Author: Kanayan Tamar

ERDOGAN DISCUSSES NAGORNO GARABAKH AND SO-CALLED “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE” ISSUES WITH OBAMA

APA
March 26 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
discussed Nagorno Garabakh conflict and so-called Armenian genocide
with US President Barack Obama before Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul,
South Korea, Turkish PM Erdogan told reporters.

“I reminded Obama that during the past two decades the OSCE Minsk
Group has not succeeded in settling the conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. And since the issue has reached a deadlock, I suggested
that we talk to Azeris and Minsk Group co-chairing France, Russia
and the United States try to persuade Armenia, so that they can solve
the issue,” said Erdogan, as quoted by the Turkish Sabah newspaper.

“I told Obama that we are tired. Every year in April we face the
same problem, whether Republicans come [to power] or Democrats,
the issue remains the same. I showed him the steps we had taken,
brought Akhtamar as an example,” said Erdogan.

NEW VERSION OF WEBSITE OF ARMENIAN CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION IS LAUNCHED

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 26 2012
Russia

The Central Electoral Commission of Armenia has introduced a new
version of its website , News-Armenia reports.

The appeal of the CEC head Tigran Mukuchyan posted on the website
notes the importance of the availability of information in order to
increase voters’ awareness and public confidence in the electoral
process, publicity and transparency of elections.

The upcoming parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 6.

Eight political parties and one electoral bloc (the opposition
Armenian National Congress) have submitted their lists for the
proportional participation in the parliamentary elections on May
6. Among the parties participating in the elections are the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia, “Prosperous Armenia, ” the “Rule of Law”
party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the “Heritage” party,
the Democratic Party of Armenia, the Armenian Communist party and the
“United Armenians” party.

All in all, 180 candidates will participate in the elections under
the first-past-the-post system.

IRAQ ESTABLISHES DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH ARMENIA, UZBEKISTAN, TURKMENISTAN, KYRGYZSTAN

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 26 2012
Russia

Iraq plans to open diplomatic missions in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan and Armenia, Trend cites Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan Sabir Abbud al-Mussaui.

The diplomat said that restoration of ties with Middle Asian republics
is essential due to common history and culture. Khwarezm, Bukhara,
Samarkand are of historic value to Iraq. Together, countries of the
Middle East and Middle Asia could become a powerful economic forces,
the ambassador states.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO PARTAKE IN EURONEST PA SITTING IN BAKU
Lusine Vailyan

“Radiolur”
26.03.2012 18:26

The Armenian delegation will participate in the plenary sitting of
the EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly in Baku April 1-4, member of
the Armenian delegation to the EuroNest PA Hovhannes Sahakyan told
a press conference today. The Azerbaijani side has provided written
security guarantees to Armenian delegates.

According to Sahakyan, the participation of the Armenian delegation
is important not only because it will prove that Armenia is open
for any discussion, but will also allow to prevent the adoption of
anti-Armenian documents.

EuroNest is the parliamentary platform of the Eastern Partnership
Program, which brings together representatives of legislative bodies
of the sic countries included in the program.

NIKOL PASHINYAN IS DISTORTING THE FACTS, SAYS HERITAGE PARTY

epress.am
03.26.2012

Heritage Party spokesperson Hovsep Khurshudyan, responding to
Armenian National Congress (HAK) representative and candidate in
the no. 7 electoral district for the upcoming parliamentary election
Nikol Pashinyan’s statement earlier today, said that the latter is
distorting the facts.

Recall, according to Pashinyan, the Heritage Party offered to withdraw
its leader Raffi Hovannisian’s candidacy from the no. 7 electoral
district if HAK withdrew its candidates from the no. 1, 4, 6, 9 and
12 electoral districts. This is so that opposition candidates would
not be up against each other in the same constituency.

“Our offer was to back HAK candidates in 21 constituencies; Heritage
Party candidates in 7; while in the remaining 13, we would back
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation [Dashnaktsutyun, the other
parliamentary opposition party] candidates.

“That is, HAK wanted us to leave only 2-3 candidates in the
single-mandate constituencies so that our offer would be considered
logical?” Khurshudyan asked.

Epress.am asked MP Armen Martirosyan, as the Heritage Party
representative holding talks with HAK, to comment on Pashinyan’s
statement that ahead of the registration of candidates, HAK suggested
that the Heritage Party present its list of preferred electoral
districts, but the latter suggesting moving the matter to election
period, when candidates are already nominated.

Martirosyan said it was the Heritage Party, in fact, that began
negotiations. According to him, HAK responded a few days late, when
it was already time to nominate candidates and the Heritage Party was
busy compiling its list of candidates under the system of proportional
representation and there was no more time.

“Until Raffi Hovannisian was nominated for the no. 7 district,
there was no such hysteria, which smelled like blackmail. This isn’t
2009, the Heritage Party shouldn’t be spoken to using such blackmail
language,” he said.

