Author: Nadirian Emma

Kathimerini, Greece
Feb 9 2007

On US visit, Abdullah Gul says Turkey is `irresistible’ to EU

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Turkish foreign minister said yesterday that
the European Union will eventually offer membership to Turkey.
Despite the EU’s recent decision to partially freeze talks on
membership, Abdullah Gul said his government expects a long process
ending in Turkey’s accession. `I believe that the EU will realize the
strategic importance of Turkey soon enough and reverse its negative
approach,’ he said in a speech at the German Marshall Fund. Gul said
that Turkey’s importance to Europe as a Muslim-majority country on
the cusp of the Middle East with rising importance to the West as a
transit point for energy sources would make it irresistible. `The
effect of EU membership will be felt across the world,’ he said.
`There is too much at stake to fail.’ Gul also repeated warnings he
has made throughout his visit to Washington against a proposed
Congressional resolution that would recognize the World War I era
killings of Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
He said a resolution would insult the Turkish people.

GORAN LENNMARKER: NO MATTER WHAT DECISION ON KOSOVO IS TAKEN, IT WON’T AFFECT SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

Yerevan, February 9. ArmInfo. According to the APA Azeri news
agency, at a meeting with the students and lecturers of the Baku
State University, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
Goran Lennmarker said that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is of much importance for the whole region and its European
integration. He added that the year 2007 may become the last one for
this conflict.

He pointed out the falseness of the opinion that the existence
of the conflict is an anomalistic phenomenon. While discussing
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, he tells everybody that such kind
of conflicts are normal phenomena for the European history,
he noted. Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence in 1991,
and the international laws recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. Pointing out the inadmissibility of Kosovo’s model for the
settlement of the Karabakh conflict, G.Lennmarker said that no matter
what decision on Kosovo is taken, it won’t affect the settlement of the
Karabakh conflict. These are two different conflicts with different
historical background. The OSCE has been engaged in this issue for a
long time. The organization tries to facilitate the negotiations, but
the MG itself cannot take a decision on the conflict settlement. It
can only contribute to it.

G.Lennmarker hopes that the settlement of the conflict will satisfy
both sides. Parliamentary elections will shortly be held in Armenia,
and if one looks at the issue from the Armenian viewpoint, it will
be quite hard to have some progress in the peace process within the
next few months. He expressed hope that after the elections, the
conflict will be settled in a peaceful way. The President of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly noted that a lot of young Azerbaijanians and
Armenians are annually killed on the contact line of the two-countries’
troops, and added that he advocates returning people to their homes.

Arman Kirakosyan: No improvement observed in Armenian-Turkish relations
By Marlena Hovsepyan

09.02.2007 16:27
"Radiolur"

Notwithstanding the international atmosphere established after the
assassination of Hrant Dink, no improvement has been registered in
Armenian-Turkish relations. This was the conclusion that could be
drawn from Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan’s words.

A meeting of solidarity: this is how Arman Kirakosyan called Dink’s
funeral, which he personally attended. The feelings of common people
were really impressing, says the official: "The uniting force was
Hrant’s struggle for democratization and human rights."

Arman Kirakosyan’s impression from the meetings with Turkish Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul and the Chairman of the General Directorate of
Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that the
Turkish Government is willing to improve relations with Armenia.

What is the state of Armenian-Turkish relations today? What do we
anticipate? In this regard, the positions of the countries have
not changed: Turkey suggests preconditions, while the Armenian
side proposes to establish relations without any preconditions.
"Our position is as follows: to reach reconciliation through
cooperation, while the Turkish Government suggests cooperation and
opening of borders only after discussion and clarification of the
genocide issue," he said.

Turkey sees the settlement of the Karabakh conflict as the main
precondition for opening the Turkish-Armenian border, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared one of these days.

Yesterday the agreement on construction of Kars-Akhalkalaki railway
was signed inn Tbilisi. What is the stance of official Yerevan on
the question? " Certainly, it is a very important issue for our
diplomacy, and we are working in that direction, said the Deputy
Foreign Minister. The project is the continuation of the Turkish
policy, which is targeted at the isolation of Armenia in every possible
way. "During the negotiations we have been insisting on opening the
border and exploiting the railway. We shall continue working in this
direction. At lest, there will be no financing for the project from
international organizations and the world powers," he said.

