Foreign Relations of Armenia

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Armenia should strengthen her ties with Pakistan (and India).
Pakistan, with 200 million people and nuclear weapons, is the most influential Muslim country in the world today

Pakistan is an ally of Azerbaijan and doesn't accept Armenia as a state. How can we improve the relation with those bastards?

And our relation with India is good, there are a lot of Indian students who study in Yerevan. And there are a lot of Armenians living in India and there is an very ancient Armenian presence in India.

[lampron]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Pakistan is an ally of Azerbaijan and doesn't accept Armenia as a state. How can we improve the relation with those bastards?

And our relation with India is good, there are a lot of Indian students who study in Yerevan. And there are a lot of Armenians living in India and there is an very ancient Armenian presence in India.

Armenia is trying to improve relations with Turkey, why not Pakistan?

Armenians have been respectful of Islam and could win friends in Pakistan.

Christianity is much closer to Islam than Hinduism

[Davo88]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Relations with Pakistan would be great, but it seems to me that it is the Pakistanis who have to make the first step by recognizing the existence of Armenia. As KarotheGreat said, how can we develop relations with a country that does not recognize us? Even Azerbaijan and Turkey recognize Armenia as a country...

Besides, our foreign relations are not based on religion and rightfully so it's alright to have friendly relations with India. For instance, Iran is one of our best allies in the region.

[lampron]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Relations with Pakistan would be great, but it seems to me that it is the Pakistanis who have to make the first step by recognizing the existence of Armenia. As KarotheGreat said, how can we develop relations with a country that does not recognize us? Even Azerbaijan and Turkey recognize Armenia as a country...

.

That's a pity because Pakistanis I have met, have been friendly and hospitable people.

It is believed that in the 18th century thousands of Armenians lived in Afghanistan

[Eddo211]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

Excellent trip by Serge Sargsyan. I can only hope our relations with Syria (and other friendly Arab countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, UAE) reach the summit. It will help counter the monopoly Azerbaijan has (or is building) over the region due to the Islamic conference.
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Syria and Armenia Sign 10 Agreements, Memos of Understanding and Executive Program

Syria and Armenia signed on Tuesday 9 agreements and memos of understanding for cooperation in several fields including justice, interior, higher education, scientific research, industry, electricity, renewable energy, sport and remote sensing.

Also, an executive program for technical and scientific cooperation in agriculture for the years 2010 and 2012 was signed.

The agreements were signed by Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Adel Safar, Minister of Higher Education Ghiyath Barakat, Minister of Industry Fouad Issa al-Jouni, Minister of Electricity Ahmad Qussai Kayyali, Minister of Justice Ahmad Younes, Minister of Interior Said Sammour, Director-General of the Remote Sensing General Establishment Osama Ammar and Chairman of the Executive Office of the General Sport Union Muaffaq Jomaa.

On the Armenian side, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Agriculture Minister Gerasim Alaverdian, Armenian Ambassador to Damascus Arshak Poladyan signed the agreements.

In a statement to SANA, Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri said Syrian-Armenian relations are important and necessary, adding Syria is exerting all efforts to enhance them in the interests of both friendly countries.

http://www.isria.com/pages/23_March_2010_146.php

When it comes to economic relations I agree and I also hope that it will grow

but when I see how warm and close their relationship with Turkey is with Erdogan announcing ready to mediate Israeli Syria peace talk while Bashar Al-Assad has announced that he is ready to mediate Armenian Azerbaijan peace talks...........these two will trade interests in a heart beat. What kinds of tricks are they trying to pull? This is too damn obvious.

[londontsi]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=116403

Bulgarian MEPs Urge EU to Be Proactive in South Caucasus


The European Parliament has approved a report of a Bulgarian MEP urging the EU craft a strategy for the critically important South Caucasus region.

The report of the Bulgarian Socialist MEP, Evgeni Kirilov, stresses the need for the Union to be proactive with respect to the stabilization and encouraging the development of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, the three South Caucasus states.

