Author: Tamamian Anna

Armenian President visited the Police hospital and the arena of yesterday’s unrest

March 2, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian President Robert Kocharian visited today
the Police hospital, where the policemen are, who were injured as a
result of yesterday’s unrest, organized in Yerevan by the supporters
of the opposition.

Also, the Armenian President, accompanied with the Mayor of Yerevan,
visited the Square of Yerevan City Administration today, which became
yesterday the main arena of unrest. Robert Kocharian gave orders to
the Mayor on soon eliminating the damages, caused to the city.

HERITAGE STATEMENT

Lragir
21:12:33 – 29/02/2008

The Armenian presidential elections, held on February 19, 2008, became
the culmination point for the most severe violations of the law that
were ever committed throughout the tenure of today’s authorities and,
within the short track record of our independent statehood, they
turned into a new and a deep sore inside the souls of the country’s
freedom-loving people.

While carrying out their societal and civic duties and an
official commitment on the day of the elections, numerous
Armenian citizens-among them three members of the Heritage Party’s
parliamentary group, many members of election commissions, journalists
from independent news media, proxies of opposition candidates, and
ordinary voters-became the targets of countless assaults, and their
right to make a political choice was violated in a variety ways.

The incumbent authorities responded to the people’s post-election
resistance-waged against voting fraud and law infringements-by
means of one-sided and biased propaganda disseminated by the media
which are under their control and subsequently through the patent
politically motivated arrests. We confirm, with deep regret, that
the number of political prisoners in Armenia has grown and reached
alarming dimensions.

Another matter of concern is the fact that on the day following the
elections, the members of the OSCE/PACE observation mission attempted
in their turn to legitimize, with a preliminary announcement, the
results that were made public by the Central Election Commission which
has silently encouraged the permissiveness carried out under the guise
of "presidential elections" and which has practically coordinated the
entire process of voting abuse. With its announcement, the aforesaid
mission has deepened the Armenian public’s distrust not solely toward
the electoral process, but also toward the international community
and the progressive international associations, which now are gearing
double standards for the second year in a row.

Heritage has exerted great efforts to create, by way of legislative
improvements, favorable preconditions for conducting free and fair
elections, to secure political union and national unity in the
preelection season, to endorse the rule of law at the election
commissions, and to launch public oversight on the day of the
elections. Unfortunately, the authorities, which have violated the
rights and freedoms of Armenian citizens, yet again are attempting
to crush their own people.

Heritage hereby demands from the ruling powers to put an end to the
political pursuits and to refrain from the use of force against the
peaceful civic gatherings.

During this crucial turning point at Armenia’s history, each and every
political force, which senses its responsibility for this situation
and is capable of proposing avenues for resolving it with dignity,
must review its course comprehensively and commence a public-wide
dialogue for the sake of the country’s future. One such review could be
a just verdict handed down by the Constitutional Court with respect to
the petitions filed by the former presidential candidates. Heritage
expects the court to examine these petitions by acknowledging its
accountability before Armenia’s future and honoring the letter and
spirit of the law, and to carry out an all-inclusive and a thorough
examination of the petitions. The quantity and type of the election
fraud and numerous other violations that occurred in and nearby the
voting precincts on the day of the elections, as well as the shameful
incidents that took place while the ballots were being tallied,
indubitably bespeak their systemic nature, and this reality has caused
a broad public distrust toward the elections and specifically toward
the official voting results. We are full of hope that an impartial
decision by the Constitutional Court would pave for Armenia the way
leading to legitimacy, democracy, and civil rights.

Heritage assures that it will always stand alongside the people and
the truth, and, by defending the fundamental precepts of Armenia’s
statehood, it will never back down from its political position as a
systemic opposition.

We therefore call on our members, supporters, and those
citizens who await our say to not succumb to illegality and
injustice, to steadfastly go forward and thus to exercise their
constitutionally-protected rights.

