Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

PROTOCOLS SIGNED BETWEEN TURKEY AND ARMENIA FAILED

news.az
Jan 21 2010
Azerbaijan

Deniz Baykal "It is already clear that Armenia does not want to quit
the occupied Azerbaijani lands and it uses all means to protract
this process".

"The protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia have failed and it
has been clear since the start", Deniz Baykal, leader of the main
Turkish oppositional People’s Republican Party, told Hurriyet.

"There was such a strong PR action when the protocols were signed
but they have failed", he said.

He noted that "even if the Constitutional Court of Armenia had not
taken this decision, these protocols would not have been passed in
the parliament".

"It is already clear that Armenia does not want to quit the occupied
Azerbaijani lands and it uses all means to protract this process.

The government should have foreseen this before signing such disastrous
protocols", he said.

AMERICAN-AZERBAIJANI COUNCIL CHAIRMAN: I DOUBT U.S. PRESIDENT WILL UTTER THE WORD "GENOCIDE"

Today
ws/politics/59911.html
Jan 21 2010
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with the American-Azerbaijani Council Chairman,
US Azeris Network Co-Director Jeyhun Mollazade.

Do you expect progress in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2010?

It all depends on Armenia’s readiness to make certain compromises
which it refused to do for the past years. This is very serious
problem. A second problem is related to interests of regional and
major powers. At this level, it is unclear whether interests of
countries in the region will coincide (in this case, Russia, Turkey,
the EU and the United States and to some extent, Iran).

In this case, if those interests coincide, and moreover, if the
Armenian leadership receives some signals from all parties that
have influence on the settlement of this conflict that there is no
alternative solution to the conflict, the year 2010 might see some
progress.

What do you mean by the word "progress" – a convergence of views of
the parties or a complete solution to the conflict?

Of course, I mean not a complete resolution to this conflict, but some
advances which can stabilize the situation and prevent confrontation
and hostilities from resuming. Some progress is possible in this
regard. We cannot talk about full conflict resolution yet, because
the conflict, as I said, is tied at various levels – Armenians’
unwillingness to compromise, setting new conditions and little
outside influence on Armenia. Russia could provide such an influence
on Armenia, but it is unclear whether it is interested in this or not.

In addition, development of U.S.-Russian and Turkish-Russian relations
play a certain role in this respect. Much will depend on what issues
these countries will build strategic partnership between, or, on
the contrary, many issues will remain unresolved. In other words,
possible progress in resolving the Karabakh conflict in 2010 will
depend on a degree of cooperation between countries that have an
interest in this region.

Last year, Azerbaijan presented a protest note to the U.S. to protest
U.S. Congress aid to the Nagorno-Karabakh separatists. However, no
official response to the note has been provided yet. Is there any
political background in this regard? What are your views on such a
state of affairs?

There has always been a political background, because we are talking
about activities of politically active Armenian lobby in the U.S.,
especially in states such as Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and
Michigan. For many years, congressmen from these states have carried
out various kinds of anti-Azerbaijani resolutions and decisions,
including in the legislative field. One of them is aid to Armenians
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In this case, this is a matter of domestic American politics, related
to elections, donations to the election fund by certain congressmen,
in which, as we all know, the Armenian diaspora has always succeeded.

This is the main reason. I believe this does not reflect U.S.

interests in the region. Moreover, it contradicts American interests to
some extent. But, as Tip O’Neal, well-known chairman of the Congress
under the Ronald Reagan administration once said "All politics
is local."

So, in this case, assistance to the Karabakh Armenians is based on
this famous saying. That is, the local election campaign dictates
these actions, in which Azerbaijan calls for justice and complying
with norms of international law, since the United States recognizes
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nevertheless, such actions do not affect promoting mutual trust
between Azerbaijan and the United States despite the United States has
assumed the mission of an impartial mediator in this conflict. Such
negative cases occur not upon the will of the American government and
American interests, but are pure demonstration of the above phrase
"All politics is local."

Many observers, evaluating prospects of Armenian-Azerbaijani and
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation, say the move the U.S. president will
make this April to answer the Armenian voters, whom he had promised to
recognize the so-called "Armenian genocide" before the presidential
elections, will be of a landmark nature. In your opinion, what Obama
will do this year?

Each year, it is suggested that probability of recognition is high.

After Obama was elected president, Armenians stated that he, as a
new president, should keep his promise. But on 24 April last year,
he chose an original way, using the word, which the Armenians in their
own language call "genocide", while not uttering the word "genocide"
in English.

Will he this time resort to the same method to satisfy Armenians? I
doubt that he will utter the word "genocide", given the present
state of relations between the U.S. and Turkey, Ankara’s role in the
international arena, as well as several other factors. So, I think
that Obama is unlikely to say the word "genocide" in English. He may
repeat it in Armenian as he already did it last year.

