Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

TURKISH AMBASSADOR MAY RETURN TO STOCKHOLM SOON

Today
html
March 18 2010
Azerbaijan

The delay in Turkish ambassador Zergyun Koruturk’s return to Sweden
will not last long.

Turkish media reported that the refusal of the Swedish officials
to approve the decision of the Swedish Parliament on recognition of
the so-called "Armenian genocide" has mitigated the dissatisfaction
of Turkey.

After adoption of "Armenian resolution" by the U.S. House of
Representatives committee on foreign affairs on March 4 and by the
Parliament of Sweden on March 11, Turkey recalled ambassadors from
Washington and Stockholm.

Initially, the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt expressed regret
to his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in connection with the
adoption of the document in the parliament, calling not to politicize
historical events.

Then the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt held a telephone
conversation with the head of the Turkish government Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, during which he said that the official Stockholm does not
recognize this document.

The Turkish press writes that the steps of Swedish officials were
able to soften the resentment of Ankara, and it is quite possible
that soon ambassador Koruturk will return to Stockholm. The final
decision on her return should be made by the Turkish government.

However, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington Namik Tan still remains
in Ankara. The delay in his return may be linked to the absence of
concrete steps by President Obama’s administration in the resolution
of tension with Turkey.

Ankara expects the same support from Washington, which was expressed
by the Swedish government.

DIPLOMATS DISTRESSED ABROAD FOCUS ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AT HOME

Hurriyet
March 18 2010
Turkey

Turkish diplomats, distressed by the deadlock on the divided island
of Cyprus, up-and-downs in the EU accession process and diplomatic
rows stemming from the Armenian ‘genocide’ resolutions, are stepping
up public diplomacy efforts at home.

"In order to determine the effects [of foreign policy related]
developments, a new project has been launched aimed to widen the public
affairs works across the country," Turkish Foreign Ministry noted in
a written-statement released late Wednesday. "It is an important part
of our public diplomacy strategy."

Headed by Ambassador Engin Soysal, three diplomats are visiting the
Black Sea province of Trabzon on March 18-19. Soysal will address
a panel in the Black Sea Technical University and hold talks with
local authorities, businessmen and non-governmental organizations in
an effort to explain the existing foreign policy strategies.

It will be the first one, but not the last. Ankara has released that
it would be difficult to go further without public support. Similar
programs will take place in 20 other provinces including Konya, Adana,
Denizli, Afyon and Erzurum.

The decision makers for the normalization with Armenia will try to
convince the nationalist thought of "Why should we open borders to
those Armenians who killed our grandparents and occupied the land of
our Azeri brothers."

Diplomats engaged in EU affairs will explain whether Turkey compromises
to "the prejudicial union" or works to increase the living standards
at home.

Once the government is backed by the public, it will be easy to ratify
the protocols in Parliament and step-up the reforms towards the EU bid.

Increasing interaction between global, regional and local developments
has a direct effect on foreign policies, the statement outlined. "In
this respect, it is needed to adopt new and participatory attitude
as well as to inform the public about the politics at stage."

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had kicked-off his public diplomacy
in January when he visited southeastern province of Mardin along with
a delegation crowd. During this trip, the diplomats who generally
looked like serious elitist chatted and played cards with villagers
and danced to Kurdish folk songs in the evening.

The foreign ministry has also set-up its profile on both facebook
and twitter

ARMENIA AND RUSSIA TO MEET NEW GLOBAL CHALLENGES TOGETHER

ArmInfo
2010-03-18 12:27:00

ArmInfo. Delegation of the Armenian National Security Council (NSC)
led by NSC Secretary Arthur Baghdasaryan is on a visit to the Russian
Federation. Armenian NSC press-service reported that A. Baghdasarya
and his Russian colleague Nikolay Patrushev signed an agreement of
cooperation between the two security structures.

Afterwards, Patrushev told media that they discussed issues of
bilateral cooperation of Armenia and Russia and developed a single
position on how to meet new global challenges. He said that A.

Baghdasaryan had a series of important meetings with Russian
high-ranking officials and discussed a broad spectrum of issues. For
his part, A. Baghdasaryan said that the consultations with his Russian
colleague were quite effective.

"We will continue enhancing cooperation in specific areas. Working
groups will be set up to help implementing the agreements achieved. We
are very satisfied with the visit and reception," Baghdasaryan said.

BYURAKAN OBSERVATORY TO BE EQUIPPED WITH UP-TO-DATE SPECTROGRAPH

ArmInfo
010-03-18 17:00:00

ArmInfo. Byurakan observatory will be equipped with up-to-date
spectrograph.

