Author: Andres-Papazian

ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO RESUME OPERATION ON FRIDAY EVENING

/ARKA/
OCTOBER 27, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, October 27. / ARKA /. The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in
Metsamor will resume operation on Friday evening and join the national
power grid after a planned repair, the facility’s chief engineer,
Movses Vardanyan, told reporters today. The NPP was brought to a halt
for repair on September 11 that was scheduled to last 46 days.

“The process of restarting the rector was launched on 25 October, but
after the repair we need a full check of the equipment. On Tuesday,
we began the check and restarting work”, said Vartanian.

According to him, after 1-2 hours the nuclear power plants will reach
its minimum capacity. “But even in these conditions, there is the
need to verify the characteristics of the structures of the active
zones of the rector. After that we will join the power grid “, he said.

The Armenian Metsamor nuclear power plant is located some 30 kilometers
west of Yerevan. It was built in the 1970s but was closed following
a devastating earthquake in 1988. One of its two VVER 440-V230
light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. Armenian authorities
said they will build a new nuclear power plant to replace the aging
facility. The new plant is supposed to operate at twice the capacity
of the Soviet-constructed facility.

Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity.

But the government has yet to attract funding for the project that
was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as much
as $5 billion. Under a 2003 agreement Armenian nuclear power plant’s
financial flows are managed by Russian Inter RAO UES, owned by Russian
state-run Rosatom corporation.

The agreement expires in 2013. In 2010 Russia and Armenia signed an
agreement on cooperation in nuclear energy sphere whereby Russia
committed to assume 20% of all expenses. The Armenian government
will cover another 20% and the remaining part is supposed to come
from investors.

From: A. Papazian

YEREVAN TO HOST VIDEO SEMINAR ON INTEGRATION OF MEDIA AND SOCIAL NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

/ARKA/
OCTOBER 27, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, October 27. / ARKA /. Novosti international press center
in Yerevan will host October 31 a video seminar on the integration
of media and social networking opportunities opened by Facebook for
media companies.

The training video-workshop will be held as a video bridge between
Yerevan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, (Russia) Kiev (Ukraine), Astana
(Kazakhstan), Tbilisi (Georgia) , Chisinau (Moldova) and Tomsk
(Russia).

Facebook spokeswoman in Russia, Ekaterina Skorobogatova and Angela Tse,
a manager for Facebook promotion in Russia, Poland, Korea and Eastern
Europe, will speak on the possibilities offered by the world’s largest
social network for media companies, as well as on the prospects of
this cooperation.

They also will share information on how Facebook transforms
communication between people, how users consume media content,
recommend it to friends and share a variety of information about
themselves, ranging from petty things to large events.

Angela Tse said they will introduce some important changes on
Facebook platform and they will explain why and what was changed,
and how Russian language media can work with it. The participants
will be able to discuss the integration of media in social networks
and advanced tools to work with Facebook audience, the experience
of Russian RIA Novosti news agency in integration with Facebook,
as well as successful case studies of leading international media.

It is expected that the workshop will bring together over 300
representatives of leading Russian mass media, advertising and
creative agencies as well as experts. The seminar is held by RIA
Novosti together with Facebook. The seminar is expected to be on-line
at ) and on RIA Novosti channel in Facebook.

The seminar is free. Seats are limited. To apply please contact
Gayane Hovhannisyan by phone: 093 25 19, or 52-83-92 (ext. 108),
as well as by e-mail: [email protected].

From: A. Papazian

DELEGATION HEADED BY VICE-PREMIER DEPARTS FOR NKR

ARMENPRESS
OCTOBER 27, 2011
YEREVAN

The delegation headed by the RA vice Prime Minister, Territorial
Administration Minister Armen Gevorgyan departed today for the
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh for a two-day working visit. The
delegation comprises of governors of Armenian provinces of Ararat,
Lori, Kotayk, Shirak, Syunik, Tavush.

Press service of the Ministry reported that the delegation will
meet with the President of the NKR Bako Sahakyan, Prime Minister Ara
Harutyunyan. During the meetings issues on expansion and deepening
of the partnership between the Armenian provinces and administrative
regions of the NKR will be discussed.

The governors will visit the administrative regions of the NK, will
discuss the opportunities of partnership as well as implementation
of concrete programs. The results of the visit and the achieved
arrangements will be summed up at the NKR Government.

