Author: Andres-Papazian

Armenian activist calls for withdrawal of Russian border troops

tert.am
10:41 – 20.09.12

Zhirayr Sefilyan, a member of the Sardarapat Movement and a
participant of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, has called for withdrawing
Russian border guards from Armenia’s territory.

In a Facebook post, the activist characterizes the troops’ presence as
part of policies aimed to serve foreign powers.

`The post is part of the Armed Forces and is called to ensure our
military security in the frameworks of a political-military alliance,
along with exercising Russia’s strategic interests.

The facts that the costs for the post’s maintenance are partially
covered by Armenia or the potential of its land subdivisions has a
symbolic significance certainly conflict with our interests while its
presence is undesired and poses certain threats to Armenia’s
sovereignty. What is acceptable to us is the sufficient presence of
Russia’s anti-air defense and aviation forces in accordance with
internationally accepted terms and conditions of distribution,’
Sefilyan says, considering the subdivisions’ operation intolerable.

Characterizing the posts as resident subdivisions of a foreign state’s
intelligence services, the activist claims that they exercise control
over certain sections of Armenia’s state border with Turkey and Iran,
as well as the air traffic.

`Such an obvious colonial dependence from a foreign [power] and its
full control of our departures and arrivals, and domestic developments
has to be suspended in the quickest possible manner. The Russian
border-guards have to be immediately withdrawn from Armenia’s
territory and the border protection has to be entrusted to the
Armenian border guards,’ says the activist.

From: A. Papazian

Courrier International
18 sept 2012

Grandes man`uvres en Arménie

Arménie accueille des exercices militaires alors que les tensions
persistent dans la région”, titre le quotidien turc. Quelque 2 000
soldats en provenance d’Arménie, de Russie, de Biélorussie, du
Kazhakstan, du Kirghizistan et du Tadjikistan procèdent à des
man`uvres militaires communes du 15 au 19 septembre en Arménie,
rapporte-t-il. Ces exercices, symbole d’une solidarité héritée de
l’Union soviétique, se sont déroulés sur fond de crispations entre
Erevan et Bakou. La grce accordée récemment par l’Azerbaïdjan au
meurtrier d’un Arménien passe mal à Erevan.

From: A. Papazian

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 19 2012

Deputy PM: Slovenia supports peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 19 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /

Slovenia supports the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and
Technology Radovan Žerjav told Trend in Baku today.

“Slovenia would like this problem to be resolved by peaceful means,”
he said. “Of course, seeing all these terrible events, we regret.”

He said that the theme of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been
repeatedly touched upon at the talks during his visit to Baku.

“We live in the 21st century, and of course, these terrible events do
not belong to the present situation,” he said.

He added that Slovenia wants the conflict to be rapidly resolved. This
will have a positive impact on the economic relations between the two
countries.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. – are
currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Sept 19 2012

Over 20 cases of pension violation initiated in Armenia

The Armenian police have initiated cases against 24 people, 7 of whom
were arrested, for violations in pension payments, News Armenia
reports.

Khachatryan, head of the section for processing programs of the State
Social Support Service, the husband of his sister and brother-in-law
Muradyan stole over 15 millions drams in 2007-2008.

A similar case happened at the Khorrdain-1 territorial office.
72,204,048 drams were stolen and 36,305,963 of the sum were returned.

Three separate cases against 12 people were initiated on September 18.

From: A. Papazian

EurasiaNet.org, NY
Sept 19 2012

CSTO Exercises Tiptoe Around Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

September 19, 2012 – 2:56pm, by Joshua Kucera

A Kazakhstan soldier takes part in the CSTO exercises in Armenia

The Collective Security Treaty Organization has wrapped up its annual
military exercises, held this year in Armenia, with the group’s
general secretary saying the group needs to create its own military
forces, including air forces, in Central Asia. But at a time of
heightened tensions in the Caucasus, the drills took a relatively low
profile.

Not much has been said about the scenario of the exercises, called
“Interaction-2012,” the first of the CSTO to be held in the Caucasus.
The scale of these exercises was much smaller than last year’s —
about 2,000 troops, compared to 24,000 last year spread out over
several countries, half in Central Asia and the other half in Belarus.
(The CSTO is led by Russia and also includes Armenia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.)

It was an interesting time for the exercises to be held in Armenia,
just after tensions spiked as a result of the extradition and pardon
of Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani soldier who killed an Armenian
colleague at a NATO event in Hungary. There has been a lot of
speculation about whether the CSTO would come to the aid of Armenia in
the event of a war over Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia actually postponed
the start of the exercises a week, from September 8 to September 15.
No explanation for the delay was given, other than that it was due to
“technical reasons,” but it’s no small matter to reschedule, at the
last minute, a multi-country military exercise. The announcement of
the delay was August 30 — and the next day, Safarov was released. Was
there a connection?

In the days after the pardon, the CSTO’s Nikolay Bordyuzha criticized
Azerbaijan for the Safarov pardon, drawing an angry response from
Baku. And intriguingly, Nagorno Karabakh’s de facto defense minister
did attend the exercises. Still, both the Armenian and Azerbaijani
sides seemed relatively muted, and neither seemed to really push the
notion of CSTO involvement in their conflict.

Bordyuzha, speaking during the event, proposed creating a CSTO
military, “uniting all existing components,” would include
rapid-reaction forces in Central Asia, including an aviation
component, which “could transport personnel and units to conflict
zones, providing military cover to operations.”

It’s not clear exactly what this would entail, and given that the
ratio of CSTO proposals to CSTO action is quite high, we might not
react too strongly to this quite yet. But it certainly indicates a
desire on Russia’s part to take a more active security role in Central
Asia — if not in the Caucasus.

From: A. Papazian

Xinhua General News Service, China
September 18, 2012 Tuesday 6:40 PM EST

U.S. and Swiss astronauts on Azerbaijan’s “blacklist”

BAKU Sept. 18

The former United States astronaut Charles Duke and Swiss astronaut
Claude Nicollier will be included in Azerbaijan’s blacklist, spokesman
of the Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev told media on
Tuesday.

According to Abdullayev, the two astronauts will be denied visit to
Azerbaijan, as they have traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region which
is officially part of Azerbaijan, but under Armenian control, without
the approval of Azerbaijan.

“Traveling to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without a
permission of Azerbaijan is illegal,” he said.

He explained that those who visited Nagorno-Karabakh and seven
surrounding regions of Azerbaijan occupied by neighboring Armenia will
be included in the “list of undesirable persons.”

According to the Armenian media, Duke and Nicollier traveled to
Nagorno Karabakh to take part in the conference titled “Human and
Space” on Sept. 16.

The landlocked mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh is the subject
of an unresolved dispute between Azerbaijan, in which it lies, and its
Armenian majority, backed by neighboring Armenia.

In 1988, towards the end of Soviet rule, Azerbaijani troops and
Armenian secessionists began a bloody war which left this region in
the hands of Armenians when a truce was signed in 1994.

Negotiations have so far failed to produce a permanent peace
agreement, and the dispute remains one of post-Soviet Europe’s ”
frozen conflicts”.

From: A. Papazian

The Armenian Observer
September 19, 2012 Wednesday 8:27 AM EST

The Man Who Walked on The Moon Can’t Walk on Azerbaijan

One of the 12 people who have walked on the moon – American astronaut
Charles Duke will be included in the list of undesirable people in
Azerbaijan as he “illegally visited” the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic, which Azerbaijan considers its territory for some reason.

A spokesperson from Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a
statement about it, after Charles Duke participated in the conference
entitled “Man and the space” held in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 16.

Charles Moss Duke, Jr. (born October 3, 1935) is a retired US Air
Force brigadier general, and a former United States astronaut for
NASA. As lunar module pilot for Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth
and youngest of the 12 people who have walked on the Moon.

PS: There’s no PS this time. This is just funny! :)) And btw – kudos
to Kornelij for bringing this to my attention!

From: A. Papazian

St. James Church Honors Ellis Island Medal Recipient Dr. Nishan Goudsouzian

Community | September 19, 2012 10:20 am

WATERTOWN, Mass. – On Sunday, September 23, St. James Armenian Church
will host a reception following Divine Liturgy in honor of parishioner
Dr. Nishan Goudsouzian, recipient of the 2012 Ellis Island Medal of
Honor.

Goudsouzian and his wife, Mary, have been active St. James
parishioners for more than 40 years. He is the chairman of the Mr. &
Mrs. Group, is in his second term as diocesan delegate, and has served
on the Parish Council for six years. He is active in several other
organizations such as the Armenian Genera

Benevolent Union (AGBU) and the National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR). Goudsouzian is on the executive board of
Friends of Armenian Culture Society (FACS) and on the Board of the
Armenian Cultural Society of Arlington (ACF). The Goudsouzians’
contributions to the community were recognized by Karekin II, supreme
patriarch and catholicos of all Armenians through the awarding of the
St. Nersess Shnorhali medal and pontifical encyclical. The St. James
parish also honored the Goudsouzians as St. James 2008 Parishioners of
the Year, which was recognized by the Massachusetts House of
Representatives.

Armenia has a special place in the heart of the Goudsouzians. Dr.
Nishan Goudsouzian has visited Armenia seven times – twice with
Project Hope; the first time to organize an airlift of earthquake
victims to United States, and the second time to establish a
rehabilitation unit. Two of the traumatized children stayed with the
Goudsouzians for six months. Single-handedly he collects unused
medical supplies and equipment from Massachusetts

General and Shriners’ Burn Hospitals and assembles shipments to
hospitals in Armenia every two or three months via the United Armenia
Fund.

Goudsouzian’s professional accomplishments are as notable as his
philanthropic and personal accomplishments. He has been a pediatric
anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital for 45 years, has
published more than 150 medical and research publications and has
authored two books that had several editions and translated to four
languages. He was the founding editor and chairman of the editorial
board of the indexed journal Pediatric Anesthesia. In recognition of
his achievements, Harvard Medical School bestowed on him the title of
Professor of Anesthesia.

The Goudsouzians’ greatest pride is their family – their three sons,
Steven (Lara), Aram (Chrystal) and Haig (Jarka), and five
grandchildren.

All are welcome to attend this reception, which will be held in the
St. James’ Charles Mosesian Cultural and Youth Center, Keljik Hall,
465 Mt. Auburn St.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian judokas to participate in European U20 Championships

September 19, 2012 – 17:29 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian judokas will participate in European U20
Championships, due September 21-23 in Porec, Croatia.

As Armenian Judo Federation representative told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter, the line-up consists of Yerjanik Karapetyan, Garik
Harutyunyan, Arsen Tovmasyan, Arsen Ghazaryan, Gevorg Torosyan, David
Ghazaryan, Mher Tavakalyan and Artavazd Hovsepyan.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian opposition party member wants to believe in President’s sincerity

news.am
September 19, 2012 | 12:25

YEREVAN. – Opposition Armenian National Movement Party Board member
Hovhannes Igityan wants to believe in President Serzh Sargsyan’s
sincerity. Igityan himself stated this during a press conference on
Wednesday.

In his view, Sargsyan’s recent meeting with the Government shows that
`a point has been reached beyond which it is impossible to rule the
country.’

`I don’t want to consider this to be a pre-[presidential]election step
for two reasons. First, the body politic plays a small role in the
elections, and [second,] people are elected in Armenia by making use
of administrative resources and money, and not by being liked by the
society. For a long time, now, the incumbent President wants to change
something in Armenia and he gives instructions to the Government. But
the latter either doesn’t want, or is unable, to do that,’ Igityan
said.

According to him, if Serzh Sargsyan cannot catch the people in his
entourage, establish law and order within his `family,’ and chide his
friends, he must resign.

In his turn, the press conference’s other speaker, ruling Republican
Party MP Sukias Avetisyan noted that it is a fabrication to deviate
the meaning behind the President’s recent discussion with the
Government, and he stated that he sees no contradiction in the
assessments that were made.

`The last consultation did not refer to the whole economy, but rather
to a part of it, [that is,] to the procurements,’ Avetisyan noted.

From: A. Papazian