Author: Kalashian Nyrie

FIVE ARMENIAN SOLDIERS KILLED NEAR KARABAKH -MEDIA
By Afet Mehtiyeva

Reuters
Sept 10 2009

* Nagorno-Karabakh authorities deny report * Tensions rising with
Armenia-Turkey thaw

(Updates with Turkish reaction)

BAKU, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Azeri media said five Armenian soldiers
were killed on Thursday in a clash with Azerbaijan’s forces near the
disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, but the rebel territory dismissed
the report.

The Azerbaijan Defence Ministry declined to comment.

Tensions in the region are rising as Armenia and close Azeri
ally Turkey make progress towards opening their joint border and
establishing diplomatic relations, angering oil-producing Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s ANS Press said the fight took place in the Agdam district,
next to Nagorno-Karabakh, which threw off Azeri rule in the early
1990s with Armenian backing.

A spokesman for the Nagorno-Karabakh Defence Ministry said the report
was "Azeri propaganda".

Agdam is one of seven Azeri districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh
and is held by Armenian forces.

Clashes are common between forces manning the frontline. The last
fatal exchange was in January, when Azerbaijan, which supplies oil
and gas to the West, said it had killed three Armenian soldiers.

Turkey, which is on the verge of an historic deal to restore ties
with Armenia, said it was seeking details of the report. "If the
report would be confirmed, it would become a source of concern,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said.

Christian ethnic Armenians, backed by Armenia, fought a war in the
1990s to end mainly Muslim Azerbaijan’s control over mountainous
Nagorno-Karabakh. An estimated 30,000 people were killed and a peace
accord has never been reached.

Mediators from the United States, France and Russia say they are
close to a breakthrough in negotiations between Armenian President
Serzh Sarksyan and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

Turkey closed its frontier with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan, which now fears losing leverage over Armenia in the
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh if the border is reopened.

Turkey and Armenia said last month they had agreed to establish
diplomatic ties and open the border. Their presidents are due to sign
the accords in mid-October, before submitting them to the Turkish
and Armenian parliaments for approval.

Under the deal, the border should reopen within two months of
ratification, possibly by New Year. (Additional reporting by Hasmik
Lazarian in Yerevan, Matt Robinson in Tbilisi and Zerin Elci in
Ankara; writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Mark Trevelyan).

VALERI ENTALTSEV: DAVID HAYRAPETYAN SEALED THE FATE OF THE GAME AT THE START OF SECOND ROUND

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.09.2009 10:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On September 9, Russian Team representative David
Hayrapetyan beat Jose de la Nieva of Spain 12:3 in Milan World
Championship 1/4 finals.

According to David Hayrapetyan’s personal coach Valeri Entaltsev,
his trainee sealed the fate of the game at the start of second round,
following the guidelines worked out. "After the third round David
actively maneuvered and his confident performance brought him victory,"
allsport.ru cited him the coach saying.

GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH MARKS DAY OF ST. SHUSHANIK TODAY.

Georgian Times
Sept 10 2009
Georgia

Solemn service will be delivered in Churches regarding this
day. Tbilisi Metekhi Church will especially celebrate, where
St. Queen’s tomb lays.

Saint Shushanik was a Christian woman who was murdered by her husband
Varsken in the town of Tsurtavi, Georgia. Since she died defending
her right to profess Christianity, he is regarded as martyr.

She was a daughter of the Armenian general Vartan Mamikonian
and married to the prominent Georgian feudal lord Versken, son of
Arshusha. Varsken was in opposition of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, King of
Kartli, and took a pro-Persian position, renouncing Christianity and
adopting Zoroastrianism. He killed his spouse after she refused to
submit to his order to abandon her Christian faith. Varsken himself
was put to death by King Vakhtang in 482.

Shushanik has been canonized by the Georgian and Armenian churches.

Her martyrdom is described in her confessor Jacob Khutsesi’s
hagiographic work: ‘Martyrdom of St. Shushanik’.

DAVUTOGLU DISALLOWED TO VISIT GAZA STRIP

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.09.2009 13:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish foreign minister has cancelled a visit
to Israel, the Israeli foreign ministry said on Wednesday, over a
refusal to let him visit the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem.Post reported.

Ahmet Davutoglu "has let us know that he will not come in October
to participate in an annual conference organized by President Shimon
Peres," an Israeli ministry official said.

The Israeli media said the visit was cancelled because Israel had
refused to allow Davutoglu to enter the Gaza Strip from its territory
unless he promised not to meet the democratically elected Hamas.

Gaza emergency medical services say 1,382 mainly-civilian Palestinians
were killed in the offensive, 447 of them under the age of 18.

Israel, which wants to crush any Palestinian liberation movement,
responded to Hamas’s win in the elections with sanctions, and almost
completely blockaded the impoverished coastal strip after Hamas seized
power in 2007, although a ‘lighter’ siege had already existed before.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls
air, sea and land access to the Strip.

THE RA MINISTER OF DEFENCE RECEIVED THE DELEGATION OF THE US NATIONAL DEFENCE UNIVERSITY

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On the 9th of September, 2009 the RA Minister of Defence received
the representatives of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic
Studies, NDU, USA, among them the former US Ambassador to Armenia
Michael Lemmon, Dr.

Roger Kangas, Col, Professor/Sr. Analyst Anne M. Moisan.

During the conversation Seyran Ohanyan emphasized that
Armenian-American defence cooperation continues to develop in the
spheres of education, military medicine, mine clearing, increasing
peacekeeping capacities and reviewing the defence strategy. He
pointed out the importance of the cooperation with the internationally
prestigious US National Defence University in the spheres of security
and defence, particularly, the education of the senior officers of
the RA Armed Forces, the research implementations, etc.

