Author: Andres-Papazian

BAKOU REJETTE LES CRITIQUE DE L’OCCIDENT

AZERBAIDJAN

Bakou a rejete la critique occidentale sur la recente election
presidentielle en Azerbaïdjan, où le president Ilham Aliyev a ete
reelu pour un troisième mandat avec une victoire ecrasante.

Le chef de l’administration presidentielle, Ali Hasanov, a declare que
les critiques par l’Organisation pour la securite et la cooperation
en Europe (OSCE) ont ete ” biaisees ” et entièrement base sur des
informations fournies par l’opposition.

Hasanov a dit que Bakou ” va devoir reconsiderer ” sa cooperation
future avec le Bureau de l’OSCE pour les institutions democratiques
et les droits de l’homme (BIDDH).

L’OHIDR a dit le 9 Octobre election etait ” serieusement faussee
“, tandis que le Departement d’Etat americain a declare que le vote
etait en deca des normes internationales. Hasanov a declare que la
critique americain etait ” inacceptable “.

Selon les resultats officiels, le candidat de l’opposition unie,
Camil Hasanli, a gagne environ 5 pour cent des voix.

jeudi 17 octobre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

IN BRUSSELS, THE BOGHOSSIAN FOUNDATION FOCUSES ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN DIALOGUE

PRESS

Symposium

Fifteen experts from several countries have recently come together
for a rich testimony and information day.

“Rebuilding the memorial dialogue: Armenian-Turkish example” is
the theme developed during international meetings at Villa Empain
Brussels headquarters of the Boghossian Foundation. In the marble
lobby of this sumptuous, jewel of Belgian Art Deco heritage, the
day was full of information, interventions and evidence. The theme
of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue was addressed by fifteen speakers,
teachers, researchers, journalists, writers, artists, from Belgium,
but also France, Switzerland, Turkey, Canada, and has declined on three
pillars: the duality Turkey-Armenia, the construction of identities,
art and memory.

In opening the meeting day, Albert Boghossian, founder and treasurer
of the foundation member, paid tribute to Edward Jakhian “Armenian
Brussels” great Belgian humanist of Armenian origin who died last May.

Mr. Boghossian said that the Armenian genocide of 1915 remained
“an open wound because unrecognized” and launched the discussion by
asking why the genocide was still disputed by Turkey.

Evelyne de Mevius young doctoral student, whose memory philosophy
“Ethics reconstructive the test of Armenian genocide” was published
by Boghossian, addressed the issue of recognition of the Armenian
Genocide through the prism of reconstructive ethics which involves
reviewing in depth the story to “lift the destiny” of the tragic
relationship between Turks and Armenians. She recalled, highlighted,
that supported Jakhian Island: “The daughter or son of the victim
remain the victim’s daughter or son of the executioner is not the
executioner”; Jakhian, who fought for the recognition of Armenian
genocide, but not least trying to find the “right” of Turkey, these
women and men who helped save Armenian lives during these dark days
of history, and to honor them. “100 years have not helped alleviate
bruised memory of the Armenian people and undermine the revisionist
armor that prevents the Turkish people to recognize this dark chapter
in its history, she said. Only the recognition of this drama could
appease one side or the other, the conflicting report that these
people have with their past and each other. ”

Duality Turkey-Armenia

Duality Turkey-Armenia, moderated by the Belgian radio journalist Eddy
Caekelberghs debate addressed the issue by the historical bias. This
is Olivier Mongin, director of Esprit, who recalled the various stages
of recognition of the Armenian Genocide through five steps, the first
is in the middle of the sixties, with the first visible evocation
of commemorative fiftieth anniversary of the genocide, and the last
period 2009/2010, the Turkish initiative with a petition calling for
the opening of a dialogue on the issue of the Armenian genocide.

