Author: Karabekian Emil

PanARMENIAN.Net

Russia to accept any mutually acceptable variant of Karabakh settlement
24.03.2007 15:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia is interested in friendly relations with his
all neighbors, especially with those we have century-old friendship,
good-neighbor and cooperation relations with. And in this respect
there exists an interest for permanent cooperation and constructive
dialog, Chairman of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly
of the Russian Federation Sergey Mironov stated.

Speaking about Moscow-Baku relations, Mironov stated, `Azerbaijan is
our strategic partner in Caucasus and South Caucasus’. `We have a lot
in common, we have Caspian Sea, where not only Russia and Kazakhstan,
but also Turkmenistan and Iran must agree on. We have Caucasian
problems. We have a joint green wound-the Nagorno Karabakh problem,
since this wound hurts not only the Azeri nation, but also Russia. We
know unless the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is solved it will always be
a source of instability in Caucasus,’ Mironov stressed.

He said, Russia will be ready to accept any mutually acceptable
variants of solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. If you want
Russia to be a guarantee for these agreements we will do it with
pleasure. Here we have a very open stance,’ Mironov noted, `Trend’
reports.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION ALSO TO PARTICIPATE IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
DEDICATED TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH TO START IN TBILISI ON MARCH 23

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian delegation left for
Tbilisi on March 22 to participate in the international conference
dedicated to reproductive health to be organized in the capital of
Georgia. As Armen Ashotian, a NA Deputy, Republican, doctor by
profession, informed the Noyan Tapan correspondent, the conference is
organized with the assistance of the UN Development Programme,
European Parliament and a number of other international structures and
is held under the patronage of the First Lady of Georgia.
Parliamentarians of the South Caucasus states, specialists of
corresponding departments of the executive power, representatives of
the civil society will participate in the conference.

In A. Ashotian’s words, this is a long-term and continual program,
within the framework of which there were numerous gatherings in the
past as well. "It is very important for us, taking into consideration,
how embracing theme it is: it involves problems of demography, health
care, AIDS, narcotism and numerous other issues which in this or that
way influence on our people’s problem of reproduction as an ethnos,"
the deputy said. In his words, he will participate in the conference
by the invitation of the UNDP Office, and Sukias Avetisian, the Deputy
Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Social, Health Care and
Nature Protection Issues, a Republican, will participate in the
conference from the committee. A. Ashotian will make a report
dedicated to national efforts in the direction of the theme being
discussed and it is expected that the discussions will be effective
and useful.

In his words, the report dedicated to demographic problems recently
made public by the UN in which "the demographic prospect of Armenia is
not very bright not only compared with the countries of the region but
also by itself, also proves the staring importance of the problem. In
A. Ashotian’s words, in the case of not taking corresponding steps,
according to previsions, the number of the population of Armenia will
decrease to 2.5 mln in 2050, from the present official number of 3.2
mln people, and loss of the population of 700 thousand people is
rather big for a country like Armenia.

Besides the working days of the conference, March 23-24 discussions,
the First Lady’s reception as well as meetings at the Parliament of
Georgia and a number of other official events are also envisaged for
the participants. The deputy did not exclude that regional problems,
including Armenian-Georgian ones, are also touched upon during the
events. "I think that the Azerbaijani delegation will not have an
aversion to stress about its 1 mln refugees, taken from nowhere and
other baseless statements about which they, I think, speak even at the
exhibition of postage-stamps," A. Ashotian said.

Microsoft representative: 95% of software in Armenia are illegal

Arminfo
2007-03-23 21:02:00

95% of software in Armenia are illegal, the Microsoft representative
in Armenia Grigor Barsegyan said during the presentation of localized
Armenian version of Windows EX today.

He said that Armenia’s key resource is intellectual potential and the
country must protect it by means of copyright. Otherwise, the authors
of intellectual products will leave Armenia for the countries that
will protect their intellectual property. Unless Armenia takes serious
measures to protect copyright, it risks to "scare off" serious
investments. This problem is present not only in the IT sector but in
very many other spheres.

Still the situation is improving as people and companies in Armenia
are beginning to understand that it is safer and better to use
licensed software. One such example is VivaCell who provides higher
quality services due to licensed software.

Panorama.am

20:06 23/03/2007

LUJKOV IMPRESSED BY CHANGES IN YEREVAN

President Robert Kocharyan received today Yuri Lujkov,
Moscow mayor and the delegation spearheaded by him.
The Russian delegation is in Yerevan to take part in
the opening ceremony of Moscow House. On March 24,
Yerevan Trade Center is going to open in Moscow,
another joint initiative of Yerevan and Moscow
municipalities.

