Author: Andres-Papazian

UKRAINE, FRANCE, GEORGIA AND ARMENIA TOGETHER WILL MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT PARAJANOV

2013-01-10 21:23:05

Legend’s birthday. On January 9 the founder of the “Ukrainian poetic
cinema,” one of the greatest directors of our time – Sergey Parajanov
would have turned 89 years old.

His films are rightly called classics of the world cinema and heritage,
and the very figure of the artist – a landmark for Armenia, Georgia
and Ukraine.

Difficult fate of the independent and eccentric director, his
conflicts with the Soviet regime, the conclusions on false charges,
the inability to work on film and, despite this, the bold creative
pursuits embodied in the new movie “Parajanov”.

From: A. Papazian

INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS START THEIR MISSION IN ARMENIA

18:40 10.01.2013

On January 10 Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received
the delegation of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission headed
by Heidi Tagliavini.

Minister Nalbandian hailed the cooperation between Armenia and the
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and thanked
for the support of the structure to the improvement of electoral
processes in Armenia.

Edward Nalbandian reiterated the resoluteness of the Armenian
authorities to hold the presidential elections of February 18 in
compliance with international standards. The Minister underlined
that large-scale reforms have been implemented in cooperation with
international organizations.

Ambassador Tagliavini thanked for the invitation to carry out an
observation mission in Armenia and assured that the mission would
be unbiased.

The Armenian Foreign Minister noted that the last parliamentary
elections were positively assessed by international organizations,
and corresponding proposals were submitted for the further improvement
of electoral processes. According to the President’s decision, a task
force was set up last August to implement the proposals.

The head of the Mission informed that the long-term observers will
arrive in Armenia soon. Twenty-four long-term and 250 short-term
observers are expected to follow the presidential elections in Armenia.

Minister Nalbandian, in turn, reiterated the willingness of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to contribute to the activities of the
mission.

From: A. Papazian

THREE KURDISH ACTIVISTS SHOT POINT BLANK IN PARIS

January 10, 2013

Co-founder of PKK among murdered

PARIS, France-Three Kurdish female human rights activists were shot
dead at point blank at the Kurdish institute in Paris on Jan. 10.

Sakine Cansiz The dead include Sakine Cansiz, one of the co-founders of
the Kurdish guerrilla group PKK, currently in negotiations with Ankara
to establish a cease fire. The two others victims were Kurdistan
National Committee (KNC) representative and head of the Kurdish
institute Fidan Dogan, and activist Leyla Soylemez.

The French interior minister Manuel Valls said the three were
“summarily executed.”

The bodies of the victims were found at the institute at 2 a.m.

According to reports, the doors to the institute in Paris’s 10th
arrondissement were locked and police had to break into the building.

There were no CCTV cameras in the site of the murder.

According to the BBC, Cansiz was a founding member of the PKK,
and the first senior female member of the organization. She led
the Kurdish protest movement out of Diyarbakir prison in Turkey in
1980s. Later, she worked with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria,
and was a commander of the women’s guerrilla movement in Kurdish areas
of northern Iraq. Recently, she has headed the PKK women’s movement
in Europe

From: A. Papazian

AZERIS MOST DANGEROUS DRUG DEALERS IN RUSSIA

news.am
January 09, 2013 | 00:08

MOSCOW. – The citizens of Azerbaijan, 12 in number, are the most
wanted by the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) on drug
turnover. Citizens of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan follow
them in the rubric, which is entitled the Most Wanted Drug Dealers,
Vesti.Az informs quoting the Russian law enforcement special
investigation source.

According to the reports by the law enforcement agents, drugs enter
Russia mainly from Iran through a transit of Azerbaijan.

To note, transfers of hemp from Azerbaijan to Russia via Iran have
increased recently.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH TEACHER AT ARMENIAN SCHOOL FOUND MURDERED IN HIS HOME

ISTANBUL

Hurriyet photo
A Turkish man who taught computer lessons at an Armenian school in
Kadýkoy was found murdered in his home, private broadcaster NTV has
reported.

Friends discovered 40-year-old Ýlker Þahin dead in his apartment with
his throat slit after they had come searching for him when he failed
to show up for work three days in a row.

No further details on the murder have been revealed and an
investigation continues into the matter.

January/11/2013

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN FORMER FM’S “MONEY LAUNDERING” CASE IS FROZEN AGAIN – NEWSPAPER

NEWS.AM
January 11, 2013 | 07:57

YEREVAN. – The money laundering case, which is launched against The
Civilitas Foundation founder, former FM, and Prosperous Armenia Party
MP Vartan Oskanian, entered the next phase of being frozen, Haykakan
Zhamanak daily reports.

“Our correspondent found out that the last action with this case
was taken on November 9, 2012, when Oskanian was summoned to the
[National Security Service] NSS to be informed that an examination
is commissioned with respect to a program which the Foundation had
implemented back in 2009.

Before that, on November 1, the NSS Department of Investigation had
commissioned a bank inspection whose implementation [duty] was given
to the Central Bank.

Our correspondent informally found out that these inspections have
[yielded] no results so far,” Haykakan Zhamanak writes.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH COURT OF APPEALS CLAIMS ON REVISION OF DINK’S CASE

10:11, 11 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Chief prosecutor of Supreme Court of
Appeals asks for annulment of the verdict of ethnic Armenian Hrant
Dink’s murder case, who was the Editor-in-Chief of Istanbul-based
“Agos” daily. This decision is based upon the fact that “the crime
was an organized assassination”. As reports “Armenpress”, “Anadolu”
News Agency stated this. In the prosecutor’s announcement it is stated
that Hrant Dink’s murder was not “an assassination of an ordinary man”.

