Author: Andres-Papazian

Jerusalem monastery, Armenian cemetery vandalised

16:29 12/12/2012
Story from Lragir.am News:

Vandals sprayed Monastery of the Cross and at an Armenian cemetery
overnight, police told AFP on Wednesday, in the latest apparent hate
crime by Jewish extremists.The attacks drew a strong condemnation from
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who expressed “disgust”
over the incidents, his office said.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said graffiti insulting to Jesus Christ
was “sprayed on the gates of the entrance of the Armenian cemetery…
and on a monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox.”

Outside the Monastery of the Cross near the Israeli parliament,
vandals also slashed the tyres of three cars belonging to staff, and
wrote “price tag” and “Happy Hanukkah” the Jewish holiday now being
observed by Israelis, an AFP correspondent said.

Father Claudius, the monastery’s abbot, said he had noticed the
graffiti at 4:30 am (0230 GMT) when he got up to pray.

“This is the seventh time this has happened,” he told reporters at the
scene, saying that if the vandals had simply knocked on the door he
would have invited them in for tea to talk to them about his faith.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had
expressed “disgust” over the attacks.

“The Jewish values by which we were raised, and by which we raise our
children, firmly reject such actions,” he said in the statement.

“Freedom of worship for all religions in Israel will be preserved and
we will take legal action against the immoral people who committed
these crimes.”

“Price tag” is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli
extremists, which normally target Palestinians and Arabs.

Initially carried out in retaliation for state moves to dismantle
unauthorised settler outposts, they have become increasingly unrelated
to any specific government measures.

The attacks tend to involve the vandalism or destruction of
Palestinian property and have included multiple arson attacks on cars,
mosques and olive trees.

Perpetrators are rarely caught.

At first, the attacks were predominantly in the West Bank, but they
have expanded over time to include sites inside Israel and in
Jerusalem, where a number of Christian sites have been targeted.

Samri said a third apparent “price tag” attack had been reported in
the West Bank village of Shukba near Ramallah, in which attackers set
fire to a car and sprayed “price tag” and “happy holidays” nearby.

Police were investigating all three incidents, she said.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland handed awards to the
representatives of Armenian community

On December 7 representatives of Armenian community in Switzerland
were awarded with the awards at Armenian Embassy in Switzerland. Press
and information department of Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
informs about this.

Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour handed the awards
by the Armenian Ministry of Diaspora to the director of `Topalian’
Armenian school in Geneva Nevrik Azadyan, teachers of the school
Hasmik Meliksetyan, Valya Dadoyan, manager of the `Arax’ ensemble
Diana Boyajyan and some other activists as well.

Armenian Ambassador thanked the representatives of Armenian community
for assisting Armenian culture’s development and their whole
activities.

12.12.12, 11:48

From: A. Papazian

Journalist gets prison sentence for praising Dink murder

2012-12-12 14:23:19

A journalist in Samsun was sentenced to a one year and 11-month prison
term for praising a crime and inciting hatred in a newspaper article
where he supported the murder of Hrant Dink.

Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish journalist, was shot dead outside the
Agos newspaper office in Å?iÅ?li on Jan. 19, 2007. In the ensuing
investigation the police arrested the gunman, Ogün Samast, and his
accomplice, Yasin Hayal. Samast was ultimately sentenced to 22 years
and ten months imprisonment on charges of “premeditated murder” and
“unlicensed possession of weapons,” and Hayal was found guilty of
soliciting Dink’s murder — giving Samast the idea and supplying him
with a weapon and money — and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Journalist Okan BaÅ? praised Samast and Dink’s killing in a column he
wrote for Statüko, a bimonthly magazine in Samsun. BaÅ? was sentenced
to one year and three months in prison for inciting hatred under
Article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). In his column titled
`Gentlemen, what harm have the nationalists done to you?’ BaÅ?,
managing editor of the magazine, wrote: `You know, a young man like
Ogün Samast has been condemned to serve a heavy penalty for shooting
Hrant, who said that `A Turk’s blood is filthy’. He did a good thing,
didn’t he?’

