Author: Vardanian Garo

Critics’ Forum
Literature
Of Pedagogy and Cultural Production: Armenian Language Instruction
in the Diaspora
By Talar Chahinian

Every fall, the Board of Regents of Prelacy Armenian Schools
organizes a professional development day for teachers working in
California’s private Armenian schools, whether they be affiliated
with the Prelacy or not. This year, I had the opportunity to
participate in this one-day seminar by leading one of the workshops
designed to address questions of methodology and curriculum for the
schools’ Armenian language and literature departments. Although I
was working particularly with middle school teachers, later
conversation with other workshop leaders revealed that the concerns
and strategies that my group discussed were shared by Armenian
teachers of all levels, spanning the first through the twelfth
grades. What seemed to resonate throughout the workshops was an
urgent need to fundamentally change the way Armenian language is
currently taught in Armenian schools – in other words, rather than
teaching it as the students’ first language or "mother tongue,"
teaching it as a second language.

The teaching of the Armenian language in diasporan communities of
Western countries has always embodied notions of challenge and
difficulty. The establishment of Armenian schools in the greater Los
Angeles area immediately following the initial flow of migration of
Armenians from the Middle East in the 1960s launched a brief period
of revival and promise for the future of the Armenian language in the
West. What has seemed to follow in the last couple of decades is a
gradual decline that is both silently acknowledged by the entire
community and yet neglected as a concern of high priority when it
comes to measurable action.

This may be an appropriate moment to raise the question about the
value of Armenian language in relation to other markers of identity
for Armenians living outside of Armenia. What is the significance of
ensuring the preservation and cultivation of the Armenian language in
the diaspora? My humble answer is as follows: Everything. If we
are to regard language as a system of signs by which we construct
meaning and come to understand and express our sense of self, then
the Armenian language is both a tool for forging a collective group
identity, psychology, and way of life and their representation in,
and as, culture. Language is at the core of cultural production in
diasporan communities.

When we conceive of the peril of extinction gnawing at the Armenian
language in diasporan communities, we don’t have to go far to seek
its cause: the great dispersion of Armenians following the 1915
genocide has forced the Armenian language into exile and possible
extinction, and the language at stake is the Western Armenian
linguistic form, for the Eastern form has a territorial home in the
Armenian Republic.

Interestingly, the concern over the modern Armenian language’s
longevity and the debate around its development predates the 1915
Catastrophe. In 1911, the prominent poet and intellectual, Taniel
Varujan, published an article entitled "The Question of Armenian
Language" in the weekly newspaper Azadamard, of Constantinople.
Written in response to questions raised by the newspaper and its
readers, the article outlines the development of Armenian language’s
Western and Eastern forms during the period of modernization,
addresses concerns about the respective infiltration of French and
Russian languages, criticizes Western Armenian’s (then
termed "Turkish Armenian") detachment from the stylistic and
dialectical essence of provincial Armenian, and celebrates each
linguistic form’s diversity in an exposition against the call for
assimilating the two forms for the sake of a unified standard
Armenian.

In making his case against the forced fusion of Western and Eastern
Armenian, Varujan writes, "Let us for a moment disregard the three
main obstacles to such an assimilation, i.e. the people, the literary
past, and the deep differences that exist between the two languages,
and let us throw the Eastern and Western forms into one melting pot.
What is to come forth? An amorphous conglomerate, a linguistic
medley, an alchemical compound, from which we are sure not to receive
gold."

The "amorphous conglomerate" that Varujan imagines resulting from the
fusion of Western and Eastern forms is precisely what haunts many of
the Armenian language classrooms, according to the teachers present
at the workshop. As an Armenian community comprised of "second
diasporas," the greater Los Angeles area has hosted immigrants
from "first diasporas" like Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, as well
as immigrants from the ex-Soviet, now the Republic of, Armenia. As a
result, Los Angeles has become an experimental space for the
intermingling of both Western and Eastern forms of the language,
further complicated by the dialectical variants of each form.

Due to such exposure, the younger generation ends up producing an
unprecedented hybrid form of the language, one that defies any sense
of pattern, order, or recognition of existing standards.
Consequently, it becomes difficult for teachers to introduce and
demand the practice of one form over the other. Since the majority
of Armenian schools in California teach only Western Armenian, the
need to expand their curriculums to include instructions in Eastern
Armenian seems of utmost importance.

