Author: Torosian Aram

Administration, Congress at Odds Over Armenian Genocide Bill

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor

October 08, 2007

(CNSNews.com) – Despite efforts by the Bush administration to kill it,
a bill before a congressional committee this week is threatening to
unsettle U.S. ties with an important ally. The ripple effect may
impact Iraq and Israel.

The legislation calls on the administration to refer to the killing of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the closing years of the
Ottoman Empire as "genocide." It is the latest in a decades-long
effort to change official U.S. policy.

Support for and opposition to the non-binding resolution, which goes
before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, crosses party
lines. Sponsors include Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. George
Radanovich (R-Calif.), and the more than 220 co-sponsors include
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(D-Md.).

A related bill in the Senate was sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin
(D-Ill.) and has 32 co-sponsors, including Democratic presidential
frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Republican presidential
candidate Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

The White House opposes the move — as did the Clinton White House,
which intervened in Oct. 2000 to prevent a similar House initiative.
Former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, a Republican who
chairs the American-Turkish Council, has cautioned against the bill,
and eight former secretaries of state, Republican and Democrat, have
urged Pelosi to block it.

The government of Armenia, a predominantly orthodox Christian former
Soviet republic, has made the issue a top priority. Islamic Turkey is
strongly opposed, and in recent weeks its government has warned the
U.S. in no uncertain terms about the implications of passing such a
resolution.

A member of NATO and aspiring future member of the European Union,
Turkey is strategically located between Southeast Europe and Asia, and
borders Syria, Iraq and Iran. It has strong ties with Israel.

Despite the Turkish parliament’s refusal in March 2003 to allow U.S.
forces to use Turkish territory to invade Iraq, Turkey by nature of
its location, regional clout and a long-running war against Kurdish
separatists is considered a key player in future events there. The
U.S. airbase at Incirlik is also critical for ongoing U.S. operations
in Iraq.

Now, however, Turkish lawmakers are threatening to force an end to the
U.S. right to use the base if the Armenian genocide bill in passed.
Other possible responses being mulled include a withdrawal of support
for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations in
Afghanistan.

A multi-party delegation of Turkish lawmakers will visit Washington
this week to discuss the matter with U.S. members of Congress, and
Turkish media quoted parliamentary speaker Koksal Toptan as telling
Pelosi in a letter that "it might take decades to heal negative
effects of the bill if it passes."

‘National security interests’

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call Friday told
President Bush that although the resolution is non-binding, it would
harm bilateral relations. It would also harm Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation efforts, he added.

(Relations between the two neighbors are not affected only by their
history; Turkey cut diplomatic ties with Armenia over its 1993
occupation of Nagorno-Karabagh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan, a fellow
Muslim ally of Turkey.)

After the conversation, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said,
"the president has described the events of 1915 as ‘one of the
greatest tragedies of the 20th century,’ but believes that the
determination of whether or not the events constitute a genocide
should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation."

Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian
Affairs, noted during a briefing Friday that former Secretaries of
State Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, Lawrence
Eagleburger, James Baker, George Shultz, Alexander Haig and Henry
Kissinger had warned in a joint letter that the resolution could
"endanger our national security interests in the region, including the
safety of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Supporters of the bill dismiss the argument about angering Turkey.

"There is no question that Turkey is bitterly opposed to recognition
and is threatening our military and commercial relationship, including
access to the Incirlik air base, but Turkey has made similar threats
to other nations in the past only to retreat from them," resolution
sponsor Schiff said in a House speech last April.

He noted that the European Union’s stance on the issue had not
prevented Ankara from seeking E.U. membership.

‘Jews could be targeted’

Turkish officials said Erdogan also has appealed to Israel’s
ceremonial President Shimon Peres to use his influence with
Washington. Last week, Turkish foreign minister Ali Babacan told the
Today’s Zaman newspaper that the resolution, if passed, could stoke
anger among Turks directed at Jews, as many Turks had a perception
that Jews and Armenians were cooperating in the campaign.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organization that counters
anti-Semitism, last August announced that it had reviewed its position
and now regarded the historical events – which it had previously
described as "massacres and atrocities" – as "genocide."

At the same time, however, the ADL said it opposed the resolution.
National director Abraham Foxman said it would not help Turk-Armenian
reconciliation, could put the Turkish Jewish community at risk, and
could jeopardize the important multilateral relationship between the
U.S., Turkey and Israel.