Lujkov underscored the opening of Yerevan Trade Center
in Moscow, saying it will step up cooperation between
the two capitals. Moscow mayor also said he is
impressed by changes in Yerevan every time he visits
the Armenian capital.

Source: Panorama.am

RICE, GATES OPPOSE PROPOSED RESOLUTION

Associated Press
NDTV.com, India
March 15 2007

The US secretaries of state and defence contend that the security of
the United States is at risk from a proposed legislation that would
declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of genocide on Turkish
soil almost a century ago.

In joint identical letters, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the resolution also could inflict
significant damage on US efforts to reconcile the long-standing
dispute between the West Asian neighbours.

The appeals went to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep John
Boehner, leader of the House’s Republican minority; and Rep Tom Lantos,
the Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

A Foreign Affairs subcommittee is holding a hearing on Thursday on
US-Turkish relations.

RWANDA’S GENOCIDE: FIRST THE DEED, THEN THE DENIAL
By Gerald Caplan

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
March 13, 2007 Tuesday

The genocidal pattern never varies, though the deniers’ motives are
mixed. They run a gamut from the obvious – to escape punishment –
to the geopolitical, to the incomprehensible. But deniers there
always are. The Turkish nation, led by its government and military,
overwhelmingly denies the consensus of objective scholarship – that
the Turkish government in 1915 set out to annihilate the country’s
Armenian population and murdered more than a million of them.

Neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, some anti-Zionists and a motley crew of the
demented to this day deny the reality of Hitler’s extermination of
six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Europe’s Roma people,
very possibly the best-documented event in modern history. Many
Serbians deny the responsibility of other Serbians for what two
international tribunals have ruled was the genocide of Bosnian Muslim
males in Srebrenica.

Then there is Rwanda. It is a statement of fact that every scholar who
has studied the 1994 conflict in Rwanda has concluded that a small,
sophisticated group of power-hungry Hutu extremists conspired to
exterminate the country’s entire Tutsi population, and very nearly
succeeded. The number of books and detailed studies increases at a
welcome pace, and while there is disagreement about many aspects of
Rwanda’s 100 days (as there is too with all its forerunners), the
central truth is not in doubt. Denying the genocide of the Tutsi in
Rwanda is morally equivalent to denying the Holocaust.

Rwanda’s deniers, exhibiting the usual mixture of self-serving and
perverse motives, fall generally into two categories. First are Hutu
Power sympathizers and outsiders with close ties to the long-serving
Rwandan regime whose extremist core planned the genocide. Second
are newcomers to Rwanda whose first introduction was as attorneys
(or their associates) for those accused of genocide being tried by
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). All accused
everywhere should have the right to a rigorous defence. But some among
this group made the giant leap from arguing that their clients were
innocent of the crime of genocide to arguing that no genocide had
been carried out at all.

Bizarrely enough, a number of these deniers are left-wing Canadian
lawyers and investigators, whose motives are as dim as their case
is hollow. But Canada’s most prominent non-Hutu denier for many
years has been Robin Philpot, born in Ontario but long a resident
of Montreal. Although Mr. Philpot lived in west Africa more than
30 years ago, his only apparent link to Rwanda is his brother John,
who was a defence lawyer at the ICTR for a man convicted of genocide.

Robin Philpot believes there was no genocide in 1994. In many articles
over the years – some published in English in the American left-wing
journal Counterpunch, others in French in Quebec newspapers – and in
a book translated into English as Rwanda 94: Colonialism Dies Hard –
Mr. Philpot has insisted that what happened in Rwanda was part of a
diabolical American plot to end French influence in the Great Lakes
area of Africa. Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front and General
Romeo Dallaire, according to Mr. Philpot, were among the United States’
chosen instruments in this cynical geopolitical game.

Maybe this explains why certain self-styled leftists embrace Mr.
Philpot’s fantasies.

Mr. Philpot says many people were killed in 1994 by both sides
making those who carried out the genocide and their enemies morally
equivalent. There was no one-sided conspiracy by armed Hutu forces
and militias against a million defenceless Tutsi, he says. Since the
evidence completely contradicts these assertions, Mr. Philpot churns
out a strange, incoherent series of assertions, rumours and speculation
tied together solely by his unwavering determination to deny the truth.

Robin Philpot is now a candidate for the Parti Quebecois in the
provincial election. His Rwandan stance has become a campaign issue.

Unlike him, both his leader Andre Boisclair and Premier Jean Charest
accept history’s verdict on the genocide. That left Mr. Philpot with
limited options. He chose consistency. Having denied the genocide
for so many years, he has now denied his denial. He insists that "at
no time did I ever deny the existence of a genocide in Rwanda." Mr.
Boisclair has said he is "very happy with the explanations" Mr.
Philpot gave him and won’t demand his resignation as a PQ candidate.
Mr. Boisclair is too happy too easily.

Genocide experts understand denial as a second cruel ordeal for
survivors and families of victims – first the event, then the pain
and insult of denial. All of us need to demonstrate our sensitivity
to this searing issue. At the very least, surely Mr. Philpot has lost
his right to be embraced by a self-respecting political party.

Gerald Caplan is author of Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide.

EXPOSITION: L’ORIENT VUE PAR LES ARMENIENS, FASCINANT VOYAGE DANS LE TEMPS

Le Monde, France
11 mars 2007 dimanche

ENCART:

L’Institut du monde arabe montre 150 tirages de la fin du XIXe siècle
aux annees 1950, qui temoignent d’une grande vitalite

A l’heure où l’Annee de l’Armenie bat son plein, l’Institut du
monde arabe (IMA), a Paris, presente une formidable exposition de
photographies rassemblant plus de 150 tirages d’epoque realises au
Moyen-Orient par des Armeniens entre la fin du XIXe siècle et les
annees 1950.

Les images, issues de collections privees, classees par auteurs,
plongent le spectateur au coeur de la region. Elles l’entraînent
aux confins de l’Empire ottoman. Le perdent dans les couloirs sans
fin du palais de Topkapi. Le cueillent dans un village du Liban. Lui
presentent les differentes communautes du Moyen-Orient. L’introduisent
aux petits metiers d’Istanbul ou du Caire. L’epuisent en inaugurations
de bâtiments destines a moderniser l’Empire. Et lui offrent au final
un fascinant voyage dans le temps.

Nee en France en 1839, la photographie s’est vite introduite au sein
de l’Empire ottoman. Mais le medium photo s’attire vite les foudres de
religieux – l’islam interdit la reproduction d’images. Il revient donc
aux minorites, dont les Armeniens, d’exercer le metier de photographe.

Parlant plusieurs langues, ces derniers deviennent les interlocuteurs
des photographes-voyageurs venus d’Europe pour immortaliser les
sites de la region. Certains choisissent meme de s’y etablir et de
former leurs assistants a la photo, comme les frères Abdullah, a
Istanbul. Embauches par le chimiste et photographe allemand Rabach,
ils rachètent son atelier en 1858 pour en faire le premier studio
d’Anatolie. Le plus couru aussi, devenant les photographes officiels
du sultan. A ce titre, ils sont autorises a photographier l’interieur
de Topkapi. Et a franchir l’imposante porte en bois du harem, gardee
par un eunuque en faction. Certes, il n’y a aucune photo des femmes
du souverain. Mais les interieurs (1865-1875) en marqueteries, stuc
et bois peint temoignent du faste de la cour.

TOUS LES GENRES

A l’instar de leurs confrères, les frères Abdullah sont au fait des
tendances techniques et esthetiques europeennes. Certains, comme le
patriarche armenien Yessayi Garabadian (1825-1885), se rendent meme en
Occident. Venu a la photographie par souci de conserver une trace des
manuscrits religieux du monastère armenien Saint-James de Jerusalem,
conscient de l’attrait des sites pour les voyageurs occidentaux, le
patriarche cree meme la première ecole de photographie du Moyen-Orient,
en 1859.

Les photographes armeniens ont touche a tous les genres. Au portrait,
bien sûr. A l’architecture, comme le soulignent les vues de la
basilique du Saint-Sepulcre de Jerusalem (1861) signees Garabadian. A
la photographie de guerre aussi. " Photographe officiel de l’armee
britannique d’occupation ", Lekegian (actif entre 1860 et 1890)
immortalise les ruines d’Alexandrie après les bombardements anglais.

Tetanise a l’idee de quitter son palais, le sultan Abd al-Hamîd
II charge les frères Abdullah de dresser un panorama de l’Empire a
travers une serie de photos regroupees en 51 albums dont l’un est
expose. Garabed Krikorian (1847-1920) est quant a lui charge de
couvrir le voyage en Orient du Kaiser Guillaume II en 1898.

Face aux persecutions dont ils font l’objet, et jusqu’au genocide
de 1915, les photographes armeniens quittent l’Empire ottoman pour
s’installer dans les Etats arabes de la region. Ils se specialisent
alors dans le portrait de studio. Les images au noir et blanc fievreux
des celebrites egyptiennes prises par Van Leo ou son frère Angelo,
dans les annees 1950 au Caire, rivalisent alors avec celles des
stars hollywoodiennes.

Helène Simon

" L’Orient des photographes armeniens ", Institut du monde
arabe, 1, rue des Fosses-Saint-Bernard, place Mohammed-V,
Paris-5e. M°Jussieu. Tel. : 01-40-51-38-38. Du mardi au dimanche,
de 13 heures a 18 heures. Jusqu’au 1er avril. Catalogue : coedition
Cercle d’art/IMA, 96 p., 23 ¤.

