Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

TURKISH MP: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT’S ASPIRATION TO EXPEDITE RATIFICATION OF ANKARA-YEREVAN PROTOCOLS IS GROUNDLESS

Trend
Jan 27 2010
Azerbaijan

The U.S. State Department’s desire to expedite ratification of the
Ankara-Yerevan protocols is groundless, Halil Unlutepe, Turkish MP
from the opposition Republican People’s Party, said.

The Armenian Constitutional Court has amended the text of the protocol
and based on the court’s decision, ratification of the signed protocols
is possible. However, the court found unacceptable the creation of
a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events.

He said the U.S. State Department’s statement in support of
ratification of the protocols, regardless of the changes made by
the Armenian side, is connected to the anniversary of the so-called
"Armenian genocide."

According to him, the U.S. government wants to rid itself of the
traditional annual statements in connection with the far-fetched
"genocide."

The U.S. leadership’s desire to resolve one problem through
ratification of protocols, may provoke new problems, the MP said.

Turkey’s parliament will not ratify the protocols signed with the
predatory state, he added.

WHY ARE THE RELATIONS WITH THE USA WORSEN?
by Elsad Mammadli

Yeni Musavat
Jan 17 2010
Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani authorities continue to worsen relations with the USA.

The authorities have already taken some steps such as challenging
the West over the recent period. The reason for the failure of the
energy summit scheduled to be held in Georgia’s Batumi on 14 January
is also linked to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s refusal to
attend the summit.

The specific reason for Aliyev’s refusal to attend the summit is
unknown but Western experts link it to the decision of the US Congress
to allocate financial aid to [Azerbaijani breakaway region of] Nagornyy
Karabakh in a new financial year and the latest ongoing processes in
the region as well as unpleasant relations between Washington and Baku.

The authorities have taken another step towards the West in this
period. Diplomats of the US and Norwegian embassies in Azerbaijan
were prevented from visiting the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxcivan with
representatives of those embassies summoned to the Foreign Ministry
where they received a warning.

Earlier representatives of the authorities have made severe statements
against the West. What is the aim of such an approach? What aim do the
authorities pursue by worsening relations with the USA at this moment?

The head of the West-East Researches Centre, Arastun Oruclu, says
Russia is a permanent factor which plays a role in worsening relations
between the USA and Azerbaijan. "We witness similar demarches as a
result of impact of Russia on the Azerbaijani authorities. Naturally,
worsening relations with the West benefits neither the authorities,
nor our state. Because the countries in the region, including ours,
currently enter into a more serious period. Azerbaijan should pursue
a flexible foreign policy at this moment. Such policy should not be
limited to only Russia and Iran but also Turkey and the USA. But it
is unfortunate that the authorities pursue a unilateral policy. The
foreign policy pursued by the authorities is pro-Russian and
pro-Iranian, the level of relations with Turkey is kept confidential.

But relations with the West are being worsened. I think today the
authorities should make serious changes to the foreign policy. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs should pursue more flexible policies or
carry out serious reforms", Oruclu said.

Oruclu also believes that the reason for the failure of the energy
summit in a format planned is not only Ilham Aliyev’s refusal to
attend the summit. One of the reasons is that the West refrained from
demarches of Russia. Second, it is not ruled out that the USA was also
interested in the failure of the summit. Because the overwhelming
majority of members of the US delegation, who attended the event,
were representatives of the Republican Party.

The deputy chairman of the opposition Musavat Party blames both
Azerbaijan and the USA for cool relations between the two countries.