SUMGAIT AND BAKU EVENTS SHOULD BE GIVEN POLITICAL ESTIMATE

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.01.2010 17:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Sumgait and Baku events should be given political
estimate; the issue should be raised in all international structures
and forums, Armenian Genocide Museum Institute director Hayk Demoyan
said.

As he told a news conference on Tuesday, eyewitnesses’ evidence
can serve as Armenia’s most convincing proof to the international
community.

At the same time, he noted that Baku’s present-day policy precludes
the possibility for Armenians to live in Azerbaijan. According to Dr.

Demoyan, Sumgait and Baku events became a model for today’s Azeri
attitude towards Armenians and other ethnic minorities. "Sumgait and
Baku tragedies must not be forgotten. Public attention should be drawn
to those issues permanently but not just once a year," he stressed.

ANKARA OBSESSED WITH PRECONDITIONS

Armenian Weekly
January 20, 2010

ANKARA, YEREVAN (Combined Sources)-As reported by the Armenian
Weekly on Jan. 19, in response to last week’s ruling by Armenia’s
Constitutional Court, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a press
release condemning Armenia for setting "unacceptable" preconditions
on the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

The ministry said "It has been observed that this [Constitutional
Court] decision contains preconditions and restrictive provisions
which impair the letter and spirit of the Protocols."

"The said decision undermines the very reason for negotiating these
Protocols as well as their fundamental objective. This approach cannot
be accepted on our part," continued the Turkish statement.

"Turkey, in line with its accustomed allegiance to its international
commitments, maintains its adherence to the primary provisions of
these Protocols," added the statement.

"We expect the same allegiance from the Armenian Government," the
Turkish Ministry said in a statement," concluded the brief statement.

On Jan. 12, Armenia’s Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality
of the protocols, adding however, that the documents cannot have
any connection with the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution
process or impede Armenia of its pursuit of international recognition
of the Armenia Genocide. To reinforce the latter point, the Court
referenced Article 11 of Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, which
states: "The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of
achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey and Western Armenia."

Official Yerevan was quick to react with Foreign Minister Eduard
Nalbandian saying that he will personally phone his Turkish counterpart
Ahmet Davutoglu to "express my bewilderment and clarify where exactly
the Turkish side sees preconditions and just how the decision by
Armenia’s Constitutional Court contradicts the fundamental objectives
of the protocols."

Nalbandian also suggested that the Turkish government was looking
for excuses to delay the process and add further preconditions on
the protocols.

Despite countless arguments by the Armenian President and foreign
minister that Armenia has entered this process without preconditions,
Turkey has repeatedly linked the normalization of relations between
the two countries with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
in favor of Azerbaijan.

As recently as late last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said that the protocols would not be ratified until
a resolution to the Karabakh conflict is reached. These remarks
came after his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
who bluntly said that the processes were separate and could not be
interconnected. The same position was expressed by Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov last week during his official visit to Yerevan.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, which has spearheaded vocal
opposition to the protocols both in Armenia and the Diaspora,
rejected Turkey’s statement. The party’s political director Giro
Manoyan told reporters Tuesday that with its statement Turkey proved,
once again, that, aside from its own interpretations, it rejects any
other explanation of the protocols.

Manoyan warned that after this announcement by Turkey, Armenian
authorities should not attempt to weaken the Armenian high court’s
position.

"It is imperative for the Armenian authorities to not seek to weaken
the Armenian Constitutional Court’s decision," said Manoyan explaining,
"The Armenian government must continue the process in the spirit of
the court ruling."

In a statement issued by the ARF following the Court ruling, the party
expressed its continued rejection of the protocols, but added that the
Constitutional Court provisions referenced above provide an opportunity
for revisions in the next phase of the ratification process.

"We have launched a process of normalization in relations with
Armenia and in good faith taken steps that include the signing of
the protocols," Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told the
Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review. "We have often expressed our
views about what the necessary conditions are for the maintenance of
peace and stability in the Caucasus."

The Turkish government submitted the protocols to Parliament, but
they have not been submitted for ratification because they depend on
the progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, added Hurriyet in its
news report on the matter.

Burcu Gultekin Punsmann, a Caucasus expert at the Turkish think
tank TEPAV, said the diplomatic agreements were a product of
consensus between the states concerned and argued that the Armenian
constitutional court’s reasoning was putting limits on points for
which the sides had already reached an agreement, reported Hurriyet.

VARUZHAN HAKOBYAN DEFEATED BY ERWIN L’AMI IN 4TH ROUND OF CORUS CHESS 2010

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.01.2010 13:54 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian grandmaster representing the United States,
Varuzhan Hakobyan suffered a defeat by Erwin L’Ami (Netherlands)
in the 4th round of Corus Chess 2010 going on in Wijk aan Zee.

