Author: Nalbandian Eduard

DANIEL FRIED: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION TO DAMAGE U.S. INTERESTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.10.2007 14:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The Administration opposes House Resolution 106,"
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs,
Daniel Fried said at a briefing in the U.S. Department of State.

"And we think it would do grave harm, both to U.S.-Turkish relations
and to U.S. interests. It would hurt our forces deployed in Iraq,
which rely on passage through Turkey. It would do far greater harm than
good. It would do nothing to advance Turkish-Armenian reconciliation,"
he said.

"It is not simply this Administration which opposes this bill, but
all former living Secretaries of State have written to Speaker Pelosi
in opposition, including: Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher,
Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Alexander Haig, George
Shultz, Larry Eagleburger. They have all expressed the view that
this resolution could, and I quote, "endanger our national security
interests in the region, including the safety of our troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan," he said.

"No one, neither the former secretaries nor the Administration denies
that a terrible and inexcusable tragedy of mass killings and forced
exile befell innocent Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman
Empire in 1915 and after. Those are historical facts.

Up to a million and a half people were killed or forced into exile. The
United States has recognized this. President Bush, like President
Clinton before him, has formally recognized it in annual statements
on Armenian Remembrance Day on April 24th. So the Administration does
not deny anything. We do not deny anything. But we do not believe
that this bill would advance either the cause of historical truth or
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation or the interests of the United States
and we oppose it," he said.

As to Turkey’s possible restriction of some sort of access to Iraq,
Mr Fried said, "I don’t want to discuss a possible Turkish reaction
to a bill that I hope doesn’t pass, but it is true that the Turkish
reaction would be extremely strong. It has been strong when such
resolutions have passed before and we have to be mindful of how much
we depend and how much our troops and the Iraqi economy depends on
shipments from and through Turkey."

The U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee will hold a vote on the
Armenian Genocide Resolution October 10.

The House version of the Resolution, H.Res.106, was introduced January
30 by lead author Rep. Adam Schiff.

It’s supported by 227 Congressmen and 32 Senators.

OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY’S NEXT MEETING TO TAKE PLACE IN AZERBAIJAN

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 8 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend E.Huseynli / The Chairman of the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly, Goran Lennmarker, permitted the Assembly’s
next committee meeting to be conducted in Azerbaijan, a member of the
Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA, Azay Guliyev, reported to Trend.

According to him, conducting the next session or one of the meetings
of the Assembly’s committees in Azerbaijan has been scheduled for 2009.

During her meeting with Lennmarker during the OSCE PA’s autumn
session in Slovenia, the Deputy Chair of the Azerbaijani Parliament,
Bahar Muradova, proposed to hold the next session of the Assembly
in Azerbaijan.

During the session, Azay Guliyev, delivered a general report on the
occupant policy of Armenia. In addition, he gave an interview on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the State television of Slovenia.

RETURN OF ARMENIAN FIRST PRESIDENT TO ACTIVE POLITICS SERIOUSLY CHANGES THE SITUATION IN THE COUNTRY, ONE OF HIS TEAMMATES IS SURE

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2007

ArmInfo. "The return of the first Armenian president to active politics
seriously changed the situation in the country: everyone understood
that the expectations of those, wishing it, begin to came true. At
the same time the opponents started to worry", the representative of
"the Alternative" opposition socio-political movement, ex-mayor of
Yerevan Vahagn Khachatryan said during his meeting with journalists
at the "Azdak" club, Saturday.

He criticized the work of mass media controlled by the authority,
which, he thinks, were ordered not to make Levon Ter-Pterosyan’s
well-known speech of September 21 public, but only to give personal
comments. "Looking at the screen, I was trying to understand, what
in the first president’s speech dissatisfied the TV channels. But
I failed to, as the speech itself, or any serious fragments from it
weren’t aired", V. Khacahatrian said. At the same time, the politician
expressed confidence that after Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s appearance in
active politics, the culture of political debate, itself returns
to the Armenian reality. "We aren’t going to follow the rules of
game dictated by the authorities, we won’t fight with them on the
level of gossip and black PR. On the contrary, we are going to
present our program and to offer a way of bringing the country out
of crisis. None of us will descend to the level of the opponents’
political hysterics", the oppositionist said. Vahagn Khachatryan said,
that according to data available, the Public television of Armenia
is finishing shooting a film fully directed to the anti-agitation of
the time of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s presidency.

