Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

Russia Today, Russia
Nov 2 2008

Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to talks on disputed land

Caucasus adversaries Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed an agreement
to try to resolve their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. At talks in
Moscow on Sunday both sides agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the
row over the breakaway region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arranged the talks during a visit to
Armenia in October.

He said the aim was to `work towards stabilization of the situation in
the South Caucasus and the establishment of stability and security in
the region on the base of principles of international law and relevant
decisions and documents.

The President added that stabilization would create `favourable
conditions for economic development and cooperation in the region. A
Peaceful settlement should be accompanied by legally binding
international guarantees of all its aspects and stages," Medvedev
said.

Nagorno-Karabakh was part of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan in the
USSR, mostly populated by Armenians.

In 1991 the region unilaterally declared independence, sparking a war
between Armenia and Azerbaijan that killed around 30,000 people and
created a million refugees.

Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno-Karabakh remains under
joint Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh military control.

Armenia remains committed to the region’s independence, while
Azerbaijan says its territorial integrity must be respected.

32788

Armenian Public TV
Oct 27 2008

Armenian leader, EU envoy discuss ties, Karabakh

[Presenter-read report over video of the meeting] President [Serzh]
Sargsyan will go on an official visit to Brussels in the future. The
forthcoming visit, according to EU Special Representative for the
South Caucasus Peter Semneby, will provide an opportunity to assess
Armenia’s relations with the European Union and outline the general
agenda of cooperation.

President Sargsyan told the European diplomat that our country
attaches importance to expanding relations with the European Union and
expects the European Union’s support and assistance on this
path. Speaking about the settlement of the Karabakh issue, Serzh
Sargsyan said that the Armenian side, taking the Madrid principles as
a basis, recognizes the OSCE Minsk Group as a format, and the co-chair
countries of the OSCE Minsk Group as the mediators.

Speaking about regional developments, Semneby talked of the European
Union’s preparedness to provide every support to the process of
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. He also highly evaluated
the establishment of the fact-finding group for the 1 March events
[post-election disturbances] and inclusion of both parliamentary
opposition and opposition not represented in the parliament in the
work of the group.

Semneby today also met Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan, Secretary
of the National Security Council Artur Baghdasaryan and
Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepyan.

[translated]

VivaCell-MTS and USAID/CAPS jointly sponsoring Armenian Monuments
Awareness Project

2008-11-01 11:13:00

ArmInfo. VivaCell – MTS announced the opening ceremony of the project
aimed at raising awareness of one of Armenia’s historical – cultural
masterpieces – Zvartnots Cathedral Friday. The long-term program being
implemented jointly with the Ministry of Culture, USAID/CAPS and
Armenian Monuments Awareness

Project is aimed at raising awareness of Armenia’s historical, cultural
and natural monuments. Under the project, information panels,
directional signs and companion booklets were put at five sites of the
project: Garni, Historic Giumri, Zvartnots Cathedral, Khor
Virap/Artashat, and Noravank/Noravank Nature Area. These cultural
treasures are pillars of the Armenian history and doors to its future,
and acknowledging this VivaCell-MTS was adamant at supporting the
promotion of these historical-cultural sites and developing more
information about the cultural and historical heritage and
communicating it to the society. The Armenian Monuments Awareness
Project created and installed multilingual information panels,
directional signs and markers in the territory of the Cathedral, which
in turn will encourage the development of tourism. Information panels,
directional signs and markers were installed to serve as guides for
tourists, who visit Zvartnots. The print guides provide comprehensive
information by presenting both the historical and cultural aspects of
the monument. Reaching beyond products and services VivaCell-MTS always
extends hand to any effort towards endorsing Armenia’s presence and
image.

Protection of cultural values and culture is a common duty, this is the
principle the projects organizes are guided with.

DARCHINYAN: LITTLE GUY, LARGE MOUTH
By Ron Borges

The Sweet Science
cle/6312/darchinyan-little-guy-large-mouth/
Oct 30 2008

Vic Darchinyan has something to say. This is not a new occurrence.

Saturday night the IBF super flyweight champion intends to knock out
smooth boxing WBC and WBA titleholder Cristian Mijares. This is not
only something he says he will do but it’s something he now insists
would have already happened if he could speak Spanish himself.

"The last press conference I was speaking in English and everyone
understood what I was saying," Darchinyan growled recently. "Mijares
was speaking in Spanish and not in English (which kind of figures
since he’s from Mexico) but after I found out he was not translating
everything. He said something in Mexican (or maybe Spanish?) that
I’m talking because I’m afraid of him.

