Author: Andres-Papazian

LE PRIX DU TRANSPORT DES CONTENEURS MODIFIE ENTRE L’ARMENIE ET LA GEORGIE

Le prix du transport des conteneurs a ete modifie entre l’Armenie et
la Georgie selon le service de presse de la compagnie des chemins de
fer du Sud Caucase.

Le 1er fevrier 2013, la societe georgienne des chemins de fer a
augmente les taux tarifaires pour le transport de conteneurs de
20 pieds de 3,5% et a annule le facteur 0,82 de reduction pour les
conteneurs de 40 pieds.

Pour reduire les pressions sur les coûts pour les expediteurs et les
destinataires la compagnie des chemins de fer du Sud Caucase a freine
la hausse des taux de fret sur le territoire de l’Armenie en fevrier
a ses propres frais. Cependant, guide par l’Accord sur le transport
international ferroviaire des conteneurs et selon l’accord conclu
avec la compagnie georgienne des chemins de fer les nouveaux tarifs
de transport de conteneurs sont egalement entree en vigueur sur le
territoire de l’Armenie depuis le 1er mars.

Le prix pour un conteneur de 40 pieds charge est de 0,96 dollars par
tonne-km (au lieu de 0,78 auparavant), et pour un recipient vide 0,48
(au lieu de 0,39). Pour les conteneurs charges ou vides de 20 pieds le
tarif sera de 0,56 et 0,28 respectivement (au lieu de 0,54 et 0,27),
selon le communique.

vendredi 15 mars 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH PROFESSOR UNMASKS TURKEY’S CRIMINAL SECRETS, OUTLINES THE EIGHT PHASES OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

By Appo Jabarian
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine

Ankara is fast at work to counter the wave of intra-national and
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. But is it
successful?

Recently a damning Turkish documentary surfaced on Youtube.com
unmasking the eight phases of the 1915-1923 genocide.

Professor Ugur Umit Ungör, a lecturer at the Department of History
at Utrecht University and at the Institute for War, Holocaust, and
Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, revealed the Turkish-documented inner
workings of Turkish-masterminded and executed government policies
of mass deportations, dispossession, and annihilation against the
Armenians then living under Ottoman yoke.

Personally I watched it at least half a dozen times. In the documentary
Prof. Ungor clearly outlines the damning details of Turkey’s secret
plans to exterminate the Armenians and to expropriate their real and
personal properties as well as their ancestral homelands in Western
Armenia.

Professor Ungor, author of the “Confiscation and Destruction: The
Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property (Continuum, 2011)” and the
award-winning “The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern
Anatolia, 1913-1950 (Oxford University Press, 2011),” elaborated on
“how Western Armenia became part of Turkish nation state. And he went
on to illustrate how “the confiscation of the properties of Armenians”
was carried out. He underlined the fact that “This process hasn’t
really been studied.”

He contrasted it to other mass murders and genocides, “such as the
Holocaust, the genocide in Bosnia and the one in Rwanda.”

He went on: “The genocide was not one process. It was not just
deportations; just massacres. But it was a whole range of destruction
policies and I count at least eight of them. Then I’ll move on to
discuss some of the laws such as confiscation, expropriation, and
finally I would like to give an example of one Armenian business that
was expropriated by Ottoman Young Turk government. .. In several cases
(the processes) overlapping one another … geared into each other,
they work together to produce the intended process of destruction.”

Then he went on to list the eight phases of the Armenian Genocide.

1) Firing of all Armenian civil servants in the Ottoman Empire
“Starting in early winter 1914, Talaat Pasha fired all the Armenian
civil servants in the Empire starting with the police officers, civil
servants, firemen, teachers – primary school teachers secondary school
teachers,. All Armenians were fired from the Turkish bureaucracy,”
noted Prof. Ungor.

2) Decapitation “Talaat and company then moved on to the second
phase of the process which was decapitation, and this was of course
the infamous arrests of April 24, 1915 paving the way to the complete
decapitation of the Armenian elite in Istanbul and was replicated in
the provinces,” he said.