SERZH SARGSYAN WARNS AGAINST UNREASONABLE INFLATION

Panorama.am
20:06 28/02/2008

Upon the need of today’s government session Prime Minister Serzh
Sargsyan once again warned the minister of trade and economy as well as
economic protection state committee chairman that they should conduct
everyday monitoring, government information and public relations office
reports. The prime minister mentioned that the reflections of the world
inflation on our market should be objective. Sargsyan mentioned that
operative measures must be undertaken to avoid unnecessary inflation.

20TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMGAIT MASSACRE MARKED IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.02.2008 14:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The 20th anniversary of the Sumgait massacre was
marked in Nagorno Karabakh. NKR top officials headed by President Bako
Sahakian and ordinary citizens attended the Memorial to commemorate
the victims of the tragedy. Priests of the Artsakh Diocese of the
Armenian Apostolic Church chanted a liturgy in memory of the innocent
murder victims, IA Regnum reports.

The Sumgait massacre in February 1988 that claimed lives of 32
Armenians was the first mass explosion of ethnic valance in the modern
soviet history that resulted in huge refugee flows to Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SURE THAT "LEVON TER-PETROSIAN DROVE HIMSELF INTO A DEADLOCK"

Mediamax
February 27, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Yerevan, February 27. /Mediamax/. Armenian
President Robert Kocharian stated that "Levon Ter-Petrosian drove
himself into a deadlock, when 2 weeks ago stated that he already
considered himself the winner".

Mediamax reports that the President said this on late February 26
in an interview to the Public TV of Armenia, commenting on the fact
that Ter-Petrosian does not recognize the results of the presidential
elections and urges his supporters not to leave the Freedom Square.

"He has only one way out left – to gather those people at the square
and keep them there with the use of various tricks", the President
noted. According to him, by this Ter-Petrosian demonstrates disrespect
first of all towards his company, since "drowning, he tries to drag
those people with himself".

"This person was evil for this country, and today he has become a
greater evil for the people around him", Robert Kocharian stated.

THE KURDISH AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDES – FROM CENSORSHIP AND DENIAL TO RECOGNITION
By Desmond Fernandes

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
Kurdishaspect.com
-inside.com/the-kurdish-and-armenian-genocides-r46 0280.htm
Feb 27 2008
Austria

2008-02-27 19:56:43 – Turkey’s repression of the Kurds has been widely
documented – and is acknowledged as a major obstacle to Turkey’s
accession to the European Union. But what lies behind such repression?

Fernandes confronts the issue head on, forcing the reader to probe
a question that many in Turkey and elsewhere would rather avoid:
does the systematic repression of the Kurds amount to genocide? Open
discussion of this issue is critical if a long-term resolution of the
Kurdish issue is to be achieved – Nicholas Hildyard, Policy Analyst.

The book is an exceptionally important read for anyone with a broad
interest in human rights and social justice. It has a scholarly
account of the historical background to the present awful situation of
Turkish Armenians and Turkish Kurds. In particular, the book provides
a powerful comparative analysis of the policies of the US, Israel and
Turkey in terms of their rationale for labelling human atrocities as
genocide – Dr. Julia Kathleen Davidson, Research Fellow, Faculty of
Education, University of Glasgow and Membership Secretary of Scotland
Against Criminalising communities (SACC).

In this important book, Desmond Fernandes exposes the details of
the sordid and largely hidden role of Israel and the US Israel Lobby
in preventing Congress from recognizing the Turkish genocide of the
Armenians – Jeff Blankfort, Former Editor, Middle East Labor Bulletin.

Among its Cold War victories the United States certainly succeeded
in its ambition to make the world safe for nationalism. As identity
politics is reprocessed as a function of global capital, and
rehabilitated as its natural ally, Desmond Fernandes documents the
fractured consequences of the readymade social fantasy – Variant:
Cross Currents in Culture.

Desmond Fernandes writes for those who spoke the truth and were
murdered, those who spoke 200 days ago and are still imprisoned,
and for those who live in terror and in silence, or who meet in
nameless buildings, so that the words ‘GENOCIDE’, ethnic cleansing,
or the Turkish military word ‘TEMIZLEME’, may be heard as a siren
call for the muted victims of the Turkish state – Diamanda Galas,
Composer and Performer of Songs of Exile, Vena Cava, Schrei X, Plague
Mass and Defixiones, Will And Testament.

