Author: Nalchajian Markos

PanARMENIAN.Net

George Bush was reminded about Armenian Genocide
12.01.2008 15:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In Bethlehem, U.S. President George
W. Bush was reminded about the Armenian Genocide.

After talks with Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Bush attended Chapel of the Nativity
of Christ and met with Primate of the Jerusalem
Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop
Aris Shirvanyan, who raised the issue of the Armenian
Genocide.

The territory of Chapel of the Nativity of Christ is
divided into three parts: the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Roman Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox
Church. Welcoming Pres. Bush on behalf of the AAC,
Archbishop Shirvanyan reminded Mr Bush that Armenians
were the first nation to adopt Christianity as state
religion and requested the U.S. President to
reconsider the Armenian Genocide recognition issue.

Mr Bush said he spoke about the issue with Turkish
President and is thinking over it, RFE/RL reports.

George Bush launched his Middle East tour on January
10. After a visit to Israel he headed for Kuwait.
Visits to Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are
also scheduled.

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
January 11, 2008 Friday

CO-CHAIRS OF THE MINSK GROUP OF OSCE FOR THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH
REGULATION WILL VISIT THE REGION IN JANUARY

Visit of co-chairs of the Minsk group of the OSCE for regulation of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the region will take place in
January of 2008. In the course of the visit the co-chairs will get
acquainted with the stance of the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan regarding the provided new definitions for the issues
unsettled yet. The parties of the conflict were used to accomplish
the current stage of negotiations by approval of the basic principles
and to transit immediately to a new base of working out of a draft
comprehensive agreement.

Source: REGNUM news agency, January 08, 2008

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

January 10, 2008

Contact: Haig Hovsepian

Tel: (818) 500-1918

ANC-WR Educates a New Generation on the Importance of the Media

Los Angeles, CA – The Armenian National Committee – Western Region
(ANC-WR) held its first monthly ANC-WR Public Policy Forum, a new
series that was created to help young Armenian Americans understand
and appreciate the importance of engaging government and media. The
first forum focused on the role of American media in defining Armenian
American issues, and took place on Wednesday, December 19, 2007,
drawing together leaders of the Armenian Youth Federation.

"Helping our youth understand the important role media plays in
defining issues is essential," stated ANC-WR Board Member Zanku
Armenian. "As a community, we must engage and improve our
relationships with the media, helping them better understand the
concerns of Armenian Americans," he added.

After introductory remarks by ANC-WR Executive Director Antranig
Kzirian, Board Member Zanku Armenian led an interactive discussion
with attendees. Armenian, who has an extensive background in public
relations and corporate communications, provided a comprehensive
overview of the media in the United States as it relates to politics,
economics and government affairs. Specifically, Armenian stressed the
importance of working closely with journalists to provide quick and
easy access to accurate information. Armenian also focused on
ensuring that activities of the community and organization are tied
into current events and concerns that resonate with media interests.

"Zanku Armenian’s experience in public relations provided a great
overview of how to engage the media to our youth," stated Kzirian.
"We plan to continue these public policy forums to make sure that our
leaders of tomorrow are well prepared advance issues important to the
community," he added.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in
the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States
and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR advances
the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

US, TURKISH PRESIDENTS SET FOR FENCE-MENDING TALKS
by Jitendra Joshi

Agence France Presse — English
January 6, 2008 Sunday 1:57 AM GMT

With the United States bowing to Turkey’s insistence on punitive action
against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, the two nations can look forward to
a more harmonious encounter at summit talks here this week.

President George W. Bush Enhanced Coverage LinkingGeorge W. Bush
-Search using: Biographies Plus News News, Most Recent 60 Days is
set to welcome his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul Enhanced Coverage
LinkingAbdullah Gul -Search using: Biographies Plus News News, Most
Recent 60 Days to the White House on Tuesday morning, shortly before
Bush leaves for the Middle East on his first visit to Israel and the
Palestinian territories.

The leaders are expected to discuss Turkey’s long-running bid to join
the European Union, an aspiration warmly backed by the United States
in the face of resistance from some EU powerbrokers such as France.

And with Bush seeking to revitalize Middle East peace talks, Turkey’s
influence with Israel and Arab states will also figure in Gul’s
Washington talks, as will Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to the
State Department.

It will be Gul’s debut trip to Washington since the mildly Islamist
politician took over as Turkey’s president in August.

Since then, Turkish opinion has been inflamed by deadly cross-border
attacks from northern Iraq by the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK), and by a push in the US Congress to accuse the old Ottoman
Empire of "genocide."

