Author: Vardanian Garo

UN Secretary-General congratulates PM Tigran Sargsyan

armradio.am
06.05.2008 12:53

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated RA Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan on appointment. The congratulatory message states in part:

`I extend to you my congratulations on your appointment as Prime
Minister of the Republic of Armenia and wish you every success with the
discharge of your new duties.

During the past few months, the people of Armenia confirmed its desire
to strengthen democratic institutions in your country in a bid to
achieve prosperity and social equality. I am convinced that under your
guidance the government of Armenia will meet its goals through
democratization and implementation of social and economic programs.

I look forward to close cooperation with your government and yourself
with a view to developing the regional cooperation in South Caucasus.

Rest assured that the whole body of the United Nations will join me in
an effort to support you along this path."

"BEFORE CONQUERING SHUSHI ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES WERE NOT READY FOR
SUCH OPERATION," ARKADI TER-TADEVOSIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, MAY 6, NOYAN TAPAN. Only specialists can make deep and
objective analyses about the Artsakh war and the liberation of Shushi,
in particular. This statement was made by Major-General Arkadi
Ter-Tadevosian, a participant of the Artsakh war, at the press
conference, which was held on May 6. He reminded that the "Artsakh War"
book by writer, publicist Zori Balayan has recently been published and
"it is mentioned on one of its pages that Shushi was liberated by the
very Arkadi Ter-Tadevosian and on another one that it was liberated by
another."

"Then we were just not ready to take Shushi as we had, all in all, 3500
people, there was not the necessary amount of arms-ammunition and by
the military laws, we had no right to make an operation," the General
said. That was why, according to him, there was no order from Yerevan
on liberating Shushi. The situation, however, in the words of Arkadi
Ter-Tadevosian, was that the Azerbaijani side "massacred everybody" and
70 commanders asked themselves what was the difference if they were
killed then or after. "Then I asked Serge Sargsian whether we were
going to conquer Shushi and he gave a positive answer," the General
told.

Arkdi Ter-Tadevosian remembered the names of his war fellows,
mentioning that the selfless carriage of volunteers, in particular,
should be appreciated. In his observation Ashot Ghulian, Yuri
Hovhannisian, Valeri Babayan, Jirayr Sefilian, Samvel Babayan, Valeri
Chechian and Nver Chakhoyan played a great role in the liberation of
Shushi.

HOLOCAUSTS REMEMBERED

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
May 3, 2008 Saturday

More than 100 people gathered April 24 at the Florida Holocaust
Museum in St. Petersburg for a service in memory of the 1-million
to 1.5-million men, women and children who perished between 1915 and
1923 in what is referred to as the Armenian Genocide.

The service, led by the Rev. Hovnan Demerjian of St. Hagop
Armenian Church in Pinellas Park, above, also remembered the more
than 11-million people who died during the Holocaust of World War
II and "all who have perished because of their creed, the family
they were born into and their background." The evening’s program,
which included a curator talk by Mary Johnson and a presentation by
Eileen Barsamian Jennings, a child of Armenian Genocide survivors,
marked the opening event of a new museum exhibit, "The Greatest Crime
of the War: the Armenian Genocide during World War I." Armenians,
a Christian minority in a Muslim community, lived in what is now
eastern Turkey and in the southeastern part of the country that is
today occupied principally by Kurds. Historians say that in 1915,
the Central Committee of the Young Turk Party of the Ottoman Empire
deported thousands of Armenians, sending them to starvation and death
in the Syrian desert. Many were attacked and killed, and young women
were raped and forced into harems or to marry their abductors. The
Florida Holocaust Museum exhibit, at 55 Fifth St. S, opened April 19
and will run through Oct. 19. The exhibition begins with a history
of the Armenian people and follows the political and international
events leading up to the genocide and the genocide itself.

PanARMENIAN.Net

U.S. State Department displeased with Armenia-Iran
cooperation development
03.05.2008 15:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Office of the Coordinator for
Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State has
issued Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.

