Author: Andres-Papazian

ARMENIAN YOUNG MUSICIAN STUNS EVERYONE WITH HIS PERFORMANCE AT YOUNG MUSICIANS EUROVISION

news.am
May 08, 2012 | 00:01

VIENNA. – Qanun player Narek Kazazyan, 15, representing Armenia at
the Eurovision for Young Musicians 2012, passed to the final round,
head of the Armenian delegation to Eurovision Gohar Gasparyan told
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to her, Narek presented a great performance and everyone
was delighted.

“He was unique with his instrument and he was the only one presenting
such an instrument. He caught attention by that and everyone was
delighted from the tunes of the qanun, everyone said that the boy
is virtuoso, we have received many congratulation letters from many
countries,” she said.

After hearing all the 14 participants on May 5 and 6, the jury selected
7 participants who pass to the final round.

Narek Kazazyan, Qanun (Armenia)

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Violin (Austria)

Alexandra Dzenisenia, Cimbalom (Belarus)

Michaela paÄ~Mková, Bassoon (Czech Republic)

Dominic Chamot, Piano (Germany)

Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad, Viola (Norway)

Jagoda KrzemiÅ~Dska, Flute (Poland)

From: A. Papazian

LES LOUPS GRIS A NAMUR
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
mardi 8 mai 2012

Non content d’avoir tenus des propos negationnistes a Metz le
7 avril dernier, devant des milliers de ressortissants turcs et
d’origine turque, le chef de file des Loups gris et du Mouvement
Nationaliste Turc (MHP), Devlet Bahceli entend en remettre une couche
le 20 Mai prochain a Namur. Où vont s’arreter les provocations sur
le sol europeen de celui qui affirme que les declarations de la
France relatives a un genocide des Armeniens en Turquie ne sont que
“calomnies et affirmations creuses.” ?

“Ceux qui essaient de mettre notre nation au banc des accuses, avec
les encouragements de la diaspora armenienne, ont echoue. La diaspora
armenienne doit a present etre raisonnable”, avait-il dit devant les
10 000 participants au 10e Congrès de la Federation Francaise Turque.

Jusqu’a quand le Premier ministre belge Elio Di Ruppo, present le 6 mai
au côte de Francois Hollande Place de la Bastille a feter la victoire
du candidat socialiste a l’election presidentielle, va-t-il tolerer
qu’un parti ultra-nationaliste d’un pays etranger vienne impunement
vehiculer une violence intellectuelle negationniste sur son sol au
motif que la presence turque en Belgique le lui interdit ?

Monsieur Di Ruppo, aujourd’hui, mardi 8 mai, vous vous trouvez au
camp de concentration d’Auschwitz-Birkenau dans la perpetuation de la
memoire du genocide juif. Ferez-vous bientôt ce meme geste a l’egard
du genocide des Armeniens ?

Les europeens d’origine armenienne attendent une reponse de la Belgique
sur sa complaisance a autoriser de telles reunions colportant la
violence et endoctrinant les masses populaires sur le sol europeen.

From: A. Papazian

LA LETTRE DE FRANCOIS HOLLANDE AU NEGATIONNISTE DEMIR ONGER
Ara

armenews.com
mardi 8 mai 2012

Monsieur,

je vous remercie d’avoir attire mon attention sur la question difficile
des lois dites memorielles. Je tiens d’abord a saluer les efforts
de votre comite dans son incessante quete pour la paix qui merite
d’etre encouragee.

Le Parti socialiste est a l’origine de l’adoption de la loi sur
le genocide. je l’ai moi-meme vote. Le texte recemment adopte par
le Senat ne parle, en effet, pas d’un genocide en particulier, mais
vise a punir penalement ceux qui auront fait l’apologie, conteste ou
minimise des crimes de genocide. C’est un texte de nature strictement
penale, qui ne vise directement aucun etat ni aucun peuple, mais qui
marque qu’il ne saurait y avoir, en France, de difference de traitement
entre les differents genocides qui ont ete reconnus. Il fait le lien
avec l’article 211-1 du code penal qui definit le genocide. Ainsi,
le legislateur n’intervient en rien dans le champ de l’histoire.

