Author: Kanayan Tamar

WAR OF WORDS: EMBITTERED RHETORIC IN AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA REVEALS FAILURE OF PEACE TALKS
Naira Hayrumyan

ArmeniaNow
29.07.11

The bitter political rhetoric between Armenia and Azerbaijan (and
Turkey) at the level of heads of state has sharply intensified lately,
with acute political claims and even insults uttered. This suggests
that another round of negotiations on the Karabakh conflict and the
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations have proved a fiasco.

Two weeks have passed since Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov conveyed to his Russian counterpart the answer of President
Ilham Aliyev on President Dmitry Medvedev’s latest proposal on the
Karabakh settlement. Last week it was reported that Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan had also responded to the Kremlin proposal.

However, it is still not known whether the presidents agreed to accept
the proposals and what the proposals are all about.

The absence of any assessment and enthusiasm in public statements
of the South Caucasus leaders shows that the Medvedev proposals must
have been rejected. And although unofficially there is a talk about a
forthcoming tripartite meeting in Sochi, the tougher rhetoric of the
rival nations’ presidents leaves no hope for agreement to be reached
between them.

This was indirectly confirmed by Sargsyan, who during a joint press
conference with the visiting Polish president, Bronislaw Komorowski,
in Yerevan on Thursday, in fact, acknowledged the failure of the Kazan
meeting in late June, stressing that it was the fault of Azerbaijan.

“I wouldn’t call the Kazan meeting a fiasco, even though, as I said,
both we and the international community had a lot of expectations
from that meeting. It’s just that what happened should have happened,
something I talked about at the Council of Europe Parliamentary
Assembly. First of all, I mean the absence of an appropriate
atmosphere. And that atmosphere should be improved in the first
instance — you cannot poison your own people every day and do it at
every level,” said Sargsyan, referring to the Azerbaijani leadership’s
anti-Armenian rhetoric.

“I don’t know if you, for example, followed international news
yesterday and if you know what statements were made by the president
of Azerbaijan regarding the Armenian people? Is this a statement
of a normal person, let alone a country’s leader? The demand of
the Karabakh Armenians and the Armenian people in general is one:
the problem must be resolved in accordance with international law
and principles of this law set forth in a document called the ‘Madrid
principles’ that were proposed to the parties by the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairing states – the United States, France and Russia. We have no
other demands. That is, our demands are consonant with the requirements
of the international community,” stated the Armenian leader.

In his remarks, Sargsyan also pointed out Karabakh’s higher democratic
standard as compared with Azerbaijan.

“Elections take place in Nagorno-Karabakh and these elections are held
in accordance with international standards, and this is what they
[Karabakhis] and we are proud of. Three presidential elections have
taken place in Nagorno-Karabakh, presidents were elected three times
and none of them inherited power,” said Sargsyan in a clear jab at
Ilham Aliyev’s getting into office after his father Heydar Aliyev’s
death in 2003.

At a meeting with some Diaspora students last weekend Sargsyan implied
that it was up to the younger generation of Armenians to pursue the
claims over historically Armenian lands that are part of modern-day
Turkey.

The statement sparked a barrage of criticism and indignant statements
in Turkey and its regional ethnic cousin Azerbaijan. At a joint press
conference with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
in Baku earlier this week, President Aliyev said: “The Armenians
believe that they have solved the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. They are
wrong. Nagorno-Karabakh was and still is an Azeri land. Time will come
when Azerbaijan, peacefully or militarily, will restore its sovereignty
over Nagorno-Karabakh. But making territorial claims to such a great
country as Turkey?! It simply indicates that something is missing in
the minds of these people. They need to wake up from their sleep,
get back to the real world and at least compare themselves with
Turkey. You cannot compare an elephant and an ant.”

This increasingly bitter rhetoric against the backdrop of a growing
likelihood of early elections in Armenia may indicate that the Karabakh
conflict settlement has been suspended indefinitely.

BRONISLAW KOMOROWSKI: I THINK SOON WE WILL SEE ARMENIA IN THE EUROPEAN FAMILY

ARMENPRESS
July 26, 2011
YEREVAN

President of the Republic of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski, who is in
Armenia for an official visit, met with representatives of different
political forces, civil society, culture and science figures.

Bronislaw Komorowski awarded the figures who contributed to the
development of the Armenian-Polish figures. Congratulating them,
Komorowski noted that it is a great honor for him to meet the
representatives of the Armenian society and added that Armenians
enjoy respect in Poland.

“I wish the friendly ties between our peoples be more firm and develop
more rapidly. Armenian and Polish people are linked with history,
culture and historic difficulties they faced”, President of Poland
said.

Komorowski noted that Poland has established good neighborly relations
with the countries with which it had hostile relations for many years:
he wished the same to the Armenian people.

President of Poland also pointed out that his country is ready to
assist Armenia on the way to European integration. “I think soon we
will see Armenia in the European family”, Komorowski said.

MASS MEDIA AND ADVERTISEMENT ARE ESSENTIAL FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA – OFFICIAL

news.am
July 28, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenia keeps up with other countries in the area of
tourism promotion said the Head of Tourism and Territorial Economic
Development Department of Armenian Ministry of Economy Mekhak Apresyan.

“PR of Armenia is carried out on a proper level in other countries.

CNN aired a 52 minutes documentary about the sights of Armenia for a
period of 2006-2008. Spanish TV Espanyola, Czech National TV aired
relevant commercials, however, we must be sensible in spending all
the funds,” said Apresyan.

He added that the media should cover not only the negative aspects
of tourism industry but also the positive ones.

“It is essential that every Armenian citizen realize that every
tourist’s visit is likely to increase employment in Armenia,”
noted Apresyan.

ARMENIA TO OPEN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL

news.am
July 28, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenia will open branch of Vatel international business
school on hotel and tourism management in September, president of the
Union of Incoming Tour Operators in Armenia (UITO) Robert Minasyan
told at a press conference on Thursday.

The tuition fee for Armenian students will be ~@2000, students from
CIS will pay ~@3500 and the education for foreign students will be
available for ~@4500.

“We cooperate with Golden Tulip hotel, as it meets all the
international criteria. Yet, we are ready to enlarge the cooperation
and include other hotels,” he told and added that a college is planned
to be adjunct to the school to increase job places in the sphere of
tourism and to reduce migration flows.

SEN. MENENDEZ HOLDS UP COMMITTEE VOTE ON AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA; SENATOR WANTS TO HEAR THE WORD ‘GENOCIDE’

NJ.com

July 28, 2011

Armenian-Americans are singing the praises of U.S. Sen. Robert
Menendez, D-N.J., for blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination
of an ambassador to Armenia, according to The Washington Times.

Sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 13, the
senator from North Bergen delayed the vote on nominee John Heffern
who made the mistake of refusing to call the 1915 killing of 1.5
million Armenians in 1915 “genocide.”

Obama has avoided referring to the massacre under the old Ottoman
Turkish Empire to avoid offending a NATO ally, Turkey.

When questioned about the 1915 killings at the Committee hearing,
Heffern acknowledged that the Armenian deaths fit the definition
of a massacre under international treaties but that the president
determines what it is.

This led to Menendez holding the nomination out of frustration. The
Washington Times quotes the senator at the hearing as saying, “This
is an inartful dance that we do.”

Armenian-Americans agree and approve of Menendez’s stand.

“We would like to thank Sen. Menendez for affording his colleagues
greater time to scrutinize and make an informed determination,” said
Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
of America.

Armenian-Indian center of excellence will open in late September or
early October

YEREVAN, July 25. / ARKA /. The Armenian-Indian IT Center of
Excellence will open at Yerevan State University in late September or
early October, its rector Aram Simonyan said today.

The agreement on the establishment of the Center at Yerevan State
University was reached in 2009. The Center is supposed to have
Indian-manufactured Param supercomputer with the performance capacity
of 10-40 gigaflops. It is said to cost $1.5 million.

The rector said the Armenian-Indian IT Center is a joint initiative of
the Armenian and Indian governments and the Armenian Incubator
Enterprises Fund. It will be funded by the government and the
university. The equipment for the Center will be provided by the
Government of India.

Under the agreement, the cost of the Center is estimated at $3
million, of which $2 million are Indian investments in the form of
equipment, and the rest is provided by the Armenian side.

The aim of the agreement signed between the governments of Armenia and
India is to promote bilateral cooperation in IT sector, in particular,
to help create new jobs, train highly qualified IT specialists and
attract investment in the Armenian IT market. -0-

25/07/2011 19:49

TURQUIE : 4 MILITAIRES TUES PAR DES REBELLES KURDES
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
lundi 25 juillet 2011

DIYARBAKIR (Turquie), 24 juil 2011 (AFP) – Trois soldats turcs ont ete
tues dimanche dans le sud-est de la Turquie dans une embuscade tendue
par des rebelles kurdes tandis qu’un officier blesse vendredi dans des
accrochages a succombe a l’hôpital. L’embuscade s’est produite dans
une zone rurale près de la petite ville d’Omerli, dans la province
de Mardin, a precise une source de securite locale. Par ailleurs,
un officier grièvement blesse vendredi dans des heurts avec des
rebelles a Semdinli, proche des frontières irakienne et iranienne,
est decede dans une clinique militaire d’Ankara, a annonce dimanche
l’armee sur son site internet. Les accrochages entre les forces de
securite et les rebelles se sont multiplies depuis les elections
legislatives du 12 juin. Le 16 juillet, treize soldats et sept
rebelles ont peri dans des combats dans le sud-est de la Turquie,
region peuplee en majorite de Kurdes. Cet incident, le plus meurtrier
pour l’armee turque depuis octobre 2008, a suscite une vive emotion et
le Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan a prevenu que l’armee turque
allait faire payer “un prix eleve” aux rebelles. Les autorites ont
depuis decide de renforcer les forces de securite dans les zones de
combats par des unites speciales de la police. Depuis le lancement de
l’insurrection du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) en 1984,
les violences ont fait quelque 45.000 morts. Le PKK est considere
par de nombreux pays comme une organisation terroriste.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA DOES NOT CONSIDER KAZAN MEETING FAILED THOUGH EXPECTATIONS WERE HIGH

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 28, 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net – I would not call Kazan meeting failure although
expectations from the meting were great. We expected to face namely
what happened in fact, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said.

“First of all, the meeting lacked respective atmosphere, as Azerbaijan
every day poisons its own people by all possible methods,” the
President said at a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart
Bronislav Komorovsky.

As Mr.Sargsyan said, people of NKR and Armenia have only one demand:
Karabakh issue must be settled within the frames of international
law and bases of that law must be reflected in Madrid principles,
offered to the parties by the co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group.

The summit between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Kazan on June
24 completed without an agreement on basic principles of Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement because the Azerbaijani leader Ilham
Aliyev attempted to impose 10 new proposals, thus precluding the
possibility of any agreement on the issue.

After Kasan meeting failure, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
handed over personal messages and suggestions of RF President Dmitry
Medvedev to Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders Serzh Sargsyan and
Ilham Aliyev. Armenia and Azerbaijan already replied to President
Medvedev’s suggestions.

RICHARD GUIRAGOSSIAN RENCONTRE DES OFFICIELS EN TURQUIE

collectifvan.org
28-07-2011

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
invite a lire la traduction d’un article en anglais du journal armenien
PanArmenianNet parue sur le site de la Federation Euro-Armenienne
pour la Justice et la Democratie le 26 juillet 2011.

FEAJD

27 juillet 2011

***

Traduction Gerard Merdjanian – Commentaires du site de la Federation
Euro-Armenienne :

Depuis quelques annees que Bakou engrange des milliards de petrodollars
grâce a ses exportations d’hydrocarbures, le clan Aliev et son areopage
se sentent pousser des ailes.

Cela consiste notamment a refuser toute concession a l’autre partie, et
ne prendre qu’une seule des propositions des mediateurs : L’integrite
territoriale. La negociation ne fonctionne que dans un sens.

La Turquie qui au moment de la guerre armeno-azerbaidjanaise a plus
precede que suivi les vicissitudes de son petit frère, en mettant
l’Armenie sous blocus et en se preparant a l’envahir (Quatre divisions
turques s’appretaient a franchir la frontière), a depuis change de
strategie. D’abord a cause des negociations d’adhesion avec l’UE
(droit de regard), puis par la signature avec l’Armenie de l’accord
sur les protocoles, mais surtout depuis son accession au G20 et sa
politique neo-ottomane qui prône le ‘zero problème avec les voisins’.

L’UE et les instances internationales commencent a voir d’un mauvais
~il le pourrissement des negociations sur le conflit du Karabakh avec
en prime une Turquie qui frappe a la porte de l’UE mais qui continue
toujours l’occupation de Chypre, le blocus de l’Armenie et un soutien
inconditionnel des desideratas de Bakou.

Bakou remercie son grand frère en lui consentant des remises sur ses
hydrocarbures. Revers de la medaille, Ankara se trouve en position
de faiblesse et commence a trouver l’addition une peu lourde. Après
les grands travaux dans la region en prenant soin de contourner
l’Armenie, Erdogan traine les pieds sur la realisation du chemin de fer
Bakou-Tbilissi-Kars et c’est Aliev qui se charge de payer la facture.

Bien qu’en sommeil actuellement, le point noir le plus gros entre
l’Armenie et la Turquie reste la reconnaissance du genocide armenien
et les reparations qui en decoulent.

***

*

Les cinq representants d’ONG armeniennes sont recemment rentres de
Turquie, où ils ont rencontre des Hauts-fonctionnaires turcs et le
ministre des Affaires etrangères, Ahmet Davutoglu. Le directeur du
Centre d’Etudes Regionales et Internationales, qui faisait partie du
voyage, a saisi l’occasion pour transmettre un message important.

Decrivant les relations armeno-turques, Richard Guiragossian a
declare : “Le President armenien joue aux echecs, tandis que son
homologue turc donne un spectacle. Je ne crois pas en la sincerite
des efforts des autorites turques en vue d’ameliorer les relations
avec l’Armenie.” Toutefois, il y a des points d’optimisme.

