Author: Andres-Papazian

Heritage: Armenian authorities hit below the belt of the people when
they sank the fact of gas tariff growth

ARMINFO
Wednesday, May 15, 15:44

The Armenian authorities hit below the belt of the people when they
sank the fact of the gas tariff growth, deputy chairman of the
Heritage party board, Armen Martirosyan, told Arminfo correspondent.
He thinks that raising of the gas tariff will result in social
catastrophe, as the atmosphere in the country is rather tense after
the last election with mass fraud. “Of course, it is not accidental
that “ArmRusgasprom” applied to the Public Services Regulatory
Commission just after the election. The authorities knew that raising
of the gas tariff before the election would make obstacles on the way
of their reproduction. That was an action thoroughly planned by the
Armenian authorities”, – Martirosyan said.

He also added that it does not matter if gas tariff will grow by 64%
or 50%, it will have extremely negative consequences and will become
an impetus for migration of population.

To recall, CJSC “ArmRusgasprom” and its subsidiary “Transgas” applied
to the Public Services Regulatory Commission with an offer to revise
gas tariff, and raise it from the present 132 drams for 1 sq/m of gas
up to 221 drams.

From: A. Papazian

Hovhannes Shahinyan: Political forces should start to get ready for
2017-18 elections

13:42 15/05/2013 » POLITICS

The political season is over, parliamentary, presidential and Yerevan
elections are already in the past, and Armenia enters into an
important stage when the political forces should start to get ready
for the 2017-18 elections, member of Orinats Yerkir Party Hovhannes
Shahinyan told reporters on Wednesday.

When asked by our correspondent whether Orinats Yerkir Party’s poor
results at parliamentary and Yerevan municipal elections mean that the
party did not properly prepare for the elections, Shahinyan said that
he closely followed the election campaigns of all seven forces and can
say that all of them were well prepared.

`It is up to citizens to choose whom to vote for,’ he said, adding
that everyone needs to draw conclusions and prepare better for
elections.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

Tumanyan’s Tale, Avedikian’s Headache: “Anush” in crosshairs of
traditionalists and contemporary director
ARTS AND CULTURE | 15.05.13 | 15:19

Photolure

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

After its Yerevan premier, French-Armenian actor, director and
producer Serge Avedikian’s re-staged “Anush” opera has become “this
spring’s most outstanding and much talked-about cultural event”, just
as the authors had promised.

Enlarge Photo

The famous opera based on prominent Armenian writer Hovannes
Tumanyan’s “Anush” poem, a simple village girl’s tragic love story,
was first staged in Alexandrapol (modern day Gyumri) in 1912; the
music and libretto were authored by a talented musician Armen
Tigranyan between 1908 and 1912. Avedikian’s modernized version of
“Anush” has been severely criticized by the local intelligentsia who
addressed an open letter to President Serzh Sargsyan, demanding to ban
the performance outside Armenia, because it might be damaging for
Armenia’s international image.

“Watching the 100-minute performance you get an impression that for
the director Hovhannes Tumanyan authored an ordinary libretto, and
Armen Tigranyan wrote a simplistic poor musical . . .” the group of
intellectuals say in their letter.

Earlier the chief rehearsal of the opera at Sundukyan theatre turned
into a major failure, when at the end some people called out from
among the applauding audience: “Disgrace! Avedikian has buried Anush…
what are you applauding to, people?”

A number of locally prominent representatives of Armenian
intelligentsia do not like the remake of the classic, regarding it as
“Á poorest libretto”.

Their letter to the president, however, reminds many of Stalin
repressions, when Bolshevik-intellectuals were asking Joseph Stalin to
ban this or that author’s book, play, performance, musical composition
or painting.

Popular actor Stepan Danielyan says: “This is the 21st century. Why,
does Anush absolutely have to be wearing brogues and smell like
manure? That’s good, but there are also other approaches. But no. We
have to have two poplars, one taller than the other, and Mount Ararat
in the background. They remind me of my grandpa – when we had no
running water, he used to threaten he would write a complaint to
Pravda [communist newspaper]. We have to finally realize that the
times to write to Pravda, or Central Committee, etc, are gone.”

Media expert Mesrop Harutyunyan shares the opinion that long are gone
the times for censure, demands to ban, to punish. If they can do
better, let them stage a better one, resist competition, and let
audience decide the fate of their and the Academy’s performances. They
can manipulate the audience with their articles, criticism and censure
or praise.

