Author: Toganian Liana

Armenian National Committee – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918
Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

January 10, 2008
Contact: Haig Hovsepian

Tel: (818) 500-1918

ASAs Host ANC Media Outreach and Advocacy Workshop

Los Angeles, CA – On January 5, 2007, representatives from nearly a
dozen college campuses throughout southern California attended a media
outreach and advocacy workshop presented by the Armenian National
Committee-Western Region (ANC-WR). Hosted by the Armenian Student
Association and Armenian Graduate Student Association at UCLA on the
UCLA campus, student leaders and activists took the opportunity to
learn more about Armenian American issues and how they can promote
greater awareness of these issues on campus.

"It was a necessary and informative event. Students need to know
about these issues, that they have a significant voice, and that they
can make a difference," said Chris Khatchatryan, President of the UCLA
Armenian Student Association. "Being a world premier university, UCLA
was a great setting for the workshop and I look forward to follow up
workshops hosted by our sister ASAs," he added.

Saturday’s workshop featured two speakers, ANC-WR Board Member Vicken
Sonentz-Papazian and Glendale City Clerk and former UCLA Armenian
Student Association President, Ardashes Kassakhian. Sonentz-Papazian
opened the event providing an overview of Armenian American activism
and issues in the past century to the present day. Kassakhian spoke
about his experiences as a student leader addressing Armenian American
issues on campus and discussing the impact students can have on their
campus and beyond.

"I was impressed by the participants’ depth of understanding of the
topic and their commitment to promote and advance Hai Tahd," noted
Sonentz-Papazian.

The workshop was the first in a series being offered by the ANC for
youth leaders and activists. The workshops were inspired by the high
volume of community – and especially campus – activism during the
recent consideration and adoption of H.Res.106, the US House Armenian
Genocide resolution.

During October and November of 2007, ANC-WR Community Relations
Director Haig Hovsepian delivered community issues briefings to over a
dozen campuses. He also discussed opportunities for student
involvement with the ANC such as the ANC-Western Region
Internship-Externship Program (ANC-WR IEP). The media outreach and
advocacy workshop series is the most recent addition to the ANC’s
community leadership development programs.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in
the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of
offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States
and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANC-WR advances
the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

US PRESIDENT APPROVES BILL TO CUT ASSISTANCE TO ARMENIA BY $17.5 MILLION

Today
2149.html
Jan 7 2008
Azerbaijan

US President has signed the 2008 fiscal year aid bill which is to
provide $17.5 million less to Armenia as compared to 2007.

The bill, signed by President Bush, is an unchanged version of the
budget expenditures item passed by the both houses a day earlier.

The 2008 overall package, known as the omnibus bill, envisions
providing $58.5 million in economic assistance to Armenia within the
Freedom Support Act.

The omnibus aid bill includes $19 million for Azerbaijan.

The United States will also render $3 million in foreign military
financing (FMF) assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan in equality.

The 2008 budget items infuriated the US-based Armenian organizations.

IN CASE HE IS ELECTED, EX-PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA PLANS TO RECONSIDER THE BANKING LEGISLATION

Mediamax
January 7, 2008

Yerevan /Mediamax/. In case he is elected for the position of the
President, Ex-President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian intends to
reconsider the banking legislation.

Mediamax reports that Levon Ter-Petrosian’s pre-election program,
titled "Pre-election program or quiet thoughts", reads this.

The Ex-President, in particular, proposes to "extend the authorities
of the Board of the Central Bank at the expense of the unequal
authorities of the Chairman of the Board, mitigate the requirements
for registration of new banks, stimulate the activity of investment
funds, the Stock Exchange and credit registrations".

CREDITS OF IFC AND EBRD ARE CHEAPEST IN REGION, IFC YEREVAN OFFICE HEAD
SAYS

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The credit resources of the World
Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) are one of the cheapest
credits in the region, the IFC Yerevan Office head Nerses Karamanukian
stated at the December 26 press conference. In his words, "there are no
cheaper sources of financial resources in this region than the IFC and
the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)".

In the opinion of N. Karamanukian, the cheapness of credits of the IFC
and the EBRD is conditioned by the fact that these structures have set
themselves the goal of promoting the development of regional financial
markets.

