Author: Kamalian Hagop

RUSSIA INTENDS TO CONCENTRATE EFFORTS ON INTRODUCTION OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency
Jan 21 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, January 21. /ARKA/. Russia intends to concentrate efforts
on introduction of advanced technologies in Armenia, Armenian Trade
and Economic Development Minister Nerses Yeritsyan said on Monday,
after attending Armenian-Russian business forum in Yerevan.

He said that software-related issues were raised at the forum and
Armenia proposed to create Armenian-Russian joint software stock in the
country, since there is high demand for such a kind of services here.

Yeritsyan said that Russia has expressed willingness to invest in
engineering and machine-tool industries.

"Today our objective is to establish correct relations with potential
partners and attracting major investments", he said. Ara Abramyan,
president of Russian Armenians’ Union, said that Russia is willing
to act and its proposals are quite feasible. "Armenian businessmen
in Russia expect Armenian-Russian partnership to be continued and
produce results", Abramyan said.

Earlier, Yeritsyan said that the program of information technologies
development in Armenia would include several sub-programs, such as
the program aimed at enhancing Internet availability and Armenian IT
sector’s competitiveness.

The program also contains one sub-program of industrial park creation
in Armenian city of Gyumri. AMD 80 million was allocated for that in
the 2008 state budget.

ARA NRANIAN: TODAY’S OLIGARCHS COME FROM YEARS OF POWER OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Noyan Tapan
Jan 17 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. There were shortcomings and mistakes
both in the political and economic policies during the years of power
of the Armenian National Movement (ANM) Party, member of the National
Assembly "ARF" faction Ara Nranian said at the January 17 debate. In
his words, the society waits for ANM representatives to explain the
reasons for these shortcomings. "There is no game against us" slogan
was put into circulation in the years when the first president Levon
Ter-Petrosian was in power.

Besides, according to A. Nranian, today’s oligarchs come from those
years – the early 1990s.

Admitting that some mistakes were made under the ANM, the member of
the social-political initiative "Aylntrank" ("Alternative") Vahang
Khachatrian at the same time underlined that one should not forget
that in those years the country and authorities bore the burden of
the war and the collapse of the USSR". "There were indeed people who
grew rich in those years but it was impossible to foretell that they
would become oligarchs later," he said.

KOSOVO STATUS CAN’T BE DETERMINED IN UN

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.01.2008 13:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay
Khalilzad has said the Security Council is in a deadlock over Kosovo’s
future status, and no longer has any role to play on the issue.

The Security Council met late on Wednesday to review the work of the
UN’s interim mission in Kosovo, which has been deployed in the region
since the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict
between Albanian and Serb forces in 1999, training local police and
carrying out administrative tasks.

Khalilzad told reporters after the meeting: "There is no change with
regard to the fact that the council is blocked [on Kosovo’s status]
and there are no signs that a decision may be adopted by the council."

Most Western states back the volatile area’s drive for independence,
and recently agreed that Kosovo’s status would be determined by the
European Union and NATO.

Russia insists that Belgrade and Pristina continue to seek a
compromise.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin reiterated on Wednesday that the
future of Kosovo was a Security Council issue and said council members
should prepare a roadmap that would provide solutions to overcome
the differences in approaches to Kosovo’s status.

"We still have a chance," Churkin said. "We are proposing a roadmap
so as not to freeze negotiations over Kosovo’s status, but to create
dynamics that in our view would lead to a negotiated outcome."

He also said that Russia, which has veto power on the Security Council,
would block any attempt by an independent Kosovo to become a member
of the United Nations.

Meanwhile, Kosovo’s newly elected Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said
Pristina’s independence was an accomplished fact and would be declared
as soon as the United States and the European Union were ready to
recognize it.

"We will take a decision in the nearest future, and we hope that the
international community will recognize us very soon," he said after
the UN meeting.

Thaci, who was sworn in by parliament last Wednesday, earlier said
the Albanian-dominated Serbian province could declare independence
in late February or early March.

Serbian President Boris Tadic, who also attended the UN Security
Council meeting on Wednesday, called upon the council to abide by
its own resolutions and the UN Charter. UN Resolution 1244, adopted
in 1999, reaffirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to which Serbia is now the
recognized successor state, and established that Kosovo was to remain
part of Serbia.

