Author: Virabian Jhanna

THERE WILL BE SOME DECLINE IN ECONOMIC GROWTH OF ARMENIA THIS YEAR, NERSES YERITSIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan

F eb 23, 2009

TSAKHKADZOR, FEBRUARY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. There will be some decline
in Armenia’s economic growth this year which will have its impact on
the employment and revenues, the Armenian minister of economy Nerses
Yeritsian said at "Kamurj 2009" international economic forum held in
Tsakhkadzor on February 21-23. At the same time he expressed a hope
that as a result of the envisaged reforms, Armenia will be able to get
out of the crisis and become a country with a higher-quality economy,
capable of attracting investments most easily. The minister considered
the investment factor as the major guarantee of development.

SPOKESMAN FOR FOREIGN MINISTRY: "CO-CHAIRS’ STATEMENT ON SOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT WITH LACK OF MILITARY WAY SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO ARMENIA"

APA
Feb 20 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Lachin Sultanova-APA. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry commented
on the statement of OSCE MG CO-Chairs made on February 19, APA reports.

Spokesman for Foreign Ministry Khazar Ibrahim noted that Co-Chairs
focused on two main issues."The Co-Chairs stated that they would not
conduct legal discussions basing on Azerbaijani documents in the UN in
December, 2008 and noted that the conflict had not military solution. I
should note that Azerbaijan made such statements basing on norms and
principles of international law and it will be so henceforth. All
international documents including UN Charter envisage legal norms and
principles, which are guided by Azerbaijan. Moscow Declaration signed
by three Presidents on November 2 envisages possibility of solution to
the conflict within the framework of international norms and principles
and documents and decisions adopted within them. Therefore such kind
of steps taken by Azerbaijan is inevitable. Azerbaijani President has
stated several times that official Baku supports peaceful solution
to the conflict and peaceful settlement of the conflict should
be grounded on international norms and principles. As regards non
existence of military way of the conflict, Armenia tried to solve the
problem via military ways and tries at present. Azerbaijani lands have
been occupied by Armenian armed forces. The co-chairs’ such kind of
statements should be directed to Armenia and Armenia should be demanded
to solve the conflict basing on international legal norms and withdraw
its troops from the occupied lands unambiguously," he said.

Ibrahim underlined that Azerbaijan spread analogical documents in
the UN in various forms before.

"It does not mean that we should not raise the issue again. There are
various documents within the framework of the UN that both UN Security
Council and General Assembly have approved them. These statements
being as documents of both Security Council and General Assembly have
been spread as 13th and 18th points of current session," he said.

BAKU TELLS YEREVAN TO STOP MAKING PROVOCATIVE STATEMENTS

Trend News Agency
Feb 20 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku asked Yerevan to stop making statements which prevent resolving
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Earlier Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview
that he wants to create a "Great Armenia." Sargsyan stressed that
Nagorno-Karabakh will never be returned to Azerbaijan.

"The OSCE Minsk Group must explain to Armenia that if finding a
peaceful resolution to the conflict is the only way, then Armenia
must accept its position and stop making such statements," Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim told journalists on Feb. 20.

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.

"Armenia made such statements before. We believe such statements
hinder finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict," Ibrahim added.

ACADEMICS ANGERED BY FILM’S SCREENING

Hurriyet
lish/domestic/11033646.asp?gid=244
Feb 19 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – Academics and Armenian citizens are angered after it
was revealed that the Ministry of Education sent a controversial
documentary about the Armenian question to all elementary schools
in Turkey.

A written statement sent by the Ministry of Education to all elementary
schools at the end of January, said "Sarı Gelin — The True Face of
the Armenian Question," a documentary filmed by the General Staff,
was sent to all schools by the Ministry of Education on Jun. 25, 2008.

The documentary was criticized by academics for reflecting the
official ideology of the Turkish Republic about the incidents of 1915
and undermining the claims of an alleged Armenian "genocide". The
documentary mentioned the 1915 incidents. It is mostly criticized as
unscientific and weak in its claims because it exaggerated the deaths
of Turks while undermining Armenian deaths in an attempt to dismiss
Armenians claims of "genocide".

