Armenian News

BARONESS COX AWARDED RA PRIME MINISTER'S MEMORIAL MEDAL
armradio.am
25.09.2008 17:22

According to today's decision,The Republic of Armenia, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the Vice-Speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, President of the British-Armenian Parliamentary Group, Baroness Caroline Cox was awarded a memorial medal of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia for her considerable contribution to the reinforcement and development of Armenian-British ties and the friendly relations with the Armenian people. Today the Prime Minister handed the medal during the meeting with Baroness Cox at RA Government.

During her recurrent visit to NKR and Armenia Baroness Cox was accompanied by a large delegation of people interested in Armenia and Artsakh, who will become the best friends of Armenia in the future, according to the Baroness.

Greeting the guests, RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan expressed gratitude to Caroline Cox, noting that the Baroness, who has become a legendary personality for our people, is very well-known in Armeniaand Artsakh thanks to the various missions she realized.

The Vice-Speaker of the UK House of Lords Caroline Cox told the Prime Minister about her recurrent visit, noting that she spent most of her trip on the sacred land of Artsakh participating in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the rehabilitation centre established with her assistance.

Baroness Cox thanked the Prime Minister for the awards and the warm words.

During the meeting with Tigran Sargsyan she said to be interested in the possible influence of the declaration of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict, the current state of Armenian-Turkish relations after the Turkish President's visit to Armenia and well as the approaches of the Armenian authorities on the matter. The Prime Minister presented the official stance of our country on the above-mentioned issues.

DIASPORA SHOULD COUNTER TURKEY'S DIVIDE AND CONQUER STRATEGY
By Harut Sassounian
AZG Armenian Daily
26/09/2008

Armenians worldwide have been following with great concern sinister Turkish attempts at rapprochement with Armenia.

Their apprehension is based on several factors. The first is that Turkey has pre-conditioned its rapprochement with the demand that Armenia participate in a historical commission on the Armenian Genocide---a devious stratagem to cast doubt on the long established facts of the Armenian Genocide.

Furthermore, Turkish leaders have publicly announced that their true intent is to let the world know that Armenians and Turks are engaged in serious negotiations on the Armenian Genocide, therefore, it is no longer necessary for the U.S. Congress or parliaments around the world to adopt resolutions on this issue.

Finally, Turkish leaders have stated that by making a separate deal with Armenia, they would be rendering the Armenian Diaspora and its demands irrelevant.

Nevertheless, in assessing the Turkish attempt at reconciliation with Armenia, one needs to keep in mind the following issues:

In the aftermath of the recent Russian-Georgian war, all countries in the region have re-evaluated their strategic interests. The opening of the Turkish border would reduce Armenia's reliance on Georgian ports to import more than 80% of its supplies. To protect Armenia's national security, the Parliament should immediately adopt legislation prohibiting foreign ownership of strategic resources, vital industries and real estate in sensitive border regions.

Turkey, on the other hand, has several reasons for wanting to improveits relations with Armenia:

1) Having normal diplomatic relations and an open border with all its neighbors, including Armenia, would help realize Turkey's desire of becoming a dominant regional power

2) To help bring economic prosperity to the most destitute regions of Eastern Turkey

3) To provide an opportunity for Turkey to project its political and economic power across the Armenian border, all the way to the Central Asian Republics

4) To downplay the charges of genocide from the Armenian Diaspora and third countries by establishing a historical commission

5) To facilitate Turkey's entry into the European Union, since having open borders with neighboring states is an EU requirement.

The rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey is also being encouraged by Europe and the United States, because it would create an alternate land corridor for the unimpeded transport of vital oil and gas supplies from the Caspian region to the West. This new initiative also serves
Russia's interests, as the opening of the Armenian/Turkish borderwould diminish the value of Georgia's Black Sea ports.

While it is understandable why Armenia and Turkey are seeking improved relations, it remains to be seen whether Armenia would be better off at the end of these deliberations, given Turkey's extensive diplomatic experience compared to that of Armenia. After all, getting concessions
from Turkey is not an easy task, as demonstrated by the lengthy and unproductive negotiations over Cyprus. What counts is the end result, rather than the process itself!

Rather than getting involved in acrimonious debates with Armenia's leadership, we should acknowledge that Armenia's interests may sometimes diverge from those of the Diaspora, and that the two would take different positions on some issues, given the differences in their status. Therefore, Diaspora communities should pursue their own agenda, independently from that of Armenia.

