Month: February 2012

ARMENIA’S INTERNET MARKET ATTRACTS NEW STAKEHOLDER

Tert.am
03.02.12

A leading Russian telecommunication company has decided to join
Armenia’s internet market, becoming a shareholder of a major Internet
operator in the country.

According to the Russian news website Gazeta.ru, Rostelekom has
purchased 75% (-1) of the shares belonging to the Network Services
Provider GNC-Alfa. The Russian company’s president, Alexander
Provotorov, was quoted as saying that their control over the
Armenian internet operator would enable them to acquire a developed
infrastructure on country’s telecommunication market which has great
potentials for development.

In 2011, GNC-Alfa’s profit made $12 million, its net debt amount was
less than $1million.

Rostelekom’s plan to purchase GNC-Alfa’s shares was unveiled on January
13. The Russian media said the company also wanted to acquire Ucom,
an independent internet provider in Armenia’s telecommunication
sector. The deal would increase Rostelekom’s shares on the Armenian
internet market to 13%.

SARKOZY SLAMS HIS FM FOR OPPOSING GENOCIDE BILL

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 3, 2012 – 12:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – French President Nilocas Sarkozy and his Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe differ on the genocide denial bill that recently
passed the French Senate.

As CNN Turk reported, citing French media, Sarkozy criticized Juppe
for his position, making the latter keep silent on the matter.

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.

ARMENIAN REFUGEES FROM AZERBAIJAN DEMAND CERTAIN PUBLIC AND POLITICAL FIGURES TO STOP DERISION

arminfo
Friday, February 3, 13:52

Over the last 1.5 year certain public and political figures and
public organizations have assumed to themselves the right to come
out on behalf of all the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan, says the
statement by a group of Armenian refugees.

The statement signed by around 500 refugees reads: “These people
think it enough to name their organizations ‘Congress of authorized
representatives of Azerbaijani Armenians’ or ‘Assembly of Azerbaijani
Armenians’ to assume the right to themselves to submit their projects
to the Armenian and world community as quintessence of aspirations,
hopes and goals of all the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan. Some
of them suggest building a town in the liberated territories and
expel 100,000 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan to that town. Others
are sure that we should return to Baku and live side by side with
those who killed our relatives and expelled us. They speak of a third
Armenian country of refugees that should be created in the liberated
territories. We are alive and we don’t want to become a weapon in
the hands of adventurers, pseudo-politicians and irresponsible people.

None of those people has done anything to deserve our trust and to
speak on our behalf:.Let’s Ashot Manucharyan, Andreas Ghukasyan, Mariam
Avagyan, Anahit Tarkhanyan, Hranush Hakobyan, Nikolay Babajanyan,
Grigory Ayvazyan and others (if there are any) set tents in the
liberated territories and start building statehood and town for
themselves. Maybe in some 3-4 years other patriots will join them.

Without all this, their statements are nothing but phrasemongering,”
the statement reads.

The refugees further state: “We believe that Armenians of Azerbaijan
suffered a huge moral and material damage that must be recompensed by
Azerbaijan. Relevant authorities of Armenia and Artsakh should raise
the issue of compensation and not the self-proclaimed ‘defenders’
of the refugees’ rights.”

AZERBAIJAN’S DREAMS ABOUT DUDUK HAVE BURST LIKE A BUBBLE

arminfo
Friday, February 3, 13:57

For old time’s sake the Azerbaijani Mass Media again speak of the
“plagiarism” by Armenian musicians. This time, certain Alihan Samedov,
a Turkish musician, Azerbaijani my origin, told Day.az a bloodcurdling
story about the famous duduk player Jivan Gasparyan who regularly
performs his music. Samedov’s pain and sorrow are natural since he
has never performed Gasparyan’s repertoire. It is hardly possible
to trust in this tale as far as Jivan Gasparyan is a world-renowned
musician unlike Samedov.

To draw parallels with Ivan Krylov’s “Elephant and Pug”, one can just
google “Alihan Samedov” and “Jivan Gasparyan” and see the results –
65600 and 482 thousand respectively. Neither can Samedov boast of his
views on Youtube. While his music on youtube is approaching 40,000
views, Jivan Gasparyan’s Dle Yaman alone has been viewed by almost
300,000 times.

In this light, Samedov’s statement calling the Armenian duduk an Azeri
balaban arouses just an indulgent smile. Suffice it to say that in
2005 UNESCO announced the sounds of Armenian duduk masterpiece of
non-material cultural heritage of humanity. No comments.