"The students were forced to watch that documentary, which indeed
had no scientific background. That would only increase hatred and
discrimination against the Armenians," the History Foundation of
Turkey said in a written statement on Tuesday.

Also, 500 Armenians and intellectuals have sent an open letter to
the prime minister protesting this incident, daily Radikal reported
yesterday. The letter asked the prime minister to exempt at least
Armenian schools and Armenian students who attended the same classes
with Turkish students from watching the documentary in order to
"prevent them feeling guilty, ashamed and excluded from the others."

The statement sent by the ministry requested that school directors
show the film to all students and send a "conclusive report" back to
the related administration by Feb 29, 2009.

Totalitarian state

For academics, involving children in a conflicting situation is
wrong, according to Ali Bayramoglu, a columnist at daily YeniÅ~_afak
"This is to make the official ideology and the public opinion exactly
the same. This is similar to the practices of a totalitarian state,"
said Bayramoglu, adding that it is undemocratic that Armenian schools
and Armenian students attending the same classes with Turks were told
to watch the documentary. "Imagine if Turks living in Bulgaria were
forced to watch a documentary saying that ‘Turks have been the cruel
toward Bulgarians in history.’ Would you accept that?" Bayramoglu
said to the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

Mensur Akgun, an academic from Istanbul Kultur University, said
although he did not watch the documentary, he guessed it was a type of
propaganda. "In a period when relations between Armenia and Turkey are
improving, it is wrong to distribute propaganda materials, especially
to children," said Akgun.

GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON A TWO-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT ON FEBRUARY 20

Noyan Tapan
Feb 19, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. A delegation led by Georgian Foreign
Minister Grigol Vashadze will arrive in Armenia on a two-day official
visit on February 20.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA Foreign Ministry Press and
Information Department, G. Vashadze’s meetings with RA President Serzh
Sargsyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian, and Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian are scheduled during the visit.

On February 21, the delegation led by the Georgian Foreign Minister
will visit the Memorial Complex of Armenian Genocide.

WHY WE MUST RECLAIM ANTIRACISM FROM THE FAR LEFT
David Toube

guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 18 February 2009 17.30 GMT

Unite Against Fascism is the UK’s leading campaign against the far
right, yet its record on opposing antisemitism is dismal

On January 27, Rowan Laxton, a senior British diplomat who is the
deputy head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s South Asia group,
was watching the news from Gaza, while exercising in his gym. In the
words of the Daily Mail, the diplomat is reported to have "launched a
foul-mouthed antisemitic tirade" during the course of which he cursed
the "fucking Jews". Laxton is reported to have refused to quieten
down when approached by fellow gym users. He was ultimately arrested
by the police for a public order offence.

The day that Rowan Laxton was arrested was Holocaust Memorial Day. This
country’s largest anti-racist organisation, Unite Against Fascism
commemorated that event by encouraging people to light candles. It
had nothing to say, in the following weeks, about the "fucking Jews"
allegation against Laxton. Neither was the story reported in the
Guardian, on the BBC website, or the Independent; although the
centre-right Telegraph and Times had it.

I have to admit, I was initially slightly surprised to see how little
concern on the antiracist left the spectacle of a senior British
diplomat, arrested for a "fucking Jews" rant, had engendered. While
it is important to note that Laxton denies making any antisemitic
remark, it isn’t as if antiracist organisations normally shy away from
responding to complaints about public servants. For example, on the day
following the publication of the story, Unite Against Fascism managed
to organise a rally against a teacher who was a British National
party member. But then, I shouldn’t have been surprised. The last
couple of months has seen the worst year on record for antisemitic
incidents in the United Kingdom. Yet Unite Against Fascism has had
nothing to say about that, either.

The problem, I think, is this. Although opposition to racism is now
an article of faith for all mainstream political parties, the left has
been the driving force in those organisations that set the antiracist
agenda. There is a part of the left that is very comfortable condemning
historical racism against Jews, at the hands of Nazis, back in the
1940s. It is, however, ambivalent when it comes to contemporary
antisemitism: particularly when it can be "contextualised" within
the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Frankly, the part of the left that runs Unite Against Fascism is not
up to fighting contemporary antisemitism. Its joint secretaryship is
shared by a member of the central committee of the Socialist Workers
party, and by a member of the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR),
which is strongly supported by Socialist Action. Both these political
groups have a history of overlooking antisemitism.