"If I know he’s talking like that, I would knock him out in that
moment. If I’m scared I’m going to show on November 1st what I’m going
to do to you. I’m going to break you in half! No one will remember
him after I finish him."

In the end this may not prove to be factual but it is the way
Darchinyan sees the world. Every day is a fight for him and every
fighter someone who needs to be destroyed. Maybe when you grew up
in a difficult place like Armenia in the years of Russian oppression
and you weigh only 114 pounds to boot that’s how you look at things
to survive. You look for a fight and you let the world know it.

Or, then again, maybe Victor Darchinyan is just a bad guy?

"I’m a bad guy?" he thunders at the thought of it. "Why I’m a bad
guy? All Armenians know it’s going to be me (winning) in Los Angeles. I
become the undisputed world champion. I’m going to deliver that night."

Mijares (35-3-2, 13 KO) is on most pound-for-pound lists because
of his nearly perfect technical skills and his ability to use them
to daunt and dominate opponents. That’s what he did to a similarly
trash talking Jorge Arce a year and a half ago and it is what he has
promised to do to Darchinyan Saturday night at the Home Depot Center
outside of Los Angeles.

Darchinyan hears this kind of talk and loses his mind, assuming
he has one to lose. He talks like a madman and pretty much fights
the same way. This has made him not only a two-time world champion
but also a fighter who is both hugely popular and wholly reviled,
depending on what crowd you’re talking to.

"People are talking about the Mexican crowd (in LA)," Darchinyan yaps
pugnaciously. "After two rounds you’re not going to hear any Mexican
crowd. You’re only going to hear Armenian crowd."

In Los Angeles?

"A few rounds after that you’re going to see Mexican crowd supporting
me," he continued. "Of course they’ll like my style. They don’t like
people who are just touching and running.

"He is only talk. I’m going to prove that he’s nothing. I wish his
corner the best in the fight because he’s going to be badly damaged."

Anyone can talk like this before a fight but when your record is 30-1-1
with 24 knockouts, such threats carry a bit more weight. That’s true
even if you carry only 114 pounds. Say what you will about Victor
Darchinyan, he comes not only with a heavy tongue but also with heavy
hands and bad intentions.

He will bring all of these into the ring with him Saturday night. Now
whether they will often land on Mijares is another matter altogether
but it’s not one that Darchinyan feels compelled to discuss.

He dismisses Mijares’ boxing skills as equivalent to running away
and he seems blind to the possibility that what befell Arce could
ever happen to him.

Arce, too, came into the Mijares fight believing he could rely on his
own heavy hands. He felt once he landed a few times the issue would
be decided. Well, A) he’s still waiting to land a few times and B)
the issue was decided – in a lopsided manner for Mijares.

Jorge Arce talked big but when the fight came he carried a little
stick and it seldom landed. By the end, he was utterly frustrated by
Mijares’ quickness and style to the point where he became a broken
and beaten man. Could the WBC-WBA champion not be capable of doing the
same thing to Darchinyan, who seems cut from the same cloth as Arce?

Wash your mouth out with Armenian soap!

"I’m going to make him look like a very silly fighter," Darchinyan
said when Arce’s sad fate was brought up. "I’m going to knock him
out. You’re going to see how he is after this fight. You say my style
is very, very awkward. I know what I’m doing!

"I just hope he’ll stay in the ring and not throw in the towel and
stop fighting. You’re going to see very big punishment (if Mijares
does stand and fight). He’s going to be punished. He won’t fight for
a couple of years."

With the volume at which Victor Darchinyan talks, if Cristian Mijares
doesn’t fight for a couple of years after Saturday night it might be
from an ear infection.

"You’ll see!" Darchinyan snaps again. "I’m not just strong fighter. I’m
a smart fighter. He’s overrated. I’m going to prove it. I’m going to
fight him like there’s not going to be any more fights."

More than likely Cristian Mijares is going to fight him in the hope
that there won’t be any more press conferences.

‘NO SUBSTANTIAL OBSTACLES TO NORMALIZATION’

Turkish Daily News
Oct 30 2008
Turkey

There are no substantial obstacles to the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations, Armenia’s foreign minister told BBC
Turkey yesterday.

"I cannot say everybody is happy that we are making peace with
Turkey. But as leaders of the two countries, we are ready to make
exceptional decisions," Edward Nalbandian said, referring to the hard
line Armenian diaspora’s negative stance on dialogue with Turkey.

"The diaspora consists of two-thirds of the Armenian population,
therefore we can not ignore their opinion. However, we possess the
necessary courage to overcome this problem," he added.