As Director of the observatory Hayk Harutyunyan said at today’s
press-conference, no more than 10 big observatories of the world have
such spectrographs which allow to determine the rate of movement of
space objects up to 5-10 meters per second. "The astronomic centers
with great funds can afford such spectrographs, for example, Geneva
observatory, which gets $50-100 mln for projects, while Byurakan
observatory receives 60 mln drams a year", he said. Byurakan will
be able to obtain such a spectrometer due to the agreement signed
with the French party. "It is quite possible that it will be a
consortium with participation of not only Switzerland, France and
Armenia but other interested countries as well. We shall observe and
open new exo-planets together with the Europeans, as well as solve
astero-seismological and other tasks", Harutyunyan said.

According to him, cooperation with the European specialists will be
developed also in other directions. In particular, in 2009, a French
company approved 3 projects of Byurakan observatory. Moreover, it
is expected to sign a protocol between Armenian and Italian Foreign
Ministries, that will allow to implement a two-year agreement between
the two country observatories with budget of 250,000 Euro. H.

Harutyunyan also said that active cooperation played a positive part
in popularization of the astrophysicist profession in Armenia.

400 DRAM TO THE DOLLAR? DEVALUATION OF ARMENIAN CURRENCY

Tert.am
15:27 ~U 17.03.10

The predictions of many experts seem to have come true as the local
Armenian currency, the dram, has dropped in value. Currently, in the
best case scenerio in Armenian banks, a US dollar can be purchased
for 402 dram, while a euro goes for 555 dram.

According to Rate.am, at 1:30 pm local time today, a few banks were
even selling US dollars at 405 dram and euro at 561 dram. Buying rates,
however, fluctuated between 395 and 400 dram to the dollar and 542 to
550 to the euro. At 10 am this morning, a US dollar could be purchased
for 398.5 from Anelik Bank, while a euro could be purchased for 549
dram at Artsakhbank.

This devaluation of Armenian currency began only in the last 1-1.5
months. On February 2, the going rate was 375.8 dram to the dollar;
it has risen quite drastically in such a short period.

Few reasons might account for the devaluation: a shortage of personal
transfers from abroad, perhaps a big difference in export and import
volumes (import being noticealy greater than export), high quality
of inflation, and so on.

SHIRAK TOROSYAN: JAVAKHK WON’T FOLLOW NAKHIJEVAN’S FATE

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2010 13:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian National Assembly member Shirak Torosyan
said Armenians in Javakhk again suffer persecution on the threshold
of elections to the local self-government.

"Armenian activists are unreasonably summoned by police. Exploiting
Armenia’s dependence on Georgian transit routes, the Georgian
authorities exert pressure on the Armenian population in Javakhk.

Statements on friendly relations between the two countries are mere
formality. Yerevan and Tbilisi’s playing ostrich forced Javakheti
Armenians to think about autonomy. We won’t let Javakhk follow the
fate of Nakhijevan," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"The newly established coordination council on protection Javakheti
Armenians’ rights has developed an action plan. We will work with
Armenian organizations across the globe," Mr. Torosyan added.

He criticized the inferiority of the US State Department’s Country
Report on Human Rights Practices in Georgia, which mentions the arrest
of Vahagn Chakhalyan’s only.

As to opening of Upper Lars checkpoint, Mr. Torosyan said that Georgia
has much to gain from restoration of relations with Russia.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETS CHINESE AMBASSADOR ON BILATERAL TIES

People’s Daily
March 17 2010
China

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan discussed his country’s relationship
with China with newly appointed Chinese Ambassador Tian Changchun
on Tuesday.

Tian, who assumed the new post on March 6, submitted his credentials
to the president at the meeting.

Sarksyan said Armenia attached great importance to the relationship
with China and was keen to cooperate with China in various fields.

In recent years, cooperation between Armenia and China had made
remarkable headway, with two-way trade volume continuing to increase,
he said.

China has become Armenia’s second largest trading partner.

Cultural exchanges were expanding and the two countries also closely
collaborated in dealing with international affairs, the president said.

Armenia was ready to further tap cooperation potential with China
and deepen the bilateral ties and seek more benefits to the people
of the two countries, Sarksyan said.

The president also reiterated Armenia’s commitment to the one China
policy, considering the People’s Republic of China as the only
legitimate government representing China as a whole.

For his part, Tian conveyed Chinese President Hu Jintao’s warm
greetings and best wishes to Sarksyan.

He said the Chinese government was willing to deepen the Sino-Armenian
ties on the basis of mutual respect, equity, and serving mutual
interests for the benefit of the people on both sides.

TURKISH PREMIER SAYS ANKARA CONTINUING NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN

Anadolu Agency
March 16 2010
Turkey

London, 16 March: Turkey’s prime minister said on Tuesday [16 March]
that Turkey continued to hold intense talks with Iran regarding the
nuclear issue.

Appearing at a news conference following his meeting with British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan commented on Turkey’s stance regarding Iran’s nuclear
programme.

Noting that Turkey did not want any nuclear weapons neither in its
region nor in the world, Erdogan said his country believed that the
situation could be solved by diplomatic means.

"Previously, sanctions were implemented in different ways for two
times. If a new sanction is being considered, it will be the third
one. Diplomacy is needed for a solution," Erdogan said.

