Armenian News

Turkish, Armenian Presidents In `Useful' Talks
Presidents Serzh Sarkisian of Armenia (L) and Abdullah Gul of Turkey
meet in Prague on May 7, 2009.
08.05.2009
Gevorg Stamboltsian

Armenia and Turkey remain committed normalizing bilateral relations
soon, President Serzh Sarkisian said late on Thursday after holding
what he called `useful' talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah
Gul in Prague.
The two leaders met on the fringes of a European Union summit in the
Czech capital for a third time in eight months. The meeting came two
weeks after Ankara and Yerevan announced that they have `identified a
roadmap' for establishing diplomatic relations and reopening the
Turkish-Armenian border.

`We agreed to honor our agreements,' Sarkisian told journalists after
the talks. He said the two sides will `move towards normalizing
Turkish-Armenian relations without preconditions and within
reasonable time frames.'

Gul also seemed satisfied with his discussions with Sarkisian but did
not comment on possible dates for border opening. He said they also
discussed regional security issues, stressing the importance of both
the Turkish-Armenian dialogue and the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.
`I think that improved relations in the Caucasus will stem from
everyone's interests,' the Turkish president told reporters.

Gul cited in that regard Sarkisian's meeting earlier in the day with
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev which international mediators said
marked further progress towards a Karabakh settlement. He did not
specify whether such a settlement is a necessary condition for the
normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly stated in
recent weeks that Ankara will not reopen the Armenian border as long
as the Karabakh dispute remains unresolved. Turkey's powerful
military has endorsed those statements.

`Preconditions are out of question,' insisted Sarkisian. `Simply out
of question.'

Still, Sarkisian's political opponents say he has already accepted at
least some of the Turkish preconditions by discussing the Karabakh
conflict with the Turks and agreeing to the creation of a Turkish-
Armenian commission of historians. The commission would reportedly
look into the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire.

Many in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora view such a study as a
Turkish ploy designed to keep more countries of the world, notably
the United States, from officially recognizing the massacres as
genocide.

Armenian, Azeri Leaders Report More Progress In Karabakh Talks
Czech Republic -- Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Serzh Sarkisian
(L) and Ilham Aliyev meet in Prague, 07May2009
07.05.2009
Gevorg Stamboltsian


The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan reported further progress
towards the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh after holding fresh talks
in Prague on Thursday.

Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliev met there on the sidelines of
a European Union summit that offered their nations as well as four other
former Soviet republics to forge closer ties with the EU. The meeting
began in the presence of their foreign ministers and the American,
French and Russian diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.

Aliev and Sarkisian then spoke one on one for more than two hours.
Neither leader made any public statements afterwards, leaving it to the
three mediators to present the results of the talks to journalists.
Matthew Bryza, the chief U.S. negotiator, said the presidents made
`significant progress' towards finalizing a framework peace agreement
along the lines of the basic principles put forward by the co-chairs.

`Presidents Aliev and Sarkisian were able ¦ to reduce their differences
on our basic principles and generally agree on the basic ideas that they
came here to discuss,' Bryza said. `We had some specific ideas and
elements of the basic principles we are trying to finalize and they do
agree on the basic approach.'

`We plan in coming days and weeks to work together with the foreign
ministers to finalize the details of these key remaining concepts within
the basic principles,' added the diplomat.

`We are preparing a breakthrough,' said Bernard Fassier, the group's
French co-chair. `We are in a position to identify what could be the
break, but we are not yet through. So we need to progress and we are
expecting to realize that in the following weeks.'

Fassier, Bryza and their Russian opposite number, Yuri Merzlyakov,
refused to disclose what specifically Aliev and Sarkisian have agreed
on.

In a written statement, Sarkisian's office confirmed that the two
presidents have narrowed their differences over `some points' of the
proposed settlement. It said they instructed their foreign ministers to
continue to work on its details with the mediators and to prepare for
another Armenian-Azerbaijani summit.

Merzlyakov said Aliev and Sarkisian will likely meet again in
Saint-Petersburg, Russia early next month. The two leaders held their
first face-to-face talks there in June last year.