The Armenia Report says:

`Armenia’s counterterrorism contribution included its
continued commitment to overflight and landing rights
of U.S. military aircraft, additional security support
to U.S. facilities in Armenia during times of
terrorist alert, and the renewed deployment of
peacekeeping forces in Iraq. In addition, Armenia
joined the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear
Terrorism, and expressed interest in joining the
Convention for Suppression of Acts of Nuclear
Terrorism.

In September, a delegation of inspectors from the UN
Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate
visited Armenia to ascertain its progress in complying
with UNSCR 1372, and found that 12 of the 13 legal
counterterrorism instruments had already been
implemented or were soon to be implemented. And in
July, the Armenian government succeeded in adapting
the EU export control list of `dual-use’ commodities
to its own national control list.

The Financial Monitoring Center (FMC), a
U.S.-supported financial intelligence unit within the
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), continued to make
investigative strides against money-laundering. During
the first nine months of the year, the FMC received
twenty-four suspicious transaction reports (STRs),
compared to twenty-three STRs during the same period
in 2006, and six STRs in 2005. Under its current
mandate, the CBA can freeze temporarily financial
assets while referring the STRs to the competent
authorities for further investigation. However, it
must rely on private financial institutions to
self-monitor and lacked an integrated IT system to
store information on financial entities or individuals
of concern. At the end of the year, no cases involving
terrorist financing were uncovered or prosecuted. The
FMC received Egmont Group membership this year.

Armenia improved border security by maintaining an
automated Border Management Information System (BMIS)
that documented and stored the names of travelers at
nearly all official points of entry, and contained
criminal and terrorist watchlists as updated by the
Republic of Armenia Police (RAP) and National Security
Service (NSS). While Armenia has no bilateral
agreement with the United States governing the sharing
of information on travelers, the NSS and RAP shared
information with the U.S. Embassy when they discovered
fraudulent U.S. visas or other documents of interest
to the United States.

Armenia’s warming relations with neighboring Iran
continued, with Armenia hosting official visits by
Iranian President Ahmadinejad (October) and Iranian
Defense Minister Najjar (November). In addition to
fostering closer diplomatic ties, these visits served
to solidify previous bilateral commitments to develop
joint energy and transportation projects. This closer
cooperation has made Armenia more reluctant to
criticize publicly objectionable Iranian conduct or
join other UN member states in advocating for
sanctions on the Iranian regime.

Although Armenia continued to strengthen its
counterterrorism capabilities and enhanced its
counterterrorism cooperation with the United States
and other international security organizations, its
geographic location, porous borders, and loose visa
regime still provided ample opportunities for
traffickers of illicit materials, persons, and
finances. Furthermore, endemic governmental
corruption, a significant organized crime presence,
and a large shadow economy made the country
potentially vulnerable to money laundering and
terrorist financing schemes.’

MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT, OPPOSITION LEADER MAY EASE PUBLIC

Interfax News Agency, Russia
April 30 2008

The leader of the Heritage opposition party, Armenian ex-foreign
minister Raffi Ovannisian sad he is not giving up in trying to arrange
a meeting between the country’s president, Serzh Sargsian, and the
opposition leader, former Armenian president Levon Ter-Petrosian.

"Talks between Armenian President Serzh Sargsian and ex-president
Levon Ter-Petrosian will become one of the ways of resolving the
crisis in Armenia," Ovannisian told a press conference on Wednesday.

"I am ready to continue efforts to organize such a meeting, however
it remains up to them, and they themselves must want to hold such a
meeting," he said.

Earlier Ovannisian tried to organize the meeting between Sargsian and
Ter-Petrosian by sending them letters. The response came only from
the ex-president who said he was ready for a meeting. No answer was
received from Sargsian.

The Armenian opposition rejects the results of the presidential
election held on February 19. Ter-Petrosian’s supporters are going to
bring the case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

ARMENIA TO FOLLOW ENERGY SECURITY IMPROVEMENT POLICY

ARKA
April 30, 2008

YEREVAN, April 30. /ARKA/. Armenian government policy will aim at
increasing energy safety level, says the draft government program
for 2008-2012 submitted for consideration of the country’s National
Assembly.