"Serbia will never recognize Kosovo’s independence and will preserve
its territorial integrity and sovereignty by all democratic means,
legal arguments and diplomacy," Tadic told the council, adding that
"Serbia will not resort to violence and war."

He also said that Serbia, "now a peaceful democracy," should not be
"unjustly punished" for crimes committed against ethnic Albanians by
former Yugoslav leaders a decade ago.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, Italy and France – members
of the Contact Group on Kosovo, which also comprises the United States
and Russia, are scheduled to meet in Slovenia on Saturday with the EU’s
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and foreign policy chief Javier
Solana to discuss a timeframe for a police mission for the province,
RIA Novosti reports.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Jan 14 2008

Vafa Guluzade: "Ilham Aliyev is dissatisfied with the overall
activity of the OSCE Minsk Group"

14 January 2008 [13:51] – Today.Az

Political scientist Vafa Guluzade does not expect anything positive
for Azerbaijan from the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen to
Baku.

He said commenting on the visit of the co-chairmen: "If they had new
proposals, they would have presented them to us long before. They are
attempting to push a plan of settlement basing on the transfer of a
part of Azerbaijani lands to Armenians".

"Ilham Aliyev has in fact warned the co-chairmen of the Minsk Group
saying: "I will fire you!". Write like this. These were his words
which expressed his discontent with the overall activity of the Minsk
Group.

The President wants to hear a reasonable answer from the co-chairmen
about the possible peaceful settlement of the conflict by the end of
2008. After that Azerbaijan will define an international organization
to hold intermediary mission for development of the peacekeeping
process.

His words do not mean that the war for the release of the occupied
lands will start at the end of 2008, though each political scientist
will interpret it for his own purposes: Armenians in Armenian,
Russians in Russian.

/Day.Az/

URL:

BosNewsLife, Hungary –
Jan 14 2008

NEWS ALERT: Turkish Court Hears Suspected Killers Of Christian
Publishers
Trial Comes After Turkey Releases Teenager Planning "Massacre"

Monday, 14 January 2008

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife

ISTANBUL, TURKEY (BosNewsLife)– Amid tight security, seven people
appeared again in court in the south-eastern Turkish town of Malatya
Monday, January 14, to answer charges of involvement in torturing and
killing one German and two Turkish Christians last year, a case that
added to international concerns over violent incidents against the
Christian minority in this predominantly Muslim nation.

The German man, 46-year-old interpreter Tilman Ekkehart Geske, had
been living in Malatya since 2003. Two other Turkish Christians,
Necati Aydin, 35, and Ugur Yuksel,32, – were also found tied up and
their throats slit in the offices of the small Zirve Christian
publishing house in Malatya on April 18, 2007. Lawyers for the
suspects had asked more time to prepare themselves ahead of what was
the second day of the trial.

Prosecutors have said the suspects appeared to have been motivated by
nationalist and religious reasons. The state prosecutor’s office has
demanded life sentences for the five main suspects. However there has
been international and domestic criticism about the way the trial was
handled. Turkish media reported for weeks on alleged "numerous
inconsistencies" in the investigations by authorities into the case,
raising doubts among human rights watchers and church officials about
Turkey’s willingness to tackle persecution of Christians.

Spokesman Glenn Penner of Christian advocacy group Voice Of the
Martyrs Canada warned that "If the killers are allowed to simply get
away with lesser charges, or it’s seen that these murders were
somehow justified on the basis that these Christians were involved in
missionary activity, then Turkish Christians are certainly going to
feel that they’re not equal members of society. [They will feel] that
their religious activities are going to continue to be under threat."

TEENAGER RELEASED

Monday’s trial resumed just days after another Turkish court, citing
age reasons, released a Turkish teenager who vowed to kill the pastor
of a Protestant church and `massacre’ Christians in the Black Sea
coastal city of Samsun. The 17-year-old Semih Seymen was briefly
detained after he called Pastor Orhan Picaklar of the Samsun Agape
Church several times since late December, threatening to kill him,
BosNewsLife established.