In order to counter Turkey's attempts to make the Diaspora irrelevant, Armenians worldwide should continue their efforts to expose Turkish crimes against humanity and go beyond mere genocide recognition by expanding their activities to the following areas:

- Pass resolutions in the U.S. Congress and European parliaments,
seeking to defend the human rights of the Armenian minority in Turkey,
particularly the rights of Armenian churches and schools;

- Demand the lifting of an undeclared ban on Armenian citizens of
Turkey to enter its diplomatic service or hold high-ranking military
posts;

- File lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights and U.S. Federal
Courts to force Turkey to return to the Armenian Patriarchate of
Constantinople (Istanbul) the hundreds of Armenian church buildings
confiscated by the Turkish government after the Genocide;

- Seek the return of personal properties expropriated by Turkey;

- Expose the muzzling of Turkish citizens under Article 301 of the
Turkish Penal Code which makes it a crime to refer to the Armenian
Genocide; and

- Strongly counter all attempts by Turkish officials and their hired
lackeys to deny and distort the facts of the Armenian Genocide.

TURKISH AIRSPACE COMPLETELY OPEN FOR ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.09.2008 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia will henceforth be offered the same rules
as the other countries crossing the Turkish airspace.

Turkey has completely opened its airspace for Armenia, which lost
air communication routes after the Georgian-Russian conflict.

All limitations for Armenian aircraft have been lifted, Azeri Trend
news agency reports with reference to CNN Turk.

[reliabe source of news???]

YEREVAN'S ZVARTNOTS AIRPORT TOUGHENS RULES, FORBIDS CARRYING LIQUID IN HAND LUGGAGE
ARKA
Sep 26, 2008

YEREVAN, September 26. /ARKA/. Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport will give
effect to new rules from October 1, prohibiting passengers to carry
liquid in hand luggage, the press service of Armenia's national air
carrier Armavia reports.

According to the new rules, drinks, water, gels and aerosols in hand
luggage must not exceed 100ml.

All the passengers of Zvartnots, including transit passengers, are
to show inspectors the liquid in their bags and send it as heavy
luggage.


OSCE Deplores Freeze On Armenian TV Tenders
By Emil Danielyan

A senior official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
urged the Armenian authorities on Friday to repeal legal amendments
that prolonged a de facto ban on the country's main independent TV
station for at least two more years.

Under government-drafted amendments approved by the Armenian
parliament earlier this month, the National Commission on Television
and Radio (NCTR) is not allowed to hold fresh tenders for
broadcasting licenses until July 2010.

The government says the measure is necessary for expediting Armenia's
transition to mandatory digital broadcasting by 2012. But government
critics believe its real purpose is to fend off renewed Western
pressure for the reopening of A1+, the only national TV channel that
had regularly aired criticism of the government before being pulled
off the air in 2002.

Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media,
also questioned the official rationale for the move in a letter to
President Serzh Sarkisian released by his office. "By cutting off any
potential applicant broadcasters from entering the market until 2010,
the limited pluralism in Armenia's broadcasting sector will be
further diminished," he said.

"A moratorium on new licenses for analogue transmission should not be
the first step in the transition to digital broadcasting.
Digitalization should not be allowed to reduce diversity and
plurality or preserve a lack thereof. If the broadcasting landscape
in a country is not sufficiently pluralistic and diverse, it would be
appropriate to delay digitalization and undertake other reforms
first," added Haraszti.

A1+ lost its broadcasting frequency in a supposedly competitive
tender that was won by a pro-government media outlet. Its numerous
attempts to win another frequency have been blocked by the government-
controlled NCTR since then.

In a largely symbolic verdict, the European Court of Human Rights
last June fined the Armenian government 20,000 euros ($30,000) for
the ban and said the NCTR's consistent rejection of A1+ applications
violated the European Convention on Human Rights. The Strasbourg-
based court stopped short of explicitly ordering the Armenian
authorities to allow A1+ to resume broadcasts, though.

Haraszti said the freeze on issuing broadcasting licenses runs
counter to the court ruling. The Vienna-based official also pointed
to a recent resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe that urged Armenia to "ensure an open, fair and transparent
licensing procedure" and allow A1+ to apply for a new license.

Such actions would make it perfectly clear to Turkish officials
that unless they deal directly with the Diaspora and reach a fair
settlement on the damages emanating from the Armenian Genocide,
they would continue to be hounded around the globe, regardless of
any agreements they might have reached with the Armenian government.

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