BaÅ? continued in his column: `If the state does not do what it needs
to do, and tolerates the foreigner who says `Turkish blood is filthy,’
if the state runs over the principles of nationalism trying to
ingratiate itself with the Armenians, then people will rise up and do
something about it. It doesn’t mean a thing to put this man on a
trial.’

The `Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism!’ group filed a lawsuit
against BaÅ?, and a criminal complaint was issued for offenses
including praising the crime and the criminal, provoking hatred and
enmity, and incitement to commit a crime, as well as insulting the
memory of a deceased person.

The trial concluded in October, and Samsun Second Criminal Court Judge
Murat Sarıyıldız recently announced the sentence of one year and 11
months in total; 15 months according to the Article 215 of the TCK for
`praising the crime and the criminal,’ and eight months according to
Article 216 for `provoking hatred.’ The punishment has been postponed
for five years.

Hakan BakırcıoÄ?lu, an attorney for the Dink family, commented that the
verdict was fair and added, `All the things that were written against
Dink created an atmosphere of a lynch mob that led to his eventual
murder. Punishing such behavior will prevent other similar incidents.’
Attorney BakırcıoÄ?lu added that this particular case was one of the
few in which Article 216 was properly applied.

From: A. Papazian

New hotel to be built in downtown Yerevan

news.am
December 12, 2012 | 04:28

YEREVAN. – A new hotel complex is planned to be constructed at the
heart of Armenia’s capital city Yerevan.

The respective investment plan is posted on the official website of
YerevanMunicipality.

In line with its plan, the hotel is expected to be a three-star, with
sixty spacious rooms. Total area of the complex will be 1,239 square
meters.

The hotel will be built with modern antiseismic technologies, and the
construction cost is estimated to be $7 million.

From: A. Papazian

Baku Will Host UNESCO, and the Armenian Side Cannot Make an Objection

DECEMBER 11, 2012 15:29

The next session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will take place in
Azerbaijan in December 2013. The UNESCO website informs about that.
Whereas Azerbaijan destroyed khachkars in Jugha, which hasn’t been
adequately condemned by the international community and organizations,
nor has Azerbaijan publicly admitted its guilt. inquired
of Kristina Mehrabekyan, the secretary of the Armenian National
Commission for UNESCO, why the Armenian delegation, which included,
besides her, Arev Samuelyan, the Deputy Minister of Culture, hadn’t
responded in any way. Ms. Mehrabyan replied over the phone that she
wasn’t entitled to give interviews, then added: `The Armenian
delegation cannot object to or not accept such a thing, because it is
a procedural issue that is decided by the UNESCO headquarters.’

Let us remind that on December 5, during the 7th session of the UNESCO
Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, the application Performance of the Armenian epic of
`Daredevils of Sassoun’ was considered and inscribed into the
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Moreover, only 36 out of 70 applications got an approval of experts
and were included in the session’s agenda. The tar was also included
in the same list as an Azerbaijani musical instrument, which,
according to , has caused Iranian musicologists
discontent. They described it as a theft committed by Azerbaijanis and
complained where the Iranian delegates had been during the discussion.

By the way, last June, the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Armenia,
and the Armenian Embassy to France organized an exhibition called The
Art of Khachkars: Armenian Khachkars in cooperation with UNESCO. The
directorate of UNESCO removed the explanatory captions under the
photos, leaving only the khachkars’ dates of creation. The Armenian
delegation insisted, in response, the UNESCO flag was taken out of the
hall, as a result, the leadership didn’t come to the opening ceremony.

Earlier, in 2010, Azerbaijan filed a complaint with regard to
recognizing Armenian khachkars as intangible cultural heritage,
claiming that khachkars are `not only Armenian.’

