Author: Tambiyan Samvel

WHITE HOUSE REBUFFED IN EFFORT TO KILL VOTE ON HOUSE BILL RECOGNIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY TURKS

ABC News
03/white-house-rebuffed-in-effort-to-kill-vote-on- house-bill-recognizing-armenian-genocide-by-turks. html
March 4 2010

The Obama administration asked the chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee to cancel a vote scheduled for today on a bill
recognizing the Armenian genocide. The chairman of the committee, Rep.

Howard Berman, D-Calif., is going forward with the bill "mark up"
and vote regardless.

The bill, H. Res. 252, recognizes as genocide the "systematic and
deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians" as ordered by the
Turkish government from 1915 to 1923. It’s the kind of statement
then-Sen. Obama supported; as a candidate for president, he said,
"America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian
Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be
that President."

Turkish government officials, who are important U.S. allies, have
long objected to the description of those events as genocide.

After speaking to Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Wednesday, the
president had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reach out to Berman.

"Secretary Clinton called Chairman Berman yesterday and in that
conversation the Secretary indicated that further Congressional action
could impede progress on normalization of relations," said National
Security Staff spokesman Mike Hammer.

The conversation took place after the president spoke with President
Gul and "expressed appreciation" for his and Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s "efforts on normalization of relations between
Turkey and Armenia."

The president also "pressed for rapid ratification of the protocols,"
Hammer said, referring to efforts at normalization between Armenia
and Turkey.

Describing himself as "very upset," Aram Hamparian, executive director
of the Armenian National Committee of America, told ABC News that
this move" represents an insult on top of injury.

The injury was the broken pledge by the president to recognize the
genocide, and he’s taken that a step further by trying to block the
Congress from doing the very thing that he pledged to do which was
recognize the genocide."

As senators, President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Vice President
Biden had all been "very outspoken" in favor of identical legislation.

"Turkey does not get a vote or a veto in the US Congress," Hamparian
said. "The secretary shouldn’t be in the business of helping Turkey
impose its gag rule on the representatives of the American people."

During his trip to Turkey last April, the president disappointed
Hamparian and other members of the Armenian-American community who
supported his campaign by refraining from using the bold talk he made
as a candidate about the genocide.

Standing with President Gul, the president was asked about his position
that the Turks need to acknowledge the up to 1.5 million Armenians
the Ottoman Empire slaughtered around the time of World War I.

"My views are on the record and I have not changed views," Mr. Obama
said. "What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President
Gul ‘s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process,
in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of
longstanding issues, including this one."

At the time, Hamparian told ABC News, "We’re profoundly disappointed.

All the more so because his statements on this in his record before
he became president nailed it in terms the facts, the practical side
and the moral dimension. He repeatedly talked about this during the
campaign, and he was really harsh on President Bush, he said it was
inexcusable that Bush refused to acknowledge that this was genocide."

The president "finds himself doing exactly the thing he so sharply
criticized the Bush administration for, which is being euphemistic
and evasive. It’s a bitter thing for Armenian-Americans who really
believed him and really worked hard."

As a senator and candidate, Mr. Obama was quite forceful on the matter
and quite disdainful of the Bush administration’s tip-toeing around
the word "genocide."

In a January 2008 letter to the Armenian Reporter, Mr. Obama said he
shared "with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from
genocide survivors – a principled commitment to commemorating and
ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances
of genocide in world history."

In 2006, Mr. Obama noted, "I criticized the secretary of State for the
firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly
used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands
of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with secretary Rice my firmly
held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a
personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented
fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."

Asserted Mr. Obama, back then: "The facts are undeniable. An official
policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an
untenable policy."

Mr. Obama also stated unequivocally that "as President I will recognize
the Armenian Genocide."

His position on the matter was so strong, the Armenian National
Committee of America had its own Obama File on Armenian Genocide
Recognition which included a Youtube clip of the President on the
campaign trail saying, "there was a genocide that did take place
against the Armenian people. It is one of these situations where we
have seen a constant denial on the part of the Turkish government."

