Author: Andres-Papazian

THE SAILBOAT “ARMENIA” CARRIED OUT ITS HISTORIC MISSION

armradio.am
11.08.2011

The sailboat, which had arrived from Egypt to Lebanon on August 6,
officially finished the world travel, began on May 28 2009, and left
for Cyprus.

“Mesrop Mashtots” expedition of the “Armenia” sailboat was see off by
the Ambassador of Armenia in Lebanon Ashot Kocharian, the leader of
Lebanon’s Armenian Archbishop Gegham Khatcheryan, heads of Armenian
institutions, hundreds of Armenians in Lebanon.

The Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon said that the vessel carried out
its historic mission of giving symbols of our nation’s rich history
to Armenians of different continents. He wished the expedition
inexhaustible energy, success and new victories.

From: A. Papazian

ANY RESTRICTION ON BABY NAMES IN ARMENIA?

news.am
Aug 10, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Name and surname, given from the very birth, are to identify
people. Names have ancient origin, while surnames appeared later and
became hereditable.

Armenians usually call the newborn by the name of the grandfather or
grandmother. It is interesting what names Armenians prefer. According
to Civil Registry Department, Armenians prefer traditional names.

Newborn boys are usually called David, Narek, and Arthur, while girls
are usually called Mane, Anahit, and Ani. There is no law in Armenia
prohibiting to give the newborn certain names. Parents have right to
call them as they desire, even by names that are ancient or out of use.

However, many states have censorship for names. For example, names as
Mission, Lucifer, Adolph Hitler, Mister and some others are prohibited
in New Zealand, The Daily Mail reports.

Armenia does not have a censorship for names, while its neighbor
Azerbaijan has. There are three categories of names in Azerbaijan:
“allowed,” “undesirable,” and “prohibited.” No comment is necessary
for the first group. The second group includes funny and bizarre
names. The third group refers to Armenian names.

From: A. Papazian

KURDISH PARTY LEADER PROMISES TO BURY ARMENIAN SINGER IN TURKEY

news.am
Aug 10, 2011
Armenia

DIYARBAKIR. – Leader of Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party Selahattin
Demirtas paid tribute to the memory of Armenian singer Aram Tigran
stressing they would make his wish come true.

In his speech Demirtas recalled that the Turkish authorities banned
burying the singer in Diyarbakir province, Firat news agency reports.

“We promised Aram. We will bury him in these lands,” he said.

The second anniversary of Armenian singer Aram Tigran’s death was
commemorated in Diyarbakir. Leaders of the Kurdish party, local
authorities and cultural figures participated in the memorial concert
dedicated to the singer.

Aram Tigran was born on January 15, 1934 in Syria. He was singing in
Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, Greek and Assyrian.

He wanted to be buried in the Armenian cemetery in Diyarbakir.

However, the Turkish authorities did not fulfill his wish.

Nevertheless, Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir took soil from the
graveyard in Diyarbakir to Brussels where the musician is buried.

From: A. Papazian

LITHUANIA BEAT ARMENIA, LATVIA FALL TO FINLAND
Jared Grellet

The Baltic Times

Aug 10, 2011

RIGA, Latvia – Lithuania and Latvia have experienced contrasting
results in their latest international football friendlies.

Playing at home on Wednesday evening Lithuania was able to see of
Armenia 3-0 in Kaunas while Latvia would have no answer for Finland
who scored two second half goals to win 2-0.

It was a great win for the Lithuanians who with a world ranking of
58, sit just 12 places ahead of the Armenians. Lithuania went ahead
in the 8th minute before sealing the match with two goals in a spate
of three minutes in the second half, scoring in the 75th and again
in the 78th minute.

Latvia’s game against Finland held some extra meaning with Latvian
legend Igors Stepanovs playing in the first five minutes of his game
to bring up his hundredth international appearance for the Latvian
national side.

But it would turn out to be an evening he would rather forget with
Finland – who are ranked eight places ahead of the Latvians at 75th
in the world – scoring in the 59th minute and again in the 88th to
wrap up their 2-0 victory.

Latvia’s best chance came in the 55th minute when Maris Verpakovskis
rattling the cross bar with his shot from 10 feet outside the box.