Pastor Picaklar told BosNewsLife this was no isolated incident. "Our
church has been stoned number of times between since 2000," he said.
"In 2004, a local mayor strongly objected to our church, saying he
would not permit a Christian Church in his area. In 2005, I was
abducted by unidentified ultra nationalist youth from my apartment
flat after midnight. They threatened me with death if I continue to
work as pastor. After I was released the following morning, I
reported the incident to a local police chief. However he demanded
that an investigation could only take place if I provided the
evidence."

In 2006, militants also "tried to kidnap my son on the way to
school," the pastor added. And, last year, he apparently received
"several e-mails from ultranationalist underground elements
calling themselves Brigade of Revenge, threatening to kill me."

Pastor Picaklar claimed he was "targeted by Islamic militants" for
allegedly "insulting Muslim prophet Mohammed" which he stressed "is
totally untrue." He said authorities so far refused to investigate
these cases.

CHRISTIANS "DEFENSELESS"

"Defenseless and innocent Christians are being killed cowardly an
viciously by murderous and blood thirsty [Muslim] militants," he
said, a clear reference to the April killings of a German and two
Turkish Christians. Earlier, a nationalist killed Armenian Christian
editor Hrant Dink. In February 2006, a Turkish teenager shot a
Catholic priest dead as he prayed in his church, and two other
Catholic priests were attacked later that year.

"Those killers have been praised by some Turkish musicians in music
and songs as if they are national heroes," complained Pastor
Picaklar. In addition, he said, "Christian brothers and
sister are being continuously harassed by civilian police officers
who also visit their parents, friends, neighbors and business
associates."

The relatives of Christians are "being told that their child or
friend has become an infidel and should be isolated from the
community…" He said the "psychological pressure" had some impact as
"many believers break with the church."

The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has said the
government should do more to protect Christians, who comprise less
than one percent of the 70-million population. (With BosNewsife
Research and BosNewsLife News Center).

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Jan 14 2008

Kazimirov: frequent rotation of OSCE Minsk group co-chairs doesn’t
hobble Karabakh conflict settlement

YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Frequent rotation of OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs doesn’t hobble Karabakh conflict settlement, Vladimir
Kazimirov, former co-chair of the Minsk Group, said on Monday as met
journalists in Yerevan.

`Rotation of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs is very natural process.
Co-chairs can’t carry out their duty lifelong. Any diplomat’s career
is in periodically changing portfolio’, he said.

Kazimirov said that new co-chairs still need time for getting
familiar with the matter.

`However this can’t hamper the conflict settlement – the thing is in
conflicting sides, not mediators. Mediators can only promote the
conflict solution, and the sides have to find a solution’, he said.

The Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Nagorno Karabakh, mainly
populated by Armenians, declared its secession from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet
Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority
of the population (99.89%) voted for independence from Azerbaijan.

Afterwards, large-scale military operations began, as a result of
which Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven
regions adjacent to it.

On May 12, 1994 after the signing of the Bishkek cease-fire
agreement, the military operations were stopped.
The war took lives of 25000 to 30000 and 1 million people fled their
homes.

Since 1992, negotiations over the peaceful settlement of the conflict
have been carried out within the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the
USA, Russia and France. M.V.-0—

Matthew Bryza: Events of 1915 one of the greatest human tragedies in
history

2008-01-15 20:30:00

ArmInfo. Events of 1915 one of the greatest human tragedies in history,
US Co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza said in response to a
question from the hall at the international conference Wider Black Sea
Region: Perspectives for International and Regional Security in
Yerevan.

He stressed that definition of the events of 1915 is a great moral and
humanitarian responsibility. We do not deny anything, of course.
However, we do not think that it is politicians who must propose a
definition to these terrible events, the American diplomat said. He
also added that USA tries to achieve an open discussion of the mass
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish public.

TV COMPANY WITHOUT ELECTRIC ENERGY

A1+
[06:07 pm] 08 January, 2008

The situation in Gyumri central square reminds one 1990s. The district
is deprived of electric energy.

