Author: Tigranian Ani

MINISTER OSKANIAN RECEIVED THE CIVILITAS 2007 AWARD FROM THE DAMA CASTELLANA ORGANIZATION

armradio.am
11.12.2007 10:57

In Conegliano Italy on December 9, 2007, Armenia’s Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian received the Civilitas 2007 award from the Dama
Castellana organization.

The award, established in 1992 by the Dama Castellana organization,
the town of Conegliano, the Province of Treviso, the Region of Veneto,
and the European Community, is intended for those individuals who
personify human values, tolerance, solidarity and whose work adds
quality to the life of the community and humanity.

Previous winners include Pope John Paul II (2004) and Rita Levi
Montalcini (2003), a Nobel Prize laureate and daughter of Primo Levi.

The official ceremony bestowing the award on Minister Oskanian took
place on Sunday, December 9. In the town hall, in the presence of local
and regional leaders, businessmen and dignitaries, as well as members
of Italy’s Armenian community, the announcement of the award was
made. This was followed by a procession towards the Academy Theater,
with participants dressed in traditional garb carrying the medieval
traditional banners of the region. At the Theater, Minister Oskanian
was awarded the prize for his work in promoting dialogue to achieve
peace and stability in the region and in the world. The Minister’s
acceptance speech appears below.

"I am honored to receive this award and feel privileged to be in
the distinguished company of today’s winners and the recipients of
former years.

I thought long about the significance of the Dama Castellana
conceiving of such an award, and thus creating the opportunity for
an annual message about the importance of dialogue and peace. This
respected organization takes very seriously its local heritage, and
understands the need to recall and evoke the past in order to assure
a well-grounded and meaningful life in the present.

So, it is because of the wisdom of the ages, that in a region
synonymous with viniculture, you are focusing on peace-making. Wine is
life, wine makes life, and depends necessarily on a life of peace and
stability. Making wine, sharing wine, enjoying wine all assume time,
all require a confidence in the future, all oblige patience and faith
in tomorrow. The world of wine takes peace for granted.

The original European dream, the glue that held together post-war
Europe, was for peace and prosperity. Today, you in Italy and
throughout Europe can take that peace for granted.

We in Armenia cannot.

We have lived under subjugation, have seen ethnic cleansing and
genocide even before the terms existed, and have lived as a minority
without rights.

We saw military aggression in response to peaceful calls for dialogue
and tolerance.

As a small people, serving as the perennial buffer between empires, on
the most trampled path on earth, Armenians have become living witnesses
of the benefit of dialogue between and within cultures. We have been
engaged in that international exchange for ages. Our Diaspora, living
as it does across borders, is both the means and the beneficiary of
international exchange.

Today, we in Armenia are among its greatest promoters, especially in
our neighborhood.

21st century Armenia belongs to a world where warring neighbors have
found that they can accept new borders based on realities on the ground
and move on. Europe’s nation-states have found that they can transcend
borders, without diminishing or ignoring cultural spaces, without
expecting historical identities to vanish. Armenia has the example
of some of the West’s oldest democracies, oldest developed economies,
some of the most stable states, coming together several decades ago,
voluntarily suspending some aspects of their sovereign political and
economic rights in order to build structures which would enhance and
consolidate their political and economic advantages, and diminishing
the threat of war.

Armenia has always said that we have already benefited from the process
that you have undergone. We share history, values and civilization,
we also share the goals of an integrated, interdependent, interrelated
European political and economic community.

For me personally, seeing the community that exists here, in
Conegliano, the political, social community that embraces visitors
with a passion, that is proud of its accomplishments in 50 years,
that is ready to serve as example and partner, this community offers
hope and inspires passion. From winemaking to tourism, there is much
that we can learn from you.

Armenia is known as the motherland of grapes and winemaking. Armenia’s
viticultural history goes back at least to Biblical times, when Noah
established the first vineyard in the Ararat Valley after the Flood.

Excavations in this area have lent strong support to the theory
that some of the very earliest systematic wine-growing did indeed
arise here.

This is one of many connections between Veneto and Armenia. Last year
we concluded a two-month long Days of Italy in Armenia. This year,
our ambassador in Rome is promoting several events that highlight
the centuries old connections between us. And there are many.