Epress.am asked Nikol Pashinyan for comments following these latest
statements, to which the opposition candidate said that he won’t be
making any further comments concerning the Heritage Party and what
he had to say he said at the press conference earlier today.

We Understood Free Armenian Is To Come
Siranuysh Papyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:02:40 – 26/03/2012

Interview with political scientist Nvard Manasyan

The party lists and nominations for precincts have been published.

Were Serzh Sargsyan’s assurances sincere that no oligarch would enter
the next parliament?

There is no need to expect radical changes since there are no premises
but apparently we will witness new trends in the form of people in
parliament who are adequate for the functions of the parliament and
can go beyond the party interests. Such people are included into the
party lists of several forces.

New qualities are going to the parliament, which try to overcome
the current silence and obedience. For example, I don’t know the
representatives of the parliamentary majority who adopted the law on
language. This image will gradually be worn out and replaced since
they proved that they don’t understand the meaning of lawmaking.

What does Serzh Sargsyan’s slogan “Believe to change” mean?

Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the RPA congress contained tones that
could influence people emotionally. But trust as a political term is
a very dangerous phenomenon inherent to the Middle Ages when there
was no society to establish the sovereignty of power, and it begins
to seek for legitimacy by referring to the authority vested in him
by God. It is possible to believe in something invisible, intangible.

Politicians should not believe but trust, but in order to trust they
need premises, signs, promises that they are sincerely committed to
change. But since there is no wish for reconstruction, we are asked to
believe and get to the abstract plane. It is much more dangerous than
what happened during the Nazi regime which tried to build a platform
for mystical power, and the procession with the Nazi “symbolism”
in Yerevan is very symptomatic. They occurred in parallel to Serzh
Sargsyan’s appeals to believe. But in fact, attempts to politicize the
Church, associate it with the state may have disastrous consequences.

Has Serzh Sargsyan been able to build up confidence in these 4 years?

Even taking into account the argument on the global crisis, we need
to state that the policy of the government and attempts to modernize
governance don’t give any reasons for trust. The system of governance
became so self-sufficient that it broke off the reality and set to
self-reproduction. For trust, certain communications are necessary
to help me see that I’m not deceived. But unfortunately, they keep
deceiving us all the time.

Interesting events are happening in Mashtots Park. Can civil protests
grow into a green movement which will claim representation in the
parliament?

Civil groups are the messengers of freedom which are leading Armenia
through transformation. In the world, economic movements have
grown into parties but this happened after a lot of years of civil
activities, until they understood they should be represented in the
parliament. Perhaps these initiatives will grow into a movement but
it is not ruled out that the parties will not be able to include this
agenda into their political programs, and then they will enter into
political fight.

The civil movement, unlike the political one, is meaningful. Here
the right seems to be getting materialized. The public interest also
stops being abstract. In Armenia, there will be no North Avenue under
the cloak of public interest.

Are there parties based on public claims rather than business?

I think there are not. ARFD has been constringed in the past few
years to limit the circle of its activities due to the lack of
self-determined citizens. In Armenia, as a rule, it is difficult to
define the ideological content of the parties mainly because people
rejected politics, not understanding that they are in it anyway,
but in this case, only as a tool of politics and not a subject.

The second issue is the lack of discussion to reach the truth rather
than prove rightness. Now, it is necessary to find solutions, and if
the liberals prove their rightness, we will accept liberal decisions.

The state is not a museum exhibit. All of us need to “touch it”,
change it but we need to communicate for this.

Just one serves the state and gets a salary being responsible, and
the others act as clients, beneficiaries. Here, the government takes
no obligation but the right to be master. Meanwhile, the master of
the country should be a consolidated, sovereign citizen.

In 1988 we solved the issue of the independence of Armenia but the
problem of freedom remained unsolved. The Soviet people did not know
that there is freedom, it is often confused with permissiveness. But
the right formula says that freedom has its continuation, and these
effects should be planned, viewing them from the perspective of
community life.

We understood ‘anti-state’ by freedom, and now came the output of
the free Armenian. He is already in Armenia, and he understands that
there is freedom of his own “self”.

ARMENIA TO ADOPT ESTONIA’S PENSION REFORM MODEL

Tert.am
26.03.12

Armenia’s implementation of pension reforms pgoram will largely rely
on Estonia’s example, a member of the Central Bank’s board, Aharon
Chiligaryan, has said.

Addressing a two-day international seminar devoted to pension reforms
in the social security sector, Chilingaryan noted that Estonia’s
model has been functioning effectively for eight years.

“The Estonians’ example is good as they have been applying that system
for eight years. The software we are going to purchase is now being
processed and developed by them,” he said.

Veiko Tali, Estonia’s finance minister also attending the discussion,
told reporters that his country and Armenia are similar to each other,
both being small and simultaneously dynamic.

