Author: Andres-Papazian

ARMENIAN INTERNATIONAL IS RUSSIAN CLUB’S TOP FOOTBALLER

NEWS.am Sport
December 27

KRASNODAR. – As a result of a voting conducted by the official website
of Russia’s FC Kuban of Krasnodar, Armenian national football team
and Krasnodar midfielder Aras Ozbilis was recognized as the Russian
club’s top player for fall in the current season of the Russian
Premier League.

A total of 54 percent of the fans voted for 22-year-old Ozbilis.

The second was Russia-2 national squad goalkeeper Aleksandr Belenov,
with 29.7 percent, and Spanish central defender Ángel Dealbert was
voted as the club’s third best player, with 4 percent.

To note, Aras Ozbilis transferred from FC Ajax of Amsterdam to FC
Kuban this year. He netted seven goals in the fifteen matches he
played for Kuban in the current season of the Russian league.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN CHESS PLAYERS IN AL AIN

Source: Panorama.am
27/12/2012

Armenian GM Tigran Kotanjian, scoring 4.5 points after five rounds,
leads the open chess tournament in Al Ain, UAE together with GM Pavel
Kotsur (Kazakhstan).

IM Karen Grigoryan has scored 3 points, the website of Armenian Chess
Federation reported.

From: A. Papazian

POLICE MAYOR CONVICTED FOR MONEY PLUNDER

Factinfo
Thu, 12/27/2012 – 11:17

The Court of General Jurisdiction of Center and Norq-Marash
administrative districts of Yerevan (presiding Judge Gagik Poghosyan)
found the Police mayor Karen Baghdasaryan guilty in plundering money
from an Iranian citizen.

The preliminary investigation body brought in an indictment against the
mayor on the grounds of the Article 178, Clause 2, Point 2 of the RA
Criminal Code, since it was revealed that he had realized an enrapture
of the property of a particularly big amount by abusing the trust.

According to the indictment, the senior inspector of the unit on
duty service of the RA Police Malatia division south-western unit,
the Police mayor Karen Baghdasaryan received AMD 800 thousand in
September 2012 from an Iranian citizen Tahereh Barati in exchange
for allowing the club of the latter by the address Teryan 91 to be
working during the night hours. The mayor enraptured the money and
didn’t keep his word.

The defendant K. Baghdasaryan having accepted the indictment, requested
to implement the expedited judicial procedure. The Court satisfied the
request. In accordance with the judgment of the Court from 26.12.2012
Karen Baghdasaryan was found guilty on the grounds of the Article 178,
Clause 2, Point 2 of the RA Criminal Code and was sentenced to two
years of imprisonment.

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

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I CONSULTS WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ARMENIAN
COMMUNITY IN SYRIA

His Holiness Aram I recently received Syrian religious and community leaders
in Antelias for a series of consultations. The meetings were also attended
by representatives of the National Executive Council. The Catholicos briefed
the delegation on his contacts with foreign ambassadors and representatives
of international non-governmental organizations and foundations and on the
funds that have been received through the Catholicosate’s Special Fund for
Syria.

At the end of the consultations, His Holiness Aram I announced the following
agreed-upon priorities to be implemented by the leadership in Syria:
· Assist all needy families,
· Ensure the salaries of all teachers and staff working in community
organizations,
· Contact all warring parties and seek information on those who have
been kidnapped,
· Strengthen the internal unity of the community.

His Holiness Aram I then thanked all those who had provided assistance to
the community in Syria and he appealed for new aid.

From: A. Papazian

CHAKHALYAN’S LAWYER: “WE EXPECT HE WILL BE FREED UNDER NEW AMNESTY BILL”
Kristine Aghalaryan

09:00, December 27, 2012

United Javakhk leader Vahagn Chakhalyan is expected to be freed under
an amnesty bill passed by the Georgian Parliament on December 21.

Chakhalyan’s lawyer Nino Adriashvili told Hetq that the activist,
imprisoned since 2008, will be freed as soon as bill is signed into
law by President Saakashvili.

Chakhalyan had been found guilty of illegal firearm and weapons
possession and was sentence to ten years.

190 prisoners recognized as victims of political persecution by the
Georgian Parliament will be freed under the new law. Chakhalyan wasn’t
granted this status when several MPs opposed his inclusion. However,
they promised to review the matter after the holidays.

Adriashvili said that the charges filed against Chakhalyan were
classified as “non-serious” offences and as such, the prisoner is
eligible for amnesty.

Chakhalyan’s case has since made its way to the European Court of Human Rights.

From: A. Papazian

“ISRAELI UNITS PART OF INTERVENTION FORCES IN SYRIA”

26-12-2012 – 20:44

Zionist military units are deployed for a long time in Syria in order
to get the claimed Syrian chemical arsenal under control.

The information was revealed for the first time by local Syrian news
websites, including Syria Truth, and was confirmed by the German
magazine Focus, which reported that the Zionist force belongs to the
elite unit “Sayeret Matkal”.

However, Syria Truth revealed last July that the mentioned force had
entered Syria via Aleppo, across Turkey, with the help of the defected
Syrian Colonel and Head of Aleppo Military Council, Abdel Jabbar Akidi.

