Published since 2008
Published on March 21, 2012
ARMENIA, AZERBAJAN CLOSER THAN THEY THINK ON KARABAKH - US ENVOY
- As the Minsk Group turns 20, Armenia and Azerbaijan are 'Closer than they think' to settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the US envoy has said. In an interview with the European Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Robert Bradtke highlighted the past years' activities of the mission, considering it a factor promoting stability and channeling a dialogue between the parties. "I think the Minsk Group has done three important things. First of all, it has helped be a factor for stability. It has helped defuse tensions. It has helped prevent the outbreak of another war, and when cease-fire violations occur - and they have occurred throughout this period, since 1994 - it has helped ensure that those cease-fire violations do not escalate into something more serious. The second thing the Minsk Group has done is be a channel for communication between and among the parties," he said. Another important achievement according to the diplomat, is the ability to develop a common basis for negotiations. He said that their activities in the past 5 years focused in particular on the development of the Basic Principles [which include the return of Armenian-occupied lands surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Baku's control; the right of return for displaced persons; interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh with security and self-governance guarantees; a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh; and an agreement to determine the territory's final legal status at some point in the future]. Asked whether the parties are closer to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute today than they were in 1992, Bradtke said: "I think there's no question we're closer today than we were 20 years ago. I think the sides understand the basic elements of what a settlement should look like. They've articulated, and we've articulated with them, elements that are captured by the presidents in the joint statements they made at the summits in L'Aquila, in Muskoka, and last year in Deauville. Those elements, I think, are more clear now than they've ever been, and do represent real progress over where we were in 1992 or in 1994, when the cease-fire came into effect." Speaking of the June 2011 Kazan summit between the Armenian Azerbaijani and Russian leaders, the diplomat regretted to note that they saw no progress despite having great expectations. "But that doesn't mean that everything is lost. It doesn't mean we don't have areas where the sides agree or that we can't still move forward from the work that has been done. It means we take a deep breath and look for ways to move forward. One of the challenges at this stage is the interrelationship among the steps [described in the Basic Principles document]. I really don't want to get into too much detail, because this is a sensitive negotiation, but that's really one of the challenges now. It's the sequencing and interrelationship of the steps that take place," he said. To the remark that Presidents Sargsyan and Aliyev expressed willingness, in the Sochi statement, for the OSCE to investigate cease-fire violations along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact, Bradtke responded: "This was something that they originally discussed last year. We have presented the sides with some of our ideas on how to do this. It's not a simple matter, again. We have given ideas to the sides and we discussed them when we were in the region just a couple of weeks ago. We've got some views back from them, but we continue to feel that there's more than needs to be done to elaborate this mechanism in a way that it might actually be able to contribute to increasing stability along the line of contact and along the front lines. We will be meeting as co-chairs in Vienna later this week before we meet with the OSCE Permanent Council. This will also give us a chance to discuss with the high-level planning group at the OSCE -- their military experts -- [and we will] get some input from them on this mechanism. So we will continue to work on this and try to develop ideas that the sides can agree upon."
© Tert.am
Headlines for March 21, 2012SENATORS MENENDEZ, KIRK INTRODUCE GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
US Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) introduced legislation, S.Res.399, today calling upon the US government to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide and to use the lessons of this ...MITT ROMNEY WINS IN REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
Mitt Romney has won the Republican primary in Illinois, his latest win on the road to decide who will contest November's poll against Barack Obama, BBC News reported. Romney has won 47% of the votes, ...US REPS JOIN PALLONE TO PRESS FOR PRO-ARMENIA FOREIGN AID
Thirty-one US Representatives joined today with Armenian Caucus Co-Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) in encouraging leading House foreign aid appropriators to approve increased aid to Armenia, expanded assistance ...PAP UNVEILS NAMES OF TOP 20 CANDIDATES
The coalition Prosperous Armenia party (PAP) has unveiled the names of its top 20 candidates running for parliament. At the top of the list is PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan. Former Foreign Minister Vardan ...ZHOGHOVURD: ARMENIAN SINGER ENTERING PARLIAMENT WITH SONG
Shushan Petrosyan, a well-known Armenian singer, who is on the party list of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), is now preparing for a concert scheduled for March 23. It is not yet clear how ...ARMENIAN PATRIARCHATE'S BOLD MOVE TO SUE TURKISH GOVERNMENT
By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier We must commend Acting Patriarch Aram Ateshian and the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul for making the bold move of suing the Turkish government ...ASPIRIN A DAY CUTS CANCER RISK - STUDY
Middle-aged people can significantly reduce their chances of being diagnosed with cancer by taking an aspirin a day for as little as three years, according to new research.
