Author: Andres-Papazian

BUSINESSMAN DEMANDS MORE MONEY FROM LOCAL DAILY

12:07 pm | Today | Social

Khachik Khachatryan, a government-linked businessman running a
poultry factory, has filed another lawsuit against Yerevan-based
“Zhoghovurd” daily, demanding that the newspaper pay him 3 million
drams for smearing his good name and another 200 thousand drams for
covering the costs of lawyers.

“Thus, the businessman demands that the newspaper pay a total of 6
200 0000 drams in damages. This is the same oligarch who insulted a
Zhoghovurd reporter calling her “a prostitute” and demanded that his
word be published in the newspaper. After waiting for Khachatryan’s
apology for some 15 days the newspaper brought an action against the
businessman demanding that the latter publically apologize to the
reporter. For his turn, Khachatryan sued Zhoghovurd in connection
with a newspaper article that accused his poultry factory of selling
eggs past their due date, the newspaper said in a statement.

Earlier this year, a district court in Yerevan froze the assets of the
newspaper and the author of the controversial story worth 3 million
drams. This caused the newspaper journalists and civic activists to
march to the court on January 30 demanding that the court lift the
asset freeze.

From: A. Papazian

THE ARMENIAN OPPOSITION ALWAYS BETS ON THE REVOLUTION

5 February 2013 – 9:12am
Interview by Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

On February 18th Armenia will hold the presidential elections.

Political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan analyzes them in the
interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

– How can the coming elections influence the balance of
forces in politics? For example, will importance of oligarchs improve
or weaken?

– A president who is elected confidently, who consolidates
elites will be freer. The political essence is that he will do what is
beneficial for presidential power, and it means consolidation of the
political elite and society and deoligarchisaztion. The central power
cannot like influence of tycoons on policy. A confident central power
doesn’t want major business to influence its decisions. I don’t mean
economic decisions. I believe that business’s influence on appointment
of officials, including ministers and ambassadors, will weaken.

– Some experts are indignant with the situation in internal
politics. According to them, previously an active struggle against
falsification took place, but now the situation is different. Do you
agree with this view?

– I don’t think falsification was the most serious problem of
the last election campaigns. Participants spent huge sums on voters’
bribes, construction of various roads, attraction of important people
in regions, PR. Dozens of millions were spent. If falsifications are
possible at the level of pushing a button in the Central Election
Committee, why should they spend millions? The main instrument of
elections in Armenia is not falsifications, but attraction of voters
by various means. All ideological forces failed in the parliamentary
elections of 2012: Dashnaktsutyun and the ANC gained fewer votes than
in the previous elections. For example, the leader of the ANC got
21.5% in the presidential elections of 2008, but in the parliamentary
elections his party gained only 7%. The similar situation is with
Dashnaktsutyun. At the same time, non-ideological political forces –
the RPA and Prosperous Armenia – achieved better results.

Instruments of ideological forces are a word, image, charisma,
ideology, i.e. the struggle in a public sphere; while the RPA and
Prosperous Armenia construct roads, present gifts, and use
administrative resources. The RPA and PA cover the whole territory of
the country due to their resources among serious businessmen from this
or that regions, who are able to talk to heads of village
administrations and governors.

The Armenian opposition always bets on the revolution. As if they
change the country in three months, and happiness will come. It is
ridiculous. It would be nice if it stays in the past. We are living in
the Latin American political environment which requires a quick
victory and coming absolute happiness. But establishing of any
political force means daily hard working.

– In what situation will the ANC and Prosperous Armenia find
themselves after the elections?

– I am afraid the ANC will lose this campaign. As for PA, I
believe it will fail and has already failed because Gagik Tsarukyan
doesn’t participate in the elections. Probably his reasons for this
are based on a businessman’s logic. Participation in the elections
requires huge expenses which should be paid off, according to a
businessman’s logic.

A politician’s logic is different. It requires a struggle not for a
business-capital, but for popularity, attraction of electorate,
building political power, and forming an image.

Perhaps Tsarukyan analyzed the situation and concluded that a
possibility of his victory is small, i.e. the spent resources will be
in vain. Today Armenia has no developed opposition which is ready to
struggle for being a serious rival to President. This is the main
problem of the opposition.

