Author: Jalatian Sonya

TURKEY HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
11.02.2010 18:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey has nuclear weapons, NATO Ex-Secretary General
George Robertson was quoted as saying by the TIME TURK Web site.

As he said, that weapons are kept in the Incirlik military base of
U.S in Turkey’s territory. According to the source, the number of
weapons stored in Turkey reaches 40-90.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), also called the (North)
Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based
on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949. The
NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization
constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states
agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

The Treaty of Brussels, signed on March 17, 1948 by Belgium, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom is considered
the precursor to the NATO agreement. The treaty and the Soviet Berlin
Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Union’s Defense
Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United
States was thought necessary in order to counter the military power
of the USSR, and therefore talks for a new military alliance began
almost immediately.

These talks resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed
in Washington, D.C. on April 4, 1949. It included the five Treaty
of Brussels states, as well as the United States, Canada, Portugal,
Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Popular support for the Treaty
was not unanimous; some Icelanders commenced a pro-neutrality,
anti-membership riot in March 1949.

Greece and Turkey joined the alliance in 1952, forcing a series of
controversial negotiations, in which the United States and Britain
were the primary disputants, over how to bring the two countries into
the military command structure. In July 1997, three former communist
countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, were invited
to join NATO, which finally happened in 1999. Membership went on
expanding with the accession of seven more Northern European and
Eastern European countries to NATO: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
and also Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. They were first
invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague Summit,
and joined NATO on 29 March 2004, shortly before the 2004 Istanbul
summit. At the April 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, NATO agreed
to the accession of Croatia and Albania and invited them to join. Both
countries joined NATO in April 2009.

In August 2003, NATO commenced its first mission ever outside Europe
when it assumed control over International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF) in Afghanistan.

UKRAINIAN DOCUMENTARY ON KARABAKH PREMIERES IN KIEV

news.az
Feb 10 2010
Azerbaijan

Talat Aliyev The documentary, "The Grinding Stone of History –
Karabakh", features the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
including the Khojaly massacre.

The documentary was made at the initiative of Ukraine’s First National
TV channel and Azerbaijan’s state-owned AzTV.

Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Ukraine, Talat Aliyev, spoke at the
premiere about the Armenian occupation, terrorism and vandalism and
the Khojaly genocide.

MP Ganira Pashayeva said that the film conveyed the history of the
Karabakh conflict.

Ambassador Aliyev said that the premiere was part of a major campaign
launched last year in cooperation with the Justice for Khojaly
campaign to inform the Ukrainian community about the tragic events
in Azerbaijan’s history.

Recent campaign events were an evening to commemorate the 20 January
martyrs and the launch of the Ukrainian version of a book by the
head of the Presidential Administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev, "Realities
of Azerbaijani Genocide".

"In February we will hold a number of events to remember the victims
of the Khojaly genocide," Aliyev said.

DENIZ BAYKAL: "THE GOVERNMENT’S POLICY REGARDING ARMENIA RESULTED WITH FIASCO"

APA
Feb 9 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. "Armenia is our neighbor. Turkey was one of the first
countries recognizing Armenia’s independence after its establishment.

However, Armenia occupied the territories of Azerbaijan afterwards.

Turkey regarded it inadmissible and closed its borders with Armenia.

Turkey has closed its borders not to cause trouble for Armenian people,
but because of happenings against Azerbaijan. Now the government
says it has zero problem with the neighbors", said leader of Turkish
Republican People’s Party Deniz Baykal at the party’s meeting, APA
reports quoting Hurriyet.

According to Baykal, Armenia does not demonstrate any will to normalize
relations with Turkey. "Meetings were held in Switzerland, they said
"historic opportunity has been created". Protocols were signed and
they went ahead. But we warned them "do not take such step, you will
hurt Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan is much more important than you think it
to be, you will legitimize the occupation in Azerbaijan". We said
we would not let the protocols be approved unless the occupation
ends. Azerbaijan also demonstrated its strict objection and protest.