Yet allowing students to practice the Armenian language in accordance
with their personal and cultural linguistic background solves only
part of the greater problem. Beyond the difficulties caused by
formal differences, the teachers present at the development workshops
were worried that the Armenian language would lose the battle against
English, and more broadly, the dominance of the monolingual culture
of our environment. The teachers expressed particular concern about
the visible inequality between the Armenian and English curriculums,
commenting on textbooks, resources, as well as student perspectives.

In this regard, they spoke extensively about how the students view
the study of the Armenian language as mandatory and pointless – in
other words, stripped of any utility. In their eyes, the language
not used in play (meaning at recess) is allocated to the classroom,
which renders it archaic, hopelessly detached from everyday usage.
As they maneuver among the digital world of computers, the Internet,
and video games, as they interact with popular representations of
American culture on television, in films, and in music, they perceive
Armenian more and more as sealed in a glass box, stuck somewhere in
the late nineteenth century.

The end result is a perception that the Armenian language – and, by
implication, Armenian culture – lacks dynamism, which although
theoretically false, nonetheless bears considerable truth-value in
their everyday reality. The teachers at the workshop felt almost
unanimously that the only solution to the dilemma of teaching the
Armenian language lies in intervening into this false perception.
Achieving such a change in the perception requires changing in a
fundamental way the approach to Armenian language instruction; it
requires a shift, in other words, from the first-language to the
second-language model. The teachers discussed various short- and
long-term strategies, borrowing from second-language techniques used
by many public institutions. Whereas the short-term suggestions –
focusing primarily on classroom exercises highlighting conversational
language – seemed feasible according to school budget restraints and
the limited time allotted for Armenian language and literature
instruction, the long-term ones – dealing more broadly with
methodology – would require a shift in the community’s priorities.

Along the lines of this second, more long-term strategy, the plan
would have to include the training of new teachers, the retraining of
current ones, the establishment of "language labs" in each school,
and the publication of new textbooks accompanied by digital media.
In making these suggestions, the teachers knew that although all of
these suggestions would be welcomed as innovative ideas by higher
administrative bodies, they would also be met with hesitancy and
eventual neglect due to budgetary concerns.

The entrenchment of the community in its own cultural legacies
presents an ever greater potential obstacle than the retraining of
teachers. Funding for private institutions of education usually
comes from the community – the culture – that supports the
institution’s endeavors. Therefore, shifting the perspective of
students vis-à-vis the Armenian language requires shifting the
perspectives and priorities of the larger community, and culture,
that they inhabit. In a 1996 article entitled "Surreal Armenian:
Language in the Process of Community-Building" published in the
Armenian Studies journal Bazmavep, Ishkhan Jinbashian reviews the
status of the Armenian language in Los Angeles, claiming that "it is
astonishing to find that Armenians, in possession of an immense
cultural treasury, have for decades now, utterly neglected the
Armenian language in the Diaspora, their most salient tool of
expression."

Over a decade later, we are now compelled to express the same
astonishment. In his analysis, Jinbashian attributes the community’s
neglect to the nationalist ideology of what he calls "delayed
paradise," or the notion of an eventual return to Anatolian Armenia,
which has created a dictum of preserving, rather than cultivating,
language and culture. In this regard, things have in fact changed.
Though remnants of the same ideology are still engrained and
practiced in the instruction of Armenian language, the developing
Armenian Republic has found a permanent residence in the Armenian
cultural imaginary, testing the potency of the myth of return to
Western Armenia, and substituting it with the modern state of Armenia.

Against the backdrop of the Armenian Republic, with the Eastern
Armenian as its official language – in effect, its official form of
linguistic and cultural expression – what continues to be threatened,
perhaps now more than ever, is the Western form. Any hopes of its
salvation, or perhaps more realistically, the prolongation of its
survival falls within diaspora’s domain. But where is this
linguistic form to live and be cultivated, if not in literature? And
if so, who is to write and read this literature, if not the
generation of the students the teachers at the workshop were talking
about? In order to ensure that future generations have the
appropriate means for cultural expression, Armenian cultural
expression, we will need to change dramatically the institutional
practices that opt for "band-aid" solutions when it comes to Armenian
language and culture by shifting the priorities of the communities
that dictate them.

All Rights Reserved: Critics’ Forum, 2009. Exclusive to the Armenian
Reporter.

Talar Chahinian is a Lecturer in the Department of Comparative
Literature at UCLA, where she recently received her Ph.D.

You can reach them or any of the other contributors to Critics’ Forum
at [email protected]. This and all other articles published
in this series are available online at To sign
up for a weekly electronic version of new articles, go to
Critics’ Forum is a group created to
discuss issues relating to Armenian art and culture in the Diaspora.

2009-2011 COOPERATION MOMORANDUM TO BE SIGNED BETWEEN RA AND RF PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICES

Noyan Tapan

Feb 11, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. RF Prosecutor General Yuri
Chayka will be in Armenia on a working visit on February 12-13 at
RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian’s invitation. Noyan Tapan
was informed about it by Sona Truzian, the Spokesperson of the RA
Prosecutor General.

Issues regarding cooperation of the two countries’ Prosecutor system
structures within the framework of the agreement signed in 2006
September, including delivery of concrete criminal cases and provision
of juridical assistance, will be discussed at the meeting of the RA
and RF Prosecutor Generals. It is envisaged that A. Hovsepian and
Y. Chayka will sign a Memorandum on the main directions of 2009-2011
cooperation between the RA and RF Prosecutor General’s Offices.

SPEECH BY ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SARGSYAN AT THE 45TH MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE

President.am
Feb 11 2009
Armenia

Speech by President of the Republic of Armenia H.E. Mr. Serzh Sargsyan
at the 45th Munich Security Conference

Minister Bildt,

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me profound pleasure to address this prestigious forum – the
Munich Security Conference. I will outline Armenia’s perspective on
the hot topics of South Caucasus. I emphasize that it will be Armenia’s
vision, since I am confident that there are also other perspectives in
the region. A region, which in the last two decades has re-emerged in
the priority lists of states, international organizations, analysts,
and leading media.

The South Caucasus, which for over 70 years was isolated from the
major international developments as a separate factor, now re-gains
its international importance as a transportation corridor, as a major
root for export and transit of the energy resources, a platform for
the establishment of democracy, as well as an area in the process
of assessing its own role, meaning and mission in the contemporary
world. Today, despite the existing differences and controversies,
countries of the South Caucasus, are much more assertive in assessing
their role and potential capacity to impact international developments.

Armenia is one of those countries. And it believes in values of
freedom, peace, and cooperation. We truly believe that only regional
cooperation and dialogue can help materialize our common vision for
empowerment of a peaceful and stable region. And that is exactly what
we aim our efforts and ambitions at.

Leaders from our region often make statements about their passion
for peace, cooperation and stability. All that is possible if in our
region we achieve combination, rather than confrontation of interests
of all those states and organizations, which have special and very
obvious role in the South Caucasus. If we look back at our history,
it would be obvious that superpowers and empires historically had an
ambition to establish their hegemony over this part of the world. It
is also true today. Contemporary South Caucasus is a model of the
multi-polarity of the world. It is one of the regions, where there are
seemingly unyielding dividing lines, where internationally recognized
political map is very different from the real one, where stability
is extremely vulnerable, and the re-establishment of peace requires
a joint and concentrated titanic efforts.

Dear colleagues,

We way too often speak about "what will happen" and "how will something
develop" or "how to manage" questions, while in reality, I believe,
it is correct to speak also about what lessons have we all learned
from last years’ developments, from the bloody military events of
the previous year, and from the global financial-ecnomic crisis? We
– the countries of the region, superpowers and all those players,
who have interests in our region, shall learn at least from our own
mistakes what shall not be done. Year 2008 has left us lessons we
have to learn. And let me turn to three of those lessons:

First of all, I believe that the August events have made it clear
for everyone how tense the situation in the Caucasus actually is,
how serious the challenges and threats there are. This was a reminder
to all those involved that each careless word, each uncalculated step
are potent with unpredictable consequences and that the arms race,
substantial expansion of the military budget, militaristic rhetoric
charge the atmosphere, which inescapably brings to provocations,
actions and such situations, which, as it usually has been happening,
can get out of control of those who are responsible for creating such
atmosphere. It is a primer truth, that threats to use force challenge
peace, and attempts against peace shall not go unnoticed.