For years, the Socialist Workers party promoted and toured the
self-described "ex-Jew" Gilad Atzmon. When SWP supporter and Childrens’
Laureate Michael Rosen criticised the party for giving a platform to
a performer who, he argued, voiced racist and antisemitic ideas, he
was slapped down by central committee member Lindsey German and others.

Socialist Action activists led the charge, with Ken Livingstone,
to defend the Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, after the
human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell had outed him as an inciter
of terrorism, antisemitism and homophobia.

In January 2009, Qaradawi gave a sermon televised by Al-Jazeera
in which, as the Times reported, he expressed the hope that the
"believers" would one day inflict upon the Jews a "divine punishment",
akin to Hitler’s Holocaust.

According to the Muslim Council of Britain, Qaradawi is a "renowned
Islamic scholar" who "enjoys unparalleled respect and influence
throughout the Muslim world". Although the chairman of a House of
Commons select committee has protested about Qaradawi’s remarks,
I am not aware of any UK antiracist organisation having condemned
them. Indeed, I have found no occasion on which Unite Against Fascism
has spoken out against the genocidal antisemitism that is prevalent
in Islamist political rhetoric. Apparently, they just don’t see it
as a problem.

The bottom line is this. Neither Socialist Action nor the Socialist
Workers party will oppose racism against Jews, and other forms of
bigotry, if they find it politically inconvenient to do so. Indeed,
in 2006 and 2008, the Unite Against Fascism national conference
featured Dr Daud Abdullah, the assistant secretary general Muslim
Council of Britain. Yet Abdullah was the prime mover behind the MCB’s
disgraceful boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day.

You might remember that the MCB’s original justification for the
boycott was that Holocaust Memorial Day "includes the controversial
question of alleged Armenian genocide as well as the so-called gay
genocide". This year, the MCB was back to boycotting Holocaust Memorial
Day. Nevertheless, this did not disqualify its secretary general,
Muhammad Abdul Bari, from being invited as a guest of honour to Unite
Against Fascism’s national conference in 2009.

Unite Against Fascism’s weakness on antisemitism is both shocking
and shameful. This is not, unfortunately, a story about goings-on in
two marginal far left cults. Unite Against Fascism is the leading
campaign against racism in the United Kingdom. It is supported by
parliamentarians from all the major political parties, and by every
significant trade union.

It is Unite Against Fascism that sets the tone of the debate when it
comes to opposing racism. They call the demonstrations and organise
the conferences. It is to Unite Against Fascism that the national
press turns, when racism rears its head.

Yet, the best that Unite Against Fascism can do, in these dark times,
is to mumble about how awful the Holocaust was. What this means is
that there is no broad-based campaign in this country to defend Jews
from contemporary antisemitism.

This state of affairs is, quite frankly, terrifying. As others are
warning here, there is every reason to believe that the defining themes
of the present economic downturn will be xenophobic, anti-immigrant and
racist politics. As conspiracy theories depicting Jews as controllers
of the financial markets proliferate, antisemitism will undoubtedly
also be part of that mix. Support for fascist parties tends to grow
during crises, and we need a strong defence against that politics,
with solidarity between and support from all parts of British
society. However, with its sectarianism, silence on antisemitism and
blindness to Islamist Jew-hatred, Unite Against Fascism just isn’t
up to the job.

We badly need a new campaign against racism and fascism, run properly
by those at the political centre. The first step towards remedying
this situation, is for the political mainstream to reclaim antiracist
politics from the extreme left.

But does anyone have stomach for the fight?

GAGIK JHANGIRYAN TO GIVE EVIDENCE

A1+
[02:03 pm] 18 February, 2009

Soon it will be a year since Armenia’s ex deputy Prosecutor General
Gagik Jhangiryan has been deprived of liberty. Jhangiryan has born
no evidence up to present day.

On February 18 the ex deputy Prosecutor General will detail the
events of February 23, 2008, during his arrest on Argavand crossing,
says Advocate Erwand Varosyan.

Gagik Jhangiryan has announced many times that on February 23 the law
enforcers had been given a clear order – "to annihilate" Jhangiryan
on the scene of action, on Argavand crossing.

Remind that on February 22, 2008, on the eve of his detention, Gagik
Jhangiryan announced at Liberty Square that he possessed confidential
information about the October 27 parliamentary carnage.

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork Marash districts
is due to hold a hearing of the charges against ex deputy prosecutor
general at 2, February 18.

Remind that Gagik Jhangiryan is charged with violence against a
government representative.

Details will be given later in the day.

THE SEARCH FOR SARAH’S SOUL

Jordan Times
Feb 16 2009
Jordan

In an intimate first person narrative, Iman Humaydan gives voice to a
young girl coming of age amidst the thwarted dreams of her fragmented
family. In telling Sarah’s story, the author reveals the impact of
patriarchy and colonialism on everyday lives in the period between
the two world wars.

The setting is ‘Ain Tahoon in the Druze Mountains above Beirut,
a village untouched by snow or the sea, where time seems to stand
still. Sarah is searching for herself and for her mother who left home
before the girl was three years old, but she keeps running into walls –
emotional walls, as well as gender, sectarian and class barriers that
separate people from each other and from their own happiness.

There are many secrets but little warmth at home, and no one will
answer her questions about her mother. Her father claims she vanished
into thin air, while her paternal aunt mutters proverbs to the effect
that her mother couldn’t live with them because she was too different;
she calls Sarah "the cursed girl" – the constant reminder of her
Christian mother’s desertion. Ironically, Sarah’s only confident is
her half-brother, whose mother left the household when her husband
married Sarah’s mother.

Sarah’s father is the shaykh of ‘Ayn Tahoon, proprietor of vast lands
and the silk industry that sustains the village and a host of seasonal
workers, but as time goes on, Sarah sees that his outward strength
and arrogance hardly hide the hollowing out of his authority. "Behind
these images lies a weak man who conceals in his heart a reservoir
of misery and the absence of love." (p. 77)

Rumours surrounding his wife’s desertion have tarnished the family’s
reputation, while he remains impervious to the decline of the silk
industry that spells not only his own devastation but that of the
whole village.

What the shaykh is still good at is manipulating his immediate kin,
but he does so to his own detriment, alienating his son by trying to
totally control his life, and keeping his sister a spinster despite
annual promises that she may marry. As Sarah starts to realise,
"The shaykh puts my aunt’s life on hold year after year just as he
puts my brother’s life on hold. It is as though time for the shaykh
includes no life but his own." (p. 19) But she also realises that
her aunt is perhaps less afraid of the shaykh than of her own voice,
and that she, Sarah, must not be so fearful.

In contrast to the narrow walls of the house she shares with her
father and aunt, the larger estate is brimming with diversity. There
is the family’s Kurdish house cleaner, Maryam; the seamstress Shakeh
from one of the Armenian families relocated to the village after
the World War I; the wives of the seasonal workers; and Muti’a, a
Circassian woman who came to Lebanon from Aleppo with her husband,
after having escaped from an early, forced marriage.

>From the talk of these women as they gather after the day’s work, Sarah
learns different ways of coping with life and its problems. Especially
from talking with Muti’a, she begins to understand that women can take
pride and pleasure in their bodies, and take their fate in their own
hands. When Sarah asks why her mother left, Muti’a says, "She went
to search for her soul… We cannot live without our soul… If your
mother had remained here, she would have suffocated." (p. 23)

As Sarah falls in love and goes to study in Beirut; she continues
to search for her mother, but the clues she finds only raise new
questions about her identity. Gradually she is confronted with
the fact that her quest may be a dead end, perhaps also leading to
suffocation. Life is passing her by, and she must carve out her own
identity, an impulse that has been within her all along, from her
childhood dreams of flying.

