Author: Tadevosian Garnik

NAGORNO KARABAKH, ABKHAZIA AND SOUTH OSSETIA CONFLICTS TO BE DEBATED IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 29 2007

The European Parliament will hold a debate on the Nagorno-Karabakh,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts soon, member of the Parliament,
Bundestag MP Cem Ozdemir’s office told the APA.

The office said that the European Parliament is considering the
inquiry presented by Ozdemir with regard to this issue.

Cem Ozdemir during his visit to Baku last month said that the European
Parliament lacks information about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
and therefore, he will draw up a report on this issue.

TURKEY SHOULD NOT OPEN BORDERS WITH ARMENIA

AZG Armenian Daily
28/03/2007

"Hrant Dink was Turkish citizen of Armenian origin.

Though we were against his ideas we would like him to live, we do
not want people to die because of their thoughts", Day.az reports the
words of Muhsin Yazicioglu, leader of the Turkish "Grand Unity" party.

He underlined that the political forces opposing the Turkish
nationalists take advantage of Hrant Dink’s assassination.

"We can not allow using this crime for insult, slander or pressure
against Turkish nationalists. Moreover, this campaign is not restricted
to us. These forces suggest that Azerbaijan might stand behind this
assassination. "Armenians try to disguise their crimes. Nobody speaks
of the genocide committed in Khojaly 15 years ago. Armenians have not
withdrawn their forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories. The
world community is indifferent towards these events – nobody speaks
about one million people, who have become displaced as a result of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict," Yazicioglu told the APA Turkey bureau.

Muhsin Yazicioglu said that Armenia does not observe international
legal norms. "Armenians do not show any sign of withdrawal from these
territories. If Turkey and Azerbaijan show their will, Armenians will
withdraw. Armenia cannot survive without opening borders with Turkey
and establishing neighborly relations with Azerbaijan. Turkey should
not open borders with Armenia and should not have any relations with
Yerevan," he said.

SAMVEL BABAYAN WITHDRAWS HIS CANDIDATURE BEING DISAPPOINTED WITH OPPOSITION

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, NOYAN TAPAN. Dashink Party Chairman Samvel Babayan
withdrew his candidature on March 27 from Syunik electoral district N
37. Member of Party’s Political Board Andranik Tevanian informed Noyan
Tapan correspondent about it the same day.

In the words of another member of Dashink’s Political Board, Gnel
Ghlechian, the Party Chairman took this step because of four main
reasons. In his words, the first reason is that rumors were spread
about allegedly aggravated relations between Samvel Babayan and
Alexander Sargsian (RA Defence Minister Serge Sargsian’s brother: NT)
nominated at the same electoral district, so political struggle was
artificially moved to the personal plane.

According to G. Ghlechian’s observations, the second reason is that at
electoral district N 37 the authorities have already put into
operation all administrative and material means depriving the
opposition figures of the possibility to act and to express their
opinion.

The third reason is disappointment with representatives of Syunik
structures of opposition parties who, in G. Ghlechian’s words, had
arranged to cooperate "even if in Syunik region, but made a bargain
with the authorities."

The last reason, as Party’s Political Board member said, is
S. Babayan’s striving for supporting Samvel Haroutiunian nominated at
electoral district N 37 and so, for creating "a united opposition
front."

PanARMENIAN.Net

In 1946 Turkey was obliged to return the Armenian provinces

The Treaty of Moscow of 1921 was signed between Turkey
and Soviet Russia for a-25-year term.
17.03.2007 GMT+04:00

On March 16, 1921 a treaty signed between Soviet Russia and Turkey
stipulated the seizure of three Armenian provinces; Kars, Nakhichevan
and Surmalu, in favor of Turkey and Azerbaijan. The preamble of the
treaty states, `In the present Treaty by the term Turkey territories
included in the National Turkish Pact of January 28, 1336 (1920),
developed and proclaimed by the Ottoman Chamber of Deputies in
Constantinople and communicated to the press and all States are
understood.’

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the fall of 1921 on the bases of the Treaty of
Moscow the quadripartite Treaty of Kars, which became the edited
version of the Treaty of Moscow, was signed between Turkey, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia. Signing of the Treaty of Kars is quite logical
also because the Treaty of Moscow was signed on behalf of Russia and
formally didn’t relate to the Transcaucasian countries yet. In 1921
the `sovietization’ of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan finished but it
was still very unsteady for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist
Republic to entrust these republics to sign international, moreover
such significant treaties on their own. According to the second
article of the Treaty Kars and Surmalu provinces of Armenia, together
with the Mount Ararat passed to Turkey, and Nakhichevan passed to
Azerbaijan as its protectorate. Thus at the expense of Armenia
Turkey’s, Azerbaijani’s and Georgia’s appetites were satisfied.

