Author: Andres-Papazian

ARMENIE
La chute du rouble a un effet sur la production de Brandy et de vin en Arménie

Après des années de croissance, la production de brandy et de vin en
Arménie, les principaux produits d’exportation principalement vendus
en Russie, a considérablement diminué au cours des derniers mois en
raison de la forte dépréciation de la monnaie russe, le rouble.

Les données du Service national des statistiques (NSS) montrent les
volumes de production en diminution d’un peu plus de 8 pour cent par
rapport à l’an dernier. La tendance à la baisse semble s’accélérer
cette année, avec une production orientée vers l’exportation dans
l’industrie du brandy en chute libre en Arménie de 32 pour cent sur un
an en Janvier 2015.

Les dirigeants de l’industrie disent que le rouble russe, qui a été
déprécié de près de moitié au cours de la dernière année, est le
principal facteur derrière les pertes de production. La Russie a
longtemps été le principal marché pour le brandy et le vin distillés
en Arménie à partir de raisins cultivés localement.

La faiblesse du rouble semble avoir également affecté d’autres
exportateurs arméniens spécialisés dans le marché russe. Selon le NSS,
les exportations arméniennes vers la Russie ont chuté d’environ 8 pour
cent à 308,5 millions de $ en 2014.

“Avec le rouble russe beaucoup plus faible maintenant, nos produits ne
sont pas compétitifs sur le marché russe en termes de prix”, a déclaré
Aleksan Petrossian, le propriétaire du PAM, un important producteur de
brandy arménien basé à Armavir.

“C’est une très mauvaise chose”, a déclaré Petrosian au service
arménien de RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am). “Nous avons passé 20 ans à gagner
une part de marché en Russie et nous risquons maintenant de la perdre
juste en raison des taux de change.”

Alik Gasparian, le directeur adjoint de l’usine Prochian de brandy
près d’Erevan, a également rapporté d’importantes pertes de
production.

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

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

Erdogan: Insulted and Insulting: Turkey’s Prickly President

CounterPunch
March 6 2015

by MICHAEL DICKINSON

He’s a prickly customer, that Tayyip Erdogan! You’d better watch
you don’t say anything critical about him or you might find yourself
slapped with a charge of ‘insulting his dignity’,and face, along with
a growing queue of others, the possibility of a hefty jail sentence.

I was lucky enough to escape the latter when I was charged with
insulting the man by displaying a collage caricature of him as
America’s pet dog at an anti-war exhibition in Istanbul in 2006.

Erdogan was a mere Prime Minister at the time, but nevertheless,
my punishment seemed a little excessive.

After being held in brutal police custody for two weeks, two years
of undecided trials resulted in an aquittal. The aquittal was quashed
by the Turkish government, and at the final trial, with a new judge,
I was found guilty of ‘insulting’ Erdogan and given a suspended prison
sentence of 14 months. In the meantime I had lost my university job
and been put on a teaching blacklist, even though I’d been working
in the country for 25 years. Eventally, almost destitute, I began to
earn my living by telling fortunes with rune stones in the streets
of Istanbul, until I was arrested again in 2013 and deported. But
that’s another story…

No slouch at taking offense as PM, Erdogan has recently upped his
umbrage and become increasingly authoritarian and intolerant of
criticism. Since becoming President of Turkey in 2015 the number of
people taken into custody over charges of ‘insulting’him have risen
to over 60. The number of individuals successfully prosecuted for
insulting him over the past 10 years has reached 110.

But first the good news – Charges have been dropped against veteran
journalist Can Dundar who was facing an insult investigation for
having said in an interview that, while he was Prime Minister, Mr
Erdogan knew and approved of a chain of corrupt dealings between
several ministers and Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab. Erdogan’s
lawyer, who demanded a prison term of up to 9 years for the ‘slander’,
said that Dundar had “attempted to portray Erdogan as the leader of a
criminal organization.” According to the Public prosecutor in charge
of the investigation, “the elements of the crime of insult are not
present.” Phew!

Meanwhile, Dr. Ahmet Koyuncu, an expert on social anxiety disorders,
faces trial this month for a thesis he posted online in 2014, in which
he said that Erdogan boasts about his devotion to religion but at the
same time does not refrain from discriminating against and swearing at
those who don’t support him. Therefore, he argued, his religiousness
and vindictiveness reflect the ‘average Anatolian religiousness and
vindictiveness’. This was considered an insult. Koyuncu explained that
he had written it in the wake of Turkey’s biggest mining tragedy in
which 301 workers died in Soma in May 2014, and a visit by Erdogan
to the grief-stricken town that had formed the basis for his thesis.

Footage emerged during the visit showing an Erdogan aide kicking a
mourner and Erdogan punching a protester himself amid demonstrations
against the government.

