Friday 10
September
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By: Ara Papian – Head, “Modus Vivendi” Center
We are not going to negotiate over the right of the people of Artsakh (Karabakh) to self-determination.
Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia, 1 June 2010
It is for the people to determine the destiny of the territory and not the territory the destiny of the people.
Judge Hardy Dillard, International Court of Justice, 16 October 1975
By Lucine Kasbarian
On Wednesday May 12, at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) in Watertown, Massachusetts, editors Emil Sanamyan of the Armenian Reporter and Khatchig Mouradian of theArmenian Weekly spoke about their recent trip to Turkey sponsored by TEPAV – a Turkish think tank that has recently been promoting Turkish-Armenian relations. TEPAV is funded by TOBB, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.
ALMA Executive Director Mariam Stepanyan welcomed the audience after which moderator Marc Mamigonian, Academic Affairs Director of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), opened by noting that there was no formal title for the evening’s program because the trip was not necessarily part of what would be termed “Turkish-Armenian reconciliation or relations.”
By Ara Papian – Head, “Modus Vivendi” Center
The changes proposed by the Government to the law on language has recently become subject to heated public debate. It is natural and good that society express many opinions. This implies that we are gradually surmounting the legacy of the not-too-distant past. It is unfortunate, however, that those in favour of the changes to the law are not putting forth reasonable counter-arguments to the political, legal, economic, psychological and cultural facts presented by their opponents, but are instead simply warping the essence of the issue in attempting to present the case as a manifestation of xenophobia and advocacy for self-imposed isolationism.
By: David Boyajian
Is the Woodrow Wilson Center seeking to discredit the Treaty of Sèvres on its 90th anniversary by honoring Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu?
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th American president, is looking down in horror at what the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWC; WilsonCenter.org) is doing in his name.
Most Americans are not aware of the DC-based organization, or that their taxes comprise one-third of its multi-million dollar annual budget.
The WWC was created by Congress in 1968 through the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act to commemorate the late president’s “ideals and concerns” and memorialize “his accomplishments.”
The WWC has in several ways, however, violated its Congressional mandate.
At an official ceremony held in the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Economy on August 6, 2010, Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan, US Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch and USAID/Armenia Mission Director Jatinder Cheema signed two Assistance Agreements under which the US Government will provide up to $50 million to the Government of Armenia for the period of 2010-2013 in support of the country’s economic development and health and social services reform, according to a release issued by US Embassy in Armenia .
The price of bread in Armenia looked set on Friday to soar further following the Russian government’s decision to ban all grain exports because of a severe drought that has devastated crops across Russia.
The move, announced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday, pushed international prices of wheat to the highest level since the 2007-08 global food crisis. They jumped by more than 12 percent in European commodity markets.
The wholesale and retail prices rose just as drastically in Armenia where one 50-kilogram sack of flour cost between 9,500 and 10,000 ($27.4) on Friday. The rise did not immediately push up bread prices. They are nonetheless expected to be adjusted accordingly in the coming days.
ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian commented on recent statement by political observer David Petrosian, who was cited as saying, “soonest appointment of a new U.S. ambassador to Armenia, – be it Matthew Bryza or someone else, is important in restraining Azerbaijan’s ambitions.”
Aram Hamparian responded as follows, “Just to be clear, this is the same Mr. Bryza who was the primary U.S. adviser to the Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili as he stumbled into war with Russia; the same diplomat with controversial ties to top Azerbaijani leaders (Foreign Minister Elmar Mammedyarov served as a groomsman in his Istanbul wedding to Caspian energy expert/advocate Zeyno Baran), the same nominee backed by senior Azerbaijanis close to the Aliyev regime and by leaders of the Azerbaijani American community, and; the same U.S. official who has, for more than a decade, turned a blind eye to Azerbaijani threats, military aggression, and acts of cultural desecration.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov hopes that his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will take very useful initiatives in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reports Azerbaijani news agency Trend.
“Turkey is highly respected in the international arena, and therefore I believe that Ahmet Davutoglu will take very useful initiatives in the Karabakh settlement”, Mammadyarov said at a joint press conference following a summit of Turkic-speaking countries.
The summit was held in Bodrum town in western Turkish province of Mugla on Thursday bringing together foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a letter to the Director of Administration and the Acting Executive Director of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts Vahagn Marabyan thanked the Center for hosting her meeting with Armenian civil society leaders.
“The center is a magnificent landmark and a wonderful symbol of Armenian- American cooperation. Our tour of the Cafesjian sculpture garden and the Chihuly gallery was one of the highlights of my visit to Yerevan”, the letter of Secretary Clinton said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Cafesjian Center for the Arts on July 5th, 2010. In her honor, a glass sculpture by Sidney Hutter was placed on exhibit – similar to the one by the same artist, added to the White House Craft Collection in 1993. The sculpture, known as the “White House Vase”, is now in the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
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