Author: Kanayan Tamar

Interfax News Agency, Russia
June 5 2008

Karabakh problem must be peacefully resolved at OSCE Minsk Group – EU

YEREVAN June 5

Any violation of the ceasefire on the Armenian-Azerbaijani line of
contact is unacceptable, Deputy Director General of the European
Commission Directorate General for External Relations Hugues
Mingarelli said in Yerevan on Thursday.

Such violations disturbed the peace in border zones and thwarted
earlier accords, he said.

The Karabakh conflict must be resolved peacefully at negotiations
within the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)

Minsk Group, Mingarelli said. The European Union insists on that
settlement format, as a EU member country is part of the Minsk Group,
he said.

The Group includes Russia, the United States and France. According to
the Armenian and Azeri defense ministries, violations of the ceasefire
announced in 1994 have grown more frequent recently.

MUBARIZ AHMEDOGHLU: "ARMENIA IS RUSSIA’S BREAK LEVER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA"

Today.Az
olitics/45476.html
June 5 2008
Azerbaijan

Russia controls the South Caucasus region by means of Armenia, said
chief of the center for political innovations and technologies Mubariz
Ahmedoghlu at a press conference today.

He noted that such comments are made by heads of leading mass medias
of Russia and there can be nothing more humiliating for any state,
in this case for Armenia.

"It means that Armenia is a break lever for Russia in the development
of the South Caucasus region-Azerbaijan and Georgia. If Russia’s
relations with Georgia are worsening, the relations between Armenia
and Georgia are becoming tense as well", said Ahmedoghlu.

According to the political scientist, Azerbaijan should be more
attentive about the events, ongoing between Georgia and Russia as
the latter has already initiated execution of plans of annexation of
Georgian territories-Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"Russia does not intend to recognize independence of separatist
republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Official Moscow has already
started implementation of a plan for annexation of these lands to
Russia. How else can we explain the deployment of Russia railway
troops in Abkhazia.

This is made in the framework of the preparations for Olympic games in
Sochi, Russia will hold. In other words, Russia perceives Abkhazia as
its territory and uses these territory as it wills", said Ahmedoghlu.

SERGEY MARKEDONOV: "WE WILL NOT MAKE IT UP WITH ARMENIANS FOR YOU"

Today.Az
ics/45460.html
June 5 2008
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with Sergey Markedonov, famous Russian political
scientist, chief of department for international relations of the
Institute for Political and Military Analysis.

– What do you think about the meeting of Presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan to be held in Saint-Petersburg?

– The forthcoming meeting of the two president will be of psychological
nature. Serzh Sarkissyan has just won the presidential elections. The
meeting was also prepared by newly appointed Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandyan. It should be taken into account that the meeting of the
two Presidents will be held on the background of the recent undesired
events, evidencing, sharp worsening of bilateral relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Here, we can recall the large armed clash of March 5 of 2008 on the
contact front line, fixed since the moment of ceasefire agreement
signing, discussion of the Karabakh problem in the UN General
Assembly, declaration of the Armenian parliament about the need for
closer cooperation between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, which means
a period of tough counteraction between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

– What is expected from the meeting of the presidents?

– Perhaps, there are expectations that "a new leader may turn
out to be more compliant"? Each new leader also wants to attain a
breakthrough. This can also be applied to Dmitri Medvedev in Russia
and Serzh Sarkissyan in Armenia. At the same time, both Medvedev and
Sarkissyan are only formal newcomers. Armenian President has serious
political experience. He has been the defense Minister and the Prime
Minister. Sarkissyan is biographically connected with Nagorno Karabakh,
where he started his career.

As for the Russian President, he is a member of Vladimir Putin’s team,
who has not left the politics and continues to influence the Kremlin’s
external policy.

I do not think that a breakthrough will be attained during the
meeting in Saint Petersburg. The meeting is more likely to be
accompanied by information war, high expectations and similarly high
disappoinment. The circle of positions will be repeated.

– Why?

– Because the positions of the parties are mutually exclusive. For
Azerbaijan this is primarily Armenia’s aggression and for Armenia is
the fight of Nagorno Karabakh people for self-determination. These
factors do not give hope for any serious breakthrough in the
negotiation process.

Anyway, a meeting of the presidents is better than hostilities. But
one should not expect a breathrough during the meeting.

– Doesn’t the newly elected president of Russia, who undertook to
arrange the meeting of the two Presidents of the conflicting countries,
attempt to demonstrate Moscow’s role to settle frozen conflicts on
the post-Soviet area.

