Author: Kalantarian Kevo

‘INTERIM DECISION’ ON KARABAKH FOUND?

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.06.2008 13:19 GMT+04:00

Yerevan and Baku have a golden opportunity to resolve the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, according to OSCE President.

"We have been working to find a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict for several years. There is an interim decision which will
have a positive impact on the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. The
sides have a golden opportunity to resolve the conflict," Mr Goran
Lennmarker said in his address to 17th session of the OSCE PA in
Astana, Interfax reports.

Meanwhile, he mentioned, the Karabakh issue will not be discussed. "The
agenda includes issues referring to Georgia," he said. "OSCE member
states support Georgia’s territorial integrity. Abkhazia is a part
of Georgia and a peaceful solution should be found in this vein."

It’s the first-ever OSCE PA session held in Astana, the capital of
Kazakhstan, which will assume presidency in the OSCE in 2010.

GulfNews, United Arab Emirates
June 29 2008

Dubai court sentences ‘abusive’ jail wardens

By Bassam Za’za’, Senior Reporter
Published: June 29, 2008, 11:12

Dubai: Seven of the 25 jail wardens, including a former prison
director, who were charged with abusing authority and beating inmates
during a surprise inspection for substances prohibited in the cells,
have been sentenced to six months in jail.

The rest of the jail wardens have been sentenced to three months in
prison.

The Public Prosecution has charged the wardens with abusing their
authority. They allegedly beat an Armenian inmate, leaving him with a
permanent 10 per cent spinal disability, besides injuring others.

Seven lawyers defended the wardens, stating that they were searching
for banned substances, such as drugs and sharp tools in the cells and
they relied on the surprise factor and scared the prisoners while
taking them out of their cells "to prevent them from disposing of any
forbidden stuff".

AZERBAIJAN PRESIDENT APPROVES CONTINUATION OF NEGOTIATION PROCESS WITHIN OSCE (VIDEO)

Trend News Agency
June 27 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 27 June /corr. Trend News M.Aliyev / The President
of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, approved continuation of the negotiation
process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement within the
framework of the OSCE and expressed hope that this process will
continue and strengthen, the U.S. Co-chairman of the OSCE, Matthew
Bryza, briefed the media in Baku on 27 June.

The French Co-chairman, Bernard Fassier, said that currently there are
not new proposals for peaceful solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict. According to him, currently the sides work within Madrid
agreement.

"I noticed that there is a possibility for normal constructive
dialogue. We will visit Khankendi, meet with representatives and know
their opinion. However, firstly we should know opinion in Yerevan,"
Fassier said.

The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988
due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has
occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these
territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time
the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

G8 FOREIGN MINISTERS SUPPORT PEACEFUL SOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Trend News Agency
June 27 2008
Azerbaijan

G8 Foreign Ministers called Azerbaijan and Armenia to the peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It was mentioned in
one of the items of the statement by the Foreign Minister of Japan,
Masahiko Komura, as the chairman of the two-day ministerial meeting,
which was completed today in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto,
ITAR-TASS reports.

The Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada,
France, USA, Japan stated their support for the efforts of the
co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group, directed toward prompt solution
of the conflict. Ministers noted that Armenia and Azerbaijan must
"demonstrate restraint" and take "serious steps" to reach an agreement.

At the same time, the Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Japan,
Kadzuo Kodama, reported to the correspondent of ITAR-TASS that "wide
discussions on this problem were not held at the conference".

The concluding document of the meeting reflected all themes, which were
risen by the G8 Foreign Ministers. They include the problems of Middle
East, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea,
Myanmar, Sudan and Afghanistan. The participants in the conference paid
special attention to questions of nuclear disarmament and peaceful use
of atom. Detailed discussions were held on the theme of ensuring peace
in different countries worldwide, as well as questions of combating
terrorism and organized criminality were touched upon.

The First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, Andrey Denisov, reported
to the Russian journalists that "the G8 summit due in July will focus
on only four questions. "This is Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan and
Middle East. All these questions have been reflected in the statement
by the Chairman and as a whole show the motion of discussions.

"We clarified the positions of the leading countries of world
on important questions and, in a certain extent, prepared the
international part of the agenda of the meeting of leaders in
Hokkaido. We provided them with time and possibility to discuss
other not less important issues," Denisov added. In addition to the
statement by the Chairman, as a result of the meeting in Kyoto,
a joint statement was adopted on Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. With
regard to the last document, the Deputy Minister noted that not all
in it satisfied the Russian side, but "the base approaches coincide
with the remaining G8 countries ". Furthermore, he reminded that
"absolute priority" for Russia is the unity of "Groups of G8".

