KOCHARIAN DECORATED WITH GRIGOR LUSAVOURICH ORDER
PanARMENIAN.Net
31.03.2008 17:35 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nagorno Karabakh President Bako Sahakian signed a
decree on decoration of Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian with an
order Grigor Lusavourich (Gregory the Illuminator) for services for
Nagorno Karabakh, reported the chief information department at the
NKR president’s office.
The order was handed to Robert Kocharian during a meeting with the
NKR leadership.
Nagorno-Karabakh president met archbishop of Tehran
30-03-2008 12:58:43 – KarabakhOpen
On March 28 NKR President Bako Sahakyan met with the primate of the
Teheran Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Sepuh
Sargsian, the primate of the Atrpatakan Diocese Bishop Nshan Topuzian,
the primate of the Nor Djolfa Diocese Bishop Babken Chalian. The
General Information Department of the NKR president administration
reports that the primate of Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Church Pargev Martirosyan participated in the meeting which discussed
promotion of relations with the Armenian community of Iran, the
perspectives of implementation of investment programs in
Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the interrelations of the government and
the church.
PRIME MINISTER SERZH SARGSYAN RECEIVED BUY DIN ZIN
RIA Oreanda
March 27 2008
Russia
Yerevan. ">OREANDA-NEWS . March 27, 2008. First, the Prime Minister
congratulated the Ambassador on his assignment and wished him every
success in the accomplishment of his diplomatic mission in our
country. Serzh Sargsyan also expressed gratitude for congratulations
and the kind wishes addressed to him by President of Vietnam Nguen
Min Chiet in connection with his election as President of Armenia.
During the meeting the interlocutors expressed themselves for the
further strengthening and deepening of the existing strong political
ties between the two countries through mutually advantageous economic
cooperation. "We attach great importance to the cooperation with the
countries of Southeast Asia and I hope that your appointment will
promote the Armenian-Vietnamese relations," Serzh Sargsyan said.
The Ambassador of Vietnam briefed the RA Prime Minister on his
country’s economic development dynamics for the last few years by
mentioning that as favored by inner political stability Vietnam is
steadily developing its economy to become a safe and reliable country
both for tourism and foreign investment.
Both Serzh Sargsyan and Buy Din Zin have stated that the level
of bilateral trade turnover is still insufficient though expressed
confidence that with active and concerned efforts it would be possible
to find common economic interests and multiple spheres of cooperation
in order to take the level of economic exchanges up to the standard
of political ties.
At the end of the meeting, once again on behalf of the authorities and
the people of his country, the Ambassador congratulated Serzh Sargsyan
on his election to the post of RA President and wished him success.
JACK KEVORKIAN: FROM FRONT PAGE TO OBSCURITY
Windsor Star
March 28 2008
Canada
His candidacy is a cry for attention from someone the world has
passed by.
So. Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the man who made assisted suicide a household
word back in the 1990s, wants to go to Congress? Everyone’s first
reaction was pretty much the same: We can’t wait to see his health
care plan.
That, or, I’ll bet there’s a few bills lying around the House he
would really like to kill.
TWO THINGS ARE CERTAIN:
Congressman Kevorkian would be a full-employment guarantee for Jay
Leno, Dave Letterman, and every standup comedian in every coffee
house from here to Botswana.
And — it isn’t going to happen.
He almost certainly won’t get on the ballot.
Reporters took his announcement far too seriously, and anyone who
knows the aging, cantankerous former pathologist knows he is unlikely
to have either the stamina or the stick-to-it qualities needed to
collect enough signatures to get on the ballot as an independent.
His candidacy is a cry for attention from someone the world has passed
by, and whose 15 minutes of fame was used up soon after he went to
prison nine years ago.
For the last year, he has been living the life of a forgotten
recluse. Since being paroled from prison, he has been mostly
forgotten. He lives in a downscale apartment complex in a bustling
suburb, where he can sometimes be seen at the Farmers’ Market across
the street, buying apples.
He’ll turn 80 in May. He no longer drives and shuns most of his old
friends, mostly avoids the media.
