Author: Kanayan Tamar

INTEGRATION INTO EURASIAN UNION NOT BEST CHOICE FOR ARMENIA: POLITICAL EXPERT

arminfo
Friday, April 20, 14:58

I do not think that integration into the future Eurasian Union is the
best choice for Armenia, for it would, inherently, mean a return to a
slightly modernized version of the Soviet Union, Richard Giragosian,
Director of the Center for Regional Studies, said in response to
ArmInfo’s question in a press conference, Friday.

He said that the prime minister and the president elected of Russia
Vladimir Putin raised the idea of the Eurasian Union in order to
reanimate the USSR to some extent. Giragosian recalled that it was
Putin that has repeatedly expressed regret for collapse of the Soviet
Union. “I do not think that it will be good for Armenia in that union
if it is created. I am happy with the fact that the Government of
Armenia demonstrated an exact stance on rapprochement with the EU
and has repeatedly declared that lately,” he said.

One should not forget of the current close cooperation of Moscow and
Yerevan, of course, Giragosian said. But it is time to realize that
Russia needs Armenia more than Armenia needs Russia. This interaction,
he said, must be equal and Moscow must be more respectful to its only
strategic ally in the South Caucasus.

ARMENIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION WILL HEAD TO GEORGIA

news.am
April 20, 2012 | 14:44

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s PM Tigran Sargsyan chaired regular session of
the Prime Ministerial Industrial Council.

Economy Minister Tigran Davtyan presented the activities carried
out along the lines of Armenia’s export-oriented industrial policy
strategy, the Government informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Armenia’s total volume of industry is expected to pass the
AMD-1-trillion (approx. US$ 2,550,163,488) threshold in 2012. Davtyan
noted that the Government continues to provide assistance to the
country’s production companies, and this policy will continue.

In terms of cooperation with international organizations, within the
framework of the export-oriented industrial policy strategy, Armenia
plans to attend a variety of international forums and exhibitions.

Specifically, a business delegation will head to Georgia on Friday,
where Armenia’s goods that are subject to export will be introduced.

NINE ANTI-ARMENIAN PROTESTERS DETAINED IN TURKEY

Hurriyet
April 18 2012
Turkey

>From online dispatches

Istanbul police detained nine people today over alleged links to an
anti-Armenian rally which took place in February, broadcaster NTV
reported on its website.

A rally planned to commemorate the victims of the Khojaly massacre
of 1992 degenerated into a racist, anti-Armenian demonstration on Feb.

26, prompting the authorities to launch a probe into the incident.

Police have detained nine people, two of whom are women, after being
identified as having carried racist banners that read “You are all
Armenians, you are all b…..s,” during the rally.

The suspects told the police that they were handed the banners by
people they did not know before the rally.

The police released the suspects after questioning them.

ARMENIA PUTS THE KIBOSH ON AZERBAIJANI FILM FESTIVAL
by Giorgi Lomsadze

EurasiaNet.org
April 17 2012
NY

Its films did not feature the graphic violence of Pazolini’s “Salo”
or the merciless satire of Sasha Baron Cohen’s “Borat.” The single
criticism of Armenia’s “Stop” film festival was that its films were
made in the enemy state, Azerbaijan. And, now, faced with a campaign
of threats and abuse, the organizers have called the festival off.

After being drubbed out of the northern city of Gyumri, the organizers
tried to show their collection of short, human-interest films in the
nearby city of Vanadzor, but called it a day after the intimidation
and threats of violence continued.

Political forces across party lines, several NGOs and media companies
issued a letter that warned organizers that there would be consequences
in Vanadzor, too, and that the festival organizers would bear the
responsibility.

A previous attempt to screen Azerbaijani films in Armenia also fell
through in 2010. The organizers said they will keep trying to promote
free thinking and help audiences on both sides of the 24-year-long
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan see through
the veil of propaganda.

