Author: Andres-Papazian

CYPRUS SUPPORTS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S RESOLUTION CONDEMNING SAFAROV’S EXTRADITION AND PARDON

arminfo
Monday, September 17, 09:48

President of the House of Representative of Cyprus Yiannakis Omirou
declared during his meeting with Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Edward Nalbandian made the following statement on Safavor’s case on
September 14:

“I would like to express our utmost disapproval for the actions of
the Azerbaijani government in regard to the well-known Safarov issue,
for the pardon he was given and for the hero-like welcome this criminal
received, who was convicted for an abhorrent crime against as Armenian
citizen. I would like to unite the voice of the Cypriot Parliament
with that of the European Parliament, which yesterday, with a powerful
resolution condemned this unacceptable behavior of Azerbaijan, which
violated the fundamental regulations of the international law, as well
as normal relations of mutual respect between inter-state relations.”

During the meeting the two officials welcomed the high level of
cooperation of Armenia and Cyprus in various spheres, including the
parliamentary cooperation. In this context, Yiannakis Omirou highly
praised the role of the Armenian community in Cyprus. They discussed
also the Cypriot problem condemning the destructive position on Turkey
on the issue.

From: A. Papazian

La Voix du Nord, France
mercredi 12 septembre 2012

Le Quai de la Batterie accueille les estampes de la prestigieuse
fondation Calouste Gulbenkian

Saint-Pol – Le Quai de la Batterie accueille, durant trois mois, les
estampes originales de la fondation Gulbenkian, et une oeuvre d’un
artiste brésilien, Diaz Beck, « Art is show », un bonbon rose, réalisé
avec le concours de l’entreprise Knauf de Dainville, pour une
bonbonnière : la cour de l’hôtel de Guînes. Entretien avec Luc
Brévart… Qu’est-ce que la fondation Gulbenkian ? « Gulbelkian était
un Arménien ayant fait fortune dans le pétrole à la fin du XIXe
siècle.

Il servait d’intermédiaire. On l’appelait “Monsieur 5 %”. Il avait un
hôtel particulier avenue d’Iéna à Paris. À sa mort, la France n’a pas
voulu de sa fondation. Lisbonne l’a accueilli d’autant plus facilement
qu’il n’y avait pas de grand musée là-bas et que la fondation
travaillait dans le médical, l’éducation et l’art. Elle soutient
encore aujourd’hui des artistes et expose ses trésors antiques, ses
collections d’art classique et organise des événements culturel. C’est
un peu le Louvre du Portugal. » Ce prêt d’oeuvres est un gage de
reconnaissance pour le Quai de la Batterie ? « Oui ! Nous travaillons
depuis trois ans avec les artistes portugais, à travers la Monstra et
nous avons également accueilli une installation de Francisco Tropa qui
a ensuite été retenu pour représenter son pays à la biennale de
Venise. Preuve que nos choix sont crédibles. La prochaine biennale du
livre devrait être également présentée à Lisbonne. On a simplement
contacté la fondation. Je précise que nous ne déboursons rien pour le
prêt des oeuvres que nous allons montrer. » Parlons-en. Qu’ont-elle de
spécial, ces estampes ? « Ce sont des estampes originales. pas des
reproductions d’oeuvres, mais de réelles créations gravées dans le
bois, le cuivre, des eaux fortes, lythos, sérigraphies, par les
artistes eux-mêmes et contresignées par Miro, Richard Hamilton, Otto
Muller, Jacek Cage, Picasso, Frenand Léger, Sonia Delaunay, Niki de
Saint-Phalle, Henri Moore… Tirées à très peu d’exemplaires, ces
oeuvres sont rares. Quarante-cinq estampes seront exposées dans les
salons du rez-de-chaussée, vingt-trois dans la salle bleue à l’étage.
Là, la scénographie a été adaptée pour les enfants sur le thème “Corps
impressions et petites histoires”. L’accrochage a été surbaissé. J’y
joindrai quelques sculptures. » Le public enfant bénéficiera
d’animations ? « Plus de cinq cents sont déjà inscrits pour des
ateliers de pratique de l’estampe, pour apprendre à graver sur
plexiglas ou faire des sérigraphies. Ils seront pris en charge par
Antoine Kempa et Adeline Méliez ». NICOLAS ANDRÉ

From: A. Papazian

SDA
jeudi 13 septembre 2012 8:30 PM CET

Un journaliste turc publie un livre admettant un génocide arménien

Istanbul

Un journaliste turc de premier plan vient de publier un livre
qualifiant de génocide les massacres d’Arméniens survenus en 1915-17
dans l’empire ottoman. Cette prise de position est rare en Turquie où
le terme est récusé par les autorités et reste encore largement tabou.