Further, the Prime Minister visited Azerbaijan and said "We will not
open borders unless the occupation ends". But we have not seen any
progress regarding this issue.

Baykal said Turkey-Armenia rapprochement process is in deadlock:
"24 April is coming. Turkey will be oppressed again. This government’s
"zero problem" policy regarding Armenia is completely fiasco. Nothing
has been gained, but much has been lost. We have lost Azerbaijan’s
friendship. They said "zero problem", they failed to settle problems
with Armenia, plus they created problem with Azerbaijan".

Susi Kentikian returns at Sporthalle Hamburg on April 24
06.02.2010 14:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Triple flyweight world champion Susi Kentikian
(26-0, 16 KOs) returns on April 24 at the Sporthalle Hamburg. The
undefeated `Killer Queen’ will be defending her WBA/WIBF/WBO belts
against unbeaten challenger Nadia Raoui (11-0-1, 3 KOs) who holds the
WIBA belt. `I’m always excited and very happy when I have a fight in
my hometown,’ said Kentikian.

`It will be a difficult and tough fight but I’m used to that. Have
your fingers crossed – so come and see my fight live!’ The bout will
be Kentikian’s first fight as the headlining fighter on the German ZDF
network. Additional fights will be announced within the next few days,
boxing.de reported.

Susanna "Susi" Kentikian (born on September 11, 1987)[3] is a
German-Armenian professional boxer now residing in Germany. She was
born in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, but she left the country with her
family at the age of five because of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Kentikian has lived in Hamburg since 1996 and began boxing when she
was twelve years old. Following a successful amateur career, she
turned professional in 2005 when she signed with the Hamburg boxing
promoter Spotlight Boxing. Kentikian won her first world championship
fight in February 2007, and she is the current World Boxing
Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Women’s
International Boxing Federation (WIBF) world flyweight champion.

Kentikian is undefeated, having won 16 of her 25 professional fights
by knockout. The German television station ZDF broadcasts her fights
since July 2009. She had previously headlined fight cards for the
television station ProSieben from 2007 to 2009. Kentikian has gained
minor celebrity status in Germany, and she hopes to reach popularity
similar to the retired German female boxing star Regina Halmich.

TAX AND CUSTOMS PROCEEDS INCREASED BY 14% IN JAN. 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.02.2010 13:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian state revenue committee exceeded
the quotas at the beginning of the year. Tax and customs proceeds
increased by 14% in Jan. 2010, the committee’s press office said.

Social payments totaled AMD 6.78 billion, growing by 41.8% against
last year’s index.

RUSSIAN GAS DELIVERIES TO ARMENIA DOWN 19.7% IN 2009

Interfax
Feb 1 2010
Russia

Russian gas deliveries to Armenia declined 19.7% to 1.809 billion
cubic meters in 2009, down from 2.254 bcm in 2008, the Armrosgazprom
concern reported.

Armrosgazprom sold 1.661 bcm of gas last year, 20.1% less.

Households consumed 0.553 bcm of gas (6.1% less), power generation
-0.366 bcm (39.7% less), industrial enterprises – 0.260 bcm (29.5%
less), and filling stations for natural gas fueled vehicles – 0.306
bcm (11.2% less).

The company said demand declined due to the global financial crisis
and to dispatching constraints faced by power companies.

Armrosgazprom was founded in 1997. Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) owns 80%
and the Armenia government has 20%.

ARMENIA’S BUDGET DEFICIT WAS 4.7% OF GDP IN 2009

Interfax
Feb 1 2010
Russia

Armenia’s budget deficit in 2009 was 148.3 billion dram, or 4.7%
of GDP, the national statistics service said.

Budget revenues for last year came to 676.4 billion dram, or 21.4%
of GDP, having contracted 10.9% from 2008.

Tax receipts provided 503.3 billion drams, or 15.9% of GDP, 15.9% down
from 2008. Added-value taxes were down 20.2% to 254.1 billion drams,
profit taxes 5.1% to 81.8 billion drams, and excise taxes 6.8% to 42.7
billion drams. Income taxes rose 12% to 60.2 billion drams. Budget
revenues form customs duties dropped 32.7% to 25.1 billion drams.

