Author: Nanijanian Alex

PRESIDENT ROBERT KOCHARYAN RECEIVED AAA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BRYAN ARDOUNY

ArmRadio.am
04.07.2006 13:47

President Robert Kocharyan received today the Executive Director of
the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) Bryan Ardouny and the Regional
Director of the Assembly Arpi Vardanyan.

The President characterized the cooperation with the Armenian Assembly
of America as productive.

Bryan Ardouny presented the major directions of the Assembly’s activity
for the welfare of Armenia. The interlocutors exchanged views on a
number of issues on the agenda of Armenian-American relations and
regional questions.

BAKU FOUND THREE LEVELS OF ACHIEVING COMPROMISE IN KARABAKH CONFLICT

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.07.2006 17:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
supposes three levels of achieving a compromise: 1. at the geopolitical
level (between the U.S. and Russia); 2. at the level of the leaders
of the conflicting states; 3. at the level of political elite and
publics of theses states. This is the opinion published by Real
Azerbaijan newspaper.

"If the process goes simultaneously at all the levels within the
framework of open expression of will of the sides there will be little
hope for success. But if it advances step by step in a confidential
regime some progress is possible," the article says. In the author’s
opinion, the failure of the negotiations during the recent years
was conditioned by the absence of geopolitical consensus at the
very first level. If the barrier is overcome (let it happen at the
B8 forthcoming summit, for example) the hardest task will remain,
that is to oblige the leaders to come to an agreement and prepare
the publics for compromise.

"However in case of publics’ disagreement or violation of the
geopolitical consensus breakdown is possible at any level even if
some decision is already taken. In this case long-lasting peace will
hardly be achieved," the edition says.

THREAT AGAINST NATIONAL SECURITY
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
03 July 06

Fluctuations in the rhythm of settlement of the Karabakh conflict
cause a feeling of insecurity in the society that the war may start.

And it is not important whether the danger is real or invented. In
such a situation the society is mostly interested to what degree
the country is defended, which is quite natural. It is also natural,
when officials who are in charge of defense of the country react to
the expectations of the society.

The reaction of the minister of defense came soon, and on June 30
Serge Sargsyan delivered diplomas to the graduate officers of the
Military Institute and made several important statements about the
effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Armenia and further enhancement.

He also stated that recent activity in the settlement of the conflict
is not a reason to think that the war will start again. However, not
all the statements of Serge Sargsyan arouse a feeling of confidence
in the society that their security is guaranteed. Moreover, certain
statements of the defense minister cause worries about the country’s
security and reliability of the system of defense generally. It is
not just a matter of effectiveness of the army.

No doubt, the Armenian army is not weaker than our neighbors’, it
may even be stronger. The problem is quite different. The ministry
of defense is building a new administrative compound. Serge Sargsyan
announced that it will be ready by the fall of 2007. The compound
costs several millions of dollars, even several tens of millions. The
minister of defense announced June 30 that the compound is not funded
from the state budget. In other words, the taxpayers do not cover
the expenses. This is strangely accepted positively in Armenia. In
case of immense expenditures the government announces consciously or
subconsciously that the budget money was not spent. In other words,
the money of taxpayers was not spent. In fact, it would be quite
logical if the money of taxpayers was spent for the country, because
it is said that the one who pays orders music. Consequently, the
expenditures of the government that are not covered by taxpayers are
not for the state or will be controlled by the source, which gave the
money. If the government does something, which is not for the state,
who is it for? And if it is for the state, on what conditions does
the government borrow the money and how is the state going to repay?

This fact appears more important for such a sphere as defense. In
fact, the building of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia is not
built by our taxpayers. So it is interesting to know who builds and
if there is a guarantee that the Ministry of Defense of Armenia
will first defend the interest of the builder, then the citizens
of Armenia if necessity arises. Logically, the citizens must feed
the system of defense with the taxes they pay, including buildings,
weapon, etc., for the ministry of defense to be accountable before
the citizens. There is no other mechanism of accountability between
the government and the citizens. If a citizen refuses to sustain this
government, naturally it cannot demand accountability. Most probably,
this is the reason why our public officials make a statement that the
money of taxpayers was not spend, which is illogical on the one hand,
but quite logical on the other hand. Hence, the public officials
avoid coming up before citizens, and in this case it is unimportant
who they are responsible before. For we have already a direct threat
against our national security.

A DANCE GROUP FROM AUSTRALIA

Yerkir.am
July 01, 2006

Q: When was Hamazgayin’s Australian "Sevan" dance group created?

A: (director of Sevan dance group Asatur HAJIAN): The dance group was
formed in 2003 with the initiative of Hamazgayin’s Sevan branch. The
mission of the branch is to contribute to the cultural life of the
Armenian community in Australia. There are 180 dancers in the group
today. The age range of dancers is 6-30 years. These are all amateur
dancers. The groups can only rehearse once a week. We usually use
music written by Armenian composers for our dance performances.

