Month: September 2013

PAPYAN: MILITARY INVASION OF SYRIA UNLIKELY

15:59 03/09/2013 ” POLITICS

The military invasion of Syria is unlikely in a short term perspective,
director of Modus Vivendi center, political scientist Ara Papyan told
reporters on Tuesday.

“The United States is currently the biggest player in the Middle East.

But it should be noted that the United States is almost alone against
Syria as, except Turkey and, partly, France, the other countries
have rejected participation in a military strike against Syria,”
Papyan said.

The United States understands clearly that it has no resources to
control Syria after the collapse of Assad’s regime, the speaker noted.

“I think that there will be no large war in the future, but there
will be missile strikes against Syria, with the latter being just
because Obama has put himself in such a situation that he cannot but
do something,” the analyst said.

Source: Panorama.am

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA INTENDS TO INCREASE WATCH EXPORTS 1.5 TIMES BY 2015
by Arthur Yernjakyan

ARMINFO
Tuesday, September 3, 15:56

By 2015 Armenia is going to increase the watch exports 1.5 times to
$12 mln as compared with 2011 when the watch output totaled $8 mln,
Armen Yeganyan, Head of the Industrial Policy Department of the
Armenian Economy Ministry, told ArmInfo.

He said that such indices are fixed in the recently approved strategy
of watchmaking development. 5 Armenian companies are engaged
in watchmaking and they employ a total of 113 people. 85% of the
watches are exported to the United States. Exports to Uzbekistan and
Turkmenistan make up 7% and 5%, respectively.

The major watchmakers in Armenia are the Yerevan Jewellery Plant-1
“Gnomon” OJSC, AWI, IGOR, and the Armenian branch of Frank Muller. It
is noteworthy that some manufacturers use Swiss mechanisms and
components.

Yeganyan pointed out that in watchmaking Armenia has comparative
advantages and competes in prices and development potential. For
instance, the average wages in the watchmaking field are $1.4 per
hour in Armenia, $3.5 in China and $5.1 in Malaysia.

PREPARLIAMENT ACTIVIST DETAINED IN ARMENIA

16:21 03.09.13

Dmitry Harutyunyan, a member of the Preparliament group, has been
taken under preliminary detention under a ruling passed by a Yerevan
district court.

Speaking to Tert.am, a former ombudsman of Armenia, Larisa Alaverdyan
(who is now affiliated with the group) said the activist will spend
two months in jail.

Harutyunyan was held on August 31 over charges of using violence
against a representative of authorities. (Article 316 of Armenia’s
Criminal Code).

Armenian News – Tert.am

MKHITARYAN IS REAL DISCOVERY FOR BORUSSIA, SAYS RUSSIAN CHAMPION

16:06 03.09.13

A champion of the 1988 USSR Olympics has described Armenian midfielder
Henrikh Mkhitaryan a real discovery for Dortmund’s Borussia.so

“I have known Mkhitaryan since the matches with the Armenian team.

That football player is a real discovery for Borussia, and I know
Klop is content with his performance. He is a team player and does
not have to worry for a place in the main team,” Yuri Sovichov said
in a recent interview with Sport Express.

“Borussia is the club which often uses pressing to attain a result. I
think that style is close to Mkhitaryan. The Armenian footballer
scored the two goals in Frankfurt with a kick of the left leg. It is
very important for a football player to use both legs effectively,”
he added.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

SHISH KEBAB FESTIVAL TO BE HELD IN AKHTALA, SEPT 7

15:04 03.09.13

This year the Shish Kebab festival will be held in Akhtala, on
September 7.

Speaking of declaring September 7 world day of shish kebab and making
Akhtala the world center of shish kebab, Chairman of the Armenian
Cookery Traditions Development and Protection NGO Sedrak Mamulyan
told journalists on Tuesday the aim is to make Armenia attractive to
tourists and arouse their interest in Armenian cuisine.

“Besides organizing a festival, we are holding a competition. We have
a task of developing public catering,” he said.

The motto of the festival is ‘When September comes’, and the festival
will from now on be held during the first week of September.

Andre Simonian, vocalist of the Beautified Project rock band, said
that the festival is part of culture and the band intends to perform.

“We have invited well-known painters to come and pain the local
church,” he said.

Mekhak Apresyan, Head of the Tourism Department, Ministry of Economy of
Armenia, said that this is a way of contributing to tourism development
in Armenia’s communities.

Armenian News – Tert.am

KARABAKH CONFLICT: TURKEY STILL HOPES TO FORCE ITS WAY INTO OSCE MG

September 3, 2013 – 16:54 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net –

Azerbaijan spares no effort to position itself as a leading player
in South Caucasus, using not only petrodollars but a number of
anti-Armenian events to gain its end.

The favorite Azeri mottos ‘Armenia is an aggressor’ and ‘Nagorno
Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan’ are widely known to be
unsubstantiated and meant only for brotherly Turkic people, the only
ones to be supporting Baku at this point.

The ex-foreign minister of Turkey is no exception. In his address at
a Baku-hosted forum South Caucasus in a Changing World, Hikmet Centin
yet again spoke about occupation and refugees.

“A number of conflicts are ongoing in South Caucasus, negatively
affecting regional stability and hampering cooperation between
neighboring countries,” Centin said, urging to resolve the Karabakh
issue.

The ex-official went on to slam the OSCE Minsk Group’s activity noting
that the latter needs new ideas in promoting the conflict settlement.

He further drew an intimidating picture of the Karabakh conflict
“posing threat to international security.”

“Finding solution to the protracted Karabakh issue is much harder
than settling conflicts in Cyprus, Abkhazia, Ossetia,” he said.

One cannot help but wonder: if the Cyprus crisis is so much easier
to solve, why can’t Ankara settle it? Or does the ‘easy solution’
mean another occupation of Cyprus?

And once again, Cetin couldn’t help promoting Turkey’s involvement
in the OSCE MG efforts.

It’s unlikely that the diplomat is unaware that Turkey’s involvement in
the OSCE MG activity is impossible, the former being biased towards
one of the conflicting parties. This, nevertheless doesn’t stop
Ankara from persisting that the conflict would be solved in no time,
were Turkey to become a co-chair.

Somehow, Ankara keeps forgetting that every conflict that Turkey
seeks to become involved in goes from bad to worse, with Syria as
one of the examples.

It would be much better for Turkish diplomats to try and solve their
own issues, including Cyprus and Kurds. The Karabakh conflict, solved
back in 1994 will be better off without Turkey’s involvement.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS INTENSIVELY DEVELOPING IN ALL DIRECTIONS

17:51 03.09.2013

Within the framework of the working visit to Moscow, Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin.

“Relations between Armenia and Russia are built on the centuries-old
traditions of friendship between our peoples. I’m confident that the
relations will continue to develop on the basis of mutual trust,
in line with the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual
Assistance,” the Armenian President said.

“I’m sure every generation of Armenians and Russian will make its
contribution in the history of bilateral relations. These relations
are important to us, and we’ll do our best to contribute to their
development. Nevertheless, there are issues to solve in order to
raise our relations to a new level,” President Sargsyan said.

“I’m glad that our relations are intensively developing in all
directions. There are frequent contacts on the level of parliaments,
governments and business structures,” Russian President Vladimir
Putin said, in turn.

“The commodity turnover between our countries has increased with
over 23%. Russia remains Armenia’s first trade partner and the trend
maintains,” Vladimir Putin said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ROSNEFT’S DECISION ON PARTICIPATION IN ARMENIA’S NAIRIT TO BE KNOWN AFTER COMPLETION OF AUDIT

YEREVAN, August 3, /ARKA/ Russian Rosneft company President and
Chairman of the Board Igor Sechin had a working meeting today with
Director General of Armenian Nairit Plant Hovhannes Hakhinyan and
Deputy Director General for Reconstruction and Development Karen
Mirzoyan. The meeting was held just before negotiations between
the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the President of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan.

During the meeting, the parties discussed Rosneft’s potential
participation in chloroprene rubber production at Nairit plant. In
August 2013, Jacobs Consultancy Ltd conducted a technical and
environment audit of chloroprene rubber production from butadiene at
Nairit Plant. Rosneft will take a decision whether to take part in
this project once it receives the final audit results and discusses
the conditions to join the project with the Armenian government.