TURKISH HEAD OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE COMMENTS ON HALKI THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL
By Areti Kotseli

Greek Reporter

April 17 2012

“I believe it doesn’t befit the grandiosity of the civilization
we built on this territory for Orthodox citizens to have to send
their children to Greece or for Armenian citizens to have to go to
Armenia to be educated as clergymen,” says Mehmet Gormez, head of
the Religious Affairs Directorate in his interview with the Turkish
newspaper Today’s Zaman.

Noting that he wouldn’t think it proper to base matters pertaining
to religion, religious education or human rights on the issue
of reciprocity, the spiritual leader added, “the issue of Halki
Theological School should be settled by also taking into consideration
the opinions of the minority representatives.”

Mehmet Gormez sharply criticized the extremist statements that Grand
Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Shaikh of Saudi Arabia recently made.

“Non-Muslim communities living in Muslim areas are entrusted to
Muslims, and no Muslim has the right nor the authority to betray
those entrusted to them,” declared the head of Religious Affairs
Directorate in his interview.

In the interview he gave to Today’s Zaman on April 14, Gormez stressed
that efforts should be made to eradicate firmly held hatred resulting
from Islamophobia and racism and condemned Great Mufti’s “fatwa –
a religious order – in March, saying that further church building
should be banned and existing Christian houses of worship should
be destroyed.”

“Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti reportedly called for the destruction of
all churches in the Gulf during a meeting with a delegation from the
Kuwait-based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage, in response
to a query about Shariah law concerning the construction of churches
in Muslim countries,” reports the article in the Turkish newspaper.

“Such a statement has nothing to do with Islam’s fundamental sources,
with the agreements the Prophet Muhammad signed with non-Muslim
groups,” explained Mehmet Gormez, adding that “such a statement is
unacceptable, completely lacking any validity in Islam, and could be
described as contrary to the fundamental principles of the Prophet.”

He also reminded everyone of Prophet Muhammad’s original words:
“Those who persecute non-Muslims living under the authority of Muslims
persecute me. And who persecutes me, persecutes Allah.”

According to Gormez, when a church, synagogue or any other place of
worship is subject to an act of wrongdoing, Muslims should feel as
uncomfortable as they do when confronted with racist remarks written
on the walls of mosques.

“This is just the responsibility our belief entrusts to us,”
he commented.

The head of the Religious Affairs Directorate complained that “extreme
interpretations of Islam have made themselves felt in the West, causing
Islam to be misunderstood,” in a call for “well-being of minorities.”

HEAD OF CIS OBSERVATION MISSION MEETS WITH CEC CHAIRMAN IN ARMENIA

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 16 2012
Russia

Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Armenia Tigran Mukuchyan
met on Monday with the heads of mission of the CIS observers at the
forthcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May 6, Yevgeny
Sloboda and his deputy Oleg Kuleba, News-Armenia reports citing the
press service of the CEC.

Sloboda said, that the purpose of the mission is to assess the
organization of elections and the general atmosphere, as well as to
present proposals on the results of assessments after the election.

In turn, Mukuchyan, while appreciating the role of international
election observation missions in the electoral process, stressed the
importance of published reports on the results of the election.

According to the latest data, about 500 observers from various European
institutions will monitor parliamentary elections in Armenia.

UNILATERAL CONCESSIONS ARE EXCLUDED
Ruzan Ishkhanian

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 05:58

There can never be a return to the years of 1988 and 1991 – both in
terms of status and territory

Recently, the mass media have reported about an interview of RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian to the German daily
newspaper Der Standard, in which, according to these sources,
the Minister had stated that the Armenian party was ready to cede
territories to Azerbaijan and to negotiate on the Madrid Principles.

In his commentary given to Azat Artsakh newspaper, Chief of the
Central Information Department of the NKR President’s Office, political
scientist David Babayan noted that he was extremely skeptical about
the noted statement of the Minister, according to which, the Armenian
party is ready to cede territories to ensure that the negotiations
are conducted or enter a new phase. According to him, it’s just some
comments in the press; quite another thing is discussion of the issue
of territories as such.

