Author: Zaminian Bedik

NEW WAYS OF SOLVING AGRICUTLURE PROBLEMS FOUND

Panorama.am
15:25 02/11/2007

"Lack of sanitary-hygienic norms in the republic may cause serious
problems," Yelena Manvelyan, leader of "Armenian women for health
and healthy environment" NGO, told a conference on chemical safety,
water and sanitary improvement today. The conference discussed water
and irrigation water insufficiency, fertilization and other issues.

The deputy director of the organization, Lilit Simonyan, said that
tests are taken in Kotaik region, village of Fantan and Zoraghbiut
and in Hayanist village of Ararat region. "We have chosen socially
disadvantaged villages with water problems. New methods are developed
to produce fertilizers," she said.

Experts from foreign organizations were invited to assess the work
and exchange information. The conference was funded by "Ecoforum"
and Dutch "European women for general future."

ALEXAN HAROUTIUNIAN DOES NOT AGREE TO MARKS GIVEN TO HIM BY RA FIRST PRESIDENT LEVON TER-PETROSIAN

Noyan Tapan
Nov 1, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN. The first President of the Republic
of Armenia has a subjective attitude towards all those people, who
appeared in the opposite team before his resignation. In this way
Alexan Haroutiunian, the Chairman of the Council of the Public TV and
Radio Company, qualified the charges sounded in his address during the
speech of Levon Ter-Petrosian made in the October 26 rally. "If that
is expressed with regard to my, the so-called, modest personality,
it means that I am right," he said in his interview with journalists
held in the RA National Assembly on October 31.

It should be reminded that Levon Ter-Petrosian had, in particular,
declared in his speech that "the activities of the current criminal
system are provided due to a number of principal units," including
the Public TV, and as for the case on the October 27, 1999 terrorism,
it was illegaly quashed with regard to Alexan Haroutiunian.

Alexan Haroutiunian mentioned in connection with the latter that
irrespective of the fact that he was a defendant in that case,
he was later completely aquitted not only by the court, but also
by the investigation body. In his words, it is not right to speak
about different legal bases with political marks, particularly in
connection with the October 27 tragedy, "as well as with a motive to
take vengeance to charge people with something, in which you yourself
do not believe." Alexan Haroutiunian declared that he is always ready
to take part in any investigation activity connected with the October
27 case, since it is, first of all, driven by his interests.

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AS STUMBLING BLOCK BETWEEN PUBLIC TELEVISION OF ARMENIA AND ARMINFO

arminfo
2007-11-01 09:30:00

ArmInfo. The issue of efficiency of the state propaganda among the
non- Armenian and foreign audience has become the reason for break
of a multiyear cooperation between the Public Television of Armenia
and ArmInfo News Agency.

The subject of necessity to return the Russian language to air,
financed from the state budget of the Public Television of Armenia
(APT), as well as assurance of news broadcasting in foreign languages
for propaganda among the country’s wide non-Armenian population and
the foreign TV-audience was touched on by ArmInfo correspondent at
September 10, 2007, press-conference of Executive Director of APT
Alexander Arzoumanyan. Asked what measures does the APT intend to take
for active satellite broadcasting of InterAz TV channel and possible
broadcasting of Aztv Azerbaijani state TV channel in a number of RF
cities as well, including 7 hours per day in Russian language, APT
Director emphasized: ‘I do not think that the Russians will watch the
Azerbaijani TV all day long and tugged heartstrings. Our goal, to the
greater extent, is not a propaganda but preservation of the Armenian
language among the Diaspora. Therefore, our TV channel is transmitted
free of charge in many Russian cities by cable networks’. As for the
interests of Armenia’s Russian-speaking citizens, A. Arzoumanyan said:
‘There will be no return to the Russian language on TV air. I am
against broadcasting of programmes in various languages, including
the information programmes. The Public TV has not yet done much to
accustom the TV audience to watching TV films in Armenian. There are
few people in the country, who do not understand Armenian. If they
do not understand this language, let hem receive information from
other TV channels’.

Evidently, ArmInfo correspondent’s question concerning the prospects
of strengthening of Azerbaijani propaganda first of all on the soil
of Armenia’s key strategic ally Russia and in the West as well as
the interests of the Russian language population in the country
became the reason of deep insult of the leadership of the Armenian
Public Television and personally its Director Armen Arzoumanyan on
the agency’s stand.

Anyhow, we dare to remind the head of the most important TV channel
in Armenia that the Public Television has special functions i.e. a
heavy burden to carry, like the power representatives have repeatedly
stated. It is first of all the propaganda of state policy in abroad,
including to the foreign audience and foreign investors working
in Armenia and after all the protection of the interests of all
the sections of the population. Moreover, the poor knowledge of a
foreign language by APT leadership and partial attitude to it must
not determine the language policy on air.