Cette question complexe, depasse largement le cas de l’Armenie. Elle
fait debat, chez nos elus, dans nos rangs chaque fois qu’un peuple
est accuse, car elle engage la responsabilite du legislateur sur son
jugement face a l’histoire. Mais soyez-en sûr, les socialistes et
moi-meme, sommes tous attaches a l’amitie franco-turque.

Nous jugeons d’ailleurs regrettable qu’une telle distance separe
actuellement nos deux pays. Sur bien des exemples, nous partageons
une histoire et des valeurs communes. Et si les Francais m’accordent
leur confiance, je m’attacherai a resserrer les liens avec ce grand
pays qu’est la Turquie.

Fidèle a sa tradition republicaine, la France doit selon moi, continuer
a etre attentive aux efforts entrepris pour favoriser l’amitie entre
les peuples. Le Conseil constitutionnel a invalide la loi. Je ferai en
sorte d’en proposer une nouvelle respectueuse de notre constitution. De
ce fait, elle sera egalement conforme aux engagements internationaux
de la France et au traite de l’Union europeenne. Depuis 2004, mon
point de vue sur ce sujet n’a pas varie.

L’Europe en acceptant de negocier l’entree de la Turquie dans
l’Union est fidèle a son essence : celle de federer des peuples et
des cultures et des confessions differentes. Que la Turquie veuille
adherer, temoigne de sa volonte de modernisation.

Je vous prie de croire, Monsieur, a l’assurance de toute ma
consideration.

Francois Hollande

Lettre adressee a Monsieur Demir Onger, President du centre culturel
Anatolie, Porte-Parole de comite de coordination des associations
franco-turques* Centre culturel d’Anatolie Paris le 2 mai

*Le comite de coordination des associations franco-turques a organise
la manifestation nationaliste, negationniste et armenophobe du 21
janvier dernier a Paris. Demir Onger apparaît aujourd’hui comme la
principale figure publique du negationnisme du genocide armenien
sur le territoire. Auditionne le 5 janvier 2012 par la Senat, il
s’etait employe a nier sa realite et a le presenter in fine comme un ”
pretexte ” invente par l’URSS pour nuire a la Turquie, dans le cadre
de la guerre froide. Demir Onger est neanmoins proche des Radicaux
de gauche, pour lesquels il a ete candidat aux dernières elections
europeennes. Ce parti a joue un rôle majeur dans la saisine du Conseil
Constitutionnel par les elus, le 24 janvier dernier et est allie
au PS. Demir Onger semble egalement beneficier d’une proximite avec
Pierre Nora, president de l’association liberte pour l’histoire, qui
s’est fortement mobilisee contre la loi penalisant le negationnisme.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV CONGRATULATES FRANCOIS HOLLANDE ON HIS ELECTION FRENCH PRESIDENT

APA
May 7 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev sent a letter of
congratulation to Francois Hollande, APA reports.

The letter reads: “I sincerely congratulate you on your election to
the post of the President of the French Republic.

We attach special importance to the development of traditional friendly
relations and cooperation between Azerbaijan and France. The current
high level of the interstate relations, effective cooperation in the
political, economic and humanitarian fields causes contentment.

Today, our joint work within the framework of the international
organizations, European institutions, as well as for ensuring energy
security is a factor, which is characterizing the cooperation between
our countries and in multilateral order as well.

As the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, France has a significant role
in the peaceful, soonest and fair solution, based on the international
law, to Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict, which is the
most painful problem of our people. We hope that your country will
increase its efforts in peacemaking process and You will contribute
to this work.

I wish you good health, happiness and your upcoming activity for
welfare of the friendly French people”.

From: A. Papazian

EXIT POLLS COULD BE DANGEROUS

04:36 pm | Today | Politics

For the first time in the history of Armenia, no serious complaints
have been filed in concerning the media coverage of elections,
Chairman of the Yerevan Press Club Boris Navasardyan told a press
conference on May 7.

However, the YPC chairman is concerned with the results of the exit
polls presented by different media outlets.

“Not all questions are answered after the closure of polls and this
type of psychological pressure is merely inadmissible, given the
fact that the mechanism of exit polls does not work in Armenia,”
said Mr Navasardyan.