The politician scientist, first of all, advised to take the statements
of diplomats coolly, especially when they concern the process of the
Karabakh conflict settlement. Presenting the situation, he noted, in
particular, that to date, the mediators’ work is focused on finding a
compromise between all the conflicting parties – Azerbaijan, the NKR,
and Armenia. It is clear that the parties have mutually exclusive
approaches: Azerbaijan considers the conflict settlement only in the
territorial context, i.e. wants to restore the territory of former
Soviet Azerbaijan; moreover, it lays claim to other territories –
Sevan, Zangezur, and others. Ilham Aliyev and other Azerbaijani
leaders present these territories to their society as Azerbaijani
territories. ”We have a different position”, continued D. Babayan.

”First, Artsakh is an independent Republic; second, there can never
be a return to the years of 1988 and 1991- both in terms of status
and territory. The current Nagorno Karabakh Republic as an independent
state cannot be viable within the boundaries of the former autonomous
district. These two conditions, that are obvious here, should be
clear to everybody, as they are of fundamental importance”, he said.

As for the views and wishes of Azerbaijan for the settlement of the
conflict, then, as noted by the Chief of the Central Information
Department of the NKR President’s Office, Artsakh will never be a
part of Azerbaijan in any form, whether it is an autonomous district,
autonomous republic, or the so-called broad autonomy. We are an
independent state, and our people will manage its own destiny –
whether to remain an independent state or to join Armenia in the
future… According to him, our domestic and foreign policy is based
on the idea of â~@~Kâ~@~Kan independent Republic.

And what do the mediators propose today? According to D. Babayan,
they try to find a middle ground: they put forward the ideas of
â~@~Kâ~@~Khuman rights, territorial integrity, and people’s right to
self-determination. “Azerbaijan, of course, wants territories and we
put the emphasis on security, human rights and the right of nations to
self-determination. The statement of the RA Foreign Minister, perhaps,
should be considered from this viewpoint. Apparently, he made it
clear that the Armenian party is ready to discuss also the issue of
territories, but this does not mean at all that it is ready to make
unilateral territorial concessions in the hope of manifestation of
goodwill by Azerbaijan. In no case”, said the political scientist.

Explaining the position of the Karabakh party, David Babayan noted that
the NKR authorities were ready to discuss the issue of territories,
since we also have territories under the Azerbaijani control –
the entire Shahumian region, the Getashen sub-region, some areas of
the Martakert and Martuni regions. So, we are ready to discuss and
not to cede the territories. And, indeed, any unilateral concession
is impossible, as it is not justified from the domestic and foreign
policy, as well as the geopolitical points of view. If Azerbaijan takes
a tough stance, i.e. refuses to discuss any issue and only repeats –
give me Karabakh with all its territory, it is just the problem of
Azerbaijan. In the diplomatic arena, the RA Foreign Minister can
state that the Armenian party is ready to start discussions on the
issue of territories. According D. Babayan, one should take such
statements coolly and understand what is happening.

The fact that Azerbaijan will not be ready to resolve the conflict in
the nearest future is more than obvious. So, the aggressor should not
be given the hope for â~@~Kâ~@~Kunilateral concessions. It promises
nothing positive. He recalled Nazi Germany of the 1930s, to which one
was ready to give everything just to curb somehow its appetite. The
humanity experienced the terrible consequences of this.

And what does the political scientist think about the statement of
the OSCE Minsk Group American Co-Chairman R. Bradtke, according to
whom the parties to the conflict are much closer to the settlement
than they suppose? In response, D. Babayan noted that this statement
fitted into the frameworks of the classical formula of diplomacy. The
parties believe that to date, it is impossible to achieve a consensus
on any issue, believing that it is impossible even in the nearest
future. And the American co-chair states: do not be so pessimistic;
perhaps, a consensus is possible, which is not, however, guessed even
by the parties themselves. One can agree or disagree with him.