Commenting on the outcome of the meeting, Rosneft President Igor
Sechin said, “We take a favorable view of our cooperation with
Armenian partners. We are now expecting final results of Nairit audit
and outcome of negotiations with the Armenian Government about tax
regime in order to decide whether we should join the project.”

Rosneft also reached an agreement with its partner company Pirelli
for Pirelli’s delegation to visit the Nairit plant to evaluate and
determine possible opportunities for cooperation.

Nairit was the only plant in the Soviet Union to produce chloroprene
rubber. The plant was closed in 1989 for environmental reasons
and resumed operating partially in 1992. In 2001, some production
facilities were separated from the plant for producing chloroprene
rubber and a debt-free enterprise based on them was established. In
2006, 90% of Nairit’s shares were sold to British Rainoville Property
Lim ited for $40 million. The remaining 10% belong to the Armenian
government.

Rhinоville Property Lim ited has been co-founded by the Samex company
(Poland), Intertex (USA) and Evrogaz (Russia). In April 2010 the plant
stopped producing rubber. Before the halt, the plant sold its products
abroad – chloroprene rubber was exported to EU countries, Russia
(about 30% of the exports), the United States and 20 other countries.

-0-

– See more at:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EFFORTS TO RETURN THE ARMENIAN POW CONTINUE

17:27 03.09.2013

Karen Ghazaryan
“Radiolur”

Everything has been done to assure Hakob Injighulyan that he won’t
be persecuted upon his return to the Motherland, Armenian Defense
Minister Seyran Ohanyan told reporters today.

“Unfortunately, the absence of state contacts with Azerbaijan does
not allow us to use all our opportunities; we keep in touch with
Hakob Injighulyan only through international organizations,” the
Minister said.

Seyran Ohanyan said it’s not yet clear what Hakob has declared and
where he wants to go, but assured that the efforts to return the
Armenian captive continue. The Minister said Injighulyan will be
provided with necessary support to recover psychologically and return
to his service.

Speaking about the armament of the Armenian Army, the Defense Minister
said the process can be divided into several chronological stages,
the last of which starts from 2007.

“Since 2007 we have purchased armaments necessary to counterbalance
Azerbaijan’s privileges,” Minister Ohanyan said.

In particulate, we have acquired air defense systems, high-precision
missile systems, which can make the rival refrain from unleashing
attack. The Minister noted that despite the quantitative privilege
of Azerbaijan, the balance of forces is maintained with respect to
quality and professionalism in using the armaments.

Seyran Ohanyan stressed that more armaments have been purchased over
the past three years and the process continues.

Seyran Ohanyan noted that the resent activeness of the Azerbaijani
snipers at the line of contact is connected with political processes
inside the country. The Minister said Armenia does not respond to
irregular firing. It punishes the rival only for targeted shots.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ILLEGALITIES UNDER THE COVER OF RELIGION SHOULD BE PUNISHED

15:41 03.09.2013

Karen Ghazaryan
“Radiolur”

The 2013 exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue
titled “Freedom of religion in today’s world: challenges and guarantees
wrapped up in Yerevan today.

No final document was adopted at the end of the meting. Instead,
the participants reached conclusions targeted at one main goal –
to contribute to the creation of necessary bases for mutual trust,
tolerance, inter-religious and inter-church dialogue.

Summing up the results of the two-day meeting, Secretary General of
the European Council of Religious Leaders Stein Villumstad stressed
that the rules and laws adopted by Council of Europe member states are
actually enough to realize the rights existing in the sphere. Whether
they are applied or not is a different question, he said.

There are a number of examples of inter-religious tolerance in
different countries, which should be investigated, participants of
the forum concluded. They also stressed that the illegalities done
under the cover of religion should be viewed as violations of law
and be punished.

Touching upon the discrimination against religious minorities, the
participants said they exist in all countries, especially under the
conditions of increased level of mobility in the world. Currently
there are contacts between Christians and Muslims in Europe, but
there are also cases of intolerance.

Another conclusion reached at the conference referred to political
parties. The forum stressed that the parties should not use the
religious minorities for their political interests.