He continued: “I’d like to say two things and I think this is extremely
important, first of all these were extremely systematic; there were
lists of the men to be arrested and executed and of course these
lists were sent back to Istanbul for corroboration. Secondly this
was extremely a fast process. Time flies especially in the Armenian
Genocide. In matter of weeks complete elite of the Armenian community
of the Empire – cultural intelligentsia; economic intelligentsia;
religious intelligentsia were destroyed.”

Then he showed two photographs, the first one depicting Krikor Zohrab,
a famous writer, an Ottoman Armenian member of the Ottoman Parliament
headquartered in Istanbul; the second depicting Mikael Khachaturian,
the Bishop of Malatya.

Then he drew sharp contrasts between the two men: “It was interesting
to study the biographies of two very different men.- Krikor Zohrab,
very critical of the church and very liberal; and Bishop Khachaturian,
a very pious, very spiritual and strong believer in the Christian
faith. Both of them were arrested. Both of them were murdered. I think
this is quite important — two very different individuals that have
nothing in common except for the fact that they were Armenians. And
this is the essence of the genocide – reducing people to their ethnic
identity.”

3) “The third phase was heralded through the deportations. On
23 May, exactly one month after the massive arrests of the elite,
Talaat Pasha ordered complete deportation of all Armenians into the
Syrian desert of Deir-ez-Zor. And this is also important because this
order was published and we found the official document in the Ottoman
archives in which they ordered this and which in itself is a genocidal
order for the complete deportation of the civilian population into
the desert,” he underlined.

4) “The fourth phase was the dispossession process. Between May
and November 1915, Talaat Pasha issued four decrees in the form of laws
— and of course they had nothing to do with the laws. For laws, you
need to have a legal process; separation of powers. That was not the
case because it was a dictatorship. He began with a deportation order
and the first order which was about deporting all of the Armenians
contained provision that Armenians could bring along everything
they wanted. ‘So you have a house; you have lands to sell. You can
take the money with you and then you can go to the Deir-ez-Zor where
you will be resettled.’ That sounded promising. But then of course
the new decrees reversed this policy. In June 1915, the government
established Abandoned Property Commissions and these were really
organizations to assault the Armenian economy. With one decision,
all of the properties were officially handed over or transferred to
the government. So they took the decision and they had to fine tune
it so they took more decisions. One in September 1915, when they
delegated the implementation of this huge plan to three ministries –
the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry
of Justice because they understood that this is a huge process. And
who’s going to organize it? These three ministries! And they of course
had a record of all these properties and they corresponded among each
other. And we have correspondences. They are in the Ottoman archives
in Istanbul. I looked at them extensively,” he asserted.

5) “The fifth phase was mass murder. From the summer of 1915
on, the special units began murdering Armenian civilians throughout
the Empire. So far we had very little information of these men of
the organization “Tashkilat al Mahsusa”. What kind of organization
was this? How was it set up? I found this document – a photo in the
archives of the Ottoman government. It was interesting to see that
all of them were dressed in the same uniforms. And secondly, even more
important, they’re standing in front of the War Ministry in Istanbul.

So no longer can the government say that we have nothing to do with
these – with Chechens running wild, and posing for photographs in front
of the war ministry. The building still exists. It is now converted
into a military museum in Istanbul. And the list goes on,” he added.

6) “The sixth phase of the genocide was forced assimilation. The
absorption of women and children into the Turkish households. This is
also significant in the genocidal process because it was an assault
on cultural identity of people. By making sure that people could not
reproduce; could not continue to perpetuate their identity. It is an
assault on an abstract idea of culture embodied in these individuals.

This is the essence of what genocide is. Men were separated from
women. Children were separated from their parents breaking up the
most essential ties in human beings,” he further noted.

7) “Then we had the seventh phase of the genocide – the famine
crime.

