Author: Navasardian Karapet

WHAT DO FIGURES TELL?
Laura Grigorian

Azat Artsakh Daily, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
25 May 07

The Police of Stepanakert reported 53 crimes in the capital in the
first quarter of 2007 compared with 39 of the previous year. The
rate of crime has gone up by 14. By the way, 17 out of 53 reported
crimes were committed in the previous years which were recorded by
the police in the first quarter of 2007.

The cases recorded by crime investigation increased by 13, compared
with the first quarter of 2006. 20 felonies were committed, 13 were
exposed, and 15 misdemeanors were reported against 9 in the first
quarter of 2006. 60.4 percent of all crimes were exposed. 69.2 percent
of crimes recorded by the criminal investigation were exposed. The
Police of Stepanakert make continuous efforts to maintain law and
order in the capital and fight crime effectively.

RA PRESIDENT AND OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS DISCUSSED CURRENT STAGE OF KARABAGH TALKS

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 24 2007

RA President Robert Kocharian received OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs Yuri
Merzlyakov (Russia) and Bernard Fassier (France), who had arrived in
Yerevan within the frames of a regional visit.

According to the information DE FACTO received at RA President’s Press
Office, in the course of the meeting the parties had considered the
issues referring to current phase of the Karabagh talks.

To remind, the mediators already met with RA FM Vardan Oskanian. In the
course of the meeting the interlocutors accentuated attention on the
issues that had not been coordinated within the frames of the talks.

LACHIN CORRIDOR

Azat Artsakh Daily, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
22 May 07

On May 18 the 15th anniversary of opening of Lachin corridor was
marked in Berdzor, the center of Kashatagh. Fifteen years ago,
after the liberation of Shushi the Armenian force went on to
liberate Lachin and opened a corridor connecting Karabakh and
Armenia. NKR President Arkady Ghukasian, Speaker Ashot Ghulian,
members of parliament, ministers, heads of regional administrations
took part in the celebration. The delegation of the region of Syunik,
Armenia led by the governor Surik Khachatrian was also present. The
celebration started at the center of Berdzor. The participants first
honored the soldiers killed during the liberation of (Lachin). After
laying wreaths to the memorial in Berdzor, the children of the local
school gave a performance. Afterwards the participants walked to
St Resurrection Church of Berdzor, tracing the footsteps of the
azatamartiks in May 1992. The mess at St. Resurrection Church was
followed by an official meeting devoted to the 15th anniversary of the
liberation of Lachin. Ernest Ghevondian, head of the administration
of Kashatagh, Arthur Mnatsakanian, head of the regional branch of the
Union of Azatamartiks of Artsakh, and an old inhabitant of Kashatagh
Alla Sargsian addressed the meeting. President Ghukasian awarded
medals to azatamartiks from Kashatagh. The Union of Azatamartiks
of Artsakh, Yerkrapah Union of Armenia and the Armenian Ministry of
Defense also awarded medals to azatamartiks living in Kashatagh. In his
congratulation speech NKR President Ghukasian said "we must reconstruct
all the liberated territories." "We will never be disappointed, we
must believe that we can," he said. "Do not believe in tales that
Kashatagh will be returned to Azerbaijan. It will never happen,"
President Ghukasian stated.

The celebrations continued near the church with a concert.

BEYOND MOSCOW AND WASHINGTON
Ruben Hayrapetian, Moscow

AZG Armenian Daily
24/05/2007

World Geopolitics and Armenia

Prime Minister of Armenia Serge Sarkisian in a number of interviews
to the Russian press adhered to the opinion that Armenia should keep
friendly relations both with Moscow and Washington, which is the
wisest policy for Armenia at present.

Due to outrageous mistakes in Middle Eastern policy the United States
brought down the single-poled political system. On the other hand
Russia, although regaining its former power step by step, is still
very far from becoming the analogue of the Soviet Union of the XXI
century. On the way of establishment of many-poled world political
system the efforts of the EU and the USA to create an integrate
Atlantic market must not be neglected. The latter will by no means
serve to the benefit of Russia.

