Author: Vasilian Manouk

ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES CONDUCT TALKS ON COOPERATION WITH OPPOSITION – SARKISYAN

ITAR-TASS
March 3 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, March 3 (Itar-Tass) — Armenian authorities are conducting
negotiations on cooperation with opposition members, President-Elect
and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said on Monday.

During his meeting with EU special envoy for the South Caucasus
Peter Semneby, Sarkisyan confirmed the government’s commitment to
cooperation with all political forces which he had first expressed
shortly after his election on February 19, the government press
service told Itar-Tass.

"We are ready to cooperate with all those who wants Armenia to develop,
its citizens to prosper, the country to be stable and strong, and we
are ready for an open, straightforward and honest discussion," he said.

He also confirmed his determination and said that those who incited
recent riots in Yerevan had committed a crime and should be punished.

Semneby stressed that all parties should show responsibility and
take all measures to resolve the situation in order not to deepen the
divisions in society but start a political dialogue and ease tensions.

He said the EU would like South Caucasus countries to become close
to the European Union and would do its best toward that goal.

Incumbent Armenian President Robert Kocharyan assured Semnebi that
Armenian authorities were seeking to normalise the situation as soon
as possible and restore stability.

In his words, Sunday’s events had nothing to do with politics and
were a crime that needs to be thoroughly investigated and punished.

The EU envoy said the investigation must be objective and
comprehensive. He expressed hope that all measures would be taken to
ease tensions in the country.

The European Union is ready to make contribution to Armenia to settling
the political crisis in the country, the Common Foreign and Security
Policy’s press service said.

On Sunday evening, CFSP High Representative Javier Solana had telephone
conversations with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan.

Solana expressed concern over the introduction of the state of
emergency in Armenia.

"I call on all countries to show restraint in order to normalise life
in Armenia. It is necessary to resume the political dialogue with
the opposition because this is the unique means to move forward,"
Solana said.

Kocharyan on Saturday introduced a state of emergency in the country’
s capital of Yerevan for 20 days.

This was done "in order to avert direct danger threatening
constitutional order in the Republic of Armenia" pursuant to the
relevant article of the Constitution and after consultations with
the parliament speaker, the head of state said in his address to
the nation.

No meetings, rallies, marches or other public events may be held
during the state of emergency. Strikes and the termination of the
work of institutions are banned. Law enforcement agencies will be
allowed to limit the freedom of movement and, if need be, search
people and vehicles.

Mass media may publish materials on state and internal political
issues only within the framework of official information.

The president urged "everyone to show restraint and common sense".

"In this situation as never before we must consolidate and strictly
comply with law," Kocharyan said.

He said, "The state of emergency will be lifted after the circumstances
that caused its introduction have been eliminated."

During the clashes in Yerevan, eight people were killed and 131 people
(72 servicemen and policemen, and 59 civilians) requested medical
attention. Thirty-six vehicles, including 13 police cars and three
police buses, 13 private cars, three trolley-buses and four buses
were burnt.

Armenian National Committee – South Bay
Shant Baboujian, Chair
Lomita, CA 90717
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
March 4, 2008
Contact: Shant Baboujian
Email: [email protected]

ANC Town Hall Meeting Held in South Bay, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA – On Thursday, February 28, 2008, the Armenian
National Committee of South Bay (ANC SB) hosted a community issues
briefing at the South Bay Armenian Center in Lomita, CA. Nearly 30
members of the South Bay Armenian Community attended the meeting which
focused on several current developments within the ANC including a
local, state and federal issues briefing, House Resolution 106, U.S.
foreign aid to Armenia, ongoing outreach to the state legislature and
the upcoming advocacy week in Washington, D.C. from March 12-14.

Speakers, Haig Hovsepian, ANC-WR Community Relations Director, and
Shant Baboujian, ANC South Bay Chairman, emphasized the importance of
active involvement of members of the Armenian community with respect
to increasing their involvement in public service as well as voting in
the upcoming presidential elections. Rolling Hills Estates Mayor,
Frank Zerunyan, who was present at the meeting, also stressed the
significance of Armenian American community engagement.

"This was a great opportunity to keep our South Bay Armenian community
informed of the latest developments on issues of concern to them,"
said Hovsepian. "More importantly, we had the chance to see activists
connecting with one another, raising issues and concerns, and
motivating one another to increase our presence in the public sphere
and serving the community at large."

Also present at the town hall meeting were former ANC-WR intern Taleen
Mardirossian and local community activist Ms. Azniv Goenjian who
traveled to Washington, D.C. in October 2007 to advocate Armenian
American issues with the ANC.

ANC-WR will continue its outreach program throughout the western
United States to keep Armenian Americans informed regarding current
programs and developments.

ANC of South Bay Los Angeles advocates for the social, economic,
cultural, and political rights of the area’s Armenian American
community and promotes increased Armenian American civic participation
at the grassroots and public policy levels.

###

Photo caption: Members of ANC South Bay gather at Town Hall Meeting on
February 28, 2008.

EU’S SOLANA URGES RESTRAINT, TALKS IN ARMENIA

Agence France Presse
March 2, 2008 Sunday

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke with the president of
Armenia, Robert Kocharian, on Sunday and urged him to resolve the
post-election crisis there as soon as possible, his office said.

"I call upon all parties to exercise restraint so as to facilitate
a quick return to normality," Solana said, according to a statement.

"Dialogue with the opposition should be resumed as it is the only
way forward."

Authorities imposed a state of emergency in the capital Yerevan
late on Saturday following violent clashes between riot police and
protesters demonstrating against the result of a presidential election.

Solana has also asked his special envoy for the south Caucasus,
Peter Semneby, to go to Yerevan on his behalf, the statement said.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ASKS PEOPLE TO DISPLAY RESTRAINT AND RESPECT FOR LAW

YEREVAN, MARCH 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The situation in Yerevan is becoming
dangerous so the Armenian president as the guarantor of the
Constitution must make the respective decisions. This statement was
made at the conference called at midnight by the president of the RA
Robert Kocharian, who has declared a state of emergency in Yerevan.

According to him, unauthorized rallies had been held for 9 consecutive
days in Yerevan, and the contents and manner of these rallies
finally resulted in clashes with the police. "They did not obey a
lawful demand of the police – the demand to make a search as there
was serious information about arms and ammunition". Both sides had
injured persons during the clash. "The tolerance of the police during
the election campaign was probably misinterpreted by some candidates,
more precisely, by a candidate and his team and in fact the political
process related to the election is no longer a political process,"
the Armenian president said.

He underlined that the public order is being disturbed, demonstrators
exceeded all limits and today shots are fired at the police. "These
are those arms and grenades we spoke about and demonstrated on
television. We constantly made an accentuation on them in recent
weeks". According to the president, 8 policemen were injured during the
clash, the colonel of the regiment was wounded quite seriously. Damage
was done to state and private property. "You probably know what the
demostrators are doing: they are stealing cars and looting shops. All
of us know the names of the organizers who will be held accountable
by law," the president said, informing those present that he signed a
decree on emergency state, and the decree was signed when he learned
about those 8 injured.

The decree is aimed at protecting the constitutional order in Armenia
and ensuring the security of the population. "I appeal to the Armenian
people with the request to display restraint now, to perceive with
understanding the steps, which the authorities have to take, and to
respect the law. I also ask to assist the authorities with establishing
the order. This proceeds from our interests, interests of the Republic
of Armenia and each citizen," the president stated.

In response to the reporters’ questions, R. Kocharian said that to
impose a curfew in a city with a population of one million may cause
inconvenience to citizens, and for this reason it was decided to limit
the state of emergency to the provisions stated in the decree. "We
have tried to cause the minimal inconvenience to citizens not connected
to those who organize and are involved in disorders".

In the words of R. Kocharian, "in the current situation when weapons
are being used against the police troops not armed with guns,
we have to use the army for establishing order. We are obliged to
ensure security of our citizens. I am sure that we are able to do
so". According to him, it was a situation when unarmed demonstrators
stand behind those who shoot – they appear from behind a car, fire
at soldiers and then hide behind a car and to fire at them would also
mean to have victims among unarmed persons. "The impression was that
they provoked fire to have more victims. We had information about arms
and ammunition and the statement the police made this morning was a
substantiated one. Seeing that the so-called national wave is fading
away without giving any results, Ter-Petrosian and his team decided
to instigate some actions (we did not know exactly what actions), but
what is going on today in Yerevan shows that such things were to take
place. Maybe this would have happened in Opera Square but the police
intervention has moved this process a bit away from the city center".