“Can you imagine if, say, American intellectuals wrote a letter to
[Barack] Obama for some performance on Broadway? How do the authors of
that letter see ‘punishing’ – should Avedikian be dismembered or,
maybe, beheaded? Or, he should be proclaimed ‘public enemy’ and exiled
>From Armenia?” the expert told Before the storm of
criticism started, the director had said in his interview to
ArmenPress, that he was not afraid of true criticism.

“One can judge or dislike the work; I am ready to answer all critics’
questions. And if they do not have questions and categorically say ‘it
won’t work this way’, I have no answer to give to that because that’s
not a due approach. I have to have my space for freedom, they can have
theirs, as audience and as critics,” said Avedikian.

From: A. Papazian

Monstrous Scene Of Consecration of Church

The Armenian mass media have posted a video picturing how people
`attack’ the tables with food after the consecration of the new church
in Abovyan. High-ranking priests and Gagik Tsarukyan drink a toast
with wine and leave and Tsarukyan asks to let people come up to the
tables, and jostle starts.

There seems to be nothing strange, the place was small, people were
many. There is always such jostle on Musaler during the harisa
ceremony, at the entrance of the Republic Stadium, in buses, during
liturgy. There are jostles, even worse ones, in the supermarkets of
most developed countries before an imminent disaster. In addition,
compared with the latter, what was observed in Abovyan was not jostle
though the state of Armenia is disastrous.

However, in the context of some domestic subtleties and symbols the
picture is distinguished by its cruelty.

Almost the entire Armenian `elite’ was attending the consecration of
the church built on Gagik Tsarukyan’s donation. It was another
touching act of `national unit’ with a wonderfully simple meaning:
elections are past, domestic clownery is past, the system must now
display its unity against people.

This unity is needed to save political and economic monopolies,
reproduce and rule forever.

On the eve Galust Sahakyan formulated clearly the purpose of goals of
the system. He said that the Armenian people will have to wait long
for the end of the rule of the Republicans and advised those who
disagree with it to leave the country. Go and travel in the world, he
said. Those who stay need to wait when they will depart from the
tables to fight for crumbs.

The meaning of Gagik Tsarukyan’s event eventually established this
situation. Everyone who accepted the rules of the game and taken on
their role at different levels of the system were present.

In this context, the `offensive’ on the tables with food was presented
with a special shade. Let everyone see and understand what is
happening. The system with all its segments has nothing else to offer.

Haik Aramyan
10:26 15/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

From: A. Papazian

Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun: RPA elite to gather at Parvana restaurant

11:52 15/05/2013 » DAILY PRESS

Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun daily says that members of the Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) will today gather at Parvana restaurant owned
by MP Samvel Alexanyan to celebrate the party’s victory at Yerevan
municipal elections. Exclusively representatives of the party elite
are invited to the celebration. According to unconfirmed information,
President Serzh Sargsyan will also attend the celebration.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

Voyage to Amasia’ to screen in New Jersey

09:59 15.05.2013

Voyage to Amasia, a new documentary film by Randy Bell and Eric V.
Hachikian, will screen in New Jersey on Sunday, May 19th at the Sts.
Vartanantz Armenian Church, the Armenian National Committee of America
informs.

The film had its world premiere at the Pomegranate Film Festival in
Toronto in December 2011, where it won the prize for Best Documentary;
it subsequently won the Special Jury Award at the Alexandria Film
Festival in Alexandria, Virginia in 2012. It has also screened at
numerous film festivals around the United States, at the Golden
Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, and in Sydney, Australia.

Voyage to Amasia documents composer Eric Hachikian’s return to his
ancestral home – Amasia, Turkey – nearly 100 years after Ottoman
soldiers deported his grandmother during the Armenian Genocide. The
film is set to Eric’s piano trio of the same name, which provided the
initial inspiration for the documentary. Voyage to Amasia traces a
path through the past, honoring Eric’s relationship with his
grandmother and uncovering what her family’s life in Turkey might have
been like. It also explores how the events of nearly a century ago
continue to strain the relationship between Armenians and Turks today.
Inspired by one family’s story, the filmmakers embark on their own
journey in the hopes of finding a greater understanding between two
peoples still at odds.

Randy Bell is a Washington, DC,-based independent filmmaker. His
documentary films, which explore subjects as diverse as American
popular music, mid-century European modernist architecture, and the
AIDS orphan crisis in Kenya, have won awards from the Cleveland
International Film Festival, the New England Film and Video Festival,
and the Ivy Film Festival. He received his Bachelor of Arts from
Harvard University in 2000, and his Master in Public Policy from the
Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2010.

