Month: September 2013

NETHERLANDS RETURNS FOUR STOLEN ICONS 18 YEARS AFTER DISCOVERY

Cyprus Mail
September 19, 2013 Thursday

By Peter Stevenson

THE Dutch government handed over four icons looted from a monastery
in northern Cyprus to the island’s ambassador to the Netherlands,
Kyriacos Kouros, in a ceremony yesterday in The Hague.

The 16th-century icons portraying the four apostles, valued at about
EUR150,000, were taken from the medieval Antiphonitis monastery in
1975. Legal efforts by the Church of Cyprus to recover the icons failed
in 2002 after a seven-year legal battle but a change in Dutch law in
2007 allowed the government to finally lay claim to the artworks.

“We have heard that the icons will be delivered to Cypriot authorities
within 48 hours,” Tasoula Hadjitofi, the founder of Walk of Truth,
an organisation that campaigns to preserve cultural heritage told
delegates at a September 16 conference in The Hague. “The Netherlands
should be congratulated for this.”

The Cypriot government says that as many as 100 Greek Orthodox and
Armenian churches in northern Cyprus were looted or vandalised after
the 1974 Turkish invasion. It estimates that more than 15,000 icons
are missing. Some objects have been recovered in Western Europe and
the United States.

The four looted icons of the saints were reportedly purchased by
an elderly Dutch couple from an Armenian dealer who visited their
Rotterdam home. When the couple tried to auction the icons in the
1990s, employees of Christie’s International warned that they may be
stolen. A court case to recover them began in 1995.

A district court ruled that the Dutch purchaser bought the icons in
good faith and was therefore the rightful owner. The Court of Appeals
found that the claim was time-barred under statutes of limitations
in 2002, according to Rob Polak, the Amsterdam-based lawyer who
represented the Church of Cyprus in the legal process.

Questions about the ruling were raised in the Dutch parliament, and
in 2007, the Cultural Property Originating From Occupied Territories
Act was passed.

The law bans the import and ownership of cultural property originating
from a territory that was occupied in an armed conflict after 1959,
and allows the Minister of Education, Culture and Science to seize any
such property. In cases where the owner is deemed to be a good-faith
buyer, he may receive compensation from the Dutch state, according
to Bloomberg.

“The Netherlands tested its laws, found they were at fault, and fixed
them,” said Hadjitofi, who devoted herself to recovering looted art
after a Dutch dealer approached her offering to sell stolen Cypriot
artefacts. “Maybe other countries such as Germany could learn from
this.”

Over 170 religious artefacts including icons, murals and mosaics from
the stolen collection of Turkish looter Aydin Dikmen were returned
to the Republic of Cyprus in a special ceremony in Munich in July.

“The artworks are no longer needed as evidence and now they can return
‘home’,” German Justice Minister Beate Merk said in a statement at
the time, adding “Cultural treasures are of immense importance for
every nation”.

THE DEATH TOLL IN SYRIA CONTINUES TO RISE – WHOEVER IS DOING THE COUNTING;

To the sound of the bombardment of rebel sites, Robert Fisk in
Damascus discusses the victim tally with an Assad supporter

Independent.co.uk
September 19, 2013 Thursday 9:06 PM GMT

Robert Fisk

As the MIGs raced over Damascus this morning, two traffic cops –
sweltering in white helmets on this hot autumn day – were issuing
tickets on double parked cars near the Barada River. More than 100,000
dead – give or take a few thousand, if you believe the statistics –
and they are still issue parking tickets.

Perhaps there is something fantastical about this city. As the rebel
suburbs are blasted by the planes – these explosions can be heard
all over Damascus like giant bursting balloons – the middle classes
are sipping cold lemon juice on the terrace of the Plattorria cafe
in Abu Rumaneh.

This isn’t “blitz spirit” or any of the other hooray cliches with
which we like to gift cities at war. It’s about the willing suspension
of disbelief, the idea that if you pretend the war is not there,
it will not be there; that which has happened has not happened. War
is the great illusion.

Behind the French-built children’s college, old Joseph Battie – of
Armenian origin, although he prefers “Syrian” or just “Christian” as
his appellation – claims he now has an average of one customer a day.