But on both fronts, Turkey’s government has grounds for satisfaction
as the two presidents bid to reinvigorate the oft-strained partnership
between the United States and its Muslim-majority NATO ally.

Mark Parris, a former US ambassador to Turkey, said the breakthrough
came in November when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
enjoyed a "meeting of minds" with Bush in Washington at the bloody
height of the PKK raids.

"Bush used for the first time the expression ‘common enemy,’ which
elevated the perceived threat posed by the PKK to US interests,"
Parris, an expert on Turkey at the Brookings Institution, told AFP.

Bush promised Erdogan real-time US intelligence on PKK guerrilla
movements across the mountainous border between Turkey and Iraq, and
the United States acquiesced to Turkish air raids on rebel redoubts.

In return, according to Parris, the Turkish military promised to
limit civilian casualties, to eschew overnight stays on Iraqi soil,
and to avoid actions that could destabilize Iraq more broadly.

Late last month, Gul told the Anatolia news agency that the US support
"befits our alliance" and added: "This is how it should be.

We could have come to this point earlier."

Underlining the threat from Turkey’s perspective, five people were
killed Thursday when a powerful car bomb exploded near a military
base in Diyarbakir, the main city in the country’s mainly Kurdish
southeast. Another two people were injured in a bombing in the eastern
city of Malatya.

Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy advisor, said the
joint work against the PKK since the prime minister’s Washington
visit has done much to mend US-Turkish fences.

"The Turkish-American cooperation is bearing fruit, we’re satisfied
with it," he told the CNN-Turk network on Wednesday, stressing that
their alliance was no longer an "unconditional partnership."

Turkish leaders are also happy with the waning of the campaign in
the US House of Representatives to label the World War I slaughter
of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman troops as "genocide."

After the genocide bill was passed by the chamber’s foreign affairs
committee in October, Turkey threatened to sever US access to an
airbase that is a key staging post for supplies bound for Iraq and
Afghanistan.

But the resolution’s Democratic authors then agreed to shelve a vote
in the full House, bowing to intense pressure not just from Turkey
but also from the Bush administration.

USA ARMENIAN LIFE MAGAZINE PUBLISHES SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF 2007

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.01.2008 17:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The year 2007 will go down in the Armenian history
annals as a ground-breaking year. In many ways, the year brought an
impressive number of victories for the Armenians. How can one talk of
2007 and not mention the valiant individuals who significantly impacted
our collective life, in the service of Justice and Humanity?" the USA
ARMENIAN LIFE Magazine writes citing the list of main events of year
2007 basing on The California Courier publications.

According to the magazine, one of the most outstanding events was
the statement by Ahmet Ertegun, a significant figure in the modern
recording industry, who said that recognition of the Armenian Genocide
would be good for Turkey. On Jan. 5, 2007, Harut Sassounian, the
Publisher of The California Courier, wrote: "Ahmet Ertegun was a music
magnate who launched the careers of many great singers and groups,
such as Ray Charles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. … He
surprised me by saying that he could not understand why Turkish
officials denied the Armenian Genocide – a fact known to the entire
world. He made it clear that he was not acknowledging the Genocide
in order to appease the Armenians. He believed that it was, first of
all, in Turkey’s interest to acknowledge the Genocide, because doing
so would help Ankara’s application for membership in the European
Union and get rid of the stigma that had haunted his native land for
so many years. Ertegun said he had read about the Armenian Genocide
in many Western books, but had not seen a single reputable book that
denied its occurrence. He referred to Turkish officials who denied the
Genocide as being "Turk ghafali," implying that they had a stubborn
Turkish mentality."

Event number two refers to TIME EUROPE. On Feb 9, 2007, Sassounian
wrote: "It took a little more than a year and a half, but it was well
worth the wait. After lengthy, sometimes complex, but mostly amicable
discussions, the European edition of TIME magazine, in its Feb. 12,
2007 issue, published a full-page text on the Armenian Genocide and
distributed a complimentary DVD, in English and French, which contains
a compelling 52-minute documentary on the Armenian Genocide by French
director Laurence Jourdan. The DVD also includes a 46-minute interview
with Dr. Yves Ternon, a leading expert on the Armenian Genocide.

This issue of the magazine, which has been on newsstands since Feb. 2
in 67 countries throughout Europe, parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle
East, was sold out within the first 48 hours of its availability. When
scores of TIME subscribers, the Switzerland-Armenia Association (SAA)
and this columnist complained to TIME executives, Managing Editor
James Kelly in a letter to SAA dated Sept. 2, 2005, apologized for
having disseminated the Turkish DVD which he said ‘was not adequately
reviewed by anyone at TIME." Furthermore, he acknowledged that the
Turkish DVD did not "meet TIME’s standards for fairness and accuracy.’"