Former Miss Turkey, beauty queen Merve Buyuksarac, faces charges of
insulting Erdogan after sharing ‘The Master’s Poem’ on her Instagram, a
poem about the President with verses adapted from the Turkish national
anthem. Erdogan is often dubbed “Buyuk Usta” (the Big Master). Merve
said she shared the poem, from the satirical magazine ‘Uykusuz’,
because she found it funny.

“If you google the poem I shared you will see 960,000 more people
shared it… it’s interesting, isn’t it?” (It’s also interesting to
see that the poem has since disappeared…)

Teenage schoolboy Mehmet Emin Altunses will go on trial in March on
charges of insulting the president in a speech in the conservative
Anatolian city of Konya during a student protest in which he
reportedly said Erdogan was the “thieving owner of the illegal
palace”. (A reference to a government corruption scandal as well as
a controversial 1,150-room presidential palace Erdogan inaugurated
in October last year.)

A few months ago, one of Turkey’s main TV stations, Haberturk TV,
began running some unflattering headlines about Erdogan and his
government, calling him a fool and a vindictive idiot, questioning
his competence and even his sanity. Erdogan snapped. From his private
office, he picked up the phone and called the head of the media outlet
and asked him to take the offending headlines down. They obeyed.

“Yes, I made the call,” he admitted later , “Because there were
insults against us. We have to teach the media things.”

This week, in an extraordinary touch of irony, President Erdogan was
found guilty of the charge of ‘insult’ himself! In 2011, speaking
about the “Monument to Humanity”, a statue of two 30-meter-high
concrete figures reaching out to each other on a hill in the eastern
province of Kars near the Armenian border, Erdogan said: “They put a
monstrosity next to the tomb of [Muslim scholar] Hasan Harakani. It is
impossible to think that such a thing should exist next to fundamental
works of art.”

The Monument to Humanity.

A few months later the municipality took the statue down. Sculptor
Mehmet Aksoy who had created it in 2008, strongly criticized Erdogan’s
comment, saying that his work carried anti-war themes and was also
meant to symbolize the friendship between Turkey and Armenia. He
filed a lawsuit against Erdogan for insulting him through his work,
seeking TL 100,000 in compensation for psychological damage sustained.

Amazingly, Aksoy has won the case, but he was only awarded TL 10,
000 damages (a pittance) and Erdogan’s lawyer said they will appeal
against the court decision.

Most of the latest arrests on the charge of ‘insulting Erdogan’ are
related to nationwide demonstrations last week when secular Turks
boycotted schools and took to the streets to demand a religion-free
secular education. Many of those arrested were students, charged with
chanting: “THIEF MURDERER ERDOÄ~^AN.”

One, YavaÅ~_ Kılıc, a 25 year old boycott organizer in the western
province of Izmir ,said: “I was told that I had been arrested for
insulting the President, but I haven’t insulted anyone. I was just
telling the truth.”

Telling the truth can be a dangerous pastime these days, especially
in Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey.

Michael Dickinson can be contacted at [email protected]

From: A. Papazian

France to host Armenian Genocide centennial event

16:15 * 07.03.15

A commemoration event dedicated Armenian Genocide is going to be held
in France as part of the ceremonies to mark the tragic crime’s
centennial.

>From March 25 to 28, the Sorbonne University will host a debate
entitled, “The Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire in the World War I
Period”.

An opening speech at the international event will be delivered by
French President Francois Hollande.

Citing it sources, the German publication Deutsche Welle reports that
the key event in Europe to commemorate the tragic anniversary will be
held in the French capital Paris. The City’s Holocaust Center will
open an exhibition featuring the Genocide history.

From: A. Papazian

Russian analyst: Azerbaijan claim for compensation from Armenia is stupid

02:47, 07.03.2015

Demanding compensation is meaningless. Damage is caused to the three
parties of the conflict: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh,
Russian political scientist Alexander Skakov told Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

Commenting on Azerbaijani analyst Shelale Hasanova’s statement that
Azerbaijan should demand compensation from Armenia at international
level, he stressed: “This is stupid, nothing more; this cannot and
will not have any result. Compensation is possible if there is an
aggressor country, like what happened, for example, with Germany after
the First, or the Second World War.”

Skakov added that in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, however, there is
no and there has not been an aggressor country.

“There was a situation of the collapse of the Soviet Union. In
reality, this is simply a transition from a civil war within a country
to a war for the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Russian
analyst noted.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
La production de brandy en légère baisse d’année en année en Arménie

La production de brandy en Arménie a baissé de 5,6% à un total de 14
684 900 litres entre Janvier et Octobre 2014 par rapport à la même
période de 2013 a annoncé le Service national de la statistique.

Une baisse a été observée aussi dans la production de vin dans le pays
de 8,5% à environ 4 313 900 litres dans la période considérée.

La production de vodka a diminué de 6,5% à 7 364 300 litres en dix mois.