Asked whether the search for normalization in Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations would go hand in hand with normalization efforts in
Turkish-Armenian ties, Nalbandian said they would not.

"The meeting between the three ministers was (Turkish foreign minister)
Mr. Babacan’s idea," he said, referring to the meeting between the
Turkish, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in New York last
month, "He launched the idea in order to discuss Turkey’s proposal
for a Caucasus Platform and we discussed solely that."

No alternatives to the Minsk process

"We are considering our problems with Azerbaijan in the context of
the Minsk process. It is an effective structure supported by the
international community. And we have no intention nor the need to
reinvent the wheel," noted Nalbandian.

"I do not see a connection between the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations
and the Turkish-Armenian dialogue," he said, adding that he was very
optimistic toward the normalization process.

DM SEYRAN OHANYAN LEAVING FOR KOSOVO

armradio.am
29.10.2008 10:32

The delegation headed by the Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan
is leaving for Kosovo today for a two-day working visit. Within the
framework of the visit Minister Ohanyan will meet Armenian servicemen,
who are carrying out a peacekeeping mission within the Greek division
of the coalition forces.

Press Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Seyran Shahsuvaryan
informed that the Minister will have a meeting with the command of
the Greek division and the Commander of the International Kosovo
Force Giuseppe Gay.

MOSCOW TO HOST KARABAKH TALKS IN BID FOR PEACEMAKER ROLE

Agence France Presse
Oct 29 2008

MOSCOW (AFP) — The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it will host the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on the disputed Nagorny
Karabakh region, playing peacemaker in the Caucasus after its war
with Georgia.

"On November 2, 2008, in Moscow… a meeting will take place between
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh
Sarkisian… on the regulation of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict,"
a Kremlin statement said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed that the meeting would be held,
but presidential officials in both countries declined to comment
further. The Kremlin said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would
host the meeting.

Medvedev visited Armenia last week in a fresh push to end the
long-simmering conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, an enclave of Azerbaijan
with a largely ethnic Armenian population that broke free of Baku’s
control in the early 1990s.

Sarkisian said at the meeting that he was ready for talks with Baku
on the basis of principles worked out at negotiations in Madrid last
year, meaning that the people of Nagorny Karabakh gain the right
to self-determination.

Analysts say Moscow is keen to boost its influence in the South
Caucasus after Russia’s brief war with US-allied Georgia in August
raised tensions throughout the region.

The August war, which began when Georgia attacked its own breakaway
enclave of South Ossetia, raised fears of similar violence in Nagorny
Karabakh.

"Russia must repair its image in the Caucasus," said Alexei Malashenko,
a political analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Centre. "The important
thing for Russia is that it is seen to take the initiative."

But Malashenko said a quick resolution of the conflict would require
concessions "at Armenia’s cost" — an unlikely scenario considering
that Yerevan is Moscow’s "strategic partner" in the Caucasus.

Azerbaijani political analyst Vafa Guluzade predicted that the Moscow
meeting would yield little result, as Baku had nothing to gain.

"Russia is looking to restore its influence in Azerbaijan,"
he said. "That’s why negotiations under a format of
Azerbaijan-Russia-Armenia will bring nothing good."

But analysts said that if Moscow decided to push Armenia toward
compromise, Russia could strengthen its position in the Caucasus.

Moscow is vying for influence with Washington in Azerbaijan, a key
energy exporter that ships oil and gas through Western-backed pipelines
through Georgia and Turkey, bypassing Russia.

"Russia is looking to strengthen its influence in the Caucasus… and
if it manages to convince Armenia to compromise on Karabakh, Azerbaijan
could in exchange export its oil and gas via Russian territory to
Europe," Armenian political analyst Stepan Grigorian said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan remain in a tense stand-off over Karabakh,
which ethnic Armenian forces seized in the early 1990s in a war that
killed nearly 30,000 people and forced another million on both sides
to flee their homes.

A ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in
1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after years of negotiations,
and shootings between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the region
are common.

WHAT EFFECT WILL THE MEETING BETWEEN ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI AND RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS HAVE?
Karine Ter-Sahakyan

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2008 GMT+04:00

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has always been a format of rivalry
between Russia and the United States.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s Yerevan statement on his intention
to invite the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents to Moscow for the
regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not an unexpected
move. After the August events it became clear to everyone in the Region
that Russia would not content itself with Â"compelling Georgia to
peaceÂ"; there would also be other steps directed to the consolidation
of cracked Russian positions in the South Caucasus.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ That Russian positions cracked in the Region is
quite a fact, and the regional states will hardly seek repetition of
the Georgian scenario. Especially at the time of financial-economic
crisis the policy of twisting arms, which, by the way, neither
bypassed Russia, cannot lead us to a silent consent with the Russian
viewpoint. However strange it may sound, Armenia found itself in a more
advantageous position than Georgia or Azerbaijan. It has neither oil,
nor passage to the Black Sea, but it has a great desire to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with minimal losses. Now we shall not dwell
on the fact that doing it behind the back of Nagorno Karabakh is not
ethical at all. That’s not the point. Yerevan has simply received a
certain impulse and a little freedom of manipulation in the painful
issue. Now the future of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and that of
Armenia itself depend on how Armenia will make use of the situation,
and Yerevan cannot but realize the real value of the moment.