Today Hammer reiterated that the "President’s position on the events
of 1915 is well known and his view of that history has not changed."

WHITE HOUSE URGES TURKEY AND ARMENIA TO LIVE IN PRESENT, NOT IN PAST

Today
0.html
March 3 2010
Azerbaijan

White House Official Michael Hammer voiced President Barack Obama’s
position on the 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire.

White House urges Turkey and Armenia not to return to historical
events, but live for today, Hammer was quoted as saying by the Turkish
newspaper Milliyet newspaper.

U.S. Congress International Relations Commission Chairman Howard
Berman proposed to submit the issue consideration on March 4.

Armenia claims that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against
Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.

Making greater efforts to promote the issue internationally, Armenians
have achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

It is expected that the Armenian lobby will intensify its activities
in parliaments worldwide, particularly in the U.S. Congress, in
connection with the anniversary of "genocide" in April.

RUSSIAN PATRIARCH KIRILL I TO PAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.03.2010 11:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian Patriarch Kirill I will pay a 2-day official
visit to Armenia on the invitation of Catholicos of All Armenians,
His Holiness Karekin II. The agenda of the visit was discussed at
March 2 Supreme Spiritual Council meeting.

The Russian Patriarch is expected to conclude Sergiev Posad –
Etchmiadzin collaboration agreement. He will also attend the 1826-1828
Russo-Persian War and Armenian Genocide memorials, as well as Armenian
Genocide Museum Institute.

He is scheduled to hold a meeting with Armenia’s Russian Community
representatives and to participate in YSU-hosted presentation of his
own books in Armenian translation and to attend the foundation laying
ceremony of Russian orthodox church in Yerevan.

A meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is also on the agenda.

ARMENIAN RANKS 103 IN FIFA RATING

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.03.2010 17:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On March 3 FIFA published its latest rating of
national teams of February. Compared with the last rating, which
was submitted on February 3, the Armenian team dropped 1 line, and
with 320 points now ranks 103rd. The team of Azerbaijan (251 points)
is 109th and the team of Georgia (200 points) is 124th.

The current champion of Europe – Spain squad tops the rating with
1642 points. Five-time world champions – Brazilians are the second
(1594 points), and the Dutch team with 1,324 points is the third.

EU: ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS SHOULD BE RATIFIED WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS IN SHORTEST TERMS

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.03.2010 13:57 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Union will speed up the talks on
conclusion of an Association Agreement with Armenia.

"The European Union will deepen relations with all countries which are
interested in signing an agreement on free trade area and relaxation
of visa regime. A subcommittee on legal issues will be formed to
that end," said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos,
whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency.

"Armenia and the EU are developing relations within the Eastern
Partnership initiative and we were glad to know about the upcoming
visit of the Armenian President to Brussels," he said during a joint
news conference with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Touching upon regional issues, Mr. Moratinos said the European Union
will continue efforts for resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

As to Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, he said the Protocols on
normalization of relations between the two countries should be ratified
"without preconditions in the shortest terms".

Minister Nalbandian, for his part, remarked that using the language
of preconditions, Turkey hampers the reconciliation process.

Commenting on the Karabakh conflict settlement, he reminded about
Azerbaijan’s warlike statements and unwillingness to withdraw snipers
from the frontline. "Yerevan and Baku regularly submit proposals on
the conflict resolution to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs," he said.

The Minister also referred to the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait and Baku,
saying that the perpetrators of the massacre will be sooner or later
called to account.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation. On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional
Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to
the country’s Organic Law.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in
1988, as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the
final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from
1991 (when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was proclaimed) to 1994
(when a ceasefire was sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan). Most
of Nagorno Karabakh and a security zone consisting of 7 regions is
now under control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are
holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

CAUCASUS CONFLICT COULD TURN TRAGEDY INTO WIDER DISASTER
Frank Kane

The National
rticle?AID=/20100227/BUSINESS/702269819/1058&t emplate=columnists
Feb 27 2010
UAE

I’ve got to know Parviz Ismailzadeh pretty well over the past couple
of years.

