Author: Kajoyan Gevork

EXPERTS IN YEREVAN: NO DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENTS IN RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA LIKELY IN POST-ELECTION TURKEY
By Gayane Lazarian

ArmeniaNow
15.06.11 | 10:15

Most experts in Armenia believe Turkey’s parliamentary elections that
were held last Sunday will hardly open a new page in Armenian-Turkish
relations.

They say Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which
has been led by current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a
landslide victory, will hardly introduce any major changes in terms
of Ankara’s relations with Yerevan and Baku.

Enlarge Photo Ruben Melkonyan

Enlarge Photo Richard Giragosian

Turkologist Artak Shakaryan says: “Azerbaijan will remain a priority
direction for Turkey. They will try to make some steps towards progress
in relations with Armenia, but at the same time will be careful not
to harm relations with Azerbaijan or hit Azerbaijan’s interests.”

Another expert Ruben Melkonyan also expects no essential changes in
Armenian-Turkish relations. According to him, in his foreign policy
Erdogan will continue to make “empty statements”, creating an illusion
that he wants relations with Armenia improved, while inside Turkey
he will continue his “unconcealed anti-Armenian policies”.

While Erdogan’s political party managed to get nearly 50 percent of
the vote at the June 12 elections, it still represents fewer mandates
than it held previously. Shakaryan says that with the representation
of the Nationalist Movement Party and Kurdish MPs in the parliament
as well as the improvement of the positions of the Kemalist Republican
People’s Party (CHP), the Turkish parliament will be more balanced.

“Today Erdogan has 326 parliamentary seats [in the 550-member
body], which is not enough to change the Constitution or have the
Armenian-Turkish protocols ratified. For this, he will now have to
negotiate with Kurds, nationalists, the CHP in order to secure at
least 367 votes,” he says.

Still, Shakaryan thinks that after the latest Turkish elections
Europe gets a more balanced Turkey that does not look like going the
Islamist way.

Thirty-five Kurds managed to get into the Grand National Assembly
of Turkey by the vote from single-mandate constituencies, which
is largely viewed as progress given that in the past even fielding
Kurdish candidates involved serious difficulties. Also, 74 women
candidates have made it to the legislature.

Melkonyan also views such a composition of the Turkish parliament as
a step closer to Europe.

“Today’s Turkey has undergone certain changes. The military do not
have the power that they formerly had, and the society has fairly
grasped the ruling party’s model — moderate Islam. So, I think, from
the viewpoint of democracy these elections are quite normal,” he says.

Meanwhile, Regional Studies Center director Richard Giragosian thinks
that the most important thing about the latest elections in Turkey
is that the Armenian and Karabakh issues were not discussed during
the election campaign, which, he says, means these issues are not
priorities for Turkey.

“For Armenia these elections mean three major things. First, the
[Armenian-Turkish] protocols and related processes, which have been
suspended and won’t get unfrozen. Secondly, after these elections the
Turkish prime minister will make his first foreign trip to Azerbaijan.

And the third circumstance is that new figures will appear in
Turkish-Armenian relations,” the analyst says.

According to Giragosian, changes are possible in the Turkish Cabinet,
which means that the Armenian side will have to deal with some new
people and in this regard Armenia already appears from stronger
positions.

“New people in the Turkish Cabinet who are not well aware of the
Armenia-Turkey relations will start dealing with Armenia, which means
that the Armenian-Turkish protocols process that is now suspended
will see new developments and manifestations,” the analyst says.

GENOCIDE EDUCATION PROJECT RAISES AWARENESS AND SUPPORT

Tert.am
15.06.11

South Bay Area Armenian-Americans learned about the efforts of The
Genocide Education Project recently at a community reception in
Cupertino, California, the Asparez reported.

The Genocide Education Project Director Raffi Momjian and board
member, Roxanne Makasdjian, briefed community members after services
at St. Andrew Armenian church on May 1st.

Makasdjian reviewed the history, structure, and mission of the
organization. “We want every student in the US to graduate high
school with a basic knowledge of the Armenian Genocide and its place
in world history,” she said.

Genocide Education Project is a non-profit, tax-exempt, educational
organization assisting educators in teaching about human rights
and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide. The organization
develops and distributes instructional materials, providing access
to resources and conducting educational workshops.

Momjian described the variety of teaching materials, lesson plans,
teacher-training workshops and other services provided by The Genocide
Education Project. “The impact of this work is far-reaching,” said
Momjian. “Every teacher who uses the GenEd resources typically reaches
more than 60 students each year.”

Students preparing to graduate from KZV Armenian School in San
Francisco recently learned how to help bring the lessons of the
Armenian Genocide into the high schools they’ll be attending after
graduating from KZV.

