Author: Andres-Papazian

Business Insider
March 16 2014

How Russians Became Crimea’s Largest Ethnic Group, In One Haunting Chart

Gus Lubin

Crimea may have a majority Russian population today, but it hasn’t
always been that way.

The peninsula’s dark history of ethnic cleansing is visible in the
following chart from Reuters.

The chart shows a collapse in the population of native Crimean Tatars
from 34.1% in 1987 to zero in 1959, marking brutal harassment leading
up to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s forcible deportation of the entire
population in 1944, with nearly half dying in the process. It took
decades for the population to climb back to 12% by 2001.

While the population of Ukrainians and especially Russians rose, the
percentage of the population falling into an unlisted category also
fell from more than 20% in 1921 to around 5% in 1959. This was a
consequence of the deportation of Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and
other groups.

With a history like this — and a similarly tragic history across
Ukraine — it’s not hard to see why many say it is unfair not to
mention illegal to make Crimeans take a referendum on joining Russia.

From: A. Papazian

SYRIE
Syrie : 7 morts dans un attentat suicide à Qamichli

Au moins sept personnes ont été tuées mardi dans un triple attentat
suicide mené par des jihadistes contre un hôtel dans la ville kurde de
Qamichli, dans le nord-est de la Syrie, a indiqué une ONG.

Trois hommes ont fait détoner leurs ceintures d’explosifs dans l’hôtel
Hadaya à Qamichli, tuant sept personnes, dont quatre femmes, a précisé
l’Observatoire syrien des droits de l’Homme (OSDH), qui avait fourni
auparavant un bilan de cinq morts.

Les auteurs de l’attentat sont des membres de l’Etat islamique en Irak
et au Levant (EIIL), le groupe jihadiste le plus radical de Syrie.

L’agence officielle Sana a fait état de cinq morts dans l’attaque.

Un militant kurde sur place a indiqué à l’AFP que l’hôtel était une
base des forces de sécurité kurdes “Asayish”, mais qu’il ignorait si
les victimes étaient des membres de ces forces.

Qamichli est la plus grande ville à majorité kurde tenue par le régime
et les milices kurdes. Elle est relativement épargnée par les combats
qui font rage sur d’autres fronts de Syrie dévastée par trois ans de
guerre.

Les Kurdes syriens ont tenté au début de ne pas s’impliquer dans le
conflit entre le régime et la rébellion jusqu’à ce qu’ils soient
attaqués par les jihadistes qui se disputent le même territoire à la
lisère de l’Irak.

La guerre en Syrie a fait plus de 140.000 morts depuis mars 2011, selon l’OSDH.

dimanche 16 mars 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Arménie : La loi contre les violences au milieu de l’indifférence officielle

Comme ailleurs dans le Caucase du Sud, les femmes arméniennes
pouvaient s’attendre à recevoir des fleurs et des petits cadeaux, le 8
mars, Journée internationale des femmes. Mais il y a une chose
auxquelles les femmes arméniennes ne bénéficient pas, et ne
l’obtiendront pas de sitôt – une loi couvrant la violence domestique.
Citant des lacunes alléguées dans ses dispositions, le gouvernement
arménien en janvier avait rejeté un projet de loi sur la violence
domestique, une loi sur laquelle les organisations non
gouvernementales, des experts internationaux et des membres du
gouvernement ont travaillé à faire adopter depuis sept ans.

La Coalition pour mettre fin à la violence contre les femmes, qui
réunit sept organisations non gouvernementales (ONG), a remanié le
projet de loi, mais les espoirs de passage sont plus faibles
aujourd’hui qu’il y a quelques mois. >
a déclaré le porte-parole du Centre de soutien aux femmes Perchuhi
Kazhoian. >.

Le Premier ministre Tigran Sarkissian, qui avant soulevait souvent la
question, s’est tue. Le travail avec le Fonds des Nations Unies pour
la population a pris fin en 2011 avec la conclusion d’un projet de
lutte contre la violence fondée sur le sexe. Les efforts de lobbying
des ONG locales ne vont nulle part.

