Author: Andres-Papazian

SIT-IN IN FREEDOM SQUARE IN SUPPORT OF RAFFI HOVANNISIAN

06:08 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

Five years ago, after the presidential elections in Armenia, young
chess player Narek Varazdatyan was staging a sit-in in Freedom square
protesting against the election outcome.

Today Narek is again in Freedom square with a group of young people who
demand to invalidate the official results of the 2013 presidential
election. With the move, the young people express their support
for Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian, who is disputing Serzh
Sargsyan’s re-election.

For more details, watch the video.

From: A. Papazian

Georgia rules out renewal of ties with Russia

TERT.AM
12:49 – 11.03.13

The Georgian authorities have ruled out the possibility of renewing
diplomatic ties with the Russia Federation under a parliament decision
adopted unanimously last week.

The document, addressing Georgia’s key foreign policy trends, also
reaffirms the country’s commitment to continue the NATO and EU
integration efforts, Rosbalt.ru reported.

It highlights the need for `creating security guarantees, protecting
Georgia’s independence and re-establishing the country’s territorial
integrity in accordance with internationally accepted standards’.

The document refers to the United States as a military ally with which
Georgia is expected to develop relations based on a 2008 Military
Partnership Charter.

But it actually bans the country from resuming the relations with
Russia. `Georgia cannot have diplomatic relations with states which
recognize the independence of the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali [South
Ossetia] regions,’ reads the decision.

From: A. Papazian

U.S. tops Turkey’s arms exports list in 2012

English.news.cn 2013-03-11 16:05:51

ANKARA, March 11 (Xinhua) — The United States has become the top
market for Turkish arms as the exports from Turkey’s defense sectors
increased by 38 percent in 2012, Turkish media said Monday.

Analysts said that the upcoming gun control measures in the United
States had led to a surge in the demand for more firearms, which
boosted Turkey’s gun exports to the country.

Statistics showed that the Turkish defense companies increased their
exports to 1.3 billion U.S. dollars last year, a 43-percent
significant increase over 2011.

Among the arms buyers, the United States ranked No.1 by purchasing a
490 million dollars worth of defense products from Turkey last year.
The United Arab Emirates followed with 101 million dollars, while
Saudi Arabia came third with 99 million dollars.

Turkey’s defense sector aims to sell 1.5 billion worth of arms this year.

From: A. Papazian

Problems facing Syrian Armenians discussed at the Ministry of Diaspora
19:22 15.03.2013

Anna Nazaryan
`Radiolur’

Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan met with
representatives of the civil society and religious organizations today
to discuss the problems facing Syrian Armenians.

Arman Saghatelyan’s film `The Syrian Autumn of the Arab Spring’ was
screened within the framework of the meeting.

About 6,500 Armenians have moved to the Motherland since the
escalation of situation in Syria. The issues of their accommodation
and employment remain the most urgent ones.

According to Hranush Hakobyan, the inter-departmental commission set
up at the initiative of the President of the republic is doing its
best to help solve the problems Syrian Armenians face.

The Minister informed that the program of construction of houses for
Syrian Armenians in areas around Yerevan is in progress. In the coming
months the deprived Armenian families in Syria will get $100 thousand
in aid monthly.

From: A. Papazian

Turkey kills two birds with one stone accusing Armenian of attacks – expert

March 16, 2013 – 13:20 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Murat Nazaryan, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin
suspected of attacking elderly Armenian women in Istanbul was used by
Ankara to gain its own ends, an expert said.
`Turkey killed two birds with on stone, finding the suspect and an
Armenian, at that,’ Andranik Ispiryan.
`The judicial opinion based on probe results reveals contradictory
statements of the accused, suggesting he’s not certain and doesn’t
remember whether he was involved in the attacks. The weak psyche of
the accused might prompt Turkey to force him into those actions.’
Despite Turkish media’s citing theft as the motive for the attacks,
none of the women were robbed, with a bag of money and pension sum
found in the apartments of the two assault victims, the expert said.

From: A. Papazian

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

LENT CONCERT AT THE ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR CATHEDRAL IN ANTELIAS

On Thursday 14 March 2013, under the patronage of His Holiness Aram I, the
Department of Christian Education of the Catholicosate of Cilicia organized
a spiritual concert, accompanied with meditation.

The Armash Choir of the Seminary, conducted by Rev. Torkom Donoyan, sang
spiritual hymns of the season, and five monks led the meditations.

His Holiness concluded the evening with the following message, “Music and
meditation awaken in us spiritual values, which then strengthen us to face
our difficulties.” “Antelias,” he continued, “is not a location; it is a
mission that begins at the seminary, which prepares us to live and
communicate our mission.” His Holiness concluded his message with prayers
and a blessing.
##
Photos:

From: A. Papazian

SYRIAN REFUGEES REACH NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 14 2013

RIA Novosti has held a round-table conference on the two years of
conflict in Syria. The disorders that had started on March 15, 2011,
have caused deaths of over 70,000 people. Millions were forced to
leave homes and over a million left the country.