JERUSALEM’S ARMENIANS OUTRAGED AS CITY APPROVES JEWS-ONLY PARKING LOT
By Nir Hasson

HETQ
14:13, February 3, 2012

Armenian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City are protesting a municipal
decision to designate a parking lot in the area solely for Jews,
although part of it stands on land belonging to the Armenian
Patriarchate.

Parking is a major problem in the Old City, and some residents of
the Jewish Quarter claim it is one reason secular families have been
moving out. One of the parking lots serving this quarter is adjacent
to the Armenian Quarter and is partially built on land owned by the
Patriarchate, though the land has been leased by the Jewish Quarter
Development Company since the 1970s.

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter
residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian
neighbors. But around two years ago, Armenians were forbidden to
park there.

One day I came home from work and the lot was closed,” said Mussa
Marizian, an Armenian Quarter resident whose windows overlook the
parking lot. “The quarter’s management decided we shouldn’t park
there; they just got rid of us. Jews who live in the Muslim Quarter
are allowed to park there, but I, who live right on top of the parking
lot, am not allowed.”

The development company subsequently asked the municipality for a
waiver to enable the lot to be permanently used for parking, even
though it is zoned as open public land under Jerusalem’s master plan
of 1978.

On Thursday, the city’s planning and building committee approved
the waiver, over the protests of both Armenian residents and the
Patriarchate’s representative, attorney Mazen Qupty, who argued that
most of the land was owned by the church.

“It was hard to hear the very inconsiderate arguments made by the
people of the Jewish Quarter about the needs of their Armenian
neighbors,” said Yosef “Pepe” Alalu, the Meretz deputy mayor, who
voted against the waiver. “How can it be that the parking lot used
to be open to all but now Armenians cannot enter?”

The Jerusalem Development Company said that less that 10 percent of
the parking lot’s land was leased from the Patriarchate, and that
the lease was for 99 years.

“The Armenians have a roomy parking lot 150 meters from that spot,”
the company said. “The request for exceptional use was a procedural
issue to renew the parking lot’s operating license and the objections
were legally rejected.”

ILLEGAL TREE FELLING IN GARNI; 2.4 MILLION AMD IN DAMAGE

HETQ
12:50, February 3, 2012

On a tip from the Haynews.am news site regarding illegal tree felling
in the village of Garni, the Kotayk Regional Prosecutor directed
local police to investigate.

Cops discovered 77 cases of illegal felling and estimated the damage
to worth around 2.4 million AMD.

They have sent their findings to the Kotayk Investigative Unit
for review.

UNSTABLE PROMENADE?: GEOLOGISTS STILL WARN THAT NORTHERN AVENUE IS DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN
By Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow
03.02.12 | 13:07

Photo:

The holes and unevenness which regularly appear on Northern Avenue,
which is considered to be the “Structure of the Century” of Yerevan,
are causing anxiety among geologists, who since 2001 have been warning
that the area cannot support the heavy development.

Enlarge Photo

Enlarge Photo

“These buildings will fall down as incredibly fast as they towered up,”
Ruben Yadoyan, head of Laboratory for Geo-Ecology of the Institute of
Geology at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, says angrily.

Yadoyan has repeatedly warned, has written letters to different
institutions, presenting his institute’s concerns and research which
state that the earth’s interior in the center of Yerevan is unstable.

The geologist claims that the avenue is built on clay sediment and
insubstantial stone.

“When constructing the metro in Yerevan (in late 1970s) the layer
of tuff was cut. Yerevan center may collapse because water flowing
under the city at 1,200 liters per second take with it 500-600 kilos
of ground, consisting of sand and broken stones. Within 25 years
after the metro started running the whole underground of the city
has become empty because of these ground flows,” Yadoyan said.

The emptiness in the earth’s interior, according to geological
researches, is mainly located in the central part of the city –
from Ghazar Parpetsi to Charents streets.

Northern Avenue, which is often called “A House on Sand”, was the pride
of the second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. The construction
of Northern Avenue was launched during his presidency, and its opening
ceremony took place during the last year of Kocharyan’s presidency.

However, the construction of the “Second Visiting Card”, as Kocharyan
called Northern Avenue, was accompanied not only with a number of
construction and planning violations but also a severe violation of
human rights.

Hundreds of families, which used to reside in the area of the present
Northern Avenue, have not received compensations corresponding to
market prices; meanwhile seismologists insist that the violations of
human rights can become “the least of evil”.

