Month: February 2012

ARMENIAN SERVICEMEN DEADLY INJURED ON KARABAKH-AZERBAIJANI CONTACT LINE

news.am
February 03, 2012 | 20:59

STEPANAKERT. – An Armenian serviceman was deadly injured in Jabrail
military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday, Armenian News-NEWS.am
source reports.

Head of the Karabakh MOD PR department Senor Hasratyan approved the
report to the Armenian News-NEWS.am adding the incident occurred at
5.00 p.m. in the Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line on Thursday.

Serviceman Karlen Baghdasaryan, 20, was deadly injured and died on
the way to hospital. Investigation is underway. Further details will
be available later.

THOUSANDS HECTARES OF FOREST HAS NOT BEEN INCLUDED IN ARMENIA’S FOREST FUND

news.am
February 03, 2012 | 20:31

YEREVAN. – After the investigations it came out that around 23 thousand
hectares of forest was not included in Armenia’s Forest Fund, was
reported during the consultation with regional governors hosted by
Armenian deputy PM, minister of Territorial Administration Armen
Gevorgyan on Thursday.

The deputy PM assigned the regional governors to start works in order
to include the forests in the Forest Fund.

ARMENIAN JOURNALIST DETAINED BY POLICE CHIEF’S ORDER – NEWSPAPER

Tert.am
03.02.12

The Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time) daily has issued a statement
on its journalist Haik Gevorgyan’s detention. The statement reads:

“On February 3, 2011, at about 11:00 am, police, using strong-arm
tactics, detained the well-known journalist Haik Gevorgyan and
transported him to the Nubarashen penitentiary. He was not allowed
to make a call nor did any official agency inform his relatives of
his whereabouts.

“The policemen explained their decision to transport the journalist to
the penitentiary by the fact that Haik Gevorgyan had been on a list
of wanted since January 23, in connection with a traffic accident
that involved his car.

“According to the RA Criminal Procedure, a person may be put on a
list of wanted if his or her whereabouts are unknown or he/she is an
absconder,” says the statement.

Both before and after January 23, Mr Gevorgyan continued his everyday
activities, driving his car, covering the Armenian government’s
sittings and top-ranking officials’ press conferences.

Mr Gevorgyan also had several telephone conversations with the
investigator and stated his readiness to appear if he was legally
summoned to the police. The investigator was informed of the
whereabouts of Mr Gevorgyan’s car. Mr Gevorgyan proposed that his
car be examined, but his proposal was rejected.

The developments suggest that the police are prosecuting one of the key
staff members of the newspaper by order, his journalistic activities
being the reason, says the statement.

On January 12, 2011, following the government sitting, Mr Gevorgyan
attended a press briefing of Chief of Armenia’s police Vladimir
Gasparyan. The journalist asked Mr Gasparyan a number of pointed
questions. Later, the newspaper published a disgraceful article about
the police chief. The article dealt with a number of facts about Mr
Gasparyan, which were not commented on by the journalist.

The same day, Á running-down accident involving Mr Grigoryan’s car
was attempted. The attempt failed due to Mr Grigoryan’s attentiveness,
says the statement.

Later developments do not leave any doubts that Mr Gevorgyan’s
detention was ordered by Chief of Armenia’s police Vladimir Gasparyan.

The reason must be an article published in the February 3, 2012,
issue. The article dealt with a G Mercedes owned by Mr Gasparyan,
which is worth $120,000 to 150,000.

The editorial staff of the Haikakan Zhamanak newspaper states:

1. Haik Gevorgyan’s detention is a fact of persecution by the
political Establishment, particularly by Chief of Armenia’s police
Vladimir Gasparyan. The aim is taking reprisals against Mr Gevorgyan
and preventing his further activities.

2. Vladimir Gasparyan, as well as other representatives of the
political Establishment aim at impeding the Haikakan Zhamanak
newspaper’s activities, intimidating all the Armenian journalists that
have no problems in making public the information on corrupt officials.

The newspaper demands immediate release of Haik Gevorgyan.

