Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

Syrian Charge d’Affaires visits the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

armradio.am
16.02.2007 16:55

February 16 in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin the Catholicos of All
Armenians Garegin II received the newly appointed Charge d’Affaires of
the Arab Republic of Syria Mr. Mamun Hariri.
His Holiness passed his congratulations to Mr. Hariri, whishing him a
kind and productive mission in Armenia. The Catholicos expressed
appreciation for the fact that the centuries old friendship between the
two peoples is continuing and the cooperation between the two states is
strengthening year by year.
The Catholicos of All Armenians thanked for the kind attitude the
Syrian authorities are demonstrating towards the Armenian people.
During the meeting His Holiness Garegin II recalled also the visit to
Aleppo and Der Zor in 2001, as well as the visit of the delegation
headed by Syrian Chief Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassun to the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin in 2006.

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Feb 16 2007

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs make statement on Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement

[ 16 Feb 2007 13:09 ]

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group for the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement, Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard Fassier
(France) and Deputy Assistant Secretary Matthew Bryza (USA) made a
statement after the meeting in Paris on February 14 and 15, in the
presence of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in
Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, French Foreign Ministry told the APA.

In the joint statement, the co-chairs expressed hope that the sides
will maintain the momentum that had developed in the negotiations in
recent months and that the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan will meet again in the nearest future, to overcome the
remaining differences on the basic principles of a future settlement
agreement.
They called on the parties to avoid any action anywhere, including in
the United Nations General Assembly, that could undermine the
positive developments of recent months./APA/

ARMENIAN DELEGATION TO ATTEND THE COURT HEARING ON RAMIL SAFAROV’S APPEAL

ArmRadio.am
14.02.2007 11:58

February 19 or 20 members of the Armenian delegation, attorney
Nazeli Vardanyan and Director of the Genocide Museum-Institute of
the Armenian National Academy of Sciences Hayk Demoyan will leave for
Budapest to participate in the first court hearing of the appeal of
Ramil Safarov sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Armenian
Officer Gurgen Margaryan.

Hayk Demoyan told Armenpress that participating in the court hearing,
the Armenian delegation should show both the Azeri and Hungarian
sides that it will ensure that the criminal gets maximum punishment.

Hayk Demoyan noted that nothing can be ruled out at this point, but
the opportunities of the Azerbaijani side are not enough to change
the verdict.

In his words, discussing the issue of extradition is senseless now,
until the Court of Appeal has announced the verdict. However, there
has been no precedent in Hungary that the detainee sentenced to life
imprisonment would be returned to his country.

Let us remind that on February 19, 2004 Ramil Safaov had brutally
killed Armenian Officer Ramil Safarov during NATO courses in
Hungary. On April 13, 2006 the Hungarian Court sentenced him to life
imprisonment without the right of amnesty for 30 years.

ANALYSIS: ISRAEL, TURKEY LOOK TO DEEPEN TIES
By Joshua Brilliant
UPI Correspondent

World Peace Herald, DC
Feb 14 2007

Both share basic outlooks

TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will try to expand
Israel’s strategic relations with Turkey during a two-day visit to
Ankara that starts Wednesday.

Since its early days Israel sought close ties with states that ringed
the Arab world — Turkey, Iran under the shah, and Ethiopia.

Turkey is powerful, pro-Western, not Arab but definitely Muslim, and
Israelis had hoped that would break the impression that the Muslim
world opposed the Jewish state.

Turkey was initially cold but came round about a decade ago when it
reassessed its policies. It felt dangerous neighbors and hotspots of
instability were across its borders, and believed Israel’s influence
in the United States could help it especially in countering Greek
and Armenian lobbies in Washington.

Israel and Turkey share basic outlooks. They consider the Middle East
"a turbulent area in which the use of force is part and parcel of
the rules of the game," noted director of Bar Ilan University’s BESA
Center for Strategic Studies, Efraim Inbar. "Informal alliances are
at least as important as formal explicit coalitions," he said.

Both countries have democratic systems, liberal economic policies
and these cultural elements buttressed their strategic outlook,
Inbar added. Both are also concerned over Muslim radicalism, terror
and Iran’s nuclear program.