“We have repeatedly said that tall buildings must be built only in
areas which have a basalt basement – in Arabkir [district of Yerevan]
and to the north, and it is simply excluded in the southern and
western areas [of Yerevan]. However, we will be considered only after
a misfortune,” says Zaven Khlghatyan, Head of the Center of Seismic
Stability of Structures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Last July, it was noticed that a curb around Northern Avenue 3 had
sunk by nearly 20 inches and parts of the wall were damaged, the
construction company blamed it on low-quality building material. To
the geologists, it was, instead, a warning.

This building (which belongs to renowned businessman, owner of H2 TV
channel Samvel Mayrapetyan) and its adjacent sidewalk were not unique
(with such a problem), the whole sidewalk of Northern Avenue up Pushkin
Street’s crossroad, as well as the Pushkin-Teryan section are in the
same state. Part of them are restored, the rest still remain broken.

Marsel Nalbandyan, geologist at the Urban Development Company at
Yerevan Municipality, believes that the problem is exaggerated,
because as he says, “any new building has its degree of subsidence”.

“Yes, there are some areas in Yerevan where there are underground
waters. Unsound foundations need other construction solutions, but
there was not such a problem in Northern Avenue,” Nalbandyan says.

Geologist Nalbandyan, who was one of the experts who gave geological
conclusions for the construction license, says that the buildings
are constructed on tuff layers or on bedrocks under them.

Meanwhile, Sedrak Baghdasaryan, head of the Victims of State Needs
NGO, dealing with the Northern Avenue issue, says he has proof that
the tuff layer almost in all cases is removed.

“We can go just now and see the hole dug for a building to be
constructed at Buzand 13-21 address. It is evident that the whole tuff
layer is removed from there, and it is not known what the foundation
of the building will be,” Baghdasaryan says.

He recalls that while constructing the building at Buzand 25 address
(Baghdasaryan has followed the whole process of its construction,
because his own former house was located in this very area), while
digging the foundation of the building, the underground waters were
pumped out.

“The builders were pumping out the water quickly and putting cement in
the foundation. I know that even now twice a week pumps work in that
building and water is pumped out from the foundation of the building,
but it cannot last long,” Baghdasaryan says.

Meanwhile the issue of the threat connected with the construction in
Northern Avenue and in the center of Yerevan is not even discussed
at Yerevan Municipality.

“Aren’t you tired of this issue? There are all appropriate researches;
everything is done within the framework of these researches,” Narek
Sargsyan, Chief Architect of Armenia, author of Northern Avenue plan
told ArmeniaNow.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LIFE-SIZE NOAH’S ARK TO BE BUILT IN A COUNTRY WHERE PEOPLE STILL LIVE IN MAKESHIFT HOUSES: OPINION

epress.am
02.03.2012

The Public Council’s culture commission yesterday began to discuss a
project to build a life-size Noah’s Ark with a surface area of 10,000
square meters in Yerevan’s Victory Park.

As reported by local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”),
the commission very quickly gave the green light to the project. The
ark is expected to be built according to the measurements noted in
the Bible: a wooden structure 132-157 meters in length, 24-30 meters
wide and 13-20 meters high. The first floor will be a museum which
will house life-size models of the 8 humans and 120 pairs of animals
said to have boarded the vessel in the Biblical narrative. There will
also be observation binoculars to get a closer look at Mount Ararat,
Yerevan or the open sky.

The newspaper notes that the building project seems quite ambitious.

“To show the world that after the Great Flood, the rebirth of humanity
began from the heart of the Armenian world – Mount Ararat,” said Armare
director Martun Harutyunyan, one of the people behind the project,
during its presentation.

“This structure will be unique in the world – it will be dedicated to
the 100th anniversary of the Great Catastrophe [the Armenian Genocide]
and will belong to humanity,” he added.

Asked what he means when he says “belong to humanity,” Harutyunyan
said: “That is… how can I explain it to you? That is, it will be
a universal structure.”

However, at the discussion, not everyone was excited about the project.

“I fear that in the implementation of this project that small green
space will be eliminated,” said art critic Levon Lachikyan.

Also opposed to the project was National Gallery of Armenia museum
director Paravon Mirzoyan. “Our country today has so many problems,
so many pains. People live in caravans [makeshift houses]; they don’t
have money for food – do you understand?

“There isn’t a proper museum building in the country. An American or
someone came, advised building a Noah’s Ark, for us to fill it with
animals – we’re all overjoyed. Listen, now is not the time for that…

When I sometimes see the state of people living in the Gyumri or
Vanadzor region, to tell the truth, I’m surprised that we build so
many churches today. Spending all that money for what? For an American
to come, see that Noah is sitting at the foot of Ararat? It’s not
right. See, we make decisions – they removed the kiosks on Abovyan
Ave. And what did they do? They moved them someplace else. When a
decision is made, it must be considered, why is it being made?”