The USA has yet to appoint its ambassador to Azerbaijan. This is a
disrespect for our country. Being one of the co-chair countries [of
the OSCE Minsk Group], the USA has left the settlement of Karabakh
conflict to Russia and the latter uses the chance to earn political
dividends and exert an economic pressure on some countries rather
than settle the problem. Azerbaijan warns about the non-constructive
position of the international community on the settlement of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. But this does not give the right to a small
country like Azerbaijan which experiences sufficient problems to choose
a confrontational position against the powerful countries. I don’t
think this is the official policy of the state. This is a result
of arbitrariness of some officials. A meeting between visiting
US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar and the
Azerbaijani president on 15 January and the circulation of positive
reports about the meeting showed that the superpowers must be able
to cooperate with small countries. They should not display negative
attitude towards their problems. I do not believe that Azerbaijan has
taken a position to cool political relations with the West. Because
this could be a risky step by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a member of
a number of international organizations representing the West and has
repeatedly stated that its adherence to the policy of integration into
the West. Some problematic issues do really exist. The Azerbaijani
authorities should take into consideration some criticism made by the
West. These are issues concerning democracy and human rights. Because
the development dialectics of a globalizing world requires this.

CHAKHALYAN’S LAWYER TELLS ABOUT THE TRIAL

Lragir.am
04/02/10

Today, the lawyer of the activist of the United Javakhk movement Vahagn
Chakhalyan Stepan Voskanyan presented the process of Chakhalyan’s case.

The lawyer noted that the whole process of the trial is accompanied
by breaches, cynicism and contempt towards to the defense side, in
particular towards the lawyer who does not know the Georgian language
and Chakhalyan’s family.

No proper translation was secured during the trial process. Each time,
the translators were worse and so no agreement could be reached. The
right of the lawyer to pay visits to the defendant was violated.

During the trial, there were so many breaches that they had to start
other cases too, says Stepan Voskanyan including the case of the
French lawyer Patrick Arabyan which is in the court of appeals.

According to Voskanyan, Vahagn Chakhalyan is kept in unbearable
conditions. There is no source of information. They have sentenced
Chakhalyan to ten years in prison to transfer him to the prison of
strict regime.

WHY MEAT PRICE INCREASED

Lragir.am
3/02/10

In Armenia, on these days, there is a problem with regards to the price
of the meat. Villagers sell meat at a high price and the resellers
complain because they have to increase the price in turn so the
citizens refuse buying the meat at such a high price. The minister
of Agriculture Gerasim Alaverdyan was trying to explain the reason
at the Shant TV.

According to him, the reason is the fact that the exporters who export
meat to Iran pay much more to villagers, so they increased the price
for home market too. Alaverdyan affirmed that the price will decrease
when new sheep are born. But it is logical that as many the sheep
become in Armenia, as much the export will be, consequently, there
will always be some deficit of meat and the villager is not silly to
sell it at a low price.

As to who are those engaged in the export of meat is known to
everyone. The media has repeatedly dwelt on Serge Sargsyan’s brother,
Sashik Sargsyan in this relation. The minister of Agriculture himself
may be unaware of it as such issues are out of the framework of his
responsibility. If there was no high-ranking official behind all this,
so perhaps, the committee on the protection of economic competition
would be at least a little interested in this issue.

CHESS: 17 PLAYERS TO REPRESENT ARMENIA IN EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Panorama.am
18:14 02/02/2010

The European Individual Championships are due in Rijeka, Croatia
March 5 – 19, 2010. According to the Armenian Chess Federation,
the players to represent Armenia are as follows:

Men – Vladimir Hakopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Arman Pashikian, Avetik
Grigoryan, Tigran L. Petrosian, Zaven Andriasian, Artashes Minasian,
Robert Hovhannisyan, Hrant Melkumyan, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Davit G.

Petrosian, Vahe Baghdasaryan.

Women – Elina Danielian, Lilit Mkrtchian, Lilit Galoyan, Nelly Aginian,
Anahit Kharatyan.

YEREVAN TO HOST PRESENTATION OF "UNSILENCING THE PAST" BOOK IN ARMENIAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.02.2010 20:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yerevan will host presentation of "Unsilencing the
Past" book in Armenian on Thursday, February 4.

The book, translated into Armenian, was published with the assistance
of International Center for Humanitarian Development, Eurasia
Foundation and USAID.

Presentation attended by book author David Phillips, will be followed
by Q&A session. The book features David Phillips’ ideas on the
settlement of conflicts by means of national diplomacy.