Gohar HAKOBYAN

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
La Russie collabore avec l’Arménie

La Russie pourrait construire une nouvelle station de radar en Arménie
après avoir échoué à prolonger le bail d’une installation située en
Azerbaïdjan, a déclaré le ministère arménien de la Défense mardi 11
décembre 2012. « Notre coopération militaire avec la Russie est à un
niveau très élevée », a déclaré Artsrun Hovannisian, le porte-parole
du ministère(Azatutyun.am).

Il n’est pas clair si le ministre de la Défense, Seyran Ohanian a
discuté de la question avec son homologue russe, Sergueï Shoygu, lors
de leurs entretiens à Moscou dans la journée, en marge d’une réunion
des chefs de la défense de plusieurs anciennes républiques
soviétiques. Le ministère de la Défense à Erevan a seulement dit
qu’ils ont discuté de la coopération militaire russo-arménienne et ont
cartographié des activités conjointes pour l’année prochaine. Après de
longues négociations, la Russie et l’Azerbaïdjan n’ont pas réussi à
s’entendre sur l’utilisation continue de Moscou de la station radar de
Gabala. Reuters a cité un fonctionnaire anonyme de l’Azerbaïdjan
disant dit plus tôt cette année que Bakou veut limiter la présence de
la Russie en Azerbaïdjan et que le prix a été augmenté pour décourager
Moscou à poursuivre son opération.

En l’absence des progrès réalisés dans les négociations
russo-azerbaïdjanaises sur Gabala, un ancien général de l’armée russe,
Leonid Ivashov, a suggéré en mars que l’armée russe devrait envisager
la construction d’une installation similaire en Arménie. Sergei
Minassian, un analyste arménien, a suggéré que les Russes n’ont guère
besoin d’avoir une station radar ailleurs dans le Caucase du Sud. Il a
dit que pour eux la perte de la station de Gabala est importante
surtout parce qu’elle met fin à la présence militaire de la Russie en
Azerbaïdjan.

mercredi 12 décembre 2012,
Laetitia ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

PRESIDENT OF GREEN UNION OF ARMENIA WITHDRAWS FROM COMMITTEE ON LAKE SEVAN

Tuesday, December 11, 15:46

President of the Green Union of Armenia Hakob Sanasaryan has withdrawn
from the Presidential Committee on Lake Sevan because none of his
proposals has been realized in the past three years.

“This is not a committee I would like to be in,” he told journalists
on Tuesday.

Sanasaryan said that the key problems of Sevan today are no commercial
stock of whitefish and trout, poor work to clean up the shores,
suspicious decisions on water releases. “We thought the Committee
would be able to solve them,” the expert said.

From: A. Papazian

ALLIES+ARMENIA+PARTNERS SITTING AT NATO HEADQUARTERS

ARMRADIO.AM
17:08 11.12.2012

Armenian Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Yeritsyan visited
the NATO headquarters on December 10.

Within the framework of the visit Minister Yeritsyan had a meeting
with Ambassador Stephen Evans, NATO Assistant Secretary General for
Operations. The head of Armenia’s mission to NATO, Ambassador Armen
Yedigaryan was present at the meeting.

The parties discussed issues of Armenia-NATO cooperation in the field
of disaster management, as well as the process of implementation of
Armenia’s commitments under the Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership
Action Plan (IPAP). Minister Yeritsyan presented the works towards
creation of a crisis management center and the future plans.

The meeting was followed by a sitting in the Allies+Armenia+Partners
format initiated and organized by the Republic of Armenia. About 40
representatives from NATO member and partner countries participated
in the sitting.

From: A. Papazian

ARMTECH CONGRESS’12 COMES TO THE SILICON VALLEY

12:18 11.12.2012

ArmTech Congress 2012, Silicon Valley

The fifth global Armenian high-tech industry conference and strategic
business forum, ArmTech Congress 2012, kicked off at the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. The Prime
Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, the US Ambassador to Armenia,
John Heffern, are among the dignitaries and top industry executives
attending the Congress. The objective of this strategic business
forum is to bring executives from high tech industry; researchers
and officials from academia; representatives from the venture capital
community and other investors as well as top Government officials from
the Silicon Valley, Armenia, Europe and other geographic locations
to explore the next generation of emerging markets and related
technologies in the Silicon Valley and Armenia, and to help setting
the next stage of high tech industry development in Armenia.