Architect Levon Igityan, in turn defending the project, said, “We at
least have to be the first in doing something and not allow our values
to be taken away from us – just as they took lavash and harissa.”

“Our people, we, are the owners of Noah’s Ark. [Mount] Ararat today
isn’t on our side [of the border], but we hope that we’ll live to
see it on our side. The truth is this should’ve been built on Mount
Ararat. But we don’t have this option now. Why do we allow everyone
to get ahead of us and own what is ours? The Turks will build it,
they will do it, they will become the owners of Noah’s [Ark], this
is the problem,” said publicist Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan, also behind
the project, at the discussion.

From: A. Papazian

“HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK” JOURNALIST ARRESTED

01:30 pm | Today | Politics

Managing editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily Hayk Gevorgyan has
been arrested.

Early in the morning, on his way to work, Gevorgyan was surrounded by
plainclothes police officers who drove him in an unknown direction,
the editorial office of Haykakan Zhamanak informed A1+.

Later, Gevorgyan’s lawyer Vahe Grigoryan found out that his client
was taken to Nubarashen penitentiary institution.

Hayk Gevorgyan turns out to have been wanted since January 23 although
he has gone to the editorial office every day unaware of anything.

Talking to A1+, Armen Malkhasyan, an employee of the Armenian police
press service, confirmed the information, saying on Jan. 13 Hayk
Gevorgyan was involved in a running down accident and took to flight.

A criminal case has been filed against Gevorgyan under Articles 242
and 244 of the Criminal Code

SERIOUS POLITICAL DECISIONS ADOPTED

Thursday, 2 February 2012

A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan.

Before proceeding to the agenda, the head of government highlighted
some issues which were described as of serious political relevance.

Guided by the fundamental principle of human capital development,
understanding that well-being is provided through high-standard
education and professional qualification, the government approved a
program of assessment of servicemen’s educational needs in army units
and implementation of educational programs and approved the sample
questionnaire and results forms.

Embracing a new social policy line implying transition from relief
efforts to implementation of educational, healthcare, housing and other
programs, as well as provision of welfare packages to beneficiary
groups, the government approved an educational need assessment,
support and monitoring program for children aged 16-18 from duly
registered vulnerable households.

The program seeks to raise the living standards of eligible families
through enhanced access to vocational education, increased social
opportunities for their children and so on.

The government decided to allocate AMD 163mn to the Ministry
of Agriculture in the first quarter of 2012 for the loading and
transportation of nitrogenous fertilizers to be provided to land
users at a reasonable price.

The next decision bore on the procurement of diesel fuel under a
State support program for domestic land users for which the Ministry
of Agriculture will be allocated AMD 1,327,914bn in the first quarter
of 2012.

The meeting decided to extend up till February 20, 2015 the deadline
set for VAT settlements by Hanna-Trans Ltd for over AMD 300mn worth
of goods imported in the period from February 20 to March 31, 2012
under the ongoing investment program

The company plans to organize the transportation of coal from Maghavuz
region of Nagorno-Karabakh to Vardenis railway junction for further
delivery to Yerevan TPP by Hanna-Group. The coal so transported shall
be used as a water-carbonic fuel for electricity purposes.

To attract foreign direct investments with a view to boosting the
exports of advanced technologies conducive to new jobs and sustainable
economic development, the government decided to set up a free economic
zone on the site of RAO Mars CJSC and Development Institute CJSC.

With a focus on electronics, precision engineering, pharmaceuticals and
biotechnologies, information technology, alternative energy, industrial
design and telecommunications sectors, this Sitronics-Armenia
CJSC-hosted first Armenian free economic zone will be effective for
a term of 10 years.

The meeting went on to endorse the Come Back Home – 2012 program with
an action plan expected to bring to Armenia some 800 teenagers from
the Diaspora during the year.

In conclusion, the meeting backed a draft presidential decree on
establishment of Armenia’s consulate general in Odessa (Ukraine).

There are some 400 thousand Armenians currently living in Ukraine, with
about 150-180 thousand people domiciled the country’s south-eastern
regions, including Odessa and the Crimea.

The founding of the general consulate in Odessa will help improve
the quality of services provided to Armenians from Ukraine’s distant
south-eastern regions, Crimea and Moldova.

The meeting agenda comprised some 50 items altogether.