Author: Nadirian Emma

PRESIDENT OF THE GERMAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT VISITS THE MOTHER SEE

armradio.am
24.09.2008 16:50

On September 24 at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin His Holiness
Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, received
the President of the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic
of Germany Hans-Jurgen Papier and his delegation accompanied by the
President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia
Gagik Harutyunyan.

Greeting the guests, His Holiness turned to the friendly
Armenian-German relations and the deepening ties. The Catholicos
offered his blessing to the activity and mission of the two courts.

President of the German Constitutional Court Hans-Jurgen Papier
thanked the Catholicos for warm reception and dwelt on the meetings
he had within the framework of his visit.

RUSSIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE?
Marcin Wojciechowski

Gazeta Wyborcza
2008-09-23
Poland

One would like Poland, Europe, and the world to have good relations
with Russia, but Moscow has to want it too.

Eight million – close to one in five – Ukrainians will be eligible
to apply for Russian citizenship, if a law currently discussed by
the Duma enters in force. The same applies to millions of Kazakhs,
Uzbeks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and other peoples of the former
Soviet Union. It’s enough for someone to have been born in Russia
to now apply for its citizenship. There are tens of millions of such
people in the former Soviet area.

It could seem alright that Moscow cares for its compatriots – were
it not for a small provision in its military doctrine: ‘A man with a
Russian passport gets mugged and beaten on the street in the Crimea,
and on the next day Russian tanks roll in or planes drop bombs. This
isn’t a joke, precisely such argumentation was used by Moscow during
the recent war in Georgia.

The argument about Moscow’s right to intervene on behalf of Russians
living abroad is being repeated at every step by the Russian president,
prime minister, and foreign minister. The purpose is clearly to
frighten. Poland has nothing to do with these threats, because it
doesn’t have a Russian minority. But for the former Soviet republics,
this is a clear warning.

On the one hand, Russia has been reassuring (also during minister
Lavrov’s recent visit to Poland) that the war in Georgia was but an
incident, rather than a result of Moscow’s new strategy. On the other,
it has been making steps to have a pretext to intervene at least in
the its former republics.

The problem with Russia is that it is sending conflicting signals. You
don’t know which one to believe.

One would like Poland, Europe, and the world to have good relations
with Russia, but Moscow has to want it too. Using threatening
rhetorics, fuelling ethnic separatisms, handing passports to citizens
of sovereign states certainly don’t serve that goal.

PRESS RELEASE
UCLA Armenian Graduate Students Association
c/o Armenian Graduate Students Association
Kerckhoff Hall, Room 316
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Tel: 310-206-8512
Email: [email protected]
Web:

*Meet & Greet*

Thursday September 25th 2008
Kerckhoff State Rooms (Rooms 131,133,135)
7:00pm – 10:00pm

The Armenian Graduate Student Association (AGSA) at UCLA is hosting a wine
and hour d’oeuvre Meet & Greet event on campus.

This is our annual kickoff event. Enjoy food, wine, and hilarious stories
with your fellow graduate students. We highly encourage everyone to attend
even if it is just to say "Hi". The Meet and Greet is the best chance we
have to introducing ourselves to all the new graduate students so if you
have friends who are just starting off their graduate careers at UCLA
encourage them to come.

You will have the opportunity to meet other Armenian graduate students from
all across campus, executive officers of the AGSA, officers of the UCLA
Graduate Student Association, members and officers of the UCLA ASA, as well
as faculty/staff and friends of the AGSA.

Check the event out on facebook:
d=81564580130

Sponsored by the UCLA GSA.

