Author: Kajoyan Gevork

TURKEY SAYS ARMENIANS NOT SEEKING ‘TRUTH’ OVER WWI MASSACRES

SunHerald.com, Mississippi
March 19 2015

The Associated Press
March 19, 2015

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s president says Armenians pressing Turkey
to recognize the century-old massacres of Armenians as genocide are
not looking for the truth but to score points against his country.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday Armenians had rejected numerous
Turkish calls for joint research to document precisely what happened.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey rejects
the term “genocide,” says the death figure is inflated and that people
died on both sides.

Erdogan said: “Their aim is not to search for the truth, but to attack
Turkey and cause it harm.”

Armenians mark the centenary of the killings on April 24.

Read more here:

PESKOV: DATE OF PUTIN’S VISIT TO ARMENIA UNDER DISCUSSION

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 19 2015

19 March 2015 – 2:39pm

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the
President Vladimir Putin will visit Armenia in the last week of April.

“The visit of President Putin to Yerevan is on the agenda. The trip
is being prepared and discussed,” Peskov said.

“As soon as the precise date is determined and confirmed, we will
inform you immediately,” TASS cited him as saying.

ARMENIA AND BULGARIA RACE TO SELL BONDS

Wall Street Journal
March 19 2015

By Ben Edwards

Some of the world’s riskiest sovereign borrowers are rushing to sell
bonds, taking advantage of the still rampant search for yield amid
an era of record low global interest rates.

Junk-rated Armenia is seeking to issue a 10-year dollar bond for
only the second time on record, with bankers working on the deal
suggesting a yield in the area of 7.625%. The country is seeking to
raise $500 million.

Eastern European peer Bulgaria, which is rated one notch above junk
by Fitch Ratings and one level below investment grade by Standard &
Poor’s Corp., is seeking to issue three lots of euro bonds maturing
in seven, 12 and 20 years. Bankers are suggesting those bonds should
price at implied yields of roughly 2.3%, 2.9% and 3.4% respectively.

Investors have already placed orders for more than EURO 4 billion
($4.24 billion) of bonds, according to a banker managing the sale.

In addition, Ecuador, which met with bond buyers about a potential
deal last week, may be poised to issue dollar bonds again, just seven
years after it last defaulted on its debt. It returned to markets in
June last year with a $2 billion, 10-year bond sale.

“If there’s any point this year when you go for it, now is the time,”
said Simon Quijano-Evans, an emerging-market analyst at Commerzbank
CRZBY +1.14%. “There has been very little supply of emerging-market
sovereign debt, so these deals will find strong demand because of
the high liquidity that’s out there.”

Emerging-market borrowers have raised $31 billion from global bond
sales so far this year, about a fifth less than at this stage 12
months ago, according to Dealogic. Such borrowers raised a record
$114 billion in the whole of 2014, the data show.

That rush to sell debt last year is allowing riskier countries to
issue bonds now because there are fewer competing debt sales on offer,
Mr. Quijano-Evans said.

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“It wouldn’t surprise me to see a whole lot of less frequent borrowers
come to market,” he said.

RUSSIAN-AZERBAIJANI WEAPONS’ SALE ALWAYS MAJOR CONCERN FOR ARMENIA – MP

15:37 * 19.03.15

Russia’s weapon supply deal with Azerbaijan has always been a matter
of concern for Armenia, a senior parliament member has said, commenting
on the president’s recent statement.

“That has always been a cause of trouble for us, and we have always
expressed our opinion, both in public and at close debates,” Gagik
Melikyan, the leader of the ruling Republican faction in parliament,
told a news conference on Friday.

Considering the president’s speech, delivered at the recent Armenian
international media forum At the Foot of Ararat Unprecedented, Melikyan
said he finds that it has to be a message to not only Armenia but
also Russia.

“It has to be a concern also to the country which sells weapons. We
must succeed in our effort towards having different states sell less
weapons to the country which is antagonistically disposed to us,”
he added.