From: A. Papazian

DOMESTIC AGENDAS KEEP KARABAKH SOLUTION ‘FAR OFF’

news.az
Aug 10, 2011
Azerbaijan

News.Az interviews Thijs Rommens, research fellow at the Institute
for Int’l and European Policy at the Catholic University of Leuven
in Belgium.

What impact did the 2008 Russo-Georgian war have on the South Caucasus?

The war surely had its impact on the region, although initial
predictions of the Caucasus as the battle ground of a new Cold War have
not materialized. It mainly is an illustration of how fast things can
spin out of control and turn all-out violent in this region. On the
geopolitical level, it showed a Russia that was willing to take up
arms to make its point and a division of opinion among Western powers.

However, this war probably made â~@~Kâ~@~Kregional conflicts better
known in the world, because now the world pays more attention to
their settlement.

It may have put the region briefly back on the international agenda,
but without long lasting effects. As the general public and politicians
alike have been confronted with new domestic (financial crisis)
and international (Arab Spring) events, attention seems to have waned.

What impact did the Russo-Georgian have on resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem?

It showed that the temperature of the proverbial freezer where the
conflicts of the Caucasus are stored in is only slightly below zero.

Armed conflict has become a less unlikely option since then, and
combined with the ever increasing defence budgets of all countries
in the region this seems like a powder keg.

Do you share Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s view that in the
case of the Karabakh conflict a bad peace is better than a war?

I’m sure all people involved in or affected by the August war will
wholeheartedly agree with Mr Medvedev. Avoiding destruction and loss
of life should be the highest goal of all parties concerned. Moreover,
the August 2008 war has shown that war is not an easy and definitive
solution as some politicians may dream it is. Despite the war, the
two territories are still not internationally recognized. There is
still massive corruption and large numbers of internally displaced
people, for example. Even though a negotiated solution is the best,
a frozen conflict is also far preferable to war.

Many believe that Russia cannot make progress in resolution of the
Karabakh problem after it failed in peacekeeping in the conflicts in
Georgian territory. What are your comments on this issue?

It’s hard to predict the future, so I can’t give an answer to that.

It’s not right to call Russia a mediator in the conflicts in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia; it is rather one of the warring parties. In the
case of Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia is trying to balance between the two
parties involved, trying not to become tied in too much with one of
them. In the end, Russia can try to mediate as much as it wants, but
a solution will depend on the will of the politicians of the affected
countries. As long as tough rhetoric on Nagorno-Karabakh is of use for
their domestic political agenda, an immediate solution seems far off.

F.H.

News.Az

From: A. Papazian

KARABAKH TALKS HAVE TO CONTINUE, SAYS BAKU

news.az
Aug 10, 2011
Azerbaijan

Negotiations must be continued on a Karabakh settlement, a top Baku
official has said following a meeting of the Russian and Azerbaijani
presidents.

Novruz Mammadov, head of the foreign relations department at the
Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, was commenting on Dmitriy
Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev’s meeting in Sochi on 9 August.

“The presidents’ position can be described as follows: at recent
meetings and talks mediated by President Dmitriy Medvedev, it became
possible to bring closer the parties’ positions on some issues in
accordance with the Madrid principles,” 1news.az reported Mammadov
as saying.

His words echoed comments by Ilham Aliyev at the start of the talks
in Sochi. Thanking the Russian president for his mediation efforts,
Aliyev said: “The rounds of talks have brought the positions of the
sides closer.”

The mediators have for some years been urging Azerbaijan and Armenia
to agree on the Madrid principles, also known as the basic principles,
for a settlement to the Karabakh conflict.

They include the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Karabakh and the
surrounding districts, the return home of displaced persons and the
determination of Karabakh’s legal status through a referendum.

“It is therefore necessary to continue the negotiations,” Azerbaijani
Presidential Administration official Novruz Mammadov said on Wednesday.

“At the same time, President Ilham Aliyev described the numerous
attempts by the Armenian leadership to use close circles and the
Armenian diaspora to put the blame on Azerbaijan for the lack of
success in negotiations, as happened after the meeting in Kazan,
as a sign of their insincerity,” Mammadov said.

President Aliyev once again briefed his Russian counterpart on
Azerbaijan’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the official
said.