When I asked to meet with him, he declined, telling his doctor,
"He always feels he has to be objective."
These days, he sometimes walks down the street unrecognized. That’s
a far cry from the early 1990s, when scarcely a day went by when Dr.
Jack Kevorkian wasn’t on the front pages.
The man who made the suicide machine famous, and who, by his count,
"helped" 130 cross the divide, appeared on the cover of Time magazine,
was the subject of endless documentaries and owned all the nightly
news shows. (I wrote about him for Esquire, Vanity Fair and the New
York Times.)
Thanks in large part to his flamboyant and brilliant lawyer, Geoffrey
Fieger, he was acquitted in trial after trial. Prosecutors gave up;
Kevorkian-style assisted suicide became de facto legal in metropolitan
Detroit. Then he got reckless and fired his lawyer.
Next he performed "active euthanasia" on a dying man with Lou Gehrig’s
disease, videotaped the procedure, and sent the tape to Mike Wallace
at 60 Minutes.
Almost reluctantly, the authorities charged him with murder.
Kevorkian was totally incompetent as his own lawyer. He ranted about
Thomas Jefferson and ancient Rome.
In his summary, Kevorkian pointed a boney finger at the jury. "Do I
look like a mass murder to you?" he yelled. Well, come to think of it
… He was convicted of second-degree murder. He grinned. "Now I’ve
got them right where I want them," he said. He thought the public
would demand his release. He was wrong. They forgot him.
That’s not to say he didn’t have an impact. The hospice movement
flourished as an alternative to inhaling gas in a rusty van.
Doctors have become far more willing to give their patients proper
pain medication, especially when they’re dying.
His candidacy is a cry for attention from someone the world has
passed by.
That doesn’t mean Kevorkian was altogether wrong. Most of his patients
were rational, competent and educated, including a physician with
bone cancer, and had concluded it was time for them to go. That was
why juries acquitted Kevorkian.
Yet his antics eventually put people off. "We came to realize this
was about his own psychological needs, not the patients," the sister
of one of his early suicides told me.
Why would he want to be in Congress? Essentially, he has become a
libertarian. (He has only voted twice in his life — for Fieger for
governor and for a libertarian running for president.)
His main cause is the somewhat obscure ninth amendment to the
constitution: "The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people."
Kevorkian sees that as protecting the right to seek assisted suicide
or choose not to wear a seatbelt while driving.
Democrats were initially dismayed by his candidacy. They are gearing
up to spend millions on behalf of Gary Peters, who is challenging
longtime U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg.
Kevorkian might take some anti-Knollenberg votes. But in order to get
on the ballot, he needs 3,000 valid signatures on official petitions
by July. The odds are against him doing that by himself. The odds
against him staying focused on the task are even longer. What he
might consider is that sometimes, wisdom doesn’t lie in trying to
extend your moment of fame. Sometimes, you need to know when to retire
gracefully from the field.
Jack Lessenberry, a member of Wayne State University’s journalism
faculty, writes on issues and people in Michigan.
EXTREMIST DEPUTIES PREVENT PRESS CONFERENCE OF TURKISH AND BULGARIAN LEADERS IN SOFIA
The New Anatolian
March 27 2008
Turkey
A joint press conference by Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev
and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan –which was scheduled
to be held after their tete-a-tete meeting– was cancelled because of
a move by the deputies of racist and extreme nationalist ATAKA party.
ATAKA chairman Volen Siderov, together with five deputies, arrived
in the hall where the press conference was scheduled to be held. He
wanted to ask questions to Erdogan about assets of Bulgarians who
migrated from Thrace as well as the so-called Armenian genocide
claims of 1915 incidents; and also a question to Stanishev about
their demonstrations which were obstructed by police.
Upon insistence of Siderov and deputies to stay in the hall,
Erdogan-Stanishev joint press conference was cancelled.
After the cancellation, Siderov and deputies left the hall.
ABSTAINER CAN BE WORSE THAN ‘YES’ VOTE
by A. Harutyunyan
Azg
March 18 2008
Armenia
Azerbaijan’s resolution in the UN – a way to `say goodbye’ to the
Minsk Group?
