Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

ARREST WARRANT FOR TURKISH MPS ISSUED

news.am
Dec 29 2009
Armenia

The sanction for the arrest of leader and two MPs of the dissolved
Kurdish Democratic Society Party was authorised. According to Turkish
Haberler website, the trial on former party leader Ahmet Turk will
take place in Istanbul court, Emine Ayna – in Adana and Sallahatin
Demirtas — in Diyarbekir. All three Kurdish party leaders are accused
of "agitation in favor of terrorist organization."

December 28, Turkish law enforcers intruded into the office of newly
established Peace and Democracy Party but failed to arrest the MPs
as they were away.

NEWS.am recalls that in the course of October 2008 parliamentary
discussions on Armenia-Turkey Protocols, MP Sallahatin Demirtas accused
Turkish authorities of distorting the facts on Armenian Genocide in
Turkish textbooks.

Rumor has it that Ahmet Turk’s grandfather was Armenian and changed
surname to avoid suppression. Under Turkish Constitutional Court
decision, Turk is banned from politics for 5 years.

Aysor, Armenia
Dec 26 2009

Martirosyan fighting with Ouma

American ` Armenian Vanes Martirosyan will return to the ring on
January 16. As boxingnews24.com informs,he will fight with IBF
category former world champion Kasim Ouma. The fight will take place
in Las Vegas city.

On December 19 Martirosyan had knocked out Villy Lee. It means that
for getting ready for the next fight the Armenian sportsman has very
little time.

THE SPECIAL REPORT OF THE RA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

Aysor
Dec 25 2009
Armenia

Today the Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan taking into
consideration the the second part of the 17th article of the RA law
on "Human Rights" and taking into consideration the implementation
of the just trail right has made a special public report on "The
securing of just trail right in Armenia."

As the reporter of Aysor.am informs the Human Rights Defender has
touched upon the implementation issue of securing the equality and
competition of the sides during the trail process as an important
component of the just trail right.

"It is also conditioned by the fact that it is during the trail
process that the competition of the sides gets its complete usage",
– said Armen Harutyunyan.

The report includes also the results of the observations of the trail
sessions of the representatives of the RA Human Rights Defender.

TURKISH FM SENDS MESSAGE TO ARMENIA

AzerNews Weekly
Dec 24 2009
Azerbaijan

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has sent a message to Armenia
which insists that Ankara approve in parliament the October agreement
on mending strained bilateral relations by next March, Turkish Hurriyet
newspaper reported.

Davutoglu said it was wrong to impose a deadline, noting that result,
not deadlines, is important in such processes. "There should be no
pressure over timing. We will not leave the fate of our countries
and the region at the mercy of lobbies."

The Turkish minister said "everyone should contemplate positive
scenarios" in dealing with the normalization of bilateral ties.

"Negative scenarios would not benefit anyone. Returning to the
situation we had prior to the signing of the protocols is not in line
with anyone’s interests."

According to Davutoglu, the positive scenario envisions enforcing
the Ankara-Yerevan protocols and normalizing relations in the entire
Caucasus region, referring to the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, which has remained unresolved for
17 years.

"Turkey-Armenia normalization cannot be healthy without a solution of
the Upper Garabagh problem," Davutoglu said, affirming Ankara’s stance.

He recalled that the Turkish-Armenian border has been shut for two
decades.

"We are trying to solve this issue. If goodwill is put forth on
Garabagh settlement, a certain stage [progress] can be reached in
this process as well."

Davutoglu said significant progress has been achieved as part of the
Minsk process, implying the peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk
Group. He added that the December 1 meeting between the Azerbaijani
and Armenian foreign ministers held in Athens was beneficial.

ARTUR GEVORGYAN: HOVHANNES DAVTYAN WILL PLEASE ARMENIAN FANS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.12.2009 19:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Judoist Hovhannes Davtyan w/c 60 kg won the bronze
medal in World Cup 2009.

As Hovhannes Davtyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, 2009 was
successful for him. "I am glad that won the bronze medal in the world
cup. Judo is not an easy sport, and if you manage to come back from
the championships with a medal, it is already a good achievement,
" bronze medalist of the world said.

Head coach of the Armenian judo team Artur Gevorgyan believes that
Hovhannes Davtyan will please even the Armenian fans. "This is not
a limit of Davtyan’s capacities, he will still shows himself. I have
great hopes connected with Hovhannes, " Artur Gevorgyan said.

Hovhannes Davtyan hopes that in 2010 he will take part in the Europe
and World championships and return with medals.

GOVERNMENT DELAYS AWARDING BEST COMPANIES

ARKA
Dec 24, 2009

YEREVAN, December 24, /ARKA/. Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarkisian
said today the government has delayed choosing the best companies of
the year, which are given annual government awards.

Speaking at a government session he said last year’s choices of best
companies caused a wave of criticism that was aimed mainly against
him. He said there were doubts about this year’s selection of best
companies and that was why he decided to postpone the ceremony.

"I think we need to unveil who are in the selection commission so
that we can assert that they make their selection decisions after
discussions, that they are not subjected to pressure and that their
decisions are consistent with reality,’ he said.

Asked who are in the commission, economy minister Nerses Yeritsyan
said they are over a dozen of deputy ministers and representatives
of several non-governmental organizations, who assess the quality of
goods and services by several criteria.

The minister said two companies’ names were removed from the list of
nominated companies after complains from consumers. The minister said
the nominated companies make volunteer payments for going through
auditing process. Asked by the prime minister that the one who pays
gets the awards, the minister said such a risk does exit, adding that
the commission takes into account the nominated companies tax payment
records as well.

