Author: Kajoyan Gevork

GEORGIAN CULTURE SEASONS IN ARMENIA
By Marietta Makarian

AZG DAILY
03-03-2009

Culture

Armenian Ministry of Culture together with the Georgian Ministry of
Culture, Monuments Protection and Sports, with the assistance of the
Georgian Embassy to the Republic of Armenia, holds Georgian Culture
Seasons in Armenia from March to November.

In the framework of the Seasons, 150-year-old Tbilisi Zakaria
Paliashvili State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, led by the
Artistic Director of the ballet group, well-known solo-dancer Nino
Ananashvili, will perform its ballet program on March 3 and 5 at
Al. Spendiarian Opera and Ballet National Academic Theatre.

Davit Moukeria will conduct the Opera Orchestra. Performances of the
Georgian Symphony Orchestra are also anticipated.

Today, at the Ministry of Culture, RA Deputy Minister of Culture Gagik
Gyurjian, Georgian Deputy Minister of Culture, Monuments Protection
and Sports Mariana Chogoshvili and the Artistic Director of the ballet
group Nino Ananashvili will meet the journalists.

AN.Net

March 1, 2008 victims commemorated in Yerevan
01.03.2009 19:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Some 15-20 thousand gathered at Matenadaran today to
commemorate the victims of March 1, 2008 disorders. Addressing the
action participants Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of the Armenian
National Congress, read out the names of those killed.

Taking the floor, head of the Armenian National Congress, Armenia’s
first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said that the opposition will
carry on legal struggle and called to exclude the terms ‘revolution’
or ‘rebel’ form the opposition’s plans.

At that, he did not rule out that the government will fail to cope
with the consequences of the global financial crisis and resign.

Noting that it’s not the time for indefinite-term protest actions, he
informed that the next opposition rally will be held in May 1.

Then the action participants marched to the monument to Alexander
Miasnikian and laid flowers to commemorate those killed at the site in
last year’s melee.

RA PRESIDENT, GEORGIAN SPEAKER EXCHANGE VIEWS ON EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2009 15:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met Wednesday
with visiting Georgian parliament speaker David Bakradze.

Welcoming the guest, the Armenian President said that such visits
strengthen the interparliamentary cooperation and friendship between
the two countries.

The two discussed implementation of agreements signed during President
Sargsyan’s visit to Georgia last year.

They also exchanged views on the Eastern Partnership initiative and
the measures taken by Armenia and Georgia to alleviate the consequences
of the global financial crisis, the RA leader’s press office reports.

TURKEY CALLS ON THIRD PARTY COUNTRIES TO SUPPORT PROCESS WITH ARMENIA

Hurriyet
Feb 24 2009
Turkey

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the third party
countries on Tuesday to support the process aiming at normalizing
the relations between Turkey and Armenia.

"We have been carrying out a series of talks with Armenia in order
to normalize our relations. We think that it is not proper to send
messages to each other through the press during this process," Burak
Ozugergin, spokesman for Turkish Foreign Ministry, was quoted by the
Anatolian Agency as telling at a weekly press briefing.

Ozugergin called on third countries to support the process between
Turkey and Armenia since any intervention could have a negative impact
on talks.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations and their border
has been closed for more than a decade, as Armenia presses the
international community with the backing of the diaspora to admit
the so-called "genocide" claims, instead of accepting Turkey’s call
to investigate the allegations, and over Armenia’s invasion of 20
percent territory of Azerbaijan.

A warmer period began in relations when Turkish President Abdullah
Gul paid a landmark visit to Yerevan in September to watch a World Cup
qualifying football match between the two countries on the invitation
of Sargsyan. The two countries have been holding contacts at the
ministerial level since.

"We have always objected attempts to distort a certain period in
our history. We cannot accept use of such distortions as a tool of
bargaining. We will continue telling the truth," Ozugergin also said.

"We wish to maintain our cooperation and consultation mechanisms
with the new administration of the United States in all areas
concerning our joint foreign policy. We got the impression that the
U.S. administration also intends to cooperate with us," he added.

‘US SHOULD UNDERSTAND TURKEY’S IMPORTANCE’

Hurriyet
Feb 23 2009
Turkey

NEW YORK – Turkey hopes the new Washington administration will
understand the importance of the country before it takes a step to
recognize the Armenian claims of genocide, Turkish ambassador to the
U.S., Nabi Å~^ensoy, told reporters in New York late Friday.

Stating that he had been recalled to Ankara in 2007 in protest to
recognition attempts in the U.S. Congress, he said the same danger
again loomed on the horizon.

MESKHETIAN TURKS CAN BE GRANTED DUAL CITIZENSHIP

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.02.2009 16:36 GMT+04:00

The Turkish parliament has decided to grant dual citizenship to
Meskhetian Turks.

The citizenship will be granted after verification of the documents
within 6 months, Trend Azeri news agency reports.

Meskhetian Turks were expelled from Georgia to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Uzbekistan in 1944.