At the invitation of KZV Principal, Grace Andonian, Genocide Education
Project board member, Roxanne Makasdjian, visited KZV’s 7th & 8th
grade students on May 26. Leading a discussion about the need for high
schools to include Armenian Genocide curriculum, Makasdjian explained
the genesis and mission of the organization, and she led students
through a tour of educational materials available on the organization’s
online resource library for teachers at

“You may end up being the only person in your next school who has
learned about Armenians and the Armenian Genocide,” said Makasdjian.

“You will be well-placed to familiarize the school’s administration
and history teachers about the value and importance of teaching
this subject.”

“The students were truly engaged in the presentation,” said Andonian.

“It’s an essential part of the graduating students’ curriculum,
and I have confidence that they’ll serve as good ambassadors for the
Armenian community in their next schools.”

Financial support is key to the success and expansion of The Genocide
Education Project. GenEd’s board is seeking to establish a base of
support to underwrite the ongoing expenses of the organization,
as well as funding to broaden the reach of its teacher-training
workshops. Bay Area Armenian-American community leaders, including
Zareh Samurkashian, Jirair Sarkissian, and Edward Misserlian, have
committed to ongoing financial support for GenEd.

“GenEd is doing the kind of work that will have a lasting effect on
the Armenian Cause,” said Samurkashian. “It’s important that these
efforts expand as quickly and broadly as possible, and I urge others
to step forward to see that more teachers, more schools, and more
states incorporate the Armenian Genocide into their coursework.”

The Genocide Education Project is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3)
organization that assists educators in teaching about human rights
and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and
distributing instructional materials, providing access to teaching
resources and organizing educational workshops.

LEOPARDS WITHOUT BORDERS: PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY IN THE CAUCASUS
By: Nanore Barsoumian

Wed, Jun 15 2011

In the diverse terrain of the Caucasus-in Armenia, Georgia, and
Azerbaijan-a small population of leopards strives to survive.

At the top of the food chain, leopards are but one indicator of the
health of the eco-region, in an area deemed one of 34 hotspots of
thriving biodiversity in the world.

Considered highly endangered, there are an estimated 1,500 Caucasus
leopards in the world. Most have migrated out of the Caucasus into
Central Asia and southern Iran (also referred to as non-Caucasus
Iran). According to the Caucasus Nature Fund (CNF), less than 100
still live in the area. Seven inhabit the mountains and forests of
Armenia; 50 northern Iran; 10 the north Caucasus region of Russia;
15 in Azerbaijan; and a handful in Georgia.

About 250 square kilometers are required to house a male leopard along
with two or three females. It is important, therefore, to protect
the core areas-or the national parks-where wildlife thrives. It is
equally vital to secure the corridors that connect the parks.

“You need to have ways for the animals to get back and forth.

Otherwise you have something that’s called the ‘island effect’ and the
gene pool becomes poorer because there’s no mixing,” said CNF Executive
Director David Morrison in an interview with the Armenian Weekly. “The
seven leopards that live in Armenia need to mate with the three or
four that live in Georgia, and those that live in Iran and Azerbaijan.”

A former corporate and financial lawyer, Morrison says the threat
to biodiversity is “the world’s unknown or unspoken environmental
crisis.” At the top of the food chain, leopards are but one indicator
of the health of the eco-region, in an area deemed one of 34 hotspots
of thriving biodiversity in the world.

Every 30 minutes or so, a species is erased from the face of the
planet, Morrison noted glumly, a fate that can befall the endangered
wildlife of the Caucasus.

The landscape in the three Caucasus countries, which together make up
roughly the size of France, is incredibly diverse. “Landscapes that
go from badlands that we would think of, like out to the Dakotas, to
the highest mountains-higher than any of the Alps-and to the lowest
points in Europe. [It has] 9 of the world’s 11 climate zones-all in
this relatively small area,” Morrison explained.

In Armenia, the organization is supporting the Khosrov Forest,
Shikahogh/Zangezur, and Arevik protected areas.

“Scientists break down the map of the world into hotspots-where
biodiversity is still thriving even if threatened. People know about
the Amazon and the incredible biodiversity in Indonesia. What people
don’t know is that on this map of 34 hotspots in the world, there is 1
in a tempered climate zone, and that’s the Caucasus. [It] has the most
biodiversity-Armenia, right up there with the rest of the countries.”

The area houses a unique assortment of mammals and plants: Caucasus
leopards; wolves; the Bezoar goat, which is a subspecies endemic to
the Caucasus; the Armenian mouflon, an animal that only exists in
Armenia and Azerbaijan; various species of birds; and 6,500 species
of plants (particularly rich in Armenia), over 1,500 of which are
found only in the region.

So far, CNF has been supported by non-Armenians. The foundation was
created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Germany and the German
government in 2008. It later received support from the Virginia-based
Conservation International and, most recently, the World Bank. It
now has around $20 million in funds available for the region.

