The statement came from UN resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan, Ambassador Fikret Akchura, APA reports.

He reminded about the four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council concerning the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

‘The OSCE Minsk Group was established afterwards and the Minsk Group was entrusted to fulfill these four resolutions. Unfortunately the conflict has not been solved for 20 years. There is no serious progress and people are concerned about it.

As the non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Azerbaijan can always place the Nagorno Karabakh problem on the agenda. On the initiative of Azerbaijan, the UN Security Council can place the solution of the Karabakh conflict on the agenda in the next two years. This issue depends mostly on the initiative of Azerbaijan. To adopt resolution on the settlement of the conflict it is necessary to reach consent of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council.’
Source: News.Az
URL: http://www.news.az/articles/karabakh/58244

According to sources in Permanent Mission of the UN in Azerbaijan, speaking at a press briefing, the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev gave the audience a wealth of information on the background and history of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the grave consequences of the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s position on resolving the conflict.

Mehdiyev noted that Azerbaijan  is most interested in resolving the conflict’.
“Our country is opposed to maintaining the status quo, arguing that the territory of Azerbaijan will never be subject to compromise. The conflict must be resolved on the basis of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders, and there is no alternative.
Unfortunately, the political leadership of Armenia does not understand the futility of its non-constructive and dangerous policy.

Ongoing conflicts in the GUAM countries should be of concern not only in these countries, but also all over the world. Therefore, GUAM will continue its efforts to resolve conflicts in the framework of international law “, Mehdiyev said.

Source: News.Az
URL: http://www.news.az/articles/karabakh/58156

The statement came from Ramiz Najafov, chief of the department for military cooperation of the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan. He was speaking at the international conference ‘Importance of the Chicago summit of NATO: new opportunities for Euroatlantic partnership’ in Baku.

“We do hope that at the Chicago summit of NATO in May of this year this position will be reflected in the documents and decisions to be adopted by results of this important event”, he said.

The international conference is held in anticipation of the next NATO summit to be held in Chicago in May of this year.

Source: News.az
URL http://www.news.az/articles/karabakh/58160

The US secretary of state made the comments in a written response to questions submitted by Congressman Howard Berman, News.am reported.

Asked about Azerbaijan’s opposition to an OSCE Minsk Group proposal, backed by both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, for the withdrawal of snipers from the frontline, Secretary Clinton said the US supported pulling back snipers, the Armenian National Committee of America reported (ANCA).
“We regret any loss of life and continue to call upon the sides to take steps – including the withdrawal of snipers – to improve the atmosphere for negotiations, prevent unnecessary casualties, and strengthen implementation of the ceasefire,” she said.

“The US has emphasized that the parties should show restraint in both their public statements and on the ground to avoid misunderstandings and unintended consequences. We reiterate at every opportunity that there is no military solution to the conflict and that only a peaceful settlement will lead to security, stability, and reconciliation in the region.”

Azerbaijan is calling for the withdrawal of troops from the land occupied by Armenia, rather than just the withdrawal of snipers, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in June.

The most recent victim of a sniper was an Azerbaijani farmer who was shot in the leg while working in fields in Tovuz District on 31 March.

Source:News.Az
URL: http://www.news.az/articles/armenia/57603

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe issued the statement to mark the 20th anniversary of the formal request to convene a conference on the conflict. In a joint statement issued by the U.S. State Department, the three co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group said they “call upon the sides to demonstrate the political will needed to achieve a lasting and peaceful settlement.

“A new generation has come of age in the region with no first-hand memory of Armenians and Azeris living side by side, and prolonging these artificial divisions only deepens the wounds of war,” the statement said. “For this reason, we urge the leaders of the sides to prepare their populations for peace, not war,” according to the statement.Armenian forces seized Nagorno-Karabakh and some surrounding territory from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 35,000 lives and forced about a million people on both sides to flee their homes. A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but the two countries have cut direct economic and transport links and failed to negotiate a settlement on the status of the enclave.

But the joint statement said “progress toward peace has been made,” citing joint presidential statements from the Minsk group over the last three years outlining elements of a framework for a comprehensive peace settlement. The Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It is co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France.