Let me use this opportunity to say thank you for the especially
large and meaningful assistance Italians provided to Armenians in
the devastating earthquake that destroyed much exactly 19 years ago
yesterday. This was not the cause but the manifestation of a special
relationship that goes back much farther. It was in Italy in 1512,
that Hakob Meghapart produced the first book ever published in
Armenian. Venetians signed their first interstate trade agreement
with Armenians, half a millennium ago. The renowned Briton, Lord
Byron, referred to the Venetian island of San Lazaro as a fortress
of Armenian independence, since the Armenian monks of the Order of
Mekhitar had found refuge there in the early 1700s. There you have
it all – cultural, economic, political – our ties are deep and broad.

Today, you point to the Mekhitarist congregation as an example of
the wealth of Venetian culture and heritage. Armenians point to the
Mekhitarist Congregation as Armenia’s representatives from the ages
when there was no Armenian state.

>From them, and from you, we have much to learn. I will take away
with me today the warmth of your friendship, the generosity of your
hospitality, the wisdom of your age. And all of this offered with ease.

It is sprezzatura. I wish for a long and deep dialogue so that
Armenians can discover this Italian art of effortless creation
that results in the ‘studied carelessness’ of Italian food and
Italian wine. I wish to replicate the accessibility, the immediacy,
the intimacy with the old even as the elegant new is continuously
created. I wish to appreciate the individual’s resolve to enjoy the
pleasures of life and the society’s understanding that such enjoyment
can only be had in a world of dialogue and peace.

I appreciate your trust in my own commitment to these values. The
Dama Castellana has put additional responsibility on me and on all
of us in Armenia to work harder for tolerance, solidarity and peace
in our region and in the world."

US AND ARMENIAN GOVERNMENTS HOLD INITIAL DISCUSSIONS TO CONSIDER THE NUCLEAR SMUGGLING OUTREACH INITIATIVE

armradio.am
11.12.2007 12:08

On December 10, the United States and Armenian governments held initial
discussions at the US Embassy to consider the Nuclear Smuggling
Outreach Initiative (NSOI). The talks were aimed at negotiating a
bilateral action plan to combat nuclear smuggling.

Representatives of the US Departments of State, Energy, and Homeland
Security, as well as experts from the European Union and International
Atomic Energy Agency were joined by 19 representatives from 11 Armenian
government agencies, including the National Security Service, the
Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, the Border Guard Service, the Armenian
Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the Justice Ministry, Foreign Ministry,
Prosecutor General’s Office, State Customs Committee, Ministry of
Nature Protection, Armenian Rescue Service, and Ministry of Defense.

American and Armenian officials discussed modes of potential
cooperation in preventing, detecting, and responding to illicit
trafficking of nuclear and highly radioactive materials. Both sides
affirmed the need for a coordinated response to combat nuclear
smuggling.

Through NSOI, the United States has already entered into joint
action plans to combat nuclear trafficking with Ukraine, Georgia,
the Kyrgyz Republic, and Kazakhstan, and has a tentative agreement
with Tajikistan.

The United States and Armenia hope that the NSOI will promote greater
US-Armenian cooperation on international security issues. American
officials plan to return to Armenia in spring, 2008 to continue
discussion of the NSOI.

ARMENIA REQUESTED EU FOR ASSISTANCE IN CLOSING NPP

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.12.2007 15:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During a meeting with European Union Council
Secretary General and High Representative for the EU’s Common Foreign
and Security Policy Javier Solana in Brussels, Prime Minister of
Armenia Serzh Sargsyan spoke of the possibility of closing the Armenian
NPP by the year 2016. He advised that the government approved a
timetable for NPP decommissioning which is quite a costly undertaking.

PM Sargsyan informed that the RA government has established and partly
financed a special fund to that effect. Nevertheless, the task seems
to be beyond our country’s possibilities and Armenia will need the
European Union’s support.

Mr Solana promised to think about the ways of assistance. The EU
Council Secretary General said that after the presidential elections,
the cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Armenia
will focus upon the implementation of EU-Armenia action plan under
the European Neighborhood Policy, as well as other key areas high on
the bilateral agenda, the RA government’s press office reported.

KARABAKH PROCESS CLOSE TO BREAKDOWN
By Thomas de Waal in London for IWPR (09/12/07)

ISN, Switzerland
International Relations & Security Network

Dec 10 2007

It’s the last chance for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to
agree to a framework document on Nagorno Karabakh before February.