Divisions over the resolution also were evident in a recent decision
by Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat and foreign policy hawk, to
withdraw her support for the bill.

In a letter to the House foreign affairs committee, Harman said while
she viewed the events of 1915 as a "terrible crime … against the
Armenian people," she would vote against the resolution.

Harman, a former ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee
who currently chairs the homeland security committee’s intelligence
subcommittee, said she believed that Turkey "plays a critically
important role in moderating extremist forces" in the Middle East.

"Given the nature of the threat, I believe it is imperative to nurture
that role — however valid from the historical perspective, we should
avoid taking steps that would embarrass or isolate the Turkish
leadership."

Atrocities

According to the Armenian Research Center at the University of
Michigan in Dearborn, more than half of the 2.5 million Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire were killed in 1915-1916 and again around 1923.

On April 24, 1915 more than 5,000 Armenians were massacred in
Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. In other cases, people were first
deported, then killed. Some starved to death in prison camps, and
others were loaded onto barges, which were sunk in the Black Sea, it
says.

Turkey says between 250,000 and 500,000 Armenians, and a larger number
of Muslims, died amid chaos accompanying the collapse of the 600-year
Ottoman Empire and World War I.

"Documents of the time list intercommunal violence, forced migration
of all ethnic groups, disease, and starvation as causes of death.
Others died as a result of the same war-induced causes that ravaged
all peoples during the period," the Turkish government says in a
document responding to the allegations.

Armenia is slightly larger than Maryland, and home to some 2.9 million
people. Some seven million Armenians live abroad, including one
million in the U.S.

Source: =/ForeignBureaus/archive/200710/INT20071008b.html

A NEEDLE’S EYE VIEW PHILIP HENSHER FINDS INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM HAS NOT DULLED PAMUK’S FOCUS
by Philip Hensher

The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
October 6, 2007 Saturday

Orhan Pamuk must be one of the most famous novelists in the world,
and is certainly the most famous writer in Turkish. He has been
translated, as he tells us, into 40 languages – I doubt that he has
always been translated as beautifully as here, however, by Maureen
Freely – and has been a bestseller in most of those. He has won every
prize going, including the Nobel, and nowadays leads not just a public
but an international life.

This is odd because he tells us that, after a childhood adventure
to Switzerland, he did not leave Turkey again for a quarter of a
century. One might have worked that out from his writings. His novels,
alluringly, are both about that most historically cosmopolitan of
cities, Istanbul, and determinedly local; they watch the world as it
passes through the needle’s eye of the Bosphorus.

Success has changed Pamuk’s life; there are many casual references
here to international literary conferences. According to the New
York Observer, he has just paid $1.8 million for a flat in New York,
apparently abandoning Istanbul for the moment. There was, too, the
recent case of Pamuk’s prosecution for referring in an interview
to the 1916 massacre of the Armenians, a claim still denied by the
Turkish government. In the course of the trial, Pamuk’s belief in
freedom of speech risked turning him into a martyr for the cause.

But an increasingly international and polyglot life hasn’t changed
Pamuk as a writer, on the evidence of this interesting and varied
collection of essays and shorter pieces.

When he goes to New York, what interests him is what interested him
about historical Istanbul: the way the world filters through it.

Writing about Germany, what engages him is his subject as seen from
afar: the notion of Turkishness as maintained by the German-Turkish
community.

Pamuk is a local writer, but one who sees the facts of the world
implicit in those local phenomena. He is like the philosopher in Conan
Doyle who could deduce the existence of lakes and rivers after seeing
a drop of water for the first time. From individual relations, deftly
sketched out in short newspaper columns, the reader can extrapolate
tendencies in Turkish society.

A beautiful essay, remembering the first showing of the Elizabeth
Taylor epic Cleopatra (1963) in Istanbul, two years after its
first release, is freighted with significance. At one level it is a
wonderfully specific evocation of a place, a time and an experience
of the sort that made Pamuk’s memoir Istanbul (2005) so haunting. At
another, there are all sorts of considerations under the surface
of the relations between East and West, starting with the absurd
orientalist film, that turn it into something more than a memory of
a boy at the cinema.