The new work shows that the ...NO DRAWING OF LOTS BY PROSPEROUS ARMENIA CANDIDATES
The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) plans to publish a list of its candidates from 21st and down. However, the party may present the list to the Central Electoral Commission on March 22, the deadline ...NO COMMENTS ON ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE VISITS - SPOKESMAN
Talking to Tert.am, Victor Soghomonyan, Spokesman for Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharyan, said that it is not his duty to report information on Kocharyan's private visits. The Zhoghovurd daily reported ...ARMENIA, AZERBAJAN CLOSER THAN THEY THINK ON KARABAKH - US ENVOY
As the Minsk Group turns 20, Armenia and Azerbaijan are 'Closer than they think' to settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the US envoy has said. In an interview with the European Service of Radio Free ...ARMENIA'S FREE DEMOCRATS NOT TO CHANGE PARTY LIST
The Free Democrats party has no intention to make any changes in its list though the party's Political Council has been authorized to. "The party list was submitted to the public on March 18, and the ...REAL LIFE BRAZILIAN TO CUT HAIR FOR FIRST TIME
A twelve-year-old girl who has been dubbed the real-life Rapunzel after refusing to cut her hair for her whole life is to cut it all off - and plans the 5ft 2in mane of hair for £3,500 to be made ...ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE SEEK SEATS IN PARLIAMENT - ACTIVIST
The lists of the political parties preparing to run for parliament include very different people whose activities are hard to predict after the election, Garegin Chugaszyan, a member of Sardarapat Movement ...NEW TIMES PARTY CONSIDERS POLLS PRE-ARRANGED
The opposition New Times party has taken a political decision not to run for parliament in May as it considers the outcome pre-arranged, Aram Karapetyan, the leader of the party has said. Speaking to ...REMEMBERING WILLIAM SAROYAN EXHIBITION OPENS AT ARMENIA'S NATIONAL LIBRARY
An exhibition Remembering William Saroyan was opened at the National Library of Armenia on March 19. The Armenian Embassy in Greece and the Greek-Armenian Research Center are sponsoring the exhibition ...CULTURAL WORKER ACCUSING ARMENIAN INTELLECTUALS
Armenian intellectuals are easily corrupted by money and power now, Artavazd Bayatyan, co-founder of the Ardzagank studio, told journalists on Tuesday. Speaking of intellectuals' role on the threshold ...STATE OF EMERGENCY LAW PASSES SECOND READING
The Draft Law on the Legal Regime of State of Emergency has passed a second reading in the National Assembly. Sixty-eight out of the eighty lawmakers present at today's session voted in favor of the ...ARF-D PRESENTS LIST IN ARMENIA'S PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
At its news conference on Tuesday, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) presented its party list and list of candidates running in parliament in single-member constituencies. ...HERITAGE, FREE DEMOCRATS DISCUSS PRE-ELECTION PLANS
The opposition Heritage and Free Democrats parties held a joint political board meeting yesterday night to discuss their pre-election plans. According to a press release by Heritage, both parties considered ...ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS TO NEVER WIN ELECTIONS - OPPOSITIONIST
Aram Karapetyan, Chairman of the New Times party, is surprised at the opposition Armenian National Congress' (ANC) intention to run for parliament. He is sure that the ANC will never gain a majority ...US PANEL SLAMS TURKEY ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS
A US government advisory panel called Tuesday for Turkey to be put on a blacklist over religious freedom, faulting the close ally's treatment of religious groups and especially minorities, AFP reported.