Currently, Hakobyan is one from the bottom with 1 point.

In the 5th round, he will rival India’s Parimarjan Negi.

Varuzhan Hakobyan is an Armenian grandmaster. In 1992, he came 3rd in
the Junior Championships of Armenia. At the world championship among
juniors (Czechoslovakia) Hakobyan was the 8th among 50 participants.

Since 2002, Hakobyan has represented the United States, and in 2005
took the 8th place in Alajuela Open Champion. In 2006, Varuzhan
Hakobyan was the bronze medalist of the Chess Olympiad. In 2007,
he was second in the World Open Champion. In 2008, Hakobyan won the
Chicago Open tournament.

Corus Chess 2010 is the International Chess Tournament, which takes
place annually in the Dutch city of Wijk aan Zee. In 2008, the Armenian
grandmaster Levon Aronian became the winner of the tournament.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Watch our latest videos on YouTube here:

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I AND HIS BEATITUDE IERONYMOS II,
ARCHBISHOP OF ATHENS AND ALL GREECE MEET IN ATHENS

On Saturday 13 January 2010, His Holiness Aram I visited His Beatitude
Ieronymos II at his residence, where the leaders had a private meeting.
Afterwards they joined the representatives of the two Churches. In his
welcoming remarks, the Archbishop spoke highly of the contribution His
Holiness Aram I has made to the ecumenical movement and praised the will of
the Armenian people, which enabled them to rise again after the Genocide.
Finally, His Beatitude expressed his appreciation of the Armenian community
in Greece for their contribution to the country.

In his response, His Holiness Aram thanked the Archbishop for his kind words
and his desire to see the theological dialogue between Eastern and Oriental
Orthodox churches continue, noting that the churches need to work together
to promote justice and human rights.

After exchanging gifts, the Archbishop invited the guests to a luncheon in
honor of His Holiness Aram I.

His Holiness Aram I was invited to Athens by the Orthodox Church of Greece.

##
View the photos here:
c/Photos/Photos430.htm
http://www.ArmenianOrthodox Church.org/v04/doc/Photos/Photos431.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

TURKISH COURT DISMISSES NATIONALISTS’ CLAIM

news.am
Jan 18 2010
Armenia

The Court for Grave Crimes in Sincan, Ankara, Turkey, dismissed a
claim lodged by a nationalist group against the organizers of the
action "Forgive us, Armenians." The Turkey-based Radikal newspaper
reported that, according to the court, the action was an expression
of freedom of speech.

NEWS.am reminds readers that late in 2008 a group of Turkish
intellectuals launched an action "Forgive us, Armenians". More
than 30,000 people joined their statement by means of Internet. The
intellectuals particularly stated they could not show indifference
and deny the great disaster Armenians experienced in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul then stated that intellectual had the
right to express their opinion. Prime Minister Recep Erdogan pointed
out that Turkey had not committed a sin to apologize for.

FELIX AHARONIAN AWARDED ROSSI PRIZE OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Noyan Tapan
Jan 18, 2010

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Felix Aharonian – a foreign member
of the RA National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Head of the High Energy
Astrophysics Group of the Max Planck Institute – has been awarded the
American Astronomical Society’s 2010 Rossi prize for his outstanding
contribution to imaging TeV astronomy, which addressed fundamental
questions related to particle acceleration and the origin of the
Cosmic Rays through the study of supernova remnants and nearby active
galactic nuclei.

Along with Felix Aharonian, Werner Hoffmann, Heinz Voelk and the HESS
collaboration received this award, the Information and Analytical
Center of the RA NAS reported.

VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV DOES NOT EXPECT BREAKTHROUGH FROM THE MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA, RUSSIA AND AZERBAIJAN

ArmInfo
2010-01-18 15:28:00

Arminfo. A little progress in settlement of Nagornyy Karabakh conflict
may be reached as a result of the meeting of the presidents of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Russia, expected next week, ex-co-chair of the OSCE
MG Vladimir Kazimirov said at today’s video-bridge Yerevan-Moscow.

‘I will not be surprised if as a result of the meeting of the
presidents in the trilateral format some steps and additional progress
in the Karabakh conflict will be reached. But I keep away from saying
that any breakthrough achievements will be reached as a result of
the meeting’, – he said.

The total of 9 meetings took place between the presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan in 2009, 3 of which in the trilateral format with
participation of President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev.

