Author: Kajoyan Gevork

AAA LEADERS ATTEND USC GALA BANQUET IN HONOR OF AMBASSADOR JOHN M. EVANS

Arminfo
2007-03-27 14:53:00

Armenian Assembly Board of Trustees Members Lisa Kalustian and
Richard Mushegain, along with Executive Director Bryan Ardouny and
Community Relations Director Narine Zardarian, attended the University
of Southern California (USC), Institute of Armenian Studies Second
Anniversary Gala Banquet in honor of former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia
John M. Evans on March 4.

The Armenian Assembly of America reports that, in his remarks,
Ambassador Evans said he found it unusual that anyone – even a former
government official – should be honored for simply speaking the
truth. In 2005, Evans publicly declared that "the Armenian Genocide
was the first genocide of the Twentieth Century."

"I knew what I was doing and knew it might have consequences for my
career," he explained. "The decision was wholly mine. No one put me
up to it. I stand by it. I have taken responsibility for it, paid a
price for it."

"One country’s official policy of denying the Armenian Genocide
interferes with the process of seeking the truth; other countries’
policies of going along with denial do not serve the truth. Instead
what we have seen is the horrific murder of Hrant Dink forty days ago,"
he continued.

"The Armenian Genocide should be recognized as such by this Congress,"
Evans added.

Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian, in a letter to
Evans, thanked the former Ambassador for his dedication and support
on issues of importance to the Armenian- American community during
his distinguished career in the American Foreign Service.

"ELECTIONS TO BECOME LITMUS PAPER FOR FURTHER RELATIONS BETWEEN EU AND
ARMENIA," AMBASSADOR OF GERMANY STATES

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Though one of the main obligations
undertaken by Armenia when entering the Council of Europe was holding
of free and fair elections, all the previous elections in Armenia did
not correspond to the democratic demands. Heike Peitsch, the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Armenia
stated about it at the March 27 conference dedicated to issues of
holding free and fair elections. "We attach very much importance to
the May 12 elections at the National Assembly of Armenia," the
Ambassador of the country presiding at present at the European Union
stated. In her words, the EU expects that the coming elections in
Armenia will be a progress on the way of democracy. "The elections
will become a litmus paper for the further relations between the EU
and Armenia. It will become clear after the elections if there is will
for democracy in Armenia or not," Heike Peitsch stated. She stressed
that the country authorities must secure fair elections. "Everything
depends on the political will of the authorities and parties, mass
media and, of course, of voters," the Ambassador of Germany
concluded. To recap, the conference was organized by the Council of
Europe Yerevan Representation.

Press TV, Iran
March 27 2007

Armenian university establishes House of Rumi
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:35:46

Armenia’s Acharian University has established a new research center
called the House of Rumi to highlight the Persian poet’s life
philosophy and literary career.

The center is founded in association with Iran’s cultural attaché to
Yerevan.

Reza Otufi said that his office plans future cultural programs in
Armenia including a Rumi conference, a poetry night and publication
of several books about the Persian transcendental poet.

Otufi also said that several Iranian feature films will screen at
Armenian film festivals later this year, including a retrospective to
highlight Iran’s female filmmakers.

ARMENPRESS

KARABAKH LEADER SAYS NO PEACE DEAL POSSIBLE WITHOUT
ITS FULL INVOLVEMENT IN TALKS

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS: Nagorno-Karabakh
leader Arkady Ghukasian welcomed today Peter Semneby,
the EU’s special representative for the South
Caucasus, in Nagorno-Karabakh’s representation in
Yerevan for talks over ways to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
A news release issued by the representation, said
Ghukasian has once again reaffirmed Nagorno-Karabakh’s
stance on the conflict resolution basics, saying
without Nagorno-Karabakh representatives’ full
participation in the efforts to end the conflict it
would be impossible to reach a final and lasting
solution.
Semneby said the EU is willing to add to
international efforts to help the parties to agree on
a compromised peace deal. He said the EU is ready to
help all sides to overcome the conflict’s aftereffects
after they reach a peaceful accord.
Ghukasian also met today in Yerevan with Andrzei
Kasprzyk, a special envoy of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office for monitoring the ceasefire in
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Glendale News Press
March 24 2007

FROM THE MARGINS:
Feeling included, sensing pride

By PATRICK AZADIAN

A friend of mine brought something to my attention last week. After I
told her yet another story about my father, she asked: "Have you
always missed him so much, or is this very recent?"

My father passed away in 2002.

I did not have an answer for her. She caught me off guard, and my
stories dried up for a couple of days. I briefly became
self-conscious about storytelling.

Who knew? Maybe this was a phase I was going through; something my
now-abandoned therapist would have had a label for. Perhaps I had a
condition. I wouldn’t be surprised if "Late Post Loss Syndrome" was
listed somewhere in the encyclopedia of psychology.