The Region is changing rapidly, and quite soon we shall have to
deal with a fairly new South Caucasus. It presupposes new relations
too: Russia-South Caucasus, USA-South Caucasus, and Turkey-South
Caucasus. As for the Karabakh conflict, it has always been a format of
rivalry between Russia and the United States. This rivalry has always
existed, but it has become more intense now, and the latest events are
the proof of it: the Washington meeting of Armenian Prime-Minister
Tigran Sargsyan with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the
one-day visit of US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, and
before it – visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. However,
Russia faces a serious problem after the Â"five-day warÂ": its image
has been thoroughly destroyed in the eyes of the world community, and
now Russia has to prove that militant solution of the South Ossetian
and Abkhazian conflict was just an exception and that the Russian
Federation is potent enough to solve its problems in some other ways
too, i.e. through negotiations. "The events of August 2008 have created
a new platform for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan will never
become a completely pro-western country, like Georgia is. Moreover,
the latter has been disvalued as an oil and gas transit country and
the world powers have given a fresh look at Armenia, whose ‘football
diplomacy’ produced the desired effect. Turkey had started developing
its Caucasus stability and cooperation pact still in spring of the
current year and the five-day war in South Ossetia just pushed Ankara
to action. Thus, the Turkish initiative has not only played its role
in the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, but it has also changed the
whole situation in the region," considers political analyst Sergey
Minasyan. Minasyan also notes Russia’s Â"strangeÂ" intention to speed
up the Nagorno-Karabakh process. "Presently Russia is imitating the
Ramboullet and Bucharest scenarios. However, for the conflicting
sides maintenance of the status quo and assistance from the U.S. and
EU is more preferable. I am not sure that speeding up the process is
in Russia’s interests," Minasyan says.

According to Head of the Russian Duma Defence Committee Viktor
Zavarzin, the intended meeting between Armenian, Azerbaijani and
Russian Presidents will convey a new impulse to the Karabakh talks
and will help to ease the stress in the Region. "Resolution of the
conflict is possible only on the negotiation level with observation of
international norms, and it should satisfy all the interested parties,"
Zavarzin concluded.

One point, however, remains incomprehensible – how is it possible to
satisfy all the interested parties of the conflict?

–Boundary_(ID_5QuUC0jQuxBofHH9fMNnfQ)- –

US OFFICIAL HAILS ARMENIAN, TURKISH EFFORTS TO BUILD TIES

Mediamax
Oct 17 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 17 October: US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried
stated in Yerevan today that "we have never been as close as today
to constructive developments in Armenian-Turkish relations".

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a briefing in Yerevan today, the
US diplomat welcomed the decision of the Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan, who invited his Turkish counterpart to Yerevan in early
September, and the consent of the latter to visit the capital city
of Armenia.

US Assistant Secretary of State expressed hope for normalization
of Armenian-Turkish relations, which, according to him, will also
contribute to the settlement of Karabakh conflict.

Daniel Fried arrived in Yerevan this morning and held meetings with
the President and the Prime Minister of Armenia, the leaders of
oppositional Armenian National Congress. Tomorrow, he will leave
Yerevan for Tbilisi.

GEORGIAN OFFICIAL DOWNBEAT ABOUT RUSSIAN ROLE AS MEDIATOR IN KARABAKH TALKS

Imedi TV
Oct 21 2008
Georgia

[Presenter] Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister [Grigol Vashadze]
has reacted to the official meetings held in Yerevan [between the
Russian and Armenian presidents]. Grigol Vashadze said that the
Russian president’s initiative to mediate between the sides [in the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan] resembles an attempt to get on a train, which has already
departed. Here is what Vashadze said.

[Vashadze] This statement by the president of the Russian Federation
resembles an attempt to hop on a train, which has already departed,
because Turkish-mediated talks between the sides are already under way.

I would like to say one thing to our Armenian and Azerbaijani friends:
God save them from Russia’s mediation role.