Turkish Businessman Tells GQ Chief Editor Why They Won’t Apologize to Armenians

Nikolai Uskov, editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of GQ (pictured), published a conversation he had with a Turkish businessman during his visit to Istanbul. Uskov titled his post “Cursed national pride.”

“I was recently in Istanbul and sitting at dinner with a major Turkish media businessman. I asked him a question, using all possible civilized means, WHY DON’T YOU APOLOGIZE TO THE ARMENIANS? [caps in original]

- They dug up the corpses of our old men and raped them. It is they who should apologize.

- What about the European Union? Normalization of relations with Greece and Armenia is a condition of EU membership.

- At such a price, we don’t need it.  Read more... (134 words)

Russia does everything to prevent Karabakh settlement – Stratfor

Russia has taken the driver’s seat over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and does everything to prevent its settlement, Eugene Chausovsky, a Stratfor analyst writes in an article.

“A cease-fire was broken between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday after an exchange of gunfire occurred between the two countries on the line of contact. These skirmishes occurred after the latest round of negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is a disputed region between the two countries, failed to produce a settlement on Friday,” reads the article.

Further, it says that while negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh have been going on for several years, there are significant geopolitical realities that serve as obstacles to any sort of agreement over this issue.  Read more... (440 words)

Still No Progress In Armenian Unrest Probe

Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) said on Wednesday that it has still not made notable progress in a renewed investigation of the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan that was ordered by President Serzh Sarkisian in late April.

Vahagn Harutiunian, head of an SIS investigating team, said that none of some 100 eyewitnesses questioned in the last two months has provided significant information shedding more light on the worst street violence in the country’s history.

“The investigation is continuing with the same intensity, but we have no revelations,” Harutiunian told a news conference. “In any case, we still expect a result that will be interesting and that is expected by the entire society.”  Read more... (389 words)

Armenian Media Groups Slam Council Of Europe

Armenia’s leading media associations have strongly criticized the Council of Europe for declaring that the Armenian government has fully complied with a European court ruling on the closure of the independent A1+ TV station.

A1+, the only Yerevan-based channel not controlled by the government, lost its broadcasting license in April 2002 in a highly controversial tender administered by the supposedly independent National Commission on Television and Radio (HRAH).

The station’s owners backed by many local civil society representatives believe that it was taken off the air because of regularly airing reports critical of then President Robert Kocharian. The HRAH denies any political motives behind that decision, however.  Read more... (494 words, 1 image)

Hanging Armenia’s Dirty Laundry in Public

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

President Serzh Sargsyan made an important appearance at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg last week. In a whirlwind 30-minute speech, he covered Armenia’s internal and foreign affairs, presenting his country in the best possible light before a distinguished foreign audience.

On the domestic front, Pres. Sargsyan spoke about fighting corruption, holding “fair and transparent elections,” and overcoming “the consequences of the tragic events of March 2008.”

The President then reminded the European Parliamentarians about Armenia’s “shared historical and cultural legacy” with Europe and discussed the ongoing negotiations to resolve the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict. He condemned “the extreme level of Armenophobia and racism” in Azerbaijan, and spoke of the difficulty of making “a concession to the side that is looking for a convenient excuse to shoot at us.”  Read more... (793 words)

US needs Karabakh in order to attack Iran – analyst

The United States needs Nagorno Karabakh in order to attack Iran, according a Russian analyst.

“The United States has not yet given up the idea of launching a war against Iran. That war is planned for 2012. As the time is drawing near, it is becoming more and more obvious that the Americans need a territory near Iran to make their planes’ takeoff possible,” Vladimir Zakharov, the Director of the Institute of Political Studies of the Black Sea and Caspian Region, said during a Yerevan-Moscow space bridge-discussion devoted the outcomes of the recent trilateral presidential summit in Kazan, Russia.  Read more... (384 words)

Armenian opposition stands by its ‘snap election’ demand

With less than a year remaining before next parliamentary polls, Armenia’s main opposition remains adamant in seeking early elections, considering it a matter of principle.

At a press conference on Tuesday Stepan Demirchyan, leader of the People’s Party of Armenia and one of the key members of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), said that the opposition will continue to demand preterm elections despite President Serzh Sargsyan’s remarks at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly last week essentially amounting to rejecting the idea of holding such a vote.

“Holding early elections is the only way for the recovery of the country’s public-political life,” insisted Demirchyan, adding that the opposition does not mean to get the holding of elections through upheavals and that was why a dialogue format for settling the matter had been proposed.  Read more... (267 words)

Kazan summit post-mortem: Is lack of results also a result?

The countries spearheading international efforts on brokering a solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh have not yet expressed their attitude to the failure of the sides to reach an agreement around the basic principles of settlement at the June 24 summit.

Prior to the meeting of President Serzh Sargsyan, of Armenia, and President Ilham Aliyev, of Azerbaijan, in the Russian city of Kazan (hosted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev), the presidents of the United States and France, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, urged the two South Caucasus leaders to come to agreement. However, many experts then expressed the opinion that all the three presidents, who next year will have to enter election campaigns in their respective countries, simply need to freeze the situation and to prevent destabilization in the Caucasus region.  Read more... (664 words)

“War is Not Over”: Azerbaijan resumes bellicose rhetoric on Karabakh after Kazan

Azerbaijan’s so-called Karabakh Liberation Organization held a meeting in Baku on June 25 to discuss the “dangerous situation regarding Karabakh’s future that has formed after the Kazan meeting.”

The resolution adopted as a result of the meeting stated that “the futility of the Kazan meeting has once again demonstrated the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries’ pro-Armenian position. Hence, there is no point in continuing these negotiations.”

With this document the organization is demanding that the Azeri authorities “immediately start a war against Armenia”.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated on June 26: “Armenia’s occupation of 20 percent of Azeri territories is temporary and cannot last forever. I am strongly convinced that our territorial integrity will be recovered by any means it takes. The war in Karabakh is not over yet.”  Read more... (651 words)