Despite the fact that in the past the US opposed the construction
of the railway, the American Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
Matthew Bryza declared recently that the US neither supports nor
opposes the project. Isn’t the shift of position connected with the
Russian-American cold war that started lately? Arman Kirakosyan does
not think there is a cold war between the two superpowers, clash of
interests always exists. "I think with its balanced foreign relations
Armenia will come out victor and will try to escape from geopolitical
difficulties," said the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister.

FORMER SENATOR CHAKHMAKHCHIAN CHARGED (PART 2)

Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 8, 2007 Thursday 1:51 PM MSK

Former Federation Council member Levon Chakhmakhchian has been charged
with embezzlement of $1.5 million (over 40 million rubles) and abuse
of power, a source in the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said
on Thursday.

"According to investigators, Chakhmakhchian and his accomplices
(including his son-in-law, a Russian Audit Chamber auditor, and
the chief accountant of the Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation
Association) extorted $1.5 million from a major airline for the
settlement of alleged problems with tax and customs duties in April
2006," says a report posted on the Prosecutor General’s Office website
on Thursday.

"Chakhmakhchian and other members of the criminal group came to the
airline’s offices on June 2, 2006. Federal Security Service officers
prevented their criminal attempt to receive some of the money,
$300,000 in cash," the report runs.

AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA AND TURKEY: BUILDING A TRANSPORTATION TRIUMVIRATE?
Rovshan Ismayilov

EurasiaNet, NY
Feb 7 2007

First, it was energy; now, transportation. The
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway project, run by Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, is strengthening a sense of regional cooperation
in the South Caucasus.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan met in Tbilisi on February 7 with Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili to sign a framework agreement on the project, which
will link Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia via a 258-kilometer-long
railway. The agreement must then be submitted to the Azerbaijani,
Turkish and Georgian parliaments for ratification.

The railroad, 14 years in the making, has been touted as the shortest
route for commercial traffic between Asia and Europe. Some observers
have forecast that, if completed, it could become a competitor to the
Trans-Siberian Railway. Construction is scheduled to begin in June
2007, with a tentative completion date by the end of 2008, Azerbaijani
Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov told the Azerbaijani independent
television station ANS on January 18. A January 16 statement from
the Azerbaijani foreign ministry predicted that the railroad "will
create conditions for the revival of the historical Silk Road and
will develop the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor," thereby
advancing "the region’s integration with Europe."

In many ways, the project is a case study in regional self-reliance.

The United States, an influential backer of such regional projects
as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the South Caucasus gas
pipeline, has declined to support the rail link since it excludes
Armenia. The European Union has expressed similar reluctance.

Instead, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia have looked to themselves
to cover the $600 million in estimated costs. "The US can issue any
decisions it wants, but there will be no problems with financing the
project," commented Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili on
January 10, the Azerbaijan’s news agency Trend reported. "There are
other sources."

One of those sources is Azerbaijan. At a January 13 meeting in Tbilisi,
the three sides agreed that Azerbaijan will loan Georgia $200 million
for the construction of a 29-kilometer stretch of the railroad through
Georgian territory and for the reconstruction of existing sections
of Georgian railways that the new line will use.

Georgia will pay an annual interest rate of just 1 percent on the
25-year loan, according to Economic Development Minister Giorgi
Arveladze. The Georgian government has already approved the proposed
terms for the loan and expects a final agreement with Azerbaijan to
be signed soon, Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli has said.

The agreement comes on the heels of a gas deal between Georgia and
Azerbaijan that the government in Tbilisi hopes will allow it to
replace higher-priced Russian gas with gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah
Deniz field. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Turkey also plays a key role in this assistance scheme. At a February
7 joint press conference in Tbilisi with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would try by July 2007
to funnel 800 million cubic meters from its share of Shah Deniz gas
to Georgia. Saakashvili, however, told reporters that Georgia would
receive Turkey’s gas "as soon as Shah Deniz is put into operation,"
adding that Azerbaijani gas supplies are expected to steadily increase.

