Author: Andres-Papazian

HONORABLE GUESTS AT THE PRESIDENTIAL RESIDENCE

11:18 am | July 13, 2010 | Official

On the eve of July 12, RA President Serzh Sargsyan met with honorable
guests of the 7th “Golden Apricot” International Film Festival, as
well as participants of “Golden Apricot” from Armenia and different
countries.

The participants of the meeting presented the head of state with
their achievements during the past seven years of the festival and
their plans for this year’s contest.

They emphasized that the festival expands its geography every year
with more and more films and has a growing reputation.

Information provided by the RA presidential press service.

From: A. Papazian

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN ATTENDED THE INAUGURAL CEREMONY OF THE HRAIR AND ANNA HOVNANIAN FOUNDATION OFFICE

president.am
July 13 2010
Armenia

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan attended the inaugural ceremony
of the Hrair and Anna Hovnanian Foundation office, located at 37
Hanrapetutyan St.

The President of Armenia toured the building of historical and
cultural value, which has recently been renovated, visited a number
of non-governmental organizations located there, as well as the
Yerevan offices of the Armenian Assembly of America and Hrair and
Anna Hovnanian Foundation.

President Sargsyan was briefed that the NGOs working in this building
have been for years implementing benevolent programs serving the
development of Armenia and well-being of the Armenian peopleâ~@~Ys.

From: A. Papazian

POSITIONS OF STATES INVOLVED IN KARABAKH CONFLICT ‘CHANGELESS’

news.az
July 13 2010
Azerbaijan

Vafa Guluzade The meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian FMs in
Almaty will be one of the many and bring nothing to the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict.

‘I do not expect anything from this meeting. This will be one of the
next meetings. I do not count these meetings but if I did, it would
have been possible to say that this is, for example, the 12,759th
meeting’, political scientist Vafa Guluzade said.

The pentalateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan,
Armenia, France, Russia and the United States, as well as the bilateral
meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia is to be
held within an unofficial summit of the OSCE Foreign Ministers in
Almaty on July 16-17. The meetings will discuss the peace settlement
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

The matter is that according to the political scientist, the positions
of the states involved in this conflict-Russia, the United States
and European Union have not changed.

According to Guluzade, who spoke on the recent statements of
Azerbaijan’s FM Elmar Mammadyarov regarding possible discussion of
the liberation of Kelbajar and Lachin regions in Almaty, ‘anyway,
they will have to discuss something’.

From: A. Papazian

REPAIRED KINDERGARTEN TO BE OPENED IN DURYAN BLOCK, AVAN

Aysor
July 13 2010
Armenia

An event marking the completion of the program of repairing laundry,
laundry room and lavatory with the U.S. Department of State financing
will take place tomorrow at Avan kindergarten N 54.

U.S. Embassy Programs Assistant Adelaida Baghdasaryan told aysor.am
correspondent that the kindergarten was repaired within the framework
of U.S. Department of State Humanitarian Assistance Programs.

According to A. Baghdasaryan, the International Relief and Development
organization is one of the 5 organizations implementing U.S.
Department of State humanitarian program.

“In total, the program budget amounts to USD 12 thousand,” U.S.
Embassy representative in Armenia said adding that the construction
company having worked with the International Relief and Development
organization for many years, for its part, gave two washing machines
to the kindergarten, Avan community head also donated property to
the kindergarten.

“It is a large kindergarten, with 200 children attending it,” A.
Baghdasaryan stressed.

The event will be attended by a number of U.S. officials led by Daniel
Rosenblum, U.S. Embassy representatives, Avan Prefect Manvel Javadyan,
representatives of international NGOs, parents and other guests.

From: A. Papazian

ERDOGAN’S SPEECH SOUNDS LIKE WORDS OF A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING: S. NIKOYAN

Panorama
July 13 2010
Armenia

“A normal, reasonable person will find it hard to understand Turkish
PM’s speech. Erdogan’s speech is offensive not only for the Armenians
but the whole conscious society in general,” Armenian National Assembly
Deputy Speaker Samvel Nikoyan told Panorama.am commenting on Erdogan’s
statement in Srebrenica, Bosnia.