His subjects are local, but his concerns are near-universal. Perhaps
the only slight disappointment in this collection is Pamuk’s discussion
of books. He clearly set his sights high from an early age, and his
obsessions are the international classics: Dostoevsky, Stendhal,
Nabokov.

The reader is left in no doubt that Pamuk, from the start, set himself
the task of becoming a great writer on a world stage. His comments
are always acute, even if he can’t resist explaining on each occasion
exactly where and when he first read each of these writers.

For me, though, Pamuk has written most rewardingly of works of art
in his immediate culture, such as the miniaturists in My Name Is
Red (2001). He ought to be encouraged to publish his reflections on
Turkish writers, even if they are not known outside Turkey; the ones
in Istanbul were a perfect joy.

The two best pieces of writing here are the warm and touching memoir
of his father which constituted Pamuk’s Nobel acceptance speech,
and a wonderful story, "To Look Out of the Window". It is a story of
late-1950s family life, and its title sums up something important in
Pamuk: the sense of idling, of staring out at the world going by and
always managing to find something interesting to look at. It can’t
be said of many collections of scraps and ephemera that they add to
your sense of the author’s genius. But this one does.

Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial, Inc.
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone 202-383-9009 Web:

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Rouben Adalian
Phone: (202) 383-9009
E-mail: [email protected]

October 4, 2007
Web:

NEW CAFESJIAN LAWSUIT AGAINST GENOCIDE MUSEUM FRIVOLOUS

Lawyers for the Trustees of the Armenian Genocide Museum and
Memorial and the Armenian Assembly of America have characterized as
"frivolous" Gerard Cafesjian’s latest lawsuit intended to scuttle the
building of a genocide museum in Washington, DC to honor the Armenian
Genocide victims, survivors, and family members. "This lawsuit comes as
a total surprise to us since it has no basis in fact or law" stated
Arnold R. Rosenfeld of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP.
"It is a desperate attempt by Mr. Cafesjian to block the recent progress
made by the trustees to restart the process of building a museum of
which all Armenian-Americans can be proud." Rosenfeld added: "All acts
to proceed to build the museum were duly authorized at a meeting which
was properly noticed and with a quorum of those eligible to vote, and
were taken in accordance with the bylaws of the AGM&M. All the votes
were perfectly legal and authorized under the law. In fact, Cafesjian’s
designated representative, John J. Waters, Jr., participated in the
meeting and then voluntarily withdrew from the meeting. All of
Cafesjian’s new claims are frivolous and will be dealt with through the
proper motions in federal court where this case was brought."

The Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial will be located at
14th and G Streets. in Washington, DC.

NR#2007-002

The Fresno Bee (California)
October 5, 2007 Friday

The $11 million farmer

by Vanessa Colon and Anne Dudley El, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Oct. 5–A reserved Kingsburg grape grower who lived simply, never
married and worked his farm until he was 90 has donated about $11
million to three Armenian-American nonprofit groups and the
University of California at San Francisco.

Leo Diran died last December at age 98. Trustees of his estate
delivered checks for $2.7 million to each of the recipients last
month.

Among the beneficiaries is the California Armenian Home on East Kings
Canyon Road in southeast Fresno, where Diran spent his last years.
Officials at the home said they were unaware of Diran’s wealth —
acquired mostly through investments — until after his death. The
gift is the largest single donation the home has ever received, they
said.

"Sometimes we learn of the accomplishments of a person too late to
acknowledge his contributions during his lifetime. We have all heard
of stories of people who have chosen to leave generous donations to
be distributed through their estate. The California Armenian Home is
fortunate to be the recipient of the generosity of one such person,"
said Bob Garabedian, an Armenian Home board member.

The other recipients are the American Armenian Missionary Association
in New Jersey, the Armenian General Benevolent Union in New York, and
the University of California at San Francisco.

This is the second time in less than a month that a Valley resident
emerged unexpectedly as a major donor. Last month, Fresno’s Barbara
Dodd Anderson donated $128.5 million to a Pennsylvania boarding
school she attended as a girl.

Ron Bergman, Diran’s friend and neighbor for 40 years, said Diran
would be "rolling over in his grave" at the attention focused on his
benevolence.

"He was a rather shy and reserved man, but he was very kind, very
knowledgeable about his farming practices. He was a very well-liked
man," Bergman said.

Larry Jorge of Selma, who is a trustee of Diran’s estate, described
Diran as quiet.