Un total de 282 300 litres de champagne (en augmentation de 5%) et 22
094 300 litres de bière (augmentation de 30,2%) ont été produit dans
la période.

samedi 7 mars 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

Zhamanak: Abovyan school directors leaving Prosperous Armenia

12:03 07/03/2015 >> DAILY PRESS

“If Prosperous Armenia goes into opposition, then I will quit this
party since a state worker principally cannot have anything to do with
opposition,” Lilia Sarajyan, director of Abovyan’s school No 10, told
Zhamanak.

She also said that heads of educational institutions must not have the
right to join any parties.

Directors of other schools in Abovyan also said they are planning to
leave Prosperous Armenia Party.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

Armenian citizens declared mentally incompetent doomed to lifelong closed chain

12:14 * 07.03.15

Any citizen of Armenia, if declared legally incompetent, is doomed to
a lifelong closed chain without any chance to ever recover the right
to a legal standing in court and administrative procedures or property
transactions, says a lawyer.

Speaking to Tert.am, Marietta Temuryan, a human rights monitoring
specialist at the Helsinki Civic Assembly’s Vanadzor Office,
particularly shared her concerns of the situation of people in old-age
pensioners homes and other semi-closed institutions where she
periodically conducts monitoring.

“The Vardenis Psycho-neurological Boarding House (Gegharkunik region –
Ed), which is the only care center for full age individuals with
mental problems and functions as a subordinate institution adjunct to
the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, can admit only people
declared incompetent. And the latter cannot make a decision about
leaving the institution on their own. The psycho-neurological
institutions under Armenia’s Ministry of Health also offer treatment
and care to individuals declared mentally incompetent, who are
admitted and can be discharged only upon a legal represetnative’s
consent,” she said.

A total of 450 patients are now under the institution’s care.

“The whole problem is that whenever an individual is declared legally
incompetent, the decision about his or her treatment is made only by a
guardian. So the person in questions cannot practically leave the
place. And so they spend their lifetime in a mental clinic,” she
added.

The lawyer said she knows of very few cases that involved relatives
seeking a corresponding court ruling out of property bias.

Temuryan stressed the importance of expert examinations which she said
might give at least those persons a chance to be declared partially
incompetent. “If, for instance, a person is denied the right to vote
by the decision of a doctor or a commission, it doesn’t mean at all
that the individual in question cannot be in marriage just because the
spouse filed a divorce appeal on the grounds of [the ruling] declaring
him or her legally incompetent,” she said, noting further that those
individuals are also practically also denied the right to conclude
transactions (including contracts authorizing third persons to give
for rent, sell or buy their property).

Temuryan hailed the parliamentary majority’s initiative proposing
amendments to the Civil Code to increase the target groups’
advantages, but in the meantime, she stressed the importance of more
global institutional reforms.

“The main problem is that ‘incompetent’, as a term, is a comprehensive
concept. So whenever an individual is declared [legally] incompetent,
he or she loses his civil, political and employment rights, the right
to marry or receive education,” added the lawyer.

Under the bill, initiated by lawmakers of the ruling Republican Party,
it is proposed that a case involving a demand for declaring a citizen
of Armenia legally incompetent be considered only in the presence of a
guardian or a trustee. “A citizen’s participation in the hearing is
mandatory whenever such participation does not pose a threat to the
life or health of the citizen in question or other individuals. Upon
the presence of such a threat, the case is considered in the venue
where the citizen is housed, including a mental hospital,” reads the
draft law.

Expressing her unconditional support to the proposal, Temuryan noted
that in very few cases are rulings declaring an individual legally
incompetent are issued in their presence. “There is no precise
statistics, but I have talked to people with mental problems; they
admitted that they were declared incompetent without attending the
hearing,” she noted.

From: A. Papazian

Tigran Urikhanyan to become member of Armenian delegation to the PACE

14:46, 7 March, 2015

YEREVAN, 7 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Deputy of the Prosperous Armenia Party’s
faction of the National Assembly Tigran Urikhanyan will become one of
the members of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE), replacing Vahe Hovhannisyan, who is
one of the deputies of the PAP faction. This is what speaker of the
Prosperous Armenia Party, Deputy of the National Assembly Vahan
Babayan said in an interview with “Armenpress”. “Our faction is
appointing Tigran Urikhanyan a member of the Armenian delegation to
the PACE, replacing Vahe Hovhannisyan,” Babyan informed, as
“Armenpress” reports.

Touching upon the rumors that Tigran Urikhanyan may also assume the
duties of secretary of the PAP faction in the National Assembly,
Babayan emphasized that Tigran Urikhanyan’s nomination has been
discussed, but there is no final decision yet. “When the faction holds
a session, we will take a decision, and you will be informed about
it,” the MP said.

From: A. Papazian