The majority of the UN member states, i.e. 150 countries, voted
against or abstained from Azerbaijani-initiated resolution "On the
situation in the occupied [Azerbaijani] territories", by which it
wanted to have backing for its territorial integrity. Thirty nine
countries supported the resolution, which are either GUAM member
states or members of the Organization of Islamic Conference. Russia,
the USA and France – the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs – voted against
the resolution. No EU member state supported the resolution either.
Armenian foreign minister negative about UN resolution
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan interpreted the adoption of
this resolution as Azerbaijan’s self-deception, especially taking into
consideration that the Azerbaijani resolution does not have a legal
force and cannot have any consequences. On the same day, Oskanyan met
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Vienna to discuss the cease-fire
violations on the contact line and the opportunity of a meeting between
the [Armenian] president-elect Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev in early April for the Karabakh solution.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov also met the Minsk
Group co-chairs on 16 March in Paris, when discussions are under way
at various levels in Azerbaijan after such a low-level adoption about
stopping missions of the mediator states of the Minsk Group co-chairs.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan trumpets about the resolution adopted in
an indifferent environment in the UN as "a brilliant diplomatic
victory". They see the importance of the [OSCE] Minsk Group only in the
context of maintaining the role of European countries in our region,
having an approach that [the OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs do not want
to see the [Nagornyy Karabakh] issue settled.
The OSCE Minsk Group made numerous statements that shifting the process
of settlement of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict to other organization
is not only undesirable, but can also harm the negotiations
process. Moreover, the Minsk Group, in the person of the US co-chair
Matthew Bryza even said that it is against such initiatives like the
Azerbaijani resolution in the UN.
At the same time, the official Azerbaijan, on the one hand says
it favours continuation of the negotiations, on the other hand,
implements such initiatives, and sometimes adds bellicose self-praising
statements. The Minsk Group, by the way, always responded to such
statements silently.
Paper questions Armenian Foreign Ministry’s attitude
What does Armenia do, what is the logic and sequence of our actions,
if anything is planned or carried out. Whether or not one should agree
to Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan’s statement about the Azerbaijani
resolution adopted in the UN is a self-deception?
One can accept that this resolution, which does not have legal
force, can have no consequences both for the negotiations process
of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and for Armenian-Azerbaijani ties
as a whole. However, if adoption of a resolution at the UN level
is self-deception, then one can say calmly that all UN resolutions
are meaningless.
If Azerbaijan should draw conclusions, taking into consideration
the positions of the countries that voted against the resolution
or abstained from voting, then Armenia, in its turn, should draw
corresponding conclusions regarding positions on Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict of the countries, which supported the resolution and those
countries, which ensured its adoption under the pretext of abstention.
Moreover, the Azerbaijani initiative, irrespective of its legal
force, shows that our diplomacy has long ago been in need of becoming
pro-active, and by the way, the first bold steps is not necessary in
the legal sphere. Just as well one can think that the Azerbaijani
initiative during the vote in the UN contributes to spreading
Azerbaijani views regarding the Karabakh issue and naturally not the
Armenian views.
Thus, be it a diplomatic victory or failure, the resolution is already
a reality, which we will discuss in details in the future. We should
say that a war of propaganda is both dangerous and important as
a military means, and the liberation of Artsakh needs very much a
diplomatic consolidation.
RALLY IN ARMENIAN REGION DEMANDS RELEASE OF JAILED MP
Haykakan Zhamanak
March 25, 2008
Armenia
"A rally in Hrazdan"
A group of residents of Hrazdan [Armenia’s Kotayk region] staged a
rally yesterday near the village of Atarbekyan and demanded that MP
Sasun Mikaelyan [who was arrested after the 1 March events on charges
of illegal possession of weapons and actions aimed at seizing power]
be released.
Of course, the police tried to disperse the rally, intimidated people,
threatened to take them to the police station and assaulted two people.
