Author: Andres-Papazian

PROFESSOR OF SORBONNE UNIVERSITY SAYS AZERBAIJAN SHOULD STOP SPECULATING ON KARABAKH CONFLICT TO RESOLVE ITS DOMESTIC PROBLEMS

ARMINFO
Tuesday, March 19, 14:30

Professor of Sorbonne University, vice-president of the Paris Academy
of Geopolitics, Gerard-Francois Dumont, has published an item in
Geostrategiques Magazine entitled “Nagorno Karabakh: geopolitics of
unresolved conflict”.

The author writes that in the first years of establishment of the
Soviet Union, Nagorno Karabakh was attached to Azerbaijan without
reckoning with the opinion of its main population. The conflict
with the Baku authorities originated then and spiraled into armed
conflict after ethnic purges of the Karabakh Armenians organized by
the Azerbaijan authorities. The author writes about the geographical
peculiarities of Nagorno Karabakh, historical preconditions of the
Karabakh conflict’s origination, pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait etc.

Gerard-Francois Dumont writes that despite the ceasefire treaty, the
conflict still remains unresolved and Nagorno Karabakh is still in
blockade. He writes that independent statehood of Karabakh has been
formed simultaneously with the conflict’s development and today NKR
has all the institutions and attributes of power. He touched upon the
efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the conflict. He believes
that pardoning of Azerbaijani murderer Safarov has just increased
tension in the conflict zone. The author believes it impossible
to attach Nagorno Karabakh, a country with developing democracy, to
Azerbaijan, a country with dictatorship. Dumont writes that Azerbaijan
originated as a country in 1918, while the ancient Armenian people
have rich political, religious, historical and architectural, and
cultural heritage. The author is sure that Azerbaijan must display
will for a dialogue and stop speculating on the Karabakh conflict
to resolve the domestic problems. He condemns also the destructive
position of Baku in the issue of reopening of the Stepanakert Airport
and Baku’s threats to bring down civil planes.

For conclusion, Gerard-Francois Dumont asks how can the mediators
find a balanced solution to the conflict of two countries when one of
those countries has strong identity and builds democracy, while the
other restricts human rights and freedoms. The author believes that
Azerbaijan’s democratization may help resolving the Karabakh conflict.

From: A. Papazian

OPPOSITION MP ACCUSES ARMENIAN CEC CHAIRMAN OF ELECTION FRAUDS

TERT.AM
14:58 ~U 19.03.13

Nikol Pashinyan, an MP from the opposition bloc Armenian National
Congress (ANC), commented on an earlier statement by Chairman of
Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Tigran Mukuchyan.

“So I can say that the system headed by you will rig the forthcoming
election as well because they rigged the elections held a month ago
and the parliamentary elections. You personally rigged the elections
in my presence,” Mr Pashinyan said.

“If you rigged the presidential election you are going to rig all
the other elections,” the MP said.

In response, Mr Mukuchyan said: “You should have presented your
opinion. Judgments about future election frauds are accounted for by
individual views,” he said.

From: A. Papazian

HELENE SEGARA TO SPEND TWO DAYS IN ARMENIA

09:44, 19 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. World famous French singer Helène
Segara arrived in Armenia on March 19. Within the framework of the
Francophonie month in Armenia the singer will give her first solo
concert today in the evening at “Aram Khachaturian” Concert Hall.

Stage Promo Company, which organized the concert, informed “Armenpress”
that Helène Segara will spend two days in Armenia. A number of meetings
have been scheduled to take place.

The singer will take part in the opening ceremony of the Francophonie
month. The upcoming concert will be held under the high auspices
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia in
association with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia
and the Embassy of France to Armenia. “Ararat” legendary cognacs are
the exclusive sponsors of the concert.

Helène Segara was born on 26 February 1971 in Six-Fours-les-Plages
in her grandfather’s farm. Her father is of Italian descent and
mother is Armenian. Then she had many successive jobs including
performances in the piano bars of the French Riviera. At 18, she
gave birth to Raphael, her first son. Her repertoire was expanding,
with many musical influences and over a thousand songs. In 1993,
a first single entitled “Loin” was released, but didn’t meet success.

In 1998, Segara performed with Garou a duet for the album Ensemble
contre le sida (Eng: Together Against AIDS). The song is a cover
version of “L’amour existe encore”, composed by Luc Plamondon and
Richard Cocciante for Celine Dion. Her performance of Armenian popular
song “Dle Yaman” was posted in Youtube in 2011.

From: A. Papazian

FUNDING PLATFORM ONEARMENIA HAS LAUNCHED $21,000 TO THE WOMEN’S SUPPORT CENTER IN YEREVAN

11:50, 19 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS: Non-profit funding platform ONEArmenia
has announced a new $21,000 campaign to close the 2013-2014 budget
gap of a safe house run by the Women’s Support Center in Yerevan,
reports Armenpress referring to English language Asbarez.