Among the other events of last year the Magazine mentions the verdict
of guilty to Dogu Perincek in Switzerland, publication of "British
Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia, 1919-1922, dismissal of
Los Angeles Times editor for refusal to publish an article about
the Armenian Genocide, recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the
Anti-Defamation League.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Lavrov: U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe aimed at restraining Russia
26.12.2007 14:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Deployment of U.S. military facilities in Europe is
meant for restraining Russia but not for liquidation of Iranian
missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. `We possess
serious data that the target is not Iran’s hypothetic threats but
restraint of Russia. The U.S. chooses one-sided measures neglecting
our concerns,’ he said.

`Besides, shift of power in Iran can appear as an `incidental
goal. What we want is to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program is not
for military purposes. Shift of power is not our objective. In this
view, the U.S. attempts to change the regime will appear as
inconsistent partnership,’ the Minister said, Vremya Novostey reports.

Panorama.am

19:41 25/12/2007

LILIT MKRTCHYAN WINNER

Armenian Grand Master Lilit Lazarian successfully took part in the
international chess competition named after Elena Bikova. Our chess
player shares 1-2 places with Ukrainian Nathalie Zdebskaya. Lazarian
has 6.5 scores from the possible 9. And Siranush Andreasyan,
international chess master captured the 5th horizontal.

Note that L. Lazarian captured the highest scores compared with other
participants in the competition, and S. Andreasyan is the third. The
chess competition took place in Vladimir, Russia. Ten chess players
took part in the competition from Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and other
countries. It started in December 14 and finished today.

Source: Panorama.am

ALL TERRITORIAL CUSTOM HOUSES AND POINTS OF ARMENIA TO BE COMPLETELY
IMPROVED BY LATE 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Modernization of the Bagratashen
custom point will be completed soon. According to the chairman of the
RA State Customs Committee (SCC) Armen Avetisian, by late 2008, all
territorial custom houses and points will be completely improved and
brought into line with European standards in terms of service level. In
order to equip the customs system with modern equipment, nearly 4
billion drams has been invested this year, including 230 million drams
from the state budget, 170 milion drams – from extrabudgetary resources
of the SCC, while the remaining part was investments made by
international structures.

Speaking about 2007’s customs revenues, A. Avetisian said that the
collection will make 209-210 billion drams instead of the envisaged
amount of 188 billion drams.

Goods of 394 bln 924 mln drams were exported from Armenia this year
against goods of 382 bln 922 mln drams in 2006. Diamond exports make up
a large share of exports: it amounted to 91 billion drams in 2006 and
54 billion drams in 2007. As regards imports, according to A.
Avetisian, no quantitative growth of goods has been registered.
Instead, there has been a qualitative change: expensive and
high-quality goods are imported now, mainly from Europe, as a result of
which a 23.2% growth of imports has been registered. Imports made 1
trillion 51 billion 469 million drams in 2007 against imports of 853
billion 521 million drams last year.

Gasoline imports amounted to 160 thousand tons in 2007 against 163
thousand tons in 2006 – under conditions of 32% growth of gas imports.
Imports of diesel fuel grew by about 10 thousand tons as compared with
2006. 2 bln 720 mln cigarettes were imported in 2007 against 2 bln 465
mln ones in 2006.

In the words of the SCC chairman, an unprecedented growth has been
registetred in imports of cars. As of December 15, 2007, 32 thousand
cars were imported into Armenia against 28 thousand cars in 2006.

343 cases of customs violation of a total of 1 bln 176 mln drams were
registered this year, including 43 cases of smuggling and 252
violations of customs rules.

In 2007, 68 customs employees were dismissed from their jobs,
administrative fines were imposed on 19 employees.

SIX CITIZENS OF ARMENIA, DETAINED ON GEORGIAN-TURKISH BORDER, ARE UNDER ARREST

2007-12-25 14:58:00

ArmInfo. Six citizens of Armenia, detained on the Georgian- Turkish
border, are under arrest as yet, spokesman of RA FM Vladimir Karapetyan
told ArmInfo.

He said that the Embassy of RA to Georgia is engaged in this
issue. "The citizens are yet arrested. The Embassy is in permanent
contact with the law machinery", V. Karapetyan said.