Q: Where did you receive your professional education?

A.H.: I studied in Aleppo. I was Abraham Kostanian’s student. Then
I continued my studies in Armenia with Azat Gharibian.

Q: Please tell us about your activities in Sydney. What performances
have you had there?

A.H.: Our groups have participated in a number of international
festivals.

We receive many invitation especially from foreigners. We were invited
by the Sydney Ballet to teach them an Armenian dance. Our groups have
an annual performance for the Armenian community in Australia. In
addition to this we have a number of other performances. Last year
our group performed together with Ara Gevorgian in Sydney. We also
participated in the performance of Anush Opera directed by Araks
Mansurian.

Q: How did you decide to participate in the One Nation, One Culture
Festival?

Levon Demirian: The initiative came from the Armenian office of
Hamazgayin.

Since we needed a lot of money to come to Armenia to participate in
the festival, the assistance of the Armenian community in Sydney
and our benefactors was very important. With their assistance 50
members of our dance group could participate in the pan-Armenian
festival. Participation in the festival was a good opportunity for our
young people to visit their homeland and be exposed to the Armenian
culture. I have to comment on a very painful issue. During the festival
there were many instances when our culture was presented in foreign
languages. I hope such incidents will not be repeated in the future.

Q: What was the program with which you participated in the festival?

A: We had folk dances in our program. We performed in Vanadzor,
Dilijan, Sevan, Ashtarak, Cascade and the Opera Theater. We will
perform two dances at the closing concert on June 30 together with
Ara Gevorgian which is a big honor for us. By the way, we are the
only dance group from the Diaspora that had the honor of performing
at the opening ceremony.

We have a performance in Stepanakert, Artsakh on July 2. On our way
back to Australia we have a performance in Aleppo on July 7, then
another performance in Damask on July 8, and another one in Beirut on
July 11. Hamazgayin is the organizer of all these performances. All
our expectations were justified and the kids are very enthusiastic
about their performances.

We are grateful to our dance instructor Asatur Hajian because he built
the dance group in three years. We hope we will be able to stick to
our mission of promoting our culture.

We would like to thank once again the organizers of the festival as
well as Hamazgayin for the opportunity that we had to visit Armenia
and perform here.

BTC TO AFFECT ON PROCESSES ONGOING WORLDWIDE – AZERI PRESIDENT

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
July 1 2006

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export oil pipeline is very important
for the region and will affect on the processes developing worldwide,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated in his address to public
in Zardab District of Azerbaijan on 30 June 2006, Trend reports.

The head of state said that over the past 2.5 years around 400,000
new jobs have been created in the country, while Azerbaijan ranks
the top place for growth pace of the GDP.

Aliyve noted that the country’s leadership continued adhering a
constant policy set up by the former President Heydar Aliyev, who
is the author of the national oil strategy. "But we have a number of
tasks to fulfill and we should ensure economic and energy security,"
the President added.

Aliyev reminded that over 4,500 schools function in Azerbaijan, of
which 60-70% are in need of renovation. Last year 300 new schools were
built in the country and this year it is planned to build schools in
the name number.

The head of state participated in opening of the monument and museum
of Heydar Aliyev, a ceremony of commissioning of 32-flat building for
the Karabakh war disabled, as well as opening of a secondary school
and local branch of Bank of Azerbaijan.

The President ended his tour of the central regions of Azerbaijan –
Ujar and Zardab.

LEVON MELIK-SHAHNAZARYAN: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMITTED NOT BY MUSLIMS BUT TURKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.06.2006 18:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Islam is really a great religion and like other
world religions it does not accept the term "genocide", political
scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter,
when commenting on a statement of Turkish PM that there is no concept
of genocide in Islam. "However, being an experienced politician,
Erdogan deliberately shifts accents. Not Muslims, but Turks committed
the Armenian Genocide, and not Muslims, but Turks will have to answer
for those murderous deeds. Erdogan’s attempt to charge the whole Muslim
world for the Armenian Genocide is futile. The political scientist
reminded that Armenian remember well "how Muslims: Iranians and Arabs
saved the remaining populations of unprotected Armenian villages from
Turkish yataghans."

WHAT DOES OUR HOME CRIMINAL RELYING UPON?
Melik Avanyan

Lragir.am
29 June 06

The imminent end of office of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
gave rise to fantastic phenomena, namely the process underway among
the tight-knit government officials and businessmen. The behavior of
this environment is like that of a baby, who wants to get out of the
playpen without realizing that its caring mother put it inside the
playpen. It cannot realize because so far it has thought that the
world is the playpen, whereas now another world is seen through the
wooden bars of the playpen. And the desire to appear in that outer
world is so strong!

Such is our home oligarchy. It was born in the womb of the home
government void at birth, without concerns about future: loved parents
took care about everything. And suddenly they were told that the
president would retire soon. He would retire, deserting his own
creation, the proud home oligarchy. At that point their peace was
disturbed.

By the end of the week the Armenian land was blessed. At last Serge
Sargsyan made up his mind. Serge realized where he should be. And the
prodigal son returned to the political party of the former defense
minister.

And everything stirred around him, more exactly, around the name of
the blessed. Everything became clear: salvation is where Serge is.

And one of the too oppositionist newspapers even wrote with delight
that "Nemets Rubo joins the Republican party because Serge is there
too." He showed a model of behavior, after all Ruben Hairapetyan is
not the least of authorities. And the home criminal started the race
of grouping. At that moment the citizens of the country wondered
whose salvation they are talking about in Armenia.

The answer is clear, the salvation of those who were abandoned by
their father, the retiring president. Those who had decided that the
world inside the "playpen" is too small and unsafe. Another question
occurred, however: what is the home criminal relying on? The retiring
"father" did not go away, he is following from above how the babies
are playing in the playpen. He is watching the babies, whom Serge
has made to believe that now he will be their "father". People are
watching around too. They are watching and thinking what to do with
them, these practical robbers.

So, now we have also become interested in what these gentlemen are
trying to achieve together. It is clear. They are up for taking over
the lever of administrative terror, and the sanctuary – the electoral
commissions. For elections are coming up. They cannot have someone
else approach the commissions. They need to turn 3.5 percent into
67 percent. This is the tradition in Armenia. And most importantly,
people cannot be allowed to come close to the ballot boxes not to
cram the future of the privileged with bad ballots.

Maybe it is not worthwhile to be that excited, but the oligarch Gagik
Tsarukyan somehow started acting too broadly. And he is backed by
the president. What if they refuse to give the commissions? What
will be then? Then will be the same 3.5 percent as in 2003. What
should they do in this case? Of course, they should tell Tsarukyan
Gagik that he will not appear in the parliament at any rate. He may
surrender without fight and complain to the president. They made up
their minds and told him, very mildly, of course, carefully enough
not to make Kocharyan angry.

Tigran Urikhanyan, shy and timid, gave a news conference and said,
"I saw a dream, oh, I’m sorry, not me but the person who told me,
that the Bargavach Hayastan Party will not enter the parliament." And
he felt relief. He did not believe it either but since he had been
told to do it, there was nothing else he could do.

Exactly like in a playpen.

And if to be more serious, the situation in Armenia is growing
serious. No doubt, the criminal will be burning like rats drenched
with petrol. However, it is not what worries the citizens of Armenia.

We are interested in our country, and the cost of the running rats.

Quite recently, two of these were shooting at each other, but an
innocent citizen got killed, leaving her children orphaned. And
if we allow these scoundrels decide our future, the entire country
will suffer.

It means others should start acting. The pack should be driven back
to the playpen and provided safe custody where the law has foreseen.

If the president cannot or does not want to do it, the citizens should
do it themselves. After all, this is not the first time.

LONE JEWISH MP CONFRONTS AHMADINEJAD ON HOLOCAUST BUT STRESSES LOYALTY TO IRAN
Ewen Macaskill, Simon Tisdall And Robert Tait Tehran

The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jun 28, 2006

Maurice Motamed has one of the loneliest jobs in the Middle East. When
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his controversial Holocaust statements,
the sole Jewish MP in Iran’s 290-member Majlis (parliament) felt he
had no option but to confront him.

"When our president spoke about the Holocaust, I considered it my duty
as a Jew to speak about this issue," Mr Motamed said in his office
in Tehran. "The biggest disaster in human history is based on tens
of thousands of films and documents. I said these remarks are a big
insult to the whole Jewish society in Iran and the whole world."

Mr Ahmadinejad, president of an overwhelmingly Muslim state, has not
apologised. But Mr Motamed said the president had since qualified
his statement by insisting that he had not denied the Holocaust and
was not an anti-semite.

Mr Motamed represents Iran’s 25,000-strong Jewish community, the
largest such group in the Middle East outside Israel. Since 1906
Iran’s constitution has guaranteed the Jewish community one seat in
the Majlis. The Armenian, Assyrian and Zoroastrian minorities together
hold a further four seats.

Although he took on Mr Ahmadinejad about the Holocaust, Mr Motamed
supports the president on other issues, including the standoff with
the US, Europe and Israel over the country’s nuclear programme. "I
am an Iranian first and a Jew second," he said.

He acknowledged there were problems with being a Jew in Iran, as
there were for the country’s other minorities. But he said that Iran
was relatively tolerant. "There is no pressure on the synagogues,
no problems of desecration. I think the problem in Europe is worse
than here. There is a lot of anti-semitism in other countries."