"The book author, along with his colleagues accomplished a difficult
work amid at establishment of contacts between Armenian and Turkish
people. The book is a unique example of peaceful diplomacy," Eurasia
Foundation director Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan said.

David Phillips was the architect and moderator of Turkish Armenian
Reconciliation Commission (TARC), which he claims was meant to
foster dialogue between Armenians and Turks. The Turkish Armenian
Reconciliation Commission was established in July 2001 at the State
Departments initiative and disbanded in April 2004.

PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RUN TO REVISION OF TURKISH IDENTITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.02.2010 16:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Problem of Genocide has a serious and devastating
effects in terms of national and state identity of Turkey, Hayk
Demoyan , director of the Institute of Armenian Genocide, historian
told a press conference in Yerevan.

According to him, in recent years the problem of identity deepened in
Turkey, promoting more intensive discussion of the Armenian Genocide
within the country. "Turkey started to review the provisions of
Kemalism, which means to weaken the axis the entire state myth
of Turkey was built. Therefore, to prevent the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide is an urgent issue for Ankara. The question of
Genocide is not only an external challenge, but also a problem that
leads to a revision of the Turkish identity, he said.

"It is clear that the Armenian side can only discuss elimination of
the consequences of the Armenian Genocide: restoration of the Armenian
cultural heritage, etc. In addition, we have every right to raise
issues of compensation. Genocide is a crime against humanity that is
punished, and the Turkish side should bear in mind that we can raise
that question, " the historian said, adding that the discussion of
historical issues can be dangerous for Turkey.

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 Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were
indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse
commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case of
genocide after the Holocaust. The Republic of Turkey, the successor
state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate
description of the events. In recent years, it has faced repeated
calls to accept the events as genocide.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

EXPATS, IMMIGRANTS, DESCENDANTS, SECTARIANISM AND THE VOTE
By Ghassan Karam, Special to Ya Libnan

Ya Libnan
February 1, 2010

It is very rare to witness as much confusion, and attention paid
to the superficial as has characterized the dialogue regarding who
is to be given the right to vote in Lebanese elections. And that is
unfortunate. One would have expected the discourse to be serious and
well informed since the issue deals with the fundamental democratic
institution of extending the suffrage to many that have been denied
the right unjustly and unfairly.

Universal unrestricted suffrage does not exist anywhere in the
world and is unlikely to become the law of the land anywhere in the
foreseeable future. There appears to be a universal restriction on
the right to vote for anyone under 18 years of age in addition to the
restrictions against extending the right to those that are mentally
ill, felons, unregistered or that do not meet the requirement to vote
from outside the country in question. External voting exists in one
form or another in 115 countries out of more than the 200 states in
the world and even when external voting exists it does so in a big
variety of ways.

Let us make it absolutely clear from the outset that giving the right
to vote is not the same as making sure that the affected individuals
have the proper access to the facilities that would enable them
to cast that cherished vote. To offer the right and withhold the
access is cruel; in effect it is equivalent to not having offered
the right in the first place. But what is arguably more important,
in the Lebanese case, is the need to distinguish between expatriates,
first generation immigrants and all other individuals that claim to
be of Lebanese descendancy.

No one could argue against offering the right to vote to civil servants
who are stationed overseas, businesspeople whose work demands make
it difficult to be in the country during election times, students who
are completing their education overseas in addition to those that are
seeking medical services abroad. Obviously the expatriates, those that
work overseas on either temporary or permanent bases also deserve
the right to vote because they do contribute to the welfare of the
state and have a strong connection to it. But the right of the long
term immigrants is not so obvious. When would a Lebanese descendant
lose the right to vote? I should hope that the answer is not never.

Suffrage is a privilege so that those that inhabit a place can have
a say in how it is run. The vote is not an inalienable right given
to all irrespective of where they live and without any regard to how
long they have not resided in the country.