Fernandes’ painstaking investigation sheds much needed light on
the collusion between the Turkish State and the Israel lobby in
preventing recognition of one of the darkest episodes of the past
century, the genocide of Ottoman Turkey’s ethnic Armenians -Muhammad
Idrees Ahmad, Spinwatch.

[This is] a judiciously assembled vast, syntactic mosaic ‘illustrating’
the total state terror inflicted upon two ancient peoples … Desmond
Fernandes has laboriously integrated a vast amount of historical
events, scholarly data, secret documents, live witnesses, relevant
literature and even poetry … [He] has hit the target: mainly
encapsulating the enormity of censorship, denial and recognition of
that ultimate crime of man’s inhumanity to man – Genocide – Khatchatur
I. Pilikian [from the Epilogue].

Desmond Fernandes is a policy analyst and former Senior Lecturer
in Human Geography and Genocide Studies at De Montfort University,
England. He has published widely in a number of journals and is
co-author of Genozid an den Kurden in der Turkei? – Verfolgung, Krieg
und Zerstorung der ethnischen Identitat (2001, Medico International,
Frankfurt). Forthcoming titles by the author include The Kurdish
Genocide in Turkey and US, UK, German, Israeli and NATO ‘Inspired’
Psychological Warfare Operations against the ‘Kurdish Threat’ in Turkey
and Northern Iraq, due to shortly be released by Apec Press, Stockholm.

S. SARGSYAN: "IT’S TIME FOR ‘AHEAD ARMENIA’"

Panorama.am
20:45 26/02/2008

"I promised you victories and we have won. I promise new victories and
we will win," Armenian Prime Minister and newly elected President
Serzh Sargsyan told a rally of thousands today at the Republic
Square. In his words, he will do everything to fight poverty, evil
and indifference. "We witness division of the society. We witness
aggressive groupings who try to achieve their aim by all means. We
will defeat this division as well," Serzh Sargsyan mentioned.

In Sargsyan’s words the elections showed that the time for "Ahead
Armenia!" has come. It is time for hard work and fight against the
evil in life.

"I assure you that the arms of democracy have not faded up in our
country. It has not faded up because only the few had the courage to
use it. It has not faded up because democracy means to look into the
eyes of people without fear," Serzh Sargsyan said.

In his words, one of the aims he pursues is to attract all constructive
and basic forces in favor of the development of Armenia. The newly
elected president mentioned that this victory is the starting point
for other victories.

"I swear that I will do everything to justify your trust and fairly
stand in front of you. I assure you that you will not regret that
you have voted for Serzh Sargsyan," he said.

CURRENTLY MOST IMPORTANT TASKS ARE ENSURING OF REAL PLURALITY AND GIVING COMPLETE POSSIBILITIES TO OPPOSITION, ARMEN RUSTAMIAN STATES

Noyan Tapan
Feb 26, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. "We call one side for not trying to
implement any program of forcibly changing the power in the country
and call the other side for respecting the views of the people, who
indeed have grounds and can be discontent with the results of the
elections for us not to name alien those discontent with the results,"
Armen Rustamian, a representative of the ARFD Armenian Supreme Body,
stated at the February 26 press conference.

According to him, today the most important task is ensuring of
plurality and freedom of expression. The second important task is
giving real possibilities to the opposition in the political system
for the opposition to be able to become an influential factor in
the issue of making political decisions in the country. "Unless
the opposition has it, it will always try to become a factor in the
street," A. Rustamian said.

He reaffirmed the ARFD’s readiness to carry out active mediation
efforts with the two sides and to find political ways out of the
strained home political situation. A. Rustamian said that ARFD has not
been idle so far and has immediately intervened to prevent bloodshed
even if up to present.