The Estonian official noted that the country’s experience in resisting
crisis would be helpful for Armenia too.

Asked about the advantages of the Estonian reforms, he said: “One
first of all sees the outcome – where his actions go -, and besides,
there is also a possibility of transferring from one fund to another.

”

The two-day event has been organized under the Technical Assistance
and Information Exchange program (TAIEX), an instrument managed by
the Directorate-General Enlargement of the European Commission.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN’S OFFER WAS UNACCEPTABLE FOR HAK: NIKOL PASHINYAN

epress.am
03.26.2012

The reason the Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the Heritage
Party didn’t reach an agreement is because the latter’s proposal
was completely illogical and unacceptable for HAK, said HAK
representative, candidate in the no. 7 electoral district for the
upcoming parliamentary election Nikol Pashinyan, speaking to reporters
in the capital today.

According to Pashinyan, HAK received an offer from the Heritage
Party that its leader Raffi Hovannisian is prepared to withdraw his
candidacy from the no. 7 electoral district if HAK withdraws its
candidates from the no. 1, 4, 6, 9 and 12 electoral districts. This
is how Pashinyan responded to Hovannisian’s earlier statement that
though the two opposition groups didn’t reach an agreement, he will
be withdrawing his candidacy anyway. Recall, in the same electoral
district the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) is backing
businessman, MP Samvel Aleksanyan.

“HAK is participating in the elections not to yield/surrender, but to
overthrow the government. HAK has always been ready and is also ready
now to discuss logical and constructive proposals. Our struggle is so
that political elections get political content. They will vote for
HAK because HAK in the past 5 years has gone down a principled and
self-sacrificing path, has remained loyal to its principles,” he said.

The outspoken opposition member said that he was in support of
discussing with other opposition forces the nomination of candidates
contesting parliamentary seats under the majoritarian (individual
basis) system.

Before the registration of candidates, HAK asked the Heritage party
to present a preferred geographic map of candidates to be nominated
under the majoritarian system. The Heritage Party responded that
it is prepared to begin talks during the election campaign period,
which was unacceptable for HAK.

“All opposition forces have one issue – upholding the vote of citizens
of Armenia. HAK is prepared to uphold the collaboration vote – I
will consider the violation of any candidate’s right to be an act
against me. If opposition forces can ensure democratic elections,
then the HHK has to think whether it will have a proper presence in
parliament,” he said.

IRAQ WANTS TO OPEN DIPLOMATIC OUTPOST IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 26, 2012 – 14:09 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Iraq intends to open its diplomatic missions and
embassies in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Armenia,
Iraqi ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan Sabir Raja Abboud
al-Moussaoui said.

“I wrote a letter to the leadership of Iraqi Foreign Ministry on
the necessity to establish diplomatic relations with Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia and opening our embassies and
missions there,” Trend.az quotes Abboud al-Moussaoui as saying.

He said restoration of relations with other Central Asian republics
is necessary, as these countries have a common historical and cultural
community with Iraq.

“Khorezm, Bukhara, Samarkand have historical significance for Iraq. If
Muslim countries in the Middle East and Central Asia unite, then we
will become a major economic force,” he said.

ERDOGAN SAYS TURKS “ARE TIRED” OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 26, 2012 – 13:26 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The issue of the Armenian Genocide was discussed
at the meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the nuclear summit
in Seoul.

In particular, Erdogan complained to Obama about Turkey being tired
of the Genocide problem.

“I told Obama that we are tired. Every year in April we face the
same problem, whether Republicans come [to power] or Democrats, the
issue remains the same. I showed him the steps we had taken, brought
Akhtamar as an example,” Erdogan voiced his “discontent”, referring
to the reconstruction of the medieval Armenian church in the Van lake
island of Akhtamar in 2010, and the permission to Armenian Christians
to hold liturgies there once a year. Following the reconstruction,
the Turkish government turned the church into a museum.

The Turkish PM also”called” on Obama “not to mistake U.S. senators,
lawmakers and politicians for historians”.

On March 20, U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL)
introduced legislation, S.Res.399, calling upon the U.S. government
to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide and to use the lessons
of this atrocity to prevent future crimes against humanity.

“It is time for the United States to join the nineteen nations
including Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and the European Union
that have formally recognized the actions carried out by the Ottoman
Empire from 1915 to 1923 as genocide,” Senator Menendez said. “The
Armenian Genocide is a historical fact and was one of the incidents
upon which the Genocide Convention was predicated. Only by accurately
acknowledging the crimes of the past can we ever hope to move forward
in a legitimate manner and prevent such human rights crimes from
happening in the future.”

“The Armenian Genocide is well-documented and formally recognized by
11 NATO allies and the European Union. This resolution accurately
characterizes the events of 1915-1923 as a genocide, honors the
memory of the victims, and strengthens America’s moral leadership on
human rights and the prevention of mass atrocities around the world,”
said a spokesman for Senator Kirk.