I am today’s customer at the Ibn Sina Bookshop; yes, it really is
named after the 10th Century Persian Shia doctor and philosopher
from Bukhara.

So why does Joseph bother to open? “Because I’ve been here for
19 years,” he says. The books are old and dusty, a pile of French
paperback editions of Les Misèrables and far too many Jilly Cooper
novels in English and a couple of books by Amin Maalouf. There’s
a tourist section with a brochure on the partly Christian city of
Maaloula on the top, although the latest tourists to visit the town
came from the al-Qa’ida-friendly fighters of Jabhat al-Nusra. A
recording of the Lebanese singer Joumana Mdawar moans across the
bookshop. When I leave Joseph gives me a stamp-sized portrait of the
Virgin and Child with Angels. “People think of money rather than God”.

“This war is all about money”.

But then we come to real war. I meet an Alawite friend for lunch. And
a friend of his, whom I have never met before, one Khaled Mahjoub, who
doesn’t even like being called a Sunni – although that is what he is –
but who calls himself a eco-preneur, an industrialist and a confidant
of President Bashar al-Assad. And he is indeed close to the President.

He also happens to be a cigar-maker – real Syrian cigars, believe
it or not, with tobacco from Lattakia. He hands me one. It is about
an inch in width. “So how many dead in Syria?” I ask him. “Perhaps
70,000,” he replies.

My Alawite friend thinks it’s closer to half a million, an astonishing
figure. But then I ask him, how many Syrians did he know personally
who have died in the past two years. “At least 30 dead, all civilians,
he replies simply. “One was a policeman from my village who was shot
10 months ago. Another was an employee at Furat Petroleum, who was
a guard in Deir El Zour who was kidnapped and killed. Another was a
money transporter for the local Syrian mobile phone network. He was
shot for the money in Homs.”

I turned to Khaled. “At least 55,” he says bleakly. Five of them
because of their connections to me. Two of the dead men were cousins
of my Alawite friend.

Khaled speaks loudly and his support for the President booms across
the restaurant. He is a man, I suspect, who has many enemies. He
looks at me grimly. “Judge me for the enemies I made”, he says. And
I think he is quoting Theodore Roosevelt because Khaled has been an
American citizen since 1993.

Then comes the inevitable praise of Assad. “He is a leader, not a
manager. He leads people and he manages things. What we need here is
a Mandela-type reconciliation.” And who is Syria’s Mandela, I ask
(naturally holding my breath) “Bashar al-Assad, of course”, comes
the painfully expected reply.

His economic message comes in American sound-bites. And I’m not sure
I understand all of it. “We have deliverable politicians. They are
tactical retail politicians. It’s about vision, not about people.

Today you need to be intelligent, not smart, effective but not
efficient.”

And back we go to Bashar al-Assad. “I respect him for two things:
insisting on keeping [President] Lahoud as President of Lebanon”
[beyond his constitutional term]. I can almost hear the Lebanese
screaming with anger at such a thought.

“The second strategical forte of Bashar al-Assad is that he refused
to do non-institutional reforms. He refused to do short-cuts.”

I shake my head at all of this. I’m still trying to puff away on
his massive cigar. But it worries me, this sense of vague optimism –
within six months, he claims, things will have turned around in Syria.

And I’m worried about his mere 50,000 dead. And I also remember curling
up in bed the night before with Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in
which William Shirer records the German bombing of Rotterdam in 1940.

“It was first reported and long believed that from 25,00 to 30,000
Dutch were killed,” Shirer wrote. That was the figure given in the
next edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. But at the Nuremburg
trials, the Dutch government gave the final figure as just 814 killed.

I have a feeling there is a lesson here for all those fatalities
statistics we imbibe on Syria. Fifty thousand? One hundred and ten
thousand? Half a million? Assad’s jets were still flying over Damascus
this afternoon. I suppose the only sure fact is that the figures are
definitely climbing.