My self-imposed ban on "dad stories" lasted a few days. Meanwhile,
even simple daily situations continued to remind me of my father,
Njdeh. But the much-talked-about Glendale multilingual ballot and
information pamphlet was the latest phenomena that brought him to
mind.

Here is why: After years of being physically separated from our
family due to political upheaval, he was finally able to join us for
a third and final time here in America. He was already in his
mid-60s.

Once we all had enough of the sentimentalities and our family unit
was back to a quasi-normal state, he had a few pieces of important
business he wanted to take care of.

First, as the rest of his family members were American citizens, he
put his citizenship documents into motion.

Simultaneously, he signed up for English as Second Language classes
at an adult education center. He took pride in going to class every
day and scoring perfectly in his exams. I have kept his exams.

In the process, sometimes he ran my patience thin by asking me
numerous detailed questions. Once he asked me the meaning of the word
"ambivalent." It was not always easy to give satisfactory answers to
his questions in Armenian. Often, certain words do not have a direct
equivalent in another language. But he was determined and my answers
often brought on new questions.

Njdeh wore out the English-to-Armenian, as well as the
English-to-Persian, dictionaries at our house. I have kept them, too.

He graduated from his courses with the unofficial titles of "best
student" and "teacher’s pet." We were all proud.

Dad did not live long enough to take the oath of becoming an American
citizen. This had been one of his dreams since I was born. He always
reminded me that America was the best country in the world.

I did not shy away from telling him that being the best and being
perfect were two different things.

One of the topics that we disagreed on was how the past can influence
the future. I always emphasized that the injustices suffered in the
past by minority groups can hinder their progress today. To him that
was nonsense; his view always stressed taking responsibility for your
own actions. He was a product of real-life situations in the Old
World, I was a product of our public high school system and the UCLA
sociology department in the New World.

On one occasion he said: "Son, you don’t know how it is to live in a
country where laws are subject to interpretation by corrupt
officials." He was referring to a political system he had left
behind, which had discrimination against religious minorities
legislated into law.

Glendale’s multilingual ballot would have been another reason for him
to brag about America.

Njdeh would have secretly been happy with the multi-lingual ballots.
I say secretly, because even after successfully completing his ESL
classes, his English was not good enough to understand everything on
the sample ballot and voter information pamphlet. Yet he was too
proud to admit that he had not mastered the English language.
Frankly, at his age, I am not sure if he would have been able to be
fluent in English during his lifetime.

I can just see him coming out of the voting booth with the exuberance
reserved for teenagers. He would’ve said: "Kvearkam, byats hayeren
targmanootyoonuh bedk chooneyee." ("I voted, but I did not need the
Armenian translation!" in Armenian). He would have probably followed
up that statement with another one about the multilingual ballot:
"Did you see the ballot? This is what I am talking about. This is
what America is all about: tolerance and understanding."

In addition to his pride in his heritage, this would have been a
moment when he would have felt very American. He would have felt
included.

I wouldn’t have argued with him on that day.

PATRICK AZADIAN works and lives in Glendale.

Armenian Foreign Minister, EU envoy discuss regional issues, Karabakh

Arminfo
23 Mar 07

Yerevan, 23 March: Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan met EU
special representative for South Caucasus Peter Semneby in Yerevan
today.

The Foreign Ministry press service has said that the two men discussed
regional problems and Armenia’s relationship with the neighbouring
countries. Oskanyan and Semneby also talked about the forthcoming
parliamentary election. They said it is important that the election
meets international standards. They also exchanged views on the latest
stage of the talks on the Karabakh conflict settlement.

PACE CULTURE DELEGATION’S VISIT TO SOUTH CAUCASUS POSTPONED

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 21 2007

YEREVAN, March 21. /ARKA/. The visit of a PACE delegation for science
and education to the South Caucasus has been postponed.

The Public Relations Department, RA Parliament, reports that Head of
the Secretariat of this PACE Commission Christopher Grayson informed
the Armenian delegation to PACE that the visit of Reporter of the
Subcommittee for Cultural Heritage Edward O’Hara to the region
scheduled for April 2007 has been postponed.

The reason for the postponement is the report’s business in his
election district.

The new terms of the visit will be specified at the Subcommittee’s
next meeting to be held as part of the PACE session in April.

WEST UNPREPARED TO MEDDLE IN ARMENIA
By Emil Danielyan for EurasiaNet

Spero News
March 21 2007

The US and the EU are unlikely to ostracize Armenia, despite election
warnings

The US and the EU are stepping up pressure on the Armenian government
to hold free-and-fair parliamentary elections on 12 May. They have
warned that if the upcoming vote is deemed fraudulent, Yerevan could
forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in additional development
assistance, and undermine its efforts to forge closer links with
the West.