Source: Hurriyet
URL: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/minsk-urges-peaceful-solution-to-karabakh.aspx?pageID=238&nID=16688&NewsCatID=359

Usage of selective facts and memories, coupled with poor knowledge of world’s history, and a liberal agenda that opposes anything remotely “nationalistic” and favors kissing up to traditionally unfriendly nations, are probably to blame for Dr. Aktar’s stance (which contravenes the position of majority of Turks, according to all polls). On a more personal level, Dr. Aktar of course blames Azerbaijan, and its people, as well as all Turkish “nationalists” – who are, apparently, some 70% of the entire nation – for the flop of his insensitive, to put it mildly, campaign “Ozur diliyoruz” in 2008.

Although Dr. Aktar claims Turkey has “never” been an important player in the Caucasus, the fact is that Turkey has always been an important player and regional actor in the Caucasus – this was especially true in the Ottoman times, when it controlled large swath of Caucasus, including Azerbaijan, for decades, in 16th and 18th centuries (and conducted important census survey’s of the population in, among other regions, Karabakh – where Armenians were in minority then and until the 20th century). It remained true in the turbulent era of the beginning of the 20th century, including during the “Great Catastrophe” times he mentions, that befell on all the people of Anatolia and (!) Caucasus – after all, according to Ottoman archives, 523,000 Turks and Kurds of Anatolia died in the hands of Armenians in the years 1914-1920. Approximately the same number of Azerbaijani Turks, Kurds, and others died in the hands of Armenians in the same period of time in the Caucasus. It continued under Ataturk and Lenin, since in 1921, two important treaties were signed, Moscow and Kars, that regulate the status of Naxcivan region of Azerbaijan, as well as other parts of Caucasus (e.g., Batumi, Ajaria).

Indeed, Naxcivan region has always been extremely close, especially spiritually, to Turkey, and would probably appeal far more to a typical Turk than some of the regions inside Turkey itself. To be sure, the few surviving 100 year old elders in Naxcivan still remember the day, hour and even minute of when Gen. Kazim Karabekir Pasha’s army entered the region and saved the Azerbaijani Turks, as well as a Kurdish minority, from total annihilation by the French-, British-, and Russian-armed Armenian army, commanded by war criminals such as Andronik Ozanyan and future Nazi SS general Dro (Drastamat Kanayan), who are still considered “heroes” in modern Armenia and its diaspora (and they do not even think about an apology to Turks, Azeris, Kurds, or Jews).

Turkey joined NATO in 1952 – a seminal event in the history of that alliance and in the history of Turkey – after Stalin, per advice from his Armenian comrade Anastas Mikoyan, demanded Kars, Ardahan and other territories in Eastern Turkey which are geographically in the Caucasus region, not Anatolia (yes, let us explain for the geography-challenged – it means Turkey is still geographically part of Caucasus even today). If Turks thought that would be the end of it, they were reminded again on 23 August 1990 by the Armenian declaration of independence, which concludes its claims on a major chord (official translation into English by the Armenian government): “Article 11. The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia” (i.e., refers to Eastern Turkey as “Western Armenia”).

So this is how an independent Armenia began its life – with declaration that anti-Turkish resolutions and activities are its state policy and government objective.  Needless to say, this did not bode well with the Turkish people, who have been demanding that Armenian government changes its stance. And this is what led to the “brave”, as Dr. Aktar refers to them, Zurich Protocols to sink. Brave were the Turkish people who overwhelmingly protested this, not the politicians or liberal journalists singing praise to such undemocratic, illogical, and immoral actions as ignoring the will of the majority of Turkish citizens, overlooking Armenian state claims and diaspora actions, and pretending that actions like the Khojaly Massacre or Karabakh and Kelbajar occupation, all committed by the Armenian government officials now in power, are not directly inter-linked.

The fact is that Turkey remains a very important player in the Caucasus, and thanks to its strategic partnership and alliance with Azerbaijan, its role not just in the Caucasus, but the Greater Middle East, and the world, has increased significantly. Turkey would have a hard time to compete with Saudi Arabia for the leadership in the Arab world, not to mention competition from Iran for the hearts and minds of the Arab and Iranic worlds. Nor can it compete with the EU for the hearts and minds of Balkans, after they will be fully absorbed into the Union.