Anyway, it is instructive to recall that the full refusal from Russian
language by the Public Television of Russia directly contradicts
the real picture of broadcasting in the country. Thus, from the
logic of strengthening and developing the Armenian-Russian strategic
cooperation and by a political decision of the Armenian leadership,
Russian TV channels ‘Perviy Kanal’ (‘First Channel’) , ‘RTR- Planeta’
(‘RTR-Planet’) and ‘Kultura’ (‘Culture’ ) are on the local frequencies
almost 24 hour. Another frequency is provided to the Russian language
Interstate TV and Radio Company ‘Mir’.

All this did not hold the head of the Armenian Public Television
from being resentful at ArmInfo News Agency. Shortly after the press
conference, A. Arzoumanyan decided to refuse from subscription
for e-news of the agency calling the correspondent’s question ‘a
provocation.’ It is noteworthy that ArmInfo did not want to butt into
"little nothings of life" and had not raised the issue of direct
negligence of contractual rights by the Public Television for long
years i.e. APT was constantly transferring ArmInfo’s news items to the
Armenian Public Radio, which has no relevant contract with ArmInfo,
without any additional payment. Nevertheless, the 15-year-long
cooperation broke today. In this respect, it remains for ArmInfo to
express satisfaction that it proved useful also for the large local
and foreign radio audience for such long period of time.

"BEFORE NOW, WE WERE INVITING OTHER CULTURES, NOW WE ARE BEING INVITED"

Panorama.am
22:41 30/10/2007

"This year, the series of Armenia’s culture days has just begun,"
Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan announced at a press conference
today. In her words, before now, we were inviting cultures from other
countries, but not, others will be inviting us.

"Several cultural events in different countries will be organized,
where we will present our culture and art, as we will be ambassadors
of our culture," Poghosyan said.

Soon, the culture minister of Belarus will arrive in Armenia. "We are
working with Belarus on a plan for 2008-2010. In January, the culture
minister from Belarus will be in Armenia to put his signature on the
program," Poghosyan said. For now, cooperation with European countries
is more than that with CIS countries. According to Poghosyan, cultural
relations with these countries are just now starting to progress. "We
have started to talk about cooperation just during these past three
years. Step by step, we are going forward," she said.

We note that Armenian culture will also be presented in Italy and China
this year. From November 10, Armenian culture will be presented in
China by the State Pantomime Theater, as well as by well known singers
Barsegh Tumanyan and Irina Zakyan and pianist Arus Ajemyan. From
November 20, in Italy, the Speaker "New Names" foundation children and
the State Pantomime Theater will present Armenian culture, along with
exhibits of works by Sergey Paradjanov and Hayk Gregorian’s "Exlibris."

LAVROV TO HOLD URGENT MEETING WITH AHMADINEJAD

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.10.2007 17:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to
depart for Tehran on a short working visit to meet Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today.

Lavrov’s visit is to take place against the backdrop of growing
tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have been fueled by the
latter’s nuclear program. Iran has denied developing nuclear weapons,
while it has insisted on its right to pursue a peaceful nuclear
program.

UN atomic watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed
ElBaradei said Sunday he had no evidence that Iran is building nuclear
weapons and accused U.S. leaders of adding "fuel to the fire" with
recent bellicose rhetoric.

We haven’t received any information there is a parallel, ongoing,
active nuclear weapon program," he told CNN.

"Second, even if Iran were to be working on nuclear weapons … they
are at least a few years away from having such weapon," he said,
citing Washington’s own intelligence assessments.

"My fear is that if we continue to escalate from both sides that
we will end up into a precipice, we will end up into an abyss. The
Middle East is in a total mess, to say the least. And we cannot add
fuel to the fire."

In recent months, Bush has predicted "nuclear holocaust" and "World
War III" if Tehran gets atomic weapons, while Vice President Cheney
has warned of "serious consequences" for Iran if it defies global
demands to freeze uranium enrichment – echoing the UN resolution that
Washington says authorized war in Iraq.

The Lavrov-Ahmadinejad talks will take place 2 weeks after the visit
of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Iran. It’s not ruled out that
the parties will discuss the possibility of Iranian leader’s visit
to Russia, the RosBusinessConsulting reports.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Bryza’s statements nothing but wish to demonstrate viability of OSCE
MG democracy
27.10.2007 14:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan and Armenia will hardly manage to resolve
the Karabakh problem in the near future, said Alexander Karavayev, an
expert of the Russian Center for Post-Soviet Studies.