But the residents of Hrazdan were quite resolute. They announced
that they will hold rallies every day. "The whole village and region
is on Sasun Mikaelyan’s side," they said, announcing that they
will not reconcile themselves to lawlessness, will stand like one
single person and apply to various organizations. "We want justice,
we want freedom. We will gather everyone, we will go to Yerevan,
we will march to Yerevan on foot," the residents of Hrazdan said.
In the evening, the police brought several rally participants to see
police chiefs and tried to find out who had organized the rally.
This, however, did not affect the protesters near the village of
Atarbekyan. "The rally has no organizers. People themselves came here
and will come here tomorrow and every day," some of the participants
in yesterday’s rally said with the same resolve.
TARIFFS ON ELECTRICITY WERE AFFIRMED
KarabakhOpen
24-03-2008 15:25:56
The Regulatory Commission of Public Services and Economic Competition
granted a 15 year license for producing electricity to Artsakh Water
Power Plant. According to the chair of the Regulatory Commission,
the company Artsakh Energy was reorganized into Artsakh Water Power
Plant. Artsakh Water Power Plant generates energy, Artsakh Energy is
a power distributor.
The regulatory commission fixed tariffs of power generated by the
water power plant of Tartar at 3.5 drams per kWh excluding the VAT and
4.2 drams including the VAT. Artsakh Energy, the power distribution
company, proposed new tariffs on distributed power.
The new tariffs which will come into effect in 4 weeks , the day
and night tariffs, depending on the voltage, will be 17 and 12
drams and 25 and 15 drams. The new tariffs are for energy used
in industries. According to the spokesman for Artsakh Energy, the
electricity bills for households will not change.
New York Times, NY
March 22 2008
Armenia: State of Emergency Ends
By REUTERS
Published: March 22, 2008
A state of emergency introduced after post-election clashes that left
eight people dead was lifted. Troops left the streets of the capital,
Yerevan, that they had occupied since the March 1 clampdown, but the
police blocked about 1,500 protesters in the city center. No violence
was reported. The country’s departing president, Robert Kocharyan,
declared the 20-day state of emergency after street battles between
the police and protesters, who accused the government of rigging the
presidential election.
HAYK S. KOTANJIAN: AZERBAIJAN IS LOSING THE SENSE OF REALITY
armradio.am
20.03.2008 16:54
The press-centre of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia
interviewed the Head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies
of the Ministry of Defense, Doctor of Political Sciences, Major-General
Hayk S. Kotanjian requesting to evaluate the situation evolving after
the adoption of the UN GA Resolution on Nagorno Karabakh, Press
Secretary of the Minister of Defense, Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan
informed.
Asked what are the objectives pursued in the statement by the Deputy
Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan claiming that "the status
of Nagorno Karabakh is not a target of the OSCE Minsk Group and a topic
of discussion with Armenia," Mr. Kotanjian said: The Azeri authorities
undertook to address a task which is quite obviously beyond their
sole competence. By their actions the Azerbaijani authorities are
trying to persuade the international community that the application
of common principle of respect towards the Armenians of Karabakh
based on the human rights and freedoms registered in the UN Charter
as a universal norm is purely their own internal business. They aim
at disavowing the OSCE Minsk Group and removing Russia, the US and
France from the group in connection with their systemic approaches
to the application of the norms and principles of International law
on the Karabakh Problem resolution.
What is underlying suchlike position of Azerbaijan? The Major-General
responded that the essence is that the Baku politicians are trying
to impose their own opportunistic-local interpretation of the
International law concerning the settlement and resolution of
the Karabakh Problem. "And they are doing it with presumption of
"lawmakers and indisputable interpreters" of international law not
only domestically but also before the international auditoria. The
head of the neighboring state, as well as the FA officials in their
statements on the Baku authorities’ commitments to the conflict
resolution in "strict conformity with the international law",
persistently parallel this very conformity with only one of the
common norms of the International lawï~@the principle of territorial
integrity and ignoring the other norms applied when dealing with the
problems like that of Karabakh. In this context the ignorance of the
principle of peoples’ equality and their right to self-determination
is of strictly manipulative nature. This unilateral approach by Baku
to the norms of International law cannot be of serious influence upon
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ expert position."