From: A. Papazian

POLICE ARREST INDIVIDUAL PROTESTING AGAINST ARMY ABUSES

hetq
12:57, October 27, 2011

Earlier today, police arrested Lala Aslikyan, one of a group protesting
against abuses within the ranks of the Armenian army.

Aslikyan is a member of a group calling itself ” The Army in Reality”.

The demonstrators had assembled in front of the Armenian Government
Building in Yerevan.

The police later issued a statement that the protestors were in
violation of disturbing the peace and had been taunting cops at
the site.

From: A. Papazian

PRIME MINISTER’S ULTIMATUM TO BHK
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:44:30 – 27/10/2011

The Armenian press has been recently writing much that Serzh Sargsyan
is trying to present an ultimatum to Gagik Tsarukyan forcing him a
new coalition memorandum reaffirming the commitment of the BHK leader
not to create obstacles for the Republicans.

As we know, Gagik Tsarukyan entered into this commitment with
the February 17 coalition memorandum. But one day before it, the
BHK leader gave a large interview in which he hinted about his
refusal of this commitment. The point is that Tsarukyan ambiguously
refused answering the question whom the BHK will support at the next
presidential elections, as well as he stated about the necessity to
form a larger ruling coalition noting that BHK pursues the goal of
unifying the larger coalition.

These statements evidently hinted that BHK was not going stay behind
the Republican Party and did not want to be the “forever second”.

The Republican Party has been restrained in relation to these
statements, their opinions were not clear and concrete. Apparently,
this is the reason why those, who commented on this, who are not the
“figures” but the “soldiers” of the Republican Party, had no idea
of what was on the mind of the RP “figures” and especially the main
“figure” -Serzh Sargsyan.

“Figures” used to keep silent and the Chief “figure” was so busy with
foreign visits, receiving Sarkozy and getting ready for the meeting
with Putin. Completing all this, Serzh Sargsyan returned to Yerevan
and one day later we heard the Republican “figure” reactions to the
BHK intentions. I mean Tigran Sargsyan’s briefing during of which
the Republican Prime Minister made quite rough and clear political
hints to the BHK.

There are two essential moments here. The first is that Tigran Sargsyan
actually threatened that if the BHK does not cooperation with the
RP and does not accept its leading position, then it will remain
with nothing. So, the Republican Party is trying to hint to Gagik
Tsarukyan that he does not need to think about becoming opposition
and forcing concessions to the Republican Party through blackmail.

But at the same time, it is not ruled out that the Republican Party,
seeing that Gagik Tsarukyan is uncompromising in his political
programs, is trying to blackmail him and threaten that they do not
need his support at all and RP programs for the next presidential
elections are not determined by the BHK position, and in the end,
the only one to be sorry, will be the Bargavach Hayastan Party.

The next essential moment here is of internal Republican significance,
though, of course also internal governmental and internal political,
in the sense that RP is the key subject in all these processes.

The point is that currently, at this interesting and responsible
internal governmental and internal political moment, the mission to
throw the ball into the BHK field was assigned to Tigran Sargsyan,
who perhaps for the first time made a concrete and addressed statement.

Probably, Serzh Sargsyan tried to underline Tigran Sargsyan’s role
in the upcoming internal political processes and election developments.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO U.S. DISLIKES ERDOGAN’S POLICY?

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 27, 2011 – 10:52 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Harut Sassounian, Publisher of The California Courier
said he received a revealing message last week from Benjamin Yafet,
a Turkish Jew who had immigrated to the United States in 1976.

He is a retired professor and high tech entrepreneur in Arizona.

“Prof. Yafet disclosed that in recent years he has been transformed
from a staunch supporter of Turkey to an anti-Turkish crusader. He
explained that he was “disgusted” with Turkey when Hitler’s Mein
Kampf became a bestseller in that country. Since then, he has had
“1001 reasons” for being totally “fed up” with Turkey’s hypocritical
policies. In fact, he was so disgusted that he informed Ankara that
he was renouncing his Turkish citizenship,” Sassounian writes in his
column titled “The Unmasking of Namik Tan, Turkey’s Ambassador to
the U. S.”

The article continues: “In his e-mail, Prof. Yafet enclosed a 1998
New York Times editorial titled, “Turkey’s Destructive Generals.” The
editorial harshly criticized the generals for imprisoning Recep
Erdogan, then Mayor of Istanbul, and now Prime Minister of Turkey.