AGSA @ UCLA

THE PAPER CLIP, 22 SEPTEMBER

European Voice
Monday 22 September 2008
Belgium

The financial crisis continues to dominate the headlines this
morning. France’s Libération reports on the US government’s decision
to inject $700 billion into the US financial system – the biggest
state intervention since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The paper
notes that Hank Paulson, the secretary of the US Treasury, has warned
that banks could still fail, notwithstanding the bailout. Britain’s The
Guardian writes that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday said
he will draw up a package of measures designed to tackle the economic
crisis, including a drive for tighter international controls of the
global money markets and a crackdown on the culture of irresponsible
City bonuses. The Financial Times reports that Angela Merkel,
Germany’s chancellor, this weekend vented public frustration at the
US and UK governments’ previous opposition to the stronger regulation
of financial markets. In Russia, the Financial Times reports that
Russia’s finance ministry yesterday widened the provision of emergency
budget funding to Russia’s banking system on top of the â~B¬90 billion
injected into the country’s financial markets last week.

>From Slovenia comes the news that Slovenia’s largest governing party,
the centre-right Slovenian Democrats led by Prime Minister Janez
Janša, appears to have lost the general elections by the narrowest
of margins, one seat (30.5% versus 29.3%). The final results are due
later today. The victorious Social Democrat party is led by a member
of the European Parliament (and a former male model), Borut Pahor. The
result puts a party chiefly representing pensioners centre-stage:
its seven seats could determine whether a centre-right or centre-left
governing coalition is formed. El País and Bloomberg are among those
with reports.

Newspapers in Belgium are taken up with a further spasm in the
prolonged governmental crisis. The ‘wise men’ appointed by the king
in June to recommend the next steps submitted their report on Friday
and the weekend has been taken up with reaction and counter-reaction
from the various political parties. A party meeting of the Flemish
nationalist N-VA, which is in a cartel with CD&V, the Flemish Christian
Democrats, the party of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, voted yesterday
against the government. ‘Leterme pris au piège de la N-VA’ is how
the francophone La Libre Belgique puts it. De Standaard says that the
CD&V has to choose between the government and its cartel with N-VA,
thereby achieving a rare moment of agreement with Le Soir, whose
front-page headline is "Le CD&V doit choisir: le pays ou la N-VA".

The stability of another political system, Turkey’s, is the subject of
a report in The Guardian, which writes about the Turkish government’s
denial that the mass slaughter of Armenians in the last years of
the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide. Turkey risks a collapse
of its secular political system if it recognises the term genocide,
the paper says.

A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the Basque region in
north Spain yesterday morning wounding 10 people, the International
Herald Tribune reports. The blast came just hours after another bomb
exploded in the regional capital Vitoria, causing no injuries.

The EU has earmarked â~B¬1.5 million to developing the audiovisual
sector in the four countries of the Mercosur group – Argentina,
Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, El País reports.

Lastly, two articles to ponder as you do what you are doing now:
reading online. The US Chronicle of Higher Education (hat-tip:
Polymeme, a top-drawer aggregator) reports a study that finds, as
its headline writer puts it, that "online reading is of a lesser
kind" — or, as the researcher says: "The web is too fast-paced for
big-picture learning… At the same time, the Web is perfect for
narrow, just-in-time learning of information nuggets — so long as
the learner already has the conceptual framework in place to make
sense of the facts." If that worries you, you might prefer a report
from Britain’s Daily Telegraph, which writes that the web is helping
the popularity of poetry to soar (or, at least, the popularity of
the British site Poetry Archive).

–Boundary_(ID_lceP3+txO0MBWsh3YOIzrg)- –

TURKEY, ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN MINISTERS TO MEET IN NY
By Daniel Bases

Reuters
Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:13pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The war between Russia and Georgia shifted the
political landscape in the Caucasus and is prompting Turkey, Armenia
and Azerbaijan, three countries with long-standing disputes, to try
to settle their differences, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan
said on Monday.

The foreign ministers from all three countries will meet on Friday
on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss "frozen
conflicts."

"The recent crisis in Georgia urged all the countries in the region
to re-evaluate policies and also have a stronger feeling of urgency,"
Babacan said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Russia sent troops deep into Georgian territory during a five-day
war last month over Georgia’s breakaway, pro-Russian province of
South Ossetia.