As the year 2007 slips away, hope is fading for a framework agreement
on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and there are fears that the peace
process may collapse altogether next year.

The deadlock coincides with the suspension of ceasefire monitoring
along the long line of trenches that divides Armenian and Azerbaijani
forces around Karabakh, and increased warnings that the dispute –
in which fighting was halted in 1994 – might once again lead to
open conflict.

When the OSCE met in Madrid last week, the foreign ministers of
Armenia and Azerbaijan, Vardan Oskanian and Elmar Mammedyarov, held
talks with leading officials from the three countries that co-chair
the "Minsk Group" which oversees negotiations.

Their meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, French
foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and US Under-Secretary of State
Nicholas Burns, was widely perceived as a last chance to agree
compromises on a two-or three-page document called "Basic Principles,"
which could then be signed by the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
setting out the fundamental ideas they have worked on over the last
three years.

But with no agreement in sight and presidential elections due in
both Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2008, time is running out, leaving
the bleak prospect that the peace process will die next year.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza, who is one of the
three co-chairs of the Minsk Group, told IWPR in answers to written
questions that he and his two colleagues planned to travel to the
region in mid-January to try to bridge final differences between
the parties.

"The co-chairs hope the two presidents will reach an oral agreement
on this document prior to Armenian presidential elections in February,
" said Bryza.

The current set of ideas on the table provides the only logical
and practicable way to advance toward a peaceful settlement of the
conflict.

The hope is that both sides in the dispute are playing brinkmanship,
and will ultimately agree to a deal. There are concerns, though,
that if they fail to do so, it will be hard to recover any momentum
for negotiations next year.

"Both sides seem to acknowledge that abandoning the negotiations,
even for a short period, could have dangerous consequences, " said
Bryza. "When each president recognizes he and his counterpart have
driven the quest for concessions to the limit, both presidents will
face a crucial choice – agree on the fair compromise on the table,
or start from scratch and risk devolution toward possible armed
conflict. "

Many believe that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are too
cautious to sign up to a document that would be labeled at home as
compromise with the enemy.

"Putting a signature on a framework document puts the presidents in
terra incognita, " said one international official who follows the
negotiations, and who asked not to be named.

At the same time the situation on the 200-kilometer-long ceasefire
line that divides the two parties is unusually precarious. The "line
of contact, " as it is known, has no international peacekeepers along
it, and is monitored only by roving OSCE ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk
and five field assistants.

Around 30 soldiers have lost their lives in incidents on the line so
far this year.

Owing to a diplomatic dispute between the OSCE, Baku and the
unrecognized Nagorno Karabakh Republic, all ceasefire monitoring is
currently suspended.

The latest phase of negotiations, called the Prague Process, began
with a meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers
in the Czech capital in April 2004. The two presidents became more
heavily involved the following year.

Under discussion has been a phased plan in which Armenian forces would
withdraw from the Azerbaijani lands they currently occupy outside
Nagorno Karabakh. The most sensitive issue, the status of Karabakh
itself, would be deferred, with the territory gaining some kind of
interim international status.

More difficult points – including how the Karabakh’s status should
eventually be decided, and the nature and composition of security
forces in the territory – are not addressed by the framework document,
which is intended as a first step.

Even discussions on the Basic Principles have turned into a marathon,
with the principal sticking point reported to be the status of Lachin,
the Azerbaijani territory through which the road connecting Nagorno
Karabakh and Armenia runs. The Armenians are reluctant to cede a
strip of land that they say is a strategic corridor.

Both sides say they have red lines they do not wish to cross.

In written comments to IWPR, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mammadyarov
said, "Azerbaijan has clearly defined and presented its position,
with options and limits and we hope that the Armenian side will
realistically assess the ongoing processes in the world and in the
region, and will withdraw her troops from the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan. "

Armenian Foreign Minister Oskanian stressed his side’s
concerns, telling IWPR, "Of course security is the number one
issue. Security concerns are what gave rise to the [Karabakh Armenian]
self-determination movement in the first place. Security will depend
on how strongly the status of Nagorno Karabakh and the status of
Lachin as a corridor are codified in the agreement. "

The enduring deep distrust between the two parties remains a
fundamental obstacle.

Over the last year, officials from Azerbaijan, which is growing in
confidence both economically and diplomatically, have said frequently
that their "patience is running out" and they are considering the
military option.