Budget expenditures came to 824.7 billion drams last year, or 26.1%
of GDP, having risen 8.4% from 2008. Social welfare spending accounted
for 7.7% of GDP, defense for 4.1%, and educaton for 3.3%.

The official exchange rate for February 1: 375.5 drams/$1.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE SCHEDULES VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION ON MARCH 4

Tert.am
13:25 ~U 05.02.10

U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Howard Berman (D-CA) has
scheduled a vote of his panel on the Armenian Genocide Resolution,
H.Res.252, for Thursday, March 4, reports the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

"We want to thank Chair Berman for his vision and strength in taking
this bold step to send the clear message to Turkey that the United
States Congress will not be complicit in their immoral efforts to deny
truth and justice for the Armenian Genocide," said Ken Hachikian,
Chair of the ANCA, following his meeting yesterday in Washington,
DC with the senior California legislator.

"We look forward to working with the Chair and all our friends on the
Committee from both parties to facilitate passage of this critical
piece of human rights legislation by both this panel and the full
House of Representatives. Our grassroots activists are mobilized to
help achieve the success of this effort."

Hachikian also consulted yesterday with several other Representatives,
most notably, Congressional Armenian Genocide Resolution author Adam
Schiff (D-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone
(D-NJ), and senior House Foreign Affairs Committee Members Brad Sherman
(D-CA), and Ed Royce (R-CA).

Earlier this week, the ANC of Massachusetts teamed up with Greater
Boston area Jewish American groups, Investors Against Genocide and
ARAMAC – Massachusetts in launching an online petition calling for
Presidential and Congressional recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The petition (which can only be signed
by U.S. citizens) can be found at
/actions/view/tell_congress_to_recognize_the_armen ian_genocide

ARMENIAN EXPERT: ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DECISION TO APPROVE TURKISH-ARMENIAN PROTOCOLS FORMALITY

Trend
Jan 25 2010
Azerbaijan

Armenian Center for National and International Studies Director Richard
Giragosian believes the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision to
approve the Turkish-Armenian protocols is just a formality.

"Based on the Armenian constitution, this is a necessary first step
toward later ratification by the Armenian parliament," he told Trend
News via e-mail. "Moreover, the lack of independence of the Armenian
court system also meant that the court was unlikely to go against the
wishes of the Armenian government, which was determined to secure a
positive assessment of the protocols."

Jan.13, Armenia’s Constitutional Court recognized the Armenian-Turkish
protocols consistent with the constitution, Novosti-Armenia reported.

Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers, Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward
Nalbandian, signed the Ankara-Yerevan protocols in Zurich Oct. 10.

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey have been broken due
to Armenia’s claims of an alleged genocide, and its occupation of
Azerbaijani lands. The border between them has been closed since 1993.

According to the Giragosian, there is nothing unusual or inappropriate
in the court’s decision.

"I find Turkey’s reaction not only disingenuous but unfair, as there
was never any doubt over the Armenian side’s commitment to ensure a
speedy passage of the protocols," he added.

Jan. 19, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement which
indicated that the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision contains
"pre-conditions and restrictive provisions that contrary to the letter
and spirit of the protocols," Anadolu reported.

He said it seems that Turkey’s protest is rooted more in Turkey’s
domestic politics.In connection with this new crisis, Turkey is
looking to create a new political "justification" to withdraw from
the protocols, he believes.

But that would be a serious setback, and a repudiation of all
obligations and expectations.

According to Giragosian, the crisis between the countries is growing
and Turkey only stokes the fire.

"At the moment, this process has already stalled and slowed down
significantly, I am increasingly worried that Turkey may have derailed
the entire effort on its accord," he said.

"Hopefully, both sides can recover and find a new way beyond this
rather exaggerated crisis."