Editorialiste du quotidien “Milliyet”, Hasan Cemal, qui est aussi le
petit-fils de Cemal Pacha, un des généraux à la tête de l’empire
ottoman lors de la Première guerre mondiale, relate dans “1915: Le
Génocide Arménien” son cheminement intellectuel et émotionnel vers la
reconnaissance du génocide.

“Je comprends votre douleur face au génocide, je la partage”: c’est
par ces mots, prononcés en mars 2011 lors d’une conférence à Los
Angeles devant une audience largement composée de membres de la
diaspora arménienne, que l’auteur affirme être passé de l’autre côté
du miroir.

Histoire “réinventée ou altérée”
Des mots prononcés avec difficulté, au terme d’un long parcours
amenant Hasan Cemal, dont le grand-père a été assassiné en 1922 à
Tbilissi par un activiste arménien, à prendre progressivement ses
distances avec les thèses officielles.

“La douleur de 1915 n’appartient pas au passé, mais bel et bien au
présent. C’est en faisant la paix avec l’histoire, la vraie, pas celle
qui comme chez nous a été réinventée ou altérée, et en nous sauvant du
virus de l’exploitation de l’histoire que nous pourrons trouver le
repos”, souligne le journaliste.

La Turquie reconnaît des massacres de 500’000 Arméniens en 1915-1917
dans les territoires administrés par l’empire ottoman, dont elle est
l’héritière, mais récuse le terme de génocide. Les Arméniens avancent
le chiffre de 1,5 million de morts dans un génocide, reconnu par de
nombreux pays.

From: A. Papazian

TALE SPIN: ORBáN NOW SAYS RELEASE OF AXE MURDERER ‘NOT UNEXPECTED’

Budapest Times

Sept 14 2012
Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told reporters on Tuesday that he had
the last word in the decision to repatriate the convicted Azerbaijani
murderer Ramil Safarov, and that he was not surprised by the killer’s
subsequent release. This puts a new spin on events: last week the
government was claiming that it had accepted reassurances from Baku
that Safarov would sit out the remainder of his life sentence in an
Azerbaijani jail.

Safarov brutally murdered a sleeping Armenian army officer in a
premeditated axe attack during a NATO-sponsored language course in
Budapest in 2004.

Igniting a firestorm

However, he was released and given a hero’s welcome after being handed
over to Azerbaijan a fortnight ago. This enraged Armenia, which
immediately broke off diplomatic ties with Hungary, and led the US
and EU to demand explanations from both parties to the transfer. The
ongoing row is also threatening to reignite a conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan over the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh.

New story weaved

Despite now admitting that he never expected Safarov to serve out his
jail sentence following the handover under the Strasbourg Convention
on the transfer of sentenced persons, Orbán maintained the government
had acted “justly” in following international legal procedure.

Not innocent dupes

State news agency MTI quoted him as dismissing opposition claims that
the government had been seeking economic help from the oil-rich Caspian
Sea country. All relevant ministries were involved in the decision
but the prime minister had had the final say “naturally… as always”,
Orbán said.

EUâ~@~Hduped

Two days earlier the office of the EU’s foreign policy High
Representative Catherine Ashton appeared to be taking at face value
Hungary’s protestations of being innocent dupes. “It would appear
that certain conditions and commitments that were agreed between
Hungary and Azerbaijan on the transfer of Ramil Safarov have not been
met,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told Radio Free Europe’s Brussels
correspondent.

“We will continue or we will try to be in touch with the Azeri side to
hear the explanation why this has happened and why the behaviour that
is endangering the fragile situation in the region is continuing,”
Kocijancic was quoted as saying.