“These areas are severely underfunded today. The point of my foundation
is to give them the funding that they need,” said Morrison.

CNF’s funds flow directly into the fields, where they support the
operating costs of national parks and the protected areas. They
supplement the salaries of the rangers, and fund equipment such as
Jeeps, gasoline, binoculars, and mobile phones. The organization also
offers guidance on budgeting and planning, and undertakes training
efforts in protection techniques and tourism development.

“The environmental world has understood that it is hard to persuade,
especially the local people, to support an environmental cause unless
they see that there is something in it for them,” Morrison added.

Training and salary supplements are important since poaching is a
continuing threat. For a park ranger in rural Armenia who makes about
$100 a month, an offer of $1,000 in exchange for permission to hunt
is an extremely tempting proposition, explained Morrison. “So, it’s
important for these people to have their standard of living raised,
to be trained, to be made to feel important.”

Recently, the organization received funding from the World Bank’s
Global Environment Facility-$2 million, split evenly between Armenia
and Georgia.

Thus far, Azerbaijan has refused to work with CNF. “We have not yet
had success in [working] in Azerbaijan, and that’s a shame… It’s
one world. We can’t save the animals in Armenia unless we save the
animals in Azerbaijan, too. So I’m still trying to reach out to the
Azeri government, and hope that I can persuade them to come along,”
added Morrison, who said it was hard to gauge why Azerbaijan remained
uncooperative.

The reason may be the country’s unwillingness to work in tandem with
other regional players, especially Armenia. Or, it may be due to its
reluctance to have an international organization monitor its internal
affairs, especially because oil revenues would allow it to undertake
similar efforts on its own. “It’s hard to know,” he said. “I don’t
have an explanation.”

The success of the project will be visible over time. “This foundation
is supposed to be here not for a year or 3 years, it’s supposed to be
with Armenia and its protected areas for the next 20 or 30 years and
beyond. You can’t measure success in six months or a year. You measure
success by counting the number of leopards, by counting the number of
wolves,” said Morrison. Both animals are considered keystone species.

For more information on CNF’s work in the region, or to make
a donation (both general or to a specific country), visit

“People need to be aware that there’s a web of life out there,
and we’re all part of that web,” said Morrison. “Humans are just as
much part of it as the rest of the natural world. We depend on that
web. If it starts to break down and fall apart, the world that we
live in and the world as we know it will not survive.”

The interview with David Morrison was conducted by Armenian Weekly
editor Khatchig Mouradian and assistant editor Nanore Barsoumian in
Watertown, Mass.

SASOUN MIKAYELYAN – GOVERNMENT WEAK ON KARABAKH TALKS
Mаry Mamyan

hetq
16:07, June 15, 2011

Sasoun Mikayelyan, a former Armenian MP recently released from jail,
described the Armenian government’s negotiating position on Karabakh
as weak and declared there could be no compromise when it came to a
settlement of the Artsakh issue.

“I am against any return of lands. Must we liberate them again?”

Mikayelyan commented at a press conference held earlier today.

The political activist, who was jailed on charges stemming from the
events of March 1, 2008 and released under a general amnesty, said
that he didn’t expect any break through on the Karabakh matter from
the upcoming June 25 meeting in Kazan to be attended by the presidents
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.

As a participant in the Karabakh War, Mikayelyan said he couldn’t rule
out the possibility that the issue would be settled by a resumption
of warfare.

“We’d be better off settling our internal political situation if we
want to avoid another war,” he commented.

Mikayelyan lamented the fact that those negotiating for Armenia
are individuals who “don’t realize the costs we paid for liberating
those lands.”

The former MP said he welcomed dialog between the government and
opposition but added that he didn’t expect anything good to come of it.

TEGHOUT DEPOSIT “THREATENS” RIVER OF KHATANOTS WITH CONCRETE

arminfo
Wednesday, June 15, 15:46

The water of the River Kharatanoc in the region of Lori will soon flow
in a new riverbed. In the framework of the project “Exploiting Teghut’s
copper-molybdenum mine” the new riverbed of the River Kharatanoc
has already been concreted so that the river is isolated from the
tailings dump. One of Teghout’s residents Samvel Meliqsetyan says
that they haven’t been using the water of the River Shnogh for about
one and a half year because the quality of the water has got worse,
EcoLur reported.

As the Mayor of Teghout Harutyun Meliksetyan told “EcoLur” currently
people have been using their natural sources for drinking water. There
are three waterlines in Teghout two of which provide drinking water
of good quality from natural sources and the third’s water is used
for technical purposes.

The drinking water pipeline Stepanavan-Noyemberyan hasn’t been
brought to Teghout community, the region of Lori. Let us remind you
that the community expected the pipeline to reach Teghut still at
the end of 2010.

Teghout forest is felled for the development of copper and molybdenum
mine. Teghout project plans to carry out reforestation in 714 ha
territory.