LA 80EME VISITE DE LA BARONNE CAROLINE COX AU HAUT-KARABAGH ET EN ARMENIE

ARMENIE-GRANDE-BRETAGNE

Hier le president armenien Serge Sarkissian a recu au palais
presidentiel a Erevan, la baronne Caroline Cox de la Chambre des
Lords de la Grande-Bretagne qui effectuait sa 80ème visite en Armenie
et au Haut Karabagh. Serge Sarkissian a chaleureusement felicite
Caroline Cox pour sa defense inconditionnelle du peuple d’Armenie
et de l’Artsakh (Haut Karabagh). Il nota que depuis plus de 22 ans
et 80 visites, la baronne Caroline Cox reste fidèle en engagements a
l’Armenie et aux Armeniens. Des visites au peril de sa vie, lors de la
guerre de liberation du Haut Karabagh. ” Nous saluons votre courage,
votre humanisme et votre engagement pour la paix et la liberte (…)
votre soutien immense et votre position sûre et solide envers le
peuple armenien durant la guerre du Karabagh vous grandissent. Vous
beneficiez et beneficiez toujours de la reconnaissance et de l’amitie
et la gratitude du peuple armenien envers vous ” dit Serge Sarkissian
ajoutant que Caroline Cox a renforce les liens entre la Grande Bretagne
et l’Armenie.

De son côte Caroline Cox a evoque ses nombreuses visites au Karabagh
et en Armenie et confia ses impressions en affirmant qu’elle etait
heureuse de connaitre le combat et les reussites du peuple armenien du
Haut Karabagh qu’elle soutint lors des heures les plus difficiles de
la guerre de liberation. Elle a confie qu’elle continuera a soutenir le
peuple du Haut Karabagh et apporter sa contribution au renforcement des
relations armeno-britanniques. Serge Sarkissian et la baronne Caroline
Cox ont en outre evoque la situation dans la region du Sud Caucase
ainsi que les pourparlers de paix autour du conflit du Haut Karabagh.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

245 PROSTITUEES OFFICIELLEMENT RECENSEES PAR LA POLICE ARMENIENNE

ARMENIE-SOCIAL

Selon les donnees policières l’Armenie compterait aujourd’hui 245
prostituees contre 259 l’an dernier. Au 1er semestre 2013 la police
armenienne a contrôle 80 prostituees -dont 70 a Erevan- exercant leur
activite, alors que durant les six premiers mois de l’an dernier,
leur nombre etait de 160. Ces contrôles etat pour s’assurer de l’etat
de sante de ces ” travailleuses “. Selon le ministère de la Sante, 38
de ces prostituees presentaient des maladies veneriennes. En 2012 ce
nombre etant de 122. En dehors d’Erevan, les prostituees sont les plus
nombreuses dans la region de Lori (63 cas), puis viennent Armavir (40),
Syunik (19) et Kegharkounik (10). Avec 245 prostituees officiellement
recensees pour un pays de 3 millions d’habitants, l’Armenie est l’un
des pays au monde où le taux de prostitution reste très bas.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

DEBUT DES PREMIERS TRAVAUX DU NOUVEAU QUARTIER ” NOR ALEP ” A ACHDARAK

ARMENIENS DE SYRIE-ARMENIE

A Achdarak a quelques dizaines de kilomètres d’Erevan, ont debute le 17
septembre les premiers travaux du futur quartier ” Nor Alep ” (Nouvel
Alep) qui accueillera plusieurs centaines de familles armeniennes
refugies de Syrie. C’est la societe ” Yergrapanagan-Oudik ” dirigee
par Vladimir Kinovian qui dirige les travaux d’etudes geologiques de
ce quartier qui va naitre. Après ces premières etudes, un plan des
fondations sera trace et les premières tranchees seront creusees.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARTHUR ABRAHAM MONTERA SUR LE RING LE 26 OCTOBRE AVANT SON COMBAT POUR LE TITRE MONDIAL EN 2014