“We started the safe house in 2012 because the need was so great,”
said Women’s Support Center director Maro Matosian. “Every time we
would refer someone to the existing shelter, they were turned away
because there was no space.”

The WSC’s safe house is only one of two such spaces currently operating
in Armenia. Because of the potential for pursuit by perpetrators, the
safe house’s precise location is kept confidential and is not revealed
to the pubic. It has the capacity to house and nurture up to 5 women
and their children at any given time, with an average yearly impact
on 30 women and about 60 children. In addition to providing a safe
space where women can seek solace and reprieve from their harrowing
experiences, the safe house employs social workers, legal counselors
and psychologists who work with the women to slowly build up a sense
of independence, potential and eventual self-actualization. By the
end of a maximum 60-day stay at the safe house, women are prepared
to begin new lives with newfound self-reliance and confidence.

According to a study conducted by Amnesty International, only 29%
Armenian women to be exact-of these women seek out help, only to return
later-at a rate of 88%-to the very homes and families that abused them.

From: A. Papazian

STATE COMMISSION: “BOTH ARMENIANS PASSED TO AZERBAIJAN ARE ELDERLY CIVILIANS”

APA, Azerbaijan
March 18 2013

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva – APA. The State Commission on Prisoners of War,
Hostages and Missing Persons confirmed that two Armenian citizens
passed to Azerbaijan.

Head of the Commission’s working group Firudin Sadigov told APA that
both Armenians are civilians: “They are elderly. The Azerbaijani side
wants to send them back. Perhaps, they will be handed over to Armenia
soon. The Commission will appeal to the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) to inform the Armenian side.”

The Defense Ministry’s press service told APA that on March 16 at
16:50, resident of Dovekh village of Armenia’s Noyemberyan region
Karyan Durmus and on March 17 at 16:20, resident of Ayqovid village of
Ijevan region Arakelyan Anahid Hamazasovna passed to Azerbaijani
territory on the contact line in Gazakh region and were captured by
our Armed Forces.

The investigation is underway to determine why the captives violated
the line of contact. They were handed over to the State Commission on
Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.

From: A. Papazian

SINGERS OF THE CAUCASUS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 18 2013

Author: VK

South Caucasian countries famous for their musical culture are almost
strangers to Eurovision. Armenia’s debut at the international song
contest took place in 2006, the Georgian one – in 2007, the Azerbaijani
one – in 2008. But Baku became the only Caucasian capital privileged
to take the competition at home. Now Transcaucasian republics are
being prepared to Eurovision-2013 to be held in Malmo.

According to Artur Gasparyan, music critic, showman, they “are
very active in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest. They are
very successful, especially Azerbaijan which is making seven-league
strides. This is a laudable trend, it is the integration not only of
Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, but also of other new young states
in the European world musical process, at least in the musical process
in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest, because Eurovision is
not world music. Eurovision has very little to do with contemporary
show business, in general; these are two structures which develop
in a parallel mode. The charts in London, New York or Los Angeles,
as you know, or even in Germany and in France and Italy, are not very
different from what is going on in the Eurovision. This is a sort of
Olympics in music, where creative and personal ambitions as well as
the ambitions of participating states are realized. That is, it is a
kind of musical contest, competition, and the more active the countries
in this show are, including the Caucasian countries such as Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia, the better, since life is in movement”.

“Caucasian musicians, I call them that in general, because there
are so many nationalities, always made me respect them due to their
very reverent attitude to what I call the music”, Alexander Gradsky,
musician, told VK in an interview. “This has always been obvious.

Incidentally, there were several representatives of the Caucasian
peoples at the “Golos”, who have shown their best, at least in my
opinion. I had a wonderful drummer, Armen Chaldranyan, who worked in
“Skhomorokhi” for about two years, he was a great guy and a very
good musician”.

Speaking of his impressions of tours in the South Caucasus, Alexander
Gradsky said: “At my time I have been in many places. There were always
very good concerts, wonderful ones. I visited Baku a very, very long
time ago, but I have a lot of wonderful memories of the audience,
about how people received us, that’s for sure. Somehow we went to
swim in the port area, and then tried to wash the oil smell out,
these things also happened. Now perhaps it is much better. But what
I see, the panoramas that are shown, I see that the republics are
growing and evolving very nicely. In general, I have no divisions,
I do not divide people according to their ethnicity. I can say only
say one thing: there is a very good attitude in the Caucasus to what
is proper music. I think this is very important”.

.