The meeting completed today in Kyoto is last preparation stage for the
G8 summit, which will take place on 7-9 July in the Japanese Island
of Hokkaido. Over the past several months, the conferences of the
heads of financial, law-enforcement, energetic, social, ecological
and other departments of the leading industrial countries of planet
have already taken place in various cities of Japan.

COMMISSION MEETS TO ADDRESS HOMELESS FAMILIES PROBLEMS

ARMENPRESS
June 25

An inter-agency commission set up to address the problems of homeless
families who lost their homes in the 1988 earthquake met today to
discuss a set of related questions.

The commission was set up by Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
on June 23. The commission that comprises deputy prime minister
Armen Gevorkian, finance, urban, economy, labor and social affairs
ministers, chairmen of the Central Bank and cadastre committee,
as well as governors of Shirak and Lori provinces and Gyumri mayor,
is chaired by Prime Minister Sarkisian.

By the same decision Prime Minister Sarkisian assigned chairman of the
Central Bank to propose before September 1 suggestions on how to make
mortgage credits available for homeless families living in the area.

Urban minister and governors were told to prepare proposals on
allocating land plots for house construction.

The government press office told Armenpress that the commission
discussed today three issues- mechanisms for launching construction
of houses in Gyumri, the principle of land allocation in Gyumri and
the pace of construction of homes for homeless in Stepanavan and
Spitak towns.

The commission discussed also ways to provide 1,800 lonely senior
citrines in the disaster zone with permanent housing.

THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN THE CIS COUNTRIES
Aleksey Mitrofanov, Konstantin Simonov

Eurasian Home Analytical Resource
xml?lang=en&nic=expert&pid=1612&qmonth =0&qyear=0
June 24 2008
Russia

Aleksey MITROFANOV, member of the Central Council of the Fair Russia
party Recently, the World Strategy Center has been established
within the framework of the Fair Russia party. One of its tasks is
to popularize the Russian language abroad. The reasons for learning
Russian have changed. The new generation needs to study it because
today people, living in the CIS countries, use the Russian language at
work, talk with each other in Russian, read the academic literature in
Russian and surf the Russian segment of the Internet. Of course, those
reasons will dominate in future, and Russia should reckon on that.

I believe that Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka has the
most pragmatic attitude to the Russian language in the CIS. Without
minimizing the importance of the Belarus statehood, with the strong
army and law enforcement agencies, he didn’t encroach upon the
Russian language as it was done in other former Soviet republics
except Russia itself. Most of the CIS governments did their best to
weaken the Russian language and to make their population speak only
the national language. They spent their forces, time and much money
to develop and to promote the new national languages. In many cases
it was a stalemate.

Pragmatically, the efforts to promote the new national languages
have produced no results, since in terms of business translating the
physics and chemistry textbooks and other literature into the national
languages is not lucrative. I am thinking in terms of pragmatism not
of nationalism.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka did not close down the Russian TV channels,
though they had troubled and annoyed him greatly. As a result,
he derived a benefit from that. Today Belarus is more independent
than those post-Soviet states which give their national languages
a push. The majority of the Belarusians speak Russian even at
work. Russian is the main language in the country.

The same pragmatic reasons make us learn English. It lets us read the
English-language literature, surf the English-language segment of the
Internet as well as study and work abroad. I believe that the Russians
who live in Russia’s Far East should learn the Chinese language to
cooperate with the Chinese in the frontier cities and towns.

To build the Ukrainian nationhood doesn’t only mean that Ukraine should
have its own national identity, its own history and its own hetmans. If
you are going to build a strong nation, there is a need to do that
pragmatically, maintaining good relations with Russia and making it
possible for people to speak the language that would allow them to work
and to have access to the country’s cultural heritages. In Ukraine
there are young policy-makers coming out for recognizing Russian as
the only official language. Those include Secretary of the Donetsk
City Council, Deputy Head of the Party of Regions Nikolay Levchenko,
who supports Russian becoming the only national language, and one of
the former Socialist leaders Vasily Volga. The young pragmatic people
believe that if the Ukrainian people know Russian and a part of the
Ukrainian population speak only Russian, then why, Vasily Volga asks,
his sixty-year-old relatives must learn Ukrainian. Only those who
want to learn Ukrainian should do it.