Yet Turkey, a member of NATO, does not feel as threatened as Israel,
which is small and lacks the alliance’s umbrella.

However, analysts believe Turkey is concerned Iran would try to extend
its influence to the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula and to northern Iraq.

Iran is ruled by Muslim-Shiite ayatollahs, while Turkey seeks
modernization, wants to join the European Union and its influential
army is committed to secularism. Turks have not forgotten that Iran
had tried to undermine their regime using the Kurdish PKK and Hezbollah
Turk. With a nuclear bomb Iran will be a different state.

The joint concerns and the feeling they could benefit from each other
led to close military and intelligence cooperation.

Israeli pilots practice sorties over Turkey because it has large
empty spaces and perhaps the terrain is similar to part of Iran.

Turkish pilots have been using Israel’s flight simulators and training
grounds. The air forces and navies have held joint exercises.

Israel upgraded Turkish Phantoms and M-60 tanks. According to the
Institute for National Security Studies, Israel sold Turkey guided
anti-radar missiles and intelligence equipment, to name but a few
items.

The Turkish army’s Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Ergin Saygun was in
Israel late last year discussing plans, but more is expected during
Olmert’s visit.

"There is a very important strategic relationship and we hope to
expand defense relations to additional different things," Olmert’s
media adviser Miri Eisin said. These would include joint exercises,
military sales, exchanging information and development projects,
she added.

Erdogan and Olmert meeting will stress economics

A Turkish diplomat who spoke to United Press International on condition
of anonymity said he expected Olmert and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to discuss regional issues such as Iran and Syria’s request
that Turkey arrange peace talks with Israel — something Olmert
rejected. However, the focus will be on economic issues, he said.

Ankara wants to rebuild the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza
Strip, employ 6,000 people at first and subsequently 10,000.

Erez had been an Israeli-Palestinian joint industrial zone, but the
facilities were destroyed following Israel’s withdrawal in 2005.

Ankara intends to back businessmen who would invest in Gaza. If Erez
succeeds, similar zones would be established elsewhere advancing the
peace process, the diplomat said.

However, in order to succeed, it needs Israeli assurances of a smooth
flow of raw materials into Erez and uninterrupted movement of the
finished products to Israel’s Ashdod port and elsewhere. The Karni
Crossing is often closed.

The second major program envisages underwater pipelines from Turkey to
Israel carrying natural gas, oil and possibly electric power and water.

The Turks have a gas pipeline from Baku, on the Caspian Sea, to Ceyhan
in southeastern Turkey. Another pipeline carries Russian oil under the
Black Sea to Turkey. The quantities that can be shipped there surpass
Turkey’s needs and the idea is to carry the gas and oil further on for
Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians or for emerging markets in Asia,
the Turkish diplomat said.

Israel has an oil pipeline linking the Mediterranean Sea (at Ashkelon)
with the Red Sea (at Eilat). It was originally built to carry Iranian
oil from Eilat to Ashkelon but the facilities allow for an opposite
flow too.

Arab and Iranian oil fields are much closer to the emerging Asian
markets but the Turkish-Israeli alternative would vary those countries’
sources and reduce their dependence on the Arabs and Iranians, an
Israeli official noted.

The Ankara talks will surely touch on some of the problems, too.

Turkey is 99.8 percent Muslim, and Erdogan’s AKP party is
conservative-Islamist. He attended a high school that prepares its
pupils to become imams. His wife wears a veil and he sent his two
daughters to study in Indiana because there they, too, could wear
a veil.

Erdogan, like other Turks, is very sensitive to the Palestinians’
plights and it showed when there were severe clashes with Israelis.

The Turks quickly invited an Islamic Hamas delegation right after that
party won the January 2006 Palestinian elections. Turkey welcomed
the Fatah-Hamas Mecca agreement, unlike the Quartet that is waiting
to see how matters develop.

Turkey has not stopped an arms flow from Iran to Syria where weapons
are then forwarded to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The planes that landed
in Damascus airport must have passed through Turkey’s airspace and
the flow must have been massive.