It is worth mentioning, that the third article of the Treaty speaks
about belonging of Nakhichevan and is closed with the following
phrase; `with no right to be passed to a third party’, where by `the
third party’ Iran is understood. However in the Treaty of Kars this
phrase was omitted. By the fall of 1921 Iran didn’t conceal any more
its irritation at the formation of a republic called `Azerbaijan’,
which claimed to unification with an Iranian Turkish-speaking province
of the same name and to establishing a united `Soviet Azerbaijan’ with
a population of almost 20 million people.

But the most interesting thing is that according to many archive
materials the Treaty was signed for a-25-year term. In 1925 the RSFSR
Ambassador to Turkey Vinogradov insisted on denunciation of the
Russian-Turkish Treaty of 1921 in his official note, announcing that
Russia is willing to realize it in one-sided order. At the same time,
according to Turkish sources, Ambassador Vinogradov in his oral
conversation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains, `We can’t
wait 25 years and thus we signed the Russian-Turkish Treaty because at
that time we were weak. Now we are strong and we insist on
reestablishment of the Armenian borders’. One of the well-known
Turkish statesmen of those times, Qemal Ataturk’s successor Ismet
Inenu was quick in his response; `The new country needs to keep to its
international responsibilities and in 25 years’ term Turkey will of
course return these territories. In this way the belonging of the
three Armenian provinces legally in Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s favor
since March 16, 1946 is a historical nonsense.

Nevertheless after 1921 the first two-sided official document between
USSR and Turkey announcing, that the parties do not have any mutual
territorial claims is the international treaty, signed in August 1978
during the official visit of the Turkish Prime Minister Byulent
Edjevit to Moscow.

There is one more important article in the treaty, which for some
unknown reasons doesn’t get any attention. `To provide the opening of
the Channels and the freedom for passing of mercantile ships for all
nations,’ states one of the articles. The Bosporus and Dardanelle
Channels have always been of great significance for the Turkish home
policy, and not to make use of them would be senseless, particularly
regarding the Armenian Question. If taken into consideration that the
conditions stipulated by the above mentioned article are rather
favorable for Russia too, signing such treaties is not excluded in
future either.

«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department

MRT online, Macedonia –
March 23 2007

Rice: We shouldn’t get involved in Turkey-Armenian dispute
Friday, 23 March 2007
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.S.
should not get involved in a dispute between Turkey and Armenia over
whether the killing of Armenians almost a century ago constituted
genocide. Under questioning from the sponsor of a House resolution
that would recognize that Turkey’s Ottoman predecessor state
committed a "genocide," Rice avoided answering whether she believed
there was any basis for historical debate on the matter.

"What we’ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have
joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts
to examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
she told the House Appropriations Subcommittee.

"I don’t think it helps that process of reconciliation for the United
States to enter this debate at that level."

A resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide was also introduced
in the U.S Senate last week. The resolution was drawn up by Democrat
Richard Durbin and Republican John Essington. Senators John Kerry,
Edward Kennedy and Joe Lieberman also signed onto it. However some
traditional supporters of the claims, including presidential hopefuls
Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and Joseph Biden, have not signed the
resolution this time. A total of 21 out of 100 senators have declared
their support for the resolution.

SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN: "AFTER ELECTIONS OPPOSITION TO BE MORE UNITED, AND AUTHORITIES TO BE CONTRARY"

Noyan Tapan
Mar 22 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, NOYAN TAPAN. To secure own success at the May
12 parliamentary elections, it is necessary for the authorities of
Armenia that the people’s participation in the elections is rather
passive. Shavarsh Kocharian, the Chairman of the National Democratic
Party (NDP), a deputy of the National Assembly expressed such an
opinion at the March 22 press conference. In his words, to keep bulks
striving for system changes far from the electoral process, the ruling
forces fostered a special strategy, that’s, to assure the society
that results of the elections are already decided beforehand. In
Sh.Kocharian’s words, those numerous offices and posters of the
pro-ruling parties, with which all the marzes and streets of the
republic "are full," prove that strategy. In the NA deputy’s opinion,
the very extended character of the mentioned offices makes think that
"the elections results have also been all-embracingly solved." In
Sh. Kocharian’s words the way of thinking as if the opposing forces’
success is provided only by unification is sown only in the Armenian
people’s consciousness. Whereas, in the NDP Chairman’s words, on the
eve of the revolution in Georgia the opposing leaders did not present
themselves with a joint block: their unification took place already
after the elections. Sh. Kocharian expressed an opinion that though
the Armenian opposition does not jointly go to the NA elections, as
a result of them, however, "the opposing forces will be more united,
and the authorities will be the contrary."

AZERBAIJAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS TOP GOAL IS SOLVING DISPUTE WITH ARMENIA

AP Worldstream
Published: Mar 21, 2007

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his country’s top
foreign policy goal is to settle a long-running territorial dispute
with neighbor Armenia.

