Author: Andres-Papazian

PUTIN GRANTS RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP TO 35 UKRAINIANS

(c) Sputnik/ Alexei Druzhinin
RUSSIA
16:49 09.03.2015(updated 17:27 09.03.2015)

The Russian president resolves issues surrounding Russian citizenship
and granting political asylum in accordance with the country’s
constitution.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin granted
citizenship to 35 Ukrainian nationals, according to a document
published on Russia’s official website for legal information on Monday.

(c) SPUTNIK/ EVGENY KOTENKO Thousands of Ukrainians Escape From
Mobilization by Obtaining Hungarian Citizenship Armenian, Belgian,
Afghani, Moldovan, German, Vietnamese and Turkmenistan nationals were
among those admitted to the Russian citizenship as well.

In late January, the Russian Federal Migration Service increased the
90-day residence term for Ukrainians on a Putin initiative. Earlier,
the president said that many Ukrainians leave for Russia to dodge being
drafted into the army and avoid being sent to the conflict zone as
“cannon fodder.”

By early February, some 500,000 Ukrainians received refugee status
or temporary residence permits in Russia, according to the Russian
Security Council.

The Ukrainian government decided to conduct three waves of mobilization
expected to bring the number of troops in the Kiev army to over 140,000
people in 2015. The troops will participate in the military operation
in eastern Ukraine launched against independence supporters of the
Donbas region in April 2014.

Read more:

From: A. Papazian

SERZH SARGSYAN SUSPENDS JUDGE WHO ISSUED VERDICTS AGAINST POLICE

03.09.2015 13:08 epress.am

Administrative Court Judge Robert Sargsyan’s authority was suspended
by President Serzh Sargsyan’s decree an Friday, March 6th. Last year,
Judge Sargsyan issued favorable verdicts on three cases of citizen
activists against the police. The activists considered the verdicts
unexpected.

The administrative proceedings were related to three cases between
police and citizens who had organized a sit-in in front of the Yerevan
City Hall in 2013 after the protest movement against the raising of
public transportation fees to 150 from 100 drams.

In August 2013, the activists demanded the dismissals of the Yerevan
Municipality Transportation Department head Henrik Navasardyan and
Yerevantrans company president Misak Hambardzumyan. During the sit-in,
police took a dozen citizens into custody. A sit-in participant Vahagn
Minasyan was taken into custody and kept for 3 hours.

Police demanded the court make Minasyan give compensation of 50,000
AMD, while the defendant (Minasyan) countered with his own suit. Judge
Robert Sargsyan found the police actions unlawful, rejected the
compensation demand, and demanded 200,000 AMD compensation for Minasyan
in the verdict.

Robert Sargsyan also handed a favorable verdict toward Suren Sahakyan.

Police demanded in court 50,000 AMD in compensation from Sahakyan.

Judge Sargsyan once again rejected the demand, found the police actions
unlawful and issued a verdict in favor of Sahakyan, compensating him
with 150,000 AMD

The Judge also rejected the police suit against Babken Der-Grigorian
and considered the police actions unlawful.

Epress.am spoke to Suren Sahakyan about Sargsyan’s suspension; “At
least for me, Robert Sargsyan made a surprising decision against
the police. I was shocked, why, if there was no pressure from the
‘upper echelons’, do all the other cases turn out differently?”

Babken Der-Grigorian raised a question on his personal Facebook
page, wondering, if Sargsyan’s authority was suspended because of
his favorable verdicts toward the activists.

From: A. Papazian

GURGEN YEGHIAZARYAN: POLICEMAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THE SAFETY OF EACH CITIZEN (VIDEO)

17:16 | March 9,2015 | Politics

What is happening in Armenia today is one of the attributes of Serzh
Sargsyan’s “Safe Armenia” slogan, Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, a former deputy
head of the National Security Service, said today in connection with
the killing of a seven-member family in Gyumri city.

Speaking about the automobile rally to Gyumri organized by the
Founding Parliament Movement, Mr Yeghiazaryan said, “Maybe Turks
entered the city in tanks and were trying to come to power, that is
why the deputy police chief warned Zhirayr Sefilyan against going to
the city and said they could not ensure their safety. Otherwise, the
police official had better remove the straps from his shoulders and
go home as he is responsible for ensuring the safety of each citizen,
including opposition members.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE GERMAN “AMNESIA”

14:23, 09.03.2015

Cornelius Janzen, who hosts the “Culture Hour” program on the
German-language 3Sat satellite TV, presented a video recently, and
entitled “Germans and the Armenian Genocide.”

