Author: Jagharian Tania

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSES NAGORNO-KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS WITH OSCE MINSK GROUP’S CO-CHAIRS

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 24 2007

Armenian President Robert Kocharian received the Co-Chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on 24
October – Yuri Merzlyakov ( Russia), Matthew Bryza ( United States),
and Bernard Fassier ( France), as well as the OSCE Chairman-in-Office’s
personal representative Andrzej Kasprzyk, who arrived in Yerevan
within the framework of a regional visit.

"During the visit, the interlocutors discussed the current stage
of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh confrontation,
particularly the issues still unresolved," a spokesman for the Armenian
President reported to Novosti-Armenia new agency.

Within the framework of the visit to the South Caucasus the OSCE Minsk
Group’s Co-Chairs will visit Azerbaijan on 26 October and will meet
with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, as well as are
supposed to be received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

HE MANAGED TO MEET TOROSYAN

A1+
[04:33 pm] 23 October, 2007

The RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan had a breakfast meeting with the
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The
ambassadors of both countries, the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs
Vardan Oskanyan, the RA Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan, Iranian
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the head of the intergovernmental
commission Manuchehr Motaki, Samare Hashemi, a senior advisor of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the member of the Iranian Parliament
Nategh Noori and other officials participated in the meeting.

The parties discussed the results of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to
the RA, the perspectives of bilateral relations and the reinforcement
of inter-parliamentary relations.

The parties expressed their satisfaction with the results of the
visit considering Armenian-Iranian productive collaboration a good
example for intergovernmental relations.

We should remind that Iran’s President returned earlier than it was
planned and did not make a speech at the NA.

SHEVARDNAZDE SUGGESTS THAT WEST BOYCOTT SOCHI OLYMPIC GAMES

ARMENPRESS
Oct 22, 2007

TBILISI, OCTOBER 22, ARMENPRESS: Georgia’s former president Eduard
Shevardnadze has suggested that the leading Western nations boycott
the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia if the Kremlin refuses to
regulate the Abkhazian conflict.

Shevardnadze, who was ousted by Mikhail Saakashvili in 2003 "revolution
of roses" made the remark during a recent visit to Germany where he
was received by Dietrich Genscher.

"We discussed the Abkhazia conflict with Genscher and the
Russian-Georgian relations. I praised Putin for (allowing) ethnic
Georgians’ return to Gali region, but I also said that that was
just the beginning. If Russia refuses to settle the South Ossetian
and Abkhazian conflicts, it should be punished like the former Soviet
Union was punished back in 1980 when the USA and many Western countries
boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games for Afghanistan invasion,"’
Shevardnadze said to a Georgian Kviris Palitra newspaper.

YEREVAN UNIV. HONORS AHMADINEJAD

PRESS TV
Oct 23 2007
Iran

Rector of the State University of Yerevan has awarded an honorary
doctorate to President Ahmadinejad, currently visiting Armenia.

"Iranian Armenians have a significantly active presence in the
country’s social and political life," the Rector of Yerevan State
University Aram Simonyan said at the ceremony held in honor of the
Iranian President.

Scientific cooperation between Iran and Armenia in various fields
would be mutually beneficial, he said, adding that the two countries
enjoy good bilateral ties in matters relating to higher education.

He expressed hope that bilateral academic and scientific relations
would be further expanded.