On 30 October, President Ilham Aliev said, "We should be ready to
liberate the occupied territories by military means at any moment. "

Aliev has said that his oil-rich country’s fast-growing defense budget,
which now stands at more than one billion dollars, should increase
to a point where it exceeds Armenia’s entire annual budget.

On 27 November, speaking at a meeting of defense chiefs from
post-Soviet states, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiev said,
"As long as Azerbaijani territory is occupied by Armenia, the chance
of war is close to 100 percent."

This kind of talk has provoked an angry response from the Armenians.

"The Armenian concerns are not about the agreement, on which there is
more on which we agree than disagree, said Foreign Minister Oskanian.

"The Armenian concerns are about what is going on in parallel –
militaristic calls from Azerbaijan, increased levels of hate propaganda
within Azerbaijan, and aggressive efforts to derail the talks. "

Asked to comment on this, Mammadyarov said, "Azerbaijan is very
much in favor of a peaceful resolution of the conflict and we will
use all and every opportunity not to engage in violence. But the
Azerbaijani public’s patience is running out, and given our good
economic performance, there are more and more calls on the government
of Azerbaijan to restore the territorial integrity of the country. "

Most independent experts say war is not immediately imminent, but
the risk is growing as the sides remain intransigent and Azerbaijan’s
oil revenues move towards a peak.

"There is a real and increasing danger of conflict in the coming
years," said Magdalena Frichova of the International Crisis Group,
which recently released a report entitled Risking War. "By about
2012 – after which Azerbaijan’s oil revenue is expected to decline –
a military adventure may be a good way for Baku to distract citizens
from economic disappointment and government failures."

Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Media Institute in
Yerevan, said no breakthrough is to be expected, because there is
not sufficient political will in either country to cut a deal.

"The death of the Prague Process was imminent from the day it was born,
" said Iskandarian. "Its birth came as an attempt to revive the Minsk
process, which had been dead from about 2001 or even earlier.

Why it died is obvious to me – resistance from inside these societies
to resolution efforts is stronger than the pressure from outside."

"I don’t think the Prague Process will die a legal death, as it does
not bother anyone very much, but it won’t solve the conflict. The
conflict will be solved when the parties in conflict want it, not
the mediators. At the moment, the parties have no such will."

Thomas de Waal is IWPR’s Caucasus Editor.

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LEVON TER-PETROSIAN’S PARTICIPATION IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN MADE IT INTERESTING, DIRECTOR OF CAUCASIAN MEDIA INSTITUTE CONSIDERS

Noyan Tapan
Dec 10 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. Really only two out of nine
candidates, Prime Minister Serge Sargsian and first President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, pretend to the post of the President. Alexander
Iskandarian, the Director of the Caucasian Media Institute, stated
at the December 10 press conference.

As regards the political struggle between the two main candidates,
it was mentioned that they "are in different fields." According to
the political scientist, L. Ter-Petrosian is a public politician,
who is "able to control the crowd" and S. Sargsian is a manager and
organizer. Unless L.

Ter-Petrosian nominated his candidature, the struggle would only
proceed in the organization field, as it was during the parliamentary
elections.

"However, L. Ter-Petrosian knocked S. Sargsian out of the organization
field and the struggle became more interesting, as S. Sargsian has
to respond to the statements of the first President," A. Iskandarian
mentioned. And the actions and statements of the authorities made in
return, as he evaluated, are unsuccessful and rather work in favor
of the first President. At the same time, in A. Iskandarian’s words,
as S. Sargsian and his associates proved not to be ready for such a
situation, their strategy will be corrected.

The political scientist excluded that the political activization of
the first President and his participation in the election campaign
can be connected with some combination worked out by foreign
forces. "L. Ter-Petrosian does not look like a politician, whom they
pull by strings," A. Iskandarian stated.

GREEK AMBASSADOR IMPRESSED BY ARMENIA’S POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

armradio.am
06.12.2007 16:13

December 6 Speaker of RA National Assembly Tigran Torosyan received
the newly appointed Ambassador of Greece to Armenia Ioannis Korinthios.

Congratulating the Ambassador on appointment, the Speaker expressed
confidence that with his activity Mr. Korinthios will contribute to the
deepening of ties between the two peoples and countries. Mr. Torosyan
informed that a Deputy Friendship Group with the Parliament of Greece
has been established at the National Assembly of Armenia. According
to Mr. Torosyan’s assessment, the development of interparliamentary
relations can become an important part of development of cooperation
in the political, economic and defense spheres.