Commenting on his talks with the British prime minister, Erdogan said
Turkey and Britain had political, military, economic, commercial and
cultural relations.

Expressing Britain’s support for Turkey’s EU bid, Erdogan said the
country was one of the major investors in Turkey.

Erdogan also said Cyprus issue and the situation in the Middle East
were on the agenda of his gathering with Brown.

Upon a question on the Swedish prime minister’s recent remarks on the
Armenian resolution adopted by his country’s parliament, Erdogan said
his Swedish counterpart’s statement, which expressed sorrow over the
politicization of historical incidents, was important.

Fixture chaos
Armenia refuse to play ball at summit meeting as Irish Euro schedule left in
lap of the gods
By Daniel McDonnell

Independent.ie
Wednesday March 17 2010

IRELAND’S Euro 2012 qualifying prospects will be determined by the luck of
the draw for a second time after the competing nations in Group B failed to
reach agreement on a fixture schedule when they met in Moscow yesterday.

Armenia proved the stumbling block, vetoing a number of proposed games and
proving extremely difficult to compromise with. The schedule will now be
determined by UEFA at their congress in Tel Aviv next week.

It will effectively be a random draw with no real consideration to travel
concerns, although climate factors are included in calculations.

The FAI delegation, led by John Delaney, had agreed dates for nine of their
10 games and were prepared to go with a bold strategy by starting off with
three home games against Andorra and main rivals Russia and Slovakia in
September, October and November respectively. That would have given a major
edge to the opening of the new Lansdowne Road, but placed Giovanni
Trapattoni’s side under extreme pressure at an early stage.

Alas, those negotiations are irrelevant now, as UEFA draw up the fixtures
with a clean slate, failing to take into account any matches that were
agreed before the Armenian contingent — whose manager Vardin Minasyan was
ruling out options via telephone — took centre stage.

Delaney admitted that it had been a frustrating exercise, but says that he
is not too perturbed about losing control of the schedule and added that
Trapattoni felt the same after a phone discussion with the 70-year-old.

"We’re disappointed but it was almost expected as I said last week," said
Delaney. "Normally there is some talks beforehand which are productive but
not really this time so I always feared that it would be a hard one.

"What is strange is that the top three seeds, ourselves, Russia and Slovakia
had all agreed when to play each other and, normally, when that happens
things fall into place.

"But there was one country, I don’t want to say who, who was vetoing
everything. It’s easy to say no all the time but sometimes you have to say
yes, it was frustrating. I think you need the experience of being at these
meetings.

compromised

"We had agreed nine out of 10 fixtures, we had compromised a lot on them. We
had agreed to play Slovakia at home on the November friendly date which was
not ideal for either of us as we could only get our players 48 hours before
the game. It was a big step by Slovakia as they agreed to come to Dublin on
that date.

"We had also agreed to play Russia and Armenia away on the same trip and
Macedonia and Slovakia away at the same time.

"I spoke to Giovanni and he didn’t expect it to be any different. He felt it
was going to end up with UEFA anyway so his attitude is let UEFA get on with
it. He wasn’t that concerned when we play anyone."

Ireland could face a logistical nightmare if UEFA’s system does not pair
some of the long journeys off as double-headers. The planned jaunt to Russia
and Armenia in March, and then to Macedonia and Slovakia in September, would
have reduced costs and travel time.

Now, those games could be split up and become single journeys which means
there is a possibility that the Irish would finish a home game on a Friday
night and then immediately have to prepare for a gruelling journey to the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, the furthest-flung destination in the group,
for a Tuesday evening encounter.

"There is no way of saying to UEFA, listen, we’d agreed a few games and can
we keep them," said Delaney. "They do take climate into account but that
won’t affect us in this case.

"Travel is not an issue and whether we could get double-headers or not.
Either way, it’s in the lap of the gods but it’s not a big issue for
Giovanni or ourselves. We’ll get the logistics right once we know when we’re
playing."

The shortest trip which Ireland face is to take on group minnows Andorra,
although there could be a novelty value there as well. Given their poor
facilities, the nation which boasts the highest capital city in Europe
generally stages home competitive internationals in Barcelona — where they
hosted Ireland in a World Cup qualifier in 2001.

However, the Andorra delegation have indicated to the FAI that they would
like to stage the latest Irish visit on their own soil. For now, that’s a
minor discussion relative to the bigger, uncertain picture.

– Daniel McDonnell

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN SPIRITUAL CENTERS SIGN COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2010 19:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Mayors of Armenian and Russian spiritual centers,
Etchmiadzin and Sergiev Posad signed a collaboration agreement in the
presence of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and Catholicos
of All Armenians Karekin II.

Signing of agreement in the presence of both nations’ spiritual
leaders is another testimony of friendship between the people of both
countries, Etchmiadzin and Sergiev Posad Mayors, Karen Grigoryan and
Nikolai Maslov stated after the signing ceremony.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill is on a 3-day visit to
Yerevan.