Vitaly Naumkin, Director of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the
RAS, said that 400-600 Syrian refugees had moved to Nagorno-Karabakh.

He reminded that opposition was demanding resignation of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad before any peaceful dialogues would start.

The conflict in Syria had impact on Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Further
violence may cause collapse of the country and society and threatens
regional security.

.

From: A. Papazian

LAST OF THE MOHICANS: ARMENIA’S PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN

European Voice
March 14 2013

By Jennifer Rankin – Today, 04:15 CET

Barring accidents or upsets, Serzh Sargsyan will be sworn in as
Armenia’s president for a second term on 9 April. If the ceremony
follows past form, the career politician will place his hand over a
copy of Armenia’s 18-year-old constitution and a 1,400-year-old bible
to take the oath of office that will see him in power until 2018.

The rituals evoke solidity, but awkward questions about Sargsyan’s
victory linger. Raffi Hovannisian, Sargsyan’s main rival, has been
drawing crowds of thousands as he tours the country insisting that he
was the real winner of February’s contest. According to the official
count, Sargsyan won 59% of the vote, compared to Hovannisian’s 37%.

Local vote-monitors, such as Transparency International, say they have
evidence of ballot-box stuffing. International observers concluded
that the election was an improvement on its predecessors, but still
fell short of being truly competitive. Some of Sargsyan’s rivals
decided not to stand, arguing that the contest was skewed in the
president’s favour.

The final report from the international election mission, also due
in April, is expected to make uncomfortable reading for the president.

Nonetheless, this is a less troubled start than the early days of
Sargsyan’s first term. On 1 March 2008, ten people were killed and
scores injured during protests over alleged electoral fraud. Robert
Kocharian, the outgoing president and Sargsyan’s old friend, declared
a three-week state of emergency, and the parliament passed a law
curbing public meetings.

“The last five years were years of rehabilitation. This time he
has the chance to start on blank paper,” says Haykak Arshamyan,
a historian and civic activist in Yerevan.

Yet Sargsyan, 58, faces huge challenges in modernising this poor,
landlocked country where more than one-third of the population live
below the poverty line, and economic development is choked because
only two of its four borders – with Georgia and Iran – are open. The
borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed.

“Many people are simply disappointed with his economic policies,”
says Varuzhan Hoktanyan, an elections expert who leads Transparency
International’s Armenia office. “You have very serious discontent
– 250,000 people [from a population of 3.1 million] have left the
country during Serzh Sargsyan’s presidency.”

“Even people who voted for him are saying that the country needs
serious reform and that the country hasn’t done that well,” says Liana
Sayadyan, deputy editor of Hetq newspaper. Sargsyan’s awkward manner,
clearly on view during unscripted moments on the campaign trail,
made him even less popular, says Sayadyan. “During the elections
local people asked questions and he answered without pleasure…so
voters were disappointed.”

Sargsyan may be a typical post-Soviet politician, an uncharismatic
pragmatist devoid of any ideology. He is better known for his
fondness for chess – he is chairman of the national federation of
this chess-loving country – than for any moves inspired by political
conviction. His party, the Republican Party of Armenia, is neither
liberal, left nor right, Sayadyan says, but follows what it defines
as the “national interest”.

For Sargsyan, the national interest means good relations with Russia
and the European Union. The national interest also prompted a bold
initiative to unfreeze relations with Turkey: the so-called “football
diplomacy” of 2008-09 was praised even by Sargsyan’s domestic critics,
although it stalled when Turkey’s leadership failed to ratify the
necessary protocols.

Sargsyan was born in the Soviet Union, in Stepanakert, the silk-weaving
capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan where
conflict still smoulders 20 years after the two countries went to
war over the territory. Unusually for a Karabakhi, Sargsyan studied
in Yerevan, but returned to his native region to become leader of
the local Komsomol, the Soviet youth group, after a brief career as
a metalworker.

When the Nagorno-Karabakh war broke out in 1992, Sargsyan found himself
in charge of supplies and logistics. This job did not shield him from
the conflict’s terrible toll. “I lost nearly all my friends.

I lost my 18-year-old nephew,” he recalled in a 2000 interview.

Nevertheless, although Sargsyan speaks Azeri and grew up with
Azerbaijani friends, he insisted that Armenia would be ready to fight
again if necessary.

Armenia’s eventual victory in 1994 cemented the position of the
Nagorno-Karabakh faction in the country’s political life, and
the dominant personalities were Sargsyan and his one-time protege,
Kocharian, whom he had appointed as his Komsomol deputy – and who later
became Armenia’s second president. Kocharian came to power in 1997,
when his rival in presidential elections was forced to stand down
amid accusations of defeatism over Nagorno-Karabakh. “We were very
close friends. There was hardly a week when we didn’t go hunting or
fishing,” Sargsyan recalled in 2000.

