Author: Tadevosian Garnik

"ROAD-MAP" AS DEFINED BY THE ROA FOREIGN MINISTRY

hetq.am/en/politics/agn-5/
2009/04/23 | 15:32

important politics

When asked by one of Armenia’s TV stations to define the meaning of
the term "road map" used by the foreign ministries of Armenia, Turkey
and Switzerland in their joint statement yesterday, Tigran Balayan,
who heads the Media Relations Division at the RoA Foreign Ministry,
commented:

"The term ‘road-map’ is highly accepted diplomatic vernacular
signifying a plan or outline of measures to be taken."

RUSSIA’S ROLE IN THE KARABAKH SETTLEMENT INCREASING, ARMENIA’S PRESIDENT SAYS

armradio.am
23.04.2009 17:02

During the meeting with the president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev,
the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, expressed gratitude to his
Russian counterpart for his unchanged position on the legal settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, RIA Novosti reported.

"I’m grateful to Russia and personally you for the invaluable support
to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. I would like to emphasize
that your position that the issue should be solved on the basis of
all the principles of international law has remained unchanged after
the meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev," Serzh
Sargsyan said.

He said to be glad that "another country has emerged in the South
Caucasus that can definitely call Russia its strategic partner."

"This means that the role and resources of Russia in the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict are increasing," the Armenian President noted.

WHY ISN’T TURKEY’S HOLOCAUST-DENYING CONDEMNED LIKE IRAN’S?

About – News & Issues
April 22 2009

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is justly condemned for his rants and raves
about "the conspiracies of some powers and Zionist circles" and his
(and his regime’s) toxic mix of Holocaust denying or denigration.

When Turkey peddles similar poisons, regarding Armenians, as it
did the very day Ahmadinejad was lecturing the Geneva conference on
racism, not a word was said by Official Washington or the European
Union. This, on the heels of Barack Obama reverentially addressing
the Turkish Parliament on its own floor.

Last night in Canada, representative from across the spectrum
of the Canadian government–conservatives, liberals and in
betweeners–commemorated the Armenian genocide (1915-1923), in which
some 1.5 million Armenians were murdered by Ottoman Turks and Kurds in
the dying days of the Ottoman empire and before the emergence of the
Turkish republic. In 2004, the Canadian Parliament passed a bill that
read: ""That this house acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and
condemn this act as a crime against humanity." The then-government
of Paul Martin refused to endorse the bill, but subsequently Prime
Minister Stephen Harper did (a lesson to the U.S. Congress, which
has yet to pass a similar bill).

Get this: Turkey "warned" Canadian officials, including Canadian
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, not to talk genocide (where Turkey
gets the presumption to dictate what other countries’ ministers may or
may not say is beyond me. Then again, it isn’t: Ottoman imperiousness
dies hard.) Kenney did anyway, and Harper sent his written affirmation:
"I am honoured," he wrote, "to have this opportunity to extend my
warmest greetings to all those attending the Congress of Canadian
Armenians event to mark the 5th anniversary of the adoption of
the resolution by the House of Commons recognizing the Armenian
Genocide." He also, apparently, attended a vigil marking the genocide.

Turkey’s response? It recalled its ambassador to Canada "for
consultation." How different, exactly, is that from Ahmadinejad’s
shenanigans? Not very, in my book.

But European and American governments continue to dance around Turkey’s
denials because Turkey and Armenia, who may be normalizing relations,
may be the West’s new gate to the oil-rich Caucasus.

The Globe & Mail is reporting that Obama may be addressing the
Armenian genocide issue later this week. He’s on record supporting
the bill declaring the genocide as such. But he’s backpedaled since
becoming president.

It’s easy to demolish Ahmadinejad. He’s duplicity’s clown. But
it’s also meaningless if the same standard doesn’t apply to other
holocaust deniers. Turkey bullies those who don’t submit to its false
history. Canada refuses to go along. The United States officially
still does. Time to end that charade.

