Author: Andres-Papazian

China’s Growing Political Role in the Caucasus

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 12
January 23, 2013 05:56 PM Age: 18 days
By: Paul Goble

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad construction (Source: trend.az)

China’s economic role in the south Caucasus is expanding rapidly, with
Beijing’s investments in Azerbaijan alone now approaching a total of
one billion US dollars and its bilateral trade with that country
exceeding that figure on an annual basis. But as impressive as those
figures are, China appears set to play an even larger political role
in the region not only because of its interest in the
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway as a land route to Europe, but also because
of its concerns about the ways in which instability there could have a
negative impact on China
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There are at least three reasons for this conclusion, which seems
counter-intuitive since in their public statements so far, Chinese
leaders have made it clear that the Caucasus – North and South – is not a
place that is central to their interests. Indeed, the absence of such
declarations and Beijing’s apparent disinterest constitute the first
of China’s advantages: Unlike the major powers, such as the Russian
Federation, the United States and France, China does not show itself
to be and is not viewed by others as being closely tied to one country
in the Caucasus and thus at odds with others. At a time when many in
the region are questioning the motives and actions of these other
powers, that gives Beijing an opening that – judging from its policies
elsewhere – it is likely to exploit.

Second, China brings to any discussions in this region two
extraordinary advantages arising from its own more general approach to
foreign affairs. On the one hand and in sharp contrast to some other
major powers, China’s leaders are prepared to deal with the
governments in the Caucasus countries without challenging their
domestic arrangements or approach to democracy and human rights. They
focus exclusively on economic and geopolitical interests from a
realist perspective, something that governments in the region
appreciate especially as they have been stung by the criticism of
others.

And on the other, China brings to the south Caucasus and that region’s
currently frozen conflicts – namely between Georgia and the Russian
Federation, and between Armenia and Azerbaijan – its unique experience
of working with Taiwan, a place that Beijing insists is de jure part
of China, but one that it interacts with as a de facto independent
country. For Tbilisi, Moscow, Baku and Yerevan, that experience is at
least suggestive of some of the possible ways forward in dealing with
the so-called `breakaway’ republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Karabakh.

At the same time, the region is beset by growing anger in Baku about
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk
Group’s failure to resolve the Karabakh conflict, ongoing fears in
Tbilisi that Moscow will continue to back Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
as well as the absence of any outside mediators for any of these
conflicts who are not viewed by someone as parti pris – Turkey, for
example, is unacceptable to Armenia. As a result, China is in a
position to promote itself or even to be asked to play a role in both
cases that few in the region – and quite possibly few elsewhere or even
in Beijing itself – now foresee.

And third, in the South Caucasus as in other regions, China takes a
long-term approach to all issues. Its leaders do not feel compelled to
show progress in this or that year but instead work to advance
Beijing’s interests over decades or even longer. Others may seek to
exploit that approach especially if they are interested in maintaining
the status quo or oppose a resolution that would change it. But this
vision gives China some real advantages because it means that
Beijing’s representatives can focus always on their own pragmatic
interests rather than on playing to the crowd.

What are Beijing’s interests in the Caucasus? The most obvious are
the expansion of trade with the petroleum-rich Caspian basin
countries, the establishment of land-based transportation and
communication links between Asia and Europe (see EDM, January 10), the
recognition of China as a rising super power, and, above all else,
political stability and maintenance of the territorial integrity of
states. And its promotion of these interests over the longer term
means that China will seek to block the kind of border changes and
tectonic power shifts that some in the region and beyond appear
interested in.

Chinese activities in the South Caucasus are beginning to attract
attention. But quite clearly, this country’s moves deserve to be
followed closely now that Beijing has shown that it is more than
prepared to be a new player in the complex geopolitical game in the
South Caucasus.

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From: A. Papazian

US Fed News
February 8, 2013 Friday 11:47 AM EST

WIPO PUBLISHES PATENT OF ARMEN JAGHATSPANYAN FOR “VOLUMETRIC ROTARY
MACHINE (VARIANTS)” (ARMENIAN INVENTOR)

GENEVA

GENEVA, Feb. 8 — Publication No. WO/2013/013250 was published on Jan. 31.