The West is trying to encounter the growing influence and power of
China. One may think that China is too far from Armenia, as a communist
state from a democratic one. Indeed Armenia should take more heed of
China’s actions, as it seems likely to become the integrating power of
a new geopolitical formation – the "Pacific Alliance", a balance and a
rival of the Atlantic bloc. If in the past century the capitalistic and
socialistic states contested mostly in propaganda and warfare, in this
century their rivalry shall move to the field of economy. The Chinese
model of state capitalism (unlike Soviet communism) is wisely observed
by Putin and seemingly put into practice, as far as possible. China
has already involved in its sphere of influence states like Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, as well as Cuba, Venezuela,
and Bolivia – thanks to its widespread diaspora and "socialistic
slogans" (finance investments, in fact). China has already forced
the USA out of Japan and Beijing is becoming the number one trade
partner of Tokio. In his turn, Sindzo Abe is rather doubtful about
the USA’s peacekeeping mission in the region and starts thinking of
Japan’s own nuclear program.

The West, having lost the "battle" for Middle East (the Islamic world),
shall try to make alliance (and later take control of) with states
like Russia, India and the Latin American states. New anti-missile
bases in the EU, financing and provocations of the opposition in
Russia witness that the West is already at work. Naturally, the last
Russia-EU meeting was of little success.

In these circumstances the issue of Vladimir Putin’s third presidential
term is becoming more actual.

Perhaps he is the only person of enough authority to reconcile the
two branches of the Russian Orthodox Church, make friendship with
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and extinguish "colored revolutions"
brooding here and there. Therefore a noteworthy number of political
powers in Russia consider Putin’s probable resignation of the
"throne" rather as a sign of weakness than expression of frankness
and lawfulness.

GOHAR GASPARIAN’S FUNERAL TO TAKE PLACE ON MAY 19 AT KOMITAS PARK PANTHEON

Noyan Tapan
May 18 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. As it has been already reported, on the
occasion of Gohar Gasparian’s death, a governmental commission with
its presidency has been created by RA Prime Minister’s decision. The
report provided to Noyan Tapan from the Commission reads:

"The Armenian national culture suffered an irreparable loss: great
Armenian singer Gohar Gasparian passed away: the USSR People’s Artist,
Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of USSR and ASSR state prizes,
professor of Komitas State Conservatory for many years with her voice
gifted by the God and with her unique singing skills gave the highest
influence and pleasure of art to Armenian and foriegn music-lovers.

Gohar Gasparian was born in 1924, in the capital of Egypt, Cairo, in
the family of modest bank official Mikayel Khachatrian. The parents of
the future singer spared no efforts to give education to their talented
daughter. She taught at master of vocal art Eliz Feldman and Vincenzo
Carro, who had left the Fascist Italy and permanently settled in
Cairo. Her marvellous lyric-coloratura soprano was strengthened by deep
bases of technique of Italian bel canto singing. The 20-year-old Gohar
was already a fully-fladged singer in Cairo, but she had not finally
found her niche in the art of singing yet. And only on her native land,
in Armenia, the name Gohar Gasparian became a phenomenon of vocal
performing art. Armenian art-lovers perceived her this way during
her first performance, which took place in June, 1949 at the hall of
Armenian Philharmony. The admiration of musical world doubled by the
debute of 1949 opera part. It was Delibes Lakme. The triumphal march of
Gohar Gasparian’s art started on the stage of A. Spendiarian National
Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. With her unique interpretation
the lovers of opera art saw and loved Anush, Olympia, Shushan, Karine,
Rozina, Juliette, Margarit, Norma and many other roles.

They also heard many new chamber creations still unknown to them.

For many years Gohar Gasparian was the herald of Armenian art in
the world.

Thousands of foreigners discovered for themselves Armenia and Armenian
people thanks to her art.

She never seaked for glory and fame, but glory, other titles and
laurels themselves chased the great singer as a deserved evaluation
to her work.

Let’s bow our heads before her memory and bade farewell to one of the
beautiful and marvellous phenomena of our people, whose name and art
is eternally registered in the pages of history of native culture."

The governmental commission also reports that G. Gasparian’s civil
funeral rites will take place on May 18, at 18:00, in Baghramian 50 B,
second entrance, apt 20.

The farewell to the great singer will take place on May 19, at 12-14:00
at A. Spendiarian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. The
burial ceremony will take place on May 15 at Komitas Park Pantheon.

TOP HONOURS TO ARMENIANS

A1+
[08:21 pm] 18 May, 2007

86 qualified scientific works were presented at the CIS social
scientists’ General History competition themed: "The End of the 20th
Century and the Beginning of the 21st Century." The RF State Archives
Director, Sergei Mironenko headed a jury of peers who chose eight
finalists, two of whom were Armenian-Hayk Demoyan, Ph. D and Arsen
Hakobyan, Ph. D.