It was widely expected that Sargsyan, who served under Kocharian
as defence minister and prime minister, would take over from his
former fishing buddy. But when he did, it was marked by an increasing
divergence of approach from the Russia-leaning, “tough guy” attitude
of his friend, according to Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Sargsyan meets the
opposition, he tries to have a more balanced foreign policy, he made
gestures to NATO, he gave Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili a
medal in 2009 – that was a deliberate signal to Russia, ‘we are not
your prize’,” says de Waal. “He is more of a pragmatist than you
might guess.”

“The good thing about Sargsyan is that he can listen to people. He is
not a very tough leader,” says Arshamyan, citing Sargsyan’s decision
to release political prisoners jailed after the 1 March 2008 protests.

Analysts expect that Sargsyan will have to talk to the opposition to
make headway in his second term, to boost what is seen as his limited
ability to respond to an increasingly dissatisfied public. “If you
compare the Armenia of 2008 to the Armenia of 2013, the media is so
much freer. There are more young people in the government. [Sargsyan]
is becoming year by year a more controversial figure,” argues
Arshamyan.

Time may be running out for the Nagorno-Karabakh clan. “He is the last
of the Mohicans, the last vestige of the Nagorno-Karabakh elite,”
says Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in
Yerevan. “The nationalist element of politics no longer resonates with
voters.” Nor is Sargsyan likely to be the man to open up this closed
government, he adds. “He is playing chess too slowly; he needs to be
much bolder in his moves,” says Giragosian.

Jennifer Rankin

1954: Born Stepanakert

1972-74: Served in the USSR armed forces

1979: Graduated from Yerevan State University

1979-88: Head of division, Stepanakert City Communist Party Youth
Association

1989-93: Head of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Self Defence Forces
Committee

1990: Elected as a deputy to the Supreme Council of Armenia

1993-95: Defence minister

1996-99: Minister of interior and national security

1999-2007: Secretary of the Republic of Armenia Security Council

2000-07: Defence minister

2007-08: Prime minister

2008-: President of Armenia

From: A. Papazian

TCA HOSTS BOOK DEDICATION OF ZAVEN KHANJIAN’S BOOK ON ALEPPO

ARTS, SYRIA | MARCH 14, 2013 12:38 PM

Zaven Khnajian

GLENDALE -The dedication of the book Haleb, Arachin Gayaran (Aleppo,
the First Station) by Zaven Khanjian was held on March 3, by the
Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Los Angeles Chapter with a capacity
crowd at the Armenian Society of Los Angeles Center.

The program was emceed by Vache Semerdjian of the Tekeyan Cultural
Association (TCA), who explained that the reason that the association
published Khanjian’s book was due to the candor as well as dynamic
style of writing, which captivates the reader. During the program,
Semerdjian read excerpts of letters by admirers of Khanjian’s books
from different parts of the world.

Architect and musicologist Hrant Agbabian, who is currently working on
ceramic sculptures, presented Khanjian’s biography in English with a
refreshing style. He admitted that even though they went to the same
schools, although at different times, they had the same teachers,
he couldn’t compare his Armenian with Khanjian’s. Agbabian said that
Khanjian had graduated from the American University in Beirut with a
degree in business administration. He had met his wife, Sona, during a
Chanits youth group conference in Kessab, moved to the United States
in 1979 and set up a broker-realtor office in 1987. Agbabian summed
up that Khanjian “as a man who breathes and lives as one devoted to
his people.”

Lena Bozoyan, chairperson of the Armenian Relief Society of Western
USA (ARS) Regional Executive, started by saying that today we are all
“Halebtsis.” She provided insights on Khanjian’s leadership style
describing him as cautious yet bold, balanced, impartial and wise,
and a leader who inspires hope, and calms nerves when confronting
challenges.

Bozoyan explained the role of the ARS ahead of the formation of the
Syrian Armenian Relief Fund (SARF), and praised Khanjian’s role in
leading as chairman of the Executive Committee (since August 2012).

Even though she is from Lebanon, her mother is from Kessab, so she
spent many summers in Kessab. When she read the book, particularly
about Kessab, she was truly moved, and would understand why those who
are from Aleppo are so excited about the genuinely connecting to the
stories in the book.

Accompanied by pianist Ruzanna Vanessian, tenor Raffi Kerbabian’s
voice resonated in the hall as he sang three favorites, the last
one being Tercheyie Mdkov Doon (metaphysically flying home), which
rang true about the rush of memories, which were being evoked by
Khanjian’s writings.

He was followed by Sona Khanjian, the author’s wife. Her presentation
was the highlight of the evening, as she read the “Homenetmen
Vasbouragan” chapter in a lively, descriptive and musical style.