Title of the invention: “VOLUMETRIC ROTARY MACHINE (VARIANTS).”
Applicants: Armen Jaghatspanyan (AM). Inventors: Armen Jaghatspanyan
(AM). According to the abstract* posted by the World Intellectual
Property Organization: “(57) Volumetric rotary machine, which may be
used as an internal combustion engine, compressor, pump, hydraulic and
pneumatic engines. The machine has similar two-rib or three- rib
rotors set between the casing’s (1) working surfaces. The minimum
numbers of three-rib rotors (2) is three, and two-rib rotors (3) are
respectively three and four, excepting five.

Every three three-rib or four two-rib adjacent rotors with their
cylindrical surfaces form closed working chambers. The working
chambers are restricted by the casing’s working surfaces, from the
sides of the rotors’ face surfaces. Due to the kinematic relation, the
rotors synchronously revolve in the same direction. During the
revolving of the rotors working chamber volume periodically changes
from zero to its maximum value and vice versa. The symmetry axis,
perpendicular to the face surfaces of the rotor, is the rotation axis
of each rotor. The rotors’ rotation axes are parallel to each other
and perpendicular to the casing’s working surfaces. The distance of
the adjacent rotors’ rotation axes is equal to the radius of their
cylindrical surfaces. The square of the distance of the rotation axes
of the opposite two-rib rotors is the double square of the cylindrical
surfaces’ radius.” The patent was filed on July 11, 2012 under
Application No. PCT/AM2012/000004. *For further information, including
images, charts and tables, please visit:

From: A. Papazian

Bibles Escape Syria War, Fall Prey To Looters

Anything Of Value Plundered In Al-Yakubiye Church

AL-YAKUBIYE, Syria, Feb 9, (AFP): The bibles lie untouched on the
carved wooden stands but the chandeliers have been dumped upside down
on the altar; the Christian village of Al-Yakubiye may have escaped
the full ravages of Syria’s civil war but it could not avoid the
plundering of the fighters.
Along the main road of this agricultural village in Syria’s
northwestern province of Idlib, an old cemetery with stone crosses
adjoins an Apostolic Orthodox Armenian church whose door lies open,
buffeted by the winds.

Those who swept through here seized anything of value, plundering even
the chancel and the sacristy. Under a portrait of a benevolent Virgin
Mary, a thief stole the chalice from the tabernacle.
Al-Yakubiye, nestled in a lush mountain overlooking the Orontes
valley, fell to the rebels two weeks ago after fighting that lasted
for several days.

The bulk of the clashes were around a fortified army post at the
entrance to the village, until the troops pulled out hastily and
headed to Jisr al-Shugur, further south.

President Bashar al-Assad’s soldiers spared the village, which boasts
one Catholic and two Armenian churches, from street battles that would
have inevitably turned it into ruins.

Of a population of around 600 during the winter, only a few men, a
handful of elderly and a Catholic priest, stayed back during the
fighting.

`Christians and Muslims have lived together as brothers here for
centuries,’ says Georges, a pensioner who boasts that his family roots
in the village go back `one thousand years’.

Sited in the heart of a majority Sunni Muslim region of Syria,
Al-Yakubiye with its `half Armenian, half Catholic’ population,
according to Georges, serves as a summer resort for Christians of
Aleppo, the main city in the north and one-time flourishing economic
centre.

On this rainy day, the few who venture out onto the streets are
confronted by heavy mist. Street corners are piled high with garbage.
Many houses are closed up but some doors and shutters show signs of
having been forced open.

Before beating a hasty retreat, Assad’s forces had parked themselves
with their tanks and armoured vehicles in the garden of an Armenian
church.

The soldiers did not enter the church itself, which remained shut, but
turned its courtyard into a dumping ground for open sand bags,
leftover food and filth.

In `liberated’ Al-Yakubiye, rebels of the Free Syrian Army, mostly
from nearby Sunni villages, have taken over several houses along the
central road. The owners gave their approval, they say.

Mussa Beidaq, the 27-year-old chief of the rebel battalion, has set
himself up in a house close to the Catholic church. The keys to the
house were handed to him by the priest on condition that it suffers no
damage.