Michel Marian, a lecturer at the Institute of Political Studies in
Paris and Ahmet Insel, a professor at Galatasaray University and
lecturer at Paris I, have detailed “The Armenian taboo.” For the
former, Turkey suffered a genuine amnesia is on the Armenian issue,
amnesia caused by both the small number of Armenians still living
in Turkey, particularly in Anatolia (region where were deported and
massacred 1.5 million Armenians), by cutting between the Turks claim
that today’s Turkey and the Ottoman Empire at the end of which was
perpetrated genocide. Ahmet Insel for the past 20 years, things have
changed and there is a “related factors of optimism,” especially since
the 2008 petition, signed by 30 000 to 40 000 people and marking the
first act of apology Turkish citizens in their Armenian citizens “not
on the genocide itself, but the forgetting, denial of the genocide
and discriminatory actions that resulted.” The issue of the return of
Armenians in Turkey began to be addressed, says the researcher, and
the Armenians are allowed to come “visit” the land of their ancestors,
especially in the Anatolia region. However, the issue of property,
including land belonging to many Armenians and looted remains taboo.

“A circular prohibits access to land registers before 1924 in order to
protect the security of the state. And no historical research can be
done on this tradition of referral of real estate, “said Ahmet Insel.

“Today, Turkish society is afraid of being expelled from Anatolia,
these ill-gotten land. We are in the illusory idea of a homogeneous
Turkish society. Without a fair memory, no memory subsided. The
Armenian question must be part of the process of democratization of
Turkish society. “And to emphasize:” The Armenian issue will return
like a boomerang to the figure of Turkey as it has not done its job
memory. The Turkish identity is built on the negation of the other,
his disappearance. Recognize this genocide equivalent to deconstruct,
to deny oneself “, hence the difficulty of recognition.

Guillaume Perrier, Le Monde correspondent in Istanbul, is the co-author
of a survey on “Turkey and the Armenian ghost”, conducted since 2004,
and the debate on the accession of Turkey to the European Union. “The
attempt to erase the Armenian memory is failing. The Armenianness
exists, the memory is transmitted by oral tradition. When we stop
in the villages of Anatolia, memory emerges through the hidden
memory, lies, even the denial of state. “And to tell the story of the
presidential palace in Ankara, believed to have been purchased at an
Armenian family, but in reality – documents attest – was robbed and
offered to Ataturk in 1921. In other cities, a real work of memory
refresh is in progress, said the journalist. “The question of” right “,
which is a reality of any genocide, begins to emerge.Local politicians
pay tribute to Turkish men who saved Armenian lives. This is a key
that can be given to the Turks that they may go to this memory. ”

Hamit Bozarslan, research director at the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales) and expert on the Middle East, wondered
why the denial is maintained while information are increasingly more
to prove its reality. “Because we are in the case of a founder crime,
he said, a crime which has built the country. Executives who led the
genocide were all in the leadership of the country into the sixties.

The bureaucracy of genocide was entirely appointed by the Kemalist
party, where the organic continuity of the State. And current
challenges Taksim Square showed vivid currents today shake Turkey. “.

Raymond Kevorkian, historian and director of the Journal of
Contemporary Armenian history, noted a singularity on the issue of
the Armenian genocide: the elite Young Turks and the Armenian elite
were united by ties of friendship. “These are two national identities
that were originally parts to build a common state. “This historical
data and betrayal that ensued could partly explain the inability of
the Turkish authorities to recognize the genocide.

Art and memory …

After lunch, the discussions were focused on a more philosophical
themes through the construction and reconstruction of identities axis.

Jean-Marc Ferry, Chair of Philosophy of Europe at the University of
Nantes, sought to answer two questions that summarize the difficulty
of the debate: why is it so difficult to begin the process of
reconstruction ? That means virtually rebuild a broken relationship?

Valerie Rosoux, degree in philosophy and a doctorate in political
science, has detailed the conditions that would meet for reconciliation
to restore confidence, to restore the truth.

The day ended with interventions around “Art and Memory.” Moderated
by Diane Hennebert, responsible for the direction of the Boghossian
Foundation, this last part of the consolidated accounts of artists
and journalists of Armenian origin, such Safarian Carolina, Belgian
actress and writer, and Antoine Agoudjian, French photographer. Memory
transmission, the themes with sensitivities and different approaches
but equally rewarding. Mehmet Koksal, a Belgian journalist of Turkish
origin, has made its contribution to the building by telling the
investigations that led him to write many articles on the pressures
of the Turkish denialist lobby in Belgium.

The place and the work of associations have not been left out, since
Sibel Asna Arsinee Khanjian and each have detailed the actions carried
out by the Hrant Dink Foundation in Istanbul and Zorian Institute
in Toronto. For the record, the Hrant Dink Foundation was created in
2007 and named after the Turkish-Armenian journalist assassinated in
January of that year.This structure argues through his actions for
the freedom of expression, cultural dialogue and peace. The objective
Zorian Institute for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights.