However, analysts are skeptical that the warnings will have
much influence on the behavior of President Robert Kocharian’s
administration. The outcome of the parliamentary balloting will go a
long way toward determining the political futures of both Kocharian
and his most powerful associate, Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian,
many Armenian political observers believe. Some say that neither the
US nor EU is prepared to take the kind of action that would seriously
challenge the president’s nearly decade-long grip on power.

None of the presidential and parliamentary elections held under
the Kocharian administration until now were judged democratic by
Western monitors. The most recent of those polls, held in early
2003, were marred by reports of widespread ballot box stuffing,
voter intimidation, vote buying, and other irregularities.

US and EU officials say the upcoming elections offer a unique
opportunity for the South Caucasus state to end its post-Soviet history
of electoral fraud. "People [in the West] feel that there can be no
more excuses," said one Western diplomat in Yerevan. "The Armenian
economy is growing, and there is no active war in Nagorno-Karabakh. So
it’s time for Armenia to graduate into a normal political life."

Cory Welt, a senior Russia and Eurasia analyst at the Washington-based
Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed, saying that
a clean election would give a "huge boost" to Armenia’s international
reputation. "As time goes on, there are [fewer] reasons, not more, for
Western states to promote engagement with an Armenian government that
seeks to rule through anti-democratic methods," he told EurasiaNet.

The issue was reportedly high on the agenda of Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian’s 5 March talks in Washington with US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Top State Department officials,
including Rice, have repeatedly warned that if the forthcoming
elections again fall short of democratic standards, Yerevan will
risk losing US$235 million in US economic assistance promised under
the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a program designed to spur
political and economic reforms in developing nations. Armenia was
deemed eligible for the scheme, unveiled by President George W Bush in
2004, despite being one of the world’s leading per-capita recipients
of American aid.

Testifying before a foreign aid subcommittee of the US House of
Representatives on 15 March, the head of a US government agency
administering the MCA, John Danilovich, said he "communicated" with
Kocharian earlier this year to reiterate Washington’s "concerns that
elections be held in a correct manner." One of Danilovich’s deputies,
John Hewko, visited Yerevan for the same purpose earlier in March.

"We expect to see significant improvement over past elections,"
Hewko told reporters there.

For its part, the EU is tying the proper election conduct to Armenia’s
participation in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) framework that
entitles the country, along with neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan, to
a privileged relationship with the bloc, better access to its market,
and greater EU aid. Each of the three regional states signed with
the EU last November its own ENP action plan, each of which includes
provisions designed to promote democratization.

The EU’s Brussels-based special representative to the South Caucasus,
Peter Semneby, discussed preparations for the May polls with senior
Armenian officials during an early March visit to Yerevan. "It is
the first major election taking place in the South Caucasus after
we finalized the action plans," Semneby told RFE/RL. "And for that
reason it has an importance that goes beyond the borders of Armenia."

Failure to ensure its freedom and fairness would mean that Armenia
has lost an opportunity to build a "firm relationship" with the EU,
he warned.

Yet neither loss of the MCA funds, nor exclusion from the ENP would
threaten the political survival of Armenia’s two most powerful leaders
accustomed to Western criticism. Kocharian is believed to be planning
to hand over power to Sarkisian and remain in government in some
capacity after completing his second and final term in office in less
than a year from now. Continued control of the Armenian parliament
is seen as critical for the success of this putative scenario.

The US and the EU have so far left no indications that, in the event
of another deeply flawed election, they would openly challenge the
legitimacy of the authorities in Yerevan. "I don’t think the West will
take any sharp steps against Kocharian’s regime," Aleksandr Arzumanian,
a former foreign minister opposed to the current Armenian government,
told EurasiaNet. Arzumanian dismissed the Western incentives for
Armenia’s democratization, saying that they alone will not prevent
fresh vote rigging.

According to analyst Welt, Washington’s "only really significant
lever" is MCA aid and a "US stamp of approval" which it would give
to Yerevan. "Whether such US approval really matters to Armenia’s
authorities is another question," he said. "If they believe they
have sufficient support from countries like Russia and Iran, then
termination of MCA aid will mean little."

Another factor that may prompt the Bush administration to tread
lightly is connected with the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process, some observers believe. American, French and Russian
diplomats who are trying to broker a solution hope that Kocharian
and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet shortly after the
Armenian elections and finally cut a peace deal. Diplomats privy to
the peace process say Aliyev and Kocharian have already essentially
agreed on the basic principles of a peaceful settlement proposed by
the mediators. Washington, which has long held a Karabakh settlement
to be a top policy priority for the region, seems unlikely to undercut
either leader under the current circumstances.

Emil Danielyan is a Yerevan-based journalist and political analyst.