The aforesaid announcement stated: “The murder was not just an ordinary
assassination. The act had the intention to destroy the unity of the
Turkish state and create chaos in the society. Hrant Dink’s murder
was an organized assassination.”

Hrant Dink was assassinated in front of “Agos” daily editorial office
in Istanbul, on January 19, 2007. His killer Ogun Samast, then 17-year
old, was sentenced to 22 years and 6 months imprisonment in July, 2011.

From: A. Papazian

CRIMINALITE-ENQUETE-POLICE-KURDES-TURQUIE-PRESIDENT
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 11 janvier 2013

Hollande qualifie d’horrible le meurtre de trois militantes kurdes
dont une qu’il connaissait

Le president Francois Hollande a qualifie jeudi d”horrible” le meurtre
a Paris dans la nuit de mercredi a jeudi de trois militantes kurdes,
ajoutant qu’il connaissait une des victimes.

“C’est horrible, (cela touche) directement trois personnes dont l’une
(etait) connue de moi et de beaucoup d’acteurs politiques car elle
venait regulièrement nous rencontrer”, a declare le chef de l’Etat,
en marge d’une visite du centre de formation en aeronautique de La
Tresne, en Gironde.

“Pour l’instant, l’enquete est engagee et je crois qu’il vaut mieux
attendre pour qu’on connaisse bien les causes et les auteurs”, a dit
Francois Hollande a la presse qui l’interrogeait.

Trois militantes kurdes ont ete tuees d’une balle dans la tete dans
les locaux d’une association de leur communaute a Paris, où leurs
corps ont ete retrouves dans la nuit de mercredi a jeudi.

vendredi 11 janvier 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

POLEMIQUE SUR DES DECLARATIONS DU PATRIARCHE DE GEORGIE CONCERNANT LE HAUT KARABAGH
Gari

armenews.com
vendredi 11 janvier 2013

Le patriache de l’Eglise orthodoxe de Georgie, Ilya II, defraye la
chronique après la publication dans la presse azerie, de propos qu’il
aurait tenus concernant le Haut Karabagh a l’issue d’une rencontre
avec le chef spirituel des musulmans du Caucase, le mufti azeri
Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazadeh. Lors de la rencontre qui
avait eu lieu le 7 janvier, le chef spirituel des cheriens orthodoxes
georgiens aurait evoque la question des conflits territoriaux dans le
Sud Caucase, en mettant plus particulièrement l’accent sur le conflit
qui oppose Tbilissi aux regions separatistes d’Ossetie du Sud et
d’Abkhazie, sur lesquelles la Russie a renforce sa main mise depuis la
guerre eclair d’août 2008. Mais selon l’agence de presse azerie ANS,
Ilya II ne se serait pas contente de revendiquer la souverainete
georgienne sur ces deux territoires : “Je ne me resoudrai jamais
a l’idee que nous ayons perdu nos terres. Loin de la, nous avons
seulement perdu temporairement le contrôle de ces territoires. Mais
la justice vaincra. De meme que l’Abkhazie et l’Ossetie du Sud sont
des terres historiques de la Georgie, de meme le Haut-Karabagh a ete
et sera une terre de l’Azerbaïdjan”, aurait declare le patriarche
georgien. Le porte-parole du patriarcat de Georgie a rectifie le tir
peu après, declarant que les media azeris avaient deforme les propos
du patriarche georgien et que les propos qui lui etaient attribues
etaient errones. Il est vrai que de telles declarations etaient
pour le moins mal venues au moment où le president georgien Mikhaïl
Saakahcvili adressait ses v~ux a l’Eglise apostolique armenienne de
Georgie, qui s’est vue accorder le statut officiel de diocèse par
les legislateurs georgiens en 2012, une mesure qui n’avait certes
pas ete accueillie avec enthousiasme par l’Eglise orthodoxe de Georgie.

vendredi 11 janvier 2013, Gari ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

L’ARMENIE SUPPRIME LES VISAS DE COURT SEJOUR POUR LES RESSORTISSANTS DE L’UE
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 11 janvier 2013

L’Armenie a annonce Jjeudi 10 janvier avoir supprime les visas de court
sejour pour les ressortissants des 27 pays de l’Union Europeenne, afin
de favoriser le developpement du tourisme dans cette ex-republique
sovietique du Caucase. Les ressortissants de l’UE seront desormais
dispenses de visa si leur sejour en Armenie ne depasse pas 180 jours, a
declare le porte-parole du ministère armenien des Affaires etrangères,
Tigran Balaïan.

“La suppression des visas va favoriser les activites commerciales
europeennes et celles du tourisme en Armenie”, a ajoute M. Balaïan.

Outre les 27 Etats de l’UE, cette decision unilaterale s’applique
aussi aux quatre pays de l’espace Schengen qui ne font pas partie de
l’UE : l’Islande, le Liechtenstein, le Norvège et la Suisse, a-t-il
precise. L’Armenie, sous la pression de Moscou qui l’appelle a adherer
a une union douanière entre la Russie, le Belarus et le Kazakhstan,
cherche a renforcer ses liens economiques et politiques avec l’UE.

Maja Kocijancic, porte-parole du chef de la diplomatie europeenne
Catherine Ashton, avait declare en decembre qu’une eventuelle
adhesion de l’Armenie a cette union douanière diminuerait nettement
les chances de ce pays de signer un accord de libre-echange avec
l’Union europeenne.

vendredi 11 janvier 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian