Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

GENEVAN MEETING OF ARMENIAN AND AZERI FMS WAS ARDUOUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2007 14:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ PACE PA President Goran Lennmarker’s statement
on the possibility of signing of an agreement on Karabakh between
Armenia and Azerbaijan upon completion of the Armenian parliamentary
election coincides with Yerevan’s stance, RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian said in response to a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter’s question
in IA Regnum’s press center today.

However, the latest meeting of the FMs in Geneva doesn’t offer
ground for such optimism. "The Genevan meeting was an extra proof of
availability of contradictions that are hard for us to alleviate.

Although the meeting was arduous we agreed to meet in April again. If
we manage to come to an agreement it will be possible to speak of
a presidential meeting then. Certainly, the meeting will take place
after the parliamentary election in Armenia," the Minister said.

The Armenian Minister also noted that Armenia’s position is
unchangeable: Nagorno Karabakh’s status should be determined through
a referendum to be held among the NKR population. As to the Kosovo
settlement sample, Oskanian said that various approaches should
be taken to various conflicts. "Nevertheless, if the international
community recognizes Kosovo’s independence, it will have a positive
impact on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. If not, we will
continue talks for a solution admissible for the population of Nagorno
Karabakh," he said.

LECTURE TUESDAY EXAMINES ‘GENRES OF GENOCIDE’

Fresno State News, CA
March 19 2007

Dr. Lawrence Baron, Nasatir Chair in Modern Jewish History at San
Diego State University, will give a lecture on "Genres of Genocide:
Depicting the Armenian, Jewish, and Rwandan Genocides in Feature Films"
at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20 at California State University, Fresno.

The lecture, part of the spring 2007 Lecture Series of the Armenian
Studies Program, will be held in the Alice Peters Auditorium in the
University Business Center.

Baron will examine how feature films draw on iconic documentary images
to convey the uniqueness of the Armenian and Jewish experiences while
simultaneously employing similar cinematic strategies to dramatize
their stories.

Clips from such films as "Ravished Armenia," "Schindler’s List,"
"Mayrig," "Ararat" and "Assignment Berlin" will illustrate the lecture.

Baron received his Ph.D. in modern European intellectual history from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1974. Since 1988 he has been
Nasatir Chair in Modern Jewish History at San Diego State. He also
has been director of the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies at
San Diego State since 1988.

He has published "Projecting the Holocaust into the Present: The
Changing Focus of Contemporary Holocaust Cinema" (Lanham, MD: Rowman
and Littlefield, 2005).

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking restrictions will
be relaxed in Lot J, after 7 p.m. For more information, contact the
Armenian Studies Program at 559.278.2669.

Gabriel Sargsyan’s second subsequent victory

ArmRadio.am
19.03.2007 16:58

Armenian Grand Master Gabriel Sargsyan celebrated his second subsequent
victory in the International Chess Festival after Ryui Lopes under way in the
Spanish city of Safra. Gaining 2 points in two rounds, he currently shares
1st-2nd place with Spanish Lopes Kandelario.

RA FM: AZERBAIJAN LOST POLITICAL AND MORAL RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO NKR PEOPLE

Arminfo
2007-03-15 13:35:00

The People of Nagorno Karabakh had used its right for
self-determination within the last years of the Soviet Union existence,
RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said at the session of the UN
Committee on Human Rights in Geneva.

As RA FM’s press-service told ArmInfo, the Minister has reminded
in his speech that Azerbaijan responded to the peaceful statements
of the Karabakh side by a military pressure. "Acting in such a way,
Azerbaijan has lost the political and moral rights with respect to
the Karabakh people", V. Oskanyan said.

RICE SENDS WARNING TO CONGRESS OVER ARMENIAN RESOLUTION

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
March 14 2007

The letter warned that if passed, the resolution will harm Turkish-US
relations.

Guncelleme: 14:11 TSÝ 14 Mart 2007 CarþambaWASHINGTON – US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates
have warned that a draft resolution to be considered by the House
of Representatives on so-called Armenian genocide would result in
serious damage to relations with Turkey if passed.

The warning, which came in a letter sent to Speaker of House of
Representatives Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner from the Republican Party,
and Tom Lantos, chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee, was signed by both Rice and Gates.

Reportedly, the letter said that if the draft resolution was passed
by the House of Representatives, Turkish-US ties would be seriously
damaged and this would harm national interests of the US.

Though originally submitted in January, the draft resolution has
yet to be put on the House’s schedule for debate. A similar draft
resolution is expected to be tabled with the US Senate this week.

–Boundary_(ID_Pa763QQRXXsn3xHOYiL4Vw)–

LEVON ARONYAN THE 4TH IN THE MORELIA-LINARES TOURNAMENT

armradio.am
12.03.2007 15:49

Gaining 7 points, Armenian Grand Master Levon Aronyan holds the forth
place at the Morelia-Linares International Chess Tournament held in
the Spanish city of Morelia. Winner of the previous tournament Levon
Aronyan lost to Vasili Ivanchuk, celebrated one victory and 12 matches
ended in a draw.