La nécessité d’une telle législation , cependant, n’a pas disparu,
disent les activistes des droits des femmes soulignant que, pendant
les deux premiers mois de 2014 cinq femmes arméniennes entre 28 et 38
ont été assassinés par leurs maris. Alors que les partisans croient
que depuis longtemps la tradition de l’Arménie de garder le silence
sur la violence domestique a été surmontée, les femmes continuent de
s’abstenir généralement de se rendre à la police pour parler des abus.
Avec une loi sur les violences familiales , il serait plus facile pour
les victimes de porter plainte et d’obtenir une protection, disent les
défenseurs.

>.

Le Colonel Nelly Durian, un haut fonctionnaire pour la police,
reconnaît que de nombreux services de police régionaux manquent
d’agents spécialement formés pour traiter les cas de violence
conjugale, mais elle souligne que des progrès sur la violence
conjugale ont été fait. Le nombre de plaintes de présumées victimes de
violence domestique a augmenté de > depuis 2009 >. Note de la rédaction :

Gayane Abrahamyan est un journaliste indépendant et rédacteur en chef à Erevan.

Eurasianet

dimanche 16 mars 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

Deutsche Welle, Germany
March 15 2014

Putin’s power play jeopardizes Eurasian Union plans

President Vladimir Putin aims to create an Eurasian Union where the
Soviet Union once reigned. But Moscow’s intervention in Crimea could
make former Soviet republics think twice about deeper integration with
Russia.

During his annual address to the Russian parliament back in 2005,
President Putin publicly lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union,
calling it “a major geopolitical disaster of the century.” The former
KGB man laid out his solution to this “disaster” in a 2011 newspaper
editorial, in which he called for the creation of an Eurasian Union.

“First, none of this entails any kind of revival of the Soviet Union,”
Putin wrote in the daily Izvestia. “It would be naïve to revive or
emulate something that has been consigned to history. But these times
call for a close integration based on new values and a new political
and economic foundation.”

“We suggest a powerful supranational association capable of becoming
one of the poles in the modern world and serving as an efficient
bridge between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region,” he
continued.

Neighboring Belarus and Kazakhstan have signed up to join Russia in
this integration project. In 2010, the three ex-Soviet republics
formed a common customs union. Meanwhile, they have agreed to make the
Eurasian Economic Union a reality by January 1, 2015.

Close, but not too close?

“According to Putin, it has to be a political alliance, not only the
customs union, with supranational institutions that will be hosted by
Moscow and apparently dominated by Russia,” Lilia Shevtsova, a Russia
expert with Carnegie Moscow, told DW.

‘Anti-thesis to the West’

While Shevtsova described the Eurasian Union as Putin’s “pet project,”
she said that the concept of Eurasianism as an ideology developed in
early 20th century Russia as an “antithesis to the West.”

“The major principle of Eurasianism is that Russia has to be the pole
of a new civilization, which is situated on the huge Eurasian
territory that includes a European part and an Asian part,” Shevtsova
said. “Russia is unique and Russia is not Europe.”

“The Eurasian concept is based on such values as the Orthodox Church
and the strength of the state,” she said. “The state is much more
important than individuals.”

‘EU without democracy’

In terms of its structure, the Eurasian Union is modeled on the
European Union’s political integration project, but without the
emphasis on democracy and human rights, according to Amanda Paul, an
expert on the Eurasian region at the in Brussels.

A handful of former Soviet republics, led by Russia, created the
Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC or Eurasec) in 2000 to serve as the
motor of integration in the former Soviet space. The organization’s
institutional structure is similar to the defunct European Economic
Community, the forerunner of the European Union. Eurasec has an
interstate council, a permanent committee, an inter-parliamentary
assembly and a court.

The interstate council consists of the Eurasec members’ heads of state
and makes decisions by consensus, while the permanent committee
requires a two-thirds majority vote. Voting power in the committee is
based on financial contributions. Russia wields 40 votes while Belarus
and Kazakhstan each hold 20. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan possess 10
votes respectively.

Driven by realpolitik

According to Shevtsova, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko
opted to join because he “cannot go to Europe” due to his repressive
policies, and “he cannot survive by himself” because of the country’s
economic problems. Meanwhile, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
hopes to use Russia to balance out China’s economic influence in the
Central Asian country, she said.

Last September, Armenia turned down an association agreement with the
European Union, opting instead for the customs union with Belarus,
Russia and Kazakhstan. The Armenian deputy foreign minister, Shavarsh
Kocharian, has said that Yerevan will be ready to join the customs
union by mid-April.

Armenia has “chosen” to go along with Russia’s plan

“They basically didn’t have any option but to ditch their agreement
with the EU because of their reliance on Russia in many different
sectors, obviously including energy security, economics and trade,”
Paul said.

“In the shared neighborhood with the EU, none of the countries want to
join,” she continued. “Russia is having to force them in there with
all the sticks and whips it’s got.”

‘Pop-up war syndrome’

According to Shevtsova, Kyiv is the “crown jewel” in Russia’s Eurasian
ambitions. A country of 45 million people, Ukraine has fertile
agricultural land, an industrial base and lies right on Central
Europe’s doorstep.

“It was one of the key goals of Putin to get Ukraine into the orbit
because a Eurasian Union…without Ukraine would have a very strong
Asian face,” she said.

But Moscow’s intervention in Crimea could jeopardize the entire
integration project. Ukraine has been driven even further into the
West’s arms by the de-facto Russian annexation of the Black Sea
peninsula. The EU could sign the political chapters of an association
agreement with Kyiv as early as March 20th.

Meanwhile, Belarus and Kazakhstan have failed to express strong public
support for Moscow’s position in Ukraine. Putin’s doctrine of
reserving the right to use military force to protect ethnic Russians
might have Minsk and Astana worried. Nearly a quarter of Kazakhstan’s
population and eight percent of Belarus claim Russian ethnicity.

“If the Russians are allowed to get away with what they’re doing in
Crimea it sets a precedent to repeat this sort of behavior elsewhere,”
Paul said. “Russia is creating a sort of pop-up war syndrome. It
doesn’t like something so it creates a military confrontation.”

From: A. Papazian

Yerevan suffers from chaotic construction of supermarkets – NGO

March 15, 2014 | 17:07

YEREVAN. – Armenian capital city Yerevan suffers from a chaotic
construction of supermarkets.

Armen Poghosyan, Head of the “Consumers Association of Armenia” NGO,
noted the aforesaid at Saturday’s press conference, which was devoted
to World Consumer Rights Day which is celebrated on March 15.

“Supermarkets and hypermarkets develop in Yerevan, but the development
is uncontrollable. It is not planned as to which supermarket will
serve which region.

“As a result, the small stores are going bankrupt, [and] the large
ones are beginning to dictate their terms to the consumers,” Poghosyan
stated.

To note, the supermarkets’ impact on traffic likewise needs consideration.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

Russia’s eased citizenship rules and likely impact on Armenia – opinions

15:30 * 15.03.14

Armenia without Armenians is, as a matter of fact, a program
implemented by the Armenian authorities not by Russia, says the head a
Gyumri-based NGO.

Speaking to Tert.am, President of Shirak Center Vahan Tumasyan said he
doesn’t think the proposedamendments to the Russian citizenship law
are likely to be serious challenge for the second largest city which
has already seen a major demographic decline.

“By and large, I don’t think it will be emptied at more rapid paces.
As a city that suffered from the earthquake, losing housing resources
and economy, Gyumri has emptied itself in all possible ways,” he
noted.

The bill, which is now on the Russian parliament’s agenda, envisages
facilitated citizenship procedures for former Soviet citizens knowing
Russian. Under the proposed amendments, those people will be granted
citizenship within three months of residence in Russia.

Commenting on the bill, the political analyst Levon Shirinyan said he
believes it will deepen the demographic crisis in Armenia if adopted.
He said it is likely to filter the employable and educated classes
which still remain in Armenia.

“Don’t you feel sure that the commission will select them – the
beautiful, the strong and those with a professional qualification,
rejecting the rest who will turn out drug-addicts or criminals,” he
noted.

Shirinyan said the Armenian authorities have to take urgent measures
to prevent an exodus.

According to Khosrov Harutyunyan, the Christian-Democratic Party’s
chief and a lawmaker of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, the
authorities have to work towards enhancing the population’s living
standards instead of thinking of restrictive measures.

“For us at least, that has to be the issue. Suppose we facilitate or
impede [the process], what will be the use?” he added.

Asked whether the statement implies that he admits the authorities
failure to ensure better living standards, Harutyunyan replied, “We
all say there is migration, and we can really say that we do not have
visible success. The arrival-departure balance is lower, but I don’t
think it is an important achievement,” he said, adding that the
migration of as many as 5,000 people a big challenge for a small
country like Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

Eurovision 2014: Aram MP3 to sing “Not Alone” for Armenia

23:15 14.03.2014
Aram MP3, Armenia, Eurovision

Today, the Armenian Public TV premiered the song for the 2014
Eurovision Song Contest: it’s a unique ballad called Not Alone.

It will be sung by Aram MP3, who was internally chosen to represent Armenia.

The music video was directed by Grigor Gasparyan, the actors being
Diana Malenko and Vahag Martirosyan. The music of Not Alone was
written by Aram himself, while the author of the lyrics is Aram’s best
friend Garik Papoyan.

The message of the song is: “You should never give up and always fight
for love. One kiss can change everything.”

From: A. Papazian

WITH RUSSIA, FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE

Voice of America
March 14 2014

James Brooke
Posted March 14th, 2014

Vladimir Putin is right.

The West has interfered massively in Ukraine.

Let me explain.

Last year, about 15 percent of Russian adults traveled outside the
former Soviet Union.

By contrast, about one third of Ukrainians between ages of 20 and 50
have traveled to Western Europe – to work.

That is the difference between peeling off a 10 Euro note to pay for
a caffe latte in Prague, and waiting tables for tips in a Czech coffee
shop. Or hailing a cab in Vienna, and cruising for fares in Vienna. Or
enjoying a modern shopping center in Berlin, and building it.

When residents of Moscow, capital of Saudi Arabia of the North,
sneer that all the EU offers the Ukraine are jobs as bellhops,
chamber maids and construction workers, many Ukrainians respond –
fine, that is a start. As a former bellhop in a Swiss hotel (Hotel
Elite, Bienne, 1974), I wholeheartedly agree with them.

Since the Berlin Wall fell, Ukrainians have watched the economy of
neighboring Poland increase three fold, while Ukraine’s economy flat
lined for a generation. The difference? Poland joined the EU and got
a massive influx of capital from neighboring Germany. Ukraine suffered
under a generation of misrule (including by Saintly Yulia Tymoshenko).

Oligarchs created monopolies and then drained billions out of Ukraine.

Labor followed this capital outflow to the West.

So Ukrainians have lived and worked in the European Union. Unlike
Russian tourists, they have not skated over the surface, skipping from
Florence to Barcelona to the Riviera. Ukrainians like what they saw,
starting with the rule of law.

As a result, Putin has lost the hearts and minds of the majority of
Ukrainians to the West. They are not coming back.

A worker puts up a poster that reads, “Together with Russia” in
Simferopol, Ukraine.

A realist, Putin now settles for second best – destabilizing Ukraine
by laboring to exacerbate linguistic and ethnic tensions.

The Kremlin’s strategy is to surround itself with weak and divided
states. Ever wonder why there is no solution in sight for Moldova’s
breakaway region of TransDniester Republic? For Georgia’s secessionist
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia? For the Azeri-Armenian dispute
over Nagorno Karabagh?

Very simple: the EU and NATO will not accept as members countries
with territorial disputes. So now, Ukraine joins the list of former
Soviet republics kept weakened and on the defensive by Kremlin policy.

Crimea exemplifies a zero sum view of the world that Russian foreign
policy makers have adopted without much change from their Soviet
predecessors. If you are up, I am down. If I am up, you are down.

In North American terms, Russia’s work in Crimea would be comparable
to Washington fomenting separatism in Quebec to split up and weaken
Canada, or funding the rebellion in southern Mexico, to put Mexico
on the defensive. Instead, the American people and their policy
makers believe that the successes of Canada and Mexico are pluses
for the United States. Hence the North American Free Trade Agreement,
a voluntary association of democracies that, like the European Union,
is designed to raise all boats.

Which leads to Putin’s Eurasian Union, a Moscow-led Dictators ‘R Us
club. Maybe after gobbling up Crimea, Putin will grab parts of Eastern
Ukraine and create a rump Ukrainian state that can bring Ukraine’s
industrial heartland into the Eurasian Union. Inside Russia, Putin
is tightening controls on the press and on the dwindling right to
protest, turning Russia into a big Belarus. The last thing Putin’s
authoritarian regime wants is a Slavic success story on its Western
border – a thriving democratic Ukraine.