Second, we have talked extensively about unacceptability of drawing
new dividing lines. We should always remind ourselves, that the Cold
War is over, and the political logic and modus operandi of that big
controversy shall not survive. The world has witnessed the dangers of
the world divided by power polar systems and their controversies. We
have witnessed in our lifetime the consequences of regional divides.

The third lesson is that of the necessity to develop alternative
transportation roots in the region. Much has been said about the
importance of the region. What is the sense of talking about such
importance, when any increase in tension can nullify the whole
essence of economic significance, at least temporarily? We still have
a long way to go to empower the economic significance of our region,
and first of all with regard the development of alternative roots.

I think that the global crisis does not diminish the international
meaning of the South Caucasus region. Meanwhile, I am confident,
that the crisis and lessons it brings with it will make us switch to
more effective models of regional development in fields of energy and
transportation. Let me explain this. At the times, when world prices
for natural resources are noticeably excessive, it in past allowed,
at least in some cases, to adopt solutions, which are economically
least effective, disregarding the well-known fact that the shortest
root between two points is the direct line. Billions of dollars where
wasted to satisfy different ambitions. Now, when hydrocarbons are
cheap and the global economic activity has decreased, when returns
on investments in regional infrastructures are getting more and more
costly, the probability of masterminding irrational regional projects
will significantly decrease.

It is logical that in present conditions the factor of economic
efficiency will gain a bigger role in geopolitics, and it will become
impossible to take in-office decisions to build new transportation
lines, disregarding the existing blocked ones. This means that the
time for "political railroads, roads and pipelines" is over. One
should acknowledge a very simple reality: it is senseless to talk
about stability in South Caucasus if the policy of mutual isolation
and exclusion from regional projects continues. I regret to note that
such unacceptable approach has been many times applied to Armenia,
and it has never received a due response from the international
community. There is only one conclusion one can draw: the global
economic crisis will objectively compel the region to function as a
single economic unit, and to function more efficiently.

The way to the future of the region is that of combination of existing
interests, all other approaches are potent with new losses. Our
challenge today is not only to connect the East and West, but also
the North and South, to turn our region into a crossroad of peace
and cooperation. I am confident that South Caucasus has a much bigger
potential as a region, than the sum of their individual potentials is.

It is a region with its ancient culture, rich history and societies,
motivated by new ambitions. Whatever the geopolitics of our region is,
it is bound to include the "cultural" component, so called "human
dimension." When bombs go off in Ossetia, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel or
anywhere else in the world I feel a profound pain for a number of
reasons: first of all as a person who has personally experienced a
war, since I know the real effect of its devastating power. Second,
as the President of Armenia, knowing that it anyway does not serve
the interest of my country, and last, but not least, I feel very
troubled as an Armenian, knowing that wherever the bombs go off
there are Armenians living on both sides. In those cases, the human
factor dominates decisions I make. However, as a representative of
the Armenian people, which by virtue of its history is spread across
the world, I know very well what the "human factor" can do when used
for positive aims, I know the power of it not from analytical reviews,
but from historic experience of my own people, from my daily work.

Dear colleagues:

For the long history of the Armenian nation two recent decades on one
hand are a moment, but on the other – the whole story of our current
statehood. It is a story of a fight for freedom and independence,
for peace and a better future not only for our state but for the
whole region.

We have got to be able to learn the lessons of the history to be
able to prevent the militarization of the region and the deepening
of the dividing lines in it. We have got to be able to do it, since
there have always been labels and stereotypes on the region of South
Caucasus, and now it is the time to eliminate those for the sake of
stable and peaceful future of our states.

I believe that today there are leaders in the region, who
are ready to promote non-standard solutions, who can make
non-conventional decisions, and to demonstrate sufficient will for
their implementation. And this understanding allows me to be more
optimistic towards the future of our region.

Thank you for your attention.