The agreements underline Azerbaijan’s growing importance for Georgia.

To highlight that significance, part of the embankment of the Mtkvari
River in central Tbilisi was renamed during the summit to commemorate
the late President Heydar Aliyev, father of the current Azerbaijani
leader.

Some opposition members in Georgia have questioned this relationship.

Analysts in Baku say that the railway deal’s long-term advantages for
Azerbaijan justify the cost of footing the bill for construction of
Georgia’s section of the railway.

"The project has significant importance for Azerbaijan. It will
be the final link for providing Azerbaijan with a transportation
corridor to Europe," said Inglab Akhmadov, an economic expert and
the director of the Public Finance Monitoring Center. "The oil
and gas routes already exist and construction of the railroad to
Europe, bypassing Armenia and Russia, will complete the process for
Azerbaijan." (The Public Finance Monitoring Center is funded by the
Open Society Institute. EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices
of the Open Society Institute in New York.)

The profitability of Baku’s Caspian Sea port and the Azerbaijani State
Railroad will also increase, noted independent political analyst
Rasim Musabekov, who argued that the project is more important for
Azerbaijan than for Georgia.

"The length of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railroad on
Azerbaijan’s territory is much longer than on Georgian territory,
so Azerbaijan’s railroad will make a greater profit on tariffs," he
said. Plus, a key strategic benefit also exists: "For the first time,
Azerbaijan will get direct railroad access to its most important
ally, Turkey."

Although Azerbaijan’s booming energy sector has so far allowed
it to play benefactor to its poorer neighbor, Georgia, Baku has
kept a sharp eye on potential sources of outside financing for the
project, as well. China, which has a growing interest in Central
Asian energy sources, has featured among these sources. An official
in Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry told EurasiaNet that Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov tried to convince China to support
the Kars-Akhalkalaki railway project during a visit to Beijing in
the spring of 2005. "However, while China’s leadership stated its
interest in an alternative route for railway traffic to Europe,
they politely refused to finance the project," said the source,
who asked not to be named.

Meanwhile, other sources of financing remain trapped in a tightly
intertwined circle of conditions. While the US does not exclude the
possibility of its active support for the project in the future,
it insists on Armenia’s inclusion. With the Bush administration’s
support, the US Congress in 2006 banned any government funding for
the railway for this reason.

"We’d love to get to that point when the railroad from Turkey to Baku
could transit Armenia, " commented US Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza in a January 9 interview
with the Azerbaijani state-run news agency AzerTag. While the US
does not oppose the project, he continued, "We hope there’ll be [a]
time soon when the transit scheme will embrace all of the countries."

After long expressing opposition to the project, Armenia itself,
however, has announced that it is ready to sign on. But not without one
key condition being met – the opening of Turkey’s border with the South
Caucasus state. (The border was closed in 1993, following Armenia’s
support for the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh.) The
Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister Gegam Garibjanian as saying on January 18 that his country
could join the project by reopening a section of railway that runs
from the Turkish town of Kars to Akhalkalaki in Georgia via Armenia
"the day after the border between Armenia and Turkey is opened." Such
a section could significantly reduce transportation costs.

But Azerbaijan has its conditions, too. Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev has stated that Armenia’s participation in the project
"is not possible" until the country ends its support for the ethnic
Armenian leadership of the self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh,
a breakaway region of Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive].

"Until Armenia liberates the occupied Azerbaijani territories
[Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjoining regions] all transportation
projects will bypass this country," Aliyev said at a January 22
government meeting in Baku. "The countries and organizations that
support Armenia and speak out against the project will fail," he added.

Ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh give no indication that that condition may soon be
met or softened. However, other project partners have softened or
otherwise changed participation conditions over time.

Georgia for years hesitated to join the railway project, first
demanding compensation for any economic losses related to the new
railway that its two Black Sea ports, Batumi and Poti, would sustain.