From: Baghdasarian

DAVUTOGLU TO DISCUSS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE WITH U.S. CONGRESSMEN

ARMENPRESS
FEBRUARY 3, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS: Foreign Minister of Turkey Ahmet
Davutoglu will pay an official visit to the USA February 8-13,
Armenpress reports citing the Turkish “Star”. Within the frameworks
of the visit he will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During the meeting the parties will discuss issues of mutual interest
and will touch upon the current situation of the Middle East.

Davutoglu will also hold meetings with the congressmen and will
discuss the Armenian Genocide issue, which is likely to be again
submitted to the Congress till April.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ST. SARGIS HOLIDAY HAS BECOME MORE POPULAR

ARMENPRESS
FEBRUARY 3, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 3, ARMENPRESS: St. Sargis Holiday has become more
popular in the recent several years, ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan
told a news conference, Armenpress reports. “In our days it is marked
as a holiday of love, and St. Sargis is considered a mediator saint
between lovers,” said Hranush Kharatyan.

St. Sargis Holiday is celebrated 63 days before Easter, on a Saturday
falling sometime between January 18 and February 23.

On the night of the holiday young people eat salty pies and don’t
drink water to encourage dreaming at night. They believe that St.

Sargis decides their fate, that the person who gives them water to
drink in their dreams will become their future spouse.

People also put a plate with flour outside their homes to have a
record of St. Sargis’s horse riding through the flour. They believe
St. Sargis appears with lightening speed on his radiant horse, and
that the traces left on the flour serve as a good omen to bring them
luck. In people’s imagination St. Sargis is handsome and appears with
a spear, a gold helmet and gold armor.

This year the Armenian Apostolic Church will celebrate the holiday
February 4.

FRENCH SENATORS OPPOSING GENOCIDE BILL TO VISIT BAKU

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 3, 2012 – 21:09 AMT

French senators opposing Genocide bill to visit Baku

PanARMENIAN.Net – A delegation of French senators having appealed
to the Constitutional Court with a demand to abolish the bill
criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, will arrive in Azerbaijan
on Feb 5 at the invitation of State Committee for Work with Religious
Organizations, Trend reported.

The delegation comprises senators Nathalie Goulet, Sylvie Goy-Chavent,
Jean-Marie Bockel, Herve Maurey, Andre Reichardt and Jeanny Lorgeoux.

In the framework of the visit the senators will conduct meetings
within Azerbaijani parliament and a number of ministries.

The delegation will leave the country on February 10.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the
Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. Expected
to be signed into law by President within 14 days, the bill will
impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France
who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the legislation
– from both the Senate and the lower house – said they had formally
requested the constitutional council examine the law. The groups said
they each had gathered more than the minimum 60 signatures required
to ask the council to test the law’s constitutionality. The council
is obliged to deliver its judgment within a month, but this can be
reduced to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.

ANCA: IT’S A SAD SPECTACLE TO SEE CLINTON HIDING BEHIND CYNICAL APPEALS

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 27, 2012 – 10:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
sharply criticized remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
who dismissed the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as a “historical
debate,” and argued that U.S. affirmation of this crime would open a
“dangerous door.”

“The Obama-Biden Administration – with Secretary Clinton’s latest
remarks – continues to dig itself deeper and deeper into a hole of
complicity in Turkey’s genocide denial,” said ANCA Executive Director
Aram Hamparian.

“It’s a sad spectacle to see Secretary Clinton hiding behind cynical
appeals to scholars – the overwhelming majority of whom have already
spoken forcefully against Turkey’s denials of the Armenian Genocide –
to divert attention from President Obama’s, Vice President Biden’s or
her own promises to properly recognize this crime and, more broadly,
to divert attention from the White House’s failure to meet its moral
obligation to stand up against a foreign government’s veto of our
defense of human rights,” he continued.

Responding to a question from a participant of a Town Hall Meeting
on Thursday, 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.

“I think it’s fair to say that this has always been viewed, and I think
properly so, as a matter of historical debate and conclusions rather
than political. And I think that is the right posture for the United
States Government to be in, because whatever the terrible event might
be or the high emotions that it represents, to try to use government
power to resolve historical issues, I think, opens a door that is a
very dangerous one to go through. So the issue is a very emotional
one; I recognize that and I have great sympathy for those who are
just so incredibly passionate about it,” Clinton told the audience.