Vahan Hovhannisian, an ARFD Bureau member, who submitted an application
on resigning the post of the NA Vice-Speaker the day before, expressed
an opinion that there are verges of consent. In his words, on the
one hand, the authorities should admit their responsibility for the
repeatedly committed electoral violations. "On the other hand, the
opposition, which has taken to the streets today, should confess that
very many people having joined it today are the authors and designers
of these violations," V. Hovhannisian said. He also mentioned that
under the current conditions it becomes obvious that the approaches
of both sides are polarized and the authorities in their turn should
ask themselves: "what have they done that so many people have joined
Levon Ter-Petrosian?"

The speakers also gave some clarifications on the statement spread
by the Supreme Body the day before. They, in particular, said that
the main reason of their challenging the results of the elections is
the current electoral system. According to A. Rustamian, it does not
ensure correspondence of ballot-papers in ballot-boxes with the real
votes given by the voters.

Besides, the possibilities of complete prevention and control of
electoral falsifications by society, as well as by political forces
are too limited.

V. Hovhannisian said that the observations of ARFD members are
evidence that all-round bribes were given and "the three leading
presidential candidates distinguished themselves in that issue." The
former presidential candidate also stated that he is proud of 100
thousand people, who voted for him, as "on the one hand, they do not
dance in the squares in a state of drunkenness, they are not of that
kind, on the other hand, they do not take a cemetery wreath to the
house of one of the candidates and make hysteria."

STATEMENT OF VAZGEN MANOUKIAN

AZG Armenian Daily
26/02/2008

Post-election

I am grateful to my voters and supporters whose number is more than
the official data. It is the unbiased, principled part of the society,
which shares our ideas and is the reliable cream, which may underlie
the future of our country. By voting for me you voted for real,
fundamental changes. As to the election, the anti-democratic system,
which had been established in 1995 once again held the election with
innumerable breaches, which are already familiar to us (the volume
and possibility of proving which we are studying). The creators of
this vicious system have declared struggle against those who use
that system, in which a number of honest people are involved, who
sincerely believe that it is struggle for the future of the country.

In reality, I think for the organizers it is struggle for coming
to power on the surge of hatred. Neither our state nor our people
will benefit from this struggle. I appeal to everyone who desires
freedom and justice not to get disappointed with the outcome of the
vote and election fraud. Our struggle is in future, and we are full
of determination to redirect the consciousness of the society towards
real national and universal values in which case it will be possible
to build new Armenia based on democratic principles.

Regular meeting of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters started in Liberty
Square in Yerevan

2008-02-24 15:15:00

ArmInfo. Regular meeting of RA presidential contender, first President
of Armenia Levon-Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters started in Liberty Square
in Yerevan. Several tens of thousands people take part in the meeting.

Leaders of the political parties, who claimed of their support of L.
Ter-Petrosyan’s candidacy, as well as ex-Minister of Education and
Science Ashot Bleyan, ex-Head of the National Security Service of
Armenia David Shahnazaryan, RA MP Khachatur Sukiasyan are on the
meeting tribune.

The meeting anchorman, Editor-in-Chief of the "Haykakan Zhamanak"
newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, thanked the meeting participants for courage
and buoyancy and urged them to continue pitching tents at the Square,
the number of which has already exceeded 30. He condemned detention of
ex-deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia Gagik Jhangiryan last night,
during which G. Jhangiryan’s brother Vardan Jhangiryan, who was also
detained, was wounded. As Pashinyan said, "Jhangiryan is of danger of
for the authorities, as he knows much about October 27, 1999 terrorist
act in the Armenian Parliament". Commenting on the joint statement of
RA deputy FM Armen Bayburdyan and several local diplomats, made at
Liberty Square yesterday, after which they were discharged from their
duties and deprived of diplomatic titles, Nikol Pashinyan said that
"now the whole world knows that serious processes take place in
Armenia".

To note, despite the fact that numerous policemen, representatives of
special subdivisions and internal troops are available in the streets
and bystreets to the Liberty Square, the employees of
law-enforcement structures do not hinder holding of the meeting.