Mayor Erdogan was forced out of office for reciting an Islamic poem!

The Times’ editors were displeased with “Turkey’s politically
meddlesome” and autocratic generals who muzzled free speech, closed
down Islamic schools, and arrested businessmen who were financing
Islamist politicians.

As a loyal supporter of Turkey, Prof. Yafet sent a scathing letter
to the Times, defending the draconian measures taken by the military
junta against the Islamic Welfare (Refah) Party, the predecessor of
Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AKP) Party.

Prof. Yafet then mailed a copy of that letter to the Turkish Embassy
in Washington, proudly notifying them of his “good work” on behalf of
his native land. Within days, he received a letter of appreciation
from Namik Tan, then “Counselor and Embassy Spokesperson,” and now
Ambassador of Turkey to the United States. Counselor Tan praised Prof.

Yafet, stating that his “rebuttal was an astute, lucid and rational
argument, which handled the issues with profound insight and
understanding and corresponded, in many aspects, to how we also
approach the subject.”

A close reading of Prof. Yafet’s letter to the Times reveals why
Counselor Namik Tan had offered to him such lavish praise. Likening
Erdogan’s ideology to that of the Nazis, Prof. Yafet accused his
political party of “preaching the end of democracy itself” aiming
“to replace it by an Islamic theocracy.” He went on to explain that
“a careful reading of the party program does exhibit an agenda that is
a carbon copy of the reactionary Iranian Ayatollah’s ideology. A direct
application of the party doctrines would deprive Turkish women of their
hardly acquired civil rights and they would first lose their right of
NOT wearing the chador (veil). The Welfare Party was totalitarian in
essence, racist and anti-Semitic in philosophy, and anti-democratic by
definition. This list does not even include the worldwide implication
of the foreign policy they wanted to impose on Turkey.”

In concluding his letter, Prof. Yafet warned that the Islamic Party
would withdraw Turkey from NATO, close down U.S. bases, threaten
Israel, side with Libya, Iran, and Sudan, and support Hamas and
Hizballah. Prof. Yafet went as far as asking the Times’ editors to
apologize to the Turkish generals!

In his last week’s e-mail, Prof. Yafet found it ironic that the same
Namik Tan who had thanked him for his anti-Erdogan letter back in 1998
is now representing an Islamist government that he so passionately
despised only a dozen years ago.

It is truly amazing that the Turkish government would send to
Washington in 2010 an Ambassador who had opposed Erdogan’s Islamist
party and supported the generals who had imprisoned him. While it is
understandable that Erdogan himself may have not been aware of Mr.

Tan’s 1998 letter, it is highly unlikely that his superiors at the
Foreign Ministry were unaware of his pro-military and anti-democratic
views. After all, Mr. Tan has been a career diplomat since 1982 and
served as Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Ankara prior to his ambassadorial assignment in Washington.

It remains to be seen how the Prime Minister would react to the
unmasking of Amb. Tan. Erdogan may decide to castigate Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu for appointing an Ambassador with such anti-Islamist
views to represent the AKP government in the United States.

Indeed, Amb. Tan may face the same premature exit from Washington as
his predecessor, Amb. Nabi Sensoy, who was forced out in 2009 after
an argument with Foreign Minister Davutoglu.”

From: A. Papazian

KEVORKIAN ESTATE PLANS TO SELL DISPUTED PAINTINGS .

Wall Street Journal

Oct 27 2011

The estate of Dr. Jack Kevorkian said Thursday it intends to
proceed with auction plans for 17 paintings that are being held at
a Massachusetts museum despite a legal battle over the ownership of
the art.

Estate attorney Mayer Morganroth said the dispute with the Armenian
Library and Museum of America has only increased interest in the
paintings by the assisted-suicide advocate. Kevorkian used a pint of
his own blood on one of the paintings.

“This is just ridiculous and preposterous,” Morganroth said. “As far
as I’m concerned, they’re stolen.”

Kevorkian, who was of Armenian descent, died in June in suburban
Detroit at age 83, leaving his property to his niece and sole heir,
Ava Janus of Troy, Mich. The estate has estimated that the total
value of the paintings being held by the museum is $2.5 million to
$3.5 million. The estate and museum have each filed lawsuits.