The winner of the tournament was Vishvanatan Anand of India with
8.5 points.

Alexander Morozevich of Russia was the second with 7.5 points. Norweign
Magnus Karlsen ran third with 7.5 points.

OSCE MG: SOONER STEPANAKERT JOINS TALKS BETTER IT WILL BE FOR THE WHOLE PROCESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.03.2007 20:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Meetings with authorities of Nagorno Karabakh must
be continued and deepened," OSCE Minsk Group French Co-Chair Bernard
Fassier stated to a press conference in Yerevan. He said, The OSCE
MG has no guilt in the fact that representatives of Nagorno Karabakh
do not participate in talks. "But when we begin talks over status,
presence of Nagorno Karabakh will be necessary, it will be impossible
to settle this issue without Nagorno Karabakh," Fassier stressed.

Alongside he noted that he does not refer to details of talks between
Armenia and leadership of Nagorno Karabakh. "We know the stance of
Arkadi Ghukassian, as well as he knows our stance. Participation
of Karabakh side in the negotiations is not excluded, and sooner it
happens better it will be for the whole process, Bernard Fassier said.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Karabakh problem is Turkey’s bleeding wound, Erdogan says
09.03.2007 16:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The Karabakh problem is Turkey’s bleeding wound,’
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the First
Conference of Azerbaijani and Turkish Diasporan organizations. When
touching on the Armenian Genocide issue he said, `As you know, we have
addressed the Armenian leadership and the international community to
inform them of our readiness to open all historical archives. Let
historians, archeologists and journalists speak on the issue. However,
the Armenian side has not issued a response so far,’ Erdogan said,
reports Day.az.

AZG Armenian Daily #044, 10/03/2007

Armenia-Azerbaijan Relations

ALIEV REPEATING HIS OLD STORY ALREADY LEARNT BY HEART

On a press conference in Baku French Co-Chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group stated that a number of conditions
must be provided before Azeri refugees can return to
Karabakh. "Trend" agency reports that one of the
conditions is establishment of Azerbaijani
administrative representation on the "occupied"
territories. Mr. Fassier rued that there is a problem
of persuading Armenians and Azeris to live side by
side in peace.

Meanwhile the Minsk Group Representative is perhaps
trying to impose the idea of peace and neighborhood
upon the two peoples, Azerbaijani head of state is
doing everything to lay all those efforts in vain. On
the first forum of Turkish and Azeri Diaspora
organizations, Ilham Aliev said that Armenia must
change its policy, set free the occupied Azerbaijani
lands of Karabakh and resign its claim for recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.

Aliev also declared that meeting these requirements
will benefit Armenia itself first of all. Turkish
Prime Minister erdogan, who also was [resent to the
meeting said that the Karabakh problem is a bleeding
wound of Turkey. It is reported that the whole meeting
in general was devoted to Armenia, the Armenians and
their relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, as one
could think that the Turkish peoples have always had
their only problem with the Armenians.

By Agavni Harutiunian

Cascade Bank intends to launch a large-scale project on issuing co-branding
cards

Arminfo
2007-03-09 12:43:00

The Cascade Bank intends to launch a large-scale project on issuing
co-branding cards next month, Tigran Hovhannissyan, the Head of the
Cascade Bank’s plastic cards department, told an ArmInfo
correspondent. Saying that it’s a commercial secret, he refused to
give detailed information about the project.

According to T.Hovhannissyan, the Cascade Bank works mainly at new
projects on card business which are being implemented in Armenia for
the first time. Particularly, in 2007, the bank issued chip cards
which allow to increase the security of the cards, as the information
is put directly on the microprocessor. The project is still in a pilot
stage, and 10 cards have been issued. Besides, the bank in planning
to serve local ArCa cards on the territory of Georgia, which is also a
product innovation for the clients.

T.Hovhannissyan noted that in total, the Cascade Bank has issued about
1100 cards, 950 of them are local ArCa cards. In the middle of 2006,
the bank started carrying out transactions by MasterCard international
cards, and in 2007 the bank was permitted by the Central Bank of
Armenia to issue and serve this system’s cards.

Presently, Cascade bank has 4 ITMs but in close the number will grow
to 7. T. Hovhannissyan said that the bank plans to set up ITMs in
regions in 2008.

He said that it is planed to three-fold increase the amount of card
issue making up 3000. "Card business is priority of Cascade Capital
Holding in the work with natural persons. It adds up to the client
base, improves the service quality and extends the amount of services
available – where belong: chip cards, services for local cards outside
Armenia, discounts and bonuses," T. Hovhannissyan concluded.