It seems to me that the policy-makers in the CIS countries will be more
pragmatic. Russia can help them in that. We keep talking about the CIS,
but we forget that population of the Eastern European countries are
getting more and more interested in the Russian language. Russian is
widespread in Mongolia. 25 out of 70 Mongolian MPs graduated from the
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University)
and speak Russian fluently. Mongolia is a large country with many
resources and many advantages. We should have a broader view of things:
in China and Korea people would like to learn Russian. I consider that
we should promote the Russian language beyond the bounds of the CIS.

If oil prices soar to a peak of just over $140 a barrel,
everybody will study Russian. And the rise in the price of oil will
continue. Platinum, gold and water – all the Russian natural resources
will rise in price too.

And finally, I would like to say that Russian is also one of the two
languages used in the outer space. There is some mysticism here. For
more than 40 years astronauts have been speaking only two languages
on a spaceship – Russian and English.

Konstantin SIMONOV, president of the Centre for Current Politics
in Russia I often deal with the Chinese students. Unfortunately,
they know Russian much worse than the older generations do. We have
neglected the Russian language issue far too long, and this is a
serious problem of Russia.

We say that the current economic development of Russia motivates
foreigners to learn Russian, which is right. But what have we done
to make people abroad learn Russian? Here, unfortunately, extremely
little has been done and new problems keep arising.

I would like to mention three "agents" that can improve the situation
with the Russian language in the post-Soviet space. Those include
our government, NGOs and Russian companies.

The modern democracy implies protection of the minorities’ rights. The
Russian government must strive for the Russian people living in the
former Soviet Republics to have the opportunity to speak Russian
and to study in this language at schools. The Russian language is
recognized as an official language only in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. In
other CIS countries the situation with schools and with teaching the
people in Russian is dramatic. The Eurasia Heritage Foundation has
held the investigation on the Russian language in the New Independent
States. The data show that in the countries which Russia regards as its
political allies there are mush more problems with the school teaching
than in other CIS countries. In particular, the investigation marked
out three countries where the problems with teaching Russian are quite
severe. Those are Armenia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. At least, Armenia
and Uzbekistan are the countries that have always been considered our
partners in the Caucasus region and Central Asia. The situation in
Kazakhstan has worsened sharply. Unfortunately, the Russian government
winks at that and problems continue to occur. In many schools in the
CIS countries the Russian language is not taught any more.

Now about the activities of the Russian NGOs in that field. All of
us know the term "soft power", but little is being done to return
Russian to the former Soviet Republics.

These days the Centre for Current Politics in Russia, of which I am
the President, is holding the forum of the CIS young elites with
the support of the Russian government. Our task is to allow young
talented people, who have a good command of Russian, to understand
what goes on in Russia. In many instances, a lot of young people,
who live in the post-Soviet countries and hold high posts there,
visit Russia very rarely. We must not lose the new promising young
generation in the CIS countries. In this sense, the attempts of some
NGOs to promote Russian are welcome.

Finally, I would like to say that the Russian companies should
be interested in promotion of Russian in the New Independent
States. Russian businessmen buy a lot of property and assets
abroad. Those who will work for joint ventures should speak Russian. As
is known, for example, all the employees of a transnational company
(wherever the office is located, in Moscow or in Bangkok) speak English
very well. Otherwise, the people will not be hired. But in Russia the
Russian language exams are not conducted among migrants. Many people,
who do not speak Russian, come to Russia to work.

I believe that we should put more effort into the work with those
three "agents" in order to breathe life into the Russian language,
since it is an important communication tool in the post-Soviet space.

The material is based on the experts’ addresses to the round table
"Situation with the Russian language in the CIS countries" organized
by the Russian Agency of International Information RIA Novosti on
June 17, 2008.

ARMENIA TREE PROJECT
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE
Email: [email protected]
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
June 24, 2008

ATP Establishes New Michael and Virginia Ohanian Environmental Center in
Northern Armenia

— New $150,000 Commitment Allows ATP to Expand Environmental Initiatives in
Area of Tremendous Need

WATERTOWN, MA–Mrs. Virginia Ohanian is one of Armenia Tree Project’s most
active ambassadors. Whenever a birthday or holiday comes around, she asks
friends and family to direct gifts to ATP to plant trees in Armenia. They
often make such gifts, and do so in her honor too. In fact, Mrs. Ohanian has
more trees planted in her honor than any other person in the ATP community.