Parviz is the consul of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Dubai, and since
my marriage to an Azeri lady he has been a great help in facilitating
the documentation necessary to regularise matters for us and for our
young daughter.

It was a shock how much paperwork was needed, but Parviz guided us
cheerfully through the minefield of post-Soviet bureaucracy and has
become a friend. He is an affable man, good company over a good steak,
and he has taught me much about the political and economic affairs
of Azerbaijan, a fascinating country at an equally fascinating stage
in its history.

My trips to Baku, where my in-laws live, are much better informed as
a result of my briefings with him. The business and financial affairs
of the city, the oil-rich capital of the Caspian, are complex, but a
working knowledge of them is crucial to understanding the strategic
role of Azerbaijan in the area.

Parviz was in unusually sombre mood at an event last Thursday night in
Dubai. Along with the ambassador to the UAE, Elkhan Gahramanov, some
of the leading lights in the Azeri business and diplomatic community
in the Emirates were gathering to commemorate the anniversary of a
tragic event in Azerbaijan’s history: the massacre of Azeri citizens
at the town of Khojali in 1992.

Khojali is in the centre of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
the Mountainous Black Garden, historically part of Azerbaijan but
occupied by forces of the neighbouring (though not neighbourly)
republic of Armenia since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In February 1992, Armenian forces, with the aid of Russian regular
troops, surrounded Khojali as part of their campaign to extend their
control of Azeri territory. They offered civilians one exit route to
a nearby Azeri-controlled town. When the old men, women and children
tried to take that road to safety, they were attacked by soldiers who
left 631 dead and seriously injured a couple of thousand more. The
American journalist Thomas Goltz describes the result at a nearby
morgue in cold, hard prose in his book Azerbaijan Diary, the best
single volume on the country’s tortured history.

I felt like an interloper at a private tragedy at the Dubai event. My
view is coloured by my marital ties with Azerbaijan, and I know
Armenia disputes the version of a cold-hearted massacre. They say
their forces were fired on by Azeri soldiers among the refugees,
and the resulting firefight caused most of the deaths.

But you did not need any of this background to understand that
something terrible had happened in the burnt-out houses and
corpse-strewn fields of Khojali. In the comfort of a Dubai hotel we
watched grainy, shaky footage of the consequences of the attack. It
was a powerful, disturbing reinforcement – like images of My Lai
in Vietnam or Fallujah in Iraq – of what happens when civilians get
caught in the military machine.

The Azeris have a list of 31 names of those they believe responsible
for the massacre, and have been trying for years to get international
police forces and courts involved in their apprehension. The Dubai
event was the latest stage of a campaign to get Middle Eastern
countries to take up the cause of the Muslim victims of Khojali.

The Azeri government also wants the international community to
implement its historical claims to Nagorno Karabakh, which have been
recognised many times by the UN.

There is a strategic backdrop to this that has repercussions for the
UAE, the Gulf countries and the global energy industry. The UAE has
been increasing its trade links with Azerbaijan significantly over
the past few years. Sultan al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy,
heads a committee to further develop UAE-Azerbaijan relations.

The GCC has a legitimate interest in matters in the southern Caucasus,
through which a large part of central Asian oil and gas supplies
pass, and which is increasingly drawing the attention of American and
European energy investors. Any conflict there could spark Russian,
Iranian and Turkish strategic intervention, for reasons of their
historical ties to Azerbaijan and the security of their energy supplies
from the Caspian region.

Conflict could still be averted. The Russians have hosted a number
of meetings to try to resolve the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, so far
unsuccessfully.

But at about the same time as I left the sombre men in Dubai, the
foreign minister in Baku was telling diplomats that a "great war" in
the south Caucasus was inevitable unless Armenia withdrew. That would
turn the tragedy of Khojali into the makings of a global disaster.

MEETINGS IN KYIV

meeting
07:33 pm | February 25, 2010

Official

Today President Serzh Sargsyan attended the official inauguration
ceremony of Ukraine’s president-elect Victor Yanukovich.

