Author: Andres-Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 7 2013

Armenia between Brussels and Moscow
7 June 2013 – 10:35am

David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to `Vestnik Kavkaza’

Traditionally Armenia is a country which actively participates in all
events organized by the CSTO. It has been a member of the organization
since its foundation in 1992. Armenia initiated a series of ideas
which were implemented within cooperation between the CSTO members.
That is why absence of Armenian President Serge Sargsyan at the
informal summit of the CSTO on May 28th in Bishkek caused interest in
Armenia…

Despite explanations of the press service that Serge Sargsyan didn’t
take part in the informal summit because it coincided with marking Day
of the First Republic of Armenia, many people considered this step as
certain demarche by the head of the state. President’s rejection to
visit Bishkek was associated with the rumors on problems in
Armenian-Russian relations, which as if appeared because of gas
prices’ increasing.

The Secretary of the National Security Council of Armenia Artur
Bagdasaryan immediately told the mass media that non-participation of
Armenian President in the informal summit of the CSTO couldn’t be
considered as demarche. Bagdasaryan stated that Serge Sargsyan has
already stated on his participation in the official CSTO summit in
December 2013.

There are a lot of opinions disapproving statements from Yerevan. The
leader of the opposition party `New Times’ Aram Karapetyan says that
the President’s decision not to go to Bishkek is a real demarche. He
accuses Sargsyan of a detailed, developed geopolitical concept and
states that the geopolitical position of Srgsyan is based on the
principle `who gives more.’ Karapetyan thinks that absence of
President in Bishkek is connected not with his foreign political
approaches, but increasing Russian gas prices. And that is why Yerevan
often speaks about European integration as an alternative today.

These conclusions can be added with the information that Europe
seriously promised 2 billion euro to Yerevan after signing the
Association Agreement. It can be signed at the summit of Eastern
Partnership in Vilnius which will be held on November 28-29, 2013.
However, considering complete unclearness of what demands and what
concessions the West will claim from Armenia , these billions will
hardly improve the country.

None of devoted supporters of European integration in Armenia can
clearly answer a simple question on what Europe which is in the crisis
today can give to Armenia in the future. However, it didn’t prevent
the speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ovik Abramyan to
characterize European integration on May 31st at the session of the
PACE permanent commission in Yerevan as `a thoughtful choice of
Armenia, which corresponds to Armenia’s internal agenda.’

Considering the fact that top representatives of the ruling Republican
Party have many times voiced similar statements in recent time, the
version on Sargsyan’s demarche could be truthful. The Armenian
authorities have always been in torn between the West and Russia.
Serge Sargsyan didn’t invent a bicycle by not going to Bishkek, he
chose a well-known strategy of Armenian top officials.

From: A. Papazian

Public Television of Armenia
June 5 2013

Armenian president predicts dark future for Azerbaijan

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has convened a session of the
National Security Council where he spoke about Armenia’s economy and
relations with neighbouring Azerbaijan.
“There are a lot of difficulties in Armenia currently and no one
disputes this. But it is also true that Armenia’s economic prospects
are promising,” Sargsyan told council in remarks broadcast by Armenian
Public TV Channel 1.
“Armenia’s economic growth rate in 2012 surpassed that of its
neighbours,” he said adding that Armenia was diversifying its economy
in light of the fact that it is not rich in natural resources like
some of its neighbours are.
“We need to transform our economy in form and essence branch by
branch,” he said.
Commenting on the future of the Caucasus region, Sargsyan predicted
that Armenia’s rival, Azerbaijan, would experience problems in the
coming years.
“In three or four years the situation in the region will radically
change. We need to be ready for that. Experts predict a fiasco for
Azerbaijan in two or three years. Following the path of classical
authoritarianism, the authorities of that country are busy with
creating the image of an enemy out of Armenians to their public,
propagating a disgusting image of us. Whereas it is precisely in
Azerbaijan where social-political and economic mines are threatening
to explode in the very near future and probably simultaneously,”
Sargsyan said.
Regarding the internal situation in Azerbaijan, Sargsyan said: “The
jailing of opposition activists, virtual non-existence of free press,
coercion and colossal rate of corruption will make themselves
apparent, along with the depletion of oil dollars’ stock.”
Accusing the Azerbaijani government of engaging in “anti-Armenian
propaganda” to distract their people from internal problems, he said:
“Why am I referring to these topics? Because that country’s
authorities, instead of dealing with their internal problems, the
welfare of its own people, development of its own society, seem to be
fully engaged in solving our problems, as if they were trying to teach
us lessons.”