The document provides for expansion of energy import routes and
power production fields, integration in the regional energy system,
promotion of energy system development with minimal expenses through
introduction of modern equipment, reliability of power supplies and
environmental protection.

Credit funds from foreign governments and international donors will
be directed to change of generation and modernization of production
facilities, says the draft. In this matter, the government will aim
at reduction of the state involvement and application of various
mechanisms to attract private investments.

The document attaches importance to creation of new nuclear power
facilities along with improvement in safety of the second unit
of Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and preparations for its
decommissioning. Importance will be attached also to scientific and
engineering research to reveal alternative energy sources.

The draft government program stresses the importance of expansion of
gas network in the country, keeping up with maintenance safety rules,
as well as to promotion of private investments to ensure energy
savings through introduction of more efficient heating systems.

In terms of reasonable maintenance of natural resources the government
aims at expanding geological prospecting volumes, ensuring protection,
restoration, reproduction and efficient use of natural resources,
including water.

ARMENIA COULD GIVE MUCH TO NATO, TURKISH MP SAYS

armradio.am
29.04.2008 17:29

"Armenia could give much to NATO," representative of the ruling
"Justice and Development" Party, Spokesman of Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Turkish Parliament Suat Kiniklioglu said in an
interview with Mediamax, commenting on the fact that NATO is the
only international format, where the cooperation between Turkey and
Armenia finds expression.

"Turkey attaches great importance to NATO. We are very glad that
Yerevan stands for intensification of relations with NATO. Turkey
would like to see all three countries of the South Caucasus as NATO
members. NATO proved its role in the past, and Armenia’s greater
involvement would be only welcomed. We think that Armenia could give
much to NATO," the Turkish MP noted.

Suat Kiniklioglu expressed confidence that "Armenia’s role in NATO
will strengthen in case of normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations" and noted that "Armenia’s more significant role in NATO
is one of the objectives for which we should work in the direction
of normalization of relations."

"24 APRIL 1915 EVENTS" DEBATED BY ARMENIAN AND TURKISH INTELLECTULAS

BÄA, Turkey
April 28 2008

"What happened on April 24, 1915?". Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas
Institute, debates with Turkish colleagues Keskin, Aydın and
Zarakolu. It’s high time to face the past, intellectuals urge.

Speaking at the panel "What happened on April 24, 1915?", organized
by the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD), Ara Sarafian, a historian at
the Gomidas Institute, who specializes in the late Ottoman period,
told that "April 24 was the political act of the Committee of the
Union and Progress. April 24 opened the way for the liquidation of
the Armenians in Anatolia."

The publisher Ragıp Zarakolu, the lawyer Eren Keskin and the writer
Erdogan Aydın participated in the panel held at İstanbul Bilgi
University yesterday. While more than three hundred people watched
the panel, there were many police officers around the university.

April 24 stands for the few days in 1915, during which 220 Armenian
intellectuals in Istanbul were arrested and today this day is
acknowledged as the "genocide commemoration day" by all the Armenians
around the world.

"The same mentality persists"

Giving the opening speech, the IHD branch president Gulseren Yoleri
stated that the genocide claims were still neither discussed nor
accepted and the same was the case regarding the Kurdish problem.

"They could not live in their own land, nor die in it. They made
enemies out of Kurds, Turks, Armenians, Greeks, the neighbors."

Stating "the mentality of the Committee of the Union and Progress
continues", Keskin added that "If we do not discuss the Committee
of the Union and Progress, the Special Organization (TeÅ~_kilat-i
Mahsusa), Å~^emdinli incident, 6-7 September pogrom of 1955 against
Greeks in Turkey and the latest Ergenekon incident, we will not get
very far."

"We have failed to come to terms" Saying "I think that there is a
generation that represents an enlightened conscience, like the hundreds
of thousands who walked behind Hrant", Aydın likewise added that
"Since we did not come to the terms with what Armenians, Assyrians,
Syrians went through, the Kurdish problem, the May First celebrations,
the Alevi problems persist as individual paranoids."

Zarakolu also stated "April 24 also forms a model for the arrests of
the intellectuals."