FARMER’S ADVICE: ASSIST LOCAL WHEAT GROWERS RATHER THAN ENRICHING IMPORTED FLOUR

Yeranuhi Soghoyan

11:48, March 19, 2015

Smbat Hakobyan, who’s been growing wheat in the Shirak village of
Anoushavan for the past twenty years, says there’s a much better
alternative to enriching imported flour with folic acid and iron.

Hakobyan wants the government to do more, much more, to assist domestic
wheat farmers.

“Immature wheat not appropriate for food intake is being imported from
Russia. It’s mostly used for animal grain,” says Hakobyan. “To make
it acceptable for human consumption it has to mature under the sun.

What’s being imported is green forage wheat; the refuse of the
regular harvest.”

Such wheat is deficient in various micro-elements. This is the reason
why the Armenian government has given the green light for a bill that
would launch a flour enrichment project in the country. (Theprogram
also has the backing of the UNICEF office in Armenia)

Hakobyan argues that the simple solution would be to prohibit such
wheat imports.

Based on his experience, wheat fields fertilized with barnyard manure
give great results. Hakobyan proudly shows me kernels of a red wheat
strain he grows called “Yasaoul”, noting that it is used to make
great tasting bread and pastries.

“Nothing has to be added to my wheat. I grow my wheat on 100 hectares
in Aragatzotn and Lori Provinces. I select the sunniest parcels of
lands. If you go to these fields you’ll see they are fertilized with
manure. In return, the crop is ecologically clean but I cannot sell
it,” the farmer complains.

Hakobyan says that he never had a problem selling the crop for the
past 15 years or so. The buyers were small farming enterprises,
while large electric mills purchased the bulk.

“For a long time I dealt with Mancho Group. Last year they called
and said that they received a directive to only buy from certain
individuals and that the company could no longer buy my wheat,”
Hakobyan tells me.

The farmer says he has 130 tons and doesn’t know where to sell it.

“There are four electric mills operating in the country but none
will buy from me. They say they received instructions not to buy,”
Hakobyan claims.

Hakobyan has cultivated four strains of wheat that have acclimatized to
the high elevations of the land (1,700-2,000 meters above sea level)
and produce a bumper crop. He imported the original seed from the
Stavropol Krai (Administrative Region) in the north Caucasus.

“We get great flour from our local wheat,” says Hakobyan. “Even the
much praised Karona Russian flour can’t match it.”

The farmer says he’s amazed that the government appears intent to
continue to neglect the needs of local farmers despite their assurances
to assist them.

“All that money to enrich flour with folic acid should be used to
assist our farmers to sell their crop. At least people will believe
that they are consuming safe food products,” argues Hakobyan

ARF MEMBERS PRESENT RUSSIA AMBASSADOR PARTY POLITICAL AGENDA

13:11, 19.03.2015

YEREVAN. – Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun
Party members Armen Rustamyan, Aghvan Vardanyan, and Petros Meghryan
on Thursday met with Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volinkin.

Vardanyan underscored the strategic partnership and exchange of views
between the two countries.

Rustamyan presented the ARF political agenda and the party outlook on
the main problems of Armenia. He also reflected on the Dashnaktsutyun
view with respect to constitutional reforms.

Ambassador Volinkin, for his part, noted that Armenia and
Russia are strategic partners, and Armenia’s recent accession to
the–Russia-led–Eurasian Economic Union will bring about closer
relations between the two countries.

During the talk, and at the ARF members’ request, they also discussed
the current course of the investigation into the recent tragedy in
Armenia’s Gyumri city, as Russian soldier Valery Permyakov stands
accused in the brutal murder of the Avetisyan family in the city.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

PUTIN’S DANGEROUS VISIT TO ARMENIA

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 19 March 2015, 14:59

During the time when the Russian president Vladimir Putin was
underground his only communication with the outer world was his
telephone conversation with Serzh Sargsyan during which Putin actually
threatened Armenia. Provided his 2 December 2013 visit to Armenia,
his announcement to visit Armenia on April 24 is but a threat.