Nothing has been moved – not the icons nor the crucifixes nor the
paintings on the walls depicting the Archangel Saint Michael.
`We will soon be gone,’ says Beidaq. `There was no violence against
the village and we will not tolerate it either.’
`Not a single villager was killed,’ adds Joseph, a resident in his
40s, who is quick to say that relations with the rebel FSA have been
`correct’.
He said it was the Catholics who stayed behind, while many Armenians,
some of whom agreed to help regime troops, had fled for fear of
reprisals.
`We Catholics refused to take arms given by the army,’ he says.
Some families have begun returning to the village, only to find their
homes looted.
`Soldiers forced their way into empty houses,’ says Beidaq while
acknowledging that insurgents too flocked in after the village fell.
`Do not look for the guilty in one or the other camp,’ says Georges.
`There are good and bad people everywhere.’

From: A. Papazian

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation , Turkey
January 30 2013

ARMENIANS’ GAFFE ABOUT THE CITY BERDE IN AZERBAICAN

Azerbaican is developing at a mind-boggling pace with its economy and
architecture. The transformation Berde, a town which is only 15 kms to
the battlefront, has undergone is so radical even Armenians have found
it incredible.

Armenians have sent a petition of objection to a Russian television
channel which featured Berde, saying that it is not actually Berde but
the footage of a European city Azerbaican is using to deceive public
opinion .

Meanwhile,the governor’s office of Berde and the Tourism and Culture
office have invited not only Armenians but the whole world to Berde,
saying the door of Berde is open to everyone.

Azerbaicanis, although proud of their modern city and its high living
standards, want nothing but Berde becoming free of occupation as soon
as possible.

From: A. Papazian

MailOnline, UK
February 3, 2013 Sunday 1:41 AM GMT

The other side of the Tower of Babel

by PAULO COELHO

I spent the whole morning explaining that I’m not as interested in
museums and churches as I’m interested in a country’s residents – and
in that way, it would be best if we went to the market.

Even so, they insist on it – it is a holiday, the market is closed.

“Where are we going?”

“To a church.”

I knew it.

“Today we are celebrating a saint that’s very special to us and
certainly for you too. We are going to visit the tomb of this saint.
But don’t ask any questions and accept the fact that sometimes we can
provide good surprises for writers.”

“How long does the trip take?”

“Twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes is the standard answer – Of course, it will take longer
than that.

But to this day, they have respected all my requests; I’d better give
in this time.

In this Sunday morning, I am in Yerevan, Armenia.

Resigned, I enter the car, see the Mount Ararat covered by snow in the
distance and contemplate the landscape around me.

I wish I could be walking there instead of being locked in this tin can.

My hosts are trying to be kind, but I am distracted, stoically
accepting the “special tourist program.”

They end up letting the talk die and we go on in silence.

Fifty minutes later (I knew it!) we reach a small town and drive
towards a crowded church.

I notice everyone is wearing suits and ties, it is a very formal
occasion and I feel ridiculous because I am only wearing a T-shirt and
jeans.

I get out of the car, people from the Writers Union are waiting for me
and hand me a flower, taking me through the crowd attending mass.

We descend a stair behind the altar and I see myself before a tomb.

I understand that the saint must be resting there, but before I place
my flower down, I want to know exactly whom I am paying homage to.

“The Translation Saint,” is the answer.

The Translation Saint! Instantly my eyes fill with tears.

Today is October 9, 2004, the city is called Oshakan, and Armenia, as
far as I know, is the only place in the world that declares a national
holiday and celebrates the day of the Translator Saint, Saint Mesrob,
in great style.

In addition to creating the Armenian alphabet (it already existed, but
only in oral form), he devoted his life to the translation of the most
important texts of the time into his home tongue, which were written
in Greek, Persian or Cyrillic.

He and his disciples devoted themselves to the gigantic task of
translating the Bible and the main literature classics of his time.

>From that moment on, the country’s culture gained its own identity,
which is maintained up to this day.

The Translator Saint.

I hold the flower in my hands, I think of all the people that I have
never met and whom I might never have the opportunity to meet, who are
holding my books in their hands in that very moment, trying to give
their best in order to maintain the accuracy of what I tried to share
with my readers.

Above all, I think of my father-in-law, Christiano Monteiro Oiticica,
a professional translator who is watching this scene today in the
company of angels and of Saint Mesrob.

I remember him glued to his writing machine, many a time complaining
about how badly his work was paid for (which is true to this day,
unfortunately).

Straightaway, he would explain that the true reason to keep on doing
that task was his enthusiasm of sharing a knowledge, which, weren’t it
for the translators, would have never reached his people.