During last summer’s Israeli-Lebanese war, Hezbollah fired 4,000
Katyusha rockets. Israel destroyed Zelzal missiles Iran had provided.

Thousands of trucks carry Iran’s exports to Europe via Turkey.

Some apparently detour to Syria with weapons for Iran’s Lebanese
Shiite friends.

ysis-Israel-Turkey-look-to-deepen-ties/Both-share- basic-outlooks.html

Armenians blog their way to 2007 elections
NowPublic.com

Thanks to Global Voices I have discovered a significant project called
the Election Blogging Guide. Armenia of course was part of the Soviet
bloc which discouraged corrupt forms of bourgeois democracy such as
blogging.* The elections are schedulesd for May 12, 2007.

You can imagine what power is now available to Armenian citizens who, in
the words of the document’s author, are now equipped with tools that…

"…form an important alternative space for people to talk about
politics. Although traditional media such as television, radio, and the
newspapers are often biased or are afraid to publish certain news, blogs
offer an opportunity for free speech. Through anonymous blogging as
described in the Guide, both bloggers and commentators can even speak
more freely than the traditional media. In addition, bloggers can act as
citizen journalists, reporting news on election irregularities and fraud
which the traditional media might not be doing."

The audience for blogging in Armenia is growing. Internet use has
increased significantly in the past few years. In 2000, only 1.3 percent
of Armenians were internet users. Now approximately 7.5 percent of
Armenians use the internet. In addition, blogging is a great way for the
Armenian Diaspora to keep up with local news. With so many Armenians
living abroad, it is difficult for them to see an Armenian television
broadcast or read an Armenian newspaper.

But, with high internet penetration rates in most of Europe, it is
fairly easy for them to get online. Reading Armenian blogs can help
members of the Diaspora keep in touch with what is going on in Armenia,
and for those written in an international language like English, blogs
can be read by people around the world. For them, your blog could be a
window into Armenian life.

I am very excited about Armenia’s blogging possibilities and wish the
very best of luck to Armenia’s first blogging generation!

DEATH IN TURKEY: EXOTIC ISTANBUL IN DENIAL ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by John Warner

Charleston Gazette (West Virginia)
February 8, 2007, Thursday

Surely, of all the cities of the world, Istanbul is the most exotic.

Gateway to Asia. Eastern capital of the Roman Empire. City of Emperor
Constantine. City astride two continents. Religious capital of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. City of sultans and harems, belly dancers
in diaphanous costume. Turkish baths. The Topkapi Palace and the
Dolmabace Palace. Armenian genocide. The Hagia Sophia. The Blue
Mosque. Bektashi and Whirling Dervishs. The Sufis. The Grand Souk.

Byzantium. The mythological Jason passed this way in search of the
Golden Fleece.

Here are minarets and calls to prayer and fine Turkish carpets. Here
Xerxes led his Persian armies into Greece. Here later Alexander
crossed to Asia in his quest to subdue the world. Ataturk. The Ottoman
Empire. Janissaries. "It’s Istanbul, not Constantinople now," we used
to sing. The name was changed in 1453 – the year that city fell to
the Turks. A few miles to the south is the site of the tragic battle
of Gallipoli in 1915.

Earlier this year the city of Istanbul was rocked by the murder of a
noted Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the
Turkish-Armenian newspaper, Agos. Dink was gunned down by a teenage
boy, apparently in reprisal for claiming that the death of 1 million
Turkish Armenians was genocide. You are not allowed to say that in
Turkey. You are not allowed to speak of the killing of a million
Armenians in the second decade of the 20th century. And for some
strange reason, the fact of that genocide has never been officially
recognized even by our own government.

I would not mention this, except that it has become an issue in
American foreign policy. There is a push, more on the Democratic
side of the aisle, to assert an official recognition of the Armenian
genocide, sometimes called the first Holocaust of the Twentieth
Century. But in Turkey there is complete denial of that fact, and to
recognize the event in Congress will threaten U.S.-Turkish relations.