ARMENIA FM, MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS DISCUSS THE KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS

armradio.am
22.04.2009 11:08

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, met with the
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Matthew
Bryza (USA), Bernard Fassier (France), and the Personal Representative
of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzey Kasprzyk.

During the meeting the parties discussed the opportunities of bringing
the positions of the parties closer in the negotiation process on
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict underway on the basis of the
Madrid Proposals.

Within the framework of the regional visit the Co-Chairs will visit
also Baku and Stepanakert.

ARMENIA TO "DEFINITELY TAKE PART" IN NATO EXERCISE IN GEORGIA

Interfax
April 20 2009
Russia

Armenia’s Defense Ministry said Armenia "will definitely take part"
in a planned NATO military exercise in Georgia on May 6-June 1,
an exercise Russia has been protesting at.

"After the conference on planning the exercise we will be able to
say definitively what will be the composition [of our forces that]
will take part in this exercise. But we will definitely take part,"
ministry spokesman Seiran Shakhsuvarian told Interfax.

The planned Cooperative Longbow 2009 exercise, announced by NATO on
Wednesday, would bring 1,300 troops from 19 countries some of which
are NATO members and some are not but are involved in the alliance’s
Partnership for Peace program.

The first phase of the exercise would take place in Georgia’s capital,
Tbilisi. The second will be field maneuvers at the Vaziani military
base on May 18-June 1.

On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described the planned
exercise as a "shortsighted" move that "doesn’t help strengthen
Russia’s contacts with NATO."

The day before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters
in Yerevan that Cooperative Longbow 2009 would not be conducive to
stability in the Caucasus.

Russian permanent envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax: "On
Wednesday we sent an official appeal to the NATO secretary general,
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, with a proposal for putting off the NATO
military exercise that is due to take place in Georgia shortly or
for canceling it altogether."

SUFFERING OF CASTRATES OR BRIEF ANALYSIS OF ARMENIANS’ REACTION TO PUBLICATION IN KOMMERSANT NEWSPAPER

Today.Az

Apri l 21 2009
Azerbaijan

Great Miguel Servantez has once said: "The coward souls have no place
for happiness".

And now when watching the next hysteria of Armenians, who gathered
for all possible forums to discuss the article "Karabakh resolution
gets support" published in the Kommersant newspaper, it becomes clear
that the classic was right. But let’s start from the very beginning.

Furious phillipics and Servantez’ thesis

Let’s start with the brief description of the content of the article
in the Kommersant, which has exposed the real essence of the world
Armenians that fatre any strengthening of Azerbaijan and demonstrate
an extremely nervous reaction, like a jigalo who loses attractiveness,
on any contacts of its supporter, even if these contacts are a simple
conversation of this supporter with neighbors. "If Yerevan and Baku use
the mediation services of the Kremlin, they will be rewarded: Armenia
might count on the financial aide and Azerbaijan on arms supply.

Rosoboronexport made it clear that Azerbaijan is on the list
of priority partners in the sense of the military and technical
cooperation.

Rosoboronexport considers the military and technical cooperation
with all the CIS states, including Azerbaijan, as one of the priority
partners as one of the priority directions. These are closes neighbors
and this cannot be otherwise", announced official representative of
Rosoboronexprt Vyacheslav Davidenko", reads Kommersant.

Well, then why Armenians should demonstrate resentment? For the fact
that Armenian economy is in a disastrous state and it needs the Russian
promised money. It should be clear even to a hedgehog if he resided
in Armenia that a free cheese is only in a trap and money can go to
Armenia only in case it can meet all needs of its supporter.

And finally no one has ever promised that the Russian leadership will
orient only on Armenia’s interests not on their national interests,
including the role of a peacekeeper in the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict, while settling its own geopolitical tasks. Nevertheless,
Armenians got offended. But in the manner, peculiar of themselves,
Armenians preferred to voice their resentment in a form of posts at
different forums thus proving their cowardiss, that leads to lack of
happiness, according to Servantez.