TO PRESIDENT OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN MR. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

Azat Artsakh Daily
10 Feb 09
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

Honorable Mr. Ahmadinejad,

On behalf of the people and authorities of the Nagorno Karabagh
Republic I cordially congratulate You and all the people of the
friendly Islamic Republic of Iran on the 30th anniversary of the
Islamic Revolution. This nation-wide expression of will is indeed an
epoch-making event in ancient history of Iran. Artsakh rates highly
the role of Iran in maintaining peace and stability in the region
and balanced position in the process of peaceful settlement of the
Azerbaijani-Karabagh conflict. I am confident that centuries-old
friendship and ties between our countries and peoples will become
much stronger and more diversified. I congratulate You once again
and wish peace, happiness, robust. With deep respect, BAKO SAHAKYAN

ARTSAKH HAILS IRAN’S BALANCED POSITION ON KARABAKH CONFLICT

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.02.2009 18:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako
Sahakyan sent Monday a congratulatory address to President of the
Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on occasion of the 30th
anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, central information department
of the office of the NKR President told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The message says:

"Honorable Mr. Ahmadinejad,

On behalf of the people and authorities of the Nagorno Karabagh
Republic I cordially congratulate You and all the people of the
friendly Islamic Republic of Iran on the 30th anniversary of the
Islamic Revolution. This nation-wide expression of will is indeed an
epoch-making event in history of Iran.

Artsakh appreciates highly the role of Iran in maintaining peace
and stability in the region and balanced position in the process of
peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict.

I am confident that centuries-old friendship and ties between our
countries and peoples will become much stronger and more diversified.

I congratulate You once again and wish peace and happiness."

HISTORIAN CLAIMS STONEHENGE HAS ARMENIAN LINKS

Britain News.Net
Tuesday 10th February, 2009 (ANI)

London, Feb 10 : A historian has suggested a link between the
Stonehenge and an ancient circle of standing stones known as Carahunge
in Armenia, which predates the historic site in England.

According to a report in the Salisbury Journal, the historian in
question is Vardan Levoni Tadevosyan, an Armenian/Spanish historian
of the occult who visited Salisbury to raise the profile of Carahunge,
dubbed the Armenian Stonehenge.

"It’s a very important monument, not just for Armenia, but for the
whole world," he said.

Carahunge, meaning ‘speaking stones’, is located 200 km from the
Armenian capital Yerevan, near a town called Sisian.

There are over 200 stones on the seven-hectare site and many of the
stones have smooth angled holes in them, directed at different points
in the sky, leading scientists to believe it is the world’s oldest
observatory, dating back 7500 years.

Tadevosyan is very passionate about wanting people to know more about
Carahunge and has his own theories on its links with Stonehenge.

His research of the last four years is based on the work done by
Professor Paris Herouni, a member of the Armenian National Academy
of Science and president of the Radiophysics Research Institute
in Yerevan.

Professor Herouni started investigating Carahunge more than 20 years
ago and wrote a book, Armenians and Old Armenia, on his findings.

He sent the book to Prof G.S. Hawkins, who had investigated Stonehenge,
and he agreed with Herouni’s findings.

According to Tadevosyan, in neolithic times, the Armenians were much
more advanced than most other cultures.

A carving found on rocks near Lake Sevan showed they knew the world
was round, they could accurately measure latitude, and they were
already skilled in astronomy, archaeology and engineering.

He believes the earliest population of Britain, who came from Armenia,
brought the ideas of Carahunge to Europe with them and played some
part in the creation of Stonehenge and other European sites.

Tadevosyan plans to put together a leaflet about Carahunge that can be
available to the public at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
and curator Adrian Green said he would be happy to display leaflets
about the ancient site.

WORRIED STONES OF LIE
Leonid Martirosyan

Azat Artsakh Daily
09 Feb 09
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

About that, whether in silly desire to discredit Nagorno Karabakh,
Azerbaijan does not stop in the face of anything, I had to write
more than once. In the course of many years Azerbaijan made efforts
to prosecute The Republik of Nagorno Karabakh in the connection of
international terrorism.