Secretary Clinton’s remarks are diametrically opposed to her statement
issued almost four years ago, to the day, as a Senator. In this
statement, she boasted that she was “alone among the Presidential
candidates” to have been a cosponsor of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution and pledged “as President, I will recognize the Armenian
Genocide.” The statement went on to stress that: “Our common morality
and our nation’s credibility as a voice for human rights challenge
us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and remembered
by the Congress and the President of the United States.”

ARMENIA: MALE EXODUS FROM RURAL COMMUNITIES
By Inna Mkhitaryan

Institute for War and Peace Reporting IWPR
CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 626
January 24, 2012
UK

Gegharkunik has highest rate of labour migration anywhere in Armenia.

In the villages of Armenia’s Gegharkunik region, women describe
themselves as “almost-husbands”, since they have to do the tasks once
performed by their now absent menfolk, as well as their own work.

Around eight per cent of this eastern region’s population of 240,000
travel abroad every year as seasonal labour, mainly in Russia.

According to the national statistics agency, Gegharkunik has the
highest proportion of economic migrants of any region in Armenia.

Some of the migrants return every autumn, while others, like Shushan
Hovakimyan’s husband, barely come home at all.

Hovakimyan, a teacher in the village of Nerkin Getashen, lives with
her two sons and her 66-year-old mother-in-law, while her husband is
away in Russia most of the time.

“My husband was last home two years ago – he can’t come that often,”
she told IWPR. “He could at least come and see his aging mother. I’m
not important. I really worry about losing my husband, but what can
I do?”

Hovakimyan’s husband sends money home now and again, but it is rarely
enough to support them. She says that by the time she gets her monthly
wages, “I’ve already built up so many debts that I don’t know how to
distribute my salary.”

It is hard for men to make a living in Gegharkunik. In this mountainous
environment, winter lasts the best part of six months of the year,
and there are few jobs around apart from farming, which is barely
profitable.

Samvel Ghazaryan, 50, is one of the few men living all year round
in Nerkin Getashen. He spent 15 years as a labour migrant abroad,
but returned to care for the family 12 years ago when his wife Larisa
fell ill.

Inna Mkhitaryan is a freelance photojournalist in Armenia.

From: Baghdasarian

SARKOZY WILL REDRAFT GENOCIDE BILL IF IT FAILS

Ottawa Citizen
February 2, 2012 Thursday
Final Edition

President Nicolas Sarkozy will immediately submit a new draft of a law
punishing denial of the Armenian genocide if France’s top judicial
body rejects it, two ministers said Wednesday. The law, which had
been approved by the National Assembly and Senate, was put on hold
Tuesday after politicians opposed to the legislation demanded that
its constitutionality be examined. The council is obliged to deliver
its judgment within a month, but this can be reduced to eight days
if the government deems the matter urgent. Turkey reacted furiously
last week when the Senate approved the law, which threatens with jail
anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by
Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

ROSTELECOM BUYS 75% OF ARMENIAN OPERATOR GNC-ALFA FOR $22.5 MLN

Interfax
Feb 2 2012
Russia

Rostelecom has bought 75% of Armenia’s biggest independent network
services provider GNC-Alfa for $22.5 million, the Russian company said.

Rostelecom bought the shares via its subsidiary Teleset Networks Ltd.
A source familiar with the terms of the deal told Interfax that
Rostelecom had an option to buy the other 25% plus one share.

GNC-Alfa is Rostelecom’s first acquisition abroad. The company operates
more than 1,500 km of fiber-optic trunk network that covers 70%
of Armenia’s territory with connections to the Iranian and Georgian
networks.

GNC-Alfa plans to roll broadband Internet and digital TV out this year.

It had sales of $12 million and an EBITDA margin of 48% in 2011. Net
debt is less than $1 million.

Rostelecom signed a deal with GNC-Alfa in 2010 to market Rostelecom
-branded products in Armenia, including IP transit, Internet access
and communications channel lease.

Russia’s VimpelCom (RTS: VIMP) bought cellular and landline provider
Armentel in 2006 and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (RTS: MTSS) has owned
80% of K-Telecom since 2007.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress