try to
build momentum for peace in that troubled region.

Gul told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that Turkey would
continue to work alongside the United States toward peace, stability
and prosperity.

"We share a common vision," he said.

In the months leading to Erdogan’s Nov. 5 White House appearance,
however, U.S.-Turkish relations were at their lowest point in many
years.

In 2003, during the buildup to the Iraq war, the Turkish parliament
rejected U.S. requests to send troops into Iraq through Turkish
territory. And a poll last summer showed just 9 percent of Turks saw
the U.S. favorably.

Despite pleas from the Bush administration and personal appeals from
Gul, then foreign minister, and other prominent Turks, the House
Foreign Affairs Committee passed a nonbinding resolution last year
that described as genocide the World War I-era deaths of Armenians
during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey reacted by
withdrawing its ambassador from Washington.

Despite the improved situation since the Erdogan-Bush meeting, the
situation remains touchy.

Gul also met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His schedule,
released in Ankara, said he also would meet with Defense Secretary
Robert Gates on Wednesday before flying to New York to meet at the
United Nations with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

For his part, Bush left later Tuesday on his first major trip to
the Mideast. He was to stop in Israel, the Palestinian-governed West
Bank, which he toured in 1998, and make his first visits to Kuwait,
Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. He also planned
a brief stop at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, which
he visited in 2003.

ARMENIAN CHURCH OF PARIS: BOMB SCARE

armradio.am
07.01.2008 11:56

Sunday morning, January 6, 2008, Armenian Christmas Day, a false bomb
scare disturbed the religious service of the Armenian Church in Paris,
independent correspondent Jean Eckian informs from Paris.

It’s an anonymous call coming from a phone box located close to the
Avenue des Champs-Elysees which started a vast police operation.

Arrived towards 11:35 AM, the police force carried out the evacuation
of the church during the mass of Christmas, celebrated for the first
time by Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, new Primate of the France’s
Apostolic Church, who refused to stop the mass. After a meticulous
research of the police force in the crowned enclosure, without result,
the faithful ones could attend the end of the Christmas mass.

On October 24, 2007 in Brussels, the coffee exploited by a Belgian
of Armenian origin had been entirely ransacked by a pack of Turkish
ultra nationalists. They had also torn off the American flag of the
United States’s embassy.

These facts occur at the time when the French Senate must examine
the penalization’s bill of the Armenian Genocide negation and that
of Res.H.106 in the USA.

Glendale News Press, CA
Jan 2 2008

ON THE TOWN:
Celebrating beginnings and anniversaries

By RUTH SOWBY

The Armenian National Treasures Foundation did itself proud on
Thursday with its debut `Armenian Holiday Concert’ at Glendale
Presbyterian Church.

It was standing room only as more than 1,000 music lovers overflowed
the poinsettia-filled sanctuary to listen to the Cilcia Symphonic
Orchestra, conducted by Mikael Avetisyan. The orchestra played
traditional holiday scores that have been part of Armenian heritage
for more than 100 years. Contemporary works by Armenian composers
were also featured.

Concert soloist Anahit Nercesyan sung `Yerevan,’ by Artemi Aivezian,
founder of the first Armenian jazz orchestra in the 1930s, according
to Bianca Manoukian, co-founder/chairperson of the foundation.

Glendale residents who were part of the sold-out crown included:
Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, Chairwoman of the Armenian Fund Maria
Mehranian, Onnik and Kristine Keshian, Atineh Haroutunian, Romina
Derbedrossian, and Ani Hovagimian with her mother Mary Demirjian,
visiting for the holidays from Las Vegas.

Religious leaders present included: Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian,
Father Muron Aznikian and the Rev. Barthev Gulumian. All represent
the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America.

The Armenian National Treasures Foundation was established in the
summer of 2007, `to help ensure that future generations will have
[the] opportunity to experience our past and understand our identity
as a community and as a nation ‘

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
December 28, 2007 Friday

FREIZER: ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN PREPARE FOR A WAR

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP PREDICTS A WAR BETWEEN ARMENIA AND
AZERBAIJAN; Will it be a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan again?

Sabina Freizer, Directress of European Programs of the International
Crisis Group, told The Boston Globe that full fledged
Azerbaijani-Armenian hostilities were in the near future now.

"The international community is always late to respond to
hostilities," Freizer said. "Is it possible to stop a war before it
begins? We can try it in Nagorno-Karabakh over which Armenia and
Azerbaijan are about to start fighting." Freizer is convinced that it
is really possible to prevent this outbreak of hostilities.