In those days, the Boghossian Foundation, a center for dialogue
between East and West cultures is not his first attempt. Last year at
the same time, it is Plato and the Orient were the Platonic banquet
program. The next appointment should be for the thematic trips
(December 2013) and sacrifice (Spring 2014).

All speakers stressed the importance of the year 2015, the year of
the centennial commemoration of the genocide, noting that all options
were open. Opening year or stiffening, the only time will tell.

Thursday, October 17, 2013, Stephane © armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

UN SOLDAT ARMENIEN TUE PAR L’EXPLOSION D’UNE MINE ET TROIS AUTRES BLESSES AU NORD-EST DE L’ARMENIE

ARMENIE

Le 16 octobre a 20h30 sur l’un des points frontaliers au nord-est de
l’Armenie, quatre soldats Armeniens ont saute sur une mine. Kevork
Mnatsakanian (ne en 1988 et engage dans l’armee depuis 2005, de
la ville de Kavar) fut tue sur le coup, ses trois compagnons sont
blesses. Parmi ces derniers, le lieutenant Garoush Hampartsoumian
souffrant d’une blessure relativement superficielle fut dirige vers
un hôpital d’Erevan, tout comme Nareg Hagopian et Edgar Haroutiounian.

Krikor Amirzayan

jeudi 17 octobre 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

Andreas Gross: The Azerbaijani authorities won’t last long

Wednesday,
October
16

“Failures, controversies and cruelty of the Azerbaijani authorities
are so apparent that they won’t last long,” stated former Rapporteur
of PACE on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross in the interview given to the
Radio Liberty, Azerbaijan

Gross had observed the Azerbaijani presidential elections in Gedabei
region and recorded a great number of violations. As to the question
why the PACE observation mission had called the elections free and
democratic despite numerous violations, Andreas Gross said that the
announcement of the mission was misinterpreted: the head of the PACE
mission Robert Walter had announced that the elections were free
and democratic only on the 9th of October, however the presidential
elections are not limited only to the day of voting.

As for Azerbaijan’s upcoming chairmanship in the Council of Europe,
Andreas Gross said, “This organization currently resembles a big
hospital and Azerbaijan is already in the reanimation unit”. He
stressed that the situation with human rights and democracy in
Azerbaijan is detrimental, while the European countries close eyes to
this fact because of their energy interests; as a result western values
suffer. He also expressed a belief that Azerbaijan will eventually
face changes and that these changes will come from the Azerbaijani
society, as given this state of affairs the Azerbaijani authorities
won’t last long.

Let us remind the reader that the report by European Stability
Initiative (May 2012) titled Caviar Diplomacy: How Azerbaijan
Silenced the Council of Europe mentioned Andreas Gross as a person
who throughout his tenure as the PACE co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan
had remained impartial and criticized Azerbaijan for electoral fraud,
human rights violations and lack of democracy, as a result of which he
“earned” the hostile attitude of both senior and junior Aliyevs.

TODAY, 13:07

Aysor.am

From: A. Papazian

AZERI, UZBEK CITIZENS FOUND STABBED TO DEATH IN MOSCOW

October 16, 2013 – 19:36 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – An Azerbaijani citizen has been found dead from an
apparent stabbing in Moscow’s eastern Izmailovo district, the second
murder of a non-Russian in as many days, RFE/RL said.

Moscow police said the man’s body was found on October 16, one day
after a 51-year-old Uzbek national was found dead with multiple stab
wounds in Moscow’s troubled Biryulyovo district.

The Biryulyovo district made headlines on October 13 after thousands
of antimigrant protesters stormed a local vegetable warehouse, where
many labor migrants work, and clashed with police.

That incident followed the killing of a Russian man by a suspected
migrant from the Caucasus.

On October 14, police arrested more than 1,200 migrant workers
in Biryulyovo. On Tuesday, police arrested an Azerbaijani citizen
suspected in the killing of the Russian man. A court in Moscow has
closed the vegetable warehouse in Biryulyovo for 90 days.

From: A. Papazian

CANADIAN MP SAYS UNAWARE OF LAW VIOLATION AFTER VISITING NAGORNO-KARABAKH

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Oct 16 2013

16 October 2013, 13:42 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova

A member of the Canadian parliament who has visited Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Azerbaijani region occupied by Armenia, has said he was unaware
of any violation of the Azerbaijani laws, the Azerbaijani embassy in
Canada told Trend news agency.

The member of the House of Commons from Liberal Party, Stephane Dion,
met with Azerbaijani Ambassador to Canada Farid Shafiyev.

Dion said he had accidentally visited Nagorno-Karabakh at the time
of a recent visit to Armenia, with a view to examining the situation
regarding Syrian refugees.

The Canadian MP said he does not recognize the independence of
Nagorno-Karabakh and noted that he had no information on a violation
of the Azerbaijani laws. He added that he respects Azerbaijan and
would like to be a friend of the country.

In addition, in his letter to the Azerbaijani embassy in Canada,
Dion expressed willingness to contribute to the strengthening of
friendship and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Canada, as well as
hope for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on
the basis of the principles of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats over
visits to its territories occupied by Armenia, saying this contradicts
international law. The Foreign Ministry has stated that such visits,
paid without prior notification of the relevant authorities of
Azerbaijan, are illegal and damaging to the settlement process on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan
occupied by Armenia are deemed illegal and individuals paying such
visits are “blacklisted” by the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry released a list of 335 people declared
persona non grata over illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied
territories.

Recently, four foreign citizens blacklisted by Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Ministry for illegally visiting the Azerbaijani territories occupied
by Armenia were excluded from the list. They pointed out in their
appeals to Baku that they had been taken to Azerbaijan’s occupied
territories by deception.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in bitter conflict for over
two decades. A precarious cease-fire has been in place since a lengthy
war in the early 1990s that displaced over a million Azerbaijanis.

Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s
internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven surrounding regions.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been
enforced to this day.

From: A. Papazian

SHIFT TECH TO AWARD $25K TO DEVELOP MOBILE APP IN ARMENIA

Virtual Strategy
Oct 16 2013

PR.com Wednesday, October 16th 2013.

Yerevan, Armenia, October 16, 2013 –(PR.com)– Non-profit organization
ONEArmenia is shifting the landscape of Armenia once again. SHIFT:
Culture, launched in the spring, invited the global community at large
to pitch their wildest idea for reinventing an aspect of the Armenian
arts. On their 1-year anniversary they’ve launched SHIFT::Tech, a
call for people around the world to submit their mobile app ideas —
and compete to get $25,000 in support to develop them.

Armenia has become one of the leading information technology nations
among CIS and Middle Eastern countries. A number of high-tech
companies from Europe, Russia, and the U.S. are also operating large
development and R&D centers in Armenia. With a booming IT sector,
which takes up a corruption-free 20% of the country’s annual GDP,
start-ups are popping up all over the country. The world’s premier,
full-featured mobile photo editor, Picsart, Inc., for example, was
founded there and has over 77 million users.

The top five submissions will be invited to pitch their idea to
a world-class jury that includes Alexis Ohanian, Matthew Brimer,
Raffi Krikorian, Rameet Chawla, and others.

The winner will be connected with Social Objects, a mobile app
development company in Yerevan, to turn the idea into a living,
breathing software masterpiece. In addition to having a world-class
development team build their app, part of the $25,000 in-kind
grant will go to marketing and taking the app to market. Portions
of potential profits from the winning app will go toward funding
ONEArmenia community projects.

“SHIFT::Tech offers enough support for a start-up team to focus
fully and realise their app idea and build a functioning, viable
product for a big global marketplace,” said Nigel Sharp, founder
of LionSharp Solutions–a creative technology start-up. “Awareness
of the technology possibilities will improve and hopefully inspire
more people to look towards the engineering and mobile development
capabilities in Armenia.”

Learn more and apply at onearmenia.org/shift

ONEArmenia is a non-profit that boosts environmental, humanitarian and
cultural projects in Armenia. We use crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing
to involve anyone with an Internet connection in boosting projects that
are geared toward making tangible changes in Armenia. The ONEArmenia
network makes it possible to not only raise money for a project based
in Armenia as a worldwide community, but to also track the progress
of said project with complete access to financial information.