The maker of this video states that the political archives of the
German MFA contains hundreds of documents that attest to the systematic
slaughter of Armenians and the German Empire’s role in this tragedy.

Dr. Rolf Hosfeld, the scientific managing director of the House of
Lepsius Organization (Lepsiushaus), and Jurgen Gottschlich, a foreign
correspondent for German daily Die Tageszeitung in Turkey, also were
guests of this program.

Gottschlich expressed a conviction that the German Empire’s role in
the Armenian Genocide was more than a mere observer. He has studied
the Turkish and the German archives, and come to the conclusion that
Germany had provided an active political support in the carrying out
of this genocide, and so as to fulfill its own military objectives.

And as per Hosfeld, the aforementioned events had unrolled in the
context of military thinking, and with the desire to win the First
World War at any cost. He believes that Germany has tolerated the
Armenian Genocide. Hosfeld also criticizes Germany’s current position
on this matter, and accuses it of “amnesia.”

From: A. Papazian

Did the Muslim Brotherhood burn 1915 documents?

Sheikh Nabil

Vahakn KeÃ…=9FiÃ…=9Fyan 02.27.2015 15:06
NEWS

Media in Armenia and the Diaspora have been rocked by the claim of Nabil
Na’eem, the founder of the Democratic Jihad Party in Egypt, who stated that
the Muslim Brotherhood received a payment from Turkey to incinerate
documents related to the Armenian Genocide. There was a fire at the
building where the documents are held; however Armenians in Egypt treat the
claims with caution.

According to a news report published in the Veto newspaper in Egypt that
has created wide repercussions, Turkey paid a bribe to the Muslim
Brotherhood for the incineration and destruction of records and documents
related to the Armenian Genocide held in Cairo. The source of the report
that has preoccupied the media in Armenia and the Diaspora for the past
week is Nabil Na’eem, the founder of the Democratic Jihad Party in
Egypt.

Na’eem is known for his opposition of the governments in Turkey and Qatar.
In the report he claims that Turkey paid a sum of over a million dollars
for the incineration of the documents and records regarding the Armenian
Genocide in Egypt, and some Muslim Brotherhood members were also
responsible of the act. The Egypt Science and Document Centre building is
known to have suffered an arson attack during an action in November 2011.

We spoke to Na’eem about the news report, and he told us that he had heard
of the issue from his acquaintances within the Muslim Brotherhood who told
him how they received a payment from Turkey to burn the building down.
Na’eem says that at first no one understood why the building had become the
target of an arson attack, and claims that it then appeared that it was
related to Turkey. Na’eem is not the only person who found the target of
the arson attack strange.

Amer Mahmoud, news editor of the Veto newspaper the report was published
in, underlines the fact that the centre holding documents was in a back
street, and that the route of the action held that day did not pass by the
building. Mahmoud explained that the fire was started deliberately, that
the issue was a lawsuit and that the perpetrators recorded in the area
during the arson attack were members of the Muslim Brotherhood and parties
against the military regime. Mahmoud also provided the following
information about the documents: `It is said that 30 % of the documents
were destroyed in the fire. It is claimed that they include documents
related to the Armenian Genocide. However, most of those documents had
already been digitized.’

On the other hand, Berj Terzian, Head of the Egypt Armenian National
Council, stated that the Egypt Armenian community was not aware of these
claims and that it had not been discussed within the community. Terzian
added that such provocative claims appeared often in unstable political
environments, and advised caution: `This statement could be the product of
an anti-Turkey sentiment, but it could also be true.’* The only point
Terzian was sure was that the archives that belong to the Armenian
community had not suffered any damage.*

From: A. Papazian

Nassau News Live
March 8 2015

A Jazz Pianist Taps Armenian Folk, Metal Riffs And A Sense Of History

“Sometimes the music that I write doesn’t need to have lyrics, it just
needs vowels,” says jazz artist Tigran Hamaysan. Maeve Stam/Courtesy
of the artist

itoggle caption Maeve Stam/Courtesy of the artist

Musicians arrive at their signature sounds through all sorts of
influences. For jazz pianist Tigran Hamaysan, that collection of
sounds comes from far afield — he’s a fan of progressive metal bands
like Tool and Meshuggah — as well as from his backyard.

Hamasyan was born in Armenia, moved to Los Angeles and New York, then
returned to his homeland as an adult to get more in touch with his
roots. His new album Mockroot is inspired partly by the work of Bedros
Tourian, a 19th-century Armenian poet who died at 21. Hamaysan says he
didn’t need to use Tourian’s words — indeed, the songs based on the
poet’s work are sung in invented syllables from no certain language —
to capture his essence.

[embedded content]

“Everybody considered him super-melancholy, super-dark, but I don’t
agree with that. He has poems that are on the darker side, but all of
his poems have light in them; you end up being enlightened and full of
life after reading him,” Hamaysan says. “I like finding inspiration
through poems, but not necessarily using them as lyrics to songs.
Sometimes the music that I write doesn’t need to have lyrics, it just
needs vowels.”

Tigran Hamaysan spoke with NPR’s Arun Rath about exploring the diverse
dark history of his small country, and why he thinks traditional
approaches to piano ignore much of what the instrument is capable of.
Hear their conversation at the audio link.

From: A. Papazian

Hindu Business Line, India
March 8 2015

India ranks third lowest in having women in leadership roles

Sangeetha Chengappa
Bengaluru, March 8:

India ranks third lowest in the proportion of business leadership
roles held by women, at 15 per cent; falling below the global average,
reveals an annual survey from Grant Thornton, conducted ahead of
International Women’s Day (March 8).

Japan which sits at the bottom of the global rankings at 8 per cent
and Germany at 14 per cent, join India at the bottom of the rankings.

Globally, 22 per cent of senior roles are held by women, a slight
improvement up from 19 per cent in 2004 but, down from 24 per cent
last year, highlighting broad stagnation. And almost a third of
businesses have no women in senior leadership roles.

“Japan and India may be at very different stages of their development
but they share certain cultural features, such as strong hierarchy and
patriarchal societies, which prevent women from reaching the upper
echelons of the business world,” said Pallavi Bakhru, Director, Grant
Thornton Advisory Private Ltd.

There have been pockets of improvement, however, with 26 per cent of
senior roles in the EU now occupied by women – an all-time high. This
has been driven by France (33%), Sweden (28%) and Greece (27%). At the
same time, the number in Latin America has fallen to 18 per cent, an
all-time low.

While the situation in developed economies has broadly stagnated over
the past decade, there has been a marked decrease in emerging markets,
potentially driven by rapid urbanisation according to the report
released- Women in business: the path to leadership.

“We’ve heard businesses talk the talk on gender equality for decades
now, but still too few are walking the walk. Aside from the moral
issue of ensuring equal opportunity for all, a more representative
blend of women and men in senior roles just makes good business sense.
If an economy is only using half its most talented people then it
immediately cuts its growth potential,” said Bakhru.

5,404 business leaders were surveyed and interviews with 20 policy
makers, academics and senior decision makers from inside and outside
Grant Thornton were conducted to look at the barriers and enablers
along the path to business leadership.

The survey further reveals that India ranks second from bottom on the
number of women in leadership roles like CEO/ Managing Director.
Armenia ranks lowest in this parameter. As far as presence of women in
Board positions is concerned, India ranks fourth from bottom, while
Japan again ranks last in the list.

Bakhru says, “Society must adjust to changes in the way we live and
work; for instance, the stigmatisation of men who choose to stay at
home for family reasons must end. Governments can support this by
facilitating shared parental leave but also building the
infrastructure to allow women to thrive in the workforce. We feel
mandating a quota for women on the Board is one of such steps in this
direction.”

From: A. Papazian

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 8 2015

Armenia criticized for not reciprocating Turkey’s new discourse on 1915 events

March 08, 2015, Sunday/ 16:44:15/ AYDIN ALBAYRAK / THE HAGUE

Armenia’s recent move to withdraw from its parliament the Zurich
Protocols — which are aimed at normalizing ties between Turkey and
Armenia — has been criticized as a failure to build upon the changing
discourse in Turkey regarding the tragedy Ottoman Armenians suffered
during their deportation in 1915.

`I don’t see Armenia reaching out to Turkey [in the same way],’ Ronald
Suny, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, said on
Saturday at a conference in The Hague marking the 100-year anniversary
of the deportation titled `The Armenian Genocide Legacy: 100 Years
On.’

In a historic first, Turkey expressed its condolences last year to the
grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives during the forced
relocation. The gesture was an effort to encourage dialogue with
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, as well as a sign of sympathy for
what Ottoman Armenians suffered during the relocation.

In comments following presentations on the second day of the
conference, Suny expressed his disappointment, arguing that recalling
the protocols from Armenia’s parliament was not the right thing to do.
`Think about it. ¦ The old [official] discourse was that Armenians
were traitors,’ he said.

The Turkish government’s written statement of condolences, which came
on April 23 last year when current President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an was
prime minister, did not include the word `genocide.’ The statement was
welcomed by many in the West, as well as Armenians living in Turkey,
but fell short of satisfying Yerevan and the diaspora.

Suny — who delivered the keynote speech on the first day of the
conference and whose book titled `A History of the Armenian Genocide’
is set to be released in April — underlined the importance of the
change in discourse at the government level. Although one might not
expect Turkish officials to describe the events of 1915 as a genocide,
he said, Armenians `should exploit the cracks’ in the Turkish
discourse as a means to get more Turkish people to sympathize with the
suffering Armenians experienced as a result of the deportation under
the Ottoman State.

Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu also recently opened the door for
dialogue by saying the Armenian diaspora can be considered Turkey’s
diaspora as well, which also constituted a first in Turkey’s official
discourse.

`The Armenian diaspora is not an enemy diaspora, but rather our
diaspora. Our initiative toward the diaspora will continue. ¦ We will
settle all of the problems,’ DavutoÄ?lu said last month during a
meeting with representatives of Turkey’s Christian minorities.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan in mid-February recalled from the
Armenian parliament protocols on the normalization of ties and the
establishment of diplomatic relations with Turkey. The move came as a
reaction to Turkey’s announcement that on April 24 of this year that
it would commemorate those who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign of
World War I — a first for Turkey.

Every year on April 24, Armenians around the world commemorate those
who died during the forced relocation, which officially began in June
1915. On April 24, 1915, 235 Armenian intellectuals were arrested in
Ä°stanbul and transported to other parts of Anatolia as punishment for
activities that authorities feared might provoke Armenians to defy
Ottoman rule.

A number of Armenian participants expressed concern about the value or
meaningfulness of approaches like Suny’s. Such an approach on the part
of Armenia will not be meaningful until there is truly open discussion
of genocide in Turkey and school children are taught the truth,
according to Susan Karamanian, a professor of international law at
George Washington University in the US.

Levon Chorbajian, one of the panelists on the second day of the
conference, also questioned the sincerity of Turkey’s approach,
claiming that it is not clear what Turkey’s intention is. The
protocols for normalizing ties between Turkey and Armenia were signed
in Zurich on Oct. 10, 2009 with the aim of establishing diplomatic
relations and opening the two countries’ land border. But progress
reached an impasse when Ankara and Yerevan accused each other of
trying to rewrite the protocols and setting new conditions. Neither
country’s parliament has approved the deal yet.

Describing Armenia’s attitude as a step backwards, Suny said: `I worry
about that tremendously.’

President ErdoÄ?an has complained about the Armenian diaspora’s
uncooperative attitude on several occasions in the last two months. In
an interview in January with the state-run Turkish Radio and
Television Corporation (TRT), he said Turkey would not acknowledge the
1915 events as `genocide’ just because others are pushing Turkey to
recognize them as such. The issue needs to be handled by historians,
ErdoÄ?an said.

Turkey denies claims that the forced relocation of Armenians, which
took place primarily in 1915, qualifies as genocide, arguing that the
relocation was a necessity, as some of the Armenians in eastern
Anatolia had collaborated with Russian forces against the Ottoman army
during fighting that took place several months before the relocation
began.

The two-day conference was held at the Hague Institute for Global
Justice. It was jointly organized by the Centennial Project
Foundation; the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide
Studies; and the University of Southern California Dornsife Institute
of Armenian Studies.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 8 2015

Six people injured in shootout in Gyumri

8 March 2015 – 11:53am

Last night, six people were hospitalized after a shooting in the
Armenian city of Gyumri.

According to the director of the city’s medical centre Armen
Khachatryan, two victims were shot and wounded, and the others were
taken to hospital with stab wounds.

The status of three of the wounded is severe, in connection with which
they are being transported to Yerevan, ‘Novosti-Armenia’ reports.

From: A. Papazian

Agence France Presse
6 mars 2015 vendredi 3:57 PM GMT

Les snipers menacent la paix à la frontière entre l’Arménie et l’Azerbaïdjan

Movses/Alibeyli (Arménie) 6 mars 2015

Les habitants du village arménien de Movses, situé près de la
frontière avec l’Azerbaïdjan, soupirent de soulagement en observant
une nappe de brouillard les envelopper: ils sont enfin hors de vue des
tireurs azéris postés en face, sur la montagne Kardach.

“Ce brouillard, c’est notre salut. Quand la visibilité est à zéro, on
sait que les Azéris ne tireront pas”, explique à l’AFP Khanoum, une
vieille femme arménienne qui, comme tous les habitants de Movses, vit
dans la peur constante des snipers azéris.