Most of his family, including his parents and sisters, left after
the 1979 revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, as did
75,000 other Jews, heading mainly for Israel, the US and Europe. But
Mr Motamed, 61, an engineer, stayed. "I love my homeland."

Jews have been living in Iran in large numbers since Cyrus the Great
freed them from slavery when he captured Babylon in 539BC. Members
of the Jewish community in Iran today, for the most part, keep a low
profile and many Iranians are unaware of their presence. Mr Motamed
said there were about 14,000 Jews in Tehran, which has 20 active
synagogues, 6,000 to 7,000 in Shiraz; 2,000 in Estafan and small
groups scattered throughout the rest of the country.

He confirmed that Jews and other minorities were excluded from
"sensitive" posts in the military and judiciary. And the authorities
refuse to allow Jewish schools to close on the sabbath. But Mr
Motamed said there had been improvements in other areas. Legislation
introduced three years ago overturned a judicial practice of awarding
more compensation to families of Muslim accident victims than to
those of Jews. And when he complained in the Majlis about a TV soap
regularly portraying rabbis as evil, he said the Speaker, Mehdi Karubi,
had expressed support.

Nasser Hadian-Jazy, associate professor of political science at
Tehran University and a childhood friend of the president, said Mr
Ahmadinejad was keen to put the Holocaust row behind him.

"I asked him, ‘Are you anti-Jew?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ I said, ‘Why
not go to a synagogue to express regret for what Iranians have done
to Jews?’ . . . He said, ‘I have another idea, a better idea.’

"He will do something to show he is not anti-Jewish. I hope he will
do it soon. He will make a gesture to the Jews in Iran and that has
implications for Jews elsewhere. What he will say is very important
and will remove the idea that he is anti-semite."

Saeed Jalili, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and another close friend
of Mr Ahmadinejad, said the Jewish seat in the Majlis "tells you
that we have no problems with Judaism" but said he had not heard of
any planned gesture by Mr Ahmadinejad. "The Jewish community in this
country are very fairly treated . . . Of course, a symbolic gesture
is good and well, but we think that what we do is more than symbolic."

Jewish MP Maurice Motamed with the parliamentary Speaker, Mehdi Karubi.

RUSSIA TO CONTINUE PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS IN CIS, VLADIMIR PUTIN SAID

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.06.2006 17:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia will continue peacekeeping mission in the CIS
member states despite provocations, Russian President Vladimir Putin
said at a conference in the RF Foreign Ministry. At that the Russian
President remarked that presently Russia immediately takes part in
the settlement of conflicts in the post soviet space. Mr Putin also
stated of the necessity of opening talks on the replacement of the
American-Russia treaty on strategic offensive armament, which expires
in 2009. In Putin’s words, "standstill is expected in the disarmament
field" and the dialogue should be resumed, reported Echo of Moscow.

ISLAMIC COUNTRIES SUPPORTED AZERBAIJAN IN ITS POSITION REGARDING KARABAKH, AND IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM
by Mehman Gafarly

Source: Novye Izvestia, June 22, 2006, p. 4
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 26, 2006 Monday

ISLAMIC COUNTRIES EXPRESS THEIR OPINION; THE COUNCIL OF FOREIGN
MINISTERS OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE ORGANIZATION PASSED THE BAKU
DECLARATION; The ICO intends to defend the interests of Muslim
countries in influential international organizations. The ICO
secretary-general proposed to make representatives of the Islamic
world members of the UN Security Council.

(…)

According to the Baku declaration passed by the Islamic Conference
Organization (ICO), Armenia must leave "Azerbaijan’s territory".

However, the Turkish foreign minister noted that "the Karabakh
conflict should be solved peacefully, which will create conditions
for cooperation between Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia".

However, independent analysts think that Baku should not rely on the
support of the ICO. The point is that the position of the majority of
Islamic nations is reserved. For instance, Iran and Egypt maintain
friendly relations with Armenia. Only Turkey and Pakistan support
Azerbaijan’s position.

The support of the Iranian nuclear program was the most unexpected
results of the meeting despite the fact that many Islamic countries
have serious bilateral problems with Teheran.

The ICO intends to defend the interests of Muslim countries in
influential international organizations. The ICO secretary-general
proposed to make representatives of the Islamic world members of
the UN Security Council. He noted: "Muslims account for a fifth of
the population of the planet, and I consider it necessary to make
one Muslim country a member of the UN Security Council." He welcome
Russia’s participation in the Baku forum (Russia has the status of an
observer). Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov noted that
he welcomes Teheran’s intention to hold negotiations with the G-6
(members of the UN Security Council plus Germany), which settles the
crisis over the nuclear problem.