29 October 2004

Artur Baghdassaryan tours Gulf Countries

AZAD-HYE (29 October 2004): The Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Artur Baghdassaryan, will be touring three Arabian Gulf countries during the second half of November 2004. His first stopover will be in Kuwait (21-23 November), followed by a similar visits to Bahrain (23-25 November) and UAE (26-28 November). In all these countries he will be meeting with governmental officials including Heads of the Parliaments.

It should be noted that in April 2002 a Kuwaiti Parliamentarian Delegation visited Armenia led by Member of Parliament Ahmed Nasser Al Sherian. The Delegation stressed the importance of developing Armenian-Kuwaiti relations and explored means of enhancing economic cooperation. The two sides discussed regional issues in the Middle East and the Caucasus.

In Bahrain, an initiative for establishing Armenian – Bahraini Parliamentarian Friendship Group has been discussed in April 2004 during the presentation of the credentials of the non-resident Ambassador Dr. Arshak Poladian to Bahraini officials. Chairman of the Armenian Parliament is expected to discuss during his forthcoming visit to Bahrain ways of implementing this initial appeal.

In Abu Dhabi Artur Bagdasaryan in scheduled to meet the Speaker of the Federal National Council Saeed Mohammed Al Kindi. Meetings with the members of the Armenian Community in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are also expected.

The UAE Federal National Council has been established in 1972 (just a year after the Independence) and consists of 40 members appointed by the Rulers of the seven Emirates which make up the Federation of the UAE. Seats are distributed among the Emirates as follows: Abu Dhabi and Dubai 8 each; Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah 6 each; Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah 4 each.

Artur Baghdasaryan has been elected to his current position as the Chairman of the National Assembly (known also as the Speaker of the Parliament) on 12th June 2003. He has been born in Yerevan in 1968 and holds doctoral degree in Legal Sciences (Moscow 1997). He is member of the "Rule of Law" party (Orinats Yerkir) and father of two children.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is PERSIAN GULF. You have used a wrong name. Check the UN resolutions about this. Why are Armenians taking the side of the forgers and thives now, forgeting about the correct historical names?!

Hrach Kalsahakian said...

Personally I use Arabian Gulf and Persian Gulf interchangebly. Some people even use "Gulf" without any other indication. Actually Arabs used to live on the Western shores of the Gulf from time immemorial. Old historians did not know much about the Arabs who were living in that part of the Gulf, instead they knew the Persians quite well (especially through the Greco-Persian wars).

I am aware that the geographical naming of a place bears significant meaning, for example, you know that the independent state of Azerbaijan bears the same name as a bordering region in northern Iran. The independent Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has a name identical to another bordering area in the north of Greece.

Still I think if you take a historical map, you will see the name of locations as they used to be known during a given time. I mean during the time of Alexander the Great the Gulf was generally known to be Persian Gulf, because he was fighting the Persians not the Arabs.

Anyway, you are right in raising the sensitivity behind the geographical names. Wide parts of todays Eastern Anatolia in Turkey are mentioned as "Armenian Highland" in old maps. Modern political maps do not mention this, but if you happen to look into a serious and detailed geographical map you might probably notice where the Armenian Highland is.