According to information on the IFC website (), since 2001,
the IFC has invested 21.07 million dollars in Armenia under various
programs. 10.57 million dollars of this sum has been provided to
several banks – mainly for mortgage and small and medium enterprises
(SME) crediting. Another 25 million dollars has been provided to
Ardshininvestbank, including 15 million dollars for crediting of the
above mentioned sectors.

MEDIATORS WILL BE ABLE TO DEVELOP PEACEFUL AGREEMENT IF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN AGREE TO ADMIT TO BASIC PRINCIPLES – RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT

Trend News Agency
Dec 26 2007
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. E.Huseynov / The international mediators
can develop a project for the Armenian-Azerbaijani peaceful agreement
before the presidential election in Armenia, if both the sides agree
upon the basic principals of the regulation of the conflict, Yuri
Merzlakov, the Russian co-chairman of the group of international
mediators stated to the Trend agency on 26 December.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the United States, Russia and
France on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict submitted the written proposals
for regulating the conflict, to Azerbaijan and Armenia during the
meeting in Madrid in the end of November. Due to the confidentiality
of the process, no details were announced on the issue.

"The proposals offer nothing new", stated Merzlakov.

Russian mediator stated that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs hope to
get reaction of both the sides, during their visit to the region in
the mid of the January. The opinions of the Azerbaijan and Armenian
Foreign Ministers, ‘the sides will study proposals’, were announced
during the meeting in Madrid. However.

The peaceful settlement of the conflict has been tried for the past
17 years.

Merzlakov did not exclude that the Presidents of the both countries
may meet after the co-chairs visit to the region and consider the
proposals. The co-chairs are planning to visit the Nagorno-Karabakh,
during their visit to the region in the mid of the January.

Till now OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs submitted three proposals to both
the sides, but two of them were not accepted by Armenia. Baku in its
turn did not agree with the proposal, to establish a confederative
state in the Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring
districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire
agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding
the peaceful negotiations.

EU Special Representative: `Armenian authorities have a responsibility
to set the right tone for the media’

December 21, 2007
Yerevan /Mediamax/.

Special Representative of the European Union in the South Caucasus
Peter Semneby stated in an interview to Mediamax today that `the
authorities have a responsibility to set the right tone for the media
while avoiding direct interference’.

Peter Semneby said this in a telephone interview to Mediamax from
Brussels, commenting on the results of his two-day visit to Armenia. He
noted that `the access to broadcasting media and the quality of
coverage on TV has been raised as an important concern in many of the
meetings I have had in Yerevan’.

`Both public TV and independent TV stations have a responsibility to
cover the candidates in a fair way in the news, in talk-shows, and so
on. It is also important to make sure there is no pressure on
independent broadcasters through selective enforcement of laws and
regulations, or by other means. The media issues will be followed with
particular attention by the EU and the international observers’, Peter
Semneby stated.

Commenting on the contradictory statements on coverage of the
activities of the president’s candidates, the Special Representative of
the EU in the South Caucasus stated: `it is obvious that different
methodologies will highlight different issues and problems’.

`During my visit, I met with the Yerevan Press Club, whose work I
appreciate. The OSCE monitors will also conduct their own media
monitoring as the formal campaign gets underway. It is clearly a good
thing to have several parallel monitoring efforts, which will analyze
the media coverage from different angles’, Special representative of
the EU stated in an interview to Mediamax.

ARMENIA AND TURKEY OBLIGED TO COOPERATE, COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN SAYS

ARMENPRESS
Dec 20, 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS: Arthur Aghabekian, chairman of a
parliament committee on defense and security issues, said today that
Armenia and Turkey are obliged to cooperate in some issues.

He was speaking at the second and last day of parliament hearings
on Turkish-Armenian relations initiated by a parliament committee on
foreign affairs.

"Armenia and Turkey are obliged to cooperate in some issues because
elements of cooperation are not a public demand, but stem from both
countries’ commitments to some international organizations,’ he said.

Arthur Aghabekian, a former deputy defense minister, said Armenia
and Turkey cooperate in the frameworks of the Conventional Forces
in Europe treaty and within the frameworks of the NATO-sponsored
Partnership for Peace program.