But in the Turkic world, Turkey has a natural leadership position. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are among top investors into Turkey, while Azerbaijanis from various countries, including from Russia, have been top individual investors for the past decade. Turkey’s status as an energy hub is, without any shadow of doubt, due to the BTC and BTE pipelines, which were paid for mostly by Azerbaijan and carries Azerbaijani oil and gas. Have any other nation(s) done anything as important geo-strategically and geo-economically? No. These foreign direct investments are made into Turkey in large part due to ethnic, linguistic, cultural and historic affinity Turkic nations share – even though investments into China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, or some other nations might be more profitable.

Furthermore, it is to check against Turkey in the Caucasus that Russia maintains the large Gymri army base in Armenia, and Russia’s ultra-nationalist (or some say, fascist) political leaders such as Vice-Speaker of the Duma and relentless presidential contender Vladimir Zhirinovsky constantly calls for (including numerous times this February 2012 as a candidate for President of the Russian Federation).

While Dr. Aktar might have difficulties in talking with representatives of other Turkic nations, many Turks do not, and certainly, many Turkic people, from as far away as Yakutia in Russia, not to mention Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Uzbeks or Gagauz, have no problem in basic verbal communication skills while in Turkey. Considering the staggering geographic distances and millenniums of living apart, this is incredible – Russians cannot understand Polish people or Ukrainians whom they border, while British, Irish, Scots and Americans have sometimes trouble understanding each others’ accents, as do Arabs in countries like, say, Algeria and Lebanon. Meanwhile Chinese and Indians have multiple mutually non-intelligible languages within their countries, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali (a total of 22 official languages in India alone).

And of course, Armenians that Dr. Aktar lobbies hard for speak Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian – and have extreme difficulty understanding each other despite being supposedly the same people (actually genetic research shows variation within Armenians from different regions). However, Turks speaking to Azerbaijanis or Turkmen would experience very little difficulty (especially if those Turks are from Eastern Turkey), since up to 80% of the language is still the same, despite centuries and thousands of kilometers of living apart in different socio-political environments.

Thus, linguistic commonality with other Turkic nations is very much present, and has helped Turkey tremendously, especially to Turkish business community expanding into Turkic countries (and dominating many spheres, such as construction). It also helps to know the Turkic world better, or to re-discover it. Dr. Aktar should try that, and not refer to his experiences in the early 1990s as some permanent benchmark.

It should be noted that the DNA tests and other “gene-mapping” that Dr. Aktar refers to, are interpreted very selectively. For example, an authoritative study shows that some 11% of all men in central Eurasia (and 1 in 200 men worldwide) carry the gene of the great Cengiz Khan – and not the gene of, for example, Armenian vassal king Ara the Beautiful. All genetic studies confirm that Anatolian Turks have a double-digit genetic similarity with Turks of Central Asia, and an extremely close genetic similarity with Azerbaijani Turks.

In fact, in a major study by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2001, that involved scientists from U.S., UK, Russia, Armenia, Iran, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Georgia (but not Azerbaijan or Turkey), found that based on Y-chromosome biallelic haplotype frequencies, Turks are closest to Azeri and Kazbegi (Georgian) people, sharing number #627, followed by Iranians (#625) and others in the same green Cluster 2. In the same study, Armenians were placed in a different blue Cluster 1, and only had a number #612 – right next to Turkmens. Thus, genetic studies can prove many different things – but only authoritative and comprehensive studies should be trusted, not the highly selective sponsored-research that Dr. Aktar is most likely referring to.

Finally, the disparaging tone and manner in which Dr. Aktar refers to 300,000 diverse residents of Istanbul who took to the Taksim square to commemorate the Khojaly Massacre – a war crime and genocidal act that is being increasingly recognized, including in several U.S. states, as well as in nations spanning from Mexico to Pakistan – is in stark contrast with his tone towards the 10,000 to 100,000 that took to the same Taksim square as part of his pet project of apologizing for everything and anything that Turkey as a state, and Turks as citizens of that state, are not guilty of. Dr. Aktar should tone down his extreme Armenophile position, his latent Turcophobia and not-so-covert anti-Azerbaijanism – and that should be the roadmap for the few unnamed “Turkish columnists” that he refers to in his article.