Both Turkey and Azerbaijan refused such a pay-out. But, after the
imposition of a transportation blockade by Russia in 2006, Georgia
reconsidered. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"We have to support this project amidst the economic blockade
of Georgia from the North," Economic Development Minister Giorgi
Arveladze said on January 17, in an oblique reference to Russia. "It
[the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku project] will be a very important
transportation corridor for us."

That corridor could prove particularly significant for the Caspian
Sea region’s oil industry, noted Akif Mustafayev, the Azerbaijani
representative to TRASECA, a regional transportation program backed
by the European Union. Already, oil and oil-related products is
projected to make up most of the railway’s freight, noted Mustafayev,
who predicted that freight could equal at least 20 million tons in
the first year of operation.

Train-ferry connections already exist between Baku and fellow energy
giants Kazakhstan (from Aktau) and Turkmenistan (from Turkmenbashi).

With the completion of a railway link under the Bosphorus by 2008,
transportation times to Europe could be reduced still further.

"It may encourage foreign investors to construct new oil refineries in
the region and to export to the European markets not just crude oil,
but more expensive oil products," Mustafayev said.

Turkey first proposed the project in 1993 as it looked for ways to
increase its influence in the South Caucasus after the collapse of
the Soviet Union. However, a protocol on the project was only signed
between Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan in 2004. Feasibility studies
began that same year. In May 2005, the presidents of the three
countries reaffirmed their support for the railway with a formal
declaration in Baku.

Editor’s Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance journalist based
in Baku.

GARBAGE CAN BECOME SOURCE OF INCOME

A1+
[07:37 pm] 06 February, 2007

Alongside with the facilitation of the ecological problem, the
Nubarashen dump will provide 40 million AMD annual income.

Japanese "Shimgu" Corporation intends to build a bioelectrostation in
the dump. In case the proposal is endorsed the company will initiate
the construction in 2007. The program which costs over 8 million USD
has already been endorsed by the RA Ministry of Environment Protection
and Yerevan Municipality.

"Environment" LTD has considered the above-mentioned project
thoroughly. Vram Tevosyan, head of the company, assumes that the
construction of suchlike station can be favourable for Armenia
though the litter-burning won’t give too much energy. Only the litter
accumulated by 1960 will be burnt. As for the remainder, the methods
applied in the European countries, such as garbage sortation and its
further working out, will likely be applied.

Currently, over 41 million AMD is spent on the the Nubarashen
dump. After the project implementation the sum will reduce to 1
million AMD.

To note, garbage has been a stable source of income and the best way
of business all over the world. For instance, 40 % of energy comes
from garbage in Denmark, whereas in Germany litter is used in all
spheres after being sorted and worked out.

By the way, the Japanese corporation will not get direct income
from Armenia.

THE WAR OF THE WORDS
By George P. Fletcher
Project Syndicate News Service

Korea Times, South Korea
Feb 6 2007

Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability. The
violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad
published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused Western response, with
governments tripping over their tongues trying to explain what the
media should and should not be allowed to do in the name of political
satire. Then Iran trumped the West by sponsoring a conference of
Holocaust deniers, a form of speech punished as criminal almost
everywhere in Europe.

As Turks well know, it is dangerous to take a position on the Armenian
genocide of 1915. The most recent Nobel laureate in literature, Orhan
Pamuk, was prosecuted in Istanbul for denying Turkey’s official history
by saying that the Armenian genocide actually occurred. Other Turks
have faced prosecution in Western Europe for saying that it did not.

So words are now clearly a battlefield in the cultural conflict
between Islam and the West. The West has learned that, simply as
a matter of self-censorship, not legal fiat, newspapers and other
media outlets will not disseminate critical pictures of Muhammad,
and the Pope will no longer make critical comments about Islam. But
these gestures of cooperation with Muslim sensibilities have not been
met by reciprocal gestures.

Instead, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Iran’s president, has threatened to
wipe Israel off the map. The Israeli Foreign Ministry now seeks
prosecution of Ahmedinejad for incitement to commit genocide –
a violation of international law.