"He didn’t like any flair. He kept to himself," Jorge said.

Few people knew of his wealth, Bergman said, as Diran lived simply in
his family’s home, built in the 1930s. He did not travel or spend
much money on himself, Bergman said.

Diran, born in Boston, settled with his parents and siblings on a
40-acre farm in Kingsburg in 1912.

He attended Clay Elementary School through eighth grade and graduated
from Kingsburg High School in 1926.

Diran was drafted into the U.S. Army at age 34, serving in Europe
during World War II. Bergman said that he once asked Diran why he had
not sought a "farm deferment" from the military.

"He said, ‘No. I wanted to serve my country. I wanted the chance to
see other parts of the world.’ "

Diran came home to farm wine grapes and raisins until he was 90,
Bergman said.

"You’d see him out pruning with the crew," Bergman said. "He did all
his own tractor work."

Diran studied the latest farming techniques and was an "inventive
man," Bergman said. He made his own pruning sheers and other tools.
He was a meticulous farmer.

"The ranch was always in fine shape. You had to hunt for a weed on
it," Bergman said.

He was not one to gather with other farmers for morning coffee in
town, Bergman said.

"He didn’t see a need to do that," Bergman said. "That was a bit
foolish to spend time in a coffee shop."

Although Diran did not attend college, he valued education, which may
explain his donation to University of California at San Francisco,
Bergman said.

Bergman, on the Clay Elementary School board for nearly 30 years,
often discussed education with Diran. When Diran heard about plans to
build a bus garage at Clay, he contributed $50,000 toward the $60,000
project, Bergman said. Before the facility was built, the school’s
buses were parked outside.

While Diran was living, he wanted no recognition for his contribution
to the garage, although the school is now planning to honor Diran
with a plaque and picture, to be hung in the school office.

Bergman said he told Diran after the garage was completed in 2002:
"Leo, I want to take you by and see it.’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t
want to see it. I know it’s there.’

"He did not want to brag about it."

Diran accrued much of his fortune through investments in stocks,
Bergman said. He subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and studied
the market daily.

In Diran’s later years, Bergman said, he came to realize his friend’s
immense wealth as they discussed the stock market.

"I certainly didn’t question him on that," Bergman said.

With his eyesight failing and his health faltering, Diran moved from
the family ranch to the California Armenian Home. Diran didn’t have
any children.

Garabedian said Diran donated the money to the California Armenian
Home because he was happy with the service his sister Mary Diran
received.

The California Armenian Home, once a small residential-care facility,
has 120 beds in the nursing-care unit and 37 residential-care beds.
The home plans to use the $2.7 million to build either an Alzheimer’s
facility for patients suffering from the brain disorder, a
rehabilitation center or an independent living facility.

Dikran Youmshakian, field director of The American Armenian
Missionary Association in New Jersey, said Diran was a member of the
association. Several years before his death, Diran sold his farm and
donated roughly $500,000 to establish an endowment.

The association will use the latest donation for religious,
educational and social service projects in 22 countries, Youmshakian
said. The group is affiliated with churches around the world,
including Fresno’s Pilgrim Armenian Congregational Church and First
Armenian Presbyterian Church.

Youmshakian visited Diran at the California Armenian Home when Diran
was 90.

"He loved this organization. … He said he was following in the
footsteps of his father by remembering this organization in his
will," Youmshakian said.

The donation to the Armenian General Benevolent Union is meant for an
endowment for the American University of Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia,
said Hrag Vartanian, a union spokesman. The group supports schools
and provides scholarships for students of Armenian descent around the
globe.

By Vanessa Colon and Anne Dudley Ellis

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2007

Samad Seyidov: Council of Europe mission should visit Nagorno
Karabakh through Azerbaijan

[ 05 Oct 2007 19:23 ]

`I normally assess the session. Though there were no direct debates
on Azerbaijan at the plenary session, various issues were touched in
the speeches at the committees, political groups and delegations,’
taking a stance on the outcomes of the fall session, Samad Seyidov,
head of Azerbaijani delegation to Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe (PACE) told APA’s Europe bureau.