"ENMITY DOES NOT ARISE AND DOES NOT DISAPPEAR BY ITSELF," IS SAID IN JOINT STATEMENT OF "NIKOL AGHBALIAN" UNION AND "MITQ" ANALYTICAL CENTER

Noyan Tapan
Dec 24 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. On the occasion of the "Days
of Azerbaijan" organized by the Caucasian Center for Peacemaking
Initiatives on December 17-20 in the Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational
complex by the assistance of the Embassy of Great Britain in Armenia,
the ARF "Nikol Aghbalian" Student Union and the "Mitq" Analytical
Center came up with a joint declaration. The document, in particular,
runs as follows:

"The public and political organizations of Armenia have voiced
very different estimations concerning this event. The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs has welcomed the holding of the above-mentioned
event in Yerevan and, for example, a group of representatives of
the Armenian internet presented Georgy Vanian, the Chairman of the
Caucasian Center for Peacemaking Initiatives, with a soap (According
to Armenian tradition, soap symbolizes flattering to oppponent).

The representatives of the ARF "Nikol Aghbalian" Student Union and
"Mitq" Analytical Center discussed the created situation with Levon
Mkrtchian, the RA Minister of Education and Science, Georgy Vanian,
the Chairman of Caucasian Center for Peacemaking Initiatives, Ashot
Bleyan, the Principal of the Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex,
as well as with the representatives of various non-governmental
organizations. During those discussions a number of details of the
above-mentioned event, which were left out of the center of attention
of the Armenian press, have been clarified. First of all, it became
known that the RA Ministry of Education and Science was informed of
the event to be held in the Mkhitar Sebastatsi educational complex
late. Otherwise, according to Minister Levon Mkrtchian, they would
interfere so as the event would be organized out of that institution
and would not bear the "Days of Azerbaijan" title.

The second fact is that the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs has
given a positive mark to that event, taking into consideration
the international interests. However, we believe that under these
circumstances it would be right to qualify similar events just from the
point of view of the intra-Armenian problems. We agree that a permanent
enmity with neighbour Azerbaijan does not follow from the interests of
either Armenia or Azerbaijan. However, together with this it should
be understood that enmity does not arise and does not disappear by
itself. A number of regions of the Historical Armenia are still under
the rule of Azerbaijan. However, irrespective of that circumstance, the
authorities of Azerbaijan are continuing to make bellicose statements
at the highest level with regard to the intention for settling the
Artsakh conflict through a military way. In Baku, the circumstance
that they are considered to be a defeated side by the results of the
latest Karabakh war, is not taken into consideration at all.

Therefore, under these circumstances, we are sure that the
Armenian side has no problem in looking for conciliation ways with
Azerbaijanis. Moreover, we are of the opinion that it would be more
right if Days of Armenia were held in Azerbaijan. Only in case of
that kind of disposition among Azerbaijanis, the signature of an
Armenian-Azerbaijani conciliation agreement will be possible. And
the continuation of the above-mentioned bellicose statements will
inevitably cause the restart of war.

Unfortunately, not everybody realizes that fact in Armenia. They
continue to invite Azerbaijanis to our homeland, without taking into
consideration the opinion of the wide strata of the Armenian public
field and without making a similar national and delicate problem
subject for a public discussion.

Azerbaijani guests coming to Armenia hear, in fact, not the common
opinion of the Armenian people but the position of separate individuals
or at best that of an organization, which can both coincide, as well
as countervail with the thinking of wide public strata.

As it became clear to the representatives of the ARF "Nikol Aghbalian"
Student Union and the "Mitq" Analytical Center after the meeting
with Georgy Vanian, the started program still has a continuation:
a composition competition and events of the same format will be held
in January-February, 2008 as well, where the Turkey will become a
subject for discussion. The participants of the meeting expressed
their concern to Georgy Vanian with the fact that in this case the
question becomes more than delicate. Georgy Vanian did not give a
distinct answer to the questions of what concrete subjects have been
proposed to pupils or whether the problem of the Armenian Genocide
will be touched upon or whether it will be left out as that of Artsakh
in case of Azerbaijan. Incomprehensible remains the question of with
what format are the participants of the above-mentioned program going
to have a dialogue, when Turkey is the occupant of the great part
of the territory of Armenia and the country, which annihilated and
deprived more than 2 million Armenians of their homeland."

The authors of the statement call to the initiators of the program,
scientific-educational and state institutions, as well as public
and youth organizations for making similar national problems
a subject for discussion and for taking part in the further
activities of the program organized by the Caucasaian Center for
Peacemaking Initiatives. Confidence is expressed that through that
way it will be possible to introduce a more complete opinion on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish dialogue to the society of
the involved countries.