No country gives its citizens an unrestricted right to vote from
overseas especially if the number of potential voters from abroad is
larger than those at home. Armenia, who is in a similar demographic
situation as Lebanon; 2.5 million Armenians live at home and 8 million
are scattered all over the world, adopted a law in 2006 that does not
allow any external voting. Even other countries that do not have to
worry about disproportionate external voting place some rather strict
limits about residency. In many cases a citizen loses the right to
vote if she has been outside the country for fifteen years and in
some cases the right to vote requires that the voter must have been
outside the country for six years or less. Does it make any sense
to offer a person whose parents left Lebanon say a hundred years
ago the right to decide how I am to live and under what laws? Why
should a rational person offer to give an outsider the right to veto
anything and everything that is of importance to the community? Are
we serious when we say that we want to give say, the grandchildren
of Danny Thomas, Jamie Farr, John Sunnunu , Selma Hayek ,Paul Anka
and Shakirathe right to vote in Lebanese elections? What do they now
about what is good for Lebanon and why should they have a say in how
we choose to conduct our affairs?

I am afraid that the demands to offer the Lebanese citizenship to
11-15 million people, who live overseas, do not speak the language
in most case, have nothing but an emotional attachment to some
aspects of Lebanese culture is a well orchestrated ploy to resist
deconfessionalism. They are the same ones who declared their allegiance
to the Taef accords but opposed implementing them. The veil has fallen
and the true colour of these political leaders is revealed for all
to see. They are nothing but bigoted leaders whose backward sectarian
ideology that built on grabbing power and discriminating against the
other. To claim that their position is legitimate as a result of the
geopolitical developments is pure rubbish. It is nothing but a sick
excuse from a sick mind.

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF TURKEY NEEDS ACTIVE CO-PATRIARCH

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.01.2010 15:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian community is the biggest in Turkey,
so the Turkish authorities are trying their best to destroy it,
an Armenian expert said.

"That’s why they don’t want the Constantinople Patriarchate to have
an initiative personality at the post," Ruben Melkonyan told a news
conference in Yerevan.

At that, he pointed out to several key problems faced by the Armenian
community.

"The number of Armenian schools is decreasing year by year. Only 17
out of 32 schools operate at present, with a total number of 3000
students. The country has 42 Armenian churches, but some have closed
down because of not having pastors," he stressed.

The expert also touched upon the problems of mixed marriages (40%)
and Armenian language.

"About 90% of Istanbul Armenians speak Turkish, with only 7-10%
young people speaking Armenian," he noted.

"In 1920, there were 250-300 thousand Armenian Christians in Turkey.

Today their number has reduced to 50-60 thousand. If such tendency
persists, we’ll face a serious problem in a couple of years. The
community is now in need of an active religious leader," Melkonyan
said.

According to him, there are now 3 candidates running for the post
of joint patriarch: primate of AAC Gugark Eparchy, Archbishop Sepuh
Chuldjyan, Bishop Garegin Bekchinyan, and Archbishop Aram Ateshyan,
with the latter having more chances for victory. Ateshyan has already
had met with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.

The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople also known as Armenian
Patriarch of Istanbul is the head of the Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople, one of the smallest Patriarchates of the Oriental
Orthodox Church.

It recognizes the primacy of the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians, in the spiritual and administrative headquarters of
the Armenian Church, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Vagharshapat,
Republic of Armenia, in matters that pertain to the worldwide Armenian
Church. In local matters, the Patriarchal See is autonomous.

AZNAVOUR MET ARMENIA-SWISS PARLIAMENTARY GROUP CO-CHAIRS

News.am
16:11 / 01/29/2010

January 27, 2010 RA Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour met
with Co-Chairs of Switzerland-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group
of the Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation Ueli Leunberger
and Dominique de Buman.

In the course of the meeting the officials discussed bilateral
cooperation issues, particularly the intensification of economic,
social and cultural cooperation, as well as possibilities of new
initiatives and events, RA MFA Press Service informed NEWS.am.

Charles Aznavour attached significance to Armenia-Switzerland mutual
political understanding as well as Armenia~Rs interest and readiness
for developing bilateral economic relations.