Month: February 2012

AUSTRIAN SINGER MAY REPRESENT ARMENIA IN 2012 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST?

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 6, 2012 – 12:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Rumors have recently been afloat on the Internet,
particularly in social media claiming Austrian singer Sankil Jones
may represent Armenia at 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.

A video by Jones titled “Fire” has already found a positive response
among fans of the contest. Sankil Jones, born to Lebanese and Austrian
parents, grew up in the U.S. From 5 years he performed in church choir,
also practiced African dances.

On January 17, the head of the Armenian delegation to Eurovision Gohar
Gasparyan said that Armenia’s participation in the contest proves
its full fledged membership in European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Azerbaijan’s Ell/Nikki duet with Running Scared song won the Eurovision
2011. Italy’s Raphael Gualazzi with Madness Of Love song took second
place followed by Eric Saade from Sweden.

Armenia’s Emmy was knocked out of Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in
the May 10 seminal, although her performance of Boom Boom song was
met warmly by the audience at Arena stadium in Dusseldorf, Germany.

ASSEMBLY CALLS ON CLINTON TO DISAVOW HER ILL-CONSIDERED STATEMENT ON GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 6, 2012 – 15:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Members of the U.S. Congress and the Armenian
Assembly of America expressed strong concerns regarding Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton’s remarks on the Armenian Genocide.

On January 26, Hillary Clinton, said the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by the U.S. “opens a door that is a very dangerous one to
go through.”

Responding to a question from a participant of a Town Hall Meeting,
who asked why the U.S. does not recognize the Genocide, Clinton
characterized the Armenian Genocide as an historical issue and not
a political one.

In a dear colleague letter Congressmen Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Robert
Dold (R-IL), sponsors of the Armenian Genocide resolution, urged
Members to join them in sending a letter to Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton calling on the Secretary to “disavow her ill-considered
statement.” The letter also urged the Obama Administration to
unequivocally affirm the Armenian Genocide this April 24th and firmly
recognize “genocide wherever and whenever it occurs.”

Expressing surprise and dismay, the Assembly sent a letter to President
Barack Obama requesting swift action. “Secretary Clinton’s response
is untenable and requires immediate remedy. Mr. President now is the
time to fulfill your campaign promise and unequivocally affirm the
Armenian Genocide,” the Assembly wrote in its letter.

“We welcome this bi-partisan initiative to set the record straight,”
stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “We urge human
rights activists from across the country to make sure that their
Member of Congress signs this important letter to Secretary Clinton,”
added Ardouny.

BUSINESS AS USUAL: OLIGARCHS LINE UP FOR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEATS
Hakob Hakobyan

ArmeniaNow
06.02.12 | 16:24

By Gayane Lazarian

Four months ahead of the Parliamentary elections in Armenia, many
businessmen proclaim that they are planning to participate in the
Parliamentary elections 2012, even though the President of Armenia,
the Prime minister and a number of Republicans have repeatedly stated
that business will be separated from politics.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has repeatedly stated that
business must consistently be separated from the state system and
the authorities. Instead the Government must continue learning how
to respect and secure any citizen’s and businessman’s interest.

According to press, the businessmen and “oligarchs” from Republican
Party will file their candidacy by the majoritatian voting system. The
names of lawmakers Grigory Margaryan, Samvel Alexanyan, Ashot
Aghababyan and others are circulated.

Moreover, some businessmen who do not have a parliamentary mandate
now get prepared for the upcoming Parliamentary elections, too.

Former lawmaker, member of the ruling Republican Party, Hakob Hakobyan
plans to participate in the upcoming Parliamentary elections by
the majoritatian voting system (from Echmiadzin). Hakobyan owns the
Zvartnots Hotel Complex, a casino, a compressed natural gas station,
etc.

“I am a property owner; however, I do not deal with business anymore.

My two sons take care of my seven enterprises. I believe that if one
wants to enter politics than he or she must stop being involved in
business first,” Hakobyan told ArmeniaNow.