Du côté azéri de la frontière, la peur est tout autant omniprésente.

“Les rues sont désertes pendant la journée”, raconte Ismaïl Nabiyev,
qui vit dans le village azeri d’Alibeyli. “Nous ne pouvons pas
organiser de mariage ou de funérailles. Dès qu’ils nous voient nous
rassembler, les Arméniens nous tirent dessus.”

La guerre entre l’Arménie et l’Azerbaïdjan pour le contrôle du
Nagorny-Karabakh, qui a fait 30.000 morts et des centaines de milliers
de réfugiés entre 1988 et 1994, est officiellement terminée.

Mais en réalité, elle n’a jamais pris fin pour ceux qui vivent le long
de la frontière entre l’Arménie et l’Azerbaïdjan, comme les villages
de Movses et Alibeyli, pourtant situés à quelque 200 km du
Nagorny-Karabakh, une région d’Azerbaïdjan, à majorité arménienne.

L’année dernière, plus de 70 personnes ont été tuées des deux côtés
dans une série d’accrochages, provoquant la crainte d’une reprise de
ce conflit gelé.

“Nos maisons sont la cible de tirs incessants de la part des
Arméniens”, affirme Khatira Aliyeva, une jeune mère de deux enfants,
blessée en février lorsque sa demeure a été visée par des tirs de
snipers de l’autre côté de la frontière.

“J’ai peur de laisser mes enfants aller à l’école. Le matin, nous
courons pour y aller, de peur que les Arméniens nous remarquent et
commencent à tirer”, confie-t-elle. “Après l’école, les enfants
restent à la maison, c’est trop dangereux de les laisser jouer
dehors”.

Le cauchemar de cette jeune femme se répète à l’identique de l’autre
côté de la frontière, à Movses.

“Les Azéris tirent jour et nuit, sur nos maisons, sur de simples
citoyens, des gens qui travaillent dans leurs vergers”, raconte
Soudarik Aperian, une vieille dame de 82 ans. “J’ai peur d’allumer les
lumières la nuit. Dès qu’ils voient de la lumière à nos fenêtres, ils
commencent à tirer”, affirme-t-elle.

– une ‘escalade sans précédent’ –

Malgré des décennies de négociations via une médiation internationale,
les deux camps n’ont toujours pas signé d’accord de paix final, depuis
la conclusion d’un cessez-le-feu en 1994.

Pour la communauté internationale, le Nagorny-Karabakh fait partie de
l’Azerbaïdjan. Autoproclamée “République du Nagorny-Karabakh”, la
région est soutenue financièrement et militairement par Erevan.

Elle a été désertée par la communauté azérie qui y vivait avant la
guerre et qui représentait environ 25% de la population totale. Les
145.000 habitants du Nagorny Karabakh sont aujourd’hui presque tous
arméniens.

Bakou continue de revendiquer la région: en février, son président
Ilham Aliev a affirmé que la paix sera menacée tant que l’Arménie
poursuivra son “occupation du Nagorny-Karabakh” et de sept autres
régions azéries adjacentes, soit au total 20% du pays.

En janvier, le président arménien Serge Sarkissian avait menacé de
répondre à toute attaque des forces azéries.

“En cas de concentration massive et menaçante à notre frontière ou au
bord de la ligne de démarcation, nous nous réservons le droit de
procéder à une frappe préventive”, avait-il lancé à son voisin riche
en ressources pétrolières.

Le mois de janvier a été particulièrement meurtrier: au moins 12
personnes ont été tuées et 18 blessées dans des tirs à la frontière,
provoquant l’inquiétude de l’Organisation pour la sécurité et la
coopération en Europe (OSCE).

“Depuis l’été 2014, nous assistons à une escalade sans précédent”, a
indiqué à l’AFP Mubariz Ahmedoglu, directeur du Centre azéri des
Innovations politiques. “L’Arménie et l’Azerbaïdjan ont déployé de
l’artillerie de gros calibre le long de la ligne de front”.

A Erevan, l’expert arménien Sergueï Minassian, du think-tank Caucasus
Institute, livre la même analyse: “Au cours des vingt dernières
années, la situation sur le terrain n’a jamais été aussi tendue et
dangereuse qu’aujourd’hui.”

Un habitant de Movses résume: “Notre futur est tout aussi nébuleux que
ce brouillard sur la montagne Kardach”.

mkh-eg-im-all/nm/mr

From: A. Papazian