Previously, meetings were held in Turkey between Zionist experts of
the Biological Institute affiliated with the Zionist Prime Minister,
and the retired Syrian General Adnan Sello, who fled to Turkey and had
held the position of Deputy Director of Chemical Warfare Department
in the regular Syrian army.

Moreover, the German periodical stated that the presence of the
Zionist intervention force coincides with the presence of the Western
elite forces, particularly the American and the French, deployed at
Jordanian border with Syria.

“Elite forces are scheduled to enter into Syria after the fall of
the Syrian regime to seize the chemical arsenal and prevent it from
reaching the hands of the revolutionaries and terrorists,” it said.

The French force, consisting of paratroopers, had already made
several exploratory missions and seeped into Syria under the cover
of a makeshift hospital for Syrian refugees, settled in the Jordanian
city of al-Mafraq.

An officer of the paratroopers’ unit stationed in the French town of
Calvi told the German magazine that soldiers of 135 countries make
up this unit. One of those companies is totally Arab, in order not
to draw any attention.

As for the American intervention force, it is composed of two Delta
Force units and Ringers, involved in desert fights, and are working
together with the Jordanian army.

From: A. Papazian

TURKEY TO CONTINUE BUYING OIL FROM IRAN

Ankara, Dec 26, IRNA — Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister
Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday that his country would continue
purchasing oil from Iran.

“Under any circumstances we will continue purchasing crude oil from
Iran like in the past,” Yildiz said in an interview with reporters.

In June, Washington exempted Turkey and six other countries from its
sanctions against Iran’s oil sector for six months in return for a
20 percent cut in Ankara’s purchase of Iranian crude oil.

The US Senate has also approved further bans on trade with Iran’s
energy and shipping sectors. Under the new package, which has not
yet tuned into law, exemptions stand for countries that have made
significant cuts in their imports of Iranian crude oil.

“There is no new demand from the US to reduce the amount of crude
oil which we get from Iran,” Yildiz said.

Official figures show Turkey’s crude oil imports from Iran dropped
by more than 30 percent in October compared with September, pushing
Iran to the third place among Turkey’s oil suppliers, behind Russia
and Iraq. As for natural gas, however, Iran ranks second after Russia.

1420**1412

Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 1034907

From: A. Papazian

WHY WAS THE COMMEMORATION FOR THE MARAS MASSACRE BANNED?

December 2012, Tuesday

ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z
[email protected]

This week is the 34th anniversary of the MaraÅ~_ massacre, in which
in 1978 hundreds of Alevis were brutally and barbarically killed
in MaraÅ~_.

First a “harmless” bomb was thrown into a cinema full of members of
the ultra-nationalist “bozkurtlar” (grey wolves). No one was wounded
or killed, but the provocation achieved its goals. Tension began to
rise in the city. A few days later, two Alevis teachers were killed.

At the same time, a sermon in one of the city’s mosques took the lead
in a rumor that began to circulate that Alevis were going to “attack
and destroy the mosques.” There was no such Alevi attack, of course,
but this rumor was enough to ignite a major attack against Alevis who
had gathered for the funeral of the teachers. This was the beginning of
the massacre; later on, angry mobs lead by grey wolves scattered into
the city, killing and raping hundreds of Alevis. The MaraÅ~_ massacre
was one of the milestones leading to the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup.

Later on it became clear that the cinema bomb was thrown by a grey
wolf. Alevis’ houses were marked weeks earlier by people pretending to
be officials of the municipality. When the attacks started many people
took to the streets with weapons and cutters. During the massacre,
police and gendarme disappeared from the streets of MaraÅ~_. It was
evidently clear that the massacre was planned and or orchestrated by
the deep state, like has happened so many times in Turkey. However,
there is another reality at hand: that the perpetrators of the
massacre used mobs of people who were willing to carry out these
barbaric acts. People’s religious and nationalistic sentiments were
abused and manipulated. Mobs mainly were provoked with the circulation
of the same message: Alevis were going to attack the mosques.

Therefore, a confrontation with the massacre requires two distinctive
elements. One is to look at the state mentality which time after time
uses provocation as a tool for manipulation. Alevis, unfortunately,
cannot easily face this aspect of the massacre. They do not want
to understand how the deep-state, military guardianship operated
in Turkey. On the other hand, conservative elements of the Turkish
society do not want to look into how religious sensitivities were
used for this kind of manipulation, or how easily people have been
manipulated in the past in the name of religion. Therefore there are
so many different elements which make a true confrontation with the
past so difficult.

If we were a healthy society, our prime minister and ministers
would have joined the Alevis who were to gather in MaraÅ~_ for the
commemoration of the massacre. Not only them, but all segments of our
society would pour into the streets of MaraÅ~_ to condemn the heinous
crimes committed in this city 34 years ago. But instead, we witnessed
an extremely arbitrary ban of commemoration by the government on the
commemoration of the event. If you ask them, of course, they would
say there were concerns for “security,” there was possibility of mass
“provocation” and so on, as if the prevention of these kinds of acts
is not the duty of the government. I am sure they will mention peace,
as if the prohibition of commemoration is not the number one killer
of peace in society.