– Kremlin’s role in the Caucasus region has not been defined by the
election of Dmitri Medvedev as president. Russia’s role in this region
started to grow under Yeltsin. Ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh conflict
was attained owing to the Russian diplomacy.

Vladimir Putin has also been active in this direction. Former Defense
Minister Sergey Ivanov, being in Baku twice, spoke of deployment
of Russian peacekeeping forces in the conflict area. Last year the
meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan was held in
Saint Petersbug on the same day during the informal summit of the CIS.

As is seen, Moscow’s active participation in the settlement of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict started long before Medvedev was elected a
Presidemt. Russia is also partially a Caucasus state. Most processes,
related to Nagorno Karabakh, may affect the security of Moscow
itself. Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis are among top ten large ethnic
communities of Russia. Therefore, Moscow’s interest is understandable.

The Kremlin, as a USSR successor, also bears responsibility for
political security on the post-Soviet area. I do not think that this
is exclusively Dmitri Medvedev’s PR campaign.

Russian can not limit its activity by the OSCE Minsk Group
framework. Moscow tries to take the peacekeeping position.

– Do you agree that the key to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
is in the Kremlin?

– No, I do not. The key to it is in Washington, Brussels, the United
Nations and in Nagorno Karabakh, like in Transdniestria, Abkhazia
and South Ossetia. Until the sides are ready for minimal compromise,
external attempts will not be successful. External attempts could be
more active and effective.

Anyway, everything depends on the sides. We will not make it up with
Armenians for you.

GEORGES DER PARTHOGH PASSED AWAY

AZG Armenian Daily
04/06/2008

Georges Karnig der Parthogh (1923 – 2008)

Georges der Parthogh, veteran journalist, international news
photographer and a leading member of the Armenian community, died in
Nicosia on Monday.

He was 84.

Born in Harar, Ethiopia on December 18, 1923, Georges came to Cyprus
with his family in 1935. He attended the English School in Nicosia
after which he served with the Air Ministry. He later joined the
Times of Cyprus where he worked from 1955 to 1959 and where he met
Lana Matoff, whom he married in 1960.

Georges’ career as an international correspondent saw him working
for Reuters (1959-1963) and United Press International (1963-1979)
covering wars and civil commotion in Cyprus, Malta, Middle East,
Iran and East Africa.

In 1979 he co-founded The Cyprus Weekly with fellow journalists
Andreas Hadjipapas and Alex Efthyvoulou.

Also, since 1989 he was a special correspondent for Azg newspaper in
Yerevan and the Armenian Mirror-Spectator in Boston.

During the catastrophic earthquake in Armenia and the war of liberation
of Nagorno Karabakh, Georges led several humanitarian aid delegations,
for which he was awarded the Nagorno Karabakh Gold Medal. He was
granted an honorary citizenship of the Republic of Armenia and
received the Golden Pen Award of the Union of Armenian Journalists
for his 50-year career as a journalist, as well as the Intercollege
Media Institute Award as a prominent journalist and photoreporter. He
actively supported photography at home and abroad, encouraged young
photographers and received several awards as a member of the Cyprus
Photographic Society and continued judging competitions until recently.

He served his community as spokesman to two Armenian Representatives,
a member of the Board of Governors of the Melkonian Educational
Institute and as Past President of the Lions Club Nicosia Cosmopolitan.

He had two sons and two granddaughters.

FUNERAL

Georges Karnig der Parthogh

Born 18 December 1923 in Harar, Ethiopia

Died 2 June 2008 in Nicosia

The funeral will take place at the Sourp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Church,
Armenia Str., Nicosia on Friday, June 6, 2008 at 4pm.

Lana der Parthogh

Yervant der Parthogh

Masis and Louise der Parthogh

Tatiana and Natalia der Parthogh

Noubar John and Gwynneth der Parthog

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 27 2008

ARMENIAN STATE GUARD SERVICE CHIEF DISMISSED

Armenian State Guard Service Chief Grigory Sarkisian has been
dismissed, the press service of the Armenian president told Interfax
on Tuesday.

It is also expected that Armenia’s police chief Aika Arutyunian will
resign in the next few days, a source in Yerevan told Interfax.

The leading candidates to replace Arutyunian as Armenian police chief
are Sarkisian and head of the Ararat region Alik Sarkisian, the source
said.