The story is told many times over in the dusty books on back shelves
of libraries all across America. It is told a hundred times over on
the World Wide Web. Just go to any search engine and type the words
"Armenian Genocide." Hundreds of grizzly photographs will make your
stomach turn. Starvation. Decapitation. Death marches and macabre
train rides. Pyramids of human skulls. Massacre. Still, it is verboten.

Perhaps you can picture, in your mind’s eye, the region in and around
eastern Turkey, defined on the north by the Caucasus Mountains,
particularly by the tall Mount Ararat – where, according to the
book of Genesis, Noah’s ark first found dry land. Here, between the
Caspian and the Black Seas, dwell dozens of competing ethnic and
language groups. Here today meet the modern nations of Armenia,
Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Here
dwell the Kurds and the Armenians, Muslims and Christians, struggling
throughout the 20th century for statehood, land and recognition.

Caught in the vortex between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

For centuries the Armenians, Kurds and Turks got along OK. The
Armenians were considered loyal to the Ottoman Empire, accepting with
little protest their second-class citizenship. But with the rise of
nationalism in the 19th century and the demise and "decrepitude" of the
old Ottoman Empire – called the "Sick Man of Europe" first by Russian
Tsar Nicholas I – Armenians began to suffer. While the Turks wanted
to expand their dominion east into what is today known as Turkistan,
Armenians demanded their own independence and national state. They
were an obstruction to Turkish ambitions. In the Russo-Turkish War of
1877-78, Armenians sided with Russia, and Christian Russians supported
their religious brothers. After that war, the Armenians were blamed
for the defeat of Turks at the hands of "Christian" Russia.

On April 24, 1915, hundreds of Armenians were rounded up and gunned
down in the city of Istanbul. One million Armenians are said to have
died in the next three years. But one must never speak of this within
the confines of modern Turkey. It simply did not happen.

Hrank Dink, the Armenian editor, dared to say what could not be said.

He paid the high price for those words. And today there is a renewed
call for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

I was the first guest to be seated in the coffee shop at the Nippon
Hotel in downtown Istanbul one morning in January more than a dozen
years ago. Seven o’clock. I ordered my coffee and read an English
language newspaper. And out of the window I saw a big black bear on
the city street, leashed to a fellow out for his morning walk. I asked
the waitress. "Gypsy and dancing bear," she said in her pretty-good
English. Surely this is an exotic city.

Dr. Warner, professor emeritus at West Virginia Wesleyan College,
is a Gazette contributing columnist.

DARK SPOTS IN TURKISH HISTORY

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 10 2007

Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs in the US
State Department Ambassador Daniel Fried gave a video lecture at the
US ambassador’s residence in Ankara. Ambassador Fried was supposed
to evaluate Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s recent visit to
Washington. Because of the high expectations nurtured in the Turkish
media, the visit was doomed to be labeled as a failure. The receptors
of the media were fixed on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and even
Gul’s last minute resort to take the credit of European operations
against the PKK didn’t help. No matter what has been achieved in
this visit, and has been prepared for Chief of General Staff Yaþar
Buyukanýt’s visit, the fact that Gul didn’t meet US Speaker of the
House Nancy Pellosi — champion of the resolution — has turned the
visit into a total failure. By canceling the visit of a parliamentary
group to lobby in the US Congress, the Turkish Foreign Ministry
contributed to the sentiment of a lost case. Ambassador Fried, while
not openly admitting to it, seemed to be giving the same message in
not so many words.

Americans regard diplomacy as the art of being nice while giving the
message. When it comes to speaking with Turks, they have realized that
being nice means reaching to the Turkish subconscious that is dieing
to hear honoring compliments; just give us some compliments about
our culture and cuisine or a possible genealogical link between the
Native Americans and the Turks. You could mention how you are amazed
to see the development of Turkey, what a great commander Ataturk was
or how eloquent our Foreign Minister is and his will suffice for us
to be stripped off our national interests.

What nice words we are hearing from the American diplomats nowadays!

Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary for political affairs had such a
complimentary tone that one is forced to think that ‘this man is going
to ask for something’. Daniel Fried revealed what they are going to ask
for: Be prepared for an Armenian Genocide Resolution to pass from the
Congress. Fried implied that although our relations are more important
than any particular issue that may pop up during these relations we
should be prepared to examine the shameful moments in our history,
not because they say so but because it is good for our democracy.

This is not to say that Turkey has been betrayed by the American
Administration. On the contrary, the administration made it very clear
to the world that they oppose this resolution. But the facts on the
ground speak for themselves. The administration has a majority neither
in the Congress, nor in the Senate. And the Democratic majority in
both houses, supports this resolution not only because they believe
the Armenian stories, but because they know that this will make
George W. Bush’s life a bit more miserable. It is true that the
US President has the veto power and that the US foreign policy is
formulated entirely by the administration. But once the resolution
passes, the harm will already be done. It won’t hurt the Turks any
less than it hurts the Turkish-American relations.

Had Daniel Fried not seen this future scenario, would he ask the
Turks to face the "dark spots" in their history? I don’t think so. It
is now for the Turks to see the same scene and formulate a position
that will not harm the strategic Turkish-American relations without
weakening the Turkish position vis-a-vis the genocide claims.

–Boundary_(ID_PvevvEvE1S0CetN3Gn9VXA)–

EU PRESSURES SERBIA ON KOSOVO

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2007 15:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During a meeting between Serbian President Boris
Tadic and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, EU enlargement
commissioner Olli Rehn and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier the high-level EU delegation pressed Belgrade to take part
"positively" in UN talks on the future of its breakaway province of
Kosovo and to speedily form a new government.

AFP reports that the EU troika said they wanted to encourage
authorities to engage in the final phase of efforts to grant Kosovo
a new status, almost eight years since its inter-ethnic war. "It’s
important that they (the Serbs) respond constructively, positively and
on time to the proposal," Solana said. In his part, Steinmeier noticed,
"The European Union hopes for decisiveness on the difficult issue of
Kosovo. It is now important that this agreement will create stability
in the Balkans."

Belgrade and most Serbs see Kosovo as the cradle of their nation’s
history, culture and Orthodox Christian religion. "We need a minimal
delay in order to form the parliament and take other necessary
measures," Serbian premier Vojislav Kostunica said, who renewed his
strong opposition to Kosovo’s independence. In his part President
Tadic said he told the European leaders that Kosovo’s independence
was "unacceptable" but pledged to continue the talks "fully convinced
that it is possible to change Ahtisaari’s plan."

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Feb 10 2007

UNDP GRANTED $500THS TO ARMENIA’S OMBUDSMAN

Yerevan, February 9. /ARKA/. UNDP granted $500ths to the Armenian
Ombudsman office, reported Consuelo Vidal, UN Permanent Coordinator
and UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia.
The greater part of the grant was provided by the Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA), the rest by UNDP, she said.
Armenia’s Ombudsman Armen Haroutiunian pointed out that the funds
will be allocated for realizing various programs, including the
financing of the RA TV programs that raise public awareness of human
rights.
"In this case our cooperation will be as following: we will submit
the planned measures the UNDP, and they will arrange and finance
them," he said. L.M. –0–

RA PRESIDENT APPROVES RA NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY

Noyan Tapan
Feb 08 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Robert Kocharian by
his February 7 decree approved RA National Security Strategy, which
was approved at the 2007 January 26 sitting of National Security
Council under RA President.

Noyan Tapan was informed about it from RA President’s Press
Office. The basic values of RA national security are stipulated by the
document. They are independence, state’s and people’s being protected,
peace and international cooperation, preservation of Armenian nation,
well-being. The main guarantees of fulfilment of national security
strategy are efficiency of state government system, provision of
supremacy of law, introduction of democratic values, impartiality and
independence of judicial power, fighting efficiency of armed forces,
efficient cooperation of security and law enforcement bodies, foreign
policy ensuring efficient international involvement, provision of
social justice.

RA National Security Strategy is subject to being specified according
to change of intrastate and international situation, threats and
challenges, as well as fulfilment of goals mentioned in the document.