According to the president, maybe the disappointment was caused by
the fact that almost all the candidates had responded to the prime
minister’s call for coalition cooperation and a serious political
process had began to form a coalition government in a broader format
that would be considered as a government of national accord. It
is quite possible that this fact caused anxiety to the team of
Ter-Petrosian and the anxiety resulted in such actions.

R. Kocharian said that among demonstrators were people who would
come to listen to their candidate for the ideological reasons, while
others, a lot of them, would come to rallies for other purposes: they
were aggressive, ready for everything, without any ideological basis,
easy to control in a bad sense – in terms of manipulation so it was
possible to instigate them and commit various provocations. "This is
what we have in Armenia, about which all of you wrote, all papers,
everybody in all analyses and television meetings said that to display
such intolerance and conduct such propaganda long is dangerous for the
country’s stability, first of all, for people". There was an election
campaign, and we had a desire to provide equal opportunities to
everybody by law and various candidates used it for various purposes".

"In the current situation, the problem cannot be solved by talks,
in fact, some act against the authorities not by rallies but by
arms, shooting, we cannot become a country of mauserists so drastic
measures must be taken," the president stated, adding "although we had
information about it, but it seemed to us till the last moment that
this limit would not be exceeded, I say again that the impression was
that this coalition process caused anxiety to them and they made an
attempt to be more active. And those grenades, those arms found at
Opera Square this morning were only small part of their arms, these
arms were left by those arrested on the spot but the arms worked in
another place".

DASHNAKTSUTYUN WAITING FOR A RESPONSE FROM THE RULING COALITION

armradio.am
29.02.2008 17:03

ARF Dashnaktsutyun is expecting a response from the ruling coalition
to its proposal on withdrawing from the agreement signed following the
results of the parliamentary elections of May 12 of 2007, the Head
of the parliamentary faction of ARF Dashnaktsutyun Hrayr Karapetyan
stated in Yerevan today. The further presence of the party in the
government depends on the stance of the Republican Party of Armenia
and the Prosperous Armenia Party, which form the ruling coalition.

Commenting on the situation in the country after the presidential
elections of February 19, Hrayr Karapetyan spoke for ruling out
application of force both by the authorities and the opposition. He
noted the necessity "of holding talks between the authorities and the
opposition on issues of improving the electoral system, real provision
of freedom of speech and handing over a number of authority functions
to the opposition."

According to Karapetyan, implementation of such structural reforms
will help to lead the country out of the present situation.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN PANDERS TO TURKEY
By Appo Jabarian, Executive Publisher/Managing Editor USA ARMENIAN LIFE Magazine

AZG Armenian Daily
01/03/2008

At the Cost of Political Bankruptcy

August 29, 2007, Armenia’s Heritage Party leader Raffi K. Hovannisian
sent a letter of congratulations to the then newly elected Turkish
president Abdullah Gul.

He wrote: "The deep divides between our countries, be they of
contemporary character or part of the legacy of the Great Armenian
Dispossession, must be overcome and resolved in truth, with integrity,
and through the partnership of the two new leaders and their fellow
citizens of good faith and conscience."

Soon after the content of the letter was revealed, the highly
insulting term "Great Armenian Dispossession" used in lieu of the
words "The Armenian Genocide" sent political shockwaves in Armenia
and the Diaspora.

Heritage Party officials hoped the issue would disappear with the
flow of time. But the exact opposite happened.

On February 13, Armen Tsaturyan of "Hayots Ashkhar" (The Armenian
World) wrote a scathing commentary against Hovannisian. He stated:
"If we set aside all the political major and minor likability and
non-likability issues and are guided by cool logic, we can not define
Raffi Hovannisian’s action except with one word: ‘Treason.’"

Tsaturyan reported that Hovannisian pandered to Turkey as follows: "It
is to be hoped that, during your tenure and that of the next Armenian
president to be elected in several months’ time, Turkish-Armenian
relations will enter a wholly new phase of reflection, exploration,
discovery, and ultimate normalization."

"It turns out that the son of historian Richard Hovannisian, a notable
heir to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, needs further ‘studies’
on the issue of the Armenian Genocide. With his outlandish proposal to
co-initiate ‘studies,’ he is furthering the Turkish obvious goal to
establish a joint commission of historians. And that is the shortest
route to subjecting the facts of the Armenian genocide to suspicion,"
concluded Tsaturyan.