Mr. Seyidov said that the visit of speaker Ogtay Asadov to the
Council of Europe and his meetings were of great importance.
`It shows that Council of Europe and Azerbaijan have high-level
relations,’ he said.
Samad Seyidov said that Azerbaijan’s commitments were debated in the
Monitoring Committee and concerns over the state of media, human
rights, Electoral Code and law on freedom of assembly were expressed.
Mr. Seyidov underlined that they expressed their position on these
issues and everything was settled in the framework of the law.
`Electoral Code is being debated with the Venice commission.
Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the freedom of speech and
issues related to media and supports quick solution to these
problems. But surely, everything should be solved in the framework of
law. An agreement was reached on appointing new rapporteur. They will
visit Azerbaijan late this year or early next year only after a new
rapporteur is appointed,’ he said.
Samad Seyidov said they assume who is likely to be a new rapporteur,
but declined to name.
Head of delegation saying that meeting of Subcommittee on Nagorno
Karabakh was held said that Lord Russell Johnston intends to visit
the two countries and Azerbaijan approves this meeting.
`We are not against the Committee’s visiting Nagorno Karabakh. We
support taking all steps within territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
It means that they should visit Nagorno Karabakh through the
territories under the control of Azerbaijan. It is logical. For
example, CE sends its rapporteur to Georgia. The rapporteur should
visit South Ossetia, Abkhazia at the same time. Will he leave for
Abkhazia and South Ossetia after passing through Russia? CE
rapporteur takes territorial integrity of the country into
consideration while visiting the country. I do not understand if all
the countries recognize territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, then why
do they leave for Nagorno Karabakh through Armenia?
If someone visits Nagorno Karabakh through Armenia, then he will
disrespect territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Such people can not
cooperate with Azerbaijan. The issue will be solved to our advantage.
Because Azerbaijan’s demand coincides with international law, it will
be fulfilled,’ he said.
Mr. Seyidov also underlined necessity of delegation led by O’Hara to
visit the region regarding protection of cultural heritage.
`This visit should take place due to international norms. Territorial
integrity is the main issue and it is not subject of the debate.
This visit was delayed, if it takes place, Azerbaijan’s proposal will
be probably taken into consideration, and our position will be
supported,’ he said.
Mr. Seyidov said that reports of the delegation members will play a
great role in informing world community about realities of Azerbaijan
in the framework of the session. /APA/

PETER SEMNEBY TO VISIT AZERBAIJAN THIS MONTH

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2007

Peter Semneby, special representative of the European Union for
the South Caucasus will visit Azerbaijan this month. The special
representative told APA that this is a working visit and he does not
know whether he will leave Baku for Nagorno Karabakh or not.

"I have no concrete plans concerning the visit to Nagorno Karabakh. I
do not want to comment why I did not visit Karabakh in September,"
he said.

Peter Semneby said there is improvement in the relations between
Azerbaijan and European Union.

The special representative noted that the action plan in the framework
of European Neighborhood Policy should be approached seriously,
since there still are shortcomings and problems.

"European Union wants Azerbaijan to take concrete steps for removing
these shortcomings," he said.

STATEMENT BY VARTAN OSKANIAN AT THE 62ND SESSION OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ArmRadio – Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 4 2007

Speaking at the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly, Mr. Vartan
Oskanian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Of Armenia,
said:

"Mr. President,

Each opportunity to speak from this podium is a humbling experience,
knowing that every country in the world is listening to the other,
trying to discern where common approaches and interests lie.

Those of us representing small countries have a sense that this is
the forum where large states address the ills of the world, and we,
smaller ones, ought to adhere to topics that are specific to us,
to our regions. As if, addressing overarching, global issues would
be pretentious, and they are best left to those with the power to do
something about them.

This is my 10th year here, and I will risk breaking that unwritten
rule. This year, as financial calamities have compounded political
and natural disasters, it is so evident that although our common
problems and challenges threaten us all equally, they affect us
unevenly. Small countries, with less of everything – diversity,
resources, maneuverabilitiy, options and means – are at greater peril,
greater risk, greater vulnerability than those with bigger territory,
larger population, greater potential.

At the same time, the major political, social and environmental issues
on this Assembly’s agenda – peace and security, economic growth and
sustainable development, human rights, disarmament, drugs, crime,
international terrorism – know no borders. None of us can tackle them
individually if we expect to resolve them effectively.

Their solutions are in our common interest. The problems are vast
and touch all of humanity. Because they cannot be solved within our
borders alone, does not mean anyone has the right, or the luxury,
to abdicate responsibility for their consequences.