The official press release on the telephone talk stated that Putin and
Sargsyan talked about their joint participation in the celebrations
of the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide and the celebration of the
70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War and agreed
on the schedule. And Putin’s press secretary Peskov announced that
Putin had told Serzh Sargsyan about visiting Armenia on April 24.

Let’s hope that Sargsyan talked to the answering machine, not Putin.

April 24 and the centenary of the Armenian Genocide have created a
unique international climate. Erdogan’s decision to celebrate the
anniversary of the battle in Gallipoli on the same day in Ankara has
added an intrigue to this climate, particularly in regard to Russia.

Many wondered where Putin praising the Russian-Turkish relations
since Ataturk would go, Yerevan or Ankara.

The fact that Putin will come to Yerevan on April 24 does not rule
out a trip to Ankara. Putin could leave Yerevan for Ankara or first
go to Ankara, then Yerevan. He has promised to visit Yerevan, while
his trip to Ankara remains open, at least so far.

And the question became important not only in the context that Russia
still remains Armenia’s strategic partner and friend, but also in
the context of Moscow’s efforts for closer strategic relations with
Turkey, the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem and has a real alliance and
agenda with these countries.

In this context, Putin’s visit to Yerevan could be and most probably
will be part of that agenda. In other words, the Russian president
will not only prefer Armenia to Turkey and will visit Yerevan but
his visit will be just another step for the regional and geopolitical
interests of Russia, to assert who rules in the territory.

Last time, after a long pause Putin arrived in Armenia on 2 December
2013, and the first place he visited was not an institution symbolizing
the Armenian state but the 102nd military base located in Gyumri. Putin
announced that Russia will never leave this place, thereby establishing
that Armenia is not a partner or ally to Russia but a territory where
Russian weapons are located.

The following actions of Russia asserted Putin’s position and
approach, encouraging, for example, Azerbaijan’s military provocations
against Armenia and defined the price for preventing them – de jure
establishment of the Russian presence at the eastern border of Armenia
and Artsakh.

In this context, most probably, Armenia will pay a high price for
Putin’s visit to Yerevan on April 24. Perhaps, it would be better if
Putin did not arrive in Yerevan at all. Lavrov of Armenian origin
could come, for example. Or let nobody come at all. It will not be
perceived as betrayal of an ally or friend, abandoning of an ally.

In this regard, Armenia has rid of illusions thanks to Russia’s policy,
and nobody will notice the absence of Putin in Armenia on April 24
or will notice with evident thankfulness.

TURKEY VINDICATES CRIME COMMITTED BY OTTOMAN AUTHORITIES, ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS

March 18, 2015 18:31

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan

Photo: Photolure

Yerevan /Mediamax/. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said that
Turkey’s policy of denial acquired a “particular manifestation”
this year.

The President stated it addressing “At the Foot of Mount Ararat”
international media forum on March 18.

“We wish we could have also commemorated the Centennial of the Armenian
Genocide together with the Turkish people, thereby heralding a new
haven of the rapprochement of the two nations and normalization of
their relations. This was the goal pursued by the protocols between
Armenia and Turkey signed back in 2009 and of my invitation to the
President Erdogan of Turkey to join us on April 24 in honoring the
memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. Unfortunately, once more
we encountered denial, one that acquired a particular manifestation
this year.

This year Turkish authorities decided to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli on the very day of April 24.

The only motive for that was the simple-minded goal to distract the
attention of the international community from the events dedicated
to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. By the way, in this
context your Norwegian colleague Bard Larsen published in February an
article titled “Useless Diplomacy,” in which he very aptly put that
“this would be tantamount to Germany celebrating heroic victories of
Wehrmacht in the Eastern Front during World War II.”

The Turkish policy of denial pursued not only vindicates the crime
committed by the Ottoman authorities – the dispossession of Armenians
– but also sets a dangerous precedent for the recurrence of new
genocides. Their efforts to avoid responsibility or consign the
Armenian Genocide to oblivion can be characterized as continuation
of the crime and encouragement of new genocides.

It is a matter of plain fact that the policy pursued by the current
Turkish government rules out the possibility of bringing the
famous Protocols into life at which official Ankara looked from the
perspective of the absurd preconditions perpetually set forth by it.