The museum’s attorney, Harold W. Potter Jr., said it “believes in good
faith that is the owner of those paintings.” He said the paintings,
which the museum says Kevorkian donated, will stay put until the
courts settle lawsuits over their ownership. The museum is located
in Watertown, a town outside Boston.

“It has possession of the paintings. Right now, there’s a lawsuit
pending, and nothing is going to change until that lawsuit is
resolved,” Potter said.

The paintings and other Kevorkian possessions are scheduled to be
auctioned Friday at the New York Institute of Technology.

Many of the paintings depict death or dying. One of those scheduled for
auction is titled “Genocide” and features a bloody head being dangled
by the hair and held by the hands of two soldiers, one wearing a German
military uniform from World War II and the other wearing a Turkish
uniform from World War I. Kevorkian painted the head using his blood.

Kevorkian, who spurred on the national right-to-die debate with a
homemade suicide machine that helped end the lives of dozens of ailing
people, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for assisting
in the 1998 death of a Michigan man with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He
was released from prison in 2007.

Kevorkian loaned the paintings and other personal effects to the museum
in 1999 because he believed they would be protected while he served
his prison term, Morganroth said. Kevorkian sought out the arrangement
because some of the paintings had been previously stolen, he said.

Morganroth said that the agreement stipulated the museum would return
the paintings if requested and that he and Kevorkian had to sign off
on any changes to the deal. He said that never happened. The museum
turned over other items belonging to Kevorkian before the estate
asked for the paintings, Morganroth said.

The museum sued earlier this month in Middlesex County, asking the
court to declare the estate has no right to Kevorkian’s art and that
it is the rightful owner.

The museum’s lawsuit says that the curator who signed the 1999 deal
didn’t consult his superiors and didn’t have the authority to sign
the agreement that guaranteed it would return the items.

The lawsuit also claims that Kevorkian attended the opening of a
second exhibit after he was released from prison and said that he was
“very pleased that he had donated his entire collection” to the museum.

Auction previews will be held Thursday. Images of the paintings will
be displayed at the auction, Morganroth said. Successful bidders must
make a 10 percent deposit that will be held in escrow, he said. The
paintings will be delivered as soon as the dispute with the museum
is resolved, Morganroth said.

Other items being auctioned are an assisted-suicide machine called
a Thanatron that Kevorkian used to help about 130 people die, a
bulletproof vest and his sweaters. The proceeds will go to Janus and
the charity Kicking Cancer for Kids, Morganroth said.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJANIS, ARMENIANS MAY LIVE IN PEACE AND HARMONY IN KARABAKH

news.az
Oct 25 2011
Azerbaijan

News.Az interviews Bayram Safarov, head of the Azerbaijani community
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has proposed
to arrange meetings between members of the Azerbaijani and Armenian
communities of Nagorno-Karabakh. May such meetings change stance of
conflicting parties in the negotiating process?

Of course, such a meeting could produce positive results for the
negotiating process. If no talks are held between the states and
communities, there is no need to expect progress in the resolution
process.

Is a venue for such a meeting is of any importance for the Azerbaijani
community of Nagorno-Karabakh?

I believe certain problems may emerge regarding organizational issues.

These problems may be related to providing security of the meeting
participants.

In addition, there can be problems in movement of community
representatives attending the meeting. Problems can occur even at
the initial stage of this process, in particular, while sending
invitations to communities, the issue of visas, etc. Therefore,
these issues are not solved at the community level. Most likely,
these issues will be addressed by Foreign Ministry.

How realistic it is to build trust between Azerbaijani and Armenian
communities of Karabakh at current stage?

I have acquaintances among the Armenian community of Karabakh, and
I think they probably are tired of the protracted conflict. They
understand more and more that they have lost and the promises made
the organizers of the conflict remain unfulfilled. At the same time,
they have no hope for tomorrow. They are well aware that Nagorno
Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s territory.

President Ilham Aliyev has always reiterated inviolability of the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, liberation of lands from Armenian
occupation and withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces from Karabakh
in his speeches. Ilham Aliyev has always noted that Baku is ready to
grant highest autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Despite the duration of the conflict, I believe that trust can be
created between the two communities, Azerbaijanis and Armenians can
live in peace and harmony in Karabakh.

Can a trust between the two communities of Karabakh eliminate a need
to deploy peacekeepers in the conflict zone?