Starting in 1916 on those Armenians were forced into Deir-ez-Zor
and were pushed into organized artificial famine zones. People were
put into the region where (the Turkish soldiers) prohibited bread
from reaching the victims. And this is extremely important. You can
distinguish what makes it genocidal. The Turkish people that were
living in Deir-ez-Zor were given bread. The Armenians were prohibited
to buy bread. Why did they do that? Of course there is no question
about the intention behind this policy. And I’m still not finished,”
he emphasized.

“The final phase of the genocide was the assault on material culture
and architecture. Starting from 1915 on there was a policy that
was continued well into the 1920â~@²s when the Turkish government
continued destroying churches and monasteries. And here’s only one
example: Sourp Hovhannes (monastery) in Alashkert (he showed an old
photo depicting the church in Alashkert on the left and also showed
a new photo of the same location depicting a destroyed church then he
said: “And what is left of the monastery was the foundation only. And
you can clearly see that this is the same place. Some of my students
have asked me, how to know if this is the same place? He responded:
“I’ll show it to you. The black stripe here in the mountain (in the
background of the church), and these are the foundations of this
monastery,” he illustrated.

Speaking of the entire eight processes he said: “Together and only
together they produce a coherent process of destruction. By the end of
the war there were approximately 2900 Armenian settlements that were
depopulated by about a million Armenians because they were dead. I’d
like to move on to the dispossession policy. These eight phases have
to be studied and in fact they are studied in details.”

I must acknowledge that this article in no way is an adequate report on
the monumental work done by Prof. Ungor. Watch the video on Youtube.com
at the following link: The
presentation is in English with Turkish subtitles. Please share it with
your friends. One needs to get further acquainted with Prof. Ungor’s
works in order to grasp the magnitude of his revelations.

As well-informed members of the new Turkish generation emerge,
denialist Turks see the walls of silence falling around them.

From: A. Papazian

WHY SWEDEN IS GOING STRATEGIC WITH TURKEY

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 12 2013

Column by Abdullah Bozkurt

If you ask which country has been the strongest advocate of the
EU membership process for Turkey in the last decade, not just with
public remarks but also with intensive lobbying endeavours, I would
say it was – and still is – Sweden. It is amazing how the Swedes came
around from being one of the most vocal critics of Turkey concerning
shortcomings in rights throughout the 1990s to becoming its staunchest
ally in the 27-member bloc, really pushing the other EU member states
for acceleration of negotiations with Turkey today.

The engagement of Sweden with Turkey is mainly motivated by the fact
that a majority Muslim country with G-20 and NATO memberships has
started to play an increasingly pivotal role in regional and global
affairs. Swedes noticed early on that Turkey with political reforms
as well as its robust and growing economy fuelled by entrepreneurial
companies, dynamic young labour force and huge consumer market would
be a good candidate for partnership. As a small country with 9.3
million people, the Swedes have tried their best to avoid conflicts
for two centuries. The best way to insure that is to stay engaged
with multinational organizations like the UN, the EU and NATO as
well as to maintain close ties with emerging powers. Policymakers in
Sweden acknowledge the value Turkey brings to the table in resolving
conflicts like in Kosovo and Afghanistan where Swedish troops serve
along with Turkish ones. As Sweden became involved in many issues
in the Western Balkans, it appreciated Turkey’s role in bridging
differences among Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks.

The Swedes have come to an understanding that the EU can be an engine
of reform in Turkey as the country is undergoing major social and
political changes. They have zoomed in on judicial reforms in Turkey
by offering bilateral cooperation programmes starting as early as
2007. The Turkish Ministry of Justice and the Swedish National Courts
Administration has an ongoing project to make the management of courts
and appeals processes much more efficient while bolstering confidence
in the judiciary. Behind all these efforts lies a belief by Sweden that
Turkey with a full-fledged democracy can serve as an important bridge
between Europe and the Muslim world, strengthening the bloc’s role in
regional and world affairs. In other words, Turkey with European and
Muslim values is a good partner for Sweden to “strategically align”
itself with in order to respond to emerging challenges on the old
continent and beyond.

Swedes were right in their diagnosis of Turkey. The EU process has
not only helped Turkey in overhauling archaic state institutions but
also contributed in marginalizing the elitist Kemalist ideology that
had held the governance of the country captive to the interests of a
privileged few. In old times, it would be simply unthinkable to see
a Turkish Syriac Orthodox archbishop as a minority representative
taking part today in a foreign trip by a Turkish president, Abdullah
Gul, on his state visit to Sweden where by one account, around 70,000
Turkish Syriacs live. Instead of hailing this as richness in diverse
Turkish society, the old dogs would have labelled this as amounting to
“treason.” Thankfully and hopefully we have now gone way beyond this
mentality holding a grip on Turkey’s potential.

The Swedes are understandably interested in seeing the resolution
of Turkey’s Kurdish problem and have thrown their support behind the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government initiatives
to address Kurdish demands. Further democratization, a new constitution
and decentralization will help marginalize the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK), relieving some of the issues confronting the
Kurdish diaspora in Sweden as well. If anybody knows how the PKK
terror dealt a blow to legitimate Kurdish aspirations in Turkey,
it must be Kurdish writer and politician Kemal Burkay, who returned
to Turkey from a 31-year exile in Sweden last year. Burkay has said
that people who do not want a solution to the Kurdish problem are
the same ones who do not want Turkey’s inclusion in the EU.

This Nordic country was instrumental in the formation of the Friends
of Turkey informal parliamentary bipartisan friendship group that was
established in the European Parliament in 2010. Sweden is the only EU
member country that has opened a Swedish-Turkish Cooperation Centre
in Istanbul to promote Turkey’s integration into the EU. The Swedes
even took the gloves off in 2009 when former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy tried to shut the door completely on Turkey by floating
a hollow “privileged membership” alternative. After criticisms of
France by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was interviewed
by Le Figaro on the eve of Sarkozy’s visit to Sweden in 2009, the
French president had to cancel the trip.

If other friends of Turkey in the EU would put up as much of a
fight in closed-door meetings as the Swedes did, we would probably
be halfway through now on the finalizing of the negotiation chapters
for membership. But most just choose to resort to cheap talk without
spending any political capital and pay lip service to Turkish concerns
without fighting when the arm-twisting starts in Brussels. During the
EU presidency in 2010, the Swedes did their best to bridge differences
between NATO and the EU over the Cyprus issue but failed to do so.

This was compounded by the fact that Turkish-EU ties, unlike
Turkey-NATO relations, were problematic, and this led to some tension
between Turkey and the Sweden as well. But just as in the case where
the Swedish government quickly distanced itself from a vote in the
Swedish parliament that defined the early 20th-century killings
of Anatolian Armenians as genocide in 2010, Stockholm also did not
allow differences in Afghanistan to make a dent in bilateral ties
with Turkey.

Now we see that the growing bilateral relations between Turkey and
Sweden have a cooperative aspect with regard to third countries. On
the diplomatic level, Bildt and his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet
Davutoglu, are in constant contact to discuss issues that matter
for both concerning other countries. The informal process known
as Trilateral Solidarity for Building Peace, which includes Bildt,
Davutoglu and the minister of external relations of Brazil, Antonio
de Aguiar Patriota, has the potential of having a synchronized impact
on some of the important regional and global issues. The mechanism is
intended to draw further attention to issues like the Arab Awakening,
the question of Palestine, the global economic crisis, terrorism,
eradication of poverty, climate change, Internet freedom and nuclear
proliferation.