According to him, the rich experience of a businessman secures
professional skills which can later be used in the legislative work.

Heritage Party Board member Karine Hakobyan says that a lawmaker of
the National Assembly must be honest, a person of principle and great
knowledge, a patriot, and a broad-minded person.

“In this case we would not have the situation that we face now.

Currently, the National Assembly is like a blanket, which is pulled
by anyone who wants to keep his or her interests. If the president
[of Armenia] says that a businessman and an oligarch must not be at
the National Assembly, then the Central Electoral Commission must not
accept the applications submitted by businessmen who are mainly from
Prosperous Armenia Party. However, this refers not only to Prosperous
Armenia’s businessmen,” Karine Hakobyan says.

Electoral and political technologies expert Armen Badalyan says that
businessmen enter the National Assembly being led by the stereotypes
of the past 20 years: “We will be from the ruling team, we will vote
for all the Government-submitted bills, and instead the Government
will not put pressure on us through taxes.”

From: Baghdasarian

PAYBACK: TURKISH MEDIA ENCOURAGE RESIDENTS TO FILE SUITS AGAINST FRANCE

Genocide | 06.02.12 | 12:19

Since January 23, when the French senate passed a bill criminalizing
denial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish retaliation toward France
has included lawsuits charging France with wrongdoing during the same
period of history.

As reported by News.am, interesting developments have unfolded
since Ahmet Karadag, a 57-year-old resident of Turkey’s Gaziantep
(Ayntap) city, filed a lawsuit against the French President, France,
French-Armenians, and four Armenian foundations in Istanbul.

Ever since a Gaziantep court accepted the lawsuit in which Karadag
claims that the French had killed his grandfather in 1919-1920, and
taken his 25 camels and 3.5-kg gold, the city’s media has called upon
citizens to file similar lawsuits. Ready-made petitions are provided,
and the claimants simply have to fill in their name and the date.

In the petition, Armenians are likewise accused of pillaging and
killing the Turks, and in assisting the French, for which the petition
also notes the French Armenians and the four Armenian foundations
in Istanbul.

The petition also states that the French bill was a heavy moral blow
to the Turkish people, and therefore the claimant demands a symbolic
10,000 Euros for material, and 5,000 Euros for moral damages.

CLINTON BRIEFED ON LATEST ARMENIAN-AZERI SUMMIT
By Emil Danielyan

Karabakh | 06.02.12 | 14:12

Photo:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was briefed on the results
of the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Russia during separate
talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandyan held over the weekend.

Clinton met with the two men on the sidelines of an annual conference
on global security that took place in Munich, Germany. She made no
public statements after those meetings.

In a short statement, Aliyev’s press office said the Azerbaijani leader
and the chief U.S. diplomat had a “broad exchange of opinions on the
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” It
did not elaborate.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said Nalbandyan and Clinton “discussed
in detail the latest developments in the negotiating process of
the Karabakh settlement” and, in particular, Aliyev’s January 23
meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan that was hosted by their Russian
counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in the Russian city of Sochi. Nalbandyan
shared her with the details of the summit, a ministry statement said.

A senior U.S. State Department official told U.S. journalists ahead of
the Munich Security Conference that the Karabakh issue is “something
the Secretary takes a personal interest in.” “The Secretary wants
to talk to both sides about the results of that [summit] and the
follow-on from that and how we can help move the process forward,”
the official said.

In joint statement with Medvedev issued after the Sochi talks, Aliyev
and Sargsyan did not announce progress towards an Armenian-Azerbaijani
agreement on the Basic Principles of the conflict’s resolution
jointly drafted by the United States, Russia and France. They only
“expressed readiness to accelerate the achievement” of such a framework
peace deal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there is still “a whole
series of issues that remain to be agreed” by the conflicting parties.

This was a further indication that a breakthrough in the long-running
talks is unlikely in the coming months.