Eric V. Hachikian is an Armenian-American composer whose music has
been hailed by the New York Times as `lovely and original.’ His
compositions and orchestrations can be heard in a variety of major
motion pictures, network television shows, and national and
international ad campaigns. They have been performed at New York’s
Carnegie Hall, at Boston’s Symphony Hall, at The Getty in Los Angeles,
and Off-Broadway in New York City. A classically-trained composer, as
well as a self-taught DJ and perpetual student of world music, Eric’s
musical style has no boundaries, and his multi-genre interests result
in a unique and personal sound.

From: A. Papazian

Russian band presents song about Armenia’s Lake Sevan (VIDEO)

MAY 15, 12:33

The Russian musical band Sansara presented its song called `Sevan,’
which has an Armenian sound and theme.

`The story began last spring, in Odessa [, Ukraine], where Sansara was
playing at the closing of the Kyiv Advertising Festival. I became
acquainted with the advertising industry representatives from
[Armenia’s capital city] Yerevan. As a result of future
correspondence, I unexpectedly found myself in Armenia in September,
[and] not knowing what to expect in this situation.

But at the end of the unplanned brief vacation, `Sevan’ was born,
first and foremost as a gift to my new friends. It came about very
spontaneously and easily. The one-week-long stroll around the city and
its environs, [and] the local hospitality did their `job.’

Nonetheless, the song should be viewed more broadly. I believe
[Armenia’s Lake] Sevan is one’s own for every one, and different,
especially depending on the age,’ Sansara’s leader, Alexander Gagarin,
specifically confessed, Lenta.ru reports.

NEWS.am STYLE

From: A. Papazian

Energie-pétrole-diplomatie
La Russie rompt un accord avec l’Azerbaïdjan sur le transit de pétrole

Moscou, 14 mai 2013 (AFP) – La Russie a rompu un accord avec
l’Azerbaïdjan sur le transit de pétrole de ce pays du Caucase à
travers son territoire, signé en 1996, ont rapporté mardi les agences
russes.

Le Premier ministre Dmitri Medvedev a signé une ordonnance en ce sens
et demandé au ministère russe des Affaires étrangères d’informer
l’Azerbaïdjan de cette décision, indiquent les agences.

Selon le porte-parole du monopole russe des oléoducs Transneft,
l’Azerbaïdjan faisait transiter deux fois moins de pétrole que prévu
dans l’accord par l’oléoduc reliant Bakou à Novorossiïsk, port et
terminal pétrolier russe de la mer Noire, ce qui n’était pas rentable
pour la Russie.

Riche en hydrocarbures, l’Azerbaïdjan, une ex-république soviétique,
est le point de départ de voies stratégiques de transport de pétrole
de la mer Caspienne vers l’Europe, dont la Russie et les Occidentaux
se disputent le contrôle.

mercredi 15 mai 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

Turkish Prime Minister’s Triumphant Visit to Washington

ADL, Editorial, Turkey | May 14, 2013 5:01 pm

By Edmond Y. Azadian

It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power
tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be
no better example to demonstrated the veracity of the above adage then
citing the names of a political duo at the top of the power pyramid in
Washington DC: President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

On the eve of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to
Washington, they have already sacrificed the most dispensable issues
in honor of the visiting dignitary: Armenians and the Armenian
Genocide. Obama and Kerry seemed to be espousing the most humanistic
and moral causes while serving in the senate. Mr. Kerry is extremely
knowledgeable on the Armenian Genocide and at times he has made the
most stirring remarks in favor of its official recognition. Yet during
his recent shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Ankara, he praises
Turkey’s position as a positive one in resolving the Karabagh
conflict. And he makes the statement with a straight face, showing
little concern with this political about face. He has no comments on
the continuing illegal blockade of Armenia.

As to Mr. Obama, he has already repeated his `Medz Yeghern’ charade on
April 24 and continues to keep Guantanamo Bay gulag, which had given a
black eye to the US human rights position during the Bush-Cheney era
and continues the stigma on the Obama administration’s rhetoric on
democracy and human rights.

Mr. Obama has given more to Turkey than the latter even expected,
because on the political market, Armenian rights and issues have
proven to be the most disposable ones.

He had already reduced US aid to Armenia dramatically and now presents
a legal gift to Mr. Erdogan on a silver platter. Indeed the Obama
administration has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2012 striking down of a California
law extending the statute of limitations on the Armenian Genocide-era
life insurance claims. This is a third-world practice of exerting
political pressure on the judiciary to abort justice. Had this been
undertaken by a private citizen, it would be labeled as obstruction of
justice. Rather than leaving the Supreme Court to determine the merits
of the case, the administration has already intervened to block the
adjudication of the case.