From: A. Papazian

EU NOTES THE HIGH LEVEL OF CORRUPTION IN ARMENIA

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 18 2013

The level of corruption in Armenia remains high, First Counsellor of
the EU delegation to Armenia Onno Simmons told a seminar on “The role
of civil society and media in the fight against corruption: current
activities and challenges,” writes Trend referring to News-Armenia.

“Corruption is still a major problem and a challenge for the country,”
Simmons said, recalling that amongst 176 countries Armenia shares
105th-112th positions with a number of countries (Algeria , Bolivia,
Cameroon, Kosovo, Mali, Mexico and the Philippines), according to the
Corruption Perception Index 2012 of the international anti-corruption
organization Transparency International.

He also noted that corruption is recognized as one of the most common
phenomena that impedes business development.

In turn, an international expert in the fight against corruption,
head of the EU-administered “Case study on corruption in the public
sector of Armenia”Londa Esadze, noted that the role of media in the
fight against corruption is very high, but that the mass media in
Armenia is not entirely free.

Transparency International has been formulating its index since 1995;
indexes rank countries according to the degree of corruption in their
public sectors.

Transparency International’s rankings consider all forms of corrupt
activities, including bribes to officials, the involvement of officials
in the distribution of profits from public works contracts, as well as
illegal or improper expenditure of budgetary funds. It also evaluates
the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures taken by the government.

From: A. Papazian

DIOCESE OF ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC ORTHODOX HOLY CHURCH IN GEORGIA

18 March 2013

The Deputy Minister of Culture of Georgia Attended the Creative Evening
of the Honored Artist of Georgia and a Holder of the Order of Honor
Michael Grigoryan On 16 March, 2013 by the initiative of the Union of
Armenian Intellectuals of Georgia at the ~SHayartun~T Cultural Center
of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Georgia, in
the Calouste Gulbenkian Hall, the evening and first personal exhibition
of paintings dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Honored Artist of
Georgia, a holder of the Order of Honor Michael Grigoryan took place.

Marina Mizandari, Deputy Minister of Culture and Monument Protection
of Georgia, Mr. Hovhannes Manoukian, Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Georgia, Van Baiburtian,
Advisor to the President of Georgia and the editor of “Vrastan”,
Advisor to the Minister of Culture of Georgia Yuri Mechitov attended
the exhibition.

The Chairman of the Union of Armenian Intellectuals of Georgia Ruben
Torosyan presented the artist~Rs biography, the speaker recalled
Michael Grigoryan~Rs years of work as a Chief Director in Petros
Adamian Tbilisi State Armenian Drama Theatre and his theatrical
performances of Armenian and Georgian playwrights. The years of
work of Michael Grigorian as the editor of the Armenian broadcasts
on Georgian radio and his activities on TV channels RTR and ORT in
Moscow were no less productive.

The Deputy Minister of Culture of Georgia welcomed Michael Grigorian in
connection with his creative evening and mentioned that the theatrical
activities of the professional stage director had made the invaluable
contribution in the development of Georgian culture, she also conveyed
greetings and best wishes from the Minister of Culture Guram Odisharia.

All the speakers appreciated the creative diversity of Michael
Grigorian~Rs talent, they noted his isolation from society and creative
work behind closed walls for 20 years, the product of which was about
300 oil and watercolor paintings, as well as wonderful poetry written
in three languages.

At the end of the evening the Head of the Diocese of the Armenian
Apostolic Orthodox Church in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Vazgen
Mirzakhanyan delivered a speech and advised Michael Grigoryan to appear
before the public more often, to devote himself to the education of
future generations, to share his experience and knowledge, and to
develop and deepen the Armenian cultural life in Georgia.

The talented director and great artist appeared before the audience
with artistic speech in three languages, he recited his poems, written
in Armenian, Russian and Georgian. The evening, which was held in
the form of a dialogue, for Michael Grigorian was an expression of
devotion to both motherlands, of love towards his own people, and of
gratitude for the unification of the Armenian community in Georgia.

This event was a beautiful evening, demonstrating the potential of
talented artist.

More information is available at

Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia 18, Armazi Street,
0103, Tbilisi, Georgia Phone: +995322546411 Cell: +995593397170 Fax:
+995322751790 Email: [email protected]

From: A. Papazian

PROFESSOR: AZERI DEMOCRATIZATION TOOL TO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

March 18, 2013 – 20:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Professor of Sorbonne University Gerard-Francois
Dumont published an article in Geostrategiques journal, titled
“Nagorno Karabakh: geopolitics of unresolved conflict”.

In the article he analyses the origins of Karabakh conflict, the course
of the settlement, the achievements of NKR in the state-building
and civil society development. The author writes that Karabakh was
annexed to Azerbaijan in the early years of the Soviet Union, with
Baku authorities further pursuing the policy of ethnic cleansing
targeting Armenians in Karabakh.