BOXE PROFESSIONNELLE

Sur la route du titre mondial WBO des poids super-moyens, l’Armenien
Arthur Abraham qui monte sur les rings sous les couleurs de l’Allemagne
le 26 octobre. Le nom de son adversaire sera connu prochainement
selon le site Fightnews.com. Le combat se deroulera dans la ville
d’Oldenburg (Allemagne). Il sera pour Arthur Abraham ” une preparation
” selon son entraineur, sur le chemin de la reconquete de son titre
mondial. Arthur Abraham qui devrait en 2014 affronter l’Allemand
Robert Stieglitz pour le titre mondial WBO des super-moyens.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

RC LENS-AZERBAIDJAN : L’AVIS DES SUPPORTERS

Football – Business – Politique

Depuis la prise de la majorite des parts du RC Lens par l’homme
d’affaire azeri Hafiz Mammadov, qui ne cache pas son hostilite envers
les armeniens et l’Armenie, le milliardaire n’en finit pas de faire
couler l’encre dans les colonnes footbalistiques de France.

Dans un article publie dans l’Equipe, le professeur d’economie
Jacques Fontanel, egalement coauteur du livre Azerbaïdjan, un pays
aux ambitions europeennes, nous livre son analyse.

” C’est pour renvoyer une image plus positive de l’Azerbaïdjan
que l’oligarchie proche du gouvernement se propose d’investir
dans le football. Ce pays souhaite en effet devenir une nation de
l’espace europeen, mais l’Union europeenne reconnaît deux obstacles
: l’insuffisant respect des droits de l’homme et la question du
Haut-Karabakh, un territoire pour lequel l’Azerbaïdjan est en conflit
depuis plus de deux decennies avec l’Armenie. L’ONU a reconnu le
Haut-Karabakh comme appartenant a l’Azerbaïdjan, mais les grandes
puissances se satisfont du statu quo favorable a l’Armenie. ”

Dans le Lensois.com, les supporters du club se manifestent
contradictoirement

Lire ICI : aller en bas de page

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Jean Eckian ©armenews.com

L’OPERA D’ANDREY BABAYEV EN PREMIERE A CHOUCHI

KARABAGH

La première de l’Opera d’Andrey Babayev ” Artsvaberd ” (la forteresse
de l’Aigle), a eu lieu Chouchi dans la Republique du Haut-Karabagh
le 1er septembre.

Le projet a grande echelle a implique des solistes de l’Opera National
d’Armenie et la chambre des ch~urs de la Republique du Haut-Karabagh
ainsi la troupe de Danse de la Republique du Haut-Karabagh.

La performance etait dediee a la fete de l’Independance de l’Artsakh.

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

LE PRESIDENT DE LA BANQUE CENTRALE D’ARMENIE EXPLIQUE QUE L’ADHESION A L’UNION DOUANIÈRE AURA UN EFFET POSITIF SUR LE SYSTEME FINANCIER DE L’ARMENIE

ARMENIE

Le President de la Banque Centrale d’Armenie Arthur Javadyan a declare
que l’adhesion de l’Armenie a l’Union douanière aura un effet positif
sur le système financier de l’Armenie.

Il a indique que les institutions financières de l’Armenie coopèrent
avec succès avec leurs homologues russes et kazakhs. Il a declare que
trois banques russes et une banque kazakhe sont presentes en Armenie,
qui sont guides par les memes normes comptables internationales de
Bâle, la gouvernance d’entreprise etc.

” De ce point de vue, notre cooperation n’aura sue des resultats
positifs ” a declare Javadian.

En ce qui concerne les avantages pour l’economie de l’Armenie Arthur
Javadyan a dit qu’il n’etait pas pret a parler dans les details,
mais a declare que les attentes globales sont positives.

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

L’AMBASSADEUR DE SYRIE AU LIBAN A VISITE SA SAINTETE ARAM I

LIBAN

Mercredi 11 Septembre 2013, l’Ambassadeur Ali Abdul Karim Ali
a rencontre le Catholicos Aram I, en presence du depute Hagop
Pakradouni. L’ambassadeur a assure sa Saintete Aram I que le
gouvernement syrien n’avait pas utilise des armes chimiques contre
son propre peuple. En reponse, le Catholicos a dit l’ambassadeur
Ali que le conflit syrien devait etre resolu par le dialogue avec la
participation de toutes les parties, y compris les minorites.

samedi 21 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com