“La raison de mon optimisme est que la Turquie n’a pas d’alternative.

L’amelioration des relations avec l’Armenie est sa seule chance pour
qu’elle puisse s’impliquer dans les processus regionaux, et Ankara
est conscient que c’est dans son interet.”

Selon Richard Guiragossian, la proposition du ministre turc des
Affaires etrangères de rencontrer les delegues armeniens etait une
tentative pour demontrer au monde que la Turquie poursuit le processus
de normalisation des relations avec l’Armenie.

La Turquie reconnaît que l’Azerbaïdjan entrave l’amelioration des
relations armeno-turques, de plus, les relations Turquie-Azerbaïdjan
ont de nouveau empire après la reunion de Kazan, car il a ete
clair pour tous que l’echec etait imputable a l’Azerbaïdjan, ce
qui a entraine la colère du ministre Davutoglu. Le politologue a
eu l’impression que les relations entre les deux pays ne sont plus
au beau fixe. “Le mythe d’un peuple et deux Etats n’existe plus”,
a-t-il declare ajoutant qu’Ankara n’apprecie pas que Bakou lui lance
des ultimatums et lui dicte sa conduite.

Lors de leur entretien avec Davutoglu, les delegues armeniens ont
souleve trois grandes questions.

“Tout d’abord, c’est Ankara qui entrave le processus de normalisation
des relations, alors qu’Erevan a tout fait pour les ameliorer. Par
ailleurs, les representants armeniens ont fait valoir qu’Erevan ne
peut pas attendre indefiniment le bon vouloir d’Ankara.

Deuxièmement, il y a deux sujets unificateurs des Armeniens du monde
entier, a savoir : la reconnaissance du genocide armenien et la
resolution du conflit du Karabakh ; ce qu’Ankara ne peut ignorer.

Et enfin, nous avons rappele que la Turquie a signe un document
pour l’amelioration des relations et ce sans conditions prealables,
maintenant elle met une pre-condition, ce qui n’est pas juste,”
a declare le politologue armenien.

Guiragossian a eu l’impression que la Turquie va bientôt essayer
de tester la solidite de l’Armenie. “Toutefois, ils seront decus
de constater que l’Armenie est forte. Elle a renforce ses positions
suite au blocus impose par l’Azerbaïdjan et la Turquie. Et il n’est
pas exclu maintenant que le temps soit venu pour l’Armenie de pouvoir
dicter des conditions prealables,” et d’ajouter : “qu’aucun progrès
dans le processus armeno-turque n’est prevu dans un proche avenir,
cependant la Turquie peut faire un geste avant 2015.”

Les representants de la societe civile armenienne ont souligne a
Davutoglu que : “l’Armenie est en position de force aujourd’hui,
qu’elle peut survivre meme sans l’ouverture de la frontière
armeno-turque et que reconnaitre le genocide armenien est dans
l’interet de la Turquie.”

Abordant les negociations de paix sur le conflit du Karabakh, les
suggestions du president russe Dmitri Medvedev sont plus proches de la
position de l’Azerbaïdjan que de la position de l’Armenie. Toutefois,
l’expert n’a pas precise lesquelles. “Ce qui s’est degage de la
reunion de Kazan, c’est que l’Azerbaïdjan a volontairement fait
echouer la rencontre soit pour des raisons de politique interne soit
pour prolonger l’inevitable finale.”

Une autre question se pose regulièrement : quelle a ete la reponse de
Serge Sarkissian aux suggestions de Dimitri Medvedev ? La reponse de
l’Armenie tout comme celle de l’Azerbaïdjan sont disponibles uniquement
pour certaines ‘sources diplomatiques’, aussi le public tant azeri
qu’armenien n’en saura rien si ce n’est des bribes par ci par la.

**

Extrait de PanArmenian.net

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : FEAJD

ARYANS TO CELEBRATE VARTAVAR IN WESTERN & EASTERN ARMENIA

hetq
July 27, 2011

The Armenian Aryan Union has issued a statement saying that on July 30,
candidates for the rank of “high priest” will officiate at Vartavar
holiday ceremonies in western and eastern Armenia.

Celebrations to the Armenian deities before the advent of Christianity
will be held at an undisclosed site in Moush, western Armenia, and
somewhere on the Ararat Plain in the sight of Masis on this side of
the border.

The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess
Astghik, who was the goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility.

The festivities associated with this religious observance of Astghik
were named “Vartavar” because Armenians offered her roses as a
celebration (“vart” means “rose” in Armenian), also releasing doves
and sprinkling water on each other. Vartavar was celebrated during
harvest time.