This is true. The demonstrative resentment over the Russia’s actions
by the Armenian leadership might bring some unpleasant consequences
for them. It means that Armenia might not get the loans from Russia
and watch development of the military and technical cooperation with
Azerbaijan without asking the opinion of Armenia. The Kommersant
newspaper also understands this.

Therefore, they write: Anyway, Moscow that claims for a role of the
main reconciles of Armenians and Azerbaijanis that do not doubt the
success of their peacekeeping initiative especially considering the
fact that Russia prepares to provide Armenia with a material aide. The
Russian leadership agreed to meet Yerevan’s request about the loans in
dollars. But instead of the request $2 bln Moscow intends to provide
only $500 mln.

However, according to sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry, if
this is not enough, Russia is ready to assist to Armenia in getting
access to the anticrisis foundation, created in the EEC frames early
this year (the foundation has $10 bln). In other words, the Armenian
leadership is currently concerned with the banal attempt to sell itself
to Russia for more, while Armenians, surfing the Internet forums will
just have to watch this, sending furious replies and thus confirming
the thesis of great Servantes.

GENOCIDE MEMORIAL SERVICE

WBNG-TV

Apri l 19 2009
NY

One and a half million Armenians died in a genocide led by the Turkish
government in 1915.

Multimedia Watch The Video Local Armenians held this service to
commemorate the 94th anniversary of the genocide.

It was held at the Armenia Memorial, in front of the South Washington
Street bridge.

People placed flowers on the memorial and said prayers to remember
the victims.

Gus Kerjilian says he has grandparents, aunts, and uncles who died
in the genocide.

"We talk about their memory. And for our children, we give them the
hope that we survived," said Kerjillian.

Kerjilian wants future Armenian generations to realize the tragedy
of the genocide.

On Friday, Saint Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church will open
its doors to the public.

People can stop in to say a prayer of light a candle.

RACISM ON THE AGENDA: MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD’S ATTACK ON ISRAEL TRIGGERS WALKOUT AT THE UN
Julian Borger

The Guardian
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Geneva

Iran’s president launches tirade at tolerance summit
Diplomats stage protest as speech denies Holocaust

>From the moment Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name appeared on the programme
for a major UN conference against racism, it was guaranteed to be a
controversial performance. Yesterday, the Iranian president lived
up to expectations, questioning the history of the Holocaust and
accusing Israel of racism and genocide in a speech which triggering
a coordinated walk out by Britain and other European countries.

Ahmadinejad caused uproar at the Geneva meeting by delivering a long,
rambling polemic against Zionism, which he equated with racism, and
blamed for the war in Iraq. He said Zionists had "penetrated into
the political and economic structure including their legislation,
mass media, companies, financial systems, and their security and
intelligence agencies".

"They have imposed their domination to the extent that nothing can be
done against their will," the Iranian president told delegates from
around the world in Geneva’s historic Palais des Nations, birthplace
of the League of Nations.

The speech not only overshadowed the conference intended to review
international progress against racism and discrimination around
the world, it seemed to rule out any rapprochement between Iran and
the west.

Diplomats said it was unlikely Ahmadinejad would have delivered such
a controversial speech without the approval of Iran’s supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The US and Israel had led a boycott of the conference, known as the
Durban review. They were followed by Australia, New Zealand, Germany,
Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Britain, France and other EU nations
decided to attend but were ready, with their "shoes on" as one British
official put it, to walk out if Ahmadinejad’s speech proved offensive.

It did that fairly quickly.

There was pandemonium in the hall as the Iranian leader reached
the lectern.

A group of about 100 demonstrators, largely from Jewish groups,
gathered in the lobby outside the assembly hall, shouting "shame". A
handful infiltrated the hall, and as Ahmadinejad began to talk,
they sprung up dressed in multicoloured clowns’ wigs and red noses,
chanting "racist" before being marched out.