AZG DAILY #5, 16-01-2010

Armenian Genocide

Update: 2010-01-16 01:56:12 (GMT +04:00)

HRANT DINK’S VOICE AT THE GENOCIDE MONUMENT

By Hasan Cemal, Armenian Mirror Spectator

I remember, Hrant Dink once said "let’s first show respect to each
other’s pain and sorrow." Maybe these words of Hrant and the pain he
experienced was what brought me, for the first time in my life, to
Armenia, and made me experience at day-break a hurricane of emotions
in front of the Genocide Monument.

Mount Ararat appears and disappears in the fog. It looks sorrowful.
How noble, how delicate it looks with its peak in snow. You feel you
can catch it if you reach out.

I am alone with Hrant in front of the monument, thinking of the pain
and sorrow. I think of respecting the pain. Understanding the other’s
pain. And I think of sharing the pain. In the strange silence of the
daybreak, I am alone with Hrant. And Rakel’s cry is in my ear…

The tragic pain experienced by the Armenian nation and by him had
matured Hrant. Maybe this pain helped him to speak and write in the
language of his conscience. One always learns something from others.
So I learned from Hrant, in his life and in his death. I learned that
one cannot escape history. At the crystal clear silence of the
morning, I thought once more, with Hrant in my mind, how meaningless
it is to deny the history, and at the same time, how risky it is to be
a slave of history and pains and sorrows. My maternal uncle’s voice
came from afar: "Roots don’t disappear, my son!" He was a Circassian,
of the Gabarday tribe. But he didn’t mention his Circassian identity;
he made clear he didn’t enjoyed talking of the "roots." This was our
"fear of the state." When I insisted, he would say "don’t mention
these things." But near to his death he whispered in my ear: "Still,
the roots won’t disappear, Hasan my son!"

People’s roots, the land they have their roots in, are very important.
As it is a crime against humanity to separate people from their
language and identity so it is an equally great crime to separate
people from their roots and lands. And to find an excuse for these
actions is an inseparable part of the crime. Armenians experienced
that great pain. They experienced it when they were uprooted from
Anatolia. They experienced it in 1915, in 1916. And the longing for
Anatolia never stopped in their soul. Turks had experienced the same
pain, too. They experienced pain when they were uprooted from the
Balkans and the Caucasus, and at the time of war in Anatolia. Kurds
experienced the pain, too. They experienced pain when their language
and identity was denied, when they were expelled from their lands.

I don’t compare pain and sorrow. That would be wrong. Pain and sorrow
can’t be compared. Hrant’s voice is in my ear: "Let’s first show
respect to each other’s pain."

Hrant tells silently his own pain: "I know what happened to my
ancestors. Some of you call it `a massacre,’ some `a genocide,’ some
`forced evacuation’ and yet some `a tragedy.’ My ancestors had called
it, in the Anatolian way of speaking, `a butchery.’ "If a state
uproots its own citizens from their homes and lands, and without
distinguishing even the most defenseless among them, the kids, women
and elderly, expels them to unknown and endless roads, and if as a
result of this, a great part of them disappear, how can we justify our
deliberations to choose between words to characterize this event. Is
there a human way of explaining this?

"If we keep juggling `do we call this genocide or evacuation’ if we
can’t condemn both in an equal measure, how will choosing either
genocide or evacuation help to save our honor." Is it necessary to
qualify the pain, to categorize it? Of course, it is not unimportant,
insignificant. But I don’t think it’s a must. The genocide debate
locks a lot of things, especially when it becomes a part of the
equation among Turks and Armenians, Turkey and Armenia and the
Armenian Diaspora.

History gets entangled. Reason and common sense get entangled.
Dialogue gets locked. And this entanglement helps "the fanatics." It
becomes easier to produce hate and enmity out of the pages of history.
Yet, what we need is to make the fanatics’ job more difficult. We have
to find a way to walk down the road of love and peace without becoming
a slave of history, without becoming a hostage of past pain and
sorrow.

At a foggy morning, in front of the Genocide Monument, I listen to the
voice of Hrant Dink. He asks: "Do we behave like the perpetrators of
the great tragedy in the past, or are we going to write the new pages
like civilized people by taking lessons from those mistakes?" Let’s
first understand each other’s pain, share it and show respect to it.
Things will follow. Won’t it, my dear Hrant? You always said "not
confession, nor denial, first understanding." And you knew, as you
knew your own name, that understanding was only possible through
democracy and freedom.

My dear brother; The sun rises like a red orange in Yerevan. In the
beautiful silence of the morning, I lay white carnations at the
monument. You and your pain and sorrow brought me to this part of the
world. Yes, let’s first show respect to each other’s pain and sorrow.

(Columnist Hasan Cemal is the grandson of Cemal Pasha, one of the
perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. He wrote this commentary in
2008 after visiting the Armenian Genocide Monument in Yerevan).