Unintended consequences

Foreign Minister János Martonyi has written to his Armenian
counterpart Eduard Nalbandian in a bid to assure him that the handover
of Safarov was not intended as an insult to Armenia. In a letter sent
to MTI last Friday, Martonyi spoke of “Christian values connecting
the two peoples for a thousand years”. He urged a restoration of
diplomatic ties, whose ongoing suspension would, he said, not serve
Armenia’s interests.

Nevertheless, Armenian activists have continued to demonstrate outside
Hungarian embassies, this week in Berlin, Bern and Prague.

From: A. Papazian

LEGENDARY BRITISH ROCK-STAR GIVES A CONCERT IN STEPANAKERT

Mediamax
Sept 14 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. British rock-star, member of Black Country
Communion supergroup Glenn Hughes gave a concert in the capital of
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Stepanakert on September 13.

Glen Hughes and another member of Black Country Communion Derek
Sherinian were special guests at the concert of Armenian rock-band
Dorians, Mediamax reports.

The free open-air concert was held in Stepanakert and gathered
thousands of people. It was the brightest show in the history of
Artsakh.

Glenn Hughes is the first top rock-star to perform in Stepanakert.

On September 13, NKR President Bako Sahakyan received Glenn Hughes
and Derek Sherinian.

In 1973-1976, Glenn Hughes was a bassist in Deep Purple and cooperated
with many famous musicians afterwards.

Other members of Black Country Communion are guitarist Joe Bonamassa
and drummer Jason Bonham (the son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer
John Bonham).

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH JOURNALIST WRITES BOOK ON ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Agence France Presse
September 13, 2012 Thursday 2:56 PM GMT

A veteran Turkish journalist has characterised the World War I
massacre of Armenians in his country as genocide in a new book,
defying the government’s stance on the sensitive issue.

Hasan Cemal — a columnist with the Milliyet daily, and the grandson
of WWI Ottoman Empire general Cemal Pasha — lays out the evolution
of his thinking on the issue in the book “1915: The Armenian Genocide”.

“The pain of 1915 is not an issue of the past, but of the present,”
he writes in the foreword. “We can only find peace and finally rest
by making our peace with history — but with the real history, not
an invented or altered one like ours — and ridding ourselves of the
virus of exploiting it.”

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
a 1915-16 genocide by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says 500,000 died
of fighting and starvation during WWI and categorically rejects the
term genocide.

The Turkish official view has been disputed in the country by some
academics and intellectuals since the late 1990s. Some historians in
2005 held a conference to debate the Armenian question.

“I know your pain of the genocide, I share it,” Cemal last year told
a Los Angeles conference attended by many members of the Armenian
diaspora.

He distanced himself from the Turkish state ideology even though his
grandfather was murdered by an Armenian activist in Tbilisi in 1922.

Turkey’s Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk went on trial in Turkey for telling
a Swiss newspaper in 2005 that his country had killed “30,000 Kurds and
one million Armenians”, but later the charges against him were dropped.

From: A. Papazian

GERMANY AND FRANCE ARE INTERESTED IN ARMENIAN HONEY

ARMENPRESS
14 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS: The high temperature in March and
April rains prevented the development of apiculture. Telman Nazaryan,
the president of National Beekeepers Association of Armenia, noted
that the nature of Armenian highlands is conducive for the development
of ,,multiflowered apiculture”, but despite that honey is scarce this
year. He calculated that in case last year one beehive was giving 7
kg of honey this year the number is much lower.

This year Germany and France suggested Armenia, to import Armenian
honey. But according to Nazaryan it is not reasonable for Armenia to
export honey because this year Armenia itself is short of honey.

The prime minister of National Beekeepers Association of Armenia
Armen Nazaryan referred to the medicinal importance of honey. He
highlighted that honey is widely used in medicine.

National Beekeepers Association cooperates with State Agricultural
University to have training courses for experienced beekeepers.

From: A. Papazian

ST. CROSS LEBANON-BASED ARMENIAN CHURCH DESECRATED

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 14, 2012 – 20:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – An act of vandalism was committed in St. Cross
Armenian church in Lebanese city of Zalka. The desecrators demolished
the statue of St. Rita, some icons and looted the secretariat,
L’Orient-Le Jour said.

