Author: Andres-Papazian

CONSTRUCTION WORKS OF ROPEWAY LEADING TO TATEV MONASTERY ARE AT FINAL STAGE

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 30, 2010 – 16:15 AMT 11:15 GMT

Head of construction works of the ropeway and infrastructures Artashes
Ghazakhetsyan said that the construction works of the ropeway leading
to Tatev monastery are at the final stage.

Swiss experts have already installed the equipment. Now they implement
wiring works, Ghazakhetsyan told journalists.

“The works will be completed until September, after which we will
launch the test stage, so that the ropeway is put into commission
until October 16. A special commission will be invited from Europe
to test the ropeway’s safety. It will provide its conclusion on the
ropeway’s compliance with international standards,” said Ghazakhetsyan.

A PanArmenian.Net correspondent reported from Tatev that the ropeway
is 5.7km-long, with highest point at 330m. Its cable cars will be able
to cover the distance to Tatev monastery complex during 11 minutes and
25 seconds. It will be the longest bidirectional ropeway in the world.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIA’S JAVAHK DIASPORA PROCLAIMS GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ALEXANDER NALBANDOV AS THE ENEMY OF ARMENIAN NATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 30, 2010 – 16:01 AMT 11:01 GMT

Russia’s Javahk Diaspora (RJD) proclaimed Georgian Foreign Minister
Alexander Nalbandov as the enemy of Armenian nation.

“Georgian Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov called Georgia’s
Armenian community demand on the return of several disputable churches
to be groundless. He stated that recent researches by historic
scientists confirmed that churches claimed by Armenian community
are actually part of Georgian heritage. The Foreign Minister also
emphasized that Georgia cannot transfer historical monuments to
physical person’s possession, namely to the head of AAC Georgian
Diocese. Only juridical persons on the territory of Georgia are
entitled to that right,” RJD statement said.

Russia’s Javahk Diaspora believes Alexander Nalbandov to be a special
services agent and a dangerous enemy to Georgian nation, hired to
stir national hatred and evict Armenians from the territory of Georgia.

“We, Russia’s Javahk Diaspora proclaim Alexander Nalbandov as the
enemy of Armenian nation. We urge all Armenians worldwide to never
communicate with the person in question or welcome him to their homes,”
Russia’s Javahk Diaspora statement stressed.

From: A. Papazian

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN CALLS ON NATO PA TO REFRAIN FROM ADDRESSING NAGORNO-KARABAKH ISSUE

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 30, 2010 – 17:01 AMT 12:01 GMT

RA National Assembly speaker Hovik Abrahamyan addressed a letter to
NATO Parliamentary Assembly President John Tanner, in reference to
possible discussion of Nagorno-Karabakh issue at the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly.

“I am surprised that such a step may have been taken without proper
consultations with the members of the Armenian Delegation to the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly.

As is known, currently the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process runs under
the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen – USA, France and
Russia. It is our strong conviction that given the confidentiality,
specificity and delicacy of the negotiations, the initiatives held in
formats other than the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, even with a good
intent, preclude a great danger of jeopardizing the negotiation process
and undermining the mediation efforts. Therefore, any initiative on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution requires prior consultations
with the Co-Chair States of the Minsk Group, having in view that the
USA and France are both NATO members.

The attempts of Azerbaijan to raise the Nagorno-Karabakh issue within
different international formats are aimed at advertising Azerbaijan’s
own perception of the conflict resolution with disregard of the
entirety of principles proclaimed by the Co-Chairs as the basis for
the conflict resolution. It is worth mentioning that the Co-Chair
countries voted against the resolution proposed by Azerbaijan at
the UN General Assembly session in March 2008, by stating that the
“resolution selectively propagates only certain of the principles
[of the conflict resolution] to the exclusion of others”.

Just a few days ago, exactly on July 17, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of France Bernard Kouchner, and Deputy Secretary of State of the
United States of America James Steinberg issued a statement where they
reconfirmed the principles and elements of the conflict resolution
stated by the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries
at the G8 Summit convened on June 26, 2010 in Muskoka. They once
more stressed the point that the mentioned principles and elements
have been conceived as an integrated whole and that any attempt to
give preferences over other principles would make it impossible to
achieve a balanced solution.