Yesterday, early in the morning, stores located in the square, houses,
"Tsayg", "Radio hay" and "Shirak" public TV companies were deprived
of electric energy.

The mentioned companies suffered serious financial and moral losses
in the result of electric cutting off.

Head of the "Tsayg" LLC Margarita Minasyan informed that the first
working day began with cutting off the electric energy, which caused
technical and financial losses. "If the case is repeated, we will
raise the issue at the Ministry and will give judicial solution to it",
ensured Mrs Minasyan.

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Jan 1 2008

Academician responds to Armenian parliament demands

The New Anatolian / Ankara
01 January 2008

A Turkish scholar, who is also the chairman of the Association to
Fight Against Baseless Genocide Allegations, said Monday that
Armenian lawmakers were living in a world of dreams, while commenting
on demands of the Armenian parliament.

"Armenian parliament once again stated expressly that they will not
give up emity," said Savas Egilmez, a professor at Ataturk
University, in eastern province of Erzurum.

In a special session on December 19 and 20, Armenian Parliament asked
Turkey to annul article 301th of Turkish Penal Code and re-draw the
border between the two countries according to (the null and void)
Treaty of Sevres, Egilmez recalled.

"They prepared a bill of 14.5 billion USD regarding the incidents of
1915," Egilmez recalled. "They are living in a world of dreams," he
said.

Egilmez said Turkish people expect an apology from Armenia for
massacres committed by Armenian gangs during the WWI.

"In order to establish political and economic relations with this
country, Turkish people expect Armenia to apologize for massacres,
demolish the so-called genocide monument and remove several articles
and allegations (that are against Turkey) from their constitution ,"
he added.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 31 2007

2007 leaves its mark on Turkey

Having successfully restored political stability after a period of
severe political crisis and responding to increased terror attacks
with effective cross-border operations in Iraq, Turkey has come quite
a distance in 2007 in proving the maturity of its democracy.

But setbacks, particularly in the area of reform and human rights,
were also deep and widespread, casting a shadow on optimism and
calling the progress into question.

The year 2007 arrived amid signs of a looming crisis over the
presidential election, originally slated for May but postponed to
August amid political turmoil. The election turned into a test for
Turkey’s democracy after the military issued a strong statement in
late April and sent a veiled warning of intervention if then Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gül’s bid for presidency proceeded. But the Turkish
democracy proved that it was mature enough to deal with such a crisis
when the government called for early elections — which it won by a
landslide victory — as a way out of the mess, and Gül was elected
president in his second attempt.

Progress in the economy also boosted Turks’ hopes for the future,
so Turkey enjoyed a growing self-confidence in its democracy and
economy.

But not everything was positive. The European Union, which Turkey
aspires to join, reported no significant progress in Turkey’s bid to
join throughout 2007. The government remained astoundingly reluctant
to amend an infamous article of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), namely
Article 301, and to take other reform steps that Brussels has been
awaiting for more than a year, such as amendments to expand property
rights for Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities. The year 2007, when the
slow pace in reform at home was combined with the election of Turkey
opponent Nicolas Sarkozy as president in France, was a year when
Ankara’s EU bid remained in recession and doubts emerged over whether
it would ever succeed.

On Jan. 19, Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who had
been tried and convicted under Article 301 for "insulting
Turkishness," was murdered in broad daylight outside his office in
downtown Ýstanbul.

His assassin, a teenager from the Black Sea province of Trabzon,
reportedly said he had killed Dink because he had insulted `Turkish
blood’ in one of his articles. In the aftermath of the murder,
newspapers reported that the police had information that the murder
was coming, and there were irregularities in the course of trial.
None of the charges, however, have been thoroughly investigated,
calling into question the government’s resolve to fight criminal
gangs that operate with assistance or even directives from some
elements of the state.

Hopes and concerns also went hand-in-hand in regard to Turkey’s fight
against terrorism. After months of diplomatic preparations and
military planning, Turkish jet fighters hit bases belonging to the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and
inflicted heavy losses on the group. Despite public satisfaction with
the success of the operations, however, society is still waiting for
a package of measures that the government pledged to implement to
address the political and economic aspects of terrorism.

31.12.2007

Today’s Zaman Ýstanbul