WILL HISTORY’S LESSONS EVER BE LEARNED?
by Anastasia Economides

Queens Chronicle
d=20407906&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=57 5596&rfi=6
Feb 4 2010
NY

When introducing herself, Dola Polland, 88, didn’t say her name.

Instead, she pulled up her left sleeve and revealed a small tattoo:
A18683. "A" stood for Auschwitz, she explained. The serial number
identified her as a once Jewish prisoner in Nazi concentration camps
during World War II.

Polland and her husband of 53 years, Adolf Polland, were two of a
handful of elders honored as Holocaust survivors at the Jewish Center
of Kew Gardens Hills last week.

It was the first Queens event observing International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah in Hebrew. About 150 people attended
the evening ceremony.

The United Nations recognized the commemoration in 2005 as paying
tribute to those killed and those who survived one of the worst ethnic
cleansings in human history.

Jan. 27 marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, where an
estimated 1.1 million people were killed. Roughly 90 percent of
victims were Jews.

There are approximately 240,000 Jews in Queens, according to the
Queens Jewish Historical Society.

This year’s theme at the center was universal communication. Jeff
Gottlieb, president of the Queens Jewish Historical Society, said the
goal is to educate people of the terrible consequences of genocide
in order to prevent future ones.

"Instead of just the Jewish experience, we focus on others torn apart
by hatred," he said.

Sitting in the same pew at the synagogue, Polland’s longtime friend,
Regina Lewis, 90, introduced herself in the same manner, by lifting
up her sleeve. Both women came from the same Jewish ghetto in Krakow,
Poland, but never met until after the war, in Queens. Both now live
in Kew Gardens Hills.

A petite woman clad in a fur coat with clean polish on her nails,
Lewis was easily startled by noise during the event. Even applause
from the audience made her jump. Polland said it is a side effect
her friend developed from the war.

Lewis recalled the day the Soviet forces freed her and the few others
left in the camp. She was 25 years old, with a shaved head and a
hand-me-down dress that dragged on the floor when she walked.

"It was chaos. I saw the electric gates open. And I ran," she said,
smiling. "I don’t know where to, I just ran."

Polland was not as fortunate. During an attempt to vacate Auschwitz
before the Red Army arrived, she and other prisoners were taken to
another labor camp in Germany.

"We walked for two and a half weeks. I didn’t know what time it was
or what country I was in. Every day was the same," she said.

Polland was transported to yet another camp in Germany, whose name
she can’t remember, and worked as a welder before she was finally
liberated.

For those who can only relate to the Holocaust from history books,
leaders of the Queens Jewish Center invited speakers of various
cultural backgrounds to talk about other genocides that have occurred
around the world.

Asian-American John Tandana, vice president of the United Nations
Association, greeted everyone with a "Shalom" and wore a white
yarmulke. He spoke of the 1915 Armenian genocide and the Japanese
occupation of Manchuria, where millions of Chinese civilians were
worked to death.

"If we confronted these tragedies before, maybe Hitler would have
thought twice," he said.

Professor Yaa-Lengi Ngemi, a native of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, highlighted the more recent genocides in Rwanda, Congo, and
Darfur. He described the horrors still taking place in Africa.

The phrase "never again" resonated throughout all the speeches,
including that of World War II veteran Michael Priesler, 90, of
Richmond Hill. A Roman Catholic survivor of Auschwitz, Priesler was
a member of the Polish resistance. He was imprisoned from 1941 to
January 1945.

"The SS men told me in order to be released I had to die first,"
he said.

The frail, red-cheeked veteran emphasized that though he is of a
different faith, he wore the same striped uniforms as the Jews.

Preisler beamed with joy as he repeated over and over, "I am so happy
the murderer is finally dead. Now we can breathe a bit better."

Entertainment was provided throughout the evening from renowned Jewish
cantor Sol Zim, who sang of the sufferings during the Holocaust.

The principal message was distilled in the final words of City
Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Laurelton): Peace can be achieved
through universal understanding.

"In the end, there’s one race — the human race," Sanders said.