`As regards 5 regions around Karabakh, some progress is possible
within next 3-5 years. However, it will be hard to determine the
status of Karabakh and two other regions adjacent to it,’ he said
Friday when commenting on Matt Bryza’s statement that Azerbaijan and
Armenia can sign a framework agreement on the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict.

The Russian expert did not rule out that the sides can sign some kind
of declaration fixing their determination to resolve the conflict
peacefully. `But this document will make no sense’, he noted

`The American diplomats have many time stated the possibility `to make
things moving during coming months’ and nothing has changed,’ he said.

`Ambassador Bryza’s statements are nothing but a wish to demonstrate
viability of the OSCE MG democracy. If earlier such statements used to
make clamor, now they are treated rather coolly,’ the expert said, RIA
Novosti reports.

ACCORDING TO FRANCOIS FILLON, FRANCE CAN PLAY ESSENTIAL ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIA’S ECONOMY

Noyan Tapan
Oct 26, 2007

PARIS, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsian,
who is in France on an official visit, on October 25, met with Serge
Tchuruk, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Alcatel
company. The main subject of discussion was Alcatel’s activity in
Armenia. Positively evaluating company’s growing involvement in RA
economy, the parties held the same opinion that one of the well-known
leaders of information technologies sphere, Alcatel, can and should
have greater role in various spheres of Armenian economy.

A meeting between S. Sargsian and French Prime Minister Francois
Fillon also took place the same day. The French Prime Minister with
satisfaction mentioned Armenian-French friendly relations qualifying
them as "brilliant" especially in political, cultural, and local
self-government spheres. He also mentioned that economic relations
between the two countries also develop rapidly, but are still inferior
to level of relations in other spheres. He noted that modern France
is a country having powerful economic resources and conducting active
policy in the sphere of innovations and can have an essential role
in development of Armenian economy.

S. Sargsian, in his turn, mentioned possibilities of implementation
of new joint programs in the spheres of information technologies,
bank and service, healthcare and pharmacy, energy.

The two countries’ Prime Ministers also touched upon issues of
Caucasian region’s stability, processes going on within the framework
of the Nagorno Karabakh settlement and within the 7framework of the
OSCE Minsk Group, presidential elections to be held in Armenia.

During the meeting, the RA Prime Minister invited his French
counterpart to visit Armenia.

The same day S. Sargsian met with Patrick Devedjian, the Secretary
General of the UMP ruling French party.

The interlocutors also discussed issues related to development of
Armenian-French relations and expansion of cooperation.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA government Information and
Public Relations Department, the RA Prime Minister will meet with
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on October 26.

BACKERS OF ARMENIA GENOCIDE BILL AGREE TO DELAY VOTE

Agence France Presse
Oct 26 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2007 (AFP) – Backers of a bill in the US Congress
labeling massacres of Armenians as "genocide" Thursday bowed to White
House pressure and agreed to delay the measure, which had sparked fury
in Turkey. Four key sponsors of the bill, censuring the Ottoman Empire
for the World War I killings, asked House of Representatives speaker
Nancy Pelosi not to hold a debate on the issue. Despite signs that
support for the measure had waned in recent days, its main sponsors,
Democrats Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Anna Eshoo and Frank Pallone,
said it still had significant backing in Congress. "We believe that
a large majority of our colleagues want to support a resolution
recognizing the genocide on the House floor, and they will do so,
provided the timing is more favorable," they said in a letter to
Pelosi. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice had repeatedly called on the House Democratic leadership to pull
the bill, fearing lasting damage with Turkey, a key US military and
diplomatic ally. But Pelosi had resisted pressure to pull the bill
from the chamber, and had said she was determined it would go to
a vote, buoying Armenian exiles who have pressed for years for the
measure. Democrats argued that by refusing to condemn the Armenian
massacres as "genocide" the United States will encourage impunity
for current and future crimes against humanity, for example the
killings of civilians in Darfur. Republican House minority leader
John Boehner welcomed the move to pull the bill, but said the whole
episode reflected badly on the Democratic leadership and "calls
their judgment into question." "Let’s be clear: the suffering the
Armenian people endured was tragic, there is no doubt about that,"
he said in a statement. "But this 90-year-old issue should be settled
by historians, not by politicians." Armenians say at least 1.5 million
of their people were killed from 1915 to 1917 under what they describe
as an campaign of deportation and murder by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey
bitterly disputes the number of dead and the characterization of the
killings as a genocide. Although the resolution is only symbolic,
Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington week and called off
visits to the United States by at least two of its officials. The
angry reaction has fueled fears within the US administration that it
could lose access to a military base in Turkey, a NATO ally, which
provides a crucial staging ground for US supplies headed to Iraq and
Afghanistan. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee
held an intense debate on the resolution on October 11, and passed
it to the House floor. It had been expected to come to a vote in
November in the full House, but as its potential geopolitical impact
became known, it started to lose support, even among some Democratic
members of the House.