Adil Baguirov, Ph.D.
Co-founder, U.S. Turkic Network (USTN)

SOURCE:NEWS.AZ
URL:http://news.az/articles/politics/56350

The announcement, which was published by the Eurovision’s official website, said Armenia decided not to participate in the song contest that will be held between May 22 and 26.

“Armenia decided to refuse to participate in the 2012 edition of Eurovision in Baku,” Gagik Buniatyan, the director of Armenia’s Public Television station, which would have broadcast the popular song competition, told Agence France-Presse. He declined, however, to explain the reasons behind the decision.

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces fought a war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s which left some 30,000 people dead; despite years of negotiations since a 1994 cease-fire, no final peace deal has been signed.

Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, Edgar Rüstemyan, the founder of one of the most popular Armenian bands, Armenoidis, said Armenia had withdrawn from the contest because Baku had not guaranteed the safety of the Armenian committee.

“If Baku does not give us the right that it gives to each country in such a significant contest, we should have brought up [the matter] with the European organizations that organize Eurovision and asked for them to provide for our safety,” Rüstemyan said, adding that it was a strategic mistake by Armenia to withdraw from the contest.

“We should have showed in this contest that we have adopted Western norms. It is not important to win, but we should have gone there. It is a loss for us to not participate in Eurovision. Unfortunately, music has become the tool for politics in the world.”

Vercihan Ziflioğlu contributed to this report.

Source: Hurriyet

URL: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/armenia-to-not-compete-at-eurovision-song-contest.aspx?pageID=238&nID=15492&NewsCatID=383

The commission unanimously decided to issue the statement, said Chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission Volkan Bozkir.

In its statement, the commission said that Khojaly was a dark page written by Armenia in history.

“On February 25-26, 1992 Armenians massacred 613 Azerbaijanis, including 106 women, 63 children and more than 70 elderly people, in Khojaly town of Azerbaijan. Armenians wounded 487 people and took as hostage 1275 Azerbaijanis on this date. 150 Azerbaijanis are still missing after the Khojaly massacre. What took place in Khojaly constitutes a crime against humanity according to international laws. As the brothers and sisters of the Azerbaijani Turks, we feel the pain of the Khojaly massacre in our hearts and condemn this massacre committed by Armenians,” the statement said.

SOURCE: TurkishNY

URL:http://www.turkishny.com/english-news/5-english-news/81331-turkish-parliament-issues-statement-pertaining-to-khojaly-massacre

NEW YORK
February 27, 2012, 12:00pm-2:00pm
Armenian Mission to United Nations, 119 E. 36 Street, New York City
Organized by Young Turks.

The event was held with the support of Azerbaijan’s Diplomatic Mission to Switzerland to inform the world community about the true facts of Khojaly genocide.

Some 613 black balloons have been released into the air by the participants of the ceremony dressed in t-shirts with the inscription reading “Justice for Khojaly!” and photos of 63 children who were killed during the massacre.

An event to pay a tribute to the victims of Khojaly genocide and the annual meeting of the Slovenia-Azerbaijan Friendship Society was held in Slovenian city of Nova Gorica.

Development of relations between the two countries and the development of 2012 action plan were adopted at the meeting.

The program, and Slovenia, as well as economy, education, science, culture, tourism, sports and other fields is expected to implement joint projects. For this purpose, a number of specific projects were proposed by the embassy.

The participants of event in Nova Gorica stood for a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of Khojaly tragedy.

The participants were briefed on Justice for Khojaly campaign, initiated by Leyla Aliyeva, General Coordinator for Intercultural Dialogue of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation.

Every year in late February the Azerbaijani nation commemorates the bloody tragedy known as the Khojaly genocide.

An unprecedented massacre of hundreds of defenseless inhabitants of the small town of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan became one of the most heinous crimes against the Azerbaijani people. On the night of February 25, 1992, the Armenian armed forces with the help of Russian troops carried out the seizure of Khojaly and razed the town to the ground. Following the occupation of Khojaly, a total of 613 innocent Azerbaijanis were massacred by invaders, which also annihilated whole families, captured 1,275 people, left 1,000 civilians maimed or crippled, with another 150 reported missing.

Source: http://www.historyoftruth.com/news/latest/11282-victims-of-khojaly-massacre-commemorated-in-switzerland-and-slovenia