TIGRAN SARKISSIAN VA SE RENDRE A LONDRES

armenews.com
mercredi 15 juin 2011

La delegation dirigee par le Premier ministre Tigran Sarkissian partira
pour le Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d’Irlande du Nord le 15 juin.

Dans le cadre de la visite le Premier ministre assistera a la reception
et a un concert consacres a deux programmes de bienfaisance initie par
le Prince Charles et l’ex-Premier ministre d’Armenie Armen Sarkissian.

Tigran Sarkissian devrait rencontrer des hommes d’affaires armeniens
de differents pays. Il visitera le siège de la BBC avant de donner
une interview a l’agence.

Le Premier ministre sera accompagne par le maire d’Erevan, Karen
Karapetyan et Navasard Kchoyan responsable du diocèse de l’Ararat de
l’Eglise Apostolique Armenienne.

PREGNANCY ABORTED OF 14-YEAR-OLD GORIS RESIDENT SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY FATHER

epress.am
06.14.2011 18:09

On May 31, a woman (V.G.) informed police in the town of Goris in
Armenia’s Syunik marz (province) that her husband, 45-year-old V.T.,
sexually assaulted their 14-year-old daughter, as a result of which
the daughter became pregnant.

The Goris Journalists’ Club and Hetq Online reported earlier this
month that the young girl informed her mother that her father had
physically and sexually assaulted her for months. Those close to
the family, wrote “Sharavigh” Goris Journalists’ Club PR specialist
Irina Yolyan in an entry posted later on the journalists’ club blog,
noticed changes and increased absenteeism from school.

After the case become known, Goris Women’s Resource Center assumed
responsibility for supporting the mother and daughter. The Center
provided financial support so the mother and daughter could go to
Yerevan. The Women’s Resource Center of Armenia (WRCA) in Yerevan has
since stepped in and is supporting the pair by providing legal and
psychological help through their Sexual Assault Crisis Center. Whether
mother and daughter are currently in Yerevan or Goris is under wraps,
so as to protect the family.

WRCA Executive Director Lara Aharonian informed Epress.am that the
father has, in fact, not been detained, but cannot leave Goris till
the trial. According to the “Sharavigh” Goris Journalists’ Club,
the father has a prior sentence for murder.

Epress.am today had a chance to speak with Irina Yolyan, who stated
that the daughter has since had an abortion.

Sarmik Harutyunyan, head of investigations at Goris Police Division,
also informed Epress.am today that a comprehensive investigation is
currently underway.

“A criminal case on the basis of RA Criminal Code Article 141, sexual
assault [with a person under 16], has been launched. There will be
an investigation and if the father is guilty, he will be arrested,”
he said.

NKR PRESIDENT: CONFLICT SETTLEMENT BY USE OF FORCE HAS NO PROSPECTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 14, 2011 – 18:16 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Nagorno Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan said his
country never excludes a possibility of a new war in the conflict zone,
specifically against the background of Azerbaijan’s ongoing threats.

“However, large-scale hostilities are unlikely. War is pregnant with
unpredictable consequences and the international community will hardly
allow destabilization of a strategically important region as South
Caucasus,” he told Military Diplomat magazine.

“Nagorno Karabakh’s defense army is extremely efficient and capable
to rebuff any aggression. Anyway, conflict settlement by use of force
has no prospects. We have survived a war and know the value of peace,”
President Sahakyan said.

SIX NEW AMBULANCE CARS TO SYUNIK

ARMENPRESS
June 14, 2011
KAPAN

Within the framework of the government’s grant program of reforms in
the healthcare system 88 ambulance cars have been brought to Armenia
six of which will be given to the Armenian province of Syunik. Two
cars will be provided to Kapan and Meghri, one to Goris and Sisian
medical centers.

Currently Syunik has 25 ambulance cars and 24 brigades.

COOPERATION BETWEEN ARMENIA AND SICILY DISCUSSED

/ARMENPRESS/
June 14, 2011
YEREVAN

Armenian Ambassador to Italy Ruben Karapetyan was in Palermo June 9-12
on a working visit. In Palermo he met with the local authorities as
well as representatives of business circles.

MFA press office reported that June 9 the ambassador met with the
President of the Regional Assembly of Sicily Francesco Cascio and mayor
of Palermo Diego Camarata with who he discussed issues on development
of trade-economic and cultural ties between Armenia and Sicily. During
the meetings an arrangement has been reached to organize the visit
of the Sicilian businessmen to Armenia to get acquainted with the
investment opportunities on site.

On the same day the Armenian ambassador participated in the business
forum where he presented the investment opportunities in Armenia,
the prior programs of the government as well as the favorable
legislative field.

During the visit to Palermo the ambassador read lecture at the Palermo
Rotary club during which “Armenia, Noah’s Country” film was presented.