“The main goal of the EU in the South Caucasus should be to help Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia became stable democratic states that can have good neighborly relations with one another, and be integrated with the EU policies,” Kirilov declared before the vote on his report entitled “The Need for a Strategy in the South Caucasus,” which was adopted with an overwhelming majority by the EP on Thursday.

“The South Caucasus is not only a region bordering the EU (i.e. Bulgaria and Romania through the Black Sea), but also a region of enormous strategic importance with respect to our economic and security policies because of its increasingly crucial role as an energy, transport and communications corridor connecting the Caspian Region and Central Asia with Europe,” declared Kirilov.

He expressed his hope that the most recent initiative of the EU for the region, the Eastern Partnership, will contribute substantially the integration of the three South Caucasus states with the EU, and mentioned that the realization of the Nabucco gas transit pipeline project necessitated deeper EU presence in the region.

“Yet, these ambitious policies of the EU will be hard to realize because of the shadow cast by the unresolved conflicts in Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh. The conflict in Georgia in 2008 made the EU realize that it has to play a more active role in the region. This conclusion is even more valid for the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan where EU’s absence is felt very strongly,” the Bulgarian Socialist MEP underscored.

Kirilov stressed the issues of the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in the region which burdened the development of the three states there, and were a serious humanitarian problem.

“The EU has the means and the expertise to contribute to the creation of a tolerant atmosphere in the Southern Caucasus,” he said.

The report of the Socialist MEP was supported strongly by his Bulgarian colleague from the European People’s Party, Andrey Kovachev, who is the Chair of the Bulgarian delegation within the EPP-EP group.

“I welcome wholeheartedly the report of Mr. Kirilov which stresses the need for a more active EU role in the South Caucasus, a region whose positive development is in the interest not only for the neighboring Black Sea region – for which, unfortunately, the EU does not have a clear strategy as well – but also for the entire EU,” Kovachev stated during the EP debates.

He expressed his concern over the delay of the ratification of the protocols singed last October between Turkey and Armenia, and urged the EU to use its experience from the Balkans and Georgia in order to help settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“The Lisbon Treaty has provided the EU with a framework for becoming a truly global actor. An example in that direction would be the participation of the EU as a member in the OSCE Minsk Group, while at present only the individual member states participate in the group,” Kovachev said referring to the Minsk Group set by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe set up in 1992 in order to help for the settling of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

[londontsi]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

http://asbarez.com/81123/armenia-slams-eu-parliament-over-unbalanced-karabakh-resolution/

Armenia Slams EU Parliament Over Unbalanced Karabakh Resolution

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–Armenia criticized the European Parliament on Friday for demanding Armenia withdraw from the liberated territories of Nagorno-Karabakh in its latest resolution on the South Caucasus.

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said the demand contradicts international mediators’ existing plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which has been endorsed by the European Union.

The non-binding resolution adopted by the EU legislature on Thursday does not specify whether the Armenian side should pull out of the liberated territories surrounding Karabakh or the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region as well. It only rejects the notion that “Nagorno-Karabakh includes all occupied Azerbaijani lands surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Nor does the resolution, drafted by Bulgarian Socialist lawmaker Evgeni Kirilov, explain whether the Armenian troop pullout should start immediately and unconditionally or after the signing of a comprehensive Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement. The latter condition is a key element of the so-called Madrid Principles of settling conflict that have been proposed by the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.

Nalbandian said that the resolution demand is at odds with both those principles and a joint statement on Karabakh that was made by the presidents of the three mediating powers in July. “There is an obvious confusion in the formulations, and I think one of the reasons for that is that the author of the resolution has never been in Karabakh and the [broader] region, and did not consult with representatives of France, an EU member state and OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, when drawing up his report,” he told a news conference.

“That is the reason why some of the [resolution] provisions also contradict the EU’s position, which has been repeatedly articulated,” Nalbandian said.