– Do you think “the elite revolution” or “the revolution of
generations’ changing” is taking place? What do you think about
prospects of establishing new political elite in Armenia?

– Transformation is taking place in social conscience.

However, it is a long process and people are changing during it. There
is no “elite revolution.” There were many such revolutions in Armenia,
at the moment we witness the fourth stage. The first elite revolution
took place in 1988-1991 and was marked by revolutionary intelligent
people in power: the committee “Karabakh” and its environment. In
1994-1998 intelligent people were replaced by veterans of the Karabakh
war. The brightest episode of the process was resignation of Levon
Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan’s presidency. The third stage of
elite’s changing (2003-2009) is oligarchization. Sometimes veterans of
the Karabakh war and oligarchs were the same people. The current elite
moves from business elite to technocratic elite. But no change of
generations has taken place yet.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN WEBSITES GENERATING 150-300% MORE TRAFFIC WITH XNET.AM

xNET.am is a Traffic Exchange Network created by and for Armenian
webmasters searching for a way to market their websites for free.

Current members of the network have experienced an increase of traffic
by 200-300%, and more than 35 million visitors have logged onto the
network since its launch in 2011.

Yerevan, Armenia (PRWEB) February 04, 2013

Increase Website Traffic by 150-300% with xNET.am

xNET.am, an Armenian Traffic Exchange Network, has established a
reputation and regular visitor base that has resulted in traffic
increases of 200-300% for its member webmasters. This network was
created by Ludwig Makhyan and Viktor Mamyan, two friends who now have
more than a decade of experience developing websites together. The
duo wanted to offer Armenian webmasters an option to market their
sites for free to fellow Armenians across the globe.

How xNET.am’s Traffic Exchange Network Works?

Webmasters who add their sites onto xNET.am are able to increase
traffic to their websites by trading banners, links, photos, news
articles and blog posts with other webmasters. This effectively
draws traffic from interested visitors who see that a webmaster has
recommended a link from another website on the exchange.

User Statistical Data

Search analytics data at xNET.am has revealed that many visitors
of the network are interested in entertainment and news-related
information. This includes blog posts, articles and even photos that
are posted by the Armenian website owners.

Approximately 10% of visitors to xNET.am access the network via
mobile devices. The most popular sites found on the network include
Status4ka.am, ArmBlog.net, ArmenianPortal.com, Mrutik.com, Recipes.am
and MyBaby.am.

Since xNET.am was launched on May 5, 2011, 35.5 million visitors
and 17.8 million unique visitors have visited the network. Most of
these visitors spend approximately 25 minutes viewing and reading
4-5 pages, totaling more than 164 million page views. In addition,
nearly 1 billion banners have been shown on the network, and the
number grows with 20 ads shown every second.

3000 different Armenian websites take part in the traffic exchange
at xNET.am, adding 22,000 total news articles to the network. 83.88%
of the visitors to the network are from Armenia, followed by 6.19%
from Russia. Other visitors originate from the Ukraine, United States
and France.

From: A. Papazian

JUDICIARY PRAISED FOR GOOD JUDGMENTS ON DEFAMATION CASES

Police investigation into cases of violence against journalists “have
been more for ‘show’/BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND Insufficient progress
in Armenia media freedom, report

Article | February 5, 2013 – 4:43pm | By Stanislava Gaydazhieva A new
report by the Investigative Journalists’ NGO says Armenia is making
insufficient progress in preserving media freedom. The organisation
is a member of the Association of European Journalists.

The study ‘Violence, intimidation and legal cases against journalists
and the media in Armenia 2012’ pays particular attention to incidents
of violence against reporters in the country, as well as lawsuits
against media on charges of slander and insult.

The report, financially supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan,
is a compilation of media freedom violations in Armenia between
January and October 2012 and legal analysis of two renowned experts,
the attorneys Ara Ghazaryan and Ashot Vareljyan.

After carefully examining various aspects regarding the freedom of
news outlets, including legislative regulation, news accessibility,
physical violence and slander/insult court cases, the study concluded
that “overall judicial process is developing in the right direction”.