The delegation headed by President Sargsyan comprised leader
of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan, Adviser to RA
President Andranik Manukyan and Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Armen Khachatryan.

Following the swearing-in ceremony President Sargsyan participated
in the official reception and dinner in honor of the heads of foreign
states and talked to his counterparts and other high-ranking officials.

At his residence in Kiev Serzh Sargsyan received US Assistant Secretary
of State Philip Gordon. Issues related to the process of normalization
of the Armenia-Turkey relations were discussed.

The President of Armenia once again presented the approaches of
official Yerevan towards the current stage of the process and noted
that "Armenia is committed to the principle of establishment of
relations with Turkey without preconditions." Philip Gordon reiterated
the US support for the process.

Highly appreciating the constructive position of the Republic of
Armenia in all stages of normalization, Gordon underlined that "the
ratification of the protocols in both parliaments without linking them
to other issues is important for reaching normalization of relations."

BOMB ALERT FALSE

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2010 14:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The alert on a bomb planted in the RA State Revenue
Committee premises was a false alarm, a PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent
reported from the scene.

Presently, law enforcers are searching for the anonymous caller.

The police were alerted after the Committee received a phone call at
11.15 am saying there was a bomb inside.

KOSOVO IS NOT AGHDAM: AZERBAIJAN ACKNOWLEDGES FRAUDS

Aysor
Feb 25 2010
Armenia

Presenting the Xocali.net Project, the "Xenophobia Prevention
Initiative" held Wednesday the Khojaly Review Conference, causing
Azerbaijan to react nervously.

The "issue of Khojaly", Azerbaijan-made legend, turned to dust: the
frauds committed by Azerbaijan, are uncovered now, and the legend’s
tale-tellers can only lament and lay to Azerbaijani government and
media a charge of inability to "tell lies qualitatively."

"Azerbaijan’s state-controlled media resources and propaganda
organisations appear to have been overdoing, and made serious mistakes
and falsifications. Thus, ‘taking the vanish off’ Armenians, some our
on-line media were so overzealous, that borrowed photos from Turkey,
Palestine, and other countries, presenting them as Armenia-made crimes
in Khojaly," Zerkalo.az edition had to acknowledge.

Keeping in view and admitting that "Armenians came to hand quite
politicly, comparing these photos’ originals and the posted pictures
in Azerbaijani media, Zerkalo.az points in its article: "This once
again shows how grossly the Azerbaijani propaganda and state-controlled
media work."

"This will seriously influence the international community, which
will in season and out of season refer to this resource [Xocali.net
Project] and the uncovered frauds, and will call on explanations."

Another Azerbaijani media, Vesti,az agency, in its turn, regrets that
the issue of Khojaly and circumstances in Aghdam "come to the world
only a day before the tragedy’s anniversary."

Well, this once again lays stress on artificiality of the issue of
Khajaly. Actually, it’s impossible to remember and pay a tribute to
victims of a tragedy only "by order". It’s impossible to mourn and
at the same time use false information, frauds, and falsifications
in relation to people’s troubles and pains.

IRAN NOT IN POSITION TO INFLUENCE NAGORNYY KARABAKH DISPUTE – AZERI ANALYST

Day.az
Feb 23 2010
Azerbaijan

Iran is not in a position to influence the settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict, a prominent Azerbaijani analyst has said in a
comment on Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani’s remarks that "the
country will spare no efforts to settle the Nagornyy Karabakh dispute".

"Iran is not in the position to influence the settlement of
Armenia-Azerbaijan-Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and its opinion in
the conflict is of minor significance," Zardust Alizada told day.az
website on 23 February.

Speaking about Iranian-Azerbaijani relations Alizada said: "Relations
between our countries are based on mutual benefit: Azerbaijan receives
its own dividends from promoting ties with Iran and Iran also benefits
from establishing ties."

Alizada also ruled out that Iran’s concern over Azerbaijani-Israeli
ties can negatively affect relations between the sides.