[Translated from Armenian]

From: A. Papazian

Peacekeeping divisions of Armenian armed forces may implement mission
in North Africa

21:43, 7 June, 2013

YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS: Peacekeeping divisions of Armenian armed
forces may implement mission in North Africa.
About this during the briefing told Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran
Ohanyan in Noyemberyan. `We gave our approval to
implementing peacekeeping mission in framework of UN in Lebanon and
maybe in North Africa. We have such ability’, said the Minster
as Armenpress reports. He highlighted that an opportunity is created
of making cooperation with other countries of high level.

The Minister reminded the words which are often repeated by President
that by participating in international peacekeeping
missions we show that we are also taking part in the process of
creating security. `The missions of Armenian peacekeepers in
Afghanistan and Kosovo will be continued: We will continue to stay
loyal to the principles which are common for us and our partner
countries’, highlighted Ohanyan.

From: A. Papazian

World Bank: In Europe and Central Asia medicine in Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan is funded worst

17:29 07/06/2013 » HEALTH

On June 6, the World Bank presented a report on the health care
condition in Europe and Central Asia. According to the report the
medicine in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is funded the worst (less than
2% of GDP).

The report describes the situation in healthcare area in Europe and
the republics of the former USSR. Analysts say that in Eastern Europe
and Central Asia healthcare develops worse than in the U.S., Australia
and Western Europe.

According to the report, the situation with medicine funding in
Armenia is better than in Azerbaijan, but is worse than in Georgia.

The section where the data on smoking is presents it is noted that
about half of men population smokes in Azerbaijan; most of them smoke
more than 20 cigarettes daily. About 60% of men smoke in Georgia and
more than 50%in Turkey. Armenia is not indicated in this section.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA ARE NO EASY OPPONENTS, SAYS GHEDIN

The Times of Malta, Malta
June 6 2013

Without a point from their opening five World Cup qualifiers, Malta
will be bidding to break their duck tomorrow evening when they face
Armenia at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan.

Today’s qualifier is shaping up as a clash of the Group B minnows as
Armenia are second from bottom with three points from four qualifiers
while Malta have nothing to show for their efforts so far.

The game comes after a long and exhausting season for the Malta players
but coach Pietro Ghedin is pleased with his squad’s preparations.

“We have prepared well for this game,” Ghedin told a news conference
this morning before Malta’s training session.

“We played well in our last qualifier against Italy but this is
another game.

“Armenia are no easy opponents. They have a very good team and all
their players are young but strong.”

Ghedin can’t rely on a full squad this evening as four experienced
players have not travelled to Armenia for different reasons.

Goalkeeper Andrew Hogg, who played for Enosis Paralimni in Cyprus last
season, is recovering from a back problem, Latina defender Andrei
Agius is unavailable as his team are preparing for the first leg of
the Prima Divisione B play-off final on Sunday, Valletta midfielder
Ryan Fenech is getting married this weekend and Daniel Bogdanovic
has been left out for technical reasons.

“I’m sorry for the players who are not with us but I also have faith in
the other players,” Ghedin said. “They can also do a good job for us.”

Ghedin dismissed suggestions that tomorrow’s game represents arguably
Malta’s last opportunity to gain a point in a tough World Cup
qualifying campaign also containing European giants Italy, Bulgaria,
Czech Republic and Denmark.

“We are not tourists,” Ghedin said. “We are here to play an important
game. This is not our last possibility to gain a point as we have
another four matches after this.

“We will give our heart on the pitch and if we manage to get a point,
we will be happy.”

Given that all the players who started the Italy qualifier in March
are all available, Ghedin is expected to select the same team for
tomorrow’s game.

Malta goalkeeper Justin Haber, a finalist for the MFA Footballer of
the Year award, insisted that the players are always motivated to
play well for their country.

“When you play for your country, you always want to do well,” Haber,
who won the league title with Birkirkara, said. “I’m proud to be
Maltese and so are the other players.

“We are here because we are the best in our country and we want to
show that. The motivation to do well is always there, whether it’s
a game against Italy, Germany or Armenia.”

The referee of tomorrow’s qualifier is Arnold Hunter, from Northern
Ireland. The game, starting at 6pm (Malta time) will be shown live
on TVM 2.

From: A. Papazian

BRIGHT FUTURE FOR ARMENIAN PLAYWRIGHT

Prague Post, Czech Republic
June 6 2013

An early experience with death continues to inspire Seda Stepanyan

By Leonid Leonov

For the Post

It is the conclusion of an impressive year for Seda Stepanyan, 21, the
Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellow with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
who has capped it off by recently being named the regional winner of
the British Council/BBC-sponsored International Radio Playwriting
Competition. The achievement is the culmination of years of pursuing
both journalism and playwriting while living in her native Armenia.