The Russian and Azerbaijani presidents spoke to the press before
their meeting in Sochi on 9 August but made no statements afterwards.

The Russian president is expected to hold similar discussions with
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, whom he is due to meet at a
Collective Security Treat summit in Kazakhstan on 12 August.

From: A. Papazian

QUESTIONS DOG ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMPENSATION FUND

Los Angeles Times

Aug 10, 2011

Alleged payout discrepancies in the multimillion-dollar compensation
fund for descendants of Armenian genocide victims have prompted calls
for an investigation.

Glendale-based attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan sought the independent
audit after discovering that a fund established by insurance carrier
Axa S.A. contained nearly $2.5 million more than originally thought,
according to the Glendale News-Press.

But U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder said the audit would take
too much time and money and was unnecessary if Glendale resident
Parsegh Kartalian, the fund’s administrator, could provide adequate
information.

Kartalian has just a few weeks to sit down voluntarily with attorneys
Brian Kabateck, Mark Geragos and Roman Silberfeld, who represent
Yeghiayan. Silberfeld said the check amounts “vary wildly,” from $159
to more than $200,000. Records also show that descendants of victims
received multiple checks but that some of them were never cashed.

From: A. Papazian

SCHMIDT CLEARED IN ETHICS PROBE

Georgetown News Democrat

Aug 10, 2011

WASHINGTON – The House Ethics Committee cleared Ohio Representative
Jean Schmidt of any wrongdoing regarding legal expenses associated
with an ongoing court case against former political opponent David
Krikorian. Krikorian alleged Schmidt had accepted legal services
from the Turkish Coalition of America in exchange for her denial of
the Armenian genocide. After an investigation by the House Ethics
Committee, it was found that while Schmidt had accepted the gift,
she had been unaware of conditions surrounding it.

According to the OCE referral, Schmidt received an impermissible
gift from the Turkish Coalition of America when lawyers provided
legal services to Schmidt in at least three related matters and
then sent bills for their fees to the Turkish Coalition of America,
which paid those bills on an ongoing basis. According to the Office
of Congressional Ethics, between 2008 and 2010 the TCA actually paid
Schmidt’s lawyers, who claimed to be acting as the Turkish American
Legal Defense Fund, a project of the Turkish Coalition of America
for approximately $500,000 in legal services.

According to the Office of Congressional Ethics neither the Committee
or Schmidt was aware of these payments when the Committee previously
provided advice to Schmidt regarding her options for paying legal
fees in the various proceedings.

The Committee’s review of the matter indicated that Schmidt did, in
fact, receive a impermissible gift from TCA as the Ethics Committee
has alleged, and therefore the committee did not dismiss the matter.

However, the committee has found that Schmidt’s lawyers failed to
inform her of their payment arrangement with TCA, and made false and
misleading statements to her about their relationship with TCA and
Turkish American Legal Defense Fund. Because Schmidt did not know
she was receiving a gift from TCA, the committee determined that no
sanction is appropriate in this case.

However, the gift was impermissible, and Schmidt must now disclose
and repay the gift. The Office of Congressional Ethics submitted
a report ordering Schmidt to ensure that TCA does not pay for any
further legal services on her behalf, to pay from a permissible source
the lawyers associated with Turkish American Legal Defense Fund for
all legal services they performed to date, amend her 2009 and 2010
Financial Disclosure Statements to disclose the gifts from TCA, and
disclose any unpaid legal fees from TCA as liabilities on her future
Financial Disclosure Statements, until the lawyers associated with
Turkish American Legal Defense Fund have been repaid in full.

Schmidt said she was pleased with the committee’s ruling and said
she has made every effort to pay her bills.

“I welcome the news,” Schmidt said. “The report vindicates what I have
been saying all along: I have worked cooperatively with the Committee
to ensure that I pay these bills in an ethical way. I hope this will
be the end of a sideshow created by my political opponents.”

The Ethics Committee also authorized Schmidt, who lives in Miami
Township and represents Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, to create
and use a legal expense trust to pay bills involving a defamation
lawsuit she filed last year in Clermont County Common Pleas Court
against her former opponent.

The trust also can be used to pay legal bills that resulted from a
complaint Schmidt filed against the former opponent with the Ohio
Elections Commission, which reported in 2009 that there was clear
and convincing evidence that the opponent had made false statements
about her with malice.