It is reported that Prime Minister Erdogan will receive the highest
state welcome during his visit to the US on May 16-17. He will receive
two full military honors, one at the airport and the other at the
White House, as the formal guest of US President Barack Obama.

The agenda of their discussion will comprise a full plate, Syria being
the most dominant issue. The other items on that agenda will certainly
include Ankara’s initiative to open a dialog with the Kurdish
minority, relations between Israel and Turkey, which have always
constituted the centerpiece of US Middle East policy under any
administration, because, Israel, using the US muscle can continue its
hegemony in the entire region, with the tacit collusion of medieval
potentates (`moderate Arab nations’ in Washington’s lexicon.)

Iran and Iraq have been viewed by divergent views at their respective
capitals. Despite US sanctions against Iran, Turkey is continuing its
policy of business as usual, and in the case of Iraq, Turkey was
scared of that country’s position of Kurdistan emerging as an
independent state. But ironically at this time, Ankara has embraced
Iraqi Kurdistan, at the expense of destabilizing Iraqi Premier
Maliki’s central government, because Erdogan’s administration believes
they have contained Kurdish aspirations in their own country,
eliminating any spillover of Kurdish irredentism from Iraqi Kurdistan.

As the political agenda is reviewed, we certainly doubt that Mr. Obama
will ask Mr. Erdogan whether he has given any thought to his
suggestions at the Turkish Parliament during his first term; meaning
modern Turkey would make peace with its ugly Ottoman history.

Mr. Erdogan is being accorded all these accolades because he is coming
with bloody hands as the front man in destabilizing a sovereign
country – Syria – which has refused thus far to bow down on
Palestinian rights and continues to make claims on its confiscated
territories by Turkey in 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Golan
Heights in 1967 by Israel.

The recent bombs that killed 46 people and injured more than 100 in
Reyhanli, which is located in the Hatay region mostly populated by
Arabs and Alevis, may have been a warning by the restless Arab
populace, agitating against Erdogan’s shipment of mercenaries and
armaments in Syria. But for Mr. Davutoglu and for the West, it is most
convenient to point the finger at the Assad regime in Syria. That
accusation, compounded by the orchestration of `the use of chemical
weapons’ constitutes a concoction for casus belli.

By serving as a proxy for the West in the Middle East, Turkey has
acquired the status of a regional power, and an independent one at
that. That status renders Armenia’s maneuvering room very limited.
That is why during Erdogan’s visit to Washington no one will give him
a slap on the wrist to lift the blockade of Armenia.

The Turks have also planned their version of a Genocide centennial in
2015, as quoted in an article by Robert Fisk in London’s Independent
(May 12, 2013). The announcement by Turkey’s foreign Minister
Davutoglu is most revealing: `We are going to make the year of 1915
known to the world over, not as the anniversary of a genocide, as some
people claimed and slandered [sic] but we shall make it known as a
glorious resistance of a nation in our defense of Gallipoli.’

There is no conciliation or repentance in Davutoglu’s tone. Turkey
intends to drown calls for Armenian Genocide recognition in the
drumbeat of a dubious victory in Gallipoli that was one of history’s
mysteries as to how a crumbling Ottoman army defeated French and
British forces under Winston Churchill’s command, while troops from
Australia and New Zealand were slaughtered by Mustafa Kemal. The jury
is out on the issue because suspicion lingers that Britain betrayed
its own army to deny access to its World War I ally, Russia, access to
the warm waters of the Mediterranean and the strategic Strait of
Bosporus.

Armenians could counter Mr. Erdogan’s triumphant march on the red
carpet in Washington by a massive rally (not just 50-100 youth, which
can prove to be counterproductive), with slogans such as `Recognize
the Genocide,’ `Lift the Blockade’ and `Bloody hands off Syria.’ But
we have opted for the more comfortable position of armchair diplomats,
additionally sacrificing the completion of the Genocide Museum in
Washington.

Mr. Erdogan will think `If this is the political clout of one million
plus American Armenians, then I can walk triumphantly – not only on
the red carpet but also over the bones of 1.5 million Armenian
martyrs.’

From: A. Papazian

Zhamanak: Archbishop Kchoyan urged to vote for RPA

10:25 14/05/2013 » DAILY PRESS

Prior to Yerevan municipal elections, Primate of AAC Ararat
Patriarchate, Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan convened meetings of priest
and parish councils. During the meetings, he urged Yerevan-based
priests and members of parish councils of Yerevan churches to vote for
RPA at municipal elections. He asked the priests to convey his request
to believers, Zhamanak daily says.

From: A. Papazian