Ahmadinejad remained unruffled, asking the delegates to "forgive these
ignorant people". Then the speech began and it soon became clear he
was in no mood for detente with the west.

Within a few minutes he said: "Following world war two, [powerful
countries] resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation
homeless, on the pretext of Jewish suffering and the ambiguous and
dubious question of the Holocaust … and they helped bring to power
the most cruel and repress ive racists in Palestine."

It was at that point that the European delegates in the chamber,
along with the Armenians and the St Kitts delegation, rose in unison
and walked out.

Later, Peter Gooderham, British ambassador to the UN in Geneva,
who had walked out, said: "As soon as President Ahmadinejad started
talking about Israel, its history and government it was clear that
was the cue for us. We agreed in advance that if there was any such
rhetoric there would be no tolerance for it."

At a press conference afterwards, the Iranian leader was
unapologetic. "Why should they be afraid of participating in a
conference or listening to something they disagree with. This is
the arrogance and selfishness that is the root cause of many of the
world’s problems."

Taking part in the demonstrations outside was the film star Jon Voight,
a supporter of Israel who said he had come to confront Ahmadinejad’s
position on the Holocaust. Voight told the Guardian: "The fox is
in charge of the hen house here. This is supposed to be about human
rights, but hidden under that banner is antisemitism. Someone has to
respond to it."

One of the protesters in a wig, Joelle Jakubowicz, a member of the
Union of Jewish Students in France, said: "You can’t fight racism if
you are racist yourself."

The Iranian president has ruled out compromise on Iran’s nuclear
programme, but has occasionally raised hopes of a thaw in
relations. Those hopes look forlorn.

ARMENIAN DELEGATION WILL VISIT CONCENTRATION CAMP MEMORIAL

A1+
April 20, 2009

On April 21 the parliamentary delegation headed by the President of
the National Assembly of Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan, will leave for
the Republic of Poland for an official visit.

The delegation comprises the head of staff of the National Assembly
Gegham Gharibjanyan, Head of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction Vahan
Hovhannisyan, Chairman of the NA Sanding Committee on Territorial
Administration and Local Self-Government Issues Hovhannes Margaryan,
Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Human Rights Defense and
Public Issues Mkhitar Manatsakanyan, MPs Alexan Petrosyan, Vardan
Khachatryan, other officials.

In Warsaw the Armenian delegation is expected to meet with the
President of Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz, and the President of Sejm,
Bronislav Komorovski. The delegation will lay a wreath at the Memorial
to the Unknown Soldier.

The Armenian delegation will also visit the Auschwitz Birkenau
Concentration Camp Memorial.

The delegation headed by NA Speaker Hiovik Abrahamyan will return to
Yerevan on April 23, reports the NA press service.

PRESS RELEASE
ANC Toronto
Contact: Mr. Hratch Aynedjian
Tel: 416-816-2482
Web:

April 20, 2009

Armenian Community of Toronto Commemorates
94th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

Toronto, Ontario – The Canadian-Armenian Community of Toronto will be
commemorating the 94th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Over 1.5 million Armenians perished in a systematic effort by the
Turkish government of the Ottoman Empire to eliminate the indigenous
Armenian population living peacefully on its historic homelands. It was
the Armenian Genocide which introduced the spectre of holocaust to the
20th Century; a crime that has since been duplicated in various forms in
Nazi Germany, Rwanda and Darfur.

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009
Time: 2:00p.m. to 4:00p.m.

Location: Armenian Community Centre, 45 Hallcrown Place, Willowdale
(major intersection Victoria Park Ave. and Highway 401)

Representatives from all major Canadian political parties and all levels
of government will be participating. There will be a wreath laying
ceremony at the `Rebirth’ genocide monument at the
Armenian Community Centre immediately following the ceremony.

It is expected that 800 members of the Canadian-Armenian Community of
Toronto will attend.

For further information on the Armenian Genocide, please see the
Armenian National Committee of Canada website at

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