Humaydan’s prose is understated and subtle, but highly sensitive in
recording the small details that make up the whole of life. Her imagery
is sensual and evocative, whether describing the natural beauty of the
Lebanese mountains, the intricacies of silkworm raising or people’s
innermost feelings. Her prose aptly reflects Sarah’s self-discovery
process, beginning with her first tentative observations, circling
around matters obliquely, and then suddenly arriving at profound
insights. Though the ostensible focus of "Wild Mulberries" is on
the personal level, the novel also stands as a social document of a
certain time and a certain place.

TURKEY, UKRAINE TO COME TO LOGGERHEADS OVER CRIMEA IN SOME TEN YEARS

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.02.2009 13:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey and Ukraine to come to loggerheads over
Crimea in some ten years, a Russian intelligence veteran said.

"Turkey is determined to gain the Crimea back. It’s not a secret for
Russia, Europe and Ukraine itself. The only question is when," Igor
Berkut said. "By 2017 Muslims will make two thirds of the Crimean
population. The semi-island risks becoming a second Chechnya."

As long as Turkey exists, it will never accept that the Crimea,
a part of the Ottoman Empire, belongs to Ukraine, according to him.

SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ARMENIA-EU ACTION PLAN AS GUARANTEE OF NEW LEVEL OF COOPERATION

Trend News Agency
Feb 12 2009
Azerbaijan

Secretary of the National Security Council of Armenia, President of the
Interdepartmental Commission coordinating Armenia’s cooperation with
European structures Arthur Baghdasaryn presented to the Ambassadors
of EU member states the Armenia-European Union Action Plan comprised
of 195 priorities, Public Radio of Armenia reported.

According to Arthur Baghdasaryan, the Action Plan envisages six groups
of actions. The political actions include the development of Armenia-EU
political dialogue, promotion of the cooperation within international
organizations. It is expected to elaborate and implement a program of
information strategy on European integrations. Concrete steps will
be taken in the direction of simplifying the visa regimes between
Armenia and EU countries. This part of the program also envisages
the continuousness of the cooperation to resist the common security
challenges.

The group of legal actions envisages reforms in the judicial-legal
system, improvement of mechanisms of cooperation between the judicial
and law-enforcement systems of Armenia and EU member states, fighting
corruption.

As regards infrastructures, it is expected to establish an EU
Information Center in Armenia, promote the development of the
information society, elaborate and implement the national strategy
of the transport security system. The actions in this section include
involvement in TRACECA and other international and regional programs,
deepening of cooperation, implementation of actions in the direction of
ensuring energy security, development of regional energy cooperation,
deepening of Armenia-EU cooperation in the fields of energy and nuclear
security. Reforms in the field of agriculture are also expected.

Actions in the humanitarian sphere include deepening of cultural,
educational, technical and scientific ties, implementation of reforms
in the fields of education and science.

The framework of actions in the fields of environmental protection
and healthcare is very broad. It envisages poverty reduction, reforms
in ensuring health and secure working conditions, as well as the
continuation of pension reforms.

The actions in the financial-economic field includes the deepening
of Armenia-EU economic relations, perfection of the mechanisms of
further improvement of investment field, reforms in the tax, customs
and other spheres.

Accoridng to the Head of the European Commission delegation to Armenia
Raul de Luzenberger, the program is rather ambitious. "It’s extremely
important to understand that our cooperation in all the above-mentioned
directions has already started. The Armenian Government will work out
detailed, concrete actions and a schedule of their implementation. When
it is ready, we plan to meet with the Armenian Government," he said.

According to Arthur Baghdasaryanm the program received a positive
assessment. The Ambassadors expressed their willingness to support
the implementation of reforms. He noted that the European Union has
suggested cooperation to a number of countries including Armenia in
the framework of the Eastern Partnership Program. The summit of the
Presidents of the countries invited to participate in the Eastern
Partnership Program is expected in May. "Armenia has been repeatedly
declaring that it is doing everything to deepen the political and
economic cooperation with the European Union," Arthur Baghdasaryan
said. According to him, the successful implementation of the Action
Plan will provide an opportunity to raise the relations with the
European Union to a completely new level.