“In 2011, I sent in my first radio play, Waiting for Death,” Stepanyan
tells The Prague Post. “The next year, I sent them another radio play,
and [now] it won the regional [award].”

In a press statement released after her win was announced, she said,
“I’m very proud I could represent my country with this play. Even if
it’s something small, I’m very happy to bring my country’s name to the
world.”

The news of her triumph came six months into Stepanyan’s tenure as a
Havel Fellow, during which she moved from Armenia to Prague and worked
at RFE/RL with a focus on driving political awareness among the youth
of Armenia through social media.

“Seda’s award is a wonderful affirmation of her talent for capturing
the unique, expressive power of words, both in drama and in real
life,” RFE/RL’s Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose said in a press
release. “It is inspiring that this young woman continues Mr. Havel’s
legacy through her plays and keeps his spirit very much alive.”

Chosen from among 1,000 entrants, the winning play is titled And the
Sun Went on Shining Cynically and concerns a woman’s search for her
lover on the frontlines of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. On her journey, she
encounters a diverse cast of characters and various tragedies, each
one leaving a different, and often painful, mark on her.

The win is a validation of both Stepanyan’s talent and her ambition to
write about a time in Armenian history still fresh in the memories of
her country’s people, even as it occurred when she herself was only a
child. Full-scale fighting broke out in 1992 and only ended in 1994.

“[They] told me, ‘You were never there during the war, how can you
imagine what the situation was there?’ ” Stepanyan says. “But I
believe in the memory of the genes. My ancestors have seen so many bad
things, so many misfortunes, not only concerning this war, but others.

You cannot run away from your roots.”

However, the concerns of her piece do not focus on historicity, as the
play itself barely touches on place names, a specific period, or any
other details that would root the play in a very specific time and
space. Instead, it’s an opportunity to talk about hope during futile
or despondent situations.

“In my life, something might happen, and I don’t know what can be done
in that situation,” Stepanyan says. “It is said a writer is always
writing about one thing, and every time they write something in a new
way [it is] about the same thing. All the things I write are based on
my feelings about my life and the life of the people close to me.”

While she may not have firsthand experience with the war she writes
about, Stepanyan is well aware of the pains and struggles that afflict
people even in unexceptional circumstances. For a decade, she has kept
close to her heart the memory of her former piano teacher. On the day
of a canceled lesson, Stepanyan, then only 13, came home to find out
the teacher had killed herself.

“She told me I have a lesson Saturday at 1 o’clock. And I told her
[that] I cannot make it because I’m going for a walk with my friend. I
can remember all of it. And when I came home, my mother told me she
has something to tell me, but I should keep calm. [She said,] ‘Your
piano teacher committed suicide.’ Same day, same time [as my lesson].”

Shaken, Stepanyan resolved to continue to address the idea of
hopelessness. It is something she says pervades all of her work,
including Waiting for Death, which received a commendation at the 2011
International Radio Playwriting Competition, and Striptiz, which won a
grant from the Open Society Foundations to be staged in Armenia’s
capital Yerevan this spring.

“I thought, if I had gone to that lesson, maybe she would change her
mind, maybe something would happen that would change her life and that
step would be prevented,” she says. “Everywhere I am looking for her,
I am trying to find a woman that looks like her.”

Stepanyan says she makes the heroes of her plays into phoenixes that
die and are reborn, a process that oddly resembles her method of
creation.

“Every time I lose someone, I find a new piece of writing,” she
explains. “It is not equal to that person’s life, but it is something
that is born.”

The win was announced shortly before Stepanyan’s monthlong
Fellowship-led trip to the United States that saw her stay in
Washington, D.C., and New York City and meet the likes of Nancy
Pelosi, the minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. That
trip and her success have made her upbeat about the future.

“I have many plans,” Stepanyan says. “The BBC award has changed many
things. There are now many things to do with these two branches of my
life, journalism and drama writing. I will do both.”

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA’S SURVIVORS

The Christian Century
June 6 2013

NOTES FROM THE GLOBAL CHURCH

Jun 06, 2013 by Philip Jenkins

In northeastern Turkey stand the ruins of what was once one of the
world’s largest and most imposing cities. In the Middle Ages, Ani
was the “City of 1,001 Churches,” the capital of Armenia’s mighty
Bagratuni dynasty which held off both the Christian Byzantine Empire
and the Arab Caliphate.

The Bagratid kingdom is long gone, like Ani itself, but Armenians
survive. Although Armenia’s Christian past is little known in the West,
it is an awe-inspiring tale of endurance in a profoundly hostile
political and religious setting. So devastating have been some of
these events that outsiders have repeatedly been tempted to write
the obituary of Armenia, yet people, nation and church continue.

Armenia today is a small nation of some 3.3 million people in a
territory barely a quarter the size of Pennsylvania. Officially, it
is also a new country, independent only since 1991. Such curt facts
conceal a deep antiquity.

Apart from Rome, how many other capital cities can plausibly claim
a foundation date in the eighth century BC, as does Armenia’s Yerevan?

An already ancient kingdom accepted Christianity around 301, making
it probably the world’s oldest Christian state (Ethiopia challenges
that title). The Bible was translated into Armenian before the time
of Chalcedon, in 451.

In space as well as time, Armenia’s present small scale belies a much
larger ancient reality. In the Middle Ages, different versions of
the Armenian Empire sprawled over much of what is now eastern Turkey,
penetrating into Iran.

For a thousand years, Armenia was home to a thriving Christian
culture. It included the spiritual center of Etchmiadzin, “the place
where the Only-Begotten descended,” where the cathedral claims a
foundation date of 303. Haghpat and Sanahin are the stars among the
great monastic complexes.

Besides its physical monuments, medieval Armenia had a flourishing
tradition of scholarship and visual art. The 12th and 13th centuries
witnessed an artistic and scholarly resurgence-led by the Katholikos
Nerses IV and the polymath monk Mkhitar Gosh-equal to anything in
medieval Europe.

Beginning in the 13th century, however, Armenia was overwhelmed by
repeated disasters. Ani never recovered from the Mongol sack of 1236.

In 1375, the Egyptian Mamluks ended the last independent Armenian
kingdom and demolished the beloved ecclesiastical capital of Sis.

Armenians recall the following 200 years as a dark age, the beginning
of their great diaspora.

The nature of Muslim rule varied over time, but persecution could at
times be horrendous. Even under tolerant regimes, Armenians suffered
from their strategic position on the borders of the rival Ottoman
and Persian empires, whose epic military campaigns repeatedly laid
waste the country. Yerevan changed hands 14 times in 250 years. The
Russians later joined the struggles in the region.

But despite the calamities, Armenians survived in ways that recall
the persistent refusal of Jews to vanish from history. Wiser Muslim
rulers valued their Armenian subjects for their acumen and their
international connections.

In 1604, Persia’s ruler Shah Abbas established the Armenian mercantile
settlement at New Julfa, which rapidly became extremely wealthy
and globally connected. Under Persian rule, New Julfa’s Christians
traded throughout Europe, Russia and the Middle East and into China,
India and the Philippines. Armenians were likewise the merchants and
traders of the Ottoman Empire. By 1900, they had a strong presence
in the Ottoman cities, constituting a sixth of the population in
Constantinople itself.

And then once again, the world seemed to end. In 1915, Armenians
suffered an attempt at systematic genocide at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire that closely prefigured the Jewish Shoah. Perhaps 1.5 million
died in the following three years, out of an original population of
2.5 million.

Yet again, the nation persisted. Today, there are some 112 million
Armenians around the world, and they have a nation-state in the
Caucasus. These Armenians still cling to their distinctive Christian
identity. Christians constitute over 90 percent of Armenia today,
the overwhelming majority being members of the Armenian Apostolic
Church (part of the Oriental Orthodox tradition), along with a
Catholic minority.

The existence of the Armenian Apostolic Church is a remarkable fact
in its own right. The world’s oldest national church, it claims an
unbroken tradition to the era of Diocletian, a full half millennium
before the conversion of Germany. The church is anything but a relic.

In 2001 Yerevan commemorated the 1,700th anniversary of the nation’s
conversion to Christianity by consecrating its sumptuous Cathedral
of St. Gregory the Illuminator, with seating for over 2,000.

Justifying his genocidal policies, Hitler notoriously asked his
commanders, “Who, today, remembers the Armenians?” One answer, of
course, is that the Armenians do. Anyone who cares about Christian
history should too.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJANI MFA’S NERVOUS RESPONSE SHOWS THAT ITS LEADERSHIP’S POLICY IS DOOMED TO FAIL – ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

June 07, 2013 | 16:10

YEREVAN. – The Azerbaijani MFA’s nervous response shows that the
policy of the leadership of that country is doomed to fail.

Armenian Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Tigran Balayan told the
aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am, commenting on the recent statement
made by the official representative of the Azerbaijani MFA.

“The Azerbaijani MFA’s nervous response yet again shows that the
Azerbaijani leadership’s policy-toward the maintenance of the
authoritarian rule and the hereditary clan’s unruly enrichment at
the expense of the people-is doomed to fail. The Azerbaijani people
should not be ‘fed’ with tales, but rather, as it is said in the
European Union statement concerning Azerbaijan, with real steps,”
Balayan said, in particular.

To note, Azerbaijani MFA official representative Elman Abdullayev had
announced that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is making populist
statements to justify himself before his own people. As per Abdullayev,
Armenia is not included in the regional development processes and
this irritates the Armenian authorities.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

FIRST INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF TREES AND FLOWERS OPENS IN YEREVAN

16:05 ~U 07.06.13

The first international exhibition of trees and flowers has been
opened at the Karen Demirchyan sport and concert complex on the
Yerevan Municipality’s initiative.

Among the exhibits are various trees and flowers, as well as landscape
design implements.

Yerevan Vice-Mayor Kamo Areyan, Deputy Minister of Urban Development
Ruzan Alaverdyan and other officials visited the exhibition.

Participants from Armenia, Russia, China, Iran, Georgia, Holland,
India, Indonesia, Thailand and Nigeria hope that they will find
clients in Armenia.

“Among the exhibits are plants and flowers that you cannot find
in Yerevan, but they can establish in our climate. We are going to
use the trees and flowers in landscape development next year. The
large-scale work will bring the green areas up to 12 square meters
per capita by 2015. Under our long-term program, this figure is to
reach 16 square meters per capita,” said Avet Martirosyan, Head of
the Environmental Protection Staff, Yerevan Municipality.

The exhibition will last until June 10.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: A. Papazian

ARMY VS. CRIMINAL OLIGARCHY

For the second time the same nuance happened: this time in the tragedy
in front of the house of Syunik governor. One of the odious figures of
the ruling power or their relative confronts the army. In Harsnakar,
Ruben Hairapetyan’s bodyguard killed an army officer. In Syunik, the
one injured in front of Surik Khachatryan’s house is an army officer,
whose brother, Avetiq Budaghyan, was killed in the same incident.

This is the second time the criminal oligarchy clashes with the army.

Sure, all is relative, both the notion of clash and the division
between criminal oligarchy and army, since very often, army
representatives are also members of the criminal oligarchy.

But the fact that two segments of the united solid pyramid,
willingly or unwillingly, face each other, is interesting and worth
consideration, especially against the background of Serzh Sargsyan’s
recent speeches, in which he said that the army should become the
axis of state management. Serzh Sargsyan is making an attempt to
legitimize and formalize the force character of the power.

For now, the force support of the power was not the army or the
police, but the criminal oligarchic gangs. No accident, they were in
the first rows on March 1.

After that, determined by both internal and external factors, Serzh
Sargsyan faced the necessity to change the status quo in the system
somehow. One of the reasons was also his desire to establish his own
power, since if he kept what he had inherited from Robert Kocharyan, he
would have just been a vicar. So the change of the criminal oligarchic
essence of the power became strategic for Serzh Sargsyan.

He found the solution to this issue in the enhancement of the role
of the police and the army declaring the latter the axis of the state
management. In terms of content, it has not yet been expressed anyhow.

The idea in case of Armenia, which is in an ongoing war, is logic,
sure depending on its nuances, value base, mechanisms of civil control
etc. Serzh Sargsyan has not provided other details, because he didn’t
find in them his interest. The only interest he sees is the declarative
statement about the special role of the army.

Here, the greater part of the criminal oligarchic system found their
interest endangered. The point is that being the basis of the force
nature of the system, this segment had big political power. Once
ceased being this basis, the criminal-oligarchic segment will lose
the political power and will have to either obey to Serzh Sargsyan
and play with his rules, or lose everything.

Here we can see an evident clash of interests. Despite many cases
of cohesion of these two segments, nevertheless, in case Serzh
Sargsyan’s policy is continued, the clash of interest of both groups
is inevitable.

It is evident that Serzh Sargsyan will have to make huge efforts
to repress that process; otherwise, no doubt the aforementioned two
incidents will speed up the process. But Serzh Sargsyan does not need
that speed, because he does not have necessary resources to manage
the process at high speed.

Hakob Badalyan 14:38 07/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

From: A. Papazian