Fresno Bee (California)
May 30, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION

Historic homes can’t be moved

Appellate court says Fresno was wrong to OK relocation of Old Armenian
Town buildings.

by Brad Branan The Fresno Bee

The city of Fresno disregarded state law when it tried to relocate
historic homes for a major downtown redevelopment project, a state
appellate court has ruled.

The decision means developers can’t immediately proceed with plans to
build a parking structure for the Old Armenian Town project. And that
could complicate plans for office buildings there.

The city could decide how to respond as early as June 10, when the
City Council will discuss the project in a closed session, City
Attorney James Sanchez said.

"There are a number of options on how to proceed," Sanchez said. "They
could decide to accept the decision and see if the development can
continue around that site. Or they could decide to petition the state
Supreme Court for review of the case. We’re not wedded to any options
yet."

Sanchez said city officials were disappointed about the ruling.

"It delays redevelopment of downtown Fresno south of Ventura Street,"
Sanchez said.

City officials have long touted Old Armenian Town as a key part of
their downtown revitalization plans.

But so far, only the 5th District Court of Appeals building has been
finished on the site, while three office buildings, retail space and
the parking have yet to be completed.

In 2005, two preservation groups challenged the city’s plans to
relocate five small historic homes to make space for parking. The
homes are representative of the city’s original Armenian town and
shouldn’t be moved to a nearby industrial area south of Highway 41 as
the city proposed, they said.

The homes are now on a lot at N Street and Santa Clara Street. They
are nearly all that remains of a neighborhood where Armenian
immigrants settled beginning in the 1880s.

Jeanette Jurkovich of Friends of Armenian Town, one of the groups that
challenged the city, applauded this week’s appellate court ruling. The
decision upheld a 2006 Superior Court ruling.

"This is very consistent with what we were trying to have the
government do," she said.

"Maybe now we can protect and preserve a little part of Armenian
Town."

Jeff Reid, an attorney representing developers Richard Gunner and
George Andros, said he couldn’t comment on the ruling because he
hasn’t seen it. But he said removing the proposed parking location
throws the whole development plan into question.

"Losing that parking affects the overall development potential — it’s
all up in the air," he said.

The court’s decision focused on an environmental review process.

An initial report by the city found that Andros and Gunner couldn’t
build the parking structure where they wanted, because the historic
homes would need to go there, the court’s ruling says. Keeping the
homes there was a necessary "mitigation measure" required to meet the
state’s rules governing the effect of projects on the surrounding
area.

Nevertheless, the city proceeded with the developers’ plans for the
parking structure, ignoring what its own review had found earlier, the
court found.

The city "never justified its abandonment of the previously adopted
mitigation measure, and no substantial evidence supports the change,"
the court said.

MINISTER: ARMENIA GATE WON’T BE OPENED UNLESS CONDITIONS MET

Today’s Zaman
May 26 2008
Turkey

Turkey will not open its border with neighboring Armenia, closed for
more than a decade, unless Yerevan resolves its problems with Ankara
and regional ally Azerbaijan, a government minister has said.

Economy Minister Mehmet Å~^imÅ~_ek, while attending a meeting on
regional development in the far eastern province of Igdır, located
near the border with Armenia, said Turkey, with its large purchasing
capacity of $950 billion, does not need economic ties with Armenia,
emphasizing that Armenia should be the one to take steps to normalize
its ties with Turkey. "We don’t need them, they need us. Turkey wants
good economic ties with its neighbors. If they see this fact and take
a step toward us, we will take a step toward them," Å~^imÅ~_ek said.

"We have no commercial or political dialogue with the Armenians
due to the problems caused by them. Opening of the border gate is
unfortunately not possible for the time being without Armenia resolving
its problems with Azerbaijan and changing its stance toward Turkey,"
Å~^imÅ~_ek, who was accompanied by Rıza Nur Meral, chairman of the
Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), and a
200-strong delegation of investors and businessmen, said late Saturday.

Turkey severed its diplomatic ties and closed the border gate with
landlocked Armenia in the last decade, following Armenian occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. The Armenian
occupation of the Azerbaijani territory has been maintained. Ankara
also refuses to normalize its relations with Yerevan because Armenia
seeks a worldwide recognition for claims that 1.5 million Armenians
were subject to genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire
during World War I in eastern Anatolia and fails to declare that it
has no territorial claims on eastern Anatolia despite Turkish demands
to that effect.