On February 16, according to Noyan Tapan news agency, in an open
letter to the Heritage Party, the chairman of the Armenian community
of Slovakia Ashot Grigorian blasted Hovannisian: "No doubt, Raffi
Hovannisian should have been well aware of the political value of the
term ‘genocide,’ whose importance is hard to overestimate today. Turkey
is ready to pay dearly if the Armenians agree to replace the term
‘genocide’ with any other word. … In his letter, Hovannisian replaced
voluntarily the term ‘genocide’ with another term more acceptable to
Turks, thus ruining the work we have done for years and decades. This
calls into question today the result of the huge and hard work on
passing the resolution on the genocide in the National Assembly of
Slovakia. The resolutions passed by the parliaments of about twenty
countries have also been deprived of meaning."

An Armenian activist underlined: "As the saying goes, one should not
change horses in mid-stream, Armenians have invested decades of effort
to get the words Armenian Genocide recognized. There is no reason
to abandon that and start using another word. In fact, the smart
thing to do would have been to use all sorts of words like ‘forced
deportation’, ‘mass killings’, ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘dispossession’,
but use these words in addition to ‘genocide’, NOT in its place.

Also, why is Raffi congratulating Gul? He is neither the President
nor the Foreign Minister of Armenia!"

One wonders, what’s going on in the Hovannisian households in Los
Angeles and Yerevan?

In early 2006, the grandfather Prof. Richard Hovannisian of UCLA,
reportedly told RFE/RL that "in some respects Armenia is now an
even less democratic state than Turkey, its historical foe regularly
castigated by the West for its poor human and civil rights record."

On July 30, 2007, on the eve of the passage by U.S. House Foreign
Relations Committee of the Armenian Genocide resolution 106,
Raffi’s son and the elder Hovannisian’s grandson Garin wrote in
the Washington Times: "… Bad congressional resolutions might well
begin to sound like good Philip Larkin: ‘Sexual intercourse began
/In nineteen sixty-three. …/ Between the end of the Chatterley ban
/And the Beatles’ first LP.’" This was not the first time that the
second junior Hovannisian has ridiculed and poked fun at his martyred
Armenian ancestor’s Cause.

And now, his father, Raffi, all too willingly attempts to jeopardize
the Armenian Cause in return of personal political gains.

In 1992, the Raffi Hovannisian the Armenians knew and respected was
the steadfast Foreign Minister of Armenia who clearly uttered the
words Armenian Genocide in Turkey. He was fired by the then president
of Armenia, Mr. Levon Ter Petrossyan ironically for having been
honest. Then, Raffi remained in Armenia and pursued the objective to
become the next president of Armenia. His efforts were blocked. When
that didn’t materialize, his father, Prof. Hovannisian slapped
Armenia in the face by preferring Turkey as a "better Democracy"
than Armenia. What a change for the worse!

Then Raffi’s son Garin "punished" Armenia. So if Turkey is a better
democracy than Armenia, how come he is not relocating to what is now
called Turkey and pursue his political ambitions there by presenting
his candidacy for the presidency of Turkey?

By having pandered to Turkey, Hovannisian overdrew on what was left
of his political capital in Armenia-Artsakh and around the world. He
effectively antagonized literally millions of Armenians. Every year
millions of survivors and their descendants flock to the Armenian
Genocide monuments in Yerevan and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands
mobilize in marches condemning Turkey’s continued denial of the
Genocide and the wholesale forced occupation of the Armenian lands.

Hovannisian has de facto attempted to torpedo the justice pursued by
the clear majority of Armenians.

But in fact he torpedoed his own political career.

The overwhelming majority of Armenians in the homeland and the
Diaspora would prefer to see their beloved republics of Armenia and
Artsakh transform their soviet-era corrupt bureaucracies into healthy,
fully functioning government bodies. But that desire, along with the
urge to seek personal political gain, does not give the Hovannisians
or anyone else a green light to make erroneous statements, unfairly
belittling, and even worse undermine their fledgling new republics
and provide damaging ammunition to the enemy.

MICHAEL HARUTYUNYAN MET DAVIT KEZERASHVILI

Panorama.am
13:28 29/02/2008

Michael Harutyunyan, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia
and the delegation headed by him met with his Georgian colleague
Davit Kezerashvili, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Georgia.

According to Seyran Shahsuvaryan, the press secretary of the Defense
Ministry, the ministers discussed several questions on regional
security, bilateral cooperation on military and military-technical
aspects, and experience exchange particularly on security reformations.