What are the commitments of the states, by example of Azerbaijan, in
compliance with the norms and standards of the International law in
the system of the national law? "Azerbaijani official establishment
announces that "the Karabakh status problem can be resolved only
on the basis of the internal legislation of Azerbaijan" and the
activities of the Minsk Group, in consultations with the conflict
sides on the status, are allegedly an intrusion into the domestic
affairs of Azerbaijan.
A symptomatic illustration appears to be the incompatibility of the
Republic of Azerbaijan’s Constitution with the essence of international
legal norm on the principle and right of nations to master their fate
independently by means of free expression of popular will in conditions
of complete freedom, stipulated by the UN Charter and International
Covenants on Human Rights of 1966. As it is known, these documents
in the international relations system are treaties consolidating the
states’ commitment to adhere to and respect universally recognized
fundamental principles and norms of the International law, first and
foremost – human rights and freedoms. It concerns those principles
of the International law, which comprise its most stable kernel and
are a universal criterion to evaluate legitimacy of states’ conduct,"
Major General Hayk S. Kotanjian responded.
Evaluating the conformity of Azerbaijan’s conduct with its
international commitments concerning the Karabakh settlement,
Mr. Kotanjian said: "The norm of the Azerbaijan’s Constitution "on
change of territory by holding a referendum among all the Azerbaijani
population" contradicts the other norm of the same document, defined
in the article "The ultimate goal of the state". In accordance
with the given definition "human and citizen rights and freedoms,
enumerated in the present Constitution are employed in conformity with
the international treaties, which are supported by the Republic of
Azerbaijan". In this case the above mentioned international treaties
should be touched upon.
Thus the assertions of the Azerbaijani authorities on their adherence
to the international law in the Karabakh conflict resolution
don’t correspond to reality. The conduct of Azerbaijan in terms of
consistent reflection of universally accepted principles and norms of
the International law in the Constitution, as well as in the Karabakh
conflict settlement practice, doesn’t correspond to the international
legitimacy criterion."
Commenting on the position of the Minsk Group which voted against
the UN Resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh the Head of the Institute
for National Strategic Studies noted: "Judging from the official
statements made by Russia, the USA and France before and afterwards
of the General Assembly, they voted against the resolution, because
the Azerbaijan’s project contradicted, firstly, the common fundamental
principles and norms of the International law, as well as the criterion
of the international legitimacy of their application. Secondly, the
conduct of Azerbaijan does not coincide with the balanced approach of
the Minsk Group which endorses the solution of the Karabakh conflict
within the system of the International relations. 100 abstained members
of the UN virtually demonstrated their understanding of the balanced
position of Russia, the USA and France.
Which was the driving force of those 39 members of the UN,
which voted for the resolution? "The mentioned states, mainly
representing the Organization of Islamic Conference and the GUAM,
backed the Azerbaijan’s initiative from the position, which was more
characteristic to the period of the Cold War, i.e. on the principle
of bloc solidarity," Hayk S. Kotanjian said.
Due to the results of the voting, Azerbaijan threatens to review
its policy on Russia, the USA and France. How to elaborate the
disrespectful position of Azerbaijan to the contribution of the Minsk
Group in the process of the peaceful solution and the ferociousness of
Baku vis-a-vis Russia, France and the USA? "Azerbaijan perceives the
designated to her role in the European Energy policy as a "historical"
mission of geo-economic and geo-strategic importance to compete
with Russia. Playing on the strategic interests of the EU, the USA,
Russia, Iran, Turkey and Central Asia, Baku is trying to at most
bid for highest stakes in this way to use this resource for illegal
forcing through its interests in the Karabakh settlement. In pursuit of
these purposes Azerbaijan will now allow itself to blackmail Russia,
the USA, France and the Minsk Group on the whole. According to many
international observers Azerbaijan is losing the sense of reality,"
Major-General Hayk S. Kotanjian concluded.
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