>>From an economic perspective, Sweden can play an important role in
improving Turkey’s technological infrastructure and know-how to make
the country leap forward to the first-tier economies of the world. The
Swedes are a tech-savvy people and have developed global brands in
technology. Turks can learn a lot from the Swedes, who came in second
after Germany in tech venture capital investments last year. In
return, Sweden – whose economy was battered with declining exports
(47 per cent of the Swedish economy relies on exports) – can benefit
from the Turkish experience in market penetration. In fact, that is
what Hakan Akesson, Sweden’s ambassador to Turkey, hinted on Friday
when I saw him to talk about Gul’s visit. He said there is a perfect
opportunity now for both Swedish and Turkish companies to partner
in third markets. “They complement each other,” he asserted. As the
Swedish economy is forecast to have 1.1 per cent growth this year after
posting 0.8 per cent last year, it needs new markets. What is more,
the half a trillion dollar Swedish economy with an aging population
and very liberal labour laws can tap into the young labour pool in
Turkey. There is also room for improvement of the bilateral trade
volume between Turkey and Sweden, which stood at $3.3 billion in
2012, favouring Sweden by two-to-one. It has increased by 300 per
cent since 2002 when the trade volume was $831 million.

There is a bipartisan and generall y positive consensus in Sweden
towards Turkey. Considering that over 600,000 Swedes visited Turkey
last year, up from 200,000 a decade ago, it is not surprising to see
a positive public perception of Turkey in Sweden. The government in
Sweden is keen to boost that perception with the inauguration of the
Institute for Turkey Studies of Stockholm University during Gul’s
visit. The fact that approximately 115,000 emigrants from Turkey live
in Sweden constitutes another link bonding the two countries.

All in all, Swedes are betting that Turkey with modern democracy, a
thriving economy and Islamic values can set a good example for others
in the region and help Europeans resolve integration problems with
Muslim communities. That is why they are upgrading ties to “strategic
partnership,” implying that Swedish and Turkish values are completely
compatible. This will soon lead to joint intergovernmental cabinet
meetings. By furthering the reform path, the Turks should make the
Swedes’ advocacy job easier.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION ACTIVIST OVANNISYAN REFUSES MEETING WITH PRESIDENT

Interfax, Russia
March 11, 2013 Monday 3:13 PM MSK

Raffi Ovannisyan, the leader of the Armenian opposition party Heritage,
who has recently lost the presidential elections, has refused to meet
with incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan.

“The head of the Armenian presidential administration called Raffi
Ovannisyan yesterday to officially invite him to the meeting. We regret
to say that Raffi Ovannisyan has refused a meeting and a detailed
and comprehensive discussion of all issues,” Armenian presidential
press secretary Armen Arzumanyan told Armenian agency Panorama.

“The only thing left is to hope that Mr. Ovannisyan evaluated the
situation correctly and is fully aware of the threat of de facto
refusal to have a dialogue,” Arzumanyan said.

Sargsyan won the presidential elections in Armenia on February 18.

According to the Armenian Central Elections Commission, 58.64% of
the voters voted for Sargsyan and 36.74% voted for Ovannisyan.

On March 10, Ovannisyan went on a hunger strike protesting the official
voting outcome. Before that, he had conducted protest rallies in
central Yerevan.

On Monday, the Armenian Constitutional Court began the trial of the
lawsuit filed by Ovannisyan seeking the invalidation of the voting
outcome in the presidential elections.

At an opposition rally on February 26, Ovannisyan said he would like
to meet with Sargsyan again “to look for ways out of this situation.”

“I am ready to hear his proposals,” Ovannisyan said.

The first meeting between Ovannisyan and Sargsyan took place in the
presidential residence on February 21. At the subsequent protest
rally, Ovannisyan said the meeting participants had failed to reach
agreements on any of the issues raised in the meeting.

av jv

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIANS IN SAINT PETERSBURG CELEBRATE FRANCOPHONE HOLIDAY

March 13, 2013 – 20:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Representatives of Francophone countries, based
in Saint Petersburg, organized an event to celebrate the Francophone
holiday, with Armenian, Belgium, Bulgarian, Greek, French and Swiss
consulate representatives giving press conferences.

Armenian Consul general to Saint Petersburg Vardan Hakobyan brefed
those present on the relations between Armenia and International
Organisation of La Francophonie and the cooperation programs.

The event further featured speeches by the consuls present at the
event and screening of the films of “My Little Prince” and “Sunrise
over Lake Van” films.