"The only thing we demand, is to be given an opportunity to answer
on the same TV channel", the representative of "the Alternative"
movement summed up.

Panorama.am

15:24 06/10/2007

Days of Vanadzor

Celebrations for the Days of Vanadzor have been launched. According to
the panorama.am journalist present at the event, many people were in
attendance. A parade from the Hayk Square, along Tigran Mets
Boulevard, moved towards the Artsakh Gardens. Congratulatory speeches
took place along the way.

A three-hour concert, led enthusiastically by Armenian sportsmen, took
place at Hayk Square following the parade. At the same time, an
exhibition and sale of various items of art took place near the
square. City hall promised surprises for newlyweds present at the
day’s events.

We point out that this is the eighth year Vanadzor has celebrated this
holiday. Days of Vanadzor celebrations began on October 1.

Source: Panorama.am

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Oct 5 2007

Leader of Democratic Party of Armenia: they are negotiating but there
is no result

ArmInfo. The Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is one of the most important
issues of Armenian foreign policy. But although they are negotiating,
there is no success except the one reached in 1994, the leader of the
Democratic Party of Armenia Aram Sarkisyan said at the
press-conference, Friday.

At the same time Sarkisyan thinks that unlike Armenia the people of
Nagornyy Karabakh managed establishing inner stability in their
republic and gaining security as a result. In this sense the NKR is
in more favourable state than Armenia, Aram Sarkisyan said. Touching
on the Karabakh talks, he pointed at two mistakes of the Armenian
diplomacy. The first is that the NKR does not take part in the talks.
The second is that the Armenian party unlike the Azerbaijani one does
not hold agressive propaganda. ‘The world needs information about the
Karabakh conflict. We should always voice our position. But it turns
out that private persons fulfill obligations of the state’, –
Sarkisyan said. He also added that no principle of the document on
Karabakh settlement is in line with the interests of the Armenian
party. ‘What do those principles suppose? Returning of territories,
returning of Azerbaijani refugees to the places of their former
residence. And there is no word about the Armenian refugees. They
also suppose
peace-makers, behind which Azerbaijan will be able to arm better.
Incidentally Azerbaijan is not going to recognize independence of
Nagornyy Karabakh!’, – Aram Sarkisyan concluded pessimistically.

GOVERNING PARTY MEMBER PREDICTS OUTRIGHT VICTORY FOR PRIME MINISTER IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

ARMENPRESS
Oct 05 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS: A parliament member from the governing
Republican Party has downplayed speculations and media stories arguing
that prime minister Serzh Sarkisian will not be able to win an outright
and sweeping victory in the 2008 presidential election.

The MP, Mkrtich Minasian, said today to a news conference that Serzh
Sarkisian’s regular visits to Armenian regions are not an element of
a populist campaign, but a desire to get to know the real problems
of the people which is key to deciding a strategy for their solution.

He rebuked mass media for ‘exaggerations’ when it comes to covering
the activity of his Republican Party, but agreed that it is natural,
because every political force, prior to the start of the official
campaigning, is trying to convey its ideas and platform to people to
win their support.

Asked to comment on developments surrounding ex-president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, Mkrtich Minasian first commended him as ‘a prudent
and seasoned politician," and then disagreed with Ter-Petrosian’s
assessment of the situation in the country, which the ex-president
gave in his recent September 21 speech.

Mkrtich Minasian said Ter-Petrosian could have provided a more balanced
and real description.

Mkrtich Minasian then declined speculations that the government’s
decision to raise old-age pensions, social allowances next year and
prime minister’s pledge to raise the budget to $2.5 billion have
sparked a wave of food price hikes, saying price hikes are occurring
now worldwide.