As far as Freizer is concerned, Armenia and Azerbaijan delay crisis
resolution because "Armenia views every day of occupation as an
opportunity to solidify its position" while Azerbaijan needs time to
strengthen its army by investing oil revenues into armaments and
seize Nagorno-Karabakh by sheer strength of arms. Armenia Today
quotes Freizer as saying that the solution to the problem requires
the withdrawal of Karabakh troops from the occupied territories and
definition of its status by a referendum.

Armenian Foreign Minister, Vardan Oskanjan, in the meantime does not
rule out the possibility that the conflict will be settled before the
presidential election in Armenia. "Being an optimist, I think it a
wish of the people to see the involved parties reach an understanding
on the principles of settlement at least," he said on December 18.
"Once that is done, it will be up to us to squeeze them all into a
peace treaty 30 or 50 pages long."

Sahim Babayev, human rights activist and Chairman of the Gyandzh
Division of the Helsinki Civil Assembly of Azerbaijan, claims that
80% of the Azerbaijanis reject the idea of a war.

"Ordinary people want peace, but that requires that we change our
views on who the enemy is," he said at a press conference in Yerevan,
Armenia, on December 17. "It’s time we remembered that we are
neighbors."

Source: Kavkazsky Uzel, December 25, 2007, EV

Translated by A. Ignatkin

WILLIAM SAROYAN’S MONUMENT TO BE PLACED IN YEREVAN

armradio.am
25.12.2007 14:45

In 2008 renowned American-Armenian writer William Saroyan’s monument
will be erected in the square in front of the Yervand Kochar Museum.

Chief architect of Yerevan Samvel Danielyan told Armenpress that
the author of the monument is famous sculptor Davit Yerevantsi who
resides in France.

The installation works will be financed by the "All-Armenian
Geographical Association" non-governmental organization.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE: SERBIA AND KOSOVO "ARE NEVER GOING TO BE ONE AGAIN"

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.12.2007 13:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
Serbia and Kosovo will never be part of the same country again, and
all those concerned should work for a stable outcome in the Balkans
based on that reality.

Rice stopped short of endorsing a timetable for Kosovo independence,
but she made clear her expectation that the majority-Albanian Serbian
province will soon be on its own, and urged all concerned parties to
accept that reality.

A final round of talks between Kosovar and Serbian officials
mediated by the United States, the European Union and Russia ended
inconclusively earlier this month. Serbia, backed by its ally Moscow,
had offered a maximum degree of autonomy but not independence for
the region.

In the aftermath of the talks, U.S. and European Union officials have
made clear they favor giving Kosovo supervised independence under
the plan presented last March by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Kosovar leaders in Pristina have said they will announce independence
early in the coming year.

Asked about such a prospect, Rice said it will be important to take
decisions about Kosovo’s status in the next several weeks, and that
not doing so would be destabilizing:

"The fact is that Kosovo and Serbia are never going to be part of the
same state again. I think that’s quite clear. It was the logic even
of (UN Resolution) 1244 on the special status accorded Kosovo as a
result of the war. And the important thing is for these two peoples
to get on with their futures," she said, VOA reports.

MANY PEOPLE CAN GET FREE TREATMENT

Panorama.am
18:39 20/12/2007

Today Harutun Kushkyan announced that the number of people getting free
treatments is enlarged. The executive body made some changes in the
decision of the government defined in 2004 and further on 12 years
old children are allowed to get free stomatological service. Till
today only 8 years old had such opportunity.

The decision of the executive body is closely connected with the
increase of the state budget, and the scientific researches about
possible teeth diseases in children of the mentioned ages. "The
survey results and the conclusions showed that a 12 years old child
is vulnerable to the disease," explained the minister.

The second change is connected with women in prebirth, pregnancy,
and late birth periods. Those women can get free treatments in the
case they get disease in the above mentioned period.

According to the third change, the medical professors will be sent
on mission in the regions. The minister said that such missions will
improve the medical standard in the regions, too.

CLOSED TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER ANOMALY

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.12.2007 18:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations is
vital for the entire region. Closed border is an anomaly, EU Special
Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby said during
The Armenian-Turkish Relations: Problems and Prospects extended
parliamentary hearings. Armenia and Turkey should come to agreement
in the name of future, according to him.

"The EU is ready to contribute to the process but we think the sides
should meet half-way. Common history should be forgotten. Of course,
it’s a long process that should be carried out step by step. Armenia
and Turkey practice different views on the events of 1915.

But Armenia stands for normalization of relations without preconditions
while Turkey holds an opposite view. That is why both should search
for compromise," Mr Semneby said.

He welcomed RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s statement regarding
Turkey’s accession to the EU.

"Such statements create a good basis for Turkish forces interested
in normalization of relations.

Formation of a joint commission of historians for investigation
the fact of genocide is an interesting proposal. However, validity
of article 301 hampers any dialogue," he said adding that Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan promised to review the article.