This means that defamation cases brought to the courts have decreased
dramatically, as well as a significant drop in the amounts of
compensatory damages awarded has become established judicial practice.

However, the judicial practice of defamation and libel lawsuits
was found to be “the only area where steady positive developments
continue”.

In contrast, when it comes to exposing incidents of violence committed
against journalists, the report concluded that “the situation
hasn’t improved.” More precisely, police investigations of the cases
reported in 2012 “have been more for ‘show’ than anything else and
thus unproductive”.

Liana Sayadyan, deputy editor of the NGO-run online newspaper Hetq
where the report appeared, told New Europe that journalists in Armenia
faced various problems, including lack of access to information,
violence and inefficient police investigations. However, in her
opinion, the biggest weakness of the current media freedom environment
in Armenia was the financial dependence of media outlets on politics,
government or other institutions.

According to the press freedom index for 2013 recently released
by Reporters without Borders (RWB), Armenia ranks 74th, marking a
progress of three positions ahead compared to last year. Nevertheless,
RWB emphasised that the country, together with Moldova and Georgia,
‘still faces important challenges concerning media independence and
the working environment of journalists.’

About the Author

Stanislava Gaydazhieva Stanislava Gaydazhieva is a journalist for
New Europe

From: A. Papazian

SERZH SARGSYAN: ARMENIA CANNOT BE SAFE UNTIL OFFICIAL ANKARA RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 5, 20:30

Armenia cannot be safe until official Ankara recognizes the fact of
the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian
President, presidential candidate from the ruling Republican Party of
Armenia, said during today’s meeting with the residents in Malatia-
Sebastia community of Yerevan.

“Everybody thinks that the centenary of the Armenian Genocide (in 2015)
will bring us something extraordinary. Yes, it is a very important
stage, but it is not the end”, he said.

“We will fight for recognition of the Genocide as much as needed”,
he said and added that even if 100 countries recognize the Armenian
Genocide, Armenia will not stop its fight to make Turkey recognize
the Genocide. He stressed that Armenia is fighting for it for the
sake of its own security, not because of moral principles.

As regards the recognition of the Genocide by the United States,
Serzh Sargsyan pointed out that the US President said what he wanted
to say about the Armenian Genocide long ago. “The US President Barack
Obama failed to use the term “Genocide”, but he used “Yeghern”, the
synonym of the word we use. And even if he said “Genocide”, we would
be discontent all the same. We – Armenians – are conservative people”,
he stressed.

From: A. Papazian

PARLIAMENTARY OPPOSITION IS DISCONTENT WITH CURRENT PRE-ELECTORAL SITUATION IN ARMENIA

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 5, 20:36

The current pre-electoral situation in Armenia is the result of full
concentration of all levers of power in the hands of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and their use exclusively for
partisan purposes. It is also the result of lack of public confidence
in the possibility to change the power by means of elections, Armen
Rustamyan, representative of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, said in
Parliament on Tuesday. He said that the current situation has made
senseless the participation of all political forces in the election,
except the RPA.

Deputy Head of Heritage Party Rouben Hakobyan said that the current
election in Armenia has turned into confrontation of the interests of
the people and the ruling elite. “Unfortunately, the people’s interests
yield to the authorities’ interests, and this results in the growth
of poverty, unemployment and migration”, he said. Hakobyan called on
the population not to lose hope and to vote honestly, as it is the
only possible way to take the country out of the current situation.

From: A. Papazian

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA MP CONCERNED OVER STATE OF NATIONAL BOOK CHAMBER

TERT.AM
20:15 ~U 05.02.13

Speaking in parliament on Monday, Naira Zohrabyan, Secretary of the
Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), reminded the MPs of the poor state
of the National Book Chamber of Armenia.

“Taking a pleasant occasion of UNESCO being misled into declaring
Yerevan the World Book Capital City in 2012, I decided to have the
renovation of the National Book Chamber budgeted for in 2013. The
building is in an extremely poor state,” Mrs Zohrabyan said.

“In 2012, the government rejected my proposal, pleading the
priorities. I would like to remind you that one of the government’s
priorities was AMD 60m worth mosquito control in Jermuk. This year
they have offered a more satisfactory explanation – they are going
to discuss the issue under mid-term programs for 2014-2016,” Mrs
Zohrabyan said.

She stressed that the situation is urgent and proposed forming a task
group to study the situation.

Mrs Zohrabyan hopes the MPs will have the political and moral will
to force the government to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO ROMANIA REFERRED TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH ISSUE IN TV PROGRAM

17:42, 5 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUAY 5, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Ambassador to Romania Hamlet
Gasparian was hosted by Romanian DIGI 24 channel on February 2. As
reports Armenpress, TV program, lasting 30 minutes, Ambassador
has referred to Nagorno-Karabakh issue, current situation in
Armenian-Romanian trade, as well as to the history of Armenian
community, highlighting Armenian efforts for saving national identity
of the community.

TV program started with a video presenting Armenian history, including
Armenian genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh war. “Book of whispers”,
author Varujan Vosganian, especially its Armenian translation, was
discussed during the TV program. Broadcaster told fascinating stories
about famous Romanian Armenian coffeemakers and Ararat brandy.

From: A. Papazian

TURKEY’S ATTEMPT TO MEDDLE IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT NO LONGER FUNNY

February 5, 2013 – 20:26 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkish authorities seem to be unable to accept the
failure become involved in Karabah conflict settlement, with the fact
proved by a recent statement of the country’s Foreign Minister.

As Ahmet Davutoglu remarked at the summit of the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation, “Turkey will boost its role in the settlement
of Karabakh conflict and other regional issues.”

The remark was followed by a cooked-up statement, suggesting that
a peaceful settlement of Karabakh conflict depends on withdrawal of
Armenian forces from the mythical “occupied Azerbaijani territories,”
i.e. liberated territories of Artsakh.

A wish to meddle seems to be what unifies Turkish authorities with
the country’s opposition. Today, Yalovamiz Turkish daily reported that
the opposition Nationalistic Movement Party has launched a signature
collection campaign to protest against so-called “occupation of Azeri
lands” and support Turkey’s involvement in Karabakh settlement.

As the daily said, the signatures will be submitted to the White House
and the UN. Turkey periodically attempts to stress the need for a
“change in the OSCE Minsk Group composition.”

“There is a need to make changes in the OSCE Minsk Group,” a spokesman
for Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Selcuk said in December.

“OSCE Minsk Group has lost its neutrality,” Unal said. “It is out of
question that the country, which has adopted slandering draft laws
against Turkey at the parliament, is neutral to Armenia, so France’s
membership in OSCE Minsk Group should be reconsidered. Russia’s
support for Armenia is not a secret. The countries such as Ireland
located far from the region, don’t need to be represented in the OSCE
Minsk Group. Turkey is ready to show it’s objectivity in this issue.”

By “draft laws slandering Turkey” Unal means the bill on
criminalization of the Armenian Genocide denial, which has long been
an issue of Ankara’s special concern.

Only Azerbaijan can believe in Turkey’s “objectivity,” it being
common knowledge that Ankara and Baku’s understanding of objectivity
is contrary to the universal one.

Thus, there’s no need to comment on a clearly biased Turley’s striving
to “contribute” to Karabakh settlement. It’s even not funny any more.

Marina Ananikyan / PanARMENIAN News

From: A. Papazian

NKR DEFENCE MINISTRY DENIES ANOTHER AZERBAIJANI DISINFORMATION

18:36, 5 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 5, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijani press continues spreading
disinformation. This is the second time Azerbaijani Defence Ministry
is spreading statement as if Armenian side has violated ceasefire
regime wounding and killing Azerbaijani soldiers.

As Armenpress was informed form spokesman of Nagorno-Karabakh Defence
Ministry Senor Hasratyan, Armenian side had nothing to do with the
death and wounds of Azerbaijani soldiers. “We are not going to take
responsibility for others’ crimes,” he noted.

Today, Azerbaijani “APA” agency had spread disinformation as if
20-year-old Azerbaijani soldier was wounded in a result of violation
of ceasefire regime. Therefore, this incident has been already denied.

Cases of suicides and murders in Azerbaijani army, which are not such
a rare phenomenon, are often presented to be violation of ceasefire
regime by Armenian side.

From: A. Papazian