ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IN IRAN
AZG DAILY
14-04-2009
Armenia – Iran
Armenian President Serzh Sargsian left for Iran yesterday evening. The
Armenian President is paying an official visit to Iran.
The discussions will embrace Armenian-Iranian bilateral programs and
regional issues.
PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA LEAVING FOR IRAN
armradio.am
13.04.2009 11:51
President Serzh Sargsyanis leaving for the Islamic Republic of Iran
today for a two-day official visit.
The delegation headed by the President of Armenia comprises the
Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, Transport
and Communications Diaspora Affairs, members of the National Assembly,
the Chairman of the Central Bank, and other officials, President’s
Press Office reported.
The President of Armenia will hold a private meeting with his
counterpart, the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The
negotiations will be also conducted in the extended format and a
number of documents will be signed.
In Tehran the President of Armenia will lay a wreath at the tomb
of the founder and leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini. He will also have a meeting with the Spiritual Leader of
Iran, Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
During his two-day visit to Iran the President of Armenia will meet
with Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and the Secretary of the
Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalily.
At the "Ararat" sport and cultural center President Serzh Sargsyan
will meet with representatives of the Iranian-Armenian community.
BARACK OBAMA MADE TELEPHONE CALL TO PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV
RIA Oreanda
April 8 2009
Russia
Baku. OREANDA-NEWS . April 8, 2009. The two presidents had a frank
conversation during which they expressed satisfaction at the successful
development of the Azerbaijan-USA relations in various fields.
The two leaders also discussed settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, power industry cooperation and
regional security.
Barack Obama informed the Azerbaijani leader about steps taken by
the United States concerning the Turkey-Armenia relations.
President Ilham Aliyev brought the Azerbaijani state s position on
the issue to the US President s attention.
During the phone talk the two presidents also had an exchange of
views on a range of other issues of mutual interest.
Allahshukur Pashazadeh addresses the head of Turkey’s office of
religious affairs
09 Apr 2009 17:50
Baku. Kamala Guliyeva-APA. Chairman of Caucasian Muslims Office
Sheikh-al-Islam Allahshukur Pashazadeh addressed the head of Turkey’s
Office of Religious Affairs Ali Bardakoglu, APA reports. `Recent
reports on the opening of Turkey-Armenia borders and restoration of
diplomatic relations between the two countries deeply concern the
Azerbaijani Muslims. The question is about the issue, which could have
decisive impact on the solution to Karabakh conflict, the vitally
important issue for every Azerbaijani Muslim. We have to express our
resolute and univocal position. Azerbaijan was proud of Turkey’s
actions 16 years ago to close borders with Armenia in a protest
against false `genocide’ claims and occupation of Karabakh by Armenia,
but now probability of the opening of borders makes Azerbaijan
regretful and aggrieved’.
Azerbaijan-Turkey friendship based not only on the diplomatic
relations, but on the unity of historic roots, religions, languages,
said Pashazadeh. The Azerbaijani People calls on Turkey, the leading
country of the Islamic world, historic defender of the Islamic values,
not to make such action and to continue its mission to be pride of
Turkic-Islamic world. `Our holy religion suggest to punish oppressor
and to struggle until the victory of justice. The Azerbaijani Muslims
believe that Azerbaijan and Turkey will defeat the oppression and
injustice together, to force the enemy to leave its accursed claims
and to end the occupation. Otherwise assisting the oppressors to avoid
the punishment will lead them to other crimes’.
Et Tu Barack? (part I)
David R. Hoffman
Pravda, Russia
April 8, 2009
The late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin is alleged to have said,
"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
The late Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler, to rally support for the pending
Holocaust, is alleged to have rhetorically asked his followers,
"Who remembers now the extermination of the Armenians?"
While historians continue to debate whether Stalin or Hitler actually
uttered these words, the insights these quotations reveal about
the frailties of humankind are chillingly accurate, whether it’s
the human mind’s capacity to numb itself to tragedy or humanity’s
ubiquitous myopia.
In the not too distant past, most Americans got their news from
their daily newspaper. Such media, however, often had to deal with
spatial limitations, which compelled reporters to compartmentalize
newsworthy events into a few brief paragraphs, usually through the
use of statistics or similar numerical devices.
Unfortunately the cold logic of numbers was incapable of emotionally
conveying the magnitude of some of history’s most horrific events:
Hitler’s Holocaust, Stalin’s purges, the Khmer Rouge’s reign in
Cambodia, the Cultural Revolution in China, or the countless other
atrocities that occurred, and that continue to occur, throughout
the world.
As the cliche goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words," and
soon photographs and television arose to overcome the deficiencies
of the print media. But these new developments had deficiencies of
their own. While a picture or film can possess the capacity to shock,
repulse or outrage a person, the more this person sees that picture or
film the less impact it has. The human mind has an uncanny ability to
numb itself to repetitious stimuli, and while this may be a blessing,
especially to police officers, coroners, doctors or criminal law
attorneys, it can also be a curse.
When one looks at images of civilians killed or wounded in the wars
in Iraq or Afghanistan, of rape victims in the Congo, of refugees in
Darfur, of victims of oppression in Myanmar, or of the starving and
impoverished throughout the world, the outrage should feel the same,
regardless of whether it is the first time, or the thousandth time,
that one has seen these images.
But usually this is not the case; thus the deaths of millions become
a statistic.
This numbing effect is usually accompanied by a myopia that compels
people to look no further ahead, or backward, then is convenient at
the time; hence the world forgot "the extermination of the Armenians."
Sadly, what is convenient to forget often becomes inconvenient
to remember. This was the case when several members of the United
States Congress introduced an "Armenian Genocide Resolution" during
the dictatorship of George W. Bush. To appease his NATO allies,
Bush opposed this resolution.
What inspired my recollection of the Stalin and Hitler quotations
was a recent article by the Miami Herald’s Pulitzer Prize winning
columnist Leonard Pitts that discussed how the "revelations of the
Bush era excesses continue to drip like water upon the stone of public
conscience." Pitts compared the "fear and paranoia" of the Bush era
to the "red scare" that launched the witch-hunts of the McCarthy era,
and opined that America, just as it came to rue McCarthyism, will one
day rue the excesses of George W. Bush and his cabal of war criminals.
As I wrote in previous Pravda.Ru articles (Bush vs. Hitler and Axioms
of the World), history, especially American history, is analogous
to a pendulum that perpetually swings from overreaction to regret,
and back again. Before the McCarthy era witch-hunts there were
the Alien and Espionage Acts, which were used by the United States
government to destroy political organizations and imprison people who
were simply exercising their right to freedom of speech. Before that
came a hysteria generated by a newspaper magnate seeking to increase
profits and circulation, which eventually led to the Spanish-American
war–a lesson not lost on today’s corporate-controlled media that
sought to profit from the war in Iraq.
This hysteria was even present at America’s birth, when its second
president, John Adams, used draconian laws, known as the Alien and
Sedition Acts, to quash dissent and decimate the newly created Bill
of Rights.
If the past is an accurate barometer, then the cycles of history warn
us that all the ruing in the world will not prevent the ascendancy of
another American president as corrupt, as mendacious, as hypocritical,
as criminal, and as sadistic as George W. Bush.
The reason George W. Bush had no compunction about using torture,
rendition and illegal detention in an allegedly democratic nation
is because the right-wing, corporate-controlled media that packaged
him for public consumption are particularly adept at creating and
marketing "people without principles." PIMPS (Propagandists in Media
Positions), like Rush Limbaugh and the pseudo-journalists at the Fox
(Faux) News Network, have elevated this to a science. Their strategy
is simple–mindlessly defend the politicians you support and mindlessly
condemn the politicians you oppose.
Hence, throughout the Bush dictatorship, Limbaugh vilified people for
"not supporting the president." But now that Barack Obama holds this
office, Limbaugh, drug-addled hypocrite that he is, says he hopes
Obama’s economic policies will fail.
Right-wingers have also attempted to justify the Bush dictatorship’s
use of torture, and quest to destroy America’s constitutional form
of government, by claiming that these tactics prevented terrorism.
But diversion is not prevention. What became safety to those on
American soil became terrorism to Iraqi civilians and American troops
serving in that battle-scarred nation.
Bush apologists also claim he is not responsible for the failure to
prevent the September 11th, 2001 attacks, because he had only been
in office a little over seven months when they occurred. The blame,
they claim, falls on the previous president, Bill Clinton, who had
eight years to eliminate Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.
But, if this is the case, why are so many of these apologists now
criticizing Barack Obama’s efforts to repair the economic mess that
the Bush dictatorship, thanks to two fraudulent elections, had eight
years to repair?
Even so called legal "experts" like law professor John Yoo, who
worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel during the
Bush dictatorship, and Supreme Court "justice" Antonin Scalia have
defended the Bush dictatorship’s use of torture, rendition and illegal
detention. Yoo, as I discussed in my article When Self-Loathing Becomes
Law: Clarence Thomas Story (Part I), even claimed that the illegally
elected Bush had the authority to suspend the Bill of Rights and
imprison American citizens without legal due process or access to
the courts.
But while Yoo had the capacity to suggest policy, Scalia has the
power to create it. An alleged "pro-life Christian," and primary
architect of the Bush dictatorship’s coup of 2000, Scalia may be the
most ethically deprived and morally corrupt Supreme Court "justice"
in American history.
His support of the use of torture, as Leonard Pitts reported, is
based on the escapades of Jack Bauer, a fictional counterterrorism
expert on the television drama "24." In other words, the fundamental
rights and freedoms of every single person in the United States are
now in the hands of a man who believes a television program should
dictate how the constitution is interpreted. Undoubtedly hypocrites
like Antonin Scalia were the type of people Mahatma Gandhi had in mind
when he said, "I like your Christ, but not your Christians. They are
so unlike your Christ."
In his column, Pitts also pointed out that information gathered through
the use of torture is notoriously unreliable, because a person being
tortured will be inclined to say whatever the torturer wants to hear.
In support, he cited the case of Abu Zubaida, who was mistakenly
identified as a high-level al-Qaida operative. During the course of
being tortured, Abu Zubaida provided an abundance of information,
most of which proved to be false. Yet millions of tax dollars,
and thousands of man-hours, were wasted investigating Abu Zubaida’s
tortured induced "leads."
If Scalia, Yoo and other advocates of torture really want to know how
reliable torture is, they need only look at the "results" of former
Chicago police commander Jon Burge.
Burge commanded a unit that allegedly used torture to coerce
confessions from numerous criminal suspects, many of whom were later
discovered to be innocent. Before their exonerations, several of these
wrongfully convicted men spent years in prison, some on death row,
while Burge enjoyed retirement on a government pension.
In reality, torture can actually increase the chances of terrorism by
creating more terrorists. Families of torture victims are certain to
hate the government doing the torturing; therefore they can be more
receptive to the overtures of terrorist groups.
ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS BILATERAL RELATIONS
Interfax
April 6 2009
Russia
Armenian and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsian and Dmitry Medvedev
have held a telephone conversation, the Armenian president’s press
service announced Friday.
The presidents of Armenia and Russia discussed bilateral political
ties and economic cooperation, the statement said.
The two agreed to meet in the near future.
Medvedev informed Sargsian about the issues discussed and the
agreements reached during the G20 summit in London.
No comment from the Russian president’s press service about his
telephone talk with Sargsian has been available.
EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION PETITIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA
hetq.am/en/politics/7218/
2009/04/07 | 16:52
diaspora politics
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy sent
a letter to President Obama urging him to honor his pledge to
recognize the Armenian Genocide. The letter was signed by more than
340 associations from European civil society.
The letter states that European Armenians along with other European
mainstream democratic forces would never accept Turkey’s membership
in the EU as long as "the Turkish state denies the Armenian Genocide,
promotes racism and pursues a policy of discrimination towards its
minorities". It also underscores that the genocide recognition by
the United States "will unleash the momentum of true change and
democratization inside Turkey.
The petition finally stresses that the recognition "will also provide
an unprecedented momentum to the process of dialogue between Turkey
and Armenia" in making clear that "the way forward will definitely
require of Turkey a fundamental commitment to just peace".
"These are European values, these are the ones of the European Armenian
Federation and, with President Obama, we wish that they become again
the ones of the United States," stated Hilda Tchoboian, chairperson
of the European Armenian Federation.
PHOTO EXHIBITION ABOUT ARMENIA IN ARGENTINA
By Nana Petrosian
AZG DAILY
04-04-2009
Culture
Brazilian-Armenian talented architect and photographer Stepan Norayr
Shahinian’s exhibition of photos under heading "Expo Armenia" dedicated
to Armenia opened March 30 in Argentinean Cordoba state parliament’s
Rechino Maders hall.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry press and information
department, the Buenos Aires branch of AGBU initiates the series of
the exhibition, with the financial assistance of "Ritex" company and
under the patronage of the Armenian Embassy to Argentina.
Armenian Ambassador to Argentina Vladimir Karmirshalian and Vice
Speaker of Cordoba Parliament Francisco Fortuna were present at the
opening ceremony of the exhibition, on March 30.
After the ceremony, they discussed issues of cooperation between
Armenia and Cordoba in the spheres of economy and culture.
The first exhibition of the photos about Armenia was held in the
beginning of 2009 at AGBU’s Sargis Benklian hall in Buenos Aires.
The exhibition in Cordoba will last a week, then the "Expo Armenia"
will be exhibited in Mar del Plata, Neuken, Rio Negra, Chippoletti,
Missioness and other Armenian-populated places.
ARMENIAN CASSATION COURT JUDGE HAILS LEGAL, JUDICIAL REFORMS
Noyan Tapan
Apr 3, 2009
YEREVAN, April 3. /ARKA/. The judicial and legal reforms backed by
RA President Serzh Sargsyan have contributed to transparency and
effectiveness of Armenia’s judiciary and brought it in line with
the global standards, said Chairman of the RA Court of Cassation
Arman Mkrtumyan.
"To execute systematic reforms, practicing lawyers and theorists have
helped to adopt a special concept," the judge said. Shortly after
being elected RA President, Serzh Sargsyan initiated three-phase
judicial reforms.
The first stage of the reforms ended on January 1, 2009, with the
second phase lasting from January 1 to March 1, 2009.
Pointing out drastic changes in Armenia’s judiciary during that
period, Mkrtumyan said the reforms aimed at solving urgent problems
and ensuring transparency of the country’s judiciary. To achieve
this goal, Armenia abolished specialized courts and the institute of
lawyers accredited by the RA Court of Cassations, the judge added.
Mkrtumyan hailed the twofold rise in the Armenian judges’ wages. The
monthly salary of common jurisdiction judges has been set at 440,000
drams, while judges of the RA Court of Appeals monthly earn 572,000
drams. The salary of the RA Cassation Court’s judges has been set at
660,000 drams.
The judge stressed the importance of establishing a three-stage
judiciary in Armenia (common jurisdiction c ourts, RA Court of Appeals
and RA Court of Cassations).
Armenia also has an administrative court. ($1-370.85 drams).
UAE SEEKS ARMENIAN SUPPORT FOR HOSTING IRENA
Emirates News Agency
April 1, 2009 Wednesday 2:11 PM EST
UAE
WAM Tehran, 1st April 2009 (WAM) — UAE Ambassador to Tehran and
Non-resident Ambassador to Armenia Khalifa Al Murri handed today a
message sent by HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign
Minister, to his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian.
In his message, which was delivered by Al Murri to the Armenian
ambassador in Tehran, Sheikh Abdullah sought the support of Armenia
to the UAE request to host the venue of the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi.
"The UAE views with high significance the Armenian support to to its
candidacy,"the UAE envoy said.
He indicated the H.E. Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister
of Foreign Trade, has raised the issue with the Armenian officials
during her recent visit to Yerevan.
Al Murri also delivered a message from H.E. Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash,
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, to Vice President of Armenia
in reply to the note he sent earlier to the UAE minister.