Can you challenge or tackle the deep state if you refuse to recognize
its victims? Can you open a new page if you refuse look at the old
ones? Again and again we arrive at the same point: Turkey cannot
take serious steps forward as long as the country refuses to look
into her past and the atrocities committed therein.

From: A. Papazian

ARF WILL NOT FIELD A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

asbarez
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

ARF Supreme Council of Armenia members Arsen Hambartsumian, Armen
Rustamian and Aghvan Vardanian at a press conference Wednesday

YEREVAN-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of
Armenia announced Wednesday that a special Congress of the party held
a day before overwhelmingly decided to not field a candidate for the
upcoming presidential elections in Armenia.

“In accordance with the Supreme Assembly’s July decision, the ARF
Supreme Council of Armenia took the initiative of putting forward a
process to form a wide accord around a unified political agenda.

Efforts were made with active political forces and civic circles
to create an accord around a political platform so as to develop
a unified oppositional front,” said a statement issued by the ARF
Supreme Council of Armenia on Wednesday.

“Both, this initiative and the political agenda that was introduced
were welcomed and certain prerequisites for making the process
effective did exist. The possibility existed to at least restore
the people’s broken trust in elections, to generate a qualitatively
new situation, to conduct truly competitive elections and to create
the ground for the regime change. However, preconceived approaches
conditioning the accord with this or that concrete candidate prevented
the efforts – to participate in the presidential election with a united
agenda- from reaching their logical conclusion,” added the statement.

Taking the current situation into consideration and based on the
aforementioned assertions, the ARF Supreme Council Assembly of Armenia,
decided “1. Not to nominate a candidate for the upcoming February 18,
2013 presidential election. 2. Ruled out supporting the candidate
of the authorities, to authorize the Supreme Council to follow the
pre-electoral processes and, if the need arises, to orient the ARF
members and supporters accordingly. 3. To continue pursuing with all
political means the realization of the party’s seven-point platform,”
added the statement.

At a press conference Wednesday, ARF Supreme Council of Armenia
representative Armen Rustamian, ARF Parliamentary Faction member
Aghvan Vartanian and ARF Supreme Council of Armenia member Arsen
Hambartsumian outlined the party’s decision by saying that the current
reality in Armenia-the manner in which elections are run and the
shadowy political relations inherent in the country-was one of the
factors that prompted the party to stay out of the elections.

“The nature of elections which has unfortunately taken hold in
Armenia and – like many other areas of our life such as the economy
and political relations – is shadowy,” said Vartianian.

“People go to the polls but the decision [on an election outcome]
was made long ago through other means and levers. We have not managed
to create joint mechanisms for changing that nature,” added Vartanian.

He also cited the failure to form a united opposition front by
nominating a single candidate.

“Participation in the predetermined elections would mean being part of
a ready-made scenario. We have said on many occasions we do no play
the game of others and are never guided by the scenario set forth by
others,” said Vartanian.

The ARF leader emphasized that not nominating its own candidate
did not mean that the party will withdraw from taking party in the
electoral process

“On the contrary, we’ll be trying to ensure that the electoral
processes develop in the proper direction,” he said.

The ARF publicized its election platform earlier this fall with a
seven-point plan that included shifting Armenia’s governance to a
parliamentary system and urging the immediate removal of Armenia’s
signature from the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

Party leaders met with major political factions in Armenia, including
President Serzh Sarkisian, but were unable to create broad-based
support for the plan.

Sarkisian, who made his re-election bid official last month, rejected
the two aforementioned main tenets of the plan.

On Tuesday, former president and leader of the Armenian National
Congress, Levon Ter-Petrosian also announced that he would not seek
the presidency, joining the leader of the Prosperous Armenian Party
Gagik Tsarukian, who announced that he, too, would not run for office
and pledged that his party would not endorse Sarkisian’s candidacy.

From: A. Papazian

BAKU’S DESTRUCTIVE POSITION PUT KARABAKH SETTLEMENT NEGOTIATION PROCESS IN STALEMATE – FOREIGN MINISTER

news.am
December 26, 2012 | 19:16

STEPANAKERT. – At a press conference on December 26, the Foreign
Minister of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Karen Mirzoyan said that all
the issues in the context of the settlement of the Karabakh problem
require a comprehensive, package solution.

According to Mirzoyan, the most important political event of the
year took place in July, during presidential elections in Karabakh,
which were an important step in the process of nation-building and
evidence consistent democratic development of the country, which was
noted by the monitoring missions.

Speaking about the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, the
minister regretted the lack of serious progress, mainly because of
the destructive position of Baku, almost driving the negotiations
process into stalemate. In this context, Mirzoyan noted the pardon
and glorification of Azeri killer Ramil Safarov in Baku.

As the main objective of the Karabakh diplomacy the minister
emphasized the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement through
peaceful negotiations and achievement of international recognition of
Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Mirzoyan also noted that all the questions
in the context of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict will require
comprehensive, package solution.

From: A. Papazian