EurasiaNet provides information and analysis about political, economic,
environmental, and social developments in the countries of Central
Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in Russia, the Middle East, and
Southwest Asia. The website presents a variety of perspectives on
contemporary developments, utilizing a network of correspondents
based both in the West and in the region. The aim of EurasiaNet is
to promote informed decision making among policy makers, as well as
broadening interest in the region among the general public.

EurasiaNet is operated by the Central Eurasia Project of the Open
Society Institute.

ONE FOURTH OF POPULATION GETS PENSION

KarabakhOpen
21-03-2007 12:47:38

As on January 1, 2007, the number of pensioners in Nagorno Karabakh was
35089, which is down by 653 compared with January 1, 2006. It is almost
one fourth of the population of Karabakh. The number of the disabled
people registered in the republic is 9850, which is 27.8 percent of
pensioners, including 886 (9 percent) have first-degree disability,
6735 (68.3 percent) have second-degree disability, 1720 (17.5 percent)
have third-degree disability, 509 (5.2 percent) are under 18.

The number of people with disabilities has increased by 287 or 3
percent compared with January 1, 2006.

TURKISH-AMERICAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS AND THE ARMENIAN ISSUE
By Murat Yulek

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 20 2007

"The Sultan expressed his sympathy with the government of the United
States for the troubles in which it is involved, and the hope that
the war would soon terminate with maintenance of the American Union
in all its original power and integrity with the restoration of peace
and concord among the American people. I am happy in thus being able
to report to you that the United States has a true and loyal friend
in the sovereign of this great empire."

So wrote Edward Joy Morris, "Minister to Turkey," to Secretary of
State William E. Seward in 1861, after his initial audience with the
sultan. In 1862, the Turkish grand vizier gave tangible support to
the Union position by issuing a decree interdicting entrance into
Ottoman waters and ports of privateers operating against US shipping.

In 1865, Mr. Joy commented on the joyful excitement created in
Turkey by General Grant’s victories at Petersburg and Richmond and
the sadness following President Lincoln’s assassination. (R. Trask
(1971), The United States Response to Turkish Nationalism and Reform
1914- 1939, The University of Minnesota Press)

Early relations between the US and the Ottoman Empire were cordial
and supportive. The bulk of the relationship centered around commerce
and missionary activities. Until World War I, tangible results of
these relations were a trade surplus in favor of the Ottoman Empire
and many missionary schools, including Robert College.

In the post-World War II period, major aspects of that picture
changed significantly. Turkey, now a smaller country, gained political
importance during the Cold War: It was the "standard bearer of the
free world" and possibly the only major army in the East that could
selflessly fight the communist monsters — as they did with US soldiers
in Korean War. Or so we thought in Turkey.

That theory fell apart when Turks realized that their American allies
were reluctant to support Turkey’s protests of local Greek pressures
and, at times, horrible brutalities against the Turkish Cypriots. US
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s letter in 1964 was just the beginning
of that frustration.

The Turkish-American relationship continued to have its ups and
downs. The Turkish government enthusiastically supported Bush Sr. in
the first Gulf war. But frustration followed: Turkey was unable to
obtain any compensation for its ensuing economic losses.

Subsequently, the Turkish Parliament rejected supporting Bush Jr. in
the Iraq war. While that probably didn’t frustrate its people, it
did frustrate the US government. The Turkish people were generally
sympathetic to the US until the Iraq war. The US invasion of Iraq
changed all that, as it has in many other countries.

It is fair to say that the Turkish-American economic relationship
has generally been overshadowed by these greater political ebbs
and flows. Note, for example, that Turkish exports to the largest
economy in the world is only around $5 billion (less than 6 percent
of Turkey’s total exports and 0.5 percent total US imports) while
its imports are around $6 billion (4.5 percent of Turkish imports
and 0.7 percent of US exports). It is fair to say that Turkey does
not benefit from any special commercial treatment from the US (unlike
Israel), while it is frequently lobbied by larger US interests such
as weapons or aircraft manufacturers.

However, it is also known that Turkey is criticized from time to time
by Washington circles for exporting critical weapons systems. But
Turkey never got back the uranium it had sent the US in the 1960s
to be enriched under mutual agreement for use in its small, peaceful
research reactors.

The powerful Armenian diaspora is now trying to bring the genocide
claims to Congress. Renowned US historians such as Bernard Lewis
and Justin McCarthy have a lot to say about the truth behind these
claims, which are becoming a major international case of sheer abuse
of historical tribulations by Armenians and Turks alike.

That abuse by the diaspora Armenians does not help Armenia, which
currently is busy trying to feed its military invasion force in
Azerbaijan by taking away valuable economic resources from its people
and development.

But if taken seriously by the US Congress, that abuse, which has
a proven ability to mislead many ordinary people, will not help
Turkish-American economic relations, which are so far from where they
could be.