I pray a silent prayer for him, for all those who helped me with my
books, and for those who allowed me to read works I would otherwise
never have had access to, thus helping – anonymously – to form my life
and my character.

When I leave the church, I see children drawing the alphabet, sweets
in the form of letters, flowers and more flowers.

When Mankind showed his ignorance, God destroyed the Tower of Babel
and everyone began to speak different languages.

But in His infinite grace, He also created a type of people who would
rebuild these bridges, allow the dialogue and the diffusion of the
human thought.

People whose name we rarely bother to know when we open a foreign
book: the translator.

Translated from the Portuguese by Bettina Dung

From: A. Papazian

Interfax, Russia
February 4, 2013 Monday 3:09 PM MSK

Syrian Armenians must not settle on occupied Azeri territories – Azeri
deputy foreign minister

Baku. Feb 4

Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has expressed concerns about
Armenians’ relocation from Syria to the occupied territories of the
republic.

“The relocation by Armenians from Syria to the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan concerns us and we have expressed these concerns to
Turkey,” Azimov told reporters on Monday.

“The thing is that Turkey has opened a section of its border to Syrian
refugees, is accommodating them, or creating conditions for their
relocation to third countries, which is natural. It’s due to Turkey’s
humanitarian obligations. In addition, these steps are in line with
the UN Convention of Refugees,” Azimov said.

“We don’t have complaints about their relocation to Armenia, but for
some reason they are being relocated to the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” Azimov said.

“Armenia is creating new settlements on the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan,” he said.

av jv

From: A. Papazian

ITAR-TASS, Russia
January 29, 2013 Tuesday 08:37 PM GMT+4

Memorandum on establishing CSTO Academy in Armenia signed in Yerevan

MOSCOW January 29

– A memorandum of understanding on the issue the establishment the
Academy of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in
Armenia was signed on Tuesday in Yerevan. The document was signed by
CSTO secretary general Nikolai Bordyuzha and secretary of Armenia’s
National Security Council Artur Bagdasaryan, the CSTO press service
reported.

“It is a research-and-training and analytical centre that will train
specialists in the collective security area, work out recommendations
on the ways to solve collective security problems, and provide
information about the organization’s activity in the area of ensuring
security of its member states,” Bordyuzha said.

According to the CSTO secretary general, the Academy will “train not
only representatives from the CSTO member countries but also from
European countries to inform them about CSTO’s activities in the area
of security.”

The Armenian National Security Council chief stressed the importance
of this foundation. “We plan that the CSTO Academy will begin its work
in a couple of months. Now we are dealing with some organizational
issues. It will be a serious analytical centre,” Bagdasaryan noted.

From: A. Papazian

Moscow News
January 28, 2013 Monday

Russia’s jet-set underworld

Reputed crime kingpin Aslan Usoyan gained notoriety as a Russia-based
mob boss before he was assassinated by a sniper in central Moscow last
week, but his brethren in a legendary Eurasian criminal fraternity
have been dipping their elaborately tattooed fingers in the U.S.
underworld for decades.

Several reputed ‘vory v zakone,’ or ‘thieves-in-law’ – members of a
storied Soviet-borne criminal caste in which Usoyan, known as ‘Gramps
Khasan,’ was an ascendant figure – have set up shop in the United
States since the fall of the Soviet Union, according to US law
enforcement sources and organized crime experts.

The most notorious of these career criminals Vyacheslav Ivankov, a
convicted Soviet felon nicknamed ‘Yaponchik,’ or ‘Little Japanese,’
for his vaguely Asiatic visage.

Ivankov, believed to have been crowned a ‘thief-in-law’ during his
time in the Soviet prison system, arrived in Brooklyn’s predominantly
Russian-speaking Brighton Beach neighborhood around 1992.

Russian authorities reportedly alerted their US counterparts to
Ivankov’s reputation as a powerful crime godfather, though Ivankov’s
actual influence and criminal acumen became the subject of
considerable debate among law enforcement officials, academics and
journalists.

Ivankov was ultimately arrested by US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agents in 1995 and convicted of trying to extort several million
dollars from two Russian-speaking businessmen in New York City –
becoming the first of two reputed ‘thieves-in-law’ to be convicted of
felonies in the United States.

In 2004 Ivankov was sent back to Russia, where he was acquitted of
murder and lived for several years before meeting a fate similar to
that of his fellow ‘thief-inlaw’ Usoyan last week: He was shot by a
sniper while leaving a Moscow restaurant in July 2009 and died of his
injuries three months later.

A second purported ‘thief-inlaw’ convicted of a crime in the United
States was Armen Kazarian, an ethnic Armenian nicknamed ‘Pzo’ who
authorities say assisted an Armenian-American crime group that
defrauded the US federal health insurance program Medicare to the tune
of $100 million.

Kazarian was arrested along with dozens of other suspects, and he
eventually pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to commit racketeering
charges. US federal prosecutor Preet Bharara announced at the time
that Kazarian was the first ‘thief-in-law’ to be convicted of
racketeering in the United States.

Kazarian is set to be sentenced in the case on Feb. 8, according to
the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The
stipulated sentencing guidelines spelled out in the plea agreement
range from 30 to 37 months.

‘Thieves-in-law’ traditionally lived according to a so-called ‘thieves
code’ requiring them to completely eschew institutions, including the
state, outside the criminal sphere. They were accorded a special role
in the underworld, including as mediators for competing crime
networks.

The US government’s indictment of Kazarian describes one incident in
which he allegedly played the role of just such a criminal arbiter.

According to investigators, he traveled to New York to assist an
associate whose friend had fallen into hot water with ‘a promoter of
an overseas investment fraud scheme’ over a $200,000 debt.

After speaking with another ‘thief-in-law’ representing the promoter,
Kazarian announced that the debt ‘would be erased,’ the indictment
alleges.

The indictment also suggests Kazarian was serious about ensuring he
was treated with a certain level of respect given his status. In
August 2010, federal investigators alleged, he and an associate
‘threatened to sodomize and kill an associate who had failed to show
proper respect to Kazarian by repeatedly calling Kazarian while
drunk.’

Prior to his murder last week, Usoyan was among the last of this
criminal fraternity’s old guard, whose status was derived from hard
prison time and a commitment to the tenets of the thieves code,
according to Mark Galeotti, an expert on Soviet and post-Soviet crime.

The colorful trappings are still there – the ornate tattoos, colorful
nicknames like ‘The Boar’ and ‘Bonzai’ – but these days the title of
‘thief-in-law’ can essentially be bought by men who have no interest
in the relatively austere lifestyles of the brotherhood’s previous
generations, Galeotti said.

Nonetheless, the US government is not taking this younger generation
of purported criminals lightly.

Last June, the US Treasury Department announced the names of five
alleged members of a ‘Eurasian crime syndicate’ to be targeted for
asset freezes in the United States in an effort ‘to protect the US
financial system from the malign influence of transnational criminal
organizations.’

These individuals – Temuri Mirzoyev, Koba Shemazashvili, Lasha
Shushanashvili, Kakhaber Shushanashvili, and Vladimir Vagin – are
widely believed to be ‘thieves-inlaw,’ and all have some connection to
Usoyan, according to Galeotti.

Mirzoyev is thought by some to be Usyoan’s nephew, and the Russian
newspaper Izvestia reported that he attended the fallen kingpin’s
funeral outside Moscow over the weekend.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian chess-players continue matches at Moscow Open

IM Nikita Matinian (Russia) has scored 5,5 points after 6 rounds at
the tournament A of Moscow Open. He is only half a point behind the
leaders – GMs Pavel Ponkratov and Dmitry Kokarev (Russia).

GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan (Armenia), GM Artur Gabrielian, IM Gor
Airapetian (Russia)have scored 4,5 points each.

At the tournament B (Women) WGM Lilit Galojan has 4 points.

At the tournament C Arthur Gharagyozyan has scored 5 points.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian party will in no way fail Minsk negotiation process –
political scientist

February 09, 2013 | 00:23

YEREVAN. – If the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is recognized, the
OSCE Minsk Group negotiation process could face the risk of failing,
Caucasus Institute Director, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan
told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

`If Armenia recognizes NKR’s independence, it would be very difficult
for Azerbaijan to not leave the Minsk process and, in this case, the
Minsk Group’s future activities without Azerbaijan will become
meaningless,’ he noted.

In the analyst’s view, the Minsk process is one of the security
formats in military and political relations alike.

`This format has its specific functions, and Armenia’s authorities
will in no way break them down,’ Iskandaryan stressed.

From: A. Papazian