MINISTER BACKS CONTROVERSIAL MINING PROJECT
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 5 2007

Minister for Trade and Economic Development Nerses Yeritsian voiced
support on Friday for a multimillion-dollar mining project that,
if implemented, will lead to the destruction of a rich forest in
northern Armenia and is strongly opposed by environmentalists.

The Armenian Copper Program (ACP), the country’s second largest
mining company, plans to invest $270 million in turning the Teghut
forest rich in copper and molybdenum ores into a big mine in the next
five years. The Liechtenstein-registered company is already making
preparations for the start of open-pit operations in the 357-hectare
area covered by some 128,000 trees.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Environment gave its mandatory
approval of the project. ACP is confident that it will soon get final
government clearance to start work on the Teghut deposit.

"I personally approve of that project," Yeritsian told university
students in Yerevan. "That the project must be implemented is out of
question for me," he said. "You just can’t keep revenue underground.

You must extract revenue and think about how to develop that area."

Yeritsian echoed ACP executives’ arguments that the planned development
of the deposit will result in 1,400 new jobs. The private company
has also pledged to build new schools and make other investments in
the local infrastructure.

Environment protection groups insist that all of this would be
trumped by the heavy ecological cost of the project. They say it
would accelerate Armenia’s deforestation which began in the early
1990s and is increasingly threatening the national ecosystem.

Armenia’s mining and metallurgy sectors, dominated by foreign
investors, have expanded rapidly in recent years on the back of
soaring international prices for copper and molybdenum. Non-ferrous
metals are currently the country’s number one export.

Pontifical Visit Media Advisory

His Holiness Karekin II

Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians

Pontifical Visit of the

Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)

630 Second Avenue New York, New York 10016

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate

Pontifical Visit

Media Relations Office

Michael O’Hurley-Pitts, Ph.D.

Director

Telephone: 212.686.0710 ext. 154

[email protected]

Facsimile: 212.689.1934

Cellular: 212.533.0335

Sylvie Keshishian

Public Relations Director

Telephone: 212.686.0710 ext. 160

[email protected]

Facsimil e: 212.689.1934

PRESS RELEASE

5 October 2007

Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II Celebrates
Hrashapar Service

New York, N.Y. – His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos
of All Armenians, was present at a special Hrashapar Service at St. Vartan
Armenian Cathedral at 7:30 p.m. last night. The Hrashapar Service is one
that is traditionally celebrated by the Church involved in the arrival of
the Catholicos. This service has two meanings: one of welcome and also, on
the part of the Catholicos, a service of Thanksgiving for having reached his
destination safely and an acknowledgement of the honor being bestowed upon
him.

Children in traditional Armenian dress, seminarians from St. Nersess
Armenian Seminary () and hierarchs from other
denominations, including the Antiochian Orthodox, Coptic, Episcopal, Greek
Orthodox, Orthodox Church in America, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox and
Syrian Orthodox Churches, as well as leaders of the National Council of
Churches of Christ and the clergy of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America (Eastern) welcomed His Holiness Karekin II, who entered under the
ornate Catholical canopy carried by four members of the Board of Trustees of
the Diocese.

When the faithful arrived at St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral, His Holiness
Karekin II was greeted by children with bread and salt; and blessed the two
and then dipped the bread in the salt, taking a bite as a symbol of
thanksgiving for the parish welcoming him. Bread and salt are life-giving
elements symbolizing humanity’s essential needs, echoing the Gospel story in
which Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of life and humanity as the salt
of the earth. The blessing recited by His Holiness Karekin II is a plea to
God to achieve meaning in life and to thank Him for His mercies. The service
itself is brief and consists of the singing of the Hymn of Pontifical
significance and the recitation of an appropriate Psalm.

His Eminence welcomed His Holiness and spoke of the honor to have His
Holiness present in the Eastern Diocese and spoke about the theme of this
Pontifical Visit: A Pastoral Journey – Bringing Faith Home. The Catholicos
is encouraging Armenian Christians to strengthen their identity through his
Pontifical Visit to the Eastern Diocese, gracing his parishioners with his
leadership and spirituality. His Holiness Karekin II spoke to the assembled
crowd of more than 1,500 worshippers, encouraging Armenian Christians to
have hope in themselves and in their Church. He also shared his gratitude
towards the Diocese and his flock.