The European Parliament did make clear that it supports the Madrid document and the mediators’ efforts to have it accepted by the conflicting parties. The proposed framework accord calls for the transfer to Azerbaijan of virtually all the liberated Armenian territories around Karabakh in return for a future referendum on self-determination in the Karabakh Republic.

In what appears to be a message primarily addressed to Azerbaijan, the resolution also says the EU legislature “condemns the idea of a military solution” to the dispute. It further stresses that “the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement and the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations are separate processes that should move forward along their own rationales.”

Nalbandian’s criticism was echoed by parliamentary representatives of the three political parties making up Armenia’s coalition government. “Drawing up incomplete and unprofessional reports on such crucial and sensitive issues is unacceptable,” said Eduard Sharmazanov of the Republican Party of Armenia led by President Serzh Sarkisian.

The opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation also criticized the document for favoring Azerbaijan. One of its parliament deputies, Artsvik Minasian, called it “unbalanced” but said the initial version of the resolution was even less favorable for the Armenian side. He said it was amended under pressure from Armenian diplomats and the ARF’s lobbying structures in Europe.

Meanwhile, European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA), a Brussels-based non-governmental group, took issue with the highly negative reaction to the resolution from Yerevan. While agreeing that its Karabakh-related wording is “confusing,” the EuFoA insisted that the European Parliament endorsed all of the Madrid principles.

“This means concretely that the withdrawal of troops can only take place, if there are sufficient security guarantees for the population of Karabakh, a corridor to Armenia, an agreement to the final status of Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will and the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former homes,” EuFoA said in a statement. “No EU institution has ever demanded the withdrawal of troops without such a comprehensive solution – this EP resolution has not changed that.”

“The same report for the first time calls for extending EU programs to Karabakh, ending the de-facto blockade for EU officials to travel to Karabakh. This would have a very positive effect of stabilization and progress for Karabakh and would no longer submit such actions to a veto from Azerbaijan,” said the statement. It added that the European Parliament also endorsed Yerevan’s insistence on a normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations regardless of a Karabakh settlement.

[Muhaha]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/06/10/jordan-cancels-armenian-youth-conference/

Suciyan: ‘Zero Problems’ with Whom? Jordan Cancels Armenian Youth Conference

The AGBU’s Middle East Young Professionals Forum was supposed to take place in Amman, Jordan from June 3-6. However, the meeting was quietly canceled by the Jordanian authorities just the night before.

Agos was invited to the forum, and I was to attend on behalf of the newspaper. My topic was the “Legacy of Hrant Dink” and the Armenian community in Turkey. Vahakn Keshishyan, another colleague and friend from Beirut, was going to share his impressions from his visits to Anatolia. Other sessions were titled “Psychology of Success,” “Becoming the Next Armenian Leaders,” “Regional Economy,” “State of Armenian Communities: How Do We Embrace Change, How Can We Benefit from Assimilation?” etc. The participants—150 in all—were to come from various countries—from Argentina to Armenia.

But some problems started to occur just 10 days before. The organizers said there were reservations about the forum. At the beginning, it was difficult to understand why a meeting entitled “Young Professionals” would be bothersome. Yet, the real cause of disturbance slowly became apparent: The reason was Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy.

Jordan, clearly, was preparing to sign some kind of agreement with Turkey (Editor’s note: there was, in fact, an agreement that was going to be signed. Read more here.), and that is why they were concerned with hosting 150 “Young Professional Armenians” in Amman. Among all the sessions, ours was regarded as being most problematic; talking about the legacy of Hrant Dink in the Middle East was especially troublesome since literally everything about Armenians is regarded as potentially harming relations with Turkey. (I say everything, because last month in Lebanon, the broadcast of a video clip by an Armenian pop singer was banned from TV for fear that it might “offend Turkey.” Read about it here.) I should add that the organizers resisted against all pressures until the very last moment.

Debate with the Jordanian officials on the program of the forum lasted several days, and at the end, we received an email saying that “everything was fine.” Nonetheless, there was palpable pressure in the air and we had to be especially careful with our presentations. Yet the “tolerance limit” of the Jordanian authorities wasn’t clear to me.