VARDAN OSKANIAN IS CONVINCED THAT RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY U.S. IS INEVITABLE

Noyan Tapan
Oct 25, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by U.S. Congress is inevitable. RA Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian gave assurance at the October 25 press conference. Attaching
importance to the adoption of Resolution 106 by the Committee on
Foreign Affairs of U.S.

Congress, the Minister expressed the hope that it will be discussed
at the plenary sitting of House of Representatives.

"They say that it is not time yet, but I am just convinced that
the moment will come and the Congress will recognize the resolution
on Armenian Genocide," V. Oskanian said. According to the Minister,
judging by the responses in the U.S., "in case of a correct moment from
American point of view, this resolution will be unanimously adopted."

V. Oskanian considered as positive the circumstance that even the
American Congressmen, who are against the resolution’s adoption,
consider the issue only from point of view of security and do not deny
the historic fact of the Genocide. "We overcame that approach of denial
and the Turkish party has an occasion for anxiety," the Minister said.

V. Oskanian also touched upon his meeting with the Turkish Foreign
Minister held lately. According to him, the Armenian party does not
consider that meeting as part of the process aimed at establishment
of bilateral relations, as today there is no such process between
Armenia and Turkey and such meetings will be held only if necessary.

NOT TIME TO ANGER TURKEY
Ben Zenitsky, [email protected].

OSU – The Lantern, OH
er333/news/2007/10/24/Opinion/Not-Time.To.Anger.Tu rkey-3053342.shtml
Oct 24 2007
Ohio State University

During the First World War, the Ottoman Turks might or might not
have committed genocide. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with her
Armenian-American constituents in California, believes they did. And
they want Congress to pass a resolution saying so.

So what’s the problem with this? Well I will tell you.

The problem is modern-day Turkey’s feelings are now officially hurt.

And while it is the only legitimate Middle-Eastern democracy among
Islamic states, the bastion of freedom and the model American disciple
in the region – the prodigal son or teacher’s pet, if you will –
surrounded by potentially hostile monarchies and dictatorships,
the last thing we want to do is hurt its feelings.

Especially when its government is mobilizing troops along the Iraqi
border and threatening to invade in order to quell Kurdish separatists
and retaliate against the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group that has
been accused of attacking inside Turkey.

Critics of Pelosi’s symbolic resolution of century-old history said
bad timing. Others said really bad timing.

But whether you’re for or against her entirely nonbinding decree,
one thing is clear: Iraq is well on its way from being a "nightmare
with no end in sight," as Retired U.S. Army Gen. Ricardo Sanchez
recently described it, to whatever comes after that on the s— scale.

If the Turks were to invade, America would be faced with an interesting
dilemma. Do we intervene? We are nation-building here and we can’t
have other countries undermining our efforts. Especially when they’re
our allies.

To make matters worse, Turkey is home to Incirlik, a large and
strategically crucial air base used as a staging area for American
and British troops as well as to route supplies into Iraq. Access to
this base would more than likely be in jeopardy should the U.S. be
forced to intervene amid a Turkish invasion.

The Armenians, meanwhile, have been pushing for passage of the genocide
bill for years.

House Resolution 106 was co-authored by a fellow Democrat and statesman
of Pelosi’s, Rep. Adam Schiff of California’s 29th district, which
is home to the country’s largest Armenian community, according to
The Washington Post.

Not surprisingly, the president has been an outspoken critic of the
proclamation and said Congress is merely wasting its time.

"Congress has more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic
ally in the Muslim world, especially one that’s providing vital
support for our military every day," George W. Bush said at a recent
press conference.

And for what has to be the first time in seven years, I agree with
the man.

For a group of men and women to actually have lower national approval
ratings than both Bush and Dick Cheney – as our current Congress
incredibly does – one would logically assume Capitol Hill would be
planning ahead rather than looking back 92 years solely to label
events of the past.

Turkish parliament, meanwhile, voted by an overwhelming majority to
authorize troops to enter Iraq late last week. Whether or not they
will remains to be seen.

After being asked by a reporter if the government should ask permission
before invading, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is quoted
as saying, "Without asking or receiving permission, the U.S. traveled
thousands of kilometers to hit Iraq," he said. "No one should give
us any advice."