With due respect to such an authoritative organization, as the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly, we consider it our duty to remind that not in
the distant past we had already experienced that the NATO PA report on
Nagorno-Karabakh had provoked selective references, unsubstantiated
interpretations, and wrong speculations. I believe that the report
in no way has contributed to the creation of a favorable environment
for the settlement process. I do not see any reason why this new
initiative may yield a different result. It was due to the clear
understanding of the sensitivity of the issue that the Secretary
General Rasmussen and other NATO high ranking officials voiced their
strong support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on different
occasions and stressed that NATO did not have direct involvement in
the issue nor did it play a role of its own in the mediation process.”

“Based on these concerns, I would like to strongly advise and suggest
that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly refrain from addressing the
issue on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the letter concluded.

From: A. Papazian

ALBERT BAGHDASARYAN: IT IS NECESSARY TO IMPLEMENT NEW CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 30, 2010 – 16:46 AMT 11:46 GMT

Ex-member of Karabakh Committee Albert Baghdasaryan said that it is
necessary to implement new constitutional reforms in Armenia. The
current Constitution creates a legislative basis for the existing
authoritarian regime in the country, Baghdasaryan noted during a
sitting of the commission on state and legal issues of the national
parliament, which is in process of formation at the initiative of
Sardarapat movement.

According to Baghdasaryan, elections will continue being falsified in
Armenia, unless a fair judicial system is established in the country.

“The judicial system should be withdrawn from the RA President’s
jurisdiction to make it independent and fair,” he said. Meanwhile,
Baghdasaryan excluded riots and revolutions for the problem
resolution. According to him, all political forces, which agree with
the necessity of constitutional reforms, should unite around this idea.

Baghdasayan noted that the united political forces should take active
participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections to consolidate
their potential.

“But the parliamentary elections will serve as a springboard for our
further struggle during the presidential elections. In other words,
we should focus on the presidential elections,” the ex-member of
Karabakh committee noted.

To avoid possible falsifications during the presidential elections,
the united political forces should achieve de-facto change of power
in the country before the voting, as it happened in 1990-s.

“As soon as we come to power, we will establish a provisional
government for a two-year term. This administration will resign upon
completion of the two-year term. But prior to it, the provisional
government should implement the aforementioned constitutional reforms
within the first six months, conduct parliamentary elections within
the next six months and introduce amendments to the RA Election Code.

After it, the provisional government will hold elections to local
self-government bodies within the first six months of the second year
and will resign during the second half of it, and new presidential
elections will be called,” concluded Albert Baghdasaryan.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA, CANADA EMPHASIZE IMPORTANCE OF TRADE AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS DEVELOPMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 30, 2010 – 17:29 AMT 12:29 GMT

Deputy RA Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan met with Canadian
Ambassador to Armenia Ralph Lysyshyn, completing his diplomatic
mission in RA.

At the meeting, Arman Kirakosyan thanked the Ambassador for his
contribution to the development of bilateral ties and cooperation
within the framework of international organizations, with the parties
emphasizing the importance of trade and economic relations development.

The parties discussed Karabakh conflict settlement and regional issues,
RA Foreign Ministry press service reported.

From: A. Papazian

WHAT’S THE RUSH SENATOR KERRY?

Armenian Weekly
Fri, Jul 30 2010

President Obama, clearly in no hurry, waited more than a year to fill
the empty U.S. Ambassador position in Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, the President’s choice wasn’t worth the wait. He
nominated Matthew Bryza, a controversial diplomat, widely viewed as
pro-Azerbaijani and carrying heavy conflict of interest baggage tied
to his wife’s professional advocacy at a Washington, DC think-tank
in support of Azerbaijani interests. This think tank, the Hudson
Institute, significantly, has refused to reveal its foreign sources
of funding, but public records show that its programs have been funded
by interests from Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the Caspian energy industry.

The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry,
from The Armenian Weekly’s home state of Massachusetts, rather than
opposing this flawed nomination, or, at the very least, using his
powerful position to demand careful scrutiny of this nominee, has,
instead, stretched the Senate’s rules to rush through Mr. Bryza’s
confirmation as quickly as possible.