Obama Seeks Further Cut In U.S. Aid To Armenia
U.S. -- President Barack Obama (R) speaks about tax reform as
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner looks on at the White House in
Washington, DC, 04May2009
08.05.2009
Emil Danielyan

The administration of President Barack Obama has asked the U.S.
Congress to approve a 38 percent reduction in U.S. economic
assistance to Armenia, eliciting strong criticism from Armenian-
American lobby groups.
The administration's draft budget for the fiscal year 2010 unveiled
on Thursday would reduce its total amount to $30 million and end
direct U.S. aid to Nagorno-Karabakh, projected at $8 million in 2009,
altogether. Separate U.S. funding for the Armenian military would
remain virtually unchanged at approximately $3.5 million.

The main Armenian-American advocacy groups were quick to reject the
proposed allocations and accuse Obama of breaking an election
campaign pledge to `maintain our assistance to Armenia.' `This budget
is fundamentally flawed,' Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the
Armenian Assembly of America, said in a statement.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), for its part, said
the proposed cut contrasts with a 9 percent rise in overall foreign
aid spending sought by the Obama administration. `[Obama's] proposal
to sharply reduce vitally needed assistance to Armenia ... is all the
more disappointing in light of the urgent economic challenges facing
Armenia,' said Aram Hamparian, the ANCA executive director.

Both the ANCA and the Assembly also deplored the fact that the
administration is seeking to increase U.S. economic assistance to oil-
rich Azerbaijan by 20 percent to $22.1 million in addition to $4
million in fresh military aid. "It is incomprehensible that a country
which already has billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue would
receive an increase in U.S. funding while the neighbor it blockades
sees its funding decrease,' said Ardouny.

He said the Assembly will lobby pro-Armenian lawmakers to `reverse
this proposal on all levels.' The ANCA is certain to do the same.

The two influential groups were instrumental in making Armenia a
leading per-capita recipient of U.S. aid in the 1990s. Annual volumes
of that aid have steadily decreased since then.

Total U.S. funding for Armenia since its independence has exceeded
$1.6 billion. The U.S. government also approved in 2006 $236.5
million in additional aid to the country under its Millennium
Challenge Account (MCA) program.

ISRAELI PARLIAMENT REJECTS DISCUSSING ARMENIAN "GENOCIDE" BILL
Hurriyet
May 7 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL - The Israeli parliament has dropped a motion proposing that
the Jewish state officially recognize the Armenian claims regarding the
1915 incidents as "genocide," according to reports earlier this week.

Israel has a moral duty to remember the "killing of Armenians,"
Environment Minister Gilad Erdan said before reading aloud the
government's response, which rejects the motion put forward by
leftist-Meretz leader Haim Oron.

"Israel has never denied the terrible acts carried out against the
Armenians, and I am well aware of the intensity of the emotions given
the number of victims and the suffering of the Armenian people,"
Erdan was quoted by Ynetnews.com as saying.

Erdan, however, said the 1915 incidents should be assessed on the basis
of historical data instead of a political discussion in parliament.

"The study of the events must be done through open discussion,
and backed by the historical data, not a political debate in the
Knesset. Because of our understanding of the pain and suffering,
and so that Israel does not become a side that deals with this from a
purely political place, I ask that we take this issue off the Knesset's
agenda," he said.

The issue of the 1915 incidents is highly sensitive for Turkey as
well as Armenia. In the incidents around 300,000 Armenians and at
least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians
took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

However Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5
million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in
1915. The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in accepting
Turkey's proposal of forming a commission to investigate the claims.

FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS ALREADY AFFECTED 90% OF ARMENIAN COMPANIES
PanARMENIAN.Net
06.05.2009 20:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A poll, involving 60 small and major companies
in Yerevan and RA regions, showed that the crisis has affected 90%
of them, Economy and Values Research Center stated.

According to Economy and Values Research Center Chairman Manuk
Hergnyan, 70% of organizations' main issues are caused by reduced
sales volumes, untimely payments and even non-fulfillment of
payments. "35-40% of companies had difficulties in attracting
financial means, " he said, adding that majority of companies plan
to cut administration expenditures and delay planned investments.

40% of organizations polled plan job cuts, and 20% - salary reductions,
especially in industrial spheres. On the other hand, the crisis has
had a positive influence on a number of Armenian companies, as far
as competitors' weakened positions, raw material and equipment price
reductions are concerned.

"Around 80% of entrepreneurs polled believe that the crisis will
exacerbate in 2009," Hergnyan reported.
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