Hürriyet, Turkey
Feb 21 2009

Turkey-US relations to improve if no wrong steps on Armenian issue

Turkey hopes the new Washington administration will understand the
importance of the country before it takes a step to recognize the
Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incident, the Turkish ambassador to
the U.S. said.

"The Turkish nation is ready to struggle altogether (against the
efforts to have the Armenian claims recognized in the U.S.). Therefore
I hope that the officials in the new U.S. administration will
understand the importance of Turkey, the meaning of this issue to the
Turkish people and the harm it will bring to the Turkish-American
relations," Ambassador Nabi Sensoy told reporters in New York late on
Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton had pledged to recognize the Armenian claims
during the election campaign.

So far the Washington administration had stepped in to block the
legislations in the Congress that would recognize the Armenian claims
due to the strategic partnership between Turkey and the U.S.

Sensoy recalled in 2007 he was called back to Ankara to protest the
attempts to have the Armenian claims recognized in the Congress.

"That happened for the first time in our history. This was a protest
of the American policy. Everybody understood the seriousness of the
issue and retreated from taking such wrong step. Now we face the same
danger," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolian Agency.

The issue of the 1915 incidents is highly sensitive for Turkey as well
as Armenia. Around 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks, died
in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by
Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

However Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5
million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in
1915. The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in
accepting Turkey’s proposal of forming a commission to investigate the
claims.

TURKEY-ARMENIA CLOSE TO NORMALIZATION

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has expressed his hopes for the
normalization of the relations with Armenia as well as both sides to
open up archives and the Yerevan administration is expected to adopt a
similar approach, Sensoy added.

"I am glad to declare that the two countries are close to normalizing
relations… I had gone through what happened in 2007 and I don’t want
to see this period repeated," the ambassador said, adding "We have to
focus on the positive sides of the bilateral relations."

He also warned that there is a good chance for Turkey and Armenia to
discuss directly the issues unless there is a legislation or statement
recognizing the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents.

In a response to a question Sensoy said Obama was invited to the
Alliance of Civilizations meeting which will be held in Turkey in
April.

U.S. OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRMAN’S REMARK ON N. KARABAKH PREMATURE – ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

Interfax
Feb 16 2009
Russia

The Armenian Foreign Ministry believes recent remarks by Matthew
Bryza, the U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating in the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was premature and could
hamper the negotiating process.

Bryza said in a recent interview that the drafting of an agreement
settling the conflict was nearing completion. He suggested that the
agreement should be based on the territorial integrity principle and
should mention nations’ right to self-determination and non-use of
military force.

"The purpose of this statement is unclear. You get the impression that
such a commentary could have been made only to hinder the negotiating
process on the Madrid proposals, which are based on three equally
valuable principles of international law, such as non-use of force or
a threat of such use, the right to self-determination, and territorial
integrity," Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said.

"Armenia has said repeatedly that a key issue of the conflict is the
recognition and enforcement of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s right to
self-determination. The negotiations are now being held on principles
of settling the conflict, and there is no agreement on them now.

Therefore, it is too early to talk about such an agreement,"
Balayan said.

MATTHEW BRYZA: "4 YEARS ARE UNUSUALLY LONG TIME TO DO THIS JOB" -EXCLUSIVE

APA
Feb 16 2009
Azerbaijan

Washington. Zaur Hasanov-APA. "4 years are very long time to do this
job, unusually long time and I love it", said Matthew Bryza, US Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and
OSCE Minsk Group US Co-Chair, in his interview with APA US bureau.

"I fee very committed to this issues and will keep doing this job as
long as Secretary Clinton thinks that this makes sense. At some point,
I have to go and do another job. I mean there are not so many. But
that’s an unusual model for the United States. I have to go and do a
new job sometimes soon. I just don’t know when and where it will be",
said Bryza speaking about the reports on possible changes in the US
State Department.

The US Co-Chair added that there were few people in the world, who
deeply knew Nagorno Karabakh conflict and its security issues. "Araz
Azimovs, in the world who are such brilliant experts on serious of
issues that keep focus on them year after year. Araz is national
treasure in Azerbaijan because he knows Karabakh and security issues
so well", said Bryza.

AZERBAIJANI, GEORGIAN AND ARMENIAN DELEGATIONS TO OSCE PA TO HOLD JOINT MEETING

APA
Feb 16 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Elbrus Seyfullayev – APA. Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian
delegations to OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will hold a joint meeting,
member of Azerbaijani delegation to OSCE PA Eldar Ibrahimov told APA.

He said that the meeting would take place in Marriott Hotel in Vienna
on February 18.

"The meeting will be held on the initiative of OSCE PA Special
Representative for the South Caucasus and Nagorno Karabakh
conflict Goran Lennmarker. August war between Russia and Georgia,
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be discussed at
the meeting," he said.

Eldar Ibrahimov said Azerbaijani delegation would raise issue on
Russia’s arm supply to Armenia.