But the Israeli press is also bellicose. Israeli newspapers regularly
carry stories about why Israel may need to attack Iran to prevent it
from acquiring an arsenal of nuclear weapons. President George W.

Bush has made similarly ominous, if more vague, statements about
Iran. In Germany, preparing and calling for preemptive military
strikes from within the government are subject to criminal sanctions.

The world’s different legal systems have never been in much agreement
about the boundaries of free speech. Even between good neighbors
like Canada and the United States, there is little agreement about
punishing hate speech. Canadians punish racial insults, but Americans
do not, at least if the issue is simply one of protecting the dignity
of racial minorities.

But threatening violence is more serious. Many countries are united
in supporting the principle that if, say, Ahmedinejad does meet the
criteria for incitement of genocide, he should be punished in the
International Criminal Court. Indeed, the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda punished radio station operators who made
aggressive public broadcasts urging Hutus to pick up their machetes
and murder Tutsis.

A decade ago there would have been a good argument in international
law that the Hutu-Tutsi example supports prosecution only after
the damage has been done. All the international precedents – from
Nuremberg to the present – concern international intervention after
mass atrocities. Domestic police may be able to intervene to prevent
crime before it occurs, but in the international arena there is no
police force that can do that.

It follows, therefore, that the crime of incitement should apply only
to cases like Rwanda, where the radio broadcasts actually contributed
to the occurrence of genocide. In cases where bellicose leaders make
public threats to "bury" another country (remember Khrushchev?) or
to wipe it off the map, the courts should wait, it was said, until
some harm occurs.

But the international community has become ever more intrusive in using
legal remedies against persons who engage in provocative and dangerous
speech. In September 2005, the United Nations Security Council passed
Resolution 1624 – paradoxically, with American approval – calling
upon all member states to enact criminal sanctions against those who
incite terrorism. The model of incitement they had in mind is the same
one that British Prime Minister Blair has publicly invoked: Muslim
leaders standing up in their mosques and urging their congregations
to go out and kill infidels.

Americans have traditionally said that, absent a risk of immediate
unlawful violence, this form of speech should be protected under
the First Amendment. US courts reasoned that it is better to allow
the release of hateful sentiments than to call attention to them by
showcasing them in court. But when it comes to terrorism in today’s
world, most countries, including the world’s democracies, are not as
tolerant as they used to be.

So the traditional liberal position in support of giving wide
scope to freedom of speech, even for extremists, is losing ground
everywhere. When it comes to fighting terrorism and the prospect of
genocide, the world is now becoming afraid of dangerous words.

George P. Fletcher is Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia
University. His latest book is Romantics at War: Glory and Guilt in
the Age of Terrorism.

n/200702/kt2007020617003054330.htm

HOVHANNES CHEKIJIAN: MODERN COMPOSERS CREATE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC, IGNORING CHORAL ONE

Noyan Tapan
Feb 06 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The origins of the Armenian national
classical music are deep but instead of it, distorted Oriental
music can be heard today. Hovhannes Chekijian, Artistic Director and
Conductor of the State Academic Chorus of Armenia, said this during
the February 3 meeting at the Urbat Club.

In his words, one of the reasons is that one can seldom listen to
classical music on TV, while the present generation is being educated
on the so-called "rabis" music. Correct education requires state
assistance and care which existed in the Soviet time. "Composing
school was previously in an excellent state, with composers being
paid for writing good music but in recent years these traditions have
been forgotten and our composers started creating instrumental music,
ignoring choral one," H. Chekijian noted.

According to him, Oriental music is now being propagandized and for
some unknown reason it is considered as ours, whereas "we forget that
we have such a great composer as Komitas, and it is just inadmissile
to neglect this fact."

At the same time, the maestro said that today there are some devotees
too who dedicate their lives to classic art.

In response to the question whether he is going to engage in politics
and join a party, H. Chekijian replied: "I with my art stand above
any party. It is against my principles to join any party – I’ve never
felt this need."

