Month: September 2013

NAGORNO-KARABAKH FOREIGN MINISTER HOSTED DELEGATION OF LES PENNES- MIRABEAU ARMENIAN UNION

20:35, 3 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS: On September 3, Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan received
members of the delegation of the Armenian Union of Les Pennes-
Mirabeau town of France, who were on a visit to Stepanakert. Welcoming
the guests, the Head of Foreign Ministry considered important the
Declaration of Friendship signed on June 11, 2013, between the towns
of Les Pennes-Mirabeau of France and Martuni of the NKR.

“Armenpress” was informed from NKR foreign ministry press service
that ways of establishing and strengthening ties between the two
towns were discussed during the meeting.

On June 11 Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Karen Mirzoyan in city Les Pennes-Mirabeau took part in solemn ceremony
organized in the municipality during which a friendship declaration
was signed between Les Pennes-Mirabeau and Martuni city in Artsakh.

The declaration greets the steps of authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic to create and develop free and democratic society and
considers unacceptable the isolation of Artsakh people. Taking as
a base the importance of liberty and democratic values enshrined
in Human Rights Declaration the sides declare the establishment of
friendship relations between two cities and implementation of programs
in spheres of education, culture, sport and trade

L’ARMENIE VA REJOINDRE L’UNION DOUANIERE MENEE PAR LA RUSSIE

DIPLOMATIE

L’Armenie a annonce mardi son intention de rejoindre l’Union douanière
dominee par la Russie, son principal allie, un projet soutenu par
le president russe Vladimir Poutine qui milite pour une integration
toujours plus etroite des pays de l’ex-URSS. Cette annonce a ete faite
lors d’une visite a Moscou du president armenien Serge Sarkissian.

“Le president armenien Serge Sarkissian a fait part de la decision
de l’Armenie d’entrer dans l’Union douanière et de prendre toutes
les mesures necessaires pour cela, puis de participer a la formation
d’une union economique eurasiatique”, ont rapporte les agences russes
citant une declaration commune signee par les deux dirigeants.

L’Union douanière, pour l’heure composee de la Russie, du Belarus et
du Kazakhstan, doit en effet selon les projets de Moscou deboucher
sur une Union economique eurasiatique.

“Le president russe Vladimir Poutine a soutenu la decision de l’Armenie
et assure que la Russie ferait tout son possible pour faciliter ce
processus”, est-il ajoute dans la declaration.

Lors de la rencontre, M. Poutine a annonce que la compagnie de chemin
de fer russes RZD prevoyait d’investir 15 milliards de roubles (341
millions d’euros) dans le developpement du reseau ferre armenien,
selon l’agence Interfax.

Il a aussi indique que l’entreprise publique Rosatom allait cooperer
avec les experts armeniens pour prolonger jusqu’a 2026 la duree
d’exploitation de la centrale nucleaire de ce petit pays enclave
du Caucase.

Dans un discours poste sur son site, Serge Sarkissian a pour sa part
explique que sa ” decision est rationnelle “, etant donne l’adhesion
de l’Armenie a l’Organisation du Traite de securite collective,
une alliance militaire dirigee par la Russie. ” J’ai deja dit a
plusieurs reprises que lorsque vous faites partie d’ un système de
securite militaire, il est impossible et inefficace de vous isoler
de l’espace economique lui correspondant , ” a-t-il declare.

” Cette decision n’est pas un abandon de notre dialogue avec les
structures europeennes “, a ajoute le leader armenien. Il a indique
que son gouvernement demeure determine a mettre en oeuvre les ”
reformes institutionnelles ” recherchees par ces structures, mais il
ne fait aucune mention de l’accord d’association prevue avec l’UE.

La Russie a multiplie les tentatives pour accroître l’integration
des ex-republiques sovietiques depuis la disparition de l’URSS en 1991.

M. Poutine avait qualifie en 2005 l’explosion de l’Union sovietique
(1991) de “plus grande catastrophe geopolitique” du XXème siècle.

Avec AFP

mercredi 4 septembre 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

KAZAKHSTAN SUPPORTS ARMENIA’S DECISION TO JOIN THE CUSTOMS UNION

13:31 04.09.2013

Armenia, Customs Union, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan supports Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union,
Minister of Economic Integration of Kazakhstan Zhanar Aitzhanova told
reporters today, ITAR-TASS reports.

“I think the position of Kazakhstan will be expressed on the highest
political level, but overall the Customs Union is an organization
open to new members,” she said.

“If this is the political decision of the Armenian authorities,
then we support it,” she added.

According to Aitzhanova, Armenia will have to pass through a range
of procedures connected with the Customs Union, including legislative
amendments.

MARKAROV: ARMENIA WILL RETAIN TIES WITH EU

13:31 04/09/2013 ” COMMENTS

There is no response yet from Brussels but one thing is clear: Armenia
will retain ties with the European Union; the world has not collapsed,
political scientist Alexander Markarov told reporters in Yerevan in
commenting on Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union.

The format of relations with the EU is the question now, he added.

Political scientist Sergey Minasyan, for his part, said that Europe
was aware that Armenia seriously negotiates with Russia trying to
find some ways so as not to lose the two vectors.

“There can be an opinion that Armenia was pressured to take that
step, but I think they will understand that Armenia’s move was due
to security interests,” Minasyan said.

Source: Panorama.am

OPPOSITIONIST: A REFERENDUM SHOULD DECIDE WHETHER ARMENIA SHOULD JOIN THE CUSTOMS UNION OR SIGN AN ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT WITH THE EU

by Alexander Avanesov

ARMINFO
Wednesday, September 4, 13:42

A referendum should decide whether Armenia should join the Customs
Union or sign an Association Agreement with the EU, Hrant Bagratyan,
MP from the opposition Armenian National Congress, ex-Prime Minister
of Armenia, says on his Facebook page. To note, Bagratyan is currently
participating in an economic forum in Poland.

“I insist that such issues should be addressed by means of a
referendum. During the presidential election, I was the only
candidate calling for such an approach. Don’t solve such problems
single-handedly. Take the people’s opinion into account. Otherwise,
it will either be bad or bring shame on ourselves”, says Bagratyan.

To recall, on September 3, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan confirmed
Armenia’s intention to join the Customs Union and the process of the
formation of the Eurasian Union. Vladimir Putin supported Sargsyan’s
decision and promised to contribute to Yerevan’s accession to the
Customs Union in every possible way.

The Customs Union has been created within the Eurasian economic space
for trade and economic integration of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia
on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

HMAYAK HOVHANNISYAN: SERZH SARGSYAN HAS WEIGHED ALL PROS AND CONS AND MADE A WISE DECISION
by Emmanuil Lazarian

ARMINFO
Wednesday, September 4, 10:56

“Who has been heard and why?” – this was the title of my article
published in the Armenian press 18 years ago. I argued against Valery
Mirzoyan, a representative of the anti-Russian wing of the Armenian
National Movement Party. I claimed that the decision on the contractual
and legal registration of the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance and
deployment of a Russian military base in Armenia met the national
interests of Armenia”, Hmayak Hovhannisyan, Head of the Armenian
Association of Political Experts, says in his interview with ArmInfo.

“Who remembers Valery Mirzoyan and others who called for ousting Russia
from the South Caucasus region under the slogan “It is necessary to
expel the third force”? My current opponents, who think they have
managed to hypnotize the Armenian leader, will fall into political
oblivion in the same way. Serzh Sargsyan has weighed all the pros and
cons and made a wise decision, having blown sky-high the expectations
of the ill-wishers of the Armenian- Russian strategic cooperation.

We should hope that he will take similar efficient steps in the
domestic policy and the public support for his foreign political
course will grow”, says Hovhannisyan.

He points out that in the troubled 1990s, uneasy 2000s and today the
Armenian Association of Political Experts will support the politicians
who make decisions with due regard for the highest national and state
interests of Armenia.

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: 617-489-1610

DONNA-LEE FRIEZE, EDITOR OF LEMKIN
AUTOBIOGRAPHY, TO SPEAK AT NAASR

Dr. Donna-Lee Frieze, genocide scholar and editor of the newly
published autobiography of Raphael Lemkin, will give a lecture
entitled “Raphael Lemkin: The Armenian Genocide and the Autobiography
of the ‘Insistent Prophet,'” on Thursday, September 19, 2013, at 7:30
p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
(NAASR), 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA.
The lecture will be co-sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves of
Brookline, MA, and NAASR.
When Raphael Lemkin collapsed at a bus stop on 42nd Street
in New York City on August 29, 1959, he had either just visited the
Curtis Brown Publishing Agency on Madison Avenue or was on his way
there to discuss his autobiography, Totally Unofficial. He left
behind a near complete autobiography, which was eventually donated to
the New York Public Library twenty-three years after Lemkin’s death,
in August 1982, by Alexander Gabriel from the Transradio News Agency,
U.N. Bureau.
In June 2013, Yale University Press published Totally
Unofficial, in which Lemkin highlights the Armenian genocide in order
to articulate his conceptual understanding of the meaning of genocide.
Lemkin’s autobiography clearly underscores the lawyer’s detailed
analysis of the crime. It is argued that the events of 1915 provided
the framework for Lemkin’s understanding of genocide as a crime of
intended group destruction, and not necessarily as mass killing. The
long-awaited publication of Lemkin’s autobiography is a watershed
event in the ongoing reassessment of his seminal work on genocide.
Donna-Lee Frieze is a Prins Senior Fellow at the Center for Jewish
History in New York City and a Visiting Fellow at the Alfred Deakin
Research Institute in Melbourne. She taught a graduate unit,
Genocide, for over 10 years at Deakin University, Melbourne, and has
published widely on the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and the
Bosnian genocides in relation to testimony, film and philosophy. She
is the editor and transcriber of Raphael Lemkin’s autobiography
Totally Unofficial (Yale University Press) and the first
vice-president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
The NAASR Bookstore will open at 7:00 p.m. the night of the lecture.
Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin will be
available for purchase the night of the lecture.
More information about this program may be had by calling
617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing
to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

Belmont, MA
September 2, 2013

OFFICE OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC IN THE USA
1334 G St. N.W., Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Tel: (202) 223-4330
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site:

PRESS RELEASE
September 3, 2013

An Anniversary of Independent Artsakh
Congressmen, Canadian MP Extend Congratulations to the Republic

Washington, DC – On September 2, 1991, the Nagorno Karabakh legislature
announced the formation of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The historic
decision 22 years ago has effectively reversed Joseph Stalin’s arbitrary
resolution of 1921 to make Artsakh an Armenian autonomous region under
Soviet Azerbaijan. September 2, 1991 also symbolizes the end of decades of
discrimination and oppression that followed Stalin’s decision.

People of Nagorno Karabakh chose sovereign development as part ofa lasting
commitment to establish a free and democratic society. Twenty-two years
after the historic Declaration and
defending its liberty on the battlefield, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
(Artsakh) remains adherent to developing as an independent democracy and a
reliable member of the international community.

Members of the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament have congratulated
Artsakh people and authorities on the occasion. U.S. Representatives Frank
Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Michael Grimm (R-NY), the co-chairs of the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian issues, in particular, noted that the
“Formation of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in 1991 was a testament to
fundamental principles of freedom and democracy.We are committed to
continuing our support of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and of the
aspirations of your fledgling democracy and its people”.

Statement by a member of the Canadian House of Commons Jim Karygiannis also
congratulated the people of Artsakh on the occasion. “Today the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic is . independent, democratic and fully functioning state,
with a thriving market economy and a dynamic civil society”, says the
Canadian MP, who also let the country’s observation mission during the 2012
presidential elections in Artsakh.

NKR Representative Robert Avetisyan expressed his gratitude to the U.S.
Congressmen and to Canadian parliamentarian for their continued support to
Artsakh’s sovereign development.

* * *

The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States is based in
Washington, DC and works with the U.S. government, academia and the public
representing the official policies and interests of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic.

This material is distributed by the Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic
in the USA on behalf of the Government of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The
NKR Office is registered with the U.S. Government under the Foreign Agent
Registration Act. Additional information is available at the Department of
Justice, Washington, D.C.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

The Preparatory Committee of the Conference of Armenian Bishops meets in St.
Etchmiadzin, Armenia

Antelias – During 28-29 August 2013, the preparatory committee of the
Armenian Bishops’ Conference met to discuss the agenda of the meeting to be
held 24-29 September 2013.

Representing the Holy See of Etchmiadzin were Archbishop Khajak Barsamian
and Bishop Michael Achabahian; representing the Holy See of Cilicia were
Archbishops Oshagan Choloyan and Nareg Alemezian.

Another committee, representing the two Holy Sees, composed of Archbishops
Yeznik Bedrossian and Sebouh Sarkissian, and Bishops Arshag Khatchadrian and
Papken Charian, met concurrently in St Etchmiadzin to discuss the renewal of
the Armenian Church and the classification of Armenian Saints.

The two Catholicoi H.H. Karekin II and H.H. Aram I will preside over the
Conference in September.

NKR PRESIDENT MEETS ARMENIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DELEGATION

On 2 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received
the delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
headed by its deputy speaker Hermine Naghdalyan. The delegation has
left for Artsakh to participate in the celebrations dedicated to the
22nd anniversary of the Artsakh Republicâ??s proclamation.

Issues related to the cooperation between the two Armenian states in
the legislative field and the continuous deepening and expansion of
ties between the National Assemblies of Artsakh and Armenia discussed
during the meeting, Central Information Department of the Office of
the NKR President reported.