Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

Israeli Scholar Called Events in 1915 Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.03.2006 01:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The deportation in 1915, in my opinion, was
a genuine genocide, and it was widely covered by the world press,
despite Ottoman state’s efforts,” Israeli historian Yair Auron stated
at of New Approaches in the Turkish-Armenian Relations conference at
Istanbul University. Auron emphasized that within that period many
newspapers in Palestine covered the issue of the Armenian Genocide. “We
can clearly see it by studying publications of that time. I studied
well memoirs, sources and I conceive that what happened to Armenians
was a genocide,” the Israeli scholar stated. Auron’s statements
outraged some participants of New Approaches in Turkish-Armenian
Relations conference. However, organizers of the event said tolerance
should be displayed to any opposite opinion, the Marmara Istanbul
newspaper reports.

US Expects Normalized Turkish-Armenian Relations
By Cihan News Agency

Zaman Online, Turkey
March 17 2006

Published: Friday, March 17, 2006
zaman.com

Deputy Undersecretary of the US Department of State Daniel Fried,
speaking during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Ministry officials
on Friday, said that his country wished for the normalization of
relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Arriving in Turkey together with US special envoy Steve Mann, Fried
held talks in Ankara with the Turkish FM Undersecretary Ali Tuygan
and his deputy Ahmet Uzumcu.

ARMENIA CAN NEVER COMPETE WITH AZERBAIJAN: AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 16 2006

YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. Armenia will never be able to compete with
Azerbaijan, “Trend” news agency reports the Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev stated this at the second congress of the world’s
Azerbaijanis. According to him, Azerbaijan intensifies its military
power year by year, and in this year the military budget amounts
to $600mln.

“I set a task that Azerbaijan’s military budget equals to Armenia’s
whole budget,” the President said. Armenia will never be able to
compete with us. The earlier the Armenian top authorities realize it,
the better it will be for them. Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan will
have to reconsider its participation in the negotiations over the
Karabakh conflict settlement, if Armenia violates the negotiation
process and does not exercise constructivism.

“The peace negotiations have lasted over 12 years, but they do
not produce any results. And it is still a question how long they
will last. We adhere to the peace process, however, when we face the
non-constructive position of Armenia, which displays insincerity, our
patience runs out. If Azerbaijan notices that the negotiation process
is of imitation character, we will refuse to participate in it,”
Aliyev said. According to him, Azerbaijan will allow Nagorno Karabakh
separate from Azerbaijan neither in 10, nor in 100 years. “Without
solving the issue of repatriation of refugees to the places of
their former habitation, no peaceful settlement will be reached,”
the President said. R.O. -0–

INVALIDS TEACH JOURNALISTS HOW TO BE CORRECT

Panorama.am
16:27 15/03/06

>From April 2 “Huysi kamurj” public organization announced a contest
of journalistic materials on problems of the disabled people with
the topic “Equal Opportunities”. As the head of the organization
Susanna Tadevosyan mentioned the aim of the contest is to “encourage
journalists touch upon problems of the invalid more thoroughly.” Today
during the conference journalists were taught how to elucidate problems
of the invalid.

“There are cases when correspondents do not realize the problems of
the invalid and present the material wrongly. Thus we are isolated
from the society,” noticed Nshan during the seminar. The latter is
a seminar leader at “Huysi Kamurj” and being a 2nd category invalid
and having problems with his spine does not matter for him.

The representative of Russian “Perspective” organization Denis Rooz
was also present at the seminar. The latter has come to Armenia to get
acquainted with the inclusive education (i.e. when disabled children
study with the others) in Armenia and take our experience in the field
to Russia. “I’ve been to 2 schools with inclusive education and I see
that children do not differentiate between normal and invalid pupils,”
he mentioned.

To note, there are 6 schools with inclusive education in Armenia.

RAMIL SAFAROV’S “HEROIC NOVEL” COMES TO AN END

A1+
05:18 pm 14 March, 2006

“All the false news from the Azerbaijan side was ignored in the
last court hearings on the case of Gurgen Margaryan’s murder,” the
representative of the Home Affairs Hayk Dekoyan who participates in
the trial declared during today’s meeting with the journalists.

Hungarian officer Zolton Bakoni and the leader of the group Attila
Demeter who are Ramil Safarov’s coursemates gave a testimony in
the last court session. They claimed that there were no quarrels
or conflicts between the Armenian and Azerbaijan officers before
the murder. Azerbaijans’ claims that Armenians made fun of them on
the murder eve do not correspond to the reality. According to their
testimony the fact that Safarov had bought the axe for self defence
is unwarranted.

The next court hearings will take place in Hungary on 4 April in which
Safarov will say his last word and the verdict will be brought on
April 13. Nazely Vardanyan, the representative of Gurgen Vardanyan’s
side and Hayk Demoyan, the Home Affair representative claim that judge
Andreas Vashkut is really objective and due to him the Azerbaijans
failed to put the question into political layer and to view Ramil
Safarov as a conflict victim.

It is due to mention that Ramil Safarov is accused according to 4
points of Article 166 of the Hungarian Criminal Code; he must be sent
either to 10-15 years’ or to life imprisonment.