HISTORIANS WEIGH IN ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by The Stiletto

Blogger News Network

Oct 22 2007

One of the especially specious arguments against the Armenian Genocide
Resolution was that Congressmen are not historians, and are unqualified
to determine whether the systematic slaughter of Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks constitutes ¡°genocide.¡±

For the sake of discussion, let¡¯s accept this sophistry and agree
that Congress should take its cue from historians whose job it is
to know these things. Earlier this month, scholars and academics of
genocide studies gathered at McGill University (Montreal) for the
Global Conference on Genocide Prevention signed a petition urging
Congress to recognize the Armenian Genocide by approving floor votes
on HR/SR 106. In his opening remarks, symposium chair Payam Akhavan,
S.J.D. noted, ¡°The 20th century has been described as the Century
of Genocide. It opened in 1915 with the mass killing of almost 1.5
million Armenians in Eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire.¡± Among
those who signed the petition: Rom¨¦o Dallaire, former commander of UN
peacekeeping forces in Rwanda; Yehuda Bauer, Holocaust historian and
scholar, Yad Vashem and Hebrew University; and Dr. Gregory Stanton,
President of Genocide Watch.

Not content to publish not one, not two, but three editorials
against HR/SR 106 in the space of two weeks (perhaps more than one
of the genocide deniers on its staff wanted his own crack at it),
The Wall Street Journal also sacrificed G-d knows how many trees to
allow Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a platform to spew
anti-Armenian propaganda and genocide denial:

Efforts to rewrite the history of the events of 1915 through
legislative fiat and vilify Turks are not new to the U.S. Congress.

But past attempts were always contained through support in Congress
and from successive presidential administrations. This time, it seems
that the House of Representatives may be forced to take sides and pass
unilateral judgment on a historic controversy that is as contentious
as it is complex.

The truth is that the Armenian allegations of genocide pertaining to
the events of 1915 have not been historically or legally substantiated.

Erdogan asks, ¡°why the Republic of Armenia is obstinately evading
Turkey¡¯s offer to establish a Joint History Commission to examine
together the events of 1915 through bilateral dialogue – all the
while openly supporting efforts to defame Turkey.¡±

The truth is, Erdogan can¡¯t handle the truth. Like all Turks, he has
been brainwashed from childhood to believe that ¡°many Turks lost their
lives during the mutual killings.¡± It goes without saying that the
word ¡°genocide¡± never appears in Turkish schoolbooks ¨C but then,
there are no references whatsoever to the mass murders.

Instead, schoolchildren are taught that the ¡°events of 1915¡å ¨C a
code term used only by Armenian genocide deniers ¨C were attributable
to ¡°treacherous¡± Armenians who had joined the Russian Imperial army
in attacks on the Empire.

Conservative pundits who know as little about Turkish culture as
they do about Ottoman Turkish history marveled that Turks would
be ¡°insulted¡± by a symbolic resolution passed by the government
of a country a world away ¨C even as they scrambled to scotch the
resolution so that the bratty tot would get what he wanted and shut
up. The Stiletto can explain: Every morning in school, Turkish children
recite an oath that inculcates them with the idea they are a superior
breed of human:

I am a Turk, I am honest. I am a hard worker. My rule is to protect
those younger and to respect my elders, and to love my country and my
nation more than myself. My goal is to enhance and to get higher. May
my life be a present to the Turkish people. Honorable, unreachable
Ataturk! I give my oath to continue towards reaching the targets
you showed, to walk on the road you have opened, in the country you
created. How happy I am to say I am a Turk.

Hard as it may be for right-thinking people to believe, it is entirely
within the realm of possibility that Erdogan sincerely believes that
Ottoman Turks did not ¨C and are too decent and honorable to – commit
genocide. Unfortunately for Turkey, the governments of 22 nations
worldwide and 40 states here in the U.S. know different because their
schoolbooks and newspapers aren¡¯t censored, and their writers and
journalists aren¡¯t prosecuted (or murdered) for telling the truth.

It is Turkey that needs to constitute historical commissions to undo
decades of lying to and brainwashing its citizens. Armenians know
all too well the truth of the matter. They need a stinkin¡¯ ¡°Joint
Commission¡± like Jews need Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telling them whether
there was a Holocaust.