Elmar Mammadyarov, speaking to an audience at Johns Hopkins
University’s school of international studies, said both countries
should stop dwelling on past grievances in the dispute over the
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The mountainous area inside Azerbaijan but populated largely by ethnic
Armenians has been controlled by Armenian forces since the end of a
six-year war in 1994 that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Progress on the matter is crucial to Azerbaijan’s democratic
development, said Mammadyarov, whose oil-rich Caucasus Mountains
country is becoming bolder as its economic strength grows.

"The time is right. We have to make a move," Mammadyarov said. "We
are ready to cooperate with Armenia."

Diplomats from Russia, France and the United States have headed more
than a decade of efforts by the so-called Minsk Group to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Azerbaijan has been building up its military with an influx of
revenues from oil. It controls portions of the Caspian Sea, on its
eastern fringe, which has some of the largest oil and gas fields in
the former Soviet Union.

Mammadyarov also said that a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program
should be solved through diplomatic means.

Leader of Democratic Party of Armenia qualifies Armenian diplomatic representative offices’ activity as indifferent and defeatist

Arminfo
2007-03-21 22:45:00

MP Aram Sargsyan, the leader of the Democratic Party of Armenia,
qualified the activity of the Armenian diplomatic structures abroad
as indifferent and defeatist.

During today’s press-conference, he noted that he participated in the
March 12-16 international "Dialogue of Cultures and Civilizations"
forum held in Paris under UNESCO’s aegis, and was even elected a
member of the Coordination Committee of the forum. He said that he
was going to make a speech on the second day of the conference during
a round table meeting, and the less time was left until his speech,
the more Turkish representatives appeared in the hall.

After A.Sargsyan’s speech, the Turkish representatives pointed out
the "tactlessness" of using the term "genocide" at such an academic
forum. Moreover, a young journalist from one of the Turkish TV
companies asked him to give an interview. The Armenian MP noted that
she smiled and was very kind before obtaining the interview, but she
stopped smiling as soon as the camera was turned on. "I am amazed at
the fact how actively and purposefully Turkish representatives prepare
for such forums and how they try to exert psychological pressure on
Armenian representatives and create the impression that they are ready
for a dialogue. At the same time, there were no representatives of
the Armenian Embassy or mass media. Amazing indifference," the leader
of Armenian Democrats said.

EHUD GOL APPOINTED AMBASSADOR OF ISRAEL TO RA

Noyan Tapan
Mar 21 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 21, Ambassador of Israel
to Armenia Ehud Gol (residence Jerusalem) handed the copy of his
credentials to RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. According to the
report provided to Noyan Tapan from RA Foreign Ministry Press and
Information Department, V. Oskanian and E. Gol discussed regional
issues, prospects of settlement of Israeli-Palestine and Nagorno
Karabakh conflicts.

E. Gol was born in 1946 in Jerusalem. During his working activity he
held the following posts: Consul (for press and information affairs)
in Consulate General of Israel to Chicago, Consul in Consulate General
in New York, in 1986-88 Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Director of
Press Department, in 1986-88 Special Adviser to President, in 1988-91
Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, in 1991-92 Adviser to Prime Minister
for Press Affairs, in 1995-99 Ambassador of Israel to Spain and
pluralistically also in Andorra, in 1999-2001 Deputy Director General
of Foreign Ministry for West Europe Affairs, in 2001-06 Ambassador of
Israel to Italy, in 2007 he was pluralistically appointed Ambassador
of Israel to Armenia, Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

TV AND RADIO NATIONAL COMMITTEE HEAD ENDS HIS TERM IN OFFICE

Panorama.am
20:08 20/03/2007

The term in office of Grigor Amalyan, chairman of TV and radio
national committee and Shamiram Aghabekyan, deputy chairwoman of
the same committee, ended up yesterday. We interviewed several media
organizations to assess Amalyan’s work in office.

Astghik Gevorgyan, chairwoman of Armenian Journalists Union, said,
"If not the case of A1+, we would be careful and say that he met
his responsibilities. I believe, canceling A1+ meant depriving the
society from a chance of alternative media. I am sorry the committee
did not listen to the society. If the committee were formed from the
political party representatives in the parliament, such issues would
be resolved with plurality of opinion and the committee head would
not have had such unlimited rights."

Boris Navasardyan, chairman of Yerevan Press Club, said, "The
committee, headed by Grigor Amalyan, displayed discriminative attitude
to A1+ and not only during the first competition but during the
competition on radio frequency, as well. We believe it has political
motives. The major part of the responsibility is on the chairman."

Boris Navasardyan believes we have witnessed many violations of
advertisement laws. "In most cases violations are not recorded, the
transgressors are not punished which speaks about improper work of
the committee."