From: A. Papazian

HERITAGE PARTY REPRESENTATIVE SAYS THEIR PARTY MAY RUN TO ELDERS’ COUNCIL IN SINGLE PARTY LIST WITH ARFD

ARMINFO
Wednesday, March 13, 16:05

ARFD Party has a right to run to the Elders’ Council of Yerevan
independently as a political force having a 120-year-old history. It
is free in its decisions, Armen Martirosyan, Vice Chairman of the
Heritage Party Board, said in an open-air conference in the Liberty
Sqaure on March 13 when commenting on recent Mass Media rumors. In
particular, by some media reports ARFD list will be topped by Armen
Rustamyan, representative of the ARFD Supreme Body if the negotiations
for participation in the elections to the Elders’ Council of Yerevan
in a single list with other political forces.

Martirosyan said that Heritage is not against running to the Elders’
Council in an enlarged format, because the matter concerns not the
party but the nation-wide fight and a consolidated participation in
the elections would reflect and consolidate that fight.

In the meanwhile, the ruling Republican Party has already declared
that Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan will top the RPA list.

Sixty-five members of the Elders’ Council must be elected to further
elect the Yerevan mayor. So far, it is known that Emergency Situations
Minister, Armen Yeritsyan, will head the Orinats Yerkir party list
and ex-FM Vartan Oskanyan will top the Prosperous Armenia Party list.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR TO EGYPT REPLIES TO AZERBAIJANI PROPAGANDA IN AL-AHRAM WEEKLY

ARMINFO
Wednesday, March 13, 16:16

Armenia’s Ambassador to Egypt has published an article in the
influential Egyptian weekly “Al-Ahram”, in which he replied to the
distorted article about the Karabakh conflict. He explained that
Azerbaijani false propaganda regarding the Karabakh conflict is
directed at misleading of the world community so that to escape
responsibility for the Armenian pogroms and ethnic cleansing in
Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku.

The Armenian diplomat presented real facts of events in Kojalu and
called to draw attention at the fact that the Azerbaijanis which dared
to cast doubt upon official position of Baku, were punished, just
the same way as the former president of Azerbaijan Ayaz Mutalibov,
journalist Fatulayev and photographer Mustafayev. “The Karabakh
conflict is a result of unwillingness of Azerbaijan to recognize
the right of the people of Karabakh for self-determination and its
striving to settle the Karabakh conflict with a help of force”, –
the article says.

The article also emphasized that Armenia is for the Karabakh conflict
settlement within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of
international law.

From: A. Papazian

FORMER GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES’ $4BLN ALLOCATION TO MILITARY INDUSTRY IS SPEND INEFFICIENTLY – ARMENIAN ANALYST

NEW.AM
March 13, 2013 | 16:13

YEREVAN. – Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania’s first recent
visit to Armenia was not solely political and informational, Georgian
Studies specialist, Center for Political and Legal Studies (CePLS)
Director Johnny Melikyan stated during a press conference on Wednesday.

“During the visit, the defense ministers of both countries primarily
discussed matters relating to three domains: Military education,
reforms, and participation in international peacekeeping missions,”
the analyst noted.

He stressed that Georgia has greatly contributed to the peace mission
in Afghanistan, and added that Georgia is the sole non-NATO country
which has around 1,500 peacekeepers in Afghanistan.

As for military reforms in Georgia, Alasania stressed, during his
visit, that the $4 billion, which the country’s former authorities
had allocated for military industry, were spend inefficiently.

“The Georgian party could make use of the Armenian track-record in
this regard, whereas the Armenian [party], the knowhow of the Georgian
colleagues in several other directions,” Johnny Melikyan concluded.

From: A. Papazian

ALLIES IN TALKS: SARGSYAN-PUTIN MEETING PRODUCES LITTLE NEWS, SEEN AS CRUCIAL FOR FURTHER ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN TIES

ANALYSIS | 13.03.13 | 15:29

Photo:

By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent

The presidents of Armenia and Russia, Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir
Putin, met in Moscow on Tuesday for what many experts said were
crucial talks between the two allies.