"There is a visible and an invisible state: there is the Special
Organization and the Ottoman civil servant who could not adjust to
this new method."

Reading an article Hrant Dink wrote about April 24, Zarakolu added that
"This society can emphatize, provided that nobody overshadows it."

Sarafian: There were 2 million Armenians in 1913

Sarafian talked about the historical documents regarding the genocide
claims.

"According to the 1913 census of the Istanbul patriarchate, there
were 2 million Armenians within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. The
great majority of Armenians lived in the country with Turks and Kurds,
intermingling with Muslims. Most Armenians lived in Istanbul and in
the East. Those Armenians not in the war zone were exiled as well."

"40 thousand Armenians lived in Harput, divided into 50 settlement
regions. Not a single village was left after 1915. Harput plain was
not a war zone. The local Armenians were very passive and they could
do nothing against genocide."

"On April 24, 1915, Armenians from various professions in Istanbul
such as intellectuals, politicians, artists, and teachers were
sent to AyaÅ~_ and Cankırı. In AyaÅ~_, 55 out of 70 people were
slained. About the fate of the 150 Armenians who were sent to
Cankırı, no definite information has been discovered.

–Boundary_(ID_tFDkWtReBxfz/nQvyuZ0dw )–

PRESS RELEASE
Date: April 28, 2008
Armenian National Committee of S. Florida
931 NE 48th Street, Oakland Park, FL 33334
Contact: Albert Mazmanian
Tel: 954-565-0462

SOUTH FLORIDA COMMUNITY MARKS 93rd ANNIVERSARY OF THE
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Miami, FL – The Armenian National Committee of South Florida (ANC
of S. FL) joined with Armenian Americans ` and all Armenians around
the world ` in commemorating the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide of 1915-1923.

The commemoration, held at St. Mary’s Davitian Hall in Hollywood,
was co-sponsored by St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church, St. David
Armenian Church, the Armenian National Committee of South Florida,
the Knights of Vartan Hayasdan Lodge, and the Armenian Assembly of
America.

In addition to the strong community turnout, the program featured
the representatives of Armenian Church leaders, leading community
figures in South Florida, and a broad range of ethnic and human
rights activists.

Among the major steps taken this year by the South Florida Armenian
community was the first screening of the documentary titled, "The
Women of 1915," produced by the Telly award winning Team (The Wall
of The Genocide) Bedo Der-Bedrossian and Baret Maronian of Armenoid
Productions, a division of Ayasa Video Productions Inc. of Coconut
Creek, Florida.

Additionally, ANC of S. FL youth activists setup laptops as members
of the audience web-faxed their respective US Representatives to
end Turkey’s "gag rule" on Armenian Genocide recognition and pass
H.Res.106 & S.Res.106 "We are tremendously proud of the
increasingly active, vocal, and effective Armenian community of
South Florida, and are committed to making our unique contribution
to, once and for all, ending U.S. complicity in Turkey’s shameful
campaign of genocide denial," added ANC of S. Florida Chairman
Albert Mazmanian.

The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman
Empire from 1915-1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly
2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men women, and children were
killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which
succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500 year presence of
Armenians in their historic homelands.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the
concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.
####

Photo Caption #1: ANC of South Florida team
Photo Caption #2: Members from the Armenian community in South
Florida

Azeri envoy summoned to foreign ministry, Borujerdi

Tehran, Apr 27, IRNA

Iran-Azerbaijan-Summon

Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin
Borujerdi said on Sunday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has
summoned the Azeri ambassador to Tehran to give explanation on the
confiscation of Iran’s cargo.

Borujerdi told IRNA that the Islamic Republic of Iran has expressed its
protest over the seizure of a nuclear cargo dispatched from Russia to
Iran.

He also noted that Russia is responsible for shipment of all the parts
Russia dispatched for completing Bushehr nuclear power plant, and that
Moscow should follow up the reason for the Azeri action.

Russians are negotiating with Azeri officials to address
misunderstandings over the cargo, he added.

Iran underlines the necessity of observing the principle of good
neighborly relations between Iran and the Azeri Republic as well as
refraining from such acts in the future, he added.