Contact Information: ONEArmenia David Bequette +37498471362 Contact
via Email

Click here to read the full story:

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN EXPORTS RISE IN FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2013

International Cement Review
Oct 16 2013

By ICR Newsroom
Published 16 October 2013

Armenian cement exports have increased over the first six months of
the year despite a drop in domestic output.

Data from the National Statistics Service reported by ArmInfo that
over the January-June 2013 period, cement production declined 3.2 per
cent to 180,000t from 186,300t in the same period of the year before,
while exports rose 64 per cent from 56,000t in 1H12 to 92,000t in
the first half of this year.

While the Armenian construction market continues to feel the effects
of the global financial crisis but, neighbouring Georgia has proved
to be a key export market as building activity there rises.

In 2011 Armenia was reported to have exported 98,000t compared to
the 34,000t in 2010.

From: A. Papazian

CZECH COURT CONFIRMS VERDICT FOR RUSSIAN-SPEAKING MURDERER

CTK National News Wire, Czech Rep.

October 15, 2013 Tuesday 2:17 PM (Central European Time)

Prague Oct 15 (CTK)

The High Court in Prague today definitively upheld the 22-year prison
sentence for Andranik Soghoyan, a Russian-language mafia boss, in
absentia for ordering the murder of an Armenian businessman.

The appeals court also upheld the prison sentences of 12 to 18 years
for four accomplices of his.

According to the indictment, Soghoyan, who is staying abroad now,
ordered and organised the murder in 2007, but the hired assassin
killed a wrong man and stabbed another one by mistake.

The lower level court acquitted Soghoyan twice in the past, but the
case was repeatedly returned to it by the appeals court.

The five defendants were only convicted after a different judge was
put in charge of the case.

According to the indictment, Soghoyan and his accomplice Gilani Aliyev
agreed to have the Armenian businessman killed.

Asked to organise the murder, Magomed Aliyev hired Ukrainian Timur
Tretyakov whom he brought to Prague’s central Wenceslas Square on
November 13, 2007, where Tretyakov attacked another Armenian man with
a knife.

A quick medical intervention then saved the man’s life.

For another attempt two weeks later, Tretyakov received a firearm
from Arsen Arakelyan, while Arsen Kakosyan told him where the victim
lived and what car it used.

However, Tretyakov failed again, shooting at a wrong victim by
mistake. He killed a 25-year-old man, a father of two children,
who by coincidence drove the same type of car that the victim was
supposed to drive.

Tretyakov was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

From: A. Papazian

SYRIA CONFLICT: CHRISTIANS ‘FLEEING HOMES’

16 October 2013 Last updated at 16:48

A senior Church leader in Syria has said almost a third of the
country’s Christians have fled their homes.

Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham told the BBC
that more than 450,000 Christians out of a total population of 1.75
million had been displaced or left the country.

However, he was adamant that the Christian community would survive.

Patriarch Gregorios also expressed hope that the initiative to destroy
Syria’s chemical weapons might lead to peace.

Last month, the UN Security Council ended two-and-a-half years
of deadlock over Syria by adopting a resolution that demanded the
elimination of the country’s arsenal by mid-2014.

The resolution also backed US and Russian efforts to convene an
international meeting in Geneva to find a political solution to the
conflict, which has left more than 100,000 people dead.

‘New vision’

BBC world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan says Patriarch Gregorios
came to the UK with a doggedly optimistic message.

Even as the war on the ground rages, he said international agreement
over chemical weapons had given a unique opportunity for peace.

In particular, he said he wanted the international community to block
the flow of weapons into Syria.

“We have to have campaign together – no more weapons, no more violence,
go together to a better new vision of life,” he said.

Syria’s minority Christian community has faced growing violence,
but he said it was not dependent for its survival on President Bashar
al-Assad’s secular government.

In fact, Patriarch Gregorios thought Christians could in fact help
bring the warring sides together.

“We have to have a new vision, and that is our work as Christians,
especially the Christian Arabs have to play this role to change
the vision.”

Our correspondent says Patriarch Gregorios has often been accused of
being a supporter of the government, but he strongly denied that.

He said he wanted foreign fighters to go home, and for a new government
of national unity to include the opposition. Whether or not Mr Assad
was removed should be a secondary issue, he added.

From: A. Papazian