Georgia and Turkey form a key energy transfer link for oil and gas
from Azerbaijan.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, accompanied by Babacan, made a historic
first visit to Armenia on September 6 to watch a soccer match between
the two nations.

The neighbors have no diplomatic ties but a relationship haunted by
whether ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks during World War
One were victims of systemic genocide.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of
solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Turkic-speaking ally that was fighting
Armenian-backed separatists over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The political will is there, which is probably very important, and
then the rest is details to be discussed and the devil is obviously
in the details of course," said Babacan.

He said he expected an acceleration in the talks after the October
15 Azeri presidential election.

Babacan’s counterparts are Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
and Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. (Editing by Doina
Chiacu)

Panorama.am

18:45 20/09/2008

PRESIDENT: `BALANCED DEVELOPMENT NEEDS IMPROVEMENTS OF ALL FIELDS’

`The reestablishment of Armenian independence has been the biggest
achievement of Armenians in the end of 20th century and each of us
should strengthen this independence every day,’ said the President of
Armenia Serzh Sargsyan when awarding representatives of various fields
with high ranking state rewards.

Note that by special decrees of the President Representatives of
culture, art, education, science, military officers, students,
workers, etc. have been awarded by special medals, titles.

The President said that in the name of our free state, all the members
of our society invest its efforts to create powerful, developed
country.

Source: Panorama.am

OFFICIAL REPORTS MORE FIGHTING IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

International Herald Tribune
Sept 18 2008
France

BAKU, Azerbaijan: More than 20 Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers have
been killed in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh since July,
an Azerbaijan government official said Thursday. Armenia disputed
the claim.

Eldar Sabirogly, a spokesman for the Azerbaijan defense ministry,
said at least 15 Armenian soldiers died during that period. He said
the number of Azerbaijani soldiers was about half that number.

However, officials with Armenia’s defense ministry said that Armenia
had lost no soldiers during that period. Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh,
which lies within Azerbaijan, also said their forces had seen no
losses.

Both sides routinely accuse the other of breaking a cease-fire and
try to highlight one another’s military losses.

Armenian and ethnic Armenian forces drove Azerbaijan out of
Nagorno-Karabakh in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the post-Soviet
era. Some 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million were driven
from their homes before the cease-fire was reached in 1994.

The lack of resolution on the region’s status has held up development
in the strategic South Caucasus region and raised fears of a new war
between the two countries.

ACCORDING TO NEW APPROACH OF TURKISH MPs, ARMENIA SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO TURKEY REGARDING GENOCIDE PROBLEM

Noyan Tapan

Se p 18, 2008

BRATISLAVA, SEPTEMBER 18, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. A European
Economic Forum was held in the Polish city of Krynica on September
10-13. Among participants were the delegations of Turkey and the South
Caucasian republics. The Chairman of the Forum of Armenian Unions of
Europe Ashot Grigorian (Slovak Republic) also took part in the work
of the forum. During an interview with Noyan Tapan, he presented the
problems related to Armenian-Turkish relations which were discussed
at the forum.

Noyan Tapan: What new nuances appeared in Armenian-Turkish relations
after the visit of Turkish president to Armenia?

Ashot Grigorian: The assessments of the results are not simple:
on the one hand, the reaction of Azerbajiani political figures to
"betrayal of Azerbajani interests by Turkish brothers – statesmen"
is interesting, on the other hand, the Turkish diplomats’ euphoria
about anticipated developments on the final solution of the genocide
denial problem is noteworthy. In their very first speeches at the
forum the Turkish diplomats spoke about the agreement reached by
Armenian and Turkish presidents about the study of the genocide,
and they spoke about this issue in indisputable tones.

NT: What opinions were voiced about the genocide problem specifically?