Nevertheless, according to H. Chekijian, he has been made such offers
many times.

This year the 70th anniversary of creation of the State Academic Chorus
of Armenia will be celebrated, and festive events will be held in
Yerevan and marzes. H. Chekijian informed those present that within
the framework of these events, a conference will be held at the RA
National Academy of Sciences and concerts will be given in the Aram
Khachatrian Concert Hall and Grigor Lusavorich Church.

EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESENTATION BY ARGONAUTʼS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT A ZOUPANIOTIS

Greek News, New York
Feb 5 2007

Today we remember dearly the sacrifice of the 155 of our Jewish
compatriots that lost their lives in the Nazi death camps. And at
the same time we celebrate the spirit of humanism and solidarity
shown by the people of Volos, who saved some 750 Jewish people,
or more than 83% of the Israelite Community of our home town.

Greeks are a people that through their long history have suffered a
long period of slavery and persecution. More than 1,5 million Greeks
of the Asia Minor and Pontus were the victims of one of the worst
genocides of our century. A genocide not recognized by Turkey, same
as they do with the Armenian Genocide.

When we expect from others to recognize this injustices done to our
people, we have to be equally sensitive to the pains and suffering
of our brothers and sisters that have suffered, just because their
different religion, or ethnicity, or race.

They say, a good deed is always repaid, one way or another. In August
1922, when the flames set by the Turks were burning the beautiful
City of Smyrna in Asia Minor and its Greek population were dying by
the thousands, there was a tobacco manufacturer, named Herman Spirer.

His parents were Swiss Jews. Besides Smyrna, he also had business in
Volos, Drama, Kavala and Salonica. Spirer hosted hundreds of Greeks
in his factory, raised the Swiss flag for protection and paid for the
ships that carried them to safety. Some of those refugees landed in
Volos and even worked in Spirerʼs tobacco factory.

I donʼt think people of Volos ever forgot this gesture of
humanity and kindness. Maybe this is the reason why our hometown is
an example of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. Maybe this is the
reason even the German consul in Volos at the time, Helmut Scheffel,
told Metropolitan Ioakeim that the danger for the Jews of Volos
was imminent. Metropolitan Iakeim and Mayor Saratsis helped them,
as well as the municipal clerk Zissis Mantidis and the police Chief,
Ilias Agdiniotis. The partisans of the National Liberation Front,
EAM, coordinated a huge evacuating operation and in only one night
all nine hundred people left town. My father, a 16year old partisan
at the time, was telling me of some of his Jewish comrades. And of
course it was thanks to the leadership of the Israelite Community of
Volos who didnʼt trust the German lies and left.

Thatʼs why the majority of the Jewish Community of Volos survived.

Asher Matathias, our speaker, and his parents were some of these
survivors. He is a caveman, because he was born in a cave of Mount
Pelion, in December 3 1943. He immigrated with his parents to
America, in 1956, where he ʽs got an excellent education; he
is a professor at the St Johns University and we are proud to have
him and his lovely Voliotissa wife and my neighbor in Volos, Anna,
as members of our association. And we all together contribute in
sending to every one in the world this strong message of tolerance,
brotherhood and understanding.

VARTAN OSKANIAN AND GORAN LENMARKER DISCUSS THE KARABAKH ISSUE

ArmRadio.am
05.02.2007 16:30

On February 5 RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received he President
of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Goran Lenmarker, who is in Armenia
as part of his regional visit.

Greeting the guest, Minister Oskanian noted with appreciation the
rise of interest of the OSCE PA in the region. Later reference was
made to the parliamentary elections due in May, and the OSCE PA
President expressed hope that these will be held in compliance with
highest standards.

The interlocutors also turned to the settlement of teh Nagoano Karabakh
conflict. On this occasion, Mr. Lenmarker attached great importance
to the necessity of establishment of an atmosphere of trust, which
will promote the involvement of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the EU New
Neighborhood Policy and the accomplishment of joint programs.

At the end of the meeting reference was made to the report of the OSCE
PA President on the peace process of the Karabakh conflict settlement.