“The progress and achievements of Armenia’s high tech industry in
recent years, as well as the essential need to advance the Armenian
technological community, urge us to improve communication and
cooperation among professionals in high tech, establish international
business skills and perfect advanced high tech industry composition.

We must also develop new contacts and business opportunities to
create compatible, comprehensive operations that improve Armenia’s
business and information high tech industry environment,” said RA
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.

“The IT Sector holds great promise for mutually-beneficial partnerships
between Armenia and the United States. American IT investments are
helping to transform Armenia in to a 21st Century knowledge-based
economy, exactly what the country needs. Thanks to all the organizers
of ArmTech for this important conference and to all the participants
for their contribution to the growth of US-Armenian economic ties. I
also welcome the participation of the Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan,
a champion of the IT sector in Armenia,” said the US Ambassador to
Armenia, John Heffern.

“Perspectives of Armenian economy are considerably conditioned by
hi-tech sector development,” emphasized Tigran Davtyan, the Minister
of Economy of the Republic of Armenia.

“Being actively involved along with other investors and high tech
executives in helping architect the transition since the fall of
Soviet Union and independence of Armenia which left Armenia at zero
economy, I have seen the miracle of how this small country has been
able to rise within few short years to an enviable level in high tech
industry and start contributing to the global community. We greatly
appreciate the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering for
hosting this unique event on Stanford University campus” said Tony
Moroyan, a Silicon Valley high tech industry veteran and the Co-founder
of ArmTech Congress.

“The fifth ArmTech Congress brings together the highest level
ofArmenia’s government, business leaders, and academies in a show
case of the high tech business economy inArmenia. The Congress has
evolved from its early stages of discussions on building a high tech
economy inArmeniato today’s celebration of the successes of high tech
inArmenia. Though there will always be more to do,Armenia’s progress
has been impressive, indeed!”

“As new economies emerge, we see a great potential for building
smart and sustainable infrastructure using advanced technologies,
exploring implementation of new materials and building technologies,
addressing issues of environmental impact that may have been long
ignored and sharing our expertise on how to deal with disasters. The
ArmTech Congress provides a unique opportunity to explore our ideas
in addressing these issues. We are delighted to host the event and
look forward to a productive interaction.” said Anne Kiremidjian,
Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.

The event will showcase the impressive development of the global
high-tech industry capabilities of the Republic of Armenia (RA) by
bringing together the entities, the investors and individuals who
are interested in the rapidly rising high tech sector in Armenia.

From: A. Papazian

KARINE KAZINIAN’S CORPSE WILL BE REPATRIATED IN THE END OF WEEK

13:54, 11 December, 2012

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia
to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Karine
Kazinian’s corpse will be repatriated to Armenia in the end of week. In
a conversation with “Armenpress” the Press Secretary of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Balayan stated this.

Karine Kazinian died in the United States of America in the early
morning on December 6. Karine Kazinian was born on 8 January, 1955,
Yerevan, Republic of Armenia. She graduated from Yerevan State
University, Philology Department, in 1977. Karine Kazinian worked in
the USSR Embassy in Mozambique 1977-1981, 1983-1988 – the USSR Embassy
in Portugal. From 1992-1994 Kazinian worked as a lecturer of English
at Law and Philology Departments, Yerevan State University. 1997 she
was appointed Charge d’Affaires of the Republic of Armenia in Romania.

She was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Republic of Armenia to Romania in 1999-2001, 2001-2009 – Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the
Federal Republic of Germany. Karine Kazinian worked as the Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia in 2009-2011.

She graduated from Harvard Kennedy Government School in June, 2010.

Karine Kazinian was appointed the Ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
on September 8, 2011.

She was awarded with Armenian Medal of Mkhitar Gosh, Romanian Grand
Cross Order for Merit.

From: A. Papazian