The prime minister instructed minister Yeritsyan to personally
present the results of selection and explain why this or that company
is chosen.

GEORGIA NOT INTERESTED IN ARMENIA-TURKEY RECONCILIATION: MANOYAN

news.am
Dec 23 2009
Armenia

The statement by Mikheil Saakashvili indicates that Georgia is not
interested in Armenia-Turkey reconciliation as its geopolitical
significance in the region will be minimized, Giro Manoyan, Head of
the Hay Dat office in Armenia, member of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD) told NEWS.am.

Earlier, in the interview with Echo of Moscow radio station, Georgian
President stated that Karabakh conflict should be settled with respect
for Azerbaijani state sovereignty and Armenia-Turkey relations should
be normalized accounting for Baku’s interests.

"If Saakashvili really said so, it proves he tries his best to
hamper Armenia-Turkey reconciliation. Such statements prevent the
establishment of peace and stability in the region," Manoyan concluded.

PACE PUBLISHED INFORMATION NOTE ON AD HOC COMMITTEE CONCLUSIONS

news.am
Dec 22 2009
Armenia

PACE website posted the information note by the co-rapporteurs on
the conclusions of the Ad Hoc Committee of the National Assembly of
Armenia on March 1-2 2008 events. NEWS.am issues the monitoring text.

"The recommendations of the ad hoc Committee of the National
Assembly of Armenia into the events of 1 and 2 March 2008 provide
&’a comprehensive, although not complete’ response to the political
crisis, according to an information note by the co-rapporteurs for
the monitoring of Armenia of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) made public this week,

In their note, Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John Prescott
(United Kingdom, SOC) said the recommendations were regrettably not
complemented by a comprehensive analysis of the events of 1 and 2
March, which they felt was rather one-sided, and gave the impression
that the committee wanted to avoid criticising the authorities. They
strongly regretted the almost total lack of analysis of developments
that followed these events, and expressed concern at the lack of
concrete results from the inquiry into the 10 fatalities that occurred.

The co-rapporteurs recommended the continuation of a special
body of the parliament to oversee implementation of the report’s
recommendations and conduct further inquiries where necessary. They
said they would closely follow this matter in the framework of the
regular monitoring of Armenia and report back to PACE’s Monitoring
Committee at a future meeting."

AMERIABANK TO RANK AMONG TOP FIVE BANKS OF ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.12.2009 15:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ameriabank will rank among top five banks of
Armenia by the end of 2009, Chairman of the Board, Director General
of Ameriabank CJSC Artak Hanesyan said.

"It is very difficult to be corporate and retail bank during crisis,
but we overcame difficulties very well," he told a news conference
in Yerevan.

According to him, the bank did not stop lending for a single day and
it will rank among top five banks of Armenia in terms of assets,
credit investments, growth rate. "The bank will be listed if not
first, at least second or third in country’s banking system by the
end of this year," Hanesyan assured.

Compared with the beginning of 2009 the bank’s assets doubled, and
are expected to amount to AMD 100 billion by late 2009.

To date, Ameriabank provided AMD 47.6 billion credit investments. By
the end of the year, the bank will approve additional AMD 2.5 billion
credit raising the volume of investments to AMD 50 billion," he said.

The attracted funds increased three-fold, reaching AMD 75-80 billion
by late 2009, with AMD 1.5 billion net profit.

Armenian Second TV Channel
Dec 10 2009

Armenian leader warns Turkey over delay in mending ties

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has said that if Turkey continues to
delay steps aimed at the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations,
then Armenia will use the principles of international law and withdraw
from the signed Armenian-Turkish protocols, the Armenian Second TV
channel reported on 10 December.

"We consider that attempts which are being made on the part of Turkey,
are unambiguously doomed – you know these attempts refer to the
Nagornyy Karabakh issue and Turkey’s goal is to link Armenian-Turkish
relations to the Karabakh issue. I should repeat yet another time that
these attempts have been doomed to failure from the very beginning,"
Sargsyan said at a joint news conference with his Latvian counterpart
in Yerevan on 10 December.

Sargsyan said that the Yerevan government appreciates everyone’s
efforts, including efforts of the USA, to positively impact the
process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, TV reported.
"The US president spoke about the necessity of recognition of the
genocide, [necessity] for Turkey’s viewing its history impartially in
Turkish parliament as well. Of course, it is extremely important that
Turkey understands that peace and security in the Caucasus will be
established only under the circumstance when Armenian-Turkish
relations are normalized as well," TV quoted Sargsyan as saying.

Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said at the news conference that his
country welcomes the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations,
noting that improvement of relations leads to the improvement of
people’s welfare, TV reported.

Armenia started dialogue with Turkey in September 2008 when Turkish
President Abdullah Gul visited the country to watch a soccer match of
the Armenian and Turkish national teams at the invitation of his
Armenian counterpart. There are no diplomatic ties between the two
countries. Turkey closed borders with Armenia in 1993 over the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict and ties the normalization of ties with
Armenia to the Karabakh settlement. The Armenian government backs
normalization of ties with Turkey "without preconditions".

The first statement on the normalization of relations was signed on 22
April 2009. Armenian-Turkish protocols on the establishment of
diplomatic ties and bilateral relations were signed on 10 October in
Zurich, and are currently to be considered by Turkish parliament.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly linked the
normalization process to progress in the Karabakh talks during his
recent visit to the USA, while both Armenia and Western superpowers
expressed themselves in favour of the normalization of ties "without
preconditions and within reasonable timeframes".

[translated from Armenian]