–Boundary_(ID_r1CnKomOmgKIbhXin09MIQ)–

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 9 2007

TURKISH, SWEDISH HISTORIANS TO EXAMINE ALLEGED MASS GRAVES

Ankara, 9 March: The chairman of the Turkish History Society, Yusuf
Halacoglu, said on Friday [9 March] that Armenian historian Ara
Sarafian has sent an e-mail to him noting he would not be able to
participate in joint research studies planned to take place in
Elazig, an eastern city, formerly known as Harput until 1937.

"Sarafian proposed a joint research on claims regarding mass graves
in Harput," Halacoglu told a press conference in Ankara today.

Stating that he was in touch with Sarafian through Internet,
Halacoglu said, however, Sarafian told him in his recent e-mail that
he would not take part in these studies.

"I think there is a report related to me in Agos newspaper
(Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly) this week. There is an expression
in this report. It says (diaspora harshly reacted against Sarafian).
I think, this report shows why Sarafian renounced," Halacoglu said.

"We are open to dialogue with everyone," said Yusuf Halacoglu. At a
news conference in Ankara, Halacoglu recalled that in response to
allegations that a mass grave in the southeastern town of Nusaybin
belonged to the Armenians and Syriacs, he offered that the grave
could be dig up together with those who made this allegation.

Stating that Prof David Gaunt from Sweden’s Soedertoerns University
College accepted the offer, Halacoglu noted, "We (Gaunt and he) also
agreed to set up an international delegation. I sent an e-mail to
Gaunt yesterday. We are in touch with him."

Halacoglu added that an examination would be conducted in regard to
the alleged mass grave in Nusaybin on 23 and 25 April.

Agence France Presse — English
March 9, 2007 Friday 4:55 PM GMT

Armenia has ‘no information’ on US anti-missile plans

Armenia, Russia’s closest military ally in the Caucasus, said on
Friday it had no information on whether the United States wanted it
to host part of its anti-missile defence shield.

"We have no information regarding the intentions of the United States
to place anti-missile radars in one of the Caucasian republics and
therefore are not considering this question," foreign ministry
spokesman Vladimir Karapetian told AFP.

The head of the US missile agency said on March 1 that his country
wanted to put a mobile radar in one of the Caucasus countries —
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — where it could detect missiles
earlier than other planned units in Europe.

Russia has reacted furiously to plans to place parts of the system in
states friendly to Washington, including the Czech Republic and
Poland. The US insists the system would aim to track missiles from
states such as North Korea and Iran.

Armenia is Russia’s closest military ally in the Caucasus and a
member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a post-Soviet
security group dominated by Russia.

Russia maintains its largest military base in the South Caucasus in
the Armenian city of Gyumri, where about 3,000 troops are deployed.
The Russian and Armenian armies jointly patrol the country’s western
and southern borders.

Panorama.am

14:02 09/03/2007

US authorities do not complain of the `Jermuk Group’

Content of the chemical element arsenic in mineral water `Jermuk’ is
in maximum admissible norm. Edgar Ghazaryan, Advisor of the president
of `Jermuk Group’ CJSC, told talking to a correspondent of
Panorama.am, commenting on the information spread by US Food and Drug
Administration regarding that mineral water `Jermuk’, which is being
from Armenia, contains arsenic and is dangerous for health.

According to E. Ghazaryan, all mineral waters of Armenia contain
arsenic, with what their all the curing properties are
conditioned. Least of all this substance is in `Jermuk’. According to
All-Union State Standard, the content of this element in 1 liter of
water should be no less than 0.7 microgram.

He mentioned that it is said in the FDA’s information that content of
arsenic exceeding the maximum permissible norm, was found in a sample
of Armenian mineral waters under the name of `Jermuk’, being imported
to the USA. However, it is not clarified to whom concretely the
product belonged. `FDA has only warned its consumers about it yet’, he
noted, adding that at the same time it is said in the information that
the examination of the samples are still in process, and the consumers
will be informed additionally about the results. FDA has not made a
final statement yet regarding `Jermuk’. E. Ghazaryan also informed
that as an exporter, the company `Jermuk Group’ has not received any
complaint or statement from its foreign partners, neither from the FDA
nor from other representatives of US authorities. According to the
advisor of the company, since 2000 `Jermuk Group’ regularly exports
its product to the USA, and no concern has been made from the USA
within these 7 years, as the produt has always met their adopted
standards.

To note, it is mentioned in the FDA information that 500 ml of liquid
were sampled, as a result of which 500-600 micrograms of arsenic were
contained per liter of `Jermuk’, whereas the standards of US FDA
accept no more than 10 micrograms per liter

Source: Panorama.am