Archbishop Mousheg Mardirossian, Prelate of the Western Prelacy,
recalled that with his experience on the Armenia Fund board, where
Khanjian had served, he knew that the latter was suited for the top
SARF job, particularly since the author was so concerned about the
situation in Syria. Mardirossian quoted the Bible verse “Jesus saw
Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!” (John 1:47) and described Khanjian, who puts
forth is best abilities as an archetypal Christian Armenian “in whom
is no guile.” The Prelate wished for the return of peace to Aleppo.

Historian Dr. Vahram Shemmassian presented Haleb, Arachin Gayaran,
discussing the many important aspects of the book, highlighting
customs, traditions and culture in Armenian life in Aleppo in the
era covered: life near the “Gare de Baghdad” station, the Armenian
Evangelical Emmanuel school that the author attended, the special
figures such as the Arab ice cream vendor, and the way the local Arabs
treated the Armenians. Of special importance was how the author’s
father, Vazken Khanjian, a custom furniture builder, treated books
and periodicals with such reverence that wrinkling an issue was reason
for punishment.

Shemmassian covered different aspects of life in Aleppo the family
traditions where children sat with adults around the heaters listening
to their stories. He noted that many of these precious traditions
and customs have been regretfully discarded in today’s society and
called to revive them.

The professor also noted that Arab characters are presented in a
positive way and that the book covers commentary about the political
life, such as upheavals of the 1960s, when Armenians, particularly ARF
leaders, were prosecuted, jailed and killed in Syria. He considered the
226-page book one worthy to be translated into Arabic and English,
congratulated the author and wished that he continue to publish
new works.

Fr. Hovsep Hagopian, who was representing Archbishop Hovnan Derderian,
Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Western,
congratulated the author for doing everything with faith and love,
and read the Western Diocese Primate’s congratulatory letter. Arch.

Derderian wrote that the book portrays the author’s religious and
national feelings, and urges all of us to continuously apply our
actions as application of our nationalistic convictions.

Zaven Khanjian, the author, said that he was humbled by all the
presentations, and all the talk was about a place, where people were
born and grew up and the credit belongs to that place called Aleppo.

He had a long list of people whom he thanked for their various
contributions including providing the hall; publishing, editing,
formatting and presenting the book; and the audience. He thanked his
wife, Sona, for being so supportive and all the sacrifices that she
continues to make for him. Khanjian wrapped up his message by reciting
a poetic description of what Aleppo represents.

The program ended with Rev. Dr. Vahan Tootikian’s prayers. About
350 people who were in attendance had a chance to obtain autographed
copies of the book.

The following churches, charities and organizations came together to
form the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund: Armenian Catholic Eparchy in
North America; Armenian Evangelical Union of North America; Western
Diocese of the Armenian Church; Western Prelacy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church of America; Armenian General Benevolent Union;
Armenian Missionary Association of America; Armenian Relief Society
of Western U.S.A.; Armenian Democratic Liberal Party; Armenian
Revolutionary Federation-Western U.S.A.; and Social Democrat
Hunchakian Party-Western U.S.A. The web site address follows:

From: A. Papazian

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN: “I DON’T WANT ANY TENT”

17:24, March 14, 2013

At the start of his interview, just minutes ago, Raffi Hovannisian
urged his supporters to cease any attempt to pitch a tent in Freedom
Square.

Earlier, there was a heated confrontation between police and citizens
when the former tried to erect a tent for Hovannisian.

The police argued that according to the law, Freedom Square was a
“historical-cultural space” and thus no fixtures were allowed on the
asphalt surface.

Hovannisian supporters retorted that the tent would be pitched on
the grassy lawn outside asphalted area.

In the end, a free standing canopy was erected.

Hovannisian told reporters that he didn’t want a tent and that it
was up to Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan saw fit to safeguard his
well being.

Today, Hovannisian was paid visits by the RA Human Rights Defender,
the writer Levon Khechoyan, and Manvel Teghiazaryan, a commander from
the “Yerkrapah” organization.

“All sectors of our people are represented here today,” said
Hovannisian, adding that he would see to it that everyone celebrated
“our victory together.”

Hovannisian reiterated that future actions would be the result of
decisions made with the people.

When a reporter asked if Hovannisian would heed the call of some to
“go to the Presidential Palace and storm the gates”, the Heritage
Party leader responded, “The people will not do anything without me,
nor I without them.”

A rally is scheduled for tomorrow at 5pm. On Saturday, a rock concert
will be held in the square.

Given that the Constitutional Court hadn’t yet issued its decision
regarding Hovannisian’s petition to annul the February 18 presidential
election, the Heritage Party leader said he would comment on the
matter tomorrow.

The court later issued its decision rejecting the appeal.

From: A. Papazian