When the speculative market drives the price of a barrel of oil to
$80, those too small to have significant reserves are more quickly
affected. And just as large countries with huge appetites for fuel
make deals sometimes inconsistent with their politics, so do we. For
us, energy security is much more than a matter of global arithmetic;
it’s a matter of life and death.

When climate change causes significant environmental transformation,
it doesn’t take much for prolonged droughts and excessive rains to
harm our agriculture and damage our economy, or for rising shorelines
to reach our cities. But we lack the diversity and the space to adapt
and cope.

When it is news that there are no explosions in Iraq, and when large
scale destruction is a daily occurrence, we in small countries become
more keenly aware of our vulnerability and susceptibility to the will
and capacity of the international community, to their tolerance for
distant violence and humiliation.

When development depends on an absence of bad weather, disease and
war, and when the capacity to ward off at least two of those three
ills lies in the hands of those with huge ability to heal and to make
peace, small countries are at risk and helpless.

When disarmament and arms control cease to be the means to world
peace, and instead become the means to score political dividends,
small countries resort to their own means of self-protection. In
other words, we become part of the problem, because the solution is
neither straightforward, nor within reach.

When Darfur becomes shorthand for hopelessness, we in the small
corners of the world realize that power has become a substitute
for responsibility. The ubiquitous language of human rights cannot
compensate for political will. Genocide must be prevented, not
commemorated. Generation after generation, we find new names for man’s
appalling tolerance for what we think are inhuman machinations, new
names for the places of horror, slaughter, massacre, indiscriminate
killing of all those who have belonged to a segment, a category, an
ethnic group, a race or a religion. Nearly 100 years ago, for Armenians
it was Deir-El-Zor. For the next generation, it was Auschwitz, then
the killing fields of the Cambodians. And most recently Rwanda. If
in each of those cases, together with genocide, these names evoked
ignorance, helplessness, wartime cover, today Darfur is synonymous
with expediency, evasion and simple inconvenience. Darfur is synonymous
with shame.

My appeal, on behalf of small countries, is that the international
community tackle each of these problems in their own right, for
their own sake, and not as pieces in a global power puzzle. When
tensions among the world’s great powers grow, there is an increase in
polarization and a decrease in the effectiveness of the hard-earned
— and costly — policies of complementarity and balance of small
countries. Our own room to maneuver, to participate in global
solutions, diminishes.

But Mr. President and colleagues, let me say the obvious. We rely
on the ability of global powers to put aside their own short-term
conflicts and divergences and to recognize that their power and
influence does not make them immune to the range of problems that
afflict us. It also does not make them immune from the impact of the
failure of appropriately using that power and influence – for the
good of humanity.

Mr. President,

Last year we celebrated 16 years of Armenia’s independence, we have
weathered sea changes, and been swept up in regional and global
developments which daily affect our lives.

We can only be proud of what we’ve accomplished — an open, diversified
economy, high growth, strong financial systems; also, improved
elections, stronger public institutions, a population increasingly
aware of its rights. This makes us more determined to solve the
remaining economic ills – uneven growth, rural poverty and low wages –
and further empower people and deepen the exercise of democracy.

We’ve done all this despite a still unresolved conflict and artificial
restrictions, and in the absence of regional cooperation.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is included on the agenda of this
General Assembly session under the topic of protracted conflicts. But
Mr. President any resolution that places all conflicts in one pot
is necessarily flawed. Each of these conflicts is different. The
Nagorno Karabakh conflict doesn’t belong there. This issue should
not be discussed at the UN, because it is being negotiated in the OSCE.

First, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is not frozen. We continue to
negotiate and we are inching towards resolution. Second, there is
a well-developed negotiating document on the table, based not on
wishful thinking, but on the core issue and the consequential issues.

Together, they add up to a balanced solution. Third, at the core
of the process lies the issue of the right of the people of Nagorno
Karabakh to determine their own future. Indeed, the people of Nagorno
Karabakh don’t want anything that is not theirs – they want a right
to live in peace and security and to determine their own future,
they want to exercise the right that every people here has exercised
at some point in their history.