Hopes for reconciliation between the two countries resurfaced when
President Abdullah Gul sent a congratulatory message to Serzh Sarkisian
following his election to power in February. Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan had also sent similar
messages to their Armenian counterparts following the establishment of
the new government in the neighboring country, expressing hopes for a
new era that will contribute to regional peace, stability and welfare.

But no visible progress has been achieved on the contentious
issues. Armenia rejected a 2005 call from Turkey to jointly examine
archives to find out what happened during World War I and Sarkisian
vowed in April to step up efforts for international recognition of
the genocide claims.

Å~^imÅ~_ek said trade with neighboring countries was vital for
the economy of the border provinces and lamented that Igdır and
neighboring Kars lagged behind compared to provinces located on borders
with other neighbors. He noted that the government would continue to
channel funds to regional development projects, supporting particularly
the agriculture and livestock sectors, and also emphasized that Mount
Agrı (Ararat) could become a tourist attraction.

–Boundary_(ID_YLeMiQDninC9gkTk08zKpw )–

Le Monde, France
25 mai 2008 dimanche

Les Parisiennes au musée

Nées dans les années 1950, les Parisiennes, gracieuses créatures
longilignes et nonchalantes créées par le dessinateur Kiraz, n’ont pas
pris une ride. De parents arméniens, Edmond Kirazian est né en 1923 au
Caire et a découvert Paris à l’ge de 23 ans. Il en a observé les
habitantes depuis les cafés du boulevard Raspail, en face de son

atelier. Les jeunes visiteurs de l’exposition, qui regroupe 230
oeuvres, reçoivent un livre de jeux, dont l’un permet de comprendre
comment les dessins de Kiraz, initialement réalisés pour Jours de
France et Gala, ont été récupérés par la publicité. Les Parisiennes
ont successivement vanté, de 1962 à 2003, les mérites de l’eau

Perrier, de la lingerie Scandale, du lait Candia, des stylos Parker,
des édulcorants Canderel, de la Clio Chipie et de la crème Nivea.

M. BO.

Jusqu’au 21 septembre au Musée Carnavalet, 23, rue de Sévigné, 75003,
Paris. De 10 heures à 18 heures, sauf lundi et jours fériés. Entrée :
5 ¤ (tarif jeune : 2,50 ¤),

"CoE IS NOT A "DEVIL" TO BE AFRAID OF"

A1+
[07:25 pm] 23 May, 2008

Armenia has not implemented any recommendation of the PACE Resolution
1609, Zharangutiun MP Stepan Safarian said in reply to Radio Free
Europe / Radio Liberty.

Zharangutiun MP Vardan Khacahtrian added that the recommendations
cannot be carried out within the mentioned time.

All other factions sounded optimistic of the matter.

For instance, BhK MP, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing
Committee on European Integration Avet Adonts notes that Armenia
will present in Strasbourg everything done within the short period,
including the activity of working groups and the intention to form
an independent expert’s panel.

And yet, Adonts thinks that Armenia’s delay with the recommendations
will affect the country’s reputation on the international
level. Moreover, no documents are significant unless vital changes
are made in the home life.

"Let them deprive us of the right to vote and impose punishment on
us but the documents will not important for me unless home problems
are solved," said Avet Adonts.

BhK member Naira Zohrabian added that the amendments to the Law on
"Meetings, demonstrations, marches and rallies" will be passed during
the June sittings.

ARF Dashnaksutiun member Ara Nranian thinks an overall approach to
problems is needed.

OYK member Artashes Avoyan noted that two sittings have been convened
to consider the recommendations. He hopes the country will implement
all the recommendations in due time.

"The Council of Europe is not a "devil" to be afraid of. We carry out
the reforms ourselves because they are in the interests of Armenia,"
HHK member Hermine Naghdalian told journalists.

WHO WAS GIVING BOTTLES OF GASOLINE?

A1+
[02:40 pm] 21 May, 2008

Armenian citizen Gnel Tovmassian has been arrested in connection with
organizing and provoking mass disorders in Yerevan on May 1. He is
charged with distributing bottles of gasoline to demonstrators.

According to the release of the Procurator’s Office, the bottles
were used to burn the cars parked near the Yerevan City Hall, to
incite disorders and to inflict various injuries on representatives
of police forces.

To note, HZhK member Grigor Harutiunian announced during a spontaneous
meeting that demonstrators had found bottles of gasoline in a police
car parked near the City Hall at about 5, March 1.