2007-03-10 14:05:00 Prime Minister of Turkey, having occupied part of Cyprus talks profusely about territorial integrity
"Turkish Azeri brotherhood is eternal and indissoluble!" - Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again made the peculiar statement at the Baku 1st Forum of Azeri and Turkish Diaspora World Organizations.Then the Premier made another "fresh" statement - "Turkey and Azerbaijan are states of one nation." Having talked enough about fraternal ties of Turkish and Azeri nations and the role of Turks in the world civilization, Erdogan passed over to accusations towards Armenia. As it came out, the "lasting occupation
of Azeri lands, banishment of a million of people from their homeland, the presence of refugees and migrants - is a bleeding wound of Turks.""Last year, Armenians held the so called 'referendum'. Has the world recognize it? It hasn't. Why? Because it was a figment, a wrong and false step that couldn't be accepted," Erdogan went on without being confused about the inconsistencies of his arguments like - "it can't be because it can never be". Alike statements hit Armenia's efforts for recognition of Armenian Genocide.
"No one will recognize it. Turkey and Turks will never acknowledge this!" declared Erdogan. The Turkish Prime Minister was troubled by "the violation of fundamental principles of the international law - the principles of the countries' territorial integrity and inadmissibility of forced change of the borders". To remind, this statement belongs to the Prime Minister of a country which has occupied a part of Cyprus. Apparently, he considers that the principles of the international law aim to protect only the interests
of his own country and Azerbaijan. Erdogan went further. He stated that Turkey opened its historical archives, applied to Armenia and third countries to open the archives too. First and foremost, it is not the affair of politicians, Erdogan said. Let historians, political scientists, archaeologists, and lawyers examine this issue. If there is any unfairness, Turkey will do all the things needed, the Turkish Prime Minister stated. Is it also for historians to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide?


2007-03-10 12:21:00 Azeri Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan supports the OSCE MG format of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
Azerbaijan supports the OSCE Minsk Group format of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. That's why we continue the talks, the spokesman of the Azeri Foreign Ministry Khazar Ibragim told Day.az (Baku) while commenting on the statement of Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan that, once there is an OSCE MG format, a UN decision on the issue would be illogical.As you may know, very shortly we will decide on the next round of the talks between the Armenian and Azeri FMs in Geneva, says Ibragim. The adoption of any UN resolutions,
documents or statements concerning conflicts and the inclusion of such problems in the agenda of the UN General Assembly are a positive moment. The international community should be aware of these problems and should solve them. Final decisions can be made within other formats but all the other organizations, especially a universal organization like the UN, are obliged to support negotiating formats, says Ibragim.





Finance and banks

2007-03-10 00:47:00 Araratbank starts issuing debit-credit Autocards
Araratbank has started to issue debit-credit ArCa cards - Autocards.The head of the plastic card department of the bank Gagik Shahinyan says that there are three types of Atuocards: Classic, Gold (for physical entities) and Business (for legal entities). The partner network of the project consists of seven car services: Mercedes Service, BMW Service, KIA Motors, KARKOMAUTO, Bosh Car Service, Flash network of fuelling stations, Tufenkyan Hotel Network, where card-holders can enjoy up to 15% discounts. One of
the key advantages of Classic card is INGO-Armenia third car insurance policy and of Gold cards - additional 1.5mln AMD accident insurance policy. Besides, the bank provides bonuses: return of 0.25% of total transaction amount to Classic card holders, 0.5% to Gold card holders. The annual fee of Classic card is 5,000 AMD, Gold - 12,000 AMD, Business - 10,000 AMD for main card and 5,000 AMD for additional one.The bank is negotiating about discounts with the Georgian car services situated along the roads heading
for the Black Sea coast as tens of thousands of Armenian cars pass by them every year.Today, Araratbank has 5 bancomats and is going to redouble their number by the end of this year. By the end of this year the bank is planning to have 8,000 card holders. In the autumn the bank is going to become an associate member of Master Card system.

Right

2007-03-10 14:06:00 Two Turks fined for insulting and threatening Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafian
A Turkish court fined two men for insulting and threatening Archbishop Mesrob II, the Patriarch of Constantinople of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the spiritual leader of Turkey's small Armenian community.The Turkish "Zaman" newspaper reports that Gokmen Akman was given a fine of $910 on charges of both insulting and threatening the Patriarch, while Hasan Ezer was sentenced to pay $55 for just insulting Mesrob II.According to the indictment, the two men sent e-mails to the Patriarch in October 2004 which read
"We will finish you off" and "We will drive you crazy." To note, the threats concerning Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafian have recently become more frequent. The other day, Volkan Karova, another Turkish citizen, was arrested for firing into the air near the Armenian church on March 7. On his way to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Volkan Karova cried out to journalists that he was going to assassinate Mesrob II Mutafian.

Social

2007-03-10 12:14:00 Mar 24-25 night Armenia to switch to summer time
Mar 24-25 Armenia will switch to summer time. The clock should be advanced one hour all over the country.Summer time also known as daylight saving time was first applied in England in 1908. It is the convention of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour in late winter or early spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. 110 countries observe DST. In the CIS only Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan don't observe
it.