The grand prize was awarded to Hayk Demoyan for his monograph
entitled: Turkey and Karabakh Conflict: A Historical and Comparative
Analysis. Arsen Hakobyan’s work on Tat-Speaking Armenians won third
place.

Demoyan’s work primarily used neutral sources to demonstrate Turkey’s
culpability in aiding and supporting Azerbaijan’s political, military
and economic aggressive policies against Nagorno-Karabakh and Republic
of Armenia. The main conclusions of the monograph placed Turkey’s at
the epicentre of the Karabakh conflict vis-a-vis its comprehensive
support of Azerbaijan. It also illustrates how Turkey actively lobbied
various international organisations in order to execute a policy of
hostile pressure on the Republic of Armenia and also confirmed that
Azerbaijan recruited foreign Islamic mercenaries to fight against
the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

SARKOZY IS WRONG: TURKEY DESERVES EU MEMBERSHIP
by By Mark Dragoumis

Spero News
May 18 2007

Nicolas Sarkozy was dead-wrong about Turkey’s admission to the EU in
the run-up to the French election. EU-inspired reforms in Turkey should
foster neighborliness towards the secularist majority Muslim country.

In four years the Erdogan government has – under Brussels’ supervision
-streamlined the economy achieving steady annual growth of 5 percent or
more and made more progress towards consolidating human rights than had
ever been made in Turkey during her 80 years of ‘secular’ governance

Nicolas Sarkozy deserved to win. Dominating the TV debate with
his rival he proved to be a leader who is courteous and decisive,
knowledgeable and modest, keen on reforming France by consensus if
possible without it if necessary.

Madame Royal, on the other hand, displayed outbursts of misplaced
anger when she had her facts wrong; an irritating vagueness of purpose
peppered with words of compassion for the dispossessed; a willingness
to engage in "dialogue" about the issues on which she had no clear
policy; but also a personal charm, sadly lacking in her ideological
counterparts in Greece.

There was one issue, however, on which Nicolas Sarkozy was wrong.

Seriously wrong.

"Turkey", he said, "can never enter Europe because she is part of
Asia. Who can ever maintain that the EU should have borders with Syria,
Iraq and Iran?" So said a man named after a 3rd-century saint born
in Asia Minor, a believer in a religion founded by a man born way
off Europe in Nazareth, and now a leader of a country belonging to
a continent named after a Middle-Eastern beauty known as Europa –
daughter of King Phoenix whose subjects discovered money and the
alphabetical script.

Closer to our era, Turkey has been a member of the Council of Europe
and, with France’s approval, an associate member of the EC/EU for
nearly half a century. As of October 2005 she has been negotiating to
become a full member of the EU again with the approval of the French
government of which Sarkozy himself was a prominent member. In fact,
there is no European network of importance, from the Champions’
League to the Eurovision song contest, of which Turkey is not a part.

She is also, since 1952, a full member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization although nowhere near the Atlantic. Her European
credentials, geographically speaking, are somewhat stronger since over
10 million Turks reside in Eastern Thrace with more than half of them
living in Istanbul, the country’s cultural and financial capital.

What Sarkozy really meant – to attract Le Pen’s voters – is that
Turkey is too populous, too poor and too Muslim to ever become a
member of the EU. Now, as a president, one hopes he will soon eat these
pre-electoral words. Those in Greece who rejoiced that "his election
will put an end to… any aspirations Turkey had for joining the EU"
had better prepare themselves for a rude awakening. In the meantime,
the more they continue fighting for NYNE (Not Yet, Not Ever) the more
help they are offering to those Turks who are dead against the West
and its values.

As it happens, both the NYNE fanatics and the Turkish chauvinists
share the view that "Turkey must turn East not West". For the Turkish
military, this means – as they have said openly – that they should
invade Iraq and destroy the semi-autonomous Kurdish province that
gives support to the PKK rebels.

This columnist’s view that Turkey’s "learning curve" is worth pursuing
(for which he has been diagnosed as being "off his rocker" by an irate
reader) is based on facts, contemptuously ignored by those convinced
of their inherent superiority over the Turks as self-defined "European
Christian humanists".

In four years, the Erdogan government has – under Brussels’
supervision – streamlined the economy achieving steady annual growth
of 5 percent or more and made more progress towards consolidating
human rights than had ever been made in Turkey during her 80 years of
"secular" governance. Does it then make sense to say that no matter
how "European" the Turks become they will have never any chance of
joining the EU?