Under Senator Kerry’s leadership, the Foreign Relations Committee
did not provide the traditional one-week notice for Mr. Bryza’s
nomination, and then, unusually, allowed only one day for Senators to
submit written Questions for the Record. Today, as we go to press,
it remains unclear if Senator Kerry will again seek to rush through
this process by scheduling Mr. Bryza for this coming week, despite the
fact that his fellow Senators and, more broadly, concerned elements
of American civil society, have yet to have a chance to meaningfully
review, investigate, and respond to the written responses just released
by the State Department.

Senator Kerry’s unusual “fast-tracking” of this nomination is all the
more troubling in light of the sustained efforts over the past several
months by Armenian Americans, in Massachusetts and nationwide, in
calling upon him to ensure careful scrutiny of the U.S. ambassadorial
nomination to Azerbaijan. The urgency of the Armenian American
community’s communications with the Senator have reflected profound
reservations over Mr. Bryza’s demonstrated unfairness on Armenian
issues, as well as concern that the confirmation of a nominee who has
consistently turned a blind-eye to Azerbaijani threats, aggression,
and acts of cultural desecration will substantially set back the
cause of peace in Nagorno Karabagh. The community’s concerns about
Senator Kerry’s actions are compounded by unanswered questions about
why he has remained so conspicuously absent, during this session
of Congress, as a cosponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution,
a measure is backed by the Senate Majority Leader and that he had,
until now, consistently backed throughout his tenure in public office.

All citizens and Senators deserve a chance to meaningfully participate
in the important Constitutional process of ambassadorial confirmations,
especially when vital life-and-death issues are at stake, as they
are in Nagorno Karabagh. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and a Senator representing America’s oldest and one of
its largest Armenian American communities, John Kerry should put the
brakes on the Bryza nomination.

From: A. Papazian

ACTIVISTS ACKNOWLEDGED THEMSELVES INNOCENT

Armenian National Congress activists David Kiramijyan and Sargis
Gevorgyan acknowledged themselves innocent in court during the
hearing of their case at Kentron and Nork-Marash first instance court
in Yerevan.

The judge asked prosecutor Sargis Gevorgyan whether he had understood
the charge, to which he replied: “No, I don’t understand why
participation in massive or not so massive events is a crime in
Armenia. I find that the criminal persecution is illegal.”

Sargis Gevorgyan was disappointed in the fact that prosecutor Harutyun
Harutyunyan had stated in his conclusion that he and David Kiramijyan
had participated in the massive public events organized by violation
of the order prescribed by law and had committed hooligan acts. Let
us remind that the HAK activists were arrested on May 31 near Freedom
Square.

David Kiramijyan’s advocate Melanya Arustamyan presented a
challenge petition to the prosecutor. According to the advocate,
before confirming the accusatory conclusion, prosecutor Harutyun
Harutyunyan had to check for certain facts. For instance, was the
preliminary inquiry objective and comprehensive? Was there evidence
for the charge? According to the advocate, that wasn’t the case: “The
prosecutor shouldn’t have confirmed the accusatory conclusion. It
had to quash the proceedings and not send it to the court,” says
Melanya Arustamyan.

The prosecutor did not agree with the advocate’s challenge petition
and denied it.

According to Melanya Arustamyan, her client’s act had no attributes of
the crime foreseen by the act that he was charged with. “This criminal
case is no different from the other ones. We are facing the issue of
justice and there is a lack of the right to a fair trial. After each
case, I regret that a fair trial is in danger in Armenia.”

Out of the 2 injured charged with this criminal case, only police
officer Arkadi Baghdasaryan attended the trial, while three of
the witnesses and the other injured were absent. The advocate was
disappointed.

The trial was postponed until August 12 due to their absence and the
advocate’s busy schedule.

From: A. Papazian

CASE ON TEGHUT WAS POSTPONED

The RA Court of Appeals only took a few minutes to examine the
appeal filed by “Ecodar” NGO’s appeal against the Administrative
Court. The environmental organization had filed an appeal to the
administrative court in order for the latter to recognize invalid a
number of agreements and documents which allow the exploitation of
Teghut’s copper-molybdenum pit. The court denied the appeal, saying
that the organization has no right to file an appeal on exploitation
of Teghut mine and the appeal was presented to the Court of Appeals.

The court postponed the session for a while without any explanation.

“Ecodar” NGO’s advocate Hayk Alumyan tried to find out the reason
from the court, but it was useless and the court told him to leave
the courtroom.