According to Schmidt, if any damages are awarded to Schmidt as a
result of the defamation case, the money must first be used for lawyer
fees and expenses, and then to repay donors to the Jean Schmidt Legal
Expense Trust. Any leftover money must be donated to charity. Schmidt
said she will receive no direct or indirect financial benefit from
the suit.

“As I’ve stated publicly before, I neither sought nor intended to
accept free legal services,” Schmidt said. “I have been waiting for
the Ethics Committee’s advice as to the best way to pay these bills.

Now that I have that advice, I look forward to continuing to work
cooperatively with the Committee to ensure that these bills are paid
appropriately.”

Krikorian also released a statement relating to the finding, stating
the committee just affirmed what his lawyers had known all along.

However, he said he did not agree that Schmidt was without fault.

“The Ethics Committee proved that we were right all along – Rep Schmidt
has received a half a million dollars in improper gifts from the TCA,”
Krikorian said in the release. “Personally I find it hard to believe
that Jean Schmidt did not know the facts regarding her own attorneys
in legal actions which she commenced in her own name – I find that
to be laughable.”

From: A. Papazian

RADIKAL: TALAAT PASHA GAVE ZOHRAP KISS OF DEATH

Panorama

Aug 20 2011
Armenia

Columnist of the Radikal Turkish daily, Oral Calislar wrote about
prominent Armenian writer Grigor Zohrap and his tragic death in his
article titled “Talaat Pasha’s Kiss of Death.”

Zohrap was a Member of the Ottoman Parliament, an outstanding
personality, a skilled writer and a talented lawyer, the columnist
writes quoting Zohrap as saying: “I am a socialist, a believer
socialist. A socialist is neither a partisan nor a terrorist…”

Further Calislar tells about how Armenian intellectuals were arrested
and killed after being exiled at night on April 24, 1915 in Istanbul.

He writes about how Zohrap appealed to many of top officials asking
for release of his innocent compatriots. Zohrap was close with many
of these officials, including Interior Minister Talaat Pasha, Chairman
of the Parliament Said Halim Pasha, but all his efforts proved vain.

In his article, Oral Calislar gives quotations from Nesim Ovadya
Ä°zrail’s book titled “1915. A Death Trip. Grigor Zohrap.” The book
described the night when Zohrap was arrested: “The night of June 2,
1915. Zohrap was sitting in the club Cercle d’Orient with Talaat
Pasha and Halil Bey. It was already midnight when Zohrap rose to his
feet to leave the club. Talaat Pasha also got up, came up to him and
kissed him on the cheek…”

Referring to this passage, the author says it proved to be a kiss of
death, with Talaat Pasha having signed an arrest warrant for Grigor
Zohrap and another Armenian MP Vardges Sarengyulian two days before
that night. On that night, Zohrap was arrested in his home and together
with Sarengyulian was forced to leave never to return again.

The columnist refers to this book and tells how Zohrap was tortured
and killed brutally. His watch and ring were seized and sold in Urfa
market. The doctor of Urfa municipality made a report claiming that
allegedly Zohrap had died of heart failure.

The author condemns these horrible crimes and stresses that there
are 22 volumes of Zohrap’s works published and translated into 26
languages while there is insufficient awareness of Zohrap in Turkey.

“This 520-page valuable study is very important for us to confront
the bitterness of our own history,” the columnist concluded.

From: A. Papazian

TREES ARE CUT DOWN NEAR THE VILLAGE OF MARMARIK

armradio.am
10.08.2011 17:00

“Hotline” of Ministry of Environmental Protection has got an alarm.

According to the call trees are cut down near the village of Marmarik
of Hrazdan -Hankavan area.

Department of public relations of the Ministry of Environmental
Protection reported that “in response to the alarm, the State
Environmental Inspectorate of the Ministry of Environment studied
the mentioned area, as a result, the fact of tree cutting in number
of 28 pine trees was approved.

In accordance with the protocol of the environmental violations,
the damage caused by the calculation amounted 2.263 million. AMD:
State Environmental Inspectorate has sent the related materials to the
Kotayk Regional police to identify violators and for the compensation
of damages”.

From: A. Papazian