Ioannis Korinthios noted that it’s a great honor for him to be
appointed as an Ambassador to Armenia. He said his country is greatly
interested in developing ties with Armenia, and he is impressed by the
political and economic achievements of our country. Upon his request,
Speaker Tigran Torosyan presented the legislative activity of the
Parliament, emphasizing the importance of holding the forthcoming
presidential elections in accordance with democratic standards, and
informed that for this purpose the National Assembly has adopted the
amended Electoral Code.

The parties stressed the importance of holding successful presidential
elections, which will promote the European integration and will deepen
the Armenia-European Union ties.

Khachik Ter-Ghukasyan: Armenian-Turkish border will
remain closed unless Armenia stops endeavors for
Genocide recognition
05.12.2007 12:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Turkish public opinion and the
Azeri factor prevent Turkey from opening the border
while recognition of the Armenian Genocide may
undermine legitimacy of the Kemalist state,’ Professor
of international relations and politics at the
San-Andres University of Buenos Aires, Khachik
Ter-Ghukasyan said in an interview with
PanARMENIAN.Net.

`The matter is not economy but mere politics. Armenia
is too small to seek for product market in Turkey
while Turkish goods can kill Armenia’s economy.
However, there is the European Union which demands
open borders. It’s noteworthy that the EU prefers the
AKP to Kemalists. Nevertheless, the Armenian-Turkish
border will remain closed unless Armenia stops
endeavors for the Genocide recognition,’ he said.

SHAVARSH KOCHARIAN: LEVON TER-PETROSYAN BROKE SPIRIT OF THE MOVEMENT OF 1988, AND WE’LL NEVER FORGIVE HIM IT

2007-12-04 22:15:00

ArmInfo. "Levon Ter-Petrosyan broke the spirit of the movement of 1988
and we’ll never forgive him it", Leader of National Democratic Party
Shavarsh Kocharyan said during his meeting with journalists, Tuesday.

According to him, the Karabakh Liberation Movement had a big inner
potential, which wasn’t used by the new authorities of the independent
Armenia. "In 1995 the Constitution, which was not democratic even by
African standards, was imposed to us by way of mass falsifications. It
was initially impossible to build a democratic state basing on such
a Constitution", Sh. Kocharyan said.

The politician qualified the events of 1996, when the meeting of the
then opposition was dispersed, which demanded vote-recount during the
presidential election, as a tremendous blow to the basic institute of
democracy-election. "There was no falsification of election results
in 1996.

This refers to a basic revolution, when the regime kept the authority
with the help of tanks in the streets. However, now I don’t predict
developments with such a scenario", Shavarsh Kocharyan emphasized.

ARMENIA AND IRELAND COOPERATE NOT TO FULL POTENTIAL

Panorama.am
17:49 04/12/2007

The newly appointed ambassador of Ireland to Armenia, Jaffrey Kiting,
handed his credentials to President Robert Kocharyan today. President
press services report that Kocharyan mentioned that Armenia is
interested in strengthening and developing the political and economic
dialogue between the two countries.

Kocharyan said the way Ireland has passed and the success of the recent
years are impressing. Saying Armenia has prescribed to the same rout,
the president said the experience of Ireland is of interest. He paid
special emphasis on expertise programs.

The parties agreed that the modest indicators of cooperation in
the economic field do not meet the full potential. They underscored
using the opportunities to their best possible level. The two also
underscored improvement in bilateral legal arrangements.

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 5 2007

AGBU PROVIDED 20 THOUSAND EUROS TO FRENCH UNIVERSITY OF ARMENIA

The Armenian General Benevolent Union provided 20 thousand euros to
the French University of Armenia to finance scholarships of the best
23 students.

The president of the AGBU Armenian branch Ashot Ghazaryan says this
effort marks a new stage of cooperation with the French University.
`So far we have financed internship of the best five students in
France, now cooperation will be promoted,’ Ashot Ghazaryan says.

The French ambassador to Armenia Serge Smesov said the French
University of Armenia is a symbol of cooperation between the two
countries and is financed by the Armenian government. The purpose of
the university is to train representatives of the elite, and
hopefully mutual commitment to this purpose will continue in future,
the ambassador said, News Armenia reports.