Murders, resolution, elections and Nagorno-Karabakh - these are the key issues of the year of 2007

PanARMENIAN.Net - According to the Turkish legislation Samast may be sentenced to imprisonment from 18 up to 24 years. The truth is though, that the lawyers of Dink's family do not exclude another development of events either. It won't be possible to completely justify Samast, but the minimal period is definitely secured. To sum up the issue, it must be mentioned that 91 journalists have been killed during the year of 2007.

On January 30 in the U.S. House of Representatives the Congressman from the State of California Adam Schiff drafted the bill of Resolution 106 about the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. It is also mentioned in the Resolution that the President of the USA has to use the term "genocide" in his annual message to the Armenian Community in the USA on April 24. The discussion of the Resolution gave birth to strong criticism from the Turkish party. Ankara managed to make the US Administration and the US Department of State cancel the vote in the House, in spite of the fact that on October 10 the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the U.S. Congress approved Resolution 106 with 27 votes for to 21 against. Meanwhile it is worth mentioning that during the hearings in the Commission none of the Congressmen, even those who had voted against, hesitated to qualify the mass killings in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

In February the Presidents of Armenia and Iran started the gas pipeline Iran-Armenia, which became Armenia's second gas provider. Due to the commissioning of the gas pipeline, the energy dependence on the Russian branch, passing through Georgia, has decreased.

In April 15th the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenian and Russia was celebrated. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov visited Yerevan on this occasion.

The Armenian parliamentary elections were held in May. The Republican Party of Armenia with the present Prime-Minister Serge Sargsyan at the head won in those elections and for the first time in many years the assessment made by the OSCE and PACE

No significant change was made regarding the issue of the Karabakh Conflict. At OSCE summit in Madrid the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs submitted written proposals on the resolution of the conflict to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of both countries. The Minsk Group Co-Chair from Russia Yuri Merzlyakov believed that if the mediators agree with the basic principles of regulation, they can manage to draft a project of peaceful agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict resolution by the Presidential Election in Armenia (February 19, 2008)