In ...PROSPEROUS ARMENIA MP DELIVERS FAREWELL ADDRESS IN PARLIAMENT
Vardan Bostanjyan, an MP of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), delivered a farewell in Armenia's parliament. "This is my last speech from this platform," Bostanjyan said at the discussions of draft ...DEMOCRATIC PARTY ENROLLS NEW CANDIDATES
The Armenian Democratic Party held an extended session on Tuesday to discuss the list of its parliamentary nominees. After several meetings and discussions, the Party's Republican Council made a decision ...ARMENIAN IMMIGRANTS' CHILDREN IN TURKEY TO GET SCHOOLING BY LAW
Turkey's law on private schools has been amended. One of the amendments deals with the schools owned by the country's national minorities. The amendment grants the right to schooling to children whose ...LEGENDARY ITALIAN SCREENWRITER TONINO GUERRA PASSES AWAY
Legendary Italian screenwriter Tonino Guerra has died aged 92, Malta Today reported. Born in 1920 in Ravenna, Tonino Guerra wrote several short stories, poetry and novels, and in 1956 his first screenplay ...COCA COLA TO INTRODUCE NEW BOTTLE SIZE
Coca-Cola is readying an outdoor campaign to introduce its 375ml pocket size bottles across its Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero brands this spring, Marketing Week reported. The outdoor campaign will ...MACEDONIAN POLITICIAN TO HEAD ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION IN ARMENIA
Radmila Šekerinska, the chief of the OSCE Organizations for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), will submit the mission's mandate in Yerevan on Thursday. According to Mediamax news ...I ALWAYS BACKED THE OPPRESSED, SAYS POLITICIAN
Head of the Armenian Political Analysts' Union Hmayak Hovhannisyan, who is going to run for parliament as a non-partisan candidate listed on the Prosperous Armenia party's (PAP) ballot, says his political ...STATE OF EMERGENCY LAW PASSES FINAL READING
The Draft Law on the Legal Regime of State of Emergency passed the National Assembly's third and final reading on Wednesday.
The bill was adopted with a vote of 63 in favor. But Larisa Alaverdyan of the ...GUNMAN ARRESTED AFTER TOULOUSE SEIGE
A gunman suspected of killing seven people in the name of al-Qaeda, including three children at a Jewish school, has been arrested by police after an hours-long siege in southwestern France, The National ...TURKEY'S RULING PARTY OFFICE COMES UNDER BOMB ATTACK
An unknown individual has thrown a makeshift bomb at Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) office in Diyarbekir. To avoid disorders amid the Nowruz celebrations, the police in the Turkish ...
© Tert.am
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Today in Armenian history- 0 Our ancestors celebrated the New Year in this day as the reawakening of nature and the work of the farmer.
- 1615 According to a proclamation by the Polish King Sigismund the Third, Armenians were allowed to live and work in Dubrovitsa. This Armenian colony was obliterated in 1672 in the course of Turkish attacks.
- 1747 The Dutch award the Armenians of Indonesia the same civil rights as European free citizens.
- 1758 Birth of Ghookas Eencheechyan (armenologist and geographer). He died in 1833.
- 1763 Death of Catholicos Hakob the Fifth --Shamakhetsee. He was an important figure in the liberation movement of the 18th century. His birthdate is unknown.
- 1828 Tsar Nicholas the First defines the status of the Armenian Province. Major-General Tchavchevadze is appointed Governor of the Province.
- 1879 Birth of Anooshavan Vardanian, playwright, representative of proletarian literature. He was head of the Copyright Protection Department.
- 1888 Birth of Marietta Shahinyan (Bolshevik propaganda writer) in Moscow.
- 1942 Vahan Mirakyan (poet) dies in Yerevan. He was born in 1866.
- 1981 Inauguration of the Arpa-Sevan tunnel.
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