During the meeting they discussed the project of organizing a congress
headed under the title "Security Challenges of Responding to Disasters"
with the support of the US centre and the European Security Research
Centre after Z. Marshal together with the RA MoD National Strategic
Research Institute. Underlining, that the event will allow the RA
ministers and departments to experiment and improve the level of
interdepartmental cooperation for responding to disasters, S. Ohanyan
expressed his readines s to support the initiative.

EU ASSURES OF COMMON INTERESTS WITH TURKEY IN CAUCASUS

PanARMENIAN.NET
09.09.2009 10:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An EU commissioner enumerated stability in the
Southern Caucasus among common interests of Turkey and the union. EU
Commissioner for enlargement Olli Rehn said that stability in the
Southern Caucasus, peace in the Middle East, security of energy
supplies is an issue on which the EU and Turkey had common interests.

"They are issues that we cannot solve or deal with alone," Rehn said
during a conference at the University of Copenhagen.

Rehn said the EU’s enlargement process was both about domestic reforms
and strategic partnerships.

"As I told the EU foreign ministers in Stockholm this weekend, Europe
and Turkey share long-term strategic interests," he said.

Rehn said that the EU had always been clear with Turkey that freedom
of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of press were fundamental
values in any open and democratic European society.

"They are a necessary condition for EU membership. The same goes for
religious freedoms, women’s rights, minority rights and trade union
rights," he said.

"And EU conditionality works. Without it, the Nobel Prize-winning
author Orhan Pamuk might not be a free man; Ante Gotovina and Radovan
Karadzic would not be in prison, along with 40 others of the most
wanted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal’s; and Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Serbia might have succumbed to similar nationalist forces that
drove them to war before. These are milestone achievements," Rehn
also said, Anatolian Agency reported.

Turkey became an EU candidate country in December 1999. The union
launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3, 2005.

BRADTKE APPOINTMENT MAY BE EFFICIENT FOR KARABAKH RESOLUTION, NKR OFFICIAL SAYS

PanARMENIAN.NET
09.09.2009 15:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Newly appointed U.S. Co-chair of the of the OSCE
Minsk Group will follow instruction of his administration, chairman
of NKR parliamentary committee on foreign relations said.

"Appointment of Robert Bradtke can anyway be efficient for Karabakh
conflict resolution. He is a skillful diplomat, who was engaged in
resolution of Kosovo issue," Vahram Atanesyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter.

"Pursuing its own interests in the region, the U.S. works for
resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," he said.

Commenting on possible appointment of Grigory Karasin as Russia’s
Co-chair, Mr. Atanesyan said that Moscow wants a higher ranking
diplomat to represent the country in the OSCE.

GEORGIAN MINISTER: WE EVEN DO NOT THINK AT ALL ABOUT ANNOUNCING ARMENIAN LANGUAGE A REGIONAL

Today.Az
Sept 8 2009
Azerbaijan

Georgia "does not think at all" about announcing Armenian language as
a regional, Georgia’s Reintegration Minister Timur Jakobashvili said
at a meeting with Georgian diplomats accredited abroad and Georgian
government members on Sept. 8.

"We do not think at all about announcing Armenian language as a
regional," Jakobashvili said.

NO EARTHQUAKE EFFECT ON BAKU-TBILISI-KARS RAILWAY

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Sept 8 2009
Armenia

The September 8 earthquake in Georgia did not affect the construction
of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway or the operation of the Georgian
railway, stated Nadir Mamedov, Head of the press service, Azerbaijani
Railways CJSC.

"We have not received any information on problems with construction,"
he said.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is to connect the railway networks of
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, bypassing Armenia. The project is
estimated at U.S. $600 millions and is to be completed by 2010.

The RA National Seismic Protection Service told NEWS.am that a
Richter magnitude 8 earthquake was registered in Georgia, followed by
a grade 6 aftershock. Intensity 3-4 shocks were registered in Gyumri,
Vanadzor and Noyemberyan, Armenia.

CROATIAN, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS BOOSTING COOPERATION

HINA news agency
Sept 7 2009
Zagreb, Croatia

Brijuni, 7 September: Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Monday
received his Armenian counterpart Serzh Azati Sargsyan at the
presidential residence on the northern Adriatic island of Brijuni.

After the talks, Mesic told the press he was pleased to be meeting
Sargsyan again so shortly after visiting Armenia, saying this testified
to the wish of both countries to open a new page in their relations.

"We reaffirmed the readiness and realization that we can cooperate to
mutual benefit, as such cooperation is very desirable in conditions
of global economic crisis. Cooperation can relieve the burden of the
recession that we are all feeling," said Mesic.

He added that he and Sargsyan also discussed regional issues, as
"there are unsolved issues in both regions that are acutely or
potentially burdening relations between states".

"There are no unsolvable problems, but we can make them unsolvable if
we haven’t the wisdom and the strength to form the political will to
solve them, if we run away from facing the past, regardless of what
it was like, and if we are afraid to accept compromise," Mesic said,
adding that otherwise, all difficulties were solvable.

He went on to say that openness and friendship would be the foundation
of Croatian-Armenian relations and that Sargsyan’s visit was an
important step towards reinforcing that foundation.

Sargsyan said Armenia attached great importance to the strengthening
and development of relations with Croatia, as well as with other
countries in the region, in politics, the economy and culture.

The destinies and pasts of the Armenian and Croatian peoples were
similar and the two countries are already creating the foundation of
a firm friendship and trust, he said, adding presidential visits had
created the foundation of Armenian-Croatian political dialogue.

Sargsyan said he and Mesic highlighted the need to deepen cooperation
also within international organizations, and that they also discussed
bilateral trade.