For that very reason I decided to recall them from our parliament.

Thus, the process did not reach its logical conclusion, and everybody
knows which party is to blame for its failure. This does not mean that
we are closing the window for rapprochement with Turkey. Nevertheless,
we are not going to get involved in a process, which may fall victim
to the third country’s unconstructive whims and, most importantly,
without hope of restoring mutual trust,” said the Armenian President.

74 US SENATORS URGE KERRY TO ADDRESS PRESS FREEDOM IN TURKEY

14:23, 19 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, along with 73 other United States
senators, wrote a letter on March 18 to U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry to urge the State Department to immediately address issues
“stemming from of the intimidation of journalists and censorship of
the media” in Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily Newsreports.

Recalling that daily Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı had been
detained and Samanyolu Media Group head Hidayet Karaca was arrested on
Dec. 14, 2014, the letter “strongly urges [Kerry] to address this issue
with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and his administration in a way
that encourages a peaceful and appropriate resolution to these cases.”

“As a democracy with a long tradition of tolerance of a civic discourse
and as a valued American partner in many endeavors, the current Turkish
government under President Erdogan needs to stop suppressing the free
press and put an end to gross intimidation efforts among members of
the media who express opinions or report events in a way that the
regime feels is opposed to their interests,” said Senator Schumer.

“Secretary of State Kerry should address the worrisome trend towards
undemocratic behavior in President Erdogan’s Administration and
urge the government to adhere to the basic principles of democracy,
including freedom of the press – something that has long been a value
in Turkey,” he added.

“The Erdogan Administration should be held accountable for these
egregious abuses of free speech,” said Senator Roger Wicker, the
co-author of the letter.

“Arresting journalists and censoring the media are the hallmarks of an
authoritarian regime, not a democracy. I hope Secretary Kerry will work
to resolve these troubling developments without delay,” Wicker added.

US WAS NOT TRIUMPHANT TOWARDS AVOIDING NAROGNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT – EXPERT

Trend Daily News (Azerbaijan)
March 17, 2015 Tuesday 5:43 PM GMT +4

Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.17

By Anahanum Khidayatova – Trend:

Even though the United States succeeded in tearing down the Berlin
Wall, it was not as triumphant in avoiding the protracted conflict
that has set back the South Caucasus region, freelance journalist and
a research scholar of International Affairs of Marquette University
(US) Peter Tase told Trend March 17.

“The apathy of US Foreign Policy towards the Caspian region and
towards Baku in particular continues, even though democratic reforms
and impressive economic growth implemented by the current government
of Azerbaijan are reaching the apex of success,” he said.

The current influence of the United States in the South Caucasus region
is reminiscent to Washington’s little support provided to Azerbaijan
when the latter declared its short lived independence in 1918, which
subsequently was brought to an end by the newly established Soviet
Union, according to him.

“The Russian-Georgian war of 2008, has shown clearly that the United
States and other western nations are reluctant to become directly
involved in conflicts that are commonly regarded as ‘Russia’s
backyard’,” he said.

It is imperative that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia,
France and the United States, involve other nations and become more
active towards securing peace and stability in the invaded territories
of Azerbaijan, as it is clearly defined by four UN Security Council
Resolutions, he said.

“Armenia must respect and fulfill the requirements set forth by the
four UN Security Council resolutions which request the liberation
of the Nagorno-Karabakh province and the surrounding regions,” Peter
Tase said.

John Kerry said that “The US is interested in assisting Azerbaijan
and Armenia in the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict”, however
due to his busy agenda, the US Diplomatic Chief has not been able to
pay an official visit to Baku, nevertheless Kerry has visited Turkey,
one of the neighboring countries of Azerbaijan, four times over the
last two years, Peter Tase said.

“The prospects to bring the Conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh to an end are
high even though the economic sanctions imposed by the United States
and European Union against Russia, after the annexation of Crimea,
have caused an irreparable friction between all parties involved
and these measures from the West are causing a negative impact and
unimagined consequences towards reaching a definitive peace between
Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

Edited by CN