Armenia's culturally split town
Al Jazeera -- The long-running dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh - has particular significance for the historic town of Shusha - which has been seen as a cultural capital for both countries.
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Russia Sees More Progress In Karabakh Talks
“We are trying to help Armenians and Azerbaijanis to reach a common approach,” the DPA news agency quoted him as saying at the Munich Security Conference. “It's obviously a very difficult issue, but things are moving.” “The understanding is growing and the number of issues that must be tackled by the top leaders is reducing and we are trying to help,” Lavrov said. Russia, which co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group with the United States and France, has stepped up its involvement in the Karabakh negotiating process of late, with President Dmitry Medvedev hosting this year’s first meeting of his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts near the Russian city of Sochi late last month. Read 0 Comments... >> Sargsyan Urges Gül to 'Make a Big Step Forward'
“Your Excellency, “Travelling over Turkey’s air territory, I am sending my greetings to you and people of neighbouring Turkey. “Our initiative to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations is at the centre of the international community’s attention. This period is, in fact, a historical one, and not only we, but also the whole world understands that. The efforts made by regional powers for the improvement of bilateral relations go beyond any appreciation. I am sure that it would be hard to see progress without their intervention. Read 0 Comments... >> Turkish Leader Blasts Karabakh Mediators
“There has been serious neglect by the Minsk trio,” Erdogan charged in a Sunday evening interview with Turkish state television, referring to the U.S., Russia and France -- the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group on Karabakh. “If Russia, the US and France had worked hard within the past 20 years, none of these problems would have emerged; neither the trouble between us and Armenia, nor a trouble between Armenia and Azerbaijan would remain,” he said, according to “Today’s Zaman” daily. “The performance of Russia, America and France has been below expectations,” he added. Read 0 Comments... >> Armenia and Turkey: The truce in need of a rescue
The Los Angeles Times, By Henri J. Barkey and Thomas de Waal -- For a while, it looked like the start of a great reconciliation. Armenia and Turkey have lived beneath the vast shadow of the mass murder of Armenians in eastern Turkey during World War I, and to this day they maintain no diplomatic ties. But in October, the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers met in Switzerland and signed two protocols to set up relations, open their common border -- closed since 1993 -- and begin addressing the painful disputes that divide them. Each nation's governments must still ratify the agreements. The United States, with its large Armenian American community and strategic alliance with Turkey, threw its weight behind the deal.
But this great truce is already in need of a rescue, and if it breaks down, we will end up in a worse place than where we started. In January, Turkey showed signs of having cold feet. Its foreign ministry objected to a judgment by the Armenian constitutional court supporting the protocols on the grounds that they are consistent with the founding principles of the state, which commit it to pursuing recognition of the 1915 killings as genocide.
Read 1 Comments... >> Turkey Slams U.S. Over Armenian Genocide Bill
Davutoglu reportedly suggested that Washington is using the prospect of the resolution’s passage by the U.S. House of Representatives to force Turkey to ratify its fence-mending agreements with Armenia. He also accused Yerevan of hampering further progress in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “Why is that draft included on the [committee] agenda now?” he said, according to a “Hurriyet” report cited by the Azerbaijani APA news agency on Monday. “Let them not expect from us the ratification of protocols by using April 24 as a tool for pressure. Read 0 Comments... >> Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia presidents to discuss Karabakh conflict
Upon the results of the first tripartite meeting in Barvikha “the presidents signed the Declaration of the Azerbaijani Republic, the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation, which confirmed the striving for attaining a political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict under the international law, the support for the mediating efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Russia, the United States and France) and the agreements reached between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to intensify the negotiating process and to promote the creation of conditions for building up trust.” Read 0 Comments... >> Top U.S. Official Discusses Turkey In Yerevan
Steinberg met with Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian during a one-day visit to Yerevan. The U.S.-backed efforts to improve Turkish-Armenian relations were high on the agenda of his talks. “He reaffirmed that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is very important for the United States and that the USA is ready to continue its assistance to the process,” Sarkisian’s press office said in a statement. The statement said Steinberg praised the Armenian leadership’s commitment to the implementation of the Turkish-Armenian normalization and stood by Washington’s view that a relevant ruling handed down last month by Armenia’s Constitutional Court was a step in the right direction. Read 0 Comments... >> Armenia's 2010 State Budget
Those eleven categories (with the exception of the Reserve Funds) are divided into the relevant sub-categories. A careful study of the budget shows for example that the reserved funds are equal to the total funds the government intends to spend on sports, culture and the environment. Read 0 Comments... >> Eyes on Sochi for progress on Nagorno-Karabakh
Ankara, which last year agreed with Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their border, insists on seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in parallel with its efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan. Ankara argues that partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as the parties fail to exert efforts for complete normalization. Read 0 Comments... >> U.S. Pressure ‘Essential’ For Turkish-Armenian Normalization
In an interview with RFE/RL on Thursday, David Phillips also criticized Ankara’s linkage between the implementation of those agreements and a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. He dismissed Turkish claims that a recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court ran counter to key provisions of the Turkish-Armenian “protocols” signed in October. Phillips, who coordinated the work of the U.S.-sponsored Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) in 2001-2004, further said that Armenia should not rush to walk away from the deal. But he stressed that its ratification by the Turkish parliament can not be “an open-ended process.” Read 0 Comments... >> U.S. House Panel Schedules Vote On Armenian Genocide Bill
RFE/RL -- A key committee of the U.S. House of Representatives will vote early next month on a resolution urging President Barack Obama to describe the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Armenian-American leaders said on Friday.The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), said Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has scheduled the vote for March 4. The ANCA chairman, Ken Hachikian, thanked the California Democrat for taking what he called a “bold step.”
Officials from the Armenian Assembly of America, the other major Armenian lobby group in Washington, confirmed the information. The Assembly was due to officially announce it later in the day.
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Haaretz.com, by Yossi Sarid -- The defense minister [Israeli] paid a visit to Turkey this week. They say it was a success. If so, it is possible to renew the conspiracy of silence and the silencing. I was filled with revulsion and my soul wanted to puke. The person who telephoned me was an example of the ugly Israeli who had disgracefully been at the forefront of those who denied the Armenian Holocaust. Read 0 Comments... >> Armenian Rights Activist Acquitted
RFE/RL -- An Armenian human rights activist who spent more than four months in prison last year was acquitted on Friday of highly controversial charges that were leveled against him.Arshaluys Hakobian of the Armenian Helsinki Association (AHA) was taken into custody on June 5 after a bitter argument with two police officers that visited his Yerevan apartment to hand him a summons from the Special Investigative Services (SIS). Hakobian complained to the law-enforcement agency after he and the chairman of the human rights group, Mikael Danielian, were allegedly intimidated by government loyalists during the May 31 municipal elections in Yerevan.
Read 0 Comments... >> Mediators Plan More Armenian-Azeri Summits
RFE/RL by The American, French and Russian diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group said they met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to “follow up” on his last meeting with Armenia’s Serzh Sarkisian held in Munich on November 22. In a joint statement, the mediators said they also intend to visit Yerevan in early January. “These visits will prepare the way for further meetings between the two presidents in 2010 to finalize the Basic Principles for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” they said. Read 0 Comments... >> |



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