Hayk Demoyan also informed that the remours about Safarov’s being
transformed to Azerbaijan after the trial are false. Armenian side
thinks that the verdict will harm Aderbaijan’s officers’ reputation
regardless its essence. By the way, Hayk Demoyan appealed not to
follow Azerbaijans’ cheap actions; “Gurgen Margaryan’s murder is a
human tragedy and it can’t be made political. The person offering
money for Safarov’s head has clear intentions.” Aderbaijan will not
forgive Safarov

Ramil Safarav the “hero” of the Hungarian courts during the past 2
years has made interesting discoveries about his country. “Safarov
discovered that the representatives of the Azerbaijan military forces
train in Northern Cyprus. There were many publications in the media in
January. Judging from the last ones the Azerbaijan side realizes its
seriousness and wishes the trial to end as soon as possible.Turkey
may press on Azerbaijan on this score,”said the representative of
the Home Affairs Hayk Dekoyan.

ACCORDING TO MANUK GASPARIAN, DECISION ABOUT STOPPING CONSTRUCTION WORKS IN BOTANICAL GARDEN MADE AT HIGHEST LEVEL

Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The decision about stopping of the
program of construction in the territory of Yerevan Botanical Garden
was made at the highest level. As MP Manuk Gasparian, Head of the
Democratic Way party, declared at the March 7 press conference,
this decision was made at RA President’s staff. According to the MP,
Yerevan Mayor has promised to make an official decision about closing
the program by March 10. According to M.Gasparian, it’s the first
time during his 14-year political activity that he is satisfied with
the result received. According to him, the construction machinery
has been already brought out of the garden with the exception of
two machines that are out of order. The builders have promised to
bring them out of the garden’s territory. According to M.Gasparian,
the decision about construction in the garden was made by Yerevan
Mayor’s Office in 2002. As he mentioned, he has found out the names of
7 out of 18 persons that were to receive land plots in the territory
of the Botanical Garden. Mentioning that they are mainly medium
oligarches, the MP declared that he isn’t going to make public
these names as these persons have been already punished: each of
them has spent about 30 thousand USD still before the beginning of
the construction. M.Gasparian informed that the garden’s irrigation
system will be restored by the end of March.

According to him, the Prime Minister has promised to finance these
works from the government’s resources. And the MP promises to fill
the pits dug for the purpose of construction and to organize tree
planting in the territory of the garden.

FINAL VARIANT IN A FEW DAYS

A1+
08:38 pm 07 March, 2006

The second stage of negotiations on “RA-EU actions program” in
the framework of European New Neighborhood took place in Brussels
yesterday.

According to RA Ministry of Foregin Affairs during the negotiations
the parties were able to adjust with the majority of problems. The
consultations were held in a constructive atmosphere.

The parties are expected to present the final variant of the Program
of actions within the next few weeks.

The document will direct EU-Armenia relations in different spheres.

SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT THANKS USA FOR AID TO ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 8 2006

YEREVAN, March 8. /ARKA/. At his meeting with Matthew Bryza, Durputy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs,
Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Artur Baghdasaryan expressed his
gratitude to the USA for its aid to Armenia.

Speaker Baghdasaryan pointed out that the USA’s economic support
to Armenia is accompanied by support in democratic reforms in the
country. The sides discussed Armenian-American relations, pointing
out the importance of democratic development in Armenia. Bryza pointed
out that democratic reforms are a way to the settlement of conflicts,
energy security and economic development.

He emphasized the importance of struggle against corruption in the
context of investments in the country.

The sides also stressed the importance of the Millennium Challenges
program.

AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA TRADE ACCUSATIONS ABOUT FIRE ATTACKS
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 9, 2006

The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry said that two villages in the
Kazakhsky district of Azerbaijan came under a fire attack from across
the border.

“The shooting stopped only after return fire,” the ministry’s spokesman
Ilgar Verdiyev told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“On the whole, the positions of the national army located in this
districts have been shot up four times over the past 24 hours. The
shooting was done from two directions – from the Idzhevansky and
Noyamberyansky districts of Armenia. There are no losses among our
servicemen,” Verdiyev said.

Meanwhile, an Itar-Tass correspondent in Yerevan said that the Armenian
Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Seiran Shakhsuvaryan had denied
the fire attacks on Azerbaijani villages.

“The statements by the spokesman of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry
does not correspond to reality,” he said.

He said that a “number of cases have been registered in the recent days
when units of the Azerbaijani army violated the ceasefire regime and
shot with firearms on border positions of the Armenian armed forces,”
Shakhsyvaryan said.

Regnum, Russia
March 10 2006

Georgian Interior ministry: events in Tsalka are a common bar fight

Deputy Head of the Georgian criminal police department Irakli
Pirtskhalava told a REGNUM correspondent that events in Tsalka have
nothing to do with ethnic conflict, as earlier informed Russian and
Armenian mass media can be regarded as attempts of ethnic discord
kindling.

According to investigation information, it was a common bar fight
between drunken people, that started with usual nonsense and caused
knife-fight, resulting in one dead and several wounded, informed
Pirtskhilava. He said that this is a usual criminal case, and added,
that wife of one of the arrested Georgians is Armenian. He also said
that if it was an ethnic conflict, results would be much serious.

Speaking about protests in Tsalka, Pirtskhalava said that about 150
persons participated in it. They demanded that police give the
arrested to lynch them. Several people started to throw stones in the
building of the local administration, because they could not meet the
head of the administration. It caused police to disperse the crowd.
According to Pirtskhalava, there was no serious clash between police
and protesters. He also said that this case is currently
investigated.

As REGNUM already informed, on March 9, at about 06:00 p.m. local
time, in the city of Tsalka (regional center of Kvemo-Kartli Region,
Georgia) near a restaurant 24-year-old Gevork Gevorkyan was killed
and 25-year-old Karen Baloyan wounded as a result of a clash between
two groups of people. The Georgian police arrested 5 suspects in
murder, the investigation continues.