This issue can be matter of debate in subsequent stages of
negotiations. In addition, this issue is decided by the heads of
state. Community can only assist in implementation of a decision or to
do everything in their power to facilitate implementation of decisions.

From: A. Papazian

‘AZERBAIJAN TURNS INTO ACTOR IN INTERNATIONAL ARENA’

news.az
Oct 25 2011
Azerbaijan

News.Az interviews Vali Alibayov, vice president of the Association
of Development of civil public in Azerbaijan.

The UN General Assembly elected Azerbaijan as member of the Security
Council for the next two years by results of 17 voting rounds. How
can you comment on this decision?

It can primarily be considered the next foreign policy success of
Azerbaijan. It is already an indicator that we managed to overcome
European Slovenia with a great gap.

Secondly, Azerbaijan gets new, a more influential tribune to tell
the world about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and take closer
part in resolution of international problems.

By the way, during the recent, unopposed round Azerbaijan received
155 votes against 113 votes needed.

This is a good result. It shows that Azerbaijan has learned to work
with international structures and countries in lobbying its interests.

I think that if we continue this way, we will soon get the recognition
of Baku’s jurisdiction over Nagorno Karabakh from the tribune of UN
and other international organizations.

Permanent members of the UN Security Council, including Russia,
traditionally abstained or voted against Baku’s initiatives on the
Karabakh conflict during voting in UN. What has caused the recent
support by Moscow of our membership in the UN Security Council?

Naturally, this is a positive moment in relations between the two
countries-Russia and Azerbaijan and overall, this is the indicator
of the growing influence of Azerbaijan, which is already admitted by
other countries. I do not dare to state all reasons, motivating this
support of Russia but probably Moscow is making some changes in its
foreign policy and Azerbaijan plays not the last role in this change.

Probably, Russia has her reasons to support Azerbaijan in the UN
Security Council. I think that Baku benefits from such rapprochement
with Russia.

Can Azerbaijan’s membership in UN Security, even on the nonpermanent
basis, be an effective mechanism for Armenia’s fulfillment of the
four resolutions on Karabakh adopted by this structure?

I do not think that this membership will be very effective for a
solution to the Karabakh conflict. As you know, the Security Council
has permanent members who have the veto power. These are mainly the
countries that make the weather in the international arena.

We have earlier noticed that interests of many countries are
intertwined in Karabakh conflict. And I do not see any signs that
the solution to the conflict at this stage meets their interest. Even
if the solution meets the interests of any country, others will not
allow the conflict to be settled.

>From this point of view, I do not think that during a non-permanent
membership of Azerbaijan in the UN Security Council we will see
some significant steps in the Karabakh conflict. On the other hand,
Azerbaijan could use its status as a platform to proclaim his position
on the Karabakh issue, he was right. On the other hand Azerbaijan is
becoming a player in the international arena, that is having received
this status Republic gets a new status for resolving geopolitical
problems. In this view, it will play into the hands of Azerbaijan.

From: A. Papazian

TOP OFFICIAL: AZERBAIJAN GAINS OPPORTUNITY TO PUT ITS VIOLATED TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY QUESTION ON UN AGENDA

Trend
Oct 25 2011
Azerbaijan

“Taking the chance, Azerbaijan first of all can put its violated
territorial integrity question on agenda of the UN Security Council”,
commenting the election of Azerbaijan as a non-permanent member of
UN SC, Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Social and Political
Department Chief Ali Hasanov stated, AzerTAj state news agency
reported.

Estimating Azerbaijan’s election as a non-permanent member of UN SC as
a historical event, Hasanov said this was the evidence to improvement
of the reputation of Azerbaijan on the international arena.

Ali Hasanov said: “Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity has been
violated. The country has over million refugees and IDPs. Return
of these people to their homelands has become a problem of the
international organizations. The Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict remains unsolved. Taking the opportunity of being a
non-permanent member of UN Security Council during two years,
Azerbaijan can demand to restore the principles of international law.”

At his words, Azerbaijan has for many years been pursuing the policy
of peace and progress and propagates restoration of the principles of
international law. “Azerbaijan basing on bilateral and multilateral
relations with the foreign states develops this policy on the ground
of interstate civil relations. The country therefore prevailed
in voting at the UN SC and became a UN SC non-permanent member,”
Hasanov emphasized.

From: A. Papazian