Ginny, as she is known by her many friends, has been involved with ATP since
its founding in 1994. Late last year, while looking at photographs of the
hundreds of students participating in ATP’s environmental education program
in Armenia, she announced that she was thinking about doing something
significant for the organization.

Years ago, she helped ATP take a major step in expanding its education
programs by donating $100,000 to establish the Michael and Virginia Ohanian
Environmental Education Center at the site of the ATP nursery in Karin
Village.

ATP’s tree planting efforts have grown exponentially over the past several
years and its environmental education curriculum is taught to hundreds of
students each year at the Ohanian Center. The site is ideal for education
because ATP staff is growing dozens of varieties of fruit and decorative
trees in the nearby fields for outplanting across the country.

Ginny is happy with the success, but believes the need is great and that ATP
could do more. Last fall, she issued a challenge for ATP to bring its
educational work to the next level. She wanted to know how such quality
programs could reach even more students and professionals, so that the trees
being planted today are protected in the future. She backed her challenge
with a commitment to fund a second education center in another part of the
country where ATP is expanding its strategic reforestation operations.

With a new $150,000 gift, Ginny is enabling ATP to establish a new northern
outpost in Margahovit, Lori Marz, which will be named the Michael and
Virginia Ohanian Environmental Center. The new center will become an
integral part of the region, where ATP has focused its reforestation efforts
to combat the huge losses to the forests.

In recent years ATP established the Mirak Family Reforestation Nursery in
the area, which will allow up to one million trees per year to be planted in
this heavily deforested area. In addition, the Critical Ecosystem
Partnership Fund has financed ATP’s collaboration with the Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, to produce a sustainable
forestry manual for use by professionals in Armenia.

"The new Michael and Virginia Ohanian Environmental Center will play a key
role in allowing us to train students and professionals in forestry best
practices and conduct environmental education lessons with students in the
northern parts of the country, which has been hit hard by deforestation,"
stated ATP Executive Director Jeff Masarjian. "On behalf of our founder
Carolyn Mugar, our thanks go out to Ginny and the rest of her family for
their leadership and dedication to ATP and our work in restoring Armenia’s
environment for future generations."

"My husband Michael was an inseparable friend to Carolyn’s father Stephen
Mugar, and at a certain point we decided to start giving back as much as we
can, so we got involved with charitable causes and philanthropy," recounted
Ginny. "When Carolyn told us about ATP and how it produces fruit trees,
clean air, and a healthy environment for Armenia, this was something we
could all appreciate and get behind and support in a big way."

Ginny attended the inauguration with her family of the Michael and Virginia
Ohanian Environmental Education Center in Karin Village in 2004, and she
recalls the pleasure of visiting and seeing how much of a difference the
facility makes in the life of the region for Armenians of all generations.

"I am thankful that ATP got involved in environmental education, and
especially that they gave me the opportunity to support such a wonderful
facility, where students and visitors can learn about the science and other
aspects of Armenia’s unique natural heritage," explained Ginny. "I’m also
proud that the organization has grown and we are able to create a new
educational establishment in another part of the country."

"Our family is very pleased to be involved in a project this fulfilling, and
we are proud to contribute to a Green Armenia, where people have food in
their backyards thanks to the fruit trees being planted by ATP," stated
Ginny. "It is a pleasure to be helping people live a good life in Armenia,
and everyone should give something back to the land of their heritage."

Most of all, Ginny would like her gift to inspire others to give, for
themselves, for ATP, and for Armenia’s future. "I hope other people can
experience the sense of joy our family has felt in being able to give
something back to Armenia," she emphasized. "Our support of ATP has been
very rewarding and we know it is making an impact in the country, so I would
like to issue a new challenge, and ask other diasporans to also think about
doing more and showing even more support for ATP’s critical work."

Since 1994, Armenia Tree Project has planted and restored more than
2,000,000 trees and created hundreds of jobs for impoverished Armenians in
tree-regeneration programs. The organization’s three tiered initiatives are
tree planting, community development to reduce poverty and promote
self-sufficiency, and environmental education to protect Armenia’s precious
natural resources. For additional information, visit the web site

PHOTO CAPTION: Mrs. Virginia Ohanian, pictured with her late husband
Michael, has made a new $150,000 gift that will allow ATP to expand its
environmental education and sustainable forestry programs in northern
Armenia

ARMENTEL ANNOUNCES NETWORK ENHANCEMENTS IN 2008

Global Insight
June 23, 2008

World Markets Research Centre

Armentel, the Armenian incumbent, has said that it plans to complete
the digitalisation of local telephone exchanges by the end of 2008 as
well as finalising the deployment of a nationwide backbone network. On
the operational side, the operator also has said that it will not
cut mobile prices after the introduction of a third mobile operator
in Armenia, but will focus on quality of services, including data.