“The Court of Appeals apparently ruled to postpone the case without
any explanation and that is characteristic of the Court of Appeals.

This is not within the limits of the law,” Hayk Alumyan told “A1+”. He
added that the postponement is due to the fact that the court is
not familiar with the case. “Today the Court of Appeals announced
that it was studying the case before the trial, but made a serious
mistake when naming the sides. For instance, “Ecodar” became “Ecodor”,
“Armenian Copper Program” became “Armenian Copper Progress” and it
was clear that the court had not studied the case well.

Head of “Ecodar” NGO Hrair Savzyan told “A1+” that one of the possible
reasons for postponement is the action organized by the organization
two days ago. He assured that their actions will be ongoing. “We will
do everything possible to not let them. We have let them go too far.”

From: A. Papazian

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN IS SURPRISED

Chairman of the RA National Assembly sent a letter to NATO
Parliamentary Assembly President John Tanner. The letter is posted
on the RA Parliament’s official website.

“Dear Mr. Tanner,

I am addressing you in regards to a possible report on the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue, which is envisaged to be prepared for the
discussion at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Talking frankly,
I am surprised that such a step may have been taken without proper
consultations with the members of the Armenian Delegation to the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly.

As is known, currently the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process runs under
the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen – USA, France and
Russia. It is our strong conviction that given the confidentiality,
specificity and delicacy of the negotiations, the initiatives held in
formats other than the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, even with a good
intent, preclude a great danger of jeopardizing the negotiation process
and undermining the mediation efforts. Therefore, any initiative on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution requires prior consultations
with the Co-Chair States of the Minsk Group, having in view that the
USA and France are both NATO members.

The attempts of Azerbaijan to raise the Nagorno-Karabakh issue within
different international formats are aimed at advertising Azerbaijan’s
own perception of the conflict resolution with disregard of the
entirety of principles proclaimed by the Co-Chairs as the basis for
the conflict resolution. It is worth mentioning that the Co-Chair
countries voted against the resolution proposed by Azerbaijan at
the UN General Assembly session in March 2008, by stating that the
“resolution selectively propagates only certain of the principles
[of the conflict resolution] to the exclusion of others”.

Just a few days ago, exactly on July 17, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of France Bernard Kouchner, and Deputy Secretary of State of the
United States of America James Steinberg issued a statement where they
reconfirmed the principles and elements of the conflict resolution
stated by the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chair countries
at the G8 Summit convened on June 26, 2010 in Muskoka. They once
more stressed the point that the mentioned principles and elements
have been conceived as an integrated whole and that any attempt to
give preferences over other principles would make it impossible to
achieve a balanced solution.

With due respect to such an authoritative organization, as the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly, we consider it our duty to remind that not in
the distant past we had already experienced that the NATO PA report on
Nagorno-Karabakh had provoked selective references, unsubstantiated
interpretations, and wrong speculations. I believe that the report
in no way has contributed to the creation of a favorable environment
for the settlement process. I do not see any reason why this new
initiative may yield a different result. It was due to the clear
understanding of the sensitivity of the issue that the Secretary
General Rasmussen and other NATO high ranking officials voiced their
strong support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on different
occasions and stressed that NATO did not have direct involvement in
the issue nor did it play a role of its own in the mediation process.

Based on these concerns, Honorable Mr. President, I would like to
strongly advise and suggest that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
refrain from addressing the issue on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

From: A. Papazian

TURKEY TROUBLE: ARMENIAN TOURISTS SPOOKED BY ONE-SIDED ACCOUNTS OF VIOLENCE IN NEIGHBORING STATE
Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
Social | 30.07.10 | 12:52

Reported violence in Turkey involving holidaymakers from Armenia
and at least one case of an Armenian citizen gone missing in the
neighboring country have raised concerns in Yerevan about possible
ethnic motives behind these developments. While it appears that the
reports were sensationalized and information not verified, the result,
nonetheless, has been that some Armenian tourists are now nervous
about going for a Turkish holiday.

A local tour operator offering trips to Turkish spas and resorts says
following these one-sided accounts they’ve seen an increased number of
telephone inquiries from concerned citizens who were hesitating whether
to choose to spend their summer vacations in Turkey (whose resorts are
believed to offer a better value for money than local holiday spots).