The slogan of those protesting in Istanbul against the election
of a non-Kemalist president of the republic was "no headscarves,
no coups". Four military coups from 1960 to 1997 have convinced
even the secularists that this is no way to run a country. As for
the scarves – worn by 62 percent of Turkish women – one needs to
summon all one’s power of understanding "the Other" not to dismiss
the slogan as outright ludicrous. After all, as somebody commented,
it is what is inside the head that counts not what covers it. There
has even been a suggestion that pious Turkish women should start
wearing wigs instead of scarves. Go figure…

The secularist fanatics have so far failed to realize that what the
Islamo-democrats (modeling themselves on the Christian Democrats in
western Europe) are achieving is not a prelude to the introduction of a
Taliban kind of "sharia" but a sort of "protestant revolution in Islam"
introducing a new Calvinist work ethic, respect of human rights and
freedom to invest. Faced with secularist brutality (official by the
army and unofficial by various assassins of Christians and Armenians),
the Islamo-democrats have turned for protection to the EU, the only
organization whose "soft power" has proved effective in Europe and the
world. Brussels has indeed proved invaluable, so far, in protecting
every Turk from any other Turk who thinks differently. The EU has
even "convinced" Erdogan to forget about the law punishing marital
infidelity that he attempted to introduce.

So what is on the cards now? This columnist will risk a prediction.

Mr. Gul will not seek the presidency after the national elections,
a move in exchange of which Erdogan – who will certainly win them –
will ask the military to acquiesce to the election of a more "neutral"
president, probably a non-scarf-wearing Turkish lady.

As for Erdogan’s proposal that the president be elected directly by
the people, one hopes that this scheme will be scrapped forthwith.

Introducing bi-polarity in Turkey’s form of government is asking
for trouble since even the French have had difficulties with the
"cohabitation" of an elected president with a government of different
color.

To conclude, Sarkozy and the Greek admirers of his views on Turkey
had better start their own learning curve, perhaps keeping in mind
what Christ said about how one should behave towards one’s neighbor…

Mark Dragoumis appears here through the courtesy of Athens News of
Greece. His new book is "The Greek Economy 1940-2004". Other books
by Dragoumis include "Greece on the Couch, Session 1" and "Greece on
the Couch, Session 2".

Army exercise begins in Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR]

Arminfo
19 May 07

Yerevan, 19 May: The Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR] defence army is
conducting planned exercises, Lt-Col Senor Hasratyan, NKR ministry of
defence press secretary, has told Arminfo.

"The goal of the exercises is to further raise the efficiency of our
army," Hasratyan said. He brushed aside the claims of the Azerbaijani
Defence Ministry that the "exercises are conducted by the armed forces
of Armenia".

Hasratyan said that the Republic of Armenia units are not involved in
the exercises.

"Of course, we periodically hold and will continue to hold
exercises. It is exactly thanks to our work that the Karabakh army is
recognized one of the most efficient armies in the region," he said.

CONTACT LINE OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN TROOPS MONITORED

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 16 2007

Today monitoring was held in the contact line of troops in Chamanli
village of Aghdam region under the mandate of personal representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Defense Ministry’s press service told
the APA.

The monitoring was held by field assistants of personal representative
of OSCE Chairman-in-office Imre Palatinus, Peter Ki, and Miroslav
Vimetal in Azerbaijani side and Andrzey Kasprzyk, Personal
representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office and his field assistants
Gunter Folk and Jaslan Nurtaz in the opposite side, internationally
recognized territory of Azerbaijan. No incident occurred during
monitoring.

APA Karabakh bureau reports, OSCE representatives in Azerbaijani
side visited Aghdam Executive Power before the monitoring. The chief
of the Executive Power Hasan Sariyev informed OSCE representatives
about Armenians violating ceasefire regularly, targeting Azerbaijani
soldiers, including residents dealing with agriculture.

RA PM: STATEMENTS OF AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT GIVE NO GROUND TO HOPE FOR PROMPT SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

ArmInfo
2007-05-16 13:41:00

The last statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev give no
ground to hope for the prompt settlement of the Karabakh conflict,
RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan told journalists today.

According to him, the negotiations are underway and the hope for
the Karabakh problem settlement always exists. "I have never talked
about the opening of any windows in the Karabakh problem settlement
process, but I can repeat that the negotiations are underway and
there is always a hope for Agreement achievement. However, the last
statements of Azerbaijan’s President give no ground for the prompt
settlement of the Karabakh conflict", RA PM said.

To recall, I. Aliyev said that the "Armenian party conceals the true
content of negotiations, according to which Armenia has to return
all the seven regions to Azerbaijan at the first stage".