Significance: Armentel’s acquisition by VimpelCom has hastened the
enhancement of its network and has also brought about an improvement
in the operator’s mobile ARPU, which has risen from $14US.5 in the
first quarter of 2007 to $18US.4 in the first quarter of 2008. The
enhancement of Armentel’s network will better place it to offset
increased competition from the MTS-owned VivaCell as well as emerging
competitors in the WiMAX space (seeArmenia: 16 June 2008:)

Work begins to restore old Armenian cemetery
By Rula Aweidah

21 June 08
Cyprus Mail

WORK for the reconstruction of the derelict old Armenian cemetery near
the Ledra Palace is to begin in earnest next week.

A contract has been granted complete the renovation and construction of
the cemetery, the tombs, the exterior wall as well as the chapel in the
cemetery.

Back in 2006, the Armenian Prelature had started digging up graves in
order to put remains together in a new communal grave in the new
Armenian cemetery on the outskirts of the capital. But the workers
simply started breaking up old historic tombs, damaging headstones and
exposing bones, sparking outrage among the community.

Soon after the municipality delivered a court order stopping the work,
and instructing those responsible to restore the site, but nothing was
done and the cemetery fell into even greater disrepair.

Finally after two years, renovations are now ready to take place.

`The preliminary work is complete, all the permissions are in place,
and the work will be done by architects who are all professionals,’
explained the Armenian representative at the House, Vartkes Mahdessian.
The project was awarded two weeks ago. `They will start work 100 per
cent next week,’ he said.

The whole project was made possible by a subsidy that was received from
the Cyprus government, as well as a big amount contributed by the
Armenian Church. It is foreseen that the completion of the cemetery
will be complete in about twelve months.

Mahdessian said: `The boundary wall will be restored again, the small
church will be renovated, all the graves will be back in their original
places and the ones that are unidentified will all be placed in a
common grave, which will have all their names inscribed.’

`This will be something we as Armenians and Cypriots will be proud of,’
Mahdessian added.

TURKEY ACQUITS CHOIRBOYS CHARGED FOR SINGING KURDISH REBEL SONG

CBC News
June 19, 2008 Thursday 12:03 PM GMT
Canada

A Turkish court in Ankara has acquitted three teenage schoolboys of
"spreading separatist propaganda" after they sang a Kurdish song
during a U.S. tour.

Six younger members of the chorus who face the same charges are to
be tried in a juvenile court.

Prosecutors charged them for singing Ey Raqip, translated as Hey
Guard or Hey Enemy, which they say is a rebel song that promotes the
separatist agenda of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.

The United States and the European Union consider the PKK, which
has been fighting for independence in Kurdish areas of Turkey,
a terrorist organization.

The children’s lawyer, Baran Pamuk, said a court ruled Thursday that
his clients, aged 15 to 18, did not intentionally spread Kurdish
propaganda.

He also said it was likely that charges against the younger children
would be dismissed.

In court, Pamuk argued that it was unlikely the children even
understood the words of the song.

The choir, which comes from Diyarbakir, the largest city in the
predominantly Kurdish southeast, performed folk songs in eight
different languages – Assyrian, Armenian, Arabic, English, German,
Hebrew, Turkish and Kurdish – during the World Music Festival in San
Francisco last October.

The choir master claims the chorus sang Ey Raqip at the request of
the audience.

The song predates the PKK, having been written by the Kurdish poet
Dildar (1917-48) in 1938 while he was in prison in Iraq.

However, it is sometimes referred to as the Kurdish national anthem.

The lyrics say, in part, "the Kurdish nation is alive with its
language, cannot be defeated by the weapons of any time. Let no one
say Kurds are dead, Kurds are living."

Prosecutors continue to investigate the director of the children’s
chorus.

Amnesty International and the group Freemuse took up the cause of
the choir, saying the case was an effort to suppress free expression.

Turkey has come under intense criticism in the EU over its court cases
against writers and artists, many under laws that make it a crime to
"insult Turkishness."