(Armenia and Turkey share a history of mutual animosity and despite
efforts at the level of political leaderships in recent years to
mend fences still do not have diplomatic relations and their common
border remains closed. Still, a large number of Armenians, including
citizens of Armenia, live or stay in Turkey for work and go there
for rest every year).

Reports about a pregnant Armenian woman who went missing in Turkey
and an Armenian family that suffered violence in a hotel have been
spreading through media and online social networks in recent days.

Many, among them also some officials, have been giving some political
coloring to these events, urging people to refrain from traveling to
Turkey for vacation.

Quoting Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, Armenian media reported that
29-year-old Anna Davtyan (she is married and lives in Dubai, the
United Arab Emirates, and is in her sixth month of pregnancy) went
missing in mysterious circumstances as she has not been seen since
she parted with her friend at a hotel in Ankara on July 17. Davtyan’s
mother Karina Davtyan, who went to Turkey to find her daughter,
fears she might have been kidnapped.

No further information is available about this case. Armenian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told ArmeniaNow that the Ministry was
working in the direction of finding the missing citizen, but did not
elaborate on concrete steps being made. The spokesman said the Ministry
was informed about the case only twelve days after it supposedly
happened, which, according to him, is “strange”. But the official
promised that the Ministry will keep the public updated on this case
if information of any value pertaining to the case becomes available.

Another Armenian family on a holiday in Turkey returned mostly
unscathed, but have told of the ordeal they had to go through while
staying in a Turkish hotel. According to their accounts, they suffered
because together with a group of young men from Russia (two of them
ethnic Armenians) they stood up to defend two girls from Moscow,
one of whom was also an ethnic Armenian, and that resulted in a brawl
and a fistfight with hotel workers.

Liana Mamyan says her son and husband did nothing wrong but were
mistreated by Turkish hotel workers. She said that the Russian girls
were sitting in the hotel’s foyer and working on their notebook when a
waiter came and rudely dragged the table cloth. The girls reproached
the waiter who started to argue with them and then four young men
from Russia joined in the quarrel and that’s how the fight between
the hotel workers and the four men began. According to Mamyan, hotel
workers also beat her elder son and her husband.

“We have decided one thing for sure in our family. We will never,
ever go to Turkey again,” Mamyan concluded in her published account.

What objectively appears an isolated incident not connected to
locale or nationality, has gained an ethnic coloring as the family’s
account has been disseminated and discussed in internet forums and
on television.

The issue of whether Armenians should go to Turkey as holidaymakers
has generated heated debates in Armenia for years. Those who advise
against spending vacations in Turkey usually say that by going there
Armenians help Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ethnic cousin and Armenia’s
archrival in the region, because Turkey ostensibly sends the money
left by Armenians in Turkish resorts to Baku.

In a recent TV interview Gagik Yeganyan, head of the Migration Agency
at the Ministry of Local Government of Armenia, recalled the statement
containing threats to deport Armenians staying in Turkey illegally
that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made earlier this
year. He alleged that some ordinary Turks may have taken those words
as a call to action.

But Tez Tour Ltd director Narine Davtyan told ArmeniaNow that media
in Armenia have been spreading the news of recent violence involving
Armenians in Turkey without checking facts with them. (Tez Tour,
a major Russian tour operator that has an affiliate in Armenia, had
organized the trip for the family in question and says it possesses
first-hand information from its representative in Antalya.)

“In fact, the incident happened at about 1-2 a.m. and it was waiters
asking the girls repeatedly to take their notebook off the table so
they could prepare it for the morning breakfast, and those repeated
request remained unanswered. An angry waiter then took the notebook
and put it on another table,” says Davtyan, adding that at that moment
a group of four young Russians approached and the quarrel began.

According to Davtyan, that incident did not involve any political or
ethnic motives and the cause was the disrespectful attitude towards
the waitress, which “can often be met in Yerevan as well.”

“In general, hotels in Antalya are apolitical because they are
interested in the business side of things,” says Davtyan, adding that
this is the first such incident that happened to their tourists in
Turkey. She also says that they first learned about it from press
publications and that none of the people who claim to have suffered
violence from Turkish hotel workers have lodged a complaint with
the company.

From: A. Papazian