Rather than trying predict the future, watch the imposition of
Putinism in Crimea: the independent press is shut down, YouTube videos
show masked men beating up journalists, and pro-Ukraine rallies are
banned. This is to culminate on Sunday with a modern version of the
various post war votes in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia that
“endorsed” forced transitions to communism.

After 7.5 years living in Moscow, my conclusion is that the only
language the Kremlin understands is the credible threat of force.

It is no accident that Russian was not the foreign language taught
on the eastern bank of the English Channel from 1950 to 1990. Boring,
but true, it was NATO that stopped Moscow’s expansion westward.

Without the credible threat of counterforce, a stop sign is just an
annoyance to a Russian tank. Just look at Crimea. Today, were it not
for NATO, the Russian bear would sneeze and blow the democracies of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Baltic Sea.

As a New Englander, I know that good fences make good neighbors,
(See Robert Frost poem). But the Russian people largely inhabit a
large plain, with few mountain ranges (fences) to protect them. Over
the centuries, Russia’s borders have expanded and contracted like
an amoeba.

With Russia’s occupation of Crimea, a new chapter opens in the
relations between Russia and the West.

From: A. Papazian

VILLAGERS PROTESTING CONSTRUCTION OF HYDROELECTRIC PLANT DIDN’T MEET WITH VICE PRIME MINISTER

03.14.2014 18:30 epress.am

Residents of 7 rural communities of Aragatsotn marz (province)
protesting construction of a hydroelectric power station near the
villages of Karbi and Ohanavan gathered this morning in the center
of Ohanavan, expecting to meet RA Vice Prime Minister, Minister of
Territorial Administration Armen Gevorgyan, but after waiting for a
few hours, they learned that the meeting will not be taking place,
a resident of the village of Ushi, Lena Petrosyan, informed Epress.am.

According to her, they were promised that the deputy prime minister
would come and personally meet with the villagers to get acquainted
with their concerns; however, hours later, Ohanavan’s village head
found out that Gevorgyan will come to the village a few days later.

Environmental activist Gevorg Safaryan, who joined the villagers
today, informed the Epress.am correspondent that the villagers felt
cheated and initially blocked the road leading to Ushi and Ohananvan,
but later, gradually began to disperse.

“They came to meet [the deputy PM], but the village head said the
meeting will take place next week, as well as saying that he wants
15-20 people at the meeting and not a huge mass — this further enraged
the crowd. They insisted that they will all participate in the meeting,
after which the demonstration ended,” he said.

The villagers also insisted they will continue their protests in
Yerevan, if they don’t achieve success here.

Recall, on March 6, hundreds of villagers for several hours blocked
the Ohanavan-Ushi road and demanded to stop construction of the
hydroelectric power station, which they claim will deprive them of
irrigation water. The protestors say the power plant will consume
so much water from the Aparan reservoir that that their gardens and
yards will dry up. Their protest succeeded in the removal of the
construction equipment from the site.

From: A. Papazian

OWNERS OF PRIVATE BUS COMPANIES RESUME THEIR DEMAND THAT PUBLIC TRANSPORT FARES BE DOUBLED IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, March 14. / ARKA /. The union of owners of private companies
operating Yerevan’s public transport system have resumed today their
demand that public transport fares be doubled from current 100 drams
for mini vans which work on liquefied or pressurized gas and 250
drams for busses which work on diesel fuel.

Speaking at a news conference, the chairman of the union, Hrant
Yeghiazaryan , said it is not necessarily that the whole amount be
paid by citizens because part could be subsidized by the government.

Yeghiazaryan expressed dissatisfaction with the work of a special
commission set up last September to look into the issue.

Yeghiazaryan’s deputy Harutyun Arakelyan argued that the 100 dram
fare is not sufficient to ensure safe and comfortable passenger
transportation service.

“If this continues, in the near future we will not be able to ensure
the safety of passengers, and the operation of this service would be
in jeopardy,” he said.

He said the union had sent a letter to Yerevan municipality demanding
a solution to this issue.

In 2013 July bus fares in Yerevan rose from 100 drams to 150 drams
(36 U.S. cents). The move caused unprecedented protests organized by
hundreds of mostly young activists, who urged commuters not to pay
higher fees. The authorities had to suspend fare hike as a result. -0-

– See more at:

From: A. Papazian