He said Armenian and Turkish representatives participate in different
events held both in Turkey and Armenia. He recalled that Turkey sent
its representatives to Armenia for a NATO-sponsored military drills
in 2003.

He said decisions in NATO are taken by consensus and Turkey never used
its veto right to obstruct Armenia’s participation in an international
program.

The former deputy minister reiterated Armenia’s official position on
unconditional normalization of relations with Turkey.

"Armenia’s border with Turkey it is also Armenia’s border with
NATO. If it were open it would certainly make Armenia closer to NATO
and would give it an opportunity to expand its cooperation with the
organization,’ he said.

Aghabekian also said normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations would
help settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and normalize Armenia’s
relations with Azerbaijan.

BLACK PR SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
Naira Khachatryan

Hayots Ashkharh
Dec 21 2007
Armenia

Political-scientist GERASIM BARSEGHYAN was the guest speaker of
"Pastark" club yesterday. According to the political scientist the
2008 presidential elections differ from the preceding ones in terms
of the tendencies manifested at the current pre-campaign stage.

"First of all, I would single out such a manifestation as black PR.

At the current stage preceding the campaign its specific weigh is
extremely large and is not in any way comparable with the black
PR conducted during the past presidential elections," G. Barsegyan
mentioned, speaking about the use of illicit technologies.

As a result of the current course of the developments, the campaign
may lose its ideology, and the voter may become disoriented.

"In this respect, black PR also provides a solution to the task that
was set to it. From the standpoint of those who use impermissible
technologies, the more there are disoriented people, the better."

Furthermore, "illicit" technologies are self-destructive, "For those
who make use of them, they may be twice as destructive as they are
for the political rival."

The anti-rating pre-election campaign is also one of the peculiarities
of the current presidential campaign in terms of its emphasis. "An
anti-rating PR works with serious emphases. I can understand the
politicians to whom those rating data are not advantageous. I
also understand those media which are trying to cast doubts on
the data. However, one thing is obvious: those surveys are really
conducted, and the data they represent are very close to reality,
especially in terms of the calculation of the candidates’ electoral
rating." The speaker nonetheless set a clear-cut demarcation line
between the surveys having scientific-analytical bases and methodology,
and those conducted via telephones and the Internet. "Our press
makes use of that type of surveys and publishes ratings which do not
correspond to reality. They are not trustworthy."

According to Gerasim Barseghyan, while selecting certain types of
technologies for the presidential elections, there is one factor that
should be considered as a starting point: that the country is solving
a problem for the coming ten years, "The people who are concerned
by the country’s future want to see serious, perspective approaches,
while in case of a black PR, they do not see it." The media serving
for the interests of the first President is especially outstanding
in terms of using such technologies. "He mentioned many times that
his target is the pro-Government candidate. However, every single
day, the media serving for his interests publish materials degrading
and compromising the candidates by the use of extreme methods," he
noted and at the same time underscored that as far as this issue was
concerned, he did not particularly make any difference between the
candidate and the media supporting him. He is also convinced that
there will be other people making use of black PR technologies. "I
am sure that at least three activists will pursue that path; they
are simply involved in all those affairs."

The political scientist mentioned that not all the nominated candidates
have demonstrated activeness in the pre-campaign period, and as a
result, it is impossible to speak about their political goals from
the point of view of campaign technologies. "We are do not yet have
thorough information as to why they have advanced their candidacies. We
can have hypotheses; as to the goals each of the candidates has and
the problems he solves, it will become evident during the campaign."

In the estimation of the speaker, the most correct campaign is
being conducted by the pro-Government candidate. "Anyway, there are
no obvious tendencies of black PR, although sometimes we hear some
responses. But in terms of the dosage of the information, they do not
go beyond the limits of correctness. Not responding to the political
opponents for fear of going beyond the limits of correctness also
contains a danger in terms of being misunderstood by society. "The
people will say that the accusations which were addressed to the
given candidate were real. Therefore, the problem here consists in
measuring out the information in proper doses."

The speaker gave the names of concrete candidates who have not gone
beyond the limits of correctness, "Vahan Hovhannisyan observes
political correctness at the current stage. I would also add the
name of Arthur Baghdasaryan, who has not yet made any response to
the serious accusations addressed to him. He too, has chosen this
tactics which is perhaps justified in time aspect."