Dumont focused on the geographical features of Karabakh, the historical
background of the conflict, as well as Armenian pogroms in Sumgait.

“Despite the ceasefire treaty, the conflict still remains unresolved.

The independent state of Nagorno Karabakh was established
simultaneously with the conflict evolution. NKR currently possesses
all government institutions,” the article reads.

Dumont further dwelt on the resolution of the conflict in the
framework of OSCE Minsk Group, with Azeri murderer Ramil Safarov’s
pardon escalating tensions between the conflicting parties. The author
deemed NKR’s inclusion in Azerbaijan impossible.

“Azerbaijan emerged as a state in 1918, while old Armenian nation
possesses vast political, religious, historical and cultural heritage,”
the author writes, urging Baku to start a dialogue and stop using
Karabakh problem for the solution to internal problems.

The French professor also slammed Baku’s destructive stance on
Stepanakert airport operations and Azeri threats to shoot down
civilian aircrafts.

At the end of the article, the author noted democratization of
Azerbaijan as a possible tool to Karabakh conflict solution.

From: A. Papazian

WORLD BANK RECOMMENDS ACTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF EURASIAM CITIES ALONG THE ‘SILK ROAD’

15:28 18.03.2013

Once flourishing along the Great Silk Road, today, a thousand years
later, the cities of Eurasia need to be rethought in order to be
competitive in a market economy and to re-emerge as the main drivers
of growth. Policy makers need to promote the changes and reorganize
cities by better planning, connecting, greening, and financing them,
says a new World Bank report “Eurasian Cities: New Realities Along
the Silk Road”.

“The central planners got some things right – easy access to public
transportation, district heating networks, almost universal access to
water systems, and socially integrated neighborhoods,” said Indermit
Gill, World Bank Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia. “But
they failed to acknowledge the importance of markets and individual
choice in shaping places for people to live in. To become sustainable,
Eurasian cities need to find the right balance between markets and
institutions.”

The report looks at cities in 12 countries of the Former Soviet Union:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, KyrgyzRepublic,
Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan,
which prospered during the times of the Great Silk Road thanks to
burgeoning international trade. Today the cities are reorganizing
due to recent economic, political, and demographic developments. The
fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the European Union and Asia
affect the reorganization of Eurasia and reshaping of its cities,
and present new opportunities for re-emergence of the “Silk Road”.

“Modern cities need to be the catalysts of development by bringing
people together, helping them benefit from mobility, better
connectivity, and economies of scale,” said Souleymane Coulibaly,
World Bank Senior Economist and lead author of the report. “To be able
to respond flexibly and dynamically to changing economic circumstances,
the Eurasian cities need to be rethought along the four key intertwined
dimensions: planning, connecting, greening, and financing.”

For better planning of the Eurasian cities, the policy makers need to
eliminate the bottlenecks caused by weak rental markets, misallocated
housing stock, and missing or poorly enforced regulations. This can
be done through collaboration between local and central governments to
enhance land markets, revive and make attractive the housing markets,
and revamp public infrastructure, including transportation systems.

For better connectivity, the report reviews the necessary changes to
enhance trade and transport corridors, improve air transportation,
and further promote information and communications technology (ICT).

Specific recommendations include: standardizing transit fees,
harmonizing border procedures for road and rail transport, simplifying
customs procedures, improving regulations and strengthening the
capacity of institutions governing air transportation, new investments
and better regional cooperation for enhanced ICT, and others.

To green the Eurasian cities and make them environmentally
friendlierand more livable, the report recommends a number of measures
to mitigate pollution and use resources more efficiently. Recommended
actions include reducing transport congestion from private cars,
motivating use of environmentally friendlier cars, improving
public transportation networks,upgrading district heating networks,
improving energy efficiency of the residential housing, and reviving
the recycling networks.

To finance all the changes needed, the report suggests new approaches
to mobilizing additional financing for the cities. On the sub-national
level, policy makers first need to improve the technical and
economic efficiency of public utilities. Then they can explore ways
of getting additional revenues from the most appropriate source: the
consumers of the urban services themselves. Increases in local taxes,
housing maintenance fees, and charges for water, heating, and public
transport are among the possible sources of finance. More private
sector investment and financing from reputable regional development
banks can also be considered by policy makers, particularly to provide
cross-border infrastructure needed for regional connectivity.

As cities in Eurasia experience unprecedented spatial reorganization
influenced by city agglomeration, renewed mobility and population
dynamics, policy makers need to find sustainable development paths
for the cities in the region. “When a new “Silk Road” emerges, it
will have to be biaxial: along the North-South axis connecting Russia
and India and along the East-West axis connecting China and the EU,”
the report said.

From: A. Papazian