The Sochi statement insisted that the nearly one dozen Aliyev-Sargsyan
meetings organized by Medvedev since late 2008 have brought the parties
closer to peace. Both the U.S. and France have also repeatedly welcomed
the outgoing Russian president’s mediating efforts that have enhanced
Moscow’s role in the peace process.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry statement, Nalbandyan
stressed the importance of the U.S. involvement in the process. The
statement also quoted Clinton as saying that Washington will continue
to lend “full support” to the conflict’s resolution by “in a solely
peaceful way.”

Both Baku and Yerevan say that the existing peace proposals by the
U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are largely
in tune with their positions. At the same time senior Azerbaijani
officials regularly criticize the mediating powers.

Ali Ahmedov, executive secretary of Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaycan party,
demanded “significant changes” in the Minsk Group’s activities the
day after the Sochi summit. The Trend news agency quoted Ahmedov
as saying that Baku could seek “a new format” for the negotiating
process if the group’s three co-chairs fail to take “serious steps
to resolve the conflict within a short period.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

INVESTIGATION IS LAUNCHED AGAINST TURKISH MINISTER WHO DENIED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

news.am
February 06, 2012 | 16:00

The Prosecutor’s Office of Switzerland’s Canton of Zurich launched
an inquiry against Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs, Egemen Bagis.

The proceedings were launched after when Bagis had stated in Zurich,
and while returning from the World Economic Forum in Davos, that
there was no Armenian Genocide, Hurriyet daily of Turkey informs.

And in an interview with Anadolu News Agency, Zurich’s Prosecutor
Christine Braunschweig confirmed the launching of this investigation
against the Turkish minister, and stressed that it is underway pursuant
to the Swiss Criminal Code.

In Zurich, Egemen Bagis had said: “I declare in Switzerland today
that the events of 1915 were not genocide. Let them come and arrest me.

Those laws are nothing but a piece of paper.”

PROJECT ON INFORMATION EXCHANGE AMONG ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AND NAGORNO-KARABAKH LAUNCHED

news.am
February 06, 2012 | 16:10

A new regional project on impartial information exchange among
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh was launched. The project
is initiated by Yerevan press club in partnership with Azerbaijani
and Nagorno-Karabakh journalists and supported by the U.S. State
Department.

The project involves three journalists per state, Kavkazskiy
Uzelreports.

“If we hope to settle the conflict once, we should help people to
feel themselves in normal, information-communicative environment,”
Yerevan press club president Boris Navasardyan said.

Head of the Azerbaijani Union of Journalists Eni Nesil (new generation)
Ariv Aliyev said that the new project is continuation of a long-term
project and attempts to change the situation for the better.

Head of the Stepanakert press club (Nagorno-Karabakh) Gegham
Baghdasaryan believes the ‘project is very useful and perspective’
and hopes for its continuation stressing that it is not a political
initiative.

From: Baghdasarian

KARABAKH SOLDIER SHOT BY FELLOW CONSCRIPT

epress.am
02.06.2012

At around 7:20 pm on Feb. 5, in one of the defense positions along
the line of contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijan forces, according
to preliminary data, military serviceman Gor Alaverdyan, violating
the rules for handling a machine gun, shot fellow conscript Marat
Dimaksyan, 20, who died on the way to hospital around 9 pm on the
same day.

Criminal proceedings have been filed with charges of violating rules
of handling a weapon that led to a person’s death, a crime punishable
by 4 to 8 years in prison, reports the Republic of Armenia Ministry
of Defense press service.

From: Baghdasarian

ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON IRAN
Igor Muradyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:52:04 – 06/02/2012

A part of Armenian experts propose an alternative view at the
situation in Iran and connect it with the perspectives of development
of the society, politics and state. According to these experts, the
acting ruling elite of Iran is extremely secularized and the Islamic
principles in the policy of Iran are diluted. Iran cannot be called
a truly Islamic country. Sharia is present only in a couple of norms
of conduct and in legislation, though very formally.