That is the first reason. In the illegal burial places being under
control by NK in the territories of nuclear siftings-the second. The
production and the spreading of narcotic-the third. In such rich
fantasy of official Baku may soon appear the fourth, the fifth,
the sixth, the seventh……

However, there is no need to surprise to such a numerical row because
exactly in this consists one of the priority direction in the inner
politics of Azerbaijan which does not care that all his attempts
remain in vain, for they are not fortified by slightest reliable
facts. Maybe, this absurd undertaking will be thrown in view of his
absolute futility in another country. But not in Azerbaijan, where
with pertinacious, to which mythical Seazif will envy, continues to
carry a huge stone of lie to the top of mountain… Mazakhir Efendiev
has recently registered himself as a coordinator of the program of the
struggle with drugs in South Caucasia (SCAD) in Azerbaijan with the
regular attach on NK." T here are mini-laboratories in the occupied
territories of NK, where Iranians produce heroin years Azerbaijan sent
"worried signals to European Union and UNO", based on reliable facts,
mined in the result of operative-investigation actions of The Ministry
of National Security.

Azerbaijan, of course. About "reliable" facts-a bit later. Now
about another, but, however the same, having connection to the so
called "fact". It seems that the period in 5 years, during which
Azerbaijan "transported" properly worried signals to the corresponding
international structures, is mentioned nonrandom. For explanation
we make a short excursion to the past. That’s the point, that almost
at once, after Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, official Baku began to
bespatter with the international structures similar misinformation.
Unfortunately, for the first time Azerbaijan managed to mislead
to the corresponding international structures, giving them lying
information. So, many years Baku managed to enter on the daily report
of State Department(USA) about International Narcotics Control Strategy
Report of lying information about producing and spreading narcotics
in NK. However, how long respecting themselves serious organizations
can lie. Such as State Department of USA.

Moreover, authorities of NK carried on with corresponding
international structures for exposuring far-fetched charges of
Azerbaijan. Simultaneously, Karabakh managed to take of f negative
formula from the reports of those structures. If we follow the dynamic
changes of marks of that periods, we may notice that in the report
of The State Department of USA flatness of charges of NK, in series,
changed to the careful reservations about that, that the facts of
using the territories of NK for transporting narcotics were given
by the authorities of Azerbaijan. Later, in the same place, it was
said that USA was not possessed of independent confirmation of this
approval. At last in 2003, the charges were disappeared from the
report of The State Department of USA.

Furthermore, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC) at that
time also confirmed that he did not disposed of such information of
using the territories of NK for transit operations. We consider that
from that time, Efendiev counted out the period in 5 years, telling
about "worried signals" of Baku with unconcealed boredom and regret,
as well as not hearing their addresses. I admit, that Efendiev and his
high-ranked friends have from what to give to despair. Again, in the
report of The State department of USA from 2002, was said that around
the territories of Azerbaijan passed one of the main transit canals
of the international narco-traffic. Particularly, in the report of
2007, is stated that "Azerbaijan is the transit point in the route of
narcotics from Afghanistan and Middle Asia to Western Europe. =2 0Agree
with us, that before the face of such serious charges, authorities
of Azerbaijan have from what to give way to despair and began to
look for charges on the side. That is in NK. At the same time to
let down his South neighbor-Iran, the relation of Iran with Baku is
not cloudless. It must be noted that earlier Baku accused Tehran in
inability to control own border with Azerbaijan, through which is
made narco-traffic. So, the announcement about mini-laboratories
of NK for producing drugs where Iranians work in white gowns, is
not quite by chance. Proviso from Mazakhir to primitive is simple:
"Azerbaijan is not in such condition to control occupied territories,
law machineries cannot cross illegal work". Not paying attention to
the phrase "occupied" I note only that in all this quotation about
that Azerbaijan is not in such condition to control the territories
of NK is true. The funny side of a situation is from here.