The Turkish PM spoke about the mass killings of Muslims of Bosnia
15 years ago in his speech, noting that such crimes are a hard blow
to the virtue of the humanity and are a black spot not only for the
Balcans but the whole Europe.

“To me, Erdogan’s speech sounds like words of a wolf in sheep’s
clothing. Erdogan would have a moral right to make such statements if
Turkey had recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide. However,
rejection is what their state policy is based on,” Armenian Deputy
Speaker said.

According to him, instead of speaking about annihilation of 1,5
millions of Armenians in the most violent, inhumane way, Turks are
making statements on killings of 8000 Muslims in other states.

“Frankly speaking, it’s concerning that Erdogan highly assessed the
behavior of a Bosnian woman, who helped President Tadic though she had
lost her husband and two sons in this war. I would like to compare:
Serzh Sargsyan also overcame the big barrier and tried to normalize
ties with Turkey. And what did Turkey’s leader do? Everyone knows,” S.
Nikoyan said.

As he said, it’s not the Turkish PM, who should speak about justice,
frankness, it’s not him who should speak about peace or the offences
carried out in the other states.

“Turkey’s PM is facing one major problem: recognize and condemn the
Armenian Genocide and only after he can deal with the other issues. If
an offense remains unpunished, it can give birth to even bigger
offences. Had Turkey recognized and condemned the crime it committed,
there would be no further crimes. Now everyone thinks they can commit
a crime and remain unpunished since there is Turkey’s precedent,”
the Deputy Speaker highlighted.

From: A. Papazian

HERITAGE’S FRONTLINE

July 13, 2010

1. The Patrimony is one and indivisible.

2. The sovereign Nation-State declared in one corner of the ancestral
homeland recognizes republican Turkey and its integrity subject to
Woodrow Wilson’s arbitral award as issued under U.S. presidential
seal in November 1920. A full and final regulation of all bilateral
matters deriving therefrom is a material precondition to an equitable
and enduring resolution in the case of Artsakh and Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations in general. There is no statute on limitations on the crime
of Genocide and National Dispossession, however or whenever it has
been committed and internationally defined.

3. The nation-state recognizes both the Republic of Mountainous
Karabagh, as constitutionally constituted, and republican Azerbaijan
and its integrity subject to its own recognition of the Artsakh
republic as well as release from occupation of the historic heartlands
of Shahumian, Getashen-Martunashen, Artsvashen, and Nakhichevan. No
other territorial adjustment shall be considered or executed until
the foregoing takes complete effect.

4. The nation-state recognizes republican Georgia as an important
neighboring country which, in its own turn, acknowledges that Javakhk
is part and parcel of the Patrimony and of their common security. The
character of their reciprocal relationship, moreover, will turn on
the efficacy of measures undertaken to demonstrate this understanding
as well as to ensure fundamental freedoms for the Georgian-Armenian
community and its institutions.

5. The nation-state respects the partnership of Iran, Russia, China,
the European Union and the United States, and expects their respect for
its absolute sovereignty and the rightful integrity of its heritage.

6. The nation-state, at Ararat and in dispersion, further recognizes
that the bedrock of the points above and below is its own immediate
and comprehensive transformation into a modern, democratic, and
self-confident Republic where the law rules, rights are revered,
political prisoners are precluded, and the citizen is crown. Justice
in the world entails justice at home.

7. In direct consequence and for the sake of generations to come, the
nation-state notes with gratitude the services rendered by all of its
presidents, civil and military officials, and rank-and-file patriots,
and at once requires each of them to stand equally before the rule
of law. The territories, properties, enterprises, opportunities,
and human lives heretofore privatized, expropriated, or sacrificed
by their abuse of power must be accounted for to the fullest extent
of the very same law.

8. For the first time in their long history, Armenia and its people
must urgently conduct true elections for their presidency, legislature
and, by extension, a really independent judiciary. Failing this,
there is no national agenda, nor a manifest destiny, and so our
birthright has already been squandered for good.

9. The nation-state, its every citizen, and no one else are
responsible, without excuse or exception, for the burdens and blessings
of their collective future.

From: A. Papazian

PREPARATIONS: ARMENIAN POLITICAL FORCES REVIEWING THEIR APPROACHES, DETERMINING POLICIES
Naira Hayrumyan

ArmeniaNow
13.07.10

Heritage founder Raffi Hovannisian elected chairman of the party’s
board (at the party’s congress in Yerevan, July 10).

With less than two years remaining before the parliamentary elections
in Armenia, the opposition parties start to mobilize forces and
declare their policies. Thus, the opposition Heritage Party held its
extraordinary congress on July 10, and the non-parliamentary Armenian
National Movement (ANM), which stood at the sources of independent
Armenia, plans its convention for July 17.

Judging by the fact that Heritage elected its founder and leader,
first Foreign Minister of Armenia Raffi Hovannisian as chairman
of the party’s board, the party is going to engage in a serious
struggle for the presidency and parliamentary seats during the
next elections. The party has proclaimed its policy, which reflects
positions on foreign-policy and domestic issues. Some points of the
party program have become news on the political agenda.

In particular, Heritage believes that the nation-state of Armenia
should seek the recognition of Turkey’s territorial integrity within
the borders outlined in 1920 by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The
party suggests Armenia recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic within
its constitutional borders. From this point of view, the Heritage
positions may have something in common with the approaches of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun), which advances
nationalist goals.

Thus, Heritage calls on Armenia and the Diaspora to build a modern,
democratic, rule-of-law state at the foot of Mount Ararat, a state
where rights are respected, where there are no political prisoners
and where supreme power belongs to citizens, where everyone is equal
before the law regardless of their merits.

The party also declared its intention to mobilize the civil initiatives
that have displayed activity in Armenia and channel their activities
into achieving a system transformation in the country’s life. This
is also something new for political parties that have disengaged
themselves from civil affairs.

Hovannisian said that they will be consistent in uncovering the
crime of March 1, 2008 (the deadly post-election unrest resulting
in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces), but
added that it will not happen until “the second, third and then first
presidents are questioned”. “All of us are responsible for the rigged
elections, corruption, the clash of public and private interests,
but the primary responsibility lies with the three presidents of
Armenia,” said Hovannisian. At the same time, he argued that during
their times as presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan have
amassed so much capital that it would be sufficient to complete the
restoration of Karabakh along with its liberated territories.

In parliamentary elections, Hovannisian prefers participating as a
bloc, but if such an alliance fails to be formed, then they are ready
to participate in the election campaign independently.

Further developments within the opposition domain will show whether
electoral blocs will be formed or not. And the opposition in Armenia
today has two irreconcilable poles. The Armenian National Congress
led by first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan has so far failed to sit
down with ARF, which has declared itself to be opposition, and ARF
cannot forgive Ter-Petrosyan the so-called Dro case, the reprisals
against Dashnaktsutyun members, as a result of which by 1995 most of
the current ARF leaders had been jailed.

Heritage has good relations with both forces, but so far all its
attempts to convene a roundtable with the participation of all parties
have been unsuccessful. Despite the commonality of the declared policy
and goals, the parties prefer pursuing ‘non-bloc’ policies.

From: A. Papazian

GREEN CONCERNS: EXPERT SAYS MASSIVE CONSTRUCTION THREATENS YEREVAN’S ECOLOGY
Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow reporter
13.07.10

Environmentalist Karine Danielyan says Yerevan is an example of how
not to implement urban construction

Environmentalist Karine Danielyan, who heads the “For Sustainable
Human Development” NGO, thinks that on the example of Yerevan one can
learn how not to implement urban construction. According to Danielyan,
“Armenian oligarchs build where they want, without considering any
environmental norm.”

The environmentalist remembers the Yerevan master plan of the Soviet
times “when the environmental science was not so much developed”,
but all master plans had ecological directions.

“Yerevan used to have a green network that one could go from one
place to another using only green space,” says Danielyan.

In recent years Armenian environmentalists have constantly warned
authorities in charge of the sphere about the risk of desertification
faced by Yerevan, as sweeping construction has been implemented in the
city at the expense of green zones. (According to environmentalists,
desertification threatens 80 percent of Armenia’s territory; forests
now make only eight percent of the country’s territory. It is estimated
that if desertification continues for another 20 years, Armenia will
lose almost all of its forests and woods.)

Danielyan believes that first the population of Armenia did not
need such large-scale construction, as most complete elite housing
remains unlived-in.

“Even if there were that need, this construction could have been
carried out in areas adjacent to Yerevan,” says Danielyan.

In recent years the average air temperature in Yerevan has risen
by 0.7 degrees. Danielyan links it to the logging of trees on the
hillsides surrounding Yerevan, which used to give some coolness to
the capital city during hot summers.

“Now the city doesn’t have enough time to cool down overnight,”
says Danielyan.

She brings the examples of the cities of Edinburgh and Bordeaux,
in Scotland and France respectively, where the centers once, too,
lost their green areas due to unsparing construction.

“Edinburgh had to blow up the city center, then plant trees and
other greenery, because people were running away from there. The same
situation was also Bordeaux,” says the environmentalist, warning that
the same situation threatens Yerevan as well.

From: A. Papazian

HERITAGE PARTY CONGRESS “STATE OF THE NATION” RESOLUTION

2010/07/13

1. The Patrimony is one and indivisible.

2. The sovereign Nation-State declared in one corner of the ancestral
homeland recognizes republican Turkey and its integrity subject to
Woodrow Wilson’s arbitral award as issued under U.S. presidential
seal in November 1920. A full and final regulation of all bilateral
matters deriving therefrom is a material precondition to an equitable
and enduring resolution in the case of Artsakh and Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations in general. There is no statute on limitations on the crime
of Genocide and National Dispossession, however or whenever it has
been committed and internationally defined.

3. The nation-state recognizes both the Republic of Mountainous
Karabagh, as constitutionally constituted, and republican Azerbaijan
and its integrity subject to its own recognition of the Artsakh
republic as well as release from occupation of the historic heartlands
of Shahumian, Getashen-Martunashen, Artsvashen, and Nakhichevan. No
other territorial adjustment shall be considered or executed until
the foregoing takes complete effect.

4. The nation-state recognizes republican Georgia as an important
neighboring country which, in its own turn, acknowledges that Javakhk
is part and parcel of the Patrimony and of their common security. The
character of their reciprocal relationship, moreover, will turn on
the efficacy of measures undertaken to demonstrate this understanding
as well as to ensure fundamental freedoms for the Georgian-Armenian
community and its institutions.

5. The nation-state respects the partnership of Iran, Russia, China,
the European Union and the United States, and expects their respect for
its absolute sovereignty and the rightful integrity of its heritage.

6. The nation-state, at Ararat and in dispersion, further recognizes
that the bedrock of the points above and below is its own immediate
and comprehensive transformation into a modern, democratic, and
self-confident Republic where the law rules, rights are revered,
political prisoners are precluded, and the citizen is crown. Justice
in the world entails justice at home.

7. In direct consequence and for the sake of generations to come, the
nation-state notes with gratitude the services rendered by all of its
presidents, civil and military officials, and rank-and-file patriots,
and at once requires each of them to stand equally before the rule
of law. The territories, properties, enterprises, opportunities,
and human lives heretofore privatized, expropriated, or sacrificed
by their abuse of power must be accounted for to the fullest extent
of the very same law.

8. For the first time in their long history, Armenia and its people
must urgently conduct true elections for their presidency, legislature
and, by extension, a really independent judiciary. Failing this,
there is no national agenda, nor a manifest destiny, and so our
birthright has already been squandered for good.

9. The nation-state, its every citizen, and no one else are
responsible, without excuse or exception, for the burdens and blessings
of their collective future.

From: A. Papazian

STANISLAV GOVORUKHIN: I FEEL MYSELF RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USSR SPLIT

ArmInfo
2010-07-13 11:24:00

ArmInfo. I feel myself responsible for the USSR split, the guest of
the International Film Festival “Golden Apricot” Sranislav Govorukhin
said yesterday.

“I remember when people used to stay in queue to buy a ticket for my
film “One must not live in such a way”, and threw away their communist
party member card after watching the film. For this reason, in some
sense I feel myself responsible to the USSR split”, – he said and
added that at present his films are not popular among people.

The film maker also said that the pop-corn audience, which need the
pop-corn films, go to the cinema today. “Even the Hollywood film makers
confess that they make films for a 24-year old colored teenager who
needs an attraction”, – Govorukhin said and added that today 50-60%
of young people do not know what is spiritual joy.

“Perhaps, we have such an art as today there is no moral censorship”,
– he said.

From: A. Papazian