AG: At the first panel of the forum, during discussions on Turkey’s
joining the European Union, Turkish MPs Egemen Bagis (the deputy
chairman of the ruling party), Suat Kiniklioglu (member of Turkish
parliament) and other famous Turkish political figures presented the
directions of Turkey’s political strategy, including its joining EU
and cooperating with Russian-Chinese bloc, as well as the versions
of being included in the Muslim defensive and other blocs. By
threatening the EU in a not very obvious, hidden and cautious way,
the Turkish figures gave to understand that in the light of the new
strategy the EU should be more interested in Turkey’s membership than
Turkey itself. At these discussions, the Turks obviously ignored the
Armenian problems, not mentioning the genocide and other Armenian
problems even by a word. Really, it was for the first time that
we witnessed an exceptional situation when Turks spoke without any
complex about EU membership in the presence of the delegations of EU
member states, completely ingnoring the Armenian problems. The reason,
as it became known later, was the statement of Armenian president,
and what was said in that statement, namely, the proposal to create
a commission on the genocide’s study, is accepted by the Turks as an
already undeniable fact.

In response to my question: "Under conditions of the blokade of Armenia
all along its border, when Turkey puts forward absurd preconditions
for its lifting: the demand that Armenia should revise the genocide
problem and give Artsakh to Azerbaijan (in case of annexation of
Northern Cyprus and recognition of Kosovo’s independence), how can you
think about joining the EU?", the deputy chairman of the ruling party
and Turkish MP Egemen Bagis replied: "Everything is clear about the
Armenian genocide problem: there is no such notion. Yes, there were
clashes between Armenians and Turks during World War I, both sides had
victims, and it is questionable who suffered more. There is much work
to be done in this issue, and there is a necessity to open Armenian
archives and to study the materials hidden in the archives of other
countries, and the truth must eventually be presented to the world." I
resented these words and exclaimed: "For shame, what a disgrace!" and
uttering "Shame!" in Russian and English, I left the hall.

After my step, speeches on this subject continued, and the prominent
Italian scientist, a genocide expert, Prof. Giovanni Guayta expressed
sharply on this problem. Later he and me had a long talk with
another Turkish MP Suat Kinklioglu who tried to explain to us that
is impossible to speak about the genocide after the visit of Turkish
President Abdullah Gul if we respect the agreements reached by our
presidents. In his words, contacts between the heads of our states were
launched at last and these contacts should be promoted. This idea was
also discussed during the panel "The Eastern European Peculiarities of
the European Neighborhood Policy". The prominent member of the Great
National Assembly of Turkey Yakar Yanis said during the debate, for
everyone to hear that as a result of Gul-Sargsyan "soccer diplomacy"
a commission to study of the genocide will be formed, thanks to which
the Armenian archives will be opened at last and it will become clear
that the Turkish people could not and did not commit genocide". In
response to my words that the relations between our two countries can
be improved only by perceiving the historical tragedy, admitting the
fact of genocide and forming new relations, the Turkish MP declared
that "after setting up a joint commission and publishing the results,
Turkey will undoubtedly witness an act apology by the Armenians."

NT: So all the efforts made so that in future more and more states and
international organizations will address the Armenian Genocide problem
and make Turkey recognize it are becoming needless and impossible?

AG: For the present time – absolutely impossible as Turkey has a
definite action plan which is being carried out under conditions of
an incorrect strategy of the Armenian foreign ministry, or to be
more exact, in the absence of a strategy in this issue. Armenia
acts by taking not its own calculated steps but by steps
dictated by Turkey. Turkey’s enviable activity at the start of the
Georgian-Ossetian conflict gave considerale results: Turkey squeezed
in between the South Caucasian states, surprisingly getting Russia’s
consent to take active steps and have its venerable judgement.

However understandable Russia’s position is, that is, Turkey which was
a close comrade-in-arms in its relations with the U.S. for decades,
suddenly showed it teeth to the friend (the act of banning the
entry of U.S. battleships into Bosporus did not go unnoticed for
the West, and in this way Turkey also won the sympathy of Russia),
nevertheless, Armenia should calculate the fact of Turkey’s being an
unreliable partner. Turkey is a partner that does not see anything
beyond its own interests both for Russia and Azerbaijan, all the more
for Armenia. It has a special attitude to us, which was expressed in
the gravest crime known to humanity – genocide.