US DEMOCRAT SCHIFF ‘SURPRISED’ BY TURKISH SIDE OF ARMENIAN STORY

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 20 2007

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, uneasy with the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP) acting as if it is the representative
of all Kurdish people living in Turkey, asked his deputies of Kurdish
origin to initiate diplomatic action — he has now begun to harvest
the first fruit these efforts.

At Erdoðan’s request, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ankara
deputy Burhan Kayaturk and Mardin deputy Cuneyt Yuksel, went to the US
to meet with Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff, the architect of the
"Armenian genocide bill" accepted by the US House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs. Listening to the stories of Kayaturk’s
own family, Schiff was surprised by the Turkish side of the story
concerning the Armenian issue.

Kayaturk, who has Kurdish orgins, and a Turkish delegation went to the
US as invited guests of the US Youth Council (USYC). A meeting with
Schiff provided Kayaturk with the chance to speak about experiences
from his own life. The deputy told Today’s Zaman about his experience,
explaining first his own story, as told to Schiff.

"The name of my father’s grandfather was Yusuf. Despite their good
relations with the Armenians, the latter killed my grandfather, and
I’m sure that my grandfather’s relatives also killed some Armenians
in return. The Armenians and the Muslims had good relations at the
time, however, due to the promises the Russians made, the Armenians
began doing wrong to their neighbors. As a result some atrocious
events occurred between both sides. Moreover, tens of thousands of
people from both sides died because of these wrongs. Then the forced
Armenian emigration — in addition to the illnesses, the clashes and
traumatic events occurred along the route — caused people to die.

However, the Ottomans never killed the Armenians based on an
intentional scheme. This cannot even be a matter of discussion."

When faced with the alleged claims of Armenian genocide, Turkey
has opened the state archives for historians, Kayaturk said, and
underlined: "We are ready; both Armenian and Turkish scholars are
welcome to make research. Your [US] attempt harms Turkish-American
and Turkish-Armenian relations."

He also asserted that 40,000 to 60,000 Armenians work illegally in
Turkey. "Most of them nurse our children. If we were hostile, could
we entrust our children to them?" In response Schiff reportedly
emphasized that he was surprised with what he heard, adding: "I’ve
never heard these [stories] before, and quite frankly I’m touched by
them. For the first time, I’m hearing something different."

Kayaturk asserted that the Zeve cemetery was full of numerous graves
belonging to Turks and Kurds whom the Armenians massacred in Van. He
invited Schiff to Van to see for himself how many Turks were killed
by the Armenians during those times of upheaval and confusion. Schiff
said he was planning a visit to both Armenia and Turkey and that he
could visit Van during his trip.

Meeting with Matt Bryza, US deputy assistant secretary of state for
European and Asian affairs, Kayaturk explained that he is of Kurdish
origin, underlining that the Kurdish issue has nothing to do with
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kayaturk also emphasized: "The AK Party represent the Kurdish people
in the best way. As the votes that AK Party received in southeastern
province of Hakkari increased by 430 percent, it proves the fairness
of the policies the party follows. The average number of supporters in
the eastern and southeastern regions rose by 51 percent." He stressed,
"The sooner the PKK problem in northern Iraq is eliminated, the better
for both Turkey and the US."

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OSKANYAN SAYS TURKEY MUST OPEN THE BORDER

Lragir, Armenia
Dec 19 2007

Armenia does not offer stipulations for setting up relations with
Turkey, stated the Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan during
the parliamentary hearings on the Armenian and Turkish relations. "We
are ready to discuss any issue with the Rurkish government," he said,
News Armenia reports.

According to him, however, official Ankara should not offer
stipulations and open the border with Armenia. The foreign minister
of Armenia said as of now Turkey stipulates that Armenia solve the
Karabakh issue in favor of Azerbaijan, recognize the present border
with Turkey and reject the policy of international recognition of
the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

"The Armenian and Turkish relations are highly complicated, and the
burden of the past is lying heavily on them, however, Armenia and
Turkey remain neighbors, and it is something inevitable.

Consequently, it is necessary to set up diplomatic relations between
the two countries," Oskanyan emphasized.

The representatives of a number of Armenian and international
organizations and political parties took part in the two-day
hearings. The EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus
Peter Semneby is expected to address the hearings.