The Service was followed by an informal reception at 8:30 p.m. which was
open to the public, free of charge and will take place at the Diocesan
Center’s Kavookjian Hall.

For more information on the Pontifical Visit of His Holiness Karekin II,
including supplemental media advisories and background papers, please visit:

# # #

INDEED, THE PEOPLE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH DON’T WANT ANYTHING THAT IS NOT THEIRS

Karabakh Open
Oct 4 2007

The people of Nagorno-Karabakh don’t want anything that is not theirs

The Nagorno-Karabakh issue should not be discussed at the UN, stated
the Armenian foreign minister Oskanyan addressing the 62nd session
of the UN General Assembly, News Armenia reported.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is included on the agenda of this
General Assembly session under the topic of protracted conflicts. But
any resolution that places all conflicts in one pot is necessarily
flawed," Oskanyan said. According to him, each of these conflicts is
different. For the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, this issue should not
be discussed at the UN, because it is being negotiated in the OSCE,
the minister said.

"First, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not frozen. We continue
to negotiate and we are inching towards resolution," said minister
Oskanyan in his speech the text of which was provided to News Armenia
on Thursday by the press and information service of the Armenian
foreign ministry.

According to him, there is a well-developed negotiating document on the
table, "based not on wishful thinking, but on the core issue and the
consequential issues. Together, they add up to a balanced solution,"
he said.

"At the core of the process lies the issue of the right of the people
of Nagorno-Karabakh to determine their own future. Indeed, the people
of Nagorno-Karabakh don’t want anything that is not theirs – they
want a right to live in peace and security and to determine their
own future, they want to exercise the right that every people here
has exercised at some point in their history," the minister underlined.

GUAM reported the issue of resolving frozen conflicts to the 62nd
session of the UN General Assembly.

TURKISH FM HOLDS "POSITIVE" MEETING WITH OSKANIAN

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 4 2007

Babacan holds "positive" meeting with Oskanian

Foreign Minister and Chief UE Negotiator Ali Babacan met the Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian at the United Nations on Tuesday.

Diplomatic sources close to the Turkish foreign minister said that
the meeting between Babacan and Oskanian was very positive. Babacan
informed Oskanian that "Turkey is always open to dialogue."

Diplomatic sources indicated that the Babacan-Oskanian meeting was
designed to get the two ministers to know each other.

During the talks, Oskanian congratulated the Turkish government and
people over the recent successful general elections.

While Oskanian insisted that the Armenian-Turkish border be opened
up, Babacan in turn indicated that trade between Turkey and Armenia
takes place via third parties and that there is air link with
Armenia. Babacan stressed that hundreds of Armenian citizens work
in Turkey.

According to diplomatic sources, Babacan brought up the issue
of a resolution in the United States Congress on the incidents
of 1915 while talking to Oskanian. Babacan told Oskanian that
parliamentarians should not write history and that history should be
left to historians. Babacan reminded Oskanian that Turkey made an
offer to Armenia in 2005 to set up a joint historical committee to
study the incidents of 1915. The topic of Upper Karabagh also came
up during Babacan’s meeting with Oskanian. No details were given.

Diplomatic sources stressed that Babacan-Oskanian meeting took place
in a warm atmosphere. Both Babacan and Oskanian expressed a desire
to continue dialogue in the near future.

During the meeting with Oskanian, Babacan showed a picture of the
Akdamar Church, restored by the Turkish government, to Oskanian.

Following the meeting, Oskanian left without making any comments to
the press. Babacan-Oskanian meeting lasted nearly one hour.

Meanwhile, Babacan attended the Annual Coordination Meeting of
Foreign Ministers of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
on Tuesday and also met the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Iftekhar
Ahmed Chowdhury.

Babacan returned to Turkey on Wednesday.