Besides, today Turkey perceives the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide as the greatest defeat, and Turkey will do everything to
deceive the world in this issue.

In case of such development of its relations with Turkey, Armenia will
be defeated not only in the genocide problem. This will be followed
by defeats in other problems of vital importance to Armenia, and
Armenia will suffer inglorious fate of playing a minor role.

BACK DOOR TALKS BETWEEN TURKEY, ARMENIA CONTINUE

Hurriye
Sept 17 2008
Turkey

The behind the scenes diplomacy between Ankara and Yerevan, which set
the ground for President Abdullah Gul’s landmark visit to Armenia,
continues this week in Switzerland with its third round between the
two countries’ top diplomats, the Turkish Daily News (TDN) reported
on Wednesday.

Diplomats will try to finalize a draft for the common declaration of
good will in the wake of a tripartite summit between Turkey, Armenia
and Azerbaijan to take place in New York at the end of September,
the report said.

Undersecretary of the foreign ministry, Ertugrul Apakan, and his
deputy, Unal Cevikoz, headed for Switzerland on Sunday to meet their
counterparts in Bern, which already hosted two rounds of talks in
May and July, it added.

The positive atmosphere flourished after the first-ever meeting of
Gul and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan on the margins of the
football match on Sept. 6 which paved the way for a more comprehensive
discussion on substantial issues.

Diplomats will try to reach a compromise on a common language for
reflection upon the developments fortified with Gul’s visit and the
football match between the two national teams.

Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it
declared its independency in the early 1990s. However there is no
diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the
international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims
instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations,
and its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite
U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.

Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million
of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. Turkey
rejects the claims, saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least
as many Turks died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.

In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a first step
towards resolving the issue by proposing that a joint commission of
historians launch an investigation and publish their conclusions,
but the proposal was rejected by Yerevan.

DECLARATION TO BE ANNOUNCED IN NEW YORK

The declaration is to be announced at the meeting of Foreign Minister
Ali Babacan and his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, which
is expected to the take place during the U.N General Assembly in New
York being held Sept.23 to Oct.1.

Diplomatic sources told the TDN Armenia now moves closer to giving a
green light for a joint committee of historians to study the events
of 1915, a long-standing Turkish proposal categorically rejected by
the former Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

Considering the need to establish a mechanism for verification of
documents in archives, together with choosing the members, preparations
are expected to take at least one year which gives Turkey time on
international platforms.

Participation of experts from third-party countries and a
representative from an international institution are also under
discussion.

"Official announcement for the establishment of a committee would
ease Turkey’s position, culminating in alleged genocide resolutions
in many countries," a senior Turkish official told the TDN, referring
to initiatives in countries including the U.S., Canada, France and
Argentina.

Combined efforts are underway for setting up other committees to
work on economic and cultural affairs to accelerate the normalization
of relations.

Armenian expectations for the opening of the sealed border between
the two countries loomed large especially after the outbreak of crisis
in Georgia, which has been the major gateway for Western markets from
Armenia. However, Ankara waits for simultaneous steps on other fronts
in order to further proceed with the opening of the border.

ARCHBISHOP MOUSHEGH MARDIROSSIAN WELCOMES CHAIR OF ARMENIA FUND U.S. WESTERN REGION

Noyan Tapan

Se p 16, 2008

LOS ANGELES, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. On September
10th H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, welcomed
Chair of Armenia Fund U.S. Western Region Mrs. Maria Mehranian to
the Prelacy. Mrs. Mehranian met with the Prelate to discuss the
current projects and activities of Armenia Fund, specifically the
upcoming annual Telethon which will take place in November. They
also discussed a number of key issues which are to be examined in
more detail at the next corporate board meeting on September 16th,
which Executive Council representative Mr. Meher Der Ohanessian will
attend. The Prelate thanked Mrs. Mehranian for the update and praised
the active participation of the organization in the progress of the
Armenian homeland.