The Iranian elite does not hide that it is working out a project
of transformation of the political regime and creation of a new
statehood. Sharia’s norms will be preserved for long, perhaps,
forever. The idea is how sharia and the demand of modernization will
combine. Now nothing threatens Iran’s ruling regime, its political
destiny depends on the success of economic and social reforms. During
his presidential tenure, Ahmadinejad failed to fulfill serious
principled reforms. But the society still has great hopes:

– Iran expected more decisive steps by the U.S. toward rapprochement
with the United States and it seemed that Obama’s administration
would quickly enough take up steps to reproach Iran. But apparently,
the U.S. had some troubles inside the country and met resistance by
the Congress and the Jewish lobby. Besides, the U.S. sees relations
with Iran as a part of the Middle Eastern policy and determines these
relations with the problems of Iraq, Afghanistan, Caspian Basin and
Arab countries. In this regard, a stop in the rapprochement between
Iran and the U.S. is perhaps possible. But most likely, all of these
explanations may be secondary. Apparently, the U.S. has not developed
approaches and the concept of normalization of relations with Iran
so far. Maybe both sides don’t understand all the difficulties to
overcome on the path to rapprochement. In essence, this is a new
situation for the United States, and it will take time to define
priorities in the normalization of relations. In Iran, there is also
strong opposition to the rapprochement with the United States. While
it is clear that the important subject of political bargaining will
be the issues of relations with China. So far, the position and
statements of the U.S. against Iran have been very contradictory;

-Foreign political possibilities of Iran depend much on the
developments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, the political regimes
in both countries are hostile towards Iran. The elimination of these
regimes, and less likely, the normalization of relations with them will
strengthen Iran’s positions, including in the Arab world and Central
Asia. Iran is in confronting relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan
and this confrontation may increase. So Armenia will need to keep
its important role for Iran.

– Great Britain has already determined with regards to Iran’s issue.

The conservative government thinks it is necessary to support normal
relations with this country promoting reforms in Iran anyway. There
is a common idea that the U.S. and Britain lead a common policy in
relation with Iran. In reality, in terms of security issues, there
are ongoing consultations of relevant services in the U.S. and the
UK. But the UK tries to lead independent policy in relation with Iran
which would reflect its economic interests. UK cannot get distanced
from the general European position on Iran which supposes for the
strengthening of relations with this country. A break of relations
between the UK and Iran was accepted in London very critically. There
is no full agreement on this issue between the U.S. and UK, but these
countries have common strategical interests.

– There are no convincing signals that the U.S. is interested in the
catastrophic decline of defense capability and economic capacity of
Iran which may become extremely undesirable for the U.S. interests,
which builds its policy in this wide region on the basis of balance
between Turkey, Saudi Arabia (with satellites), Iran and Pakistan.

– At the present moment, serious contacts of different level are
underway between the U.S. and Iran in which private figures also take
part which will acquire a bigger significance in the foreseeable
future. The essence of the current disagreement is not in Iran’s
nuclear program, but geopolitical intentions pretending to middle-term
perspective. Iran is trying to launch a dialogue with the U.S. at
parity level, while the U.S. is trying to oblige Iran on the most
important geopolitical issues.

KIM KARDASHIAN WILL NEVER DATE ANOTHER FOOTBALLER
By Hiriyti Bairu

06/02/2012

Kim Kardashian denies she’s dating Mark Sanchez.

Reality star Kim Kardashian is not secretly dating Mark Sanchez and
says she is not interested in sportstar Tim Tebow.

TMZ report sources claim the Armenian beauty is completely over dating
football players in general – which is no surprise after the way her
relationship with Reggie Bush ended.

Only recently reports had emerged that Kim and Mark were seeing each
other secretly whenever the 31-year-old star was in New York.

Besides that there were other rumors Kim came on to Tim Tebow because
of his old-fashioned values – similar to ex husband Kris Humphries –
and that he would be her ideal type.

Sources close to Kim told TMZ that the recent stories are not true
and her break-up with Reggie in 2010 was so hard that she will not
be setting her eyes on any NFL players now or in the near future.