Bad news, however, followed the good news later that day. When our organizers attempted to check into the Amman Marriott Hotel, on Wednesday evening, the staff told them that “because of reasons beyond our control, we cannot host the event and the visitors.” And when I asked whether the event could take place in another venue, the answer was clear: “The order was given from above.” To make a long story short, as of that evening the message was a definitive: “The meeting has been cancelled.”

As a result of this incident, one of the most important reasons behind Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy has become equally clear. It was the ‘disturbance’ created by the Armenians living in the neighboring countries which had to be zeroed.

During those same days in Turkey, the brutal killing of nine people in the Freedom Flotilla created an atmosphere of fierce reaction. The subject matter was not violence employed by the state, but rather Israel and even xxxs as a whole. There was no attention paid to the language and symbols used. And, as we’ve read on these pages, there was a general amnesia in Turkey regarding its own historical background and current problems.

Would it be possible for Jordan to remain neutral in such a situation? One party to the conflict was its neighbor Israel; the other was Turkey. Was it not the same Jordan that made a deal with Ben Gurion in 1948, sharing the territories and leaving no place to Palestinians to live*? In this very “fragile” situation, the last thing Jordan needed was a gathering of Armenian Young Professionals! Of course, the forum was cancelled immediately.

Why doesn’t Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy apply to Armenia? On the one hand, Armenia continues to be isolated. The “Get out of Karabagh and then we can talk” argument remains in place, and the message of “Stop the genocide recognition campaigns” persists. On the other hand, the voice of Armenian survivors who fled to Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan after 1915 is silenced. And all this happen by saying “zero problems with neighbors.”

Communicating and meeting with Armenian organizations in the U.S. is an easier task for Turkey, since that community has gone through an assimilation process for generations. The communities in the Middle East are different; they’re closely knit, very little interference is possible, and there is no ground for Turkey to communicate with them. These communities have built structures consciously and therefore after 95 years, it is still the Middle East, providing the human resources for Armenians all over the world. Looking at the active Armenians in Europe and in the U.S. would prove this argument. This means that the communities in the Middle East are still living communities. Now the aim is to silence these communities. And if the simplest meeting of “Young Professionals” was not allowed to take place in Amman, doesn’t this mean that the Armenians in the Middle East have become a “zero problem”?

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/06/10/jordan-cancels-armenian-youth-conference/

[Muhaha]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/06/15/sassounian-growing-turkish-influence-in-middle-east-leads-to-restrictions-in-armenian-rights/

Sassounian: Growing Turkish Influence in Middle East Leads to Restrictions in Armenian Rights

Turkey’s growing influence in the Middle East, even before the naval confrontation with Israel over Gaza, had prompted some Arab countries to restrict the political rights of local Armenian communities.

It is feared that the latest Gaza conflict, which catapulted Prime Minister Erdogan to a heroic stature throughout the Islamic world, would result in further limitations on Armenian activities deemed to be “anti-Turkish.”

In recent months, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria have taken specific actions to place some restrictions on the activities of their Armenian citizens either out of concern for a backlash from Turkey or under direct pressure from Turkish authorities.

A case in point was the Jordanian government’s cancellation of AGBU’s Middle East Young Professionals Forum that was to take place in Amman, June 3-6. Talin Suciyan, reported in The Armenian Weekly that Jordanian authorities had expressed reservations for the gathering of 150 young Armenians from various parts of the world. Suciyan, who was invited to speak on the “Legacy of Hrant Dink” and the Armenian community in Turkey, stated that the organizers were informed the night before that the forum was canceled by orders “from above.” Some observers attributed the cancellation of the AGBU forum to the agreement to set up a Free Trade Zone, which was to be signed between Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, on June 10. A commentator pointed out the irony of Armenian conferences being allowed to take place in Turkey, but not in Jordan!