The meeting had been expected to discuss a wide range of issues. But
no statements were issued after what was a closed-door discussion.

The two leaders made comments for the press only before going into
talks that reportedly lasted for about an hour.

Sargsyan, who won reelection in a disputed ballot last month, said
it was natural for him to make his first foreign trip to Russia,
a country that is an ally of Armenia, and Putin, for his part, again
congratulated the Armenian leader on his “convincing” victory.

Remarkably, however, Sargsyan thanked Putin for “good progress in
the military sphere” since their last meeting. What exactly he meant
is not clear yet. The last time Sargsyan and Putin met was on the
sidelines of a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) in Moscow last December and during that gathering the Armenian
leader stated that CSTO-member countries should not be arming regional
countries that openly threaten CSTO members with a war.

Russia is known to have supplied new types of weapons to Azerbaijan,
which is in conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Whether it
means that Russia promised not to supply weapons to Baku or increase
military assistance for Armenia is yet unclear.

It is noteworthy that during the exchange of brief greetings for the
press the two leaders said nothing about integration processes in
the post-Soviet space, even though experts had expected Putin to use
the meeting to push for Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union –
an economic alliance of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that Moscow
regards as a platform for a deeper integration of post-Soviet states
in the form of a so-called Eurasian Union. Such a conversation is most
likely to have taken place, but the sides preferred not reporting on
it, in particular on whether the Armenian leader accepted or rejected
the offer.

Russia has declared integration processes in the post-Soviet territory
to be the imperative of its foreign policy. But it has made little
progress in this direction lately as most former Soviet countries
appear reluctant to return to a Soviet Union model and, furthermore,
are now seeking to integrate with the European Union. Still,
Russia strongly hinders such European integration aspirations of
former Soviet countries, using old instruments, such as natural
gas supplies, military bases, unresolved conflicts, arms supplies,
as levers of pressure.

The issue of the natural gas price for Armenia is also likely to have
been on the agenda of the Moscow meeting between Sargsyan and Putin.

And the Armenian leader perhaps meant the price for this vital fuel
for Armenia when he spoke about expectations of “Russian assistance
in economic matters.” Some analysts in Yerevan also believe that
Armenia is likely to ask Russia for another credit. A few years ago
Moscow issued a loan of $500 million to Armenia to deal with the
consequences of a global economic crisis.

But the most intriguing questions that had been expected to come up
during the Moscow meeting of the two leaders were perhaps the opening
of the Abkhazian section of the railway that restore connection between
Armenia and Russia and the opening of an airport near the Karabakh
capital of Stepanakert, which is being opposed by Azerbaijan today.

It is remarkable that Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvamb was
also in Moscow on that same day and also met with Putin. No other
particulars related to the matter were reported immediately.

Equally important was the question of possible Russian security
guarantees for the opening of the Stepanakert airport. Earlier this
month Russian General Vladimir Shamanov said that in the event of
crises Russian assault troops incorporated in CSTO forces could be
deployed in countries that are members of the defense pact. In Armenia,
it was also taken as possible assistance in the event of Azerbaijan’s
attempts to thwart flights from and to the airport in Karabakh.

From: A. Papazian

GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL CREDITS FOR CHEAP PERCENTAGE RATE

12:14, 14 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Educational credits for cheap
percentage rate will be provided to the students of the Armenian
higher educational institutions. For that reason the Government of the
Republic of Armenia made a decision to allocate AMD 21 million during
the March 14 session. As reports “Armenpress” during the session of the
Government of the Republic of Armenia, which was held on March 14, the
Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia Vache Gabrielyan stated
that it has been provisioned to allocate AMD 1.800.000 for each student
for 12 percentage rate during the four year of study. 2-3 percent
will be subsidized by the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

Among other things the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia
Vache Gabrielyan noted: “The credit program will be implemented via
“Home for Youth” RCO CJSC organization.”

From: A. Papazian