From: A. Papazian

ANC, HERITAGE CANDIDATES LIKELY TO REJECT THEIR MANDATES – EXPERT

TERT.AM
07.05.12

Edgar Vardanyan, political analyst, expert from Armenian Center for
National and International Studies, said candidates from Armenian
National Congress (ANC) and Heritage party will likely reject their
mandates.

The expert said candidates from the two opposition forces will possibly
team up for a more radical fight.

According to Vardanyan, the opposition forces are democratic inside
but the leader’s role is determining in the decision making process.

The expert said pluralism will be ensured in the parliament in case
the opposition forces accept their mandates.

From: A. Papazian

OPINION: AFTER MAY 6, IS A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REDUNDANT?
By John Hughes

ArmeniaNow
07.05.12 | 14:37

Photo:

The Republican Party of Armenia has walked away with the country after
yesterday, apparently gaining 73 seats in the next National Assembly.

RPA 73. Everybody Else 58. It is a stunning development, coming about
per a turnout of 62 percent of voters.

The conclusion defies real-world pattern. Following five years of
economic decline, the Armenian public turned out en masse to re-elect
leadership that didn’t manage to progress beyond survival, while from
Britain’s Gordon Brown to France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, heads are being
lopped in other elections on the world-economic-crisis landscape.

Why? What makes Armenia different? The effectiveness of widespread
vote-buying may be one answer. The absence of believable alternatives
to the current regime may be another.

How this happened will be dissected by scientists in coming May 6
postmortems. The effect of what has happened will become clear in
the gestation period for next winter’s presidential campaign, which
begins now.

RPA no longer needs a coalition. Not even, as a former Minister of
Foreign Affairs and current sidekick to Prosperous Armenia Party boss
Gagik Tsurakyan says is “one of a formal nature”. If RPA was obliged
to play well with others in the tinder-box aftermath of Armenia’s
2008 election, the party now owns the playground, the toys and the
lock to the gates.

The party of President Serzh Sargsyan owns the portfolio on every
ministerial position, and with what is likely to be a 7-over-majority
grip on the National Assembly, why would other parties even bother
to show up to vote on any act of legislature the Prime Minister would
bring to the floor?

If what existed before Sunday of anti-RPA sentiment could have been
called “opposition” it can now simply and finally be defined as
irrelevant. Its leader, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, went from being the
voice crying in the wilderness, to being the tree that fell in the
forest and nobody heard it. Ter-Petrosyan’s 14-party bloc, the ANC,
barely made it onto the upcoming parliament roster. It gained seven
percent of the vote. Half a percent per party – 10 times per party
weaker than Heritage, whose leader Ter-Petrosyan dissed as being
mis-directed a year ago.

Going into Sunday, it was widely believed that this would be a vote in
which PAP would cut into RPA’s dominance. Rather, just the opposite
has happened and now, what do you do if you are Tsarukyan? Even the
strongest man in Armenia – figuratively and, once, literally – has to
know his place against a political machine that cannot be arm-wrestled
into submission.

And what of Tsarukyan’s political godfather, former president Robert
Kocharyan? He emerged in a rare interview a few days before the
election, to tantalize analysts’ palates. Will he run for office in
2013? What place would Vartan Oskanian have on a Kocharyan ticket?

Whatever decisions might have gone into answering those questions,
probably became more gnarly when the Central Election Commission shut
the doors and opened the boxes Sunday night.

Was Sunday’s election a referendum on public approval for Serzh
Sargsyan?

With a government in his pocket, apathy on his side, and party members
willing to persuade voters $25 at a time, does approval matter?

From: A. Papazian

ELECTION VIOLATION: MAN SITTING BY BALLOT BOX

11:55 am | Today | Politics

More and more videos appear on the Internet portraying election
violations. One of them was recorded by a correspondent of hra.am.

A man is seen on the footage sitting beside the ballot box at 9/2
polling station in Yerevan’s Kentron district.

From: A. Papazian

OBSERVERS SAY ARMENIA VOTE FELL SHORT OF COMMITMENTS

Reuters
YEREVAN | Mon May 7, 2012 6:19am EDT

YEREVAN (Reuters) – International monitors praised Armenia on Monday
for conducting a peaceful parliamentary election but criticized
violations of campaign law and interference by political parties in
the vote won by President Serzh Sarksyan’s ruling party.

The mixed assessment followed a vote which Armenian leaders hoped