Really, about 15 years Azerbaijan has no access to these territories,
and it means that Azerbaijan does not possess the situation at
them. Consequently, all this time Baku let down and continues letting
down undisguised lie to the corresponding international structures,
not being confused, that nobody believes him. And the words of Efendiev
that all their statements based on "reliable facts", mined in the
result of operative-investigation actions of The Ministry of National=2
0 Security are so absurd, that besides irony nothing else can express
at serious organizations. Also official statistics of Efendiev are
that there are 22 thousand drug addicts in Azerbaijan. At that time
the facts of independent sources are higher. So, on the information
of the office of Baku about the program development of UNO, in 2008 in
Azerbaijan, about 300 thousand drug addicts were counted. The evidence
is that there is no need to believe Efendiev and the other official
structures. With Efendiev we may agree only in one case. "Necessity
exists in special monitorings",-stated he. But there is suspicion
that also in this case he is cunning. And that is why. The fact
is that in view of ceaseless "narco-insinuation" from the part of
Azerbaijan the authorities of NK more than once appealed international
structures to organize and direct to NK independent group of experts
for studying the situation on the spot and establishment of the
objective facts. Seemingly, what else to wish-an absolute coincidence
around this question of interests of Baku and Stepanakert. However,
all the paradox is in the fact, that exactly Azerbaijan, laying down
unacceptable conditions, always counteracted direction to NK of such
international missions. But is it a paradox?

After all the breakdown of monitoring missions, not only around the
problem of drugs, allows to official Baku to mislead word commun ity
with impunity, continuing his hopeless politics for discrediting NK.

TURKISH FM MEETS AZERBAIJANI COUNTERPART, PRESIDENT IN BAKU

Hurriyet
Feb 9 2009
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan met his Azeri counterpart Elmar
Mammadyarov and President Ilham Aliyev in the capital, Baku. (UPDATED)

Bilateral relations, regional developments and the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute were high on Babacan’s agenda.

Burak Ozugergin, spokesman for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
told the Anatolian Agency that Babacan highlighted the importance
of finding solutions to disputes to ensure stability in the region
during his meetings.

"Babacan said that the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute should be resolved
peacefully in line with international law and by protecting
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity," Ozugergin said.

The Turkish foreign minister met Saturday with his Armenian counterpart
Eduard Nalbandian and President Serzh Sargsyan in the sidelines of
the Munich Security Conference. Turkish Foreign Ministry officials
said the talks were quite productive.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a frozen conflict legacy of the Soviet Union, has
been standing at the center of Azerbaijan-Armenia and Turkey-Armenia
relations. Turkey closed its borders with Armenia due to Yerevan’s
aggression against Azerbaijan.

The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in 1988 on Armenian
territorial claims over Azerbaijan. Since 1992 Armenian Armed Forces
have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding districts.

Both countries continue with fruitless peace negotiations. The OSCE
Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France,
is engaged in efforts to the conflict peacefully.

Babacan returned to Turkey from Azerbaijan later on Monday.

GAS PRICE RAISES

Panorama.am
14:30 10/02/2009

"Armrusgazprom" company raises the prices of natural gas; the company
has already presented the claim to the Public Services Regulatory
Commission of Armenia, said Mariam Stepanyan, the responsible of the
press service of the company to Panorama.am. According to the source,
a commission session will be conducted till the end of February to
define the new price.

Remind: the Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan announced in
15 April, 2008 that from 1 May the gas subsidy would be finished.

To our request whether the commission has received claims from
"Armenian Water and Sewerage" and "Armenian Electricity Network"
companies of raising the prices, M. Stepanyan answered "we have not
yet received any claim from those companies."

TREND, Azerbaijan
Feb 7 2009

OSCE co-chairs to discuss steps to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
07.02.09 09:00

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 6 /Trend News, E.Tariverdiyeva/

The OSCE Minsk Group Russian, French and U.S. co-chairs will discuss
steps to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

The co-chairs will visit the region in late February or early March to
continue consultations with both countries’ governments, OSCE Minsk
Group U.S. Co-Chair Matthew Bryza wrote Trend News in an email on
Feb. 6.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding
districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in
1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ` Russia, France, and the
U.S. ` are currently holding the peace negotiations.

The co-chairs will discuss steps to resolve the conflict following the
meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Zurich on
Jan. 28.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh
Sargsyan made progress in agreeing on key elements of the basic
principles, Bryza told Trend News after the meeting.

`The meeting was positive and constructive. The presidents made
progress in solidifying their mutual understanding on several key
elements of the basic principles and in narrowing differences on some
other issues,’ Bryza said.

Recent talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Zurich
showed that some progress has been made in resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

`Nevertheless, there are still differences on the issue,’ Azerbaijani
Presidential Administration International Relations Department Chief
Novruz Mammadov told Trend News on Feb. 4.