–Boundary_(ID_2wmLFSMrY8Ydpx+bcFJUIg) —

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 20 2007

PRIME MINISTER’S US MEETINGS

Within the frameworks of his visit to the United States, Prime
Minister Serge Sergsyan had a meeting with Robert Gates, the US
Secretary of Defense on October 18.
Touching upon the high level of relations between the United
States and Armenia, the Prime Minister expressed satisfaction with
the development of the bilateral military political cooperation as
well as gratitude to the American side for providing continuous
assistance to the armed forces of Armenia.
In his turn, Robert Gates highly appreciated Armenia’s
participation in the anti-terrorist coalition, as well as the
Armenian forces’ peacekeeping mission in Iraq. The parties discussed
the issue of Armenia’s further participation in the Iraqi
reconstruction activities. They also touched upon the possibility of
Armenia’s involvement in the coalition efforts of Afghanistan.
With regard to the issue of providing a US military support to the
South Caucasian countries, Serge Sasrgsyan particularly attached
importance to maintaining proportionality while providing military
assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Touching upon the Karabakh conflict, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan
reconfirmed that Armenia sticks to the idea of peaceful and speedy
conflict settlement through mutual concessions. He expressed hope
that the current discussions within the frameworks of the Minsk Group
will produce a desirable result. Robert Gates once again reconfirmed
that the United States supports the efforts aimed at the peaceful
conflict settlement within the frameworks of the OSCE Minsk Group.
After the meeting with the US Secretary of Defense, the Prime
Minister paid a visit to the central office of `Millennium
Challenges’ Corporation (MCC), where a meeting was held between the
Head of the Armenian Government and Ambassador John Danilovich, the
MCC Chief Executive Director.
Touching upon the issue of the Armenian-American economic
cooperation, the Prime Minister highly appreciated Armenia’s
involvement in the `Millennium Challenges’ American program, which is
mostly targeted at promoting economic development and reducing
poverty in rural areas.
Ambassador Danilovich spoke about the Governing Council’s session
which is going to be held in November with the purpose of discussing
the annual executives of the state parties. He mentioned that in its
preliminary report, the office gives a positive assessment to
Armenia’s 2007 executive. The Prime Minister noted that in accordance
with the `Millennium Challenges’ 2007 country development
classification, Armenia has made a transition from a `low-income
country’ to a `medium-income country’. And this pushes Armenia to a
more active and consistent work. Mr. Sargsyan added that the
Government of Armenia has enshrined more pretentious goals in the
2008 State Budget, and the activities carried out in that direction
will have their positive impact on the MCC indices as well.
During the second half of the day, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan
had a meeting with the US Vice President Richard Chaney in the White
House. A wide range of issues regarding the Armenian-American
relations were discussed during the meeting.
Touching upon the high level of the Armenian-American relations,
the Prime Minister emphasized the willingness of continuing and
deepening them, as well as expressed gratitude for the US political
and economic assistance provided to Armenia after gaining
independence. With regard to the process of the democratic reforms
currently under way in Armenia, the Prime Minister mentioned that the
RA authorities are determined in their efforts to build a modern
democratic state. Vice President Richard Chaney once again
underscored the United States willingness to continue supporting
Armenia in the process of implementing those reforms.
During the meeting which lasted longer than expected the parties
thoroughly discussed the current political process in the Near East;
they also touched upon the settlement of the NKR conflict and the
Armenian-Turkish relations. Introducing Armenia’s attitude towards
the issue, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan mentioned that although the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide continues to remain on the RA
foreign policy agenda, the country is ready to take practical steps
for regulating the relations with Turkey without preconditions.
With regard to the Karabakh issue, Head of the Armenian Government
mentioned once again that Armenia sticks to its attitude towards
peaceful and speedy settlement of the Karabakh conflict. He expressed
hope that the negotiations held within the frameworks of the Minsk
Group will finally produce positive results.
Vice President Chaney reconfirmed the United States interest in
the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations and welcomed the
fact that during his visit to the United States the RA Prime Minister
appointed a number of meetings with the representatives of the
Armenian community.
The delegation led by Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan left
Washington for Los Angeles in the evening of October 18.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 19 2007

Armenia’s prime minister content with Armenian-US military cooperation

YEREVAN, October 19. /ARKA/. RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsian is
content with the level of Armenian-US military cooperation, the press
service of the RA Government reports.