In addition to the above mentioned, the political scientist noted that
the establishment of the Republic of Artsakh was, to some extent, also
the result of the war. At the beginning of the national-liberation
movement, the Armenians of Artsakh chose a civilized way: they
took their steps on building an independent state within the then
international laws. But, in response, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale
war, as a result of which the situation changed.

Naturally, the Armenian party takes into account the realities,
which followed the war, because the probability of its resumption
is always available. “Even a century after the conflict settlement,
certain problems can occur; therefore, from this viewpoint, the
settlement should be aimed at ensuring our security in all the
aspects – political, economic, military, and environmental. All this
should be taken into account. The current situation requires that
we consider the course and consequences of the war, as well as the
probability of its resumption. Proceeding from this, we should build
our future, making our domestic and foreign policy more specific”,
said in conclusion the political scientist.

THOSE HOLDING ANTI-ARMENIAN SIGNS DURING RECENT ISTANBUL DEMONSTRATION ARE DETAINED

news.am
April 18, 2012 | 09:31

Nine of those who carried signs that insulted the Armenians during
the anti-Armenian demonstration, which was held in downtown Istanbul
on February 26 and under the name of remembering the incidents in
Khojaly, were taken into custody.

At the police precinct, the arrestees stated they do not know the
persons who gave them those signs. Later, the suspects were release
on signature bond, Radikal daily of Turkey informs.

To note, the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association of
Turkey and the “Say No to Racism and Nationalism” Movement have
filed lawsuits against the organizers of the aforesaid anti-Armenian
demonstration and Turkish Internal Affairs Minister Idris Naim Sahin,
who had made an anti-Armenian speech during that event.

The claimants stressed that Sahin’s speech was completely full of
expressions that spread vindictiveness and hatred toward the Armenians.

PAPER QUOTES TOAST FOR SYUNIK GOVERNOR PROPOSED BY ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 18, 2012 – 10:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Zhoghovurd paper reports that Armenian President,
head of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Serzh Sargsyan
had a meeting with his party’s supporters in the town of Kapan in
Syunik province.

At a meal that followed the meeting, Sargsyan proposed a toast saying
all those present had drawbacks.

“Some may have minor shortcomings, others, for instance Syunik
governor, have bigger ones. Nevertheless, Surik [Khachatryan] is a
good guy. I mean he is a patriot as well,” the paper quotes President
as saying.

“If we tell him, Surik, you have to burn yourself for the sake of
your motherland, he will perform self-immolation in the square,”
Sargsyan further stated.

According to the paper’s data, about 200 people attended the gathering.

POLITICAL EXPERT: KEY TARGET OF ARMENIA’S POLITICAL FORCES IS THE VOTERS WHO HAVE NO YET DECIDED WHO THEY WILL VOTE FOR

arminfo
Wednesday, April 18, 15:44

The key target of Armenia’s political forces is 25%-38% of the voters,
who have no yet decided who they will vote for, political expert,
Director of the Armenian Branch of the CIS Institute Alexander Markarov
said during a Yerevan-Moscow TV bridge on the parliamentary elections
in Armenia.

The Sociometer Center forecasts that during the May 6 parliamentary
elections the ruling Republican Party of Armenia will secure 37% of
the votes, Prosperous Armenia – 34%, the Armenian National Congress –
8.5%, Orinats Yerkir – 6.7%, the ARFD – 6.7% and Heritage – 5.5%.

Markarov said that the rivalry among the participant parties was
developing in three directions: among the coalition forces, among the
opposition forces and among the government and the opposition. “And
their advantage is not their programs but their charismatic
personalities. The highlight of their campaigns is social problems,
but they prefer blaming the government to offering specific solutions.

The only parties who give any heed to the country’s foreign policy,
particularly, the Nagorno- Karabakh problem and Armenian-Turkish
relations, are the ARFD and Heritage,” Markarov said.

He said that it is very important for the regime to conduct fair
elections.

Employee of the Oriental Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of
Sciences Alexander Skakov said that fair and free elections would give
Armenia a chance to improve its international image and to strengthen
its relations with Russia.