Earlier this year, when a Lebanese TV crew was about to enter Syria to record footage on “the Armenian killing fields” in Der Zor, border guards refused to admit them, even though they had secured the necessary filming permits from the Syrian authorities in advance. This incident took place shortly after CBS aired in its “60 Minutes” program a segment on the Armenian Genocide. The program depicted the protruding bones of Armenian Genocide victims from the desert sands of Der Zor. Turkish officials lodged a complaint with the Syrian government for allowing CBS to film an “anti-Turkish” program in their country.

The third incident, unexpectedly, took place in Lebanon, home to one of the most influential Armenian communities in the Diaspora. In a surprise move, government officials banned the airing of Eileen Khatchadourian’s music video, “Zartir Vortyag,” a genocide era song calling for resistance against oppression. Even though the song makes no reference to Turkey, Lebanese authorities were concerned that it would negatively affect Lebanese-Turkish relations.

These are troubling examples of blatant interference with Armenian citizens’ right to free expression. In all three countries, Armenians have long enjoyed the most cordial relations with their respective governments and are viewed by them as loyal citizens. Local Armenian community leaders must strongly protest such arbitrary violations of their basic rights as citizens of these countries. They should consider carrying out a campaign to educate their fellow citizens about the extensive damage Turkey has caused to Arab interests for decades, as a close military ally of Israel.

Armenians should point out that, despite Erdogan’s blistering anti-Israeli rhetoric, he has not canceled any of the 16 agreements with Israel, including the exchange of intelligence, according to Today’s Zaman newspaper. Sedat Laciner, head of Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, told Hurriyet that the military leaders of the two countries had also signed several secret agreements. According to the Middle East magazine, the intelligence agencies of Israel and Turkey have cooperated “since the 1950’s in the fight against radical Islamist groups and Iranian clandestine operations in the region.” Furthermore, Turkey was reported to have allowed Israel “to monitor Syrian military maneuvers from Turkish soil.” In addition, Turkey awarded $1.8 billion in military contracts to Israeli companies. The total trade turnover between the two countries reached $2.5 billion in 2009. More than 900 large Israeli corporations have been operating in Turkey and over 1,000 small Israeli exporters have established commercial ties with it.

Erdogan has cleverly capitalized on the political vacuum created by the inaction of Arab leaders regarding the plight of the Palestinian people, thus raising his own as well as his party’s political rating in advance of the September 12 referendum on constitutional amendments, and next year’s crucial parliamentary elections. It is a pity that Arab leaders have totally abdicated their own responsibility, allowing an outsider to claim the mantle of Arab leadership!

Prior to Prime Minister Erdogan’s scheduled visit to Lebanon next month, where he might receive an undeserved hero’s welcome by some Lebanese, Armenians must expose his hypocritical show of solidarity with Palestinians, and convince their fellow citizens that he is acting in his own, rather than Lebanon’s, best interest.

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/06/15/sassounian-growing-turkish-influence-in-middle-east-leads-to-restrictions-in-armenian-rights/

[KanadaHye]

Re: Foreign Relations of Armenia

"Armenians should point out that, despite Erdogan’s blistering anti-Israeli rhetoric, he has not canceled any of the 16 agreements with Israel, including the exchange of intelligence, according to Today’s Zaman newspaper. Sedat Laciner, head of Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, told Hurriyet that the military leaders of the two countries had also signed several secret agreements. According to the Middle East magazine, the intelligence agencies of Israel and Turkey have cooperated “since the 1950’s in the fight against radical Islamist groups and Iranian clandestine operations in the region.” Furthermore, Turkey was reported to have allowed Israel “to monitor Syrian military maneuvers from Turkish soil.” In addition, Turkey awarded $1.8 billion in military contracts to Israeli companies. The total trade turnover between the two countries reached $2.5 billion in 2009. More than 900 large Israeli corporations have been operating in Turkey and over 1,000 small Israeli exporters have established commercial ties with it."

That pretty much confirms suspicions that this was set up between Turkey and Israel.