Mr. President, we follow very closely developments on Kosovo. We
hear the international community loud and clear, that Kosovo cannot
be a precedent for other conflicts. While we have no intention to use
Kosovo as a precedent for our conflict, since that would contradict our
own position that all conflicts are different. But at the same time,
we won’t understand or accept the reverse logic – that if Kosovo is
given independence, no other people can achieve self-determination. No
one should tell us that there is a quota on liberty and security.

Mr. President, at the end of the day, small countries’ awareness of
and place in global processes cannot, will not, substitute for those
with extensive resources and the political will and ability to act.

In this age of openness and inclusion, there is no room for the old
instruments of coercion and exclusion. Instead, the new instruments
of compromise and consensus are necessary to reach humanity’s enduring
goals of peace and prosperity."

‘PROSPEROUS ARMENIA’ PARTY HASN’T STILL GOT A PROPOSAL FOR MEETING FROM THE FIRST ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 4 2007

ArmInfo. "Prosperous Armenia" Party, entering the governing coalition,
hasn’t still got any proposal for meeting from the first Armenian
president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the member of "Prosperous Armenia"
parliamentary faction Naira Zohrabian said in her talk with ArmInfo
correspondent.

According to her, if "Prosperous Armenia" Party gets such a proposal,
they will discuss the issue with the Republican Party of Armenia, and
will state their position, acting within the frames of the coalition
signed with RPA on mutual cooperation. At the same time, according
to her, "if RA ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan decides to run in
the 2008 presidential election, as the authority’s suppositional
single-whole candidate, RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan stated, his
strategy will not change by the nomination of this or that political
force". As for the tactical problems, she thinks that the candidate’s
tactics may change at any moment, depending on the situation.

Referring to the active negotiations of opposition forces,
N. Zohrabayan said that the search of opposition’s single-whole
candidate for the president is already left out the agenda. "The issue
of opposition’s single-whole candidate can be considered finally and
irretrievably closed, as, starting from the Leader of "New Times"
Party Aram Karapetyan, and ending up with the Leader of "People’s
Party" Tigran Karapetyan, many oppositionists have already declared
about their nomination for the president’s post", N. Zohrabyan said.

ARMENIAN EX-SPEAKER JOINS PRESIDENTIAL RACE
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Oct 1 2007

Former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian will stand in Armenia’s
forthcoming presidential election and will not endorse any other
opposition candidate, his Orinats Yerkir Party said on Monday.

The announcement followed a weekend meeting of the Orinats Yerkir
leadership that discussed the party’s pre-election strategy. It bore
out analysts’ forecasts that Baghdasarian will not withdraw from the
presidential race in favor of any other opposition leader.

"The Orinats Yerkir will participate in the forthcoming presidential
elections with its own candidate," Artashes Avoyan, a senior Orinats
Yerkir parliamentarian, told RFE/RL. "We are talking about the party
leader," he said.

Avoyan added that Baghdasarian will be formally nominated as a
presidential candidate at a party congress scheduled for the beginning
of November.

The development is a further indication that Armenia’s divided
opposition will fail to rally around one or even two major candidates
ahead of the presidential ballot due in February or March. Such a
consolidation is widely seen as a necessary condition for mounting a
serious challenge against Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, the election
favorite. Several opposition politicians have already declared their
intention to run for president on their own.

Baghdasarian, who served as parliament speaker until Orinats Yerkir’s
ouster from the Armenia’s governing coalition in 2005, was among
a dozen or so opposition figures who held talks recently over the
possibility of forming an electoral alliance.

Avoyan downplayed the significance of those talks, saying that they
did not yield any agreements. He said Baghdasarian, who has long been
harboring presidential ambitions, will enter the fray because his
"high approval rating."

According to official results of Armenia’s May parliamentary elections,
Orinats Yerkir won more votes than any other opposition groups. It
currently occupies eight seats in the 131-member National Assembly.

JOSEP BORRELL: THE SETTLEMENT OF SUCH PROBLEMS AS NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE SOUTH CAUCASUS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 1 2007

"The settlement of such problems as Nagorno Karabakh conflict is
very important for the South Caucasus," Josep Borrell, special
representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office stated at the meeting of
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Slovenia.

He underlined the importance of continuing the talks on the settlement
of the frozen conflicts.

"Signing relevant agreements of OSCE is not enough to form good basis
for peace. Distrust between the parties should be removed. We have
to prepare for peace today," he said.