According to the same source, meeting with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Georgia Davit Bakradze also took place and the sides came
to an agreement that to provide the security of the region Georgia
and Armenia should create stability and peace in their countries.

EDWARD SHARMAZANOV: COALITION GOVERNMENT THE MOST PRODUCTIVE WAY FOR ARMENIA

armradio.am
28.02.2008 16:14

Spokesman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Edward Sharmazanov
stated today that, proposing cooperation to the opposition, president
elect Serge Sargsyan proved that "he puts the future of Armenia above
his own ambitions."

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today, Edward Sharmazanov
stated that "the most productive way for Armenia is the formation of
a coalitional government."

According to him, the leaders of ARF Dashnaktsutyun and the National
Unification Party have declared about their readiness to discuss
issues of cooperation with the Republican Party. Sharmazanov stated
that the coalition with ARF Dashnaktsutyun has already proved its
productiveness.

Edward Sharmazanov added that the topic of formation of a coalitional
government is discussed today in Orinats Yerkir Party as well.

"For us power is not an aim, but a means to solve the problems, which
Armenia faces, and all the constructive forces should get united
towards that end," Edward Sharmazanov stated, noting that "if there
are discords between representatives of various political forces,
they should not be personal, but ideological ones."

HOMAGE TO THE MEMORY OF SUMGAYIT VICTIMS

armradio.am
28.02.2008 17:55

Deputies of the National Assembly, intellectuals, representatives
of the Supreme Body of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and "Nikol Aghbalyan"
Students’ Union visited Tsitsernakaberd today to pay homage to the
memory of the victims of the Armenian massacres in Sumgayit carried
out on February 28, 1988. Participants of the procession laid wreaths
at the memorial to the victims of Sumgayit pogroms.

Member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction Artashes Shahbazyan noted
in his speech that although 20 years have passed, this event has
not received a proper assessment from the international community
and international organizations. "We again face the phenomenon when
dual standards are applied and, unfortunately, these are directed
against us."

Head of the Migration Agency of RA Ministry of Territorial
Administration Gagik Yeganyan reminded that the flow of refugees
to Armenia started from Sumgayit. This was followed by the events
in Kirovabad and Baku, and Armenia hosted 360 thousand displaced
persons. In those years the society and the state did everything to
solve the urgent issues. "The Government managed to solve that big
problem in a short period of time. Today the Government continues to
address the issues of the refugees, implements programs targeted at
providing them with permanent shelters."

Writer and publisher Zori Balayan reminded that every year gathering
at Tsitsernakaberd, people show that nothing has been forgotten,
"since memory is also a weapon for us." "We don’t keep silent, and
won’t keep silent," he said.

The participants read out a declaration, which will be submitted to
the UN Security Council, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, the UN Secretary
General, the European Parliament, the European Union, the OSCE,
The President of Armenia and the Speaker of the National Assembly.

RPA SPOKESPERSON DOES NOT SEE ANY PARALLELS BETWEEN 1988 AND TODAY’S MOVEMENT

Noyan Tapan
Feb 28, 2008

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The aim of Levon Ter-Petrosian and
the political forces supporting him was not to win in the elections,
but the developments of certain post-election processes. This
statement was made by Eduard Sharmazanov, the Spokesperson of the
Republican Party of Armenia, at the press conference held on February
28. According to him, the statements voiced by the team of Levon
Ter-Petrosian before the elections, speak about that, according to
which, "if they do not win, then the elections are falsified."

As a historian, Eduard Sharmazanov does not see any parallels between
the 1988 and today’s movement, as, according to him, there was a
national idea in those years, there was no repulsiveness and the
society was not dissociated.

He expressed hope that both the authorities and the opposition forces
will prefer the interest of the state to their personal interests. And
if it does not happen, according to Eduard Sharmazanov, the state
should be able to also settle the problems of home security. "The
fundamental freedom of a person, as well as the preservation of
the public order are stipulated in our Constitution. Finally,
we should differentiate between freedom and disorder and remember
that undisciplined people should be punished in all the democratic
countries," the Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia said.

Eduard Sharmazanov made a call of tolerance to all the political
forces, quoting the words of Sparapet Vazgen Sargsian: "We are not
obliged to love each other, however, we are obliged to tolerate
each other."