During his meeting with US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on
October 18, Sargsian thanked the USA for its assistance to the RA
Armed Forces.

Gates highly appreciated Armenia’s active participation in the
Anti-Terrorist Coalition and peacemaking mission in Iraq.
The parties discussed Armenia’s further assistance to Iraq and
possibilities of the Armenian peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

The RA Prime Minister attached importance to the US balanced military
support to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Sargsian and Gates discussed the activities of the RA Government.
Both parties attached importance to the effective political and
economic reforms in the country, the aim of which is to improve the
country’s social life.

The Armenian governmental delegation headed by RA Premier Serge
Sargsian paid a visit to the USA on October 17. The delegation
returns on October 23. -0–

PanARMENIAN.Net

Dick Cheney confirmed U.S. readiness to promote Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation
19.10.2007 15:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Currently in the United States on a formal visit,
Armenian Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan met yesterday with
U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, the RA government’s press office
said.

Noting the high level of the Armenia-U.S. relations, PM Sargsyan
reiterated Armenia’s aspiration to deepen them.

`The Armenian authorities are determined to build a modern and
democratic state,’ he said.

The parties also referred to political processes in Middle East,
Karabakh settlement and Armenia-Turkey relations. Briefing on
Armenia’s position on the issues, PM Sargsyan said, `With the Armenian
Genocide recognition issue on the agenda, Yerevan is ready to
normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions. As to the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Armenia upholds a peaceful resolution via
compromise.’ He voiced hope that the talks in the framework of the
OSCE Minsk Group will produce effect.

For his part, Mr Cheney confirmed U.S. readiness to promote
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement.

He also praised the Armenian community of the U.S.

MOTTAKI, ARMENIAN MINISTER DISCUSS ISSUES OF MUTUAL INTEREST

IRNA, Iran
Oct 17 2007

Visiting Armenian Energy Minister and the Armenian head of joint
cooperation commission Armen Movsisyan discussed issues of mutual
interest with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki here Wednesday.

According to the Foreign Ministry Media Department report, in the
meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral ties and cooperation in the
fields of energy, banking, trade, consular affairs, security issues,
railroad transportation and joint projects.

Mottaki said, "Ties between the two countries in all fields are
developing and called for prompt implementation of joint projects."

Movsisyan, by referring to the both countries intention for expansion
of ties, said, "The prospect of bilateral relations is very promising
and constructive."

SPORTSMEN WERE NOT GIVEN VISAS

A1+
[05:37 pm] 18 October, 2007

The Armenian national box team is already in Chicago and is getting
ready for the 2007 World Championship on 23 October.

Hovhannes Danielyan (48kg), Derenik Gizhlumayn (51 kg), Vachagan
Avagyan (54 kg), Azat Hovhannisyan (57 kg), Hrachya Javakhqyan (60
kg), Eduard Hovhannisyan (64 kg), Andranik Hakobyan (75 kg), Tsolak
Ananikyan (81 kg) will participate in the Championship headed by the
chief coach Rafael Mehrabyan and coach Karen Aghamalyan. The Armenian
Box Federation informed "A1+" that the head of the delegation, the
first deputy of Federation Derenik Gabrielyan, as well as Suren
Ghazaryan, the only Armenian judge during the Championship will
leave on 20 October. The US Embassy did not give visas to Gabriel
Tolmajyan and Samvel Matevosyan. Both sportsmen had relatives in the
States and that served reason for the denial. The Championship was to
take place in Moscow, but the AIBA decided to change the place of the
Championship choosing Chicago. The National Team of Cuba refused to
participate in the Championship. They explained that foreign agents
bought their talented boxers by offering them attractive agreements.