The church’s priest, who first discovered the demolished relics,
called the police. He doesn’t rule out that the desecration is
lined with Pope Benedict’s visit to Lebanon. The priest also cited a
possibility of an Islamist group attack, since the incident occurred
on the eve of a Christian festival.

From: A. Papazian

VARDAN AYVAZYAN WILL PAY $37,537,978.02

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 17:48:36 – 14/09/2012

On Thursday September 6, 2012, the United States Marshal Service for
the Southern District of New York filed for service a Writ of Execution
to be enforced against Mr. Vardan Ayvazyan in favor of Global Gold
Mining, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (‘GGM’). The
Writ of Execution was issued by the United States District Court for
the Southern District of New York following the order and judgment of
Judge J. Paul Oetken and final entry of that judgment (No. 12,1260),
without appeal. The terms of the Writ of Execution and the Thirty
Seven Million Five Hundred Thirty Seven Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy
Eight dollars and Two cents ($37,537,978.02) amount of the judgment in
favor of GGM are more particularly described in the attachment hereto.

In 2006, a subsidiary of the Company which was the license holder for
the Hankavan property was the subject of corrupt and improper demands
and threats from the now former Minister of the Ministry of Environment
and Natural Resources of Armenia, Vardan Ayvazyan. The Company reported
this situation to the appropriate authorities in Armenia and in the
United States; eventually, the Company lost control of the Hankavan
property as a result of Ayvazyan. The Company engaged international
and local counsel to pursue prosecution of the illegal and corrupt
practices directed against the subsidiary. On November 7, 2006,
the Company initiated the thirty-day good faith negotiating period
(which is a prerequisite to filing for international arbitration under
the applicable 2003 Share Purchase Agreement) with the three named
sellers/shareholders and one previously undisclosed shareholder and
the principal directing the other shareholders, Ayvazyan. The Company
filed for arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber
of Commerce, headquartered in Paris, France (‘ICC’) on December 29,
2006. On June 25, 2008, the Federal District Court for the Southern
District of New York ruled that Ayvazyan was required to appear
as a respondent in the ICC arbitration. On September 5, 2008, the
ICC International Court of Arbitration ruled that Ayvazyan shall
be a party in accordance with the decision rendered on June 25,
2008 by the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New
York. Subsequently, in December 2011 the ICC Tribunal decided to
proceed only with the three named shareholders; in March 2012, GGM
filed an action in Federal District Court pursuant to that Court’s
prior decisions for damages against Ayvazyan and/or to conform the
ICC Tribunal to the precedents. Based on the evidence of the damages
suffered as a result of Ayvazyan’s actions, the final $37,537,978.02
federal court judgment in favor of GGM is comprised of $27,152,244.50
in compensatory damages plus $10,385,734.52 of interest at 9% from
2008. The Company has notified the ICC that the pending arbitration
against the other three shareholders should be terminated as moot,
considering the final judgment against Ayvazyan.

From: A. Papazian

GIVING HERO’S STATUS TO SENTENCED MURDERER IS UNACCEPTABLE – VENICE COMMISSION PRESIDENT

news.am
September 14, 2012 | 17:04

YEREVAN. – Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
Venice Commission President Gianni Buquicchio addressed a letter to
Armenia’s Constitutional Court President Gagik Harutyunyan, and noted
that he deeply shares the resentment over the recent developments.

Buquicchio said he fully joins Council of Europe Secretary General
Thorbjørn Jagland’s following statement made in this regard, and on
behalf of the entire organization:

“Ramil Safarov was convicted for murder and sentenced to life
imprisonment in Hungary. On August 31, he was transferred to
Azerbaijan, and immediately pardoned. I do not want to comment on
the legal proceedings, but I find it unacceptable that a convicted
murderer is welcomed as a hero.

I reject the prospect of a world whose moral code begins to fray,
where respect for human dignity is denied. This is not the Europe that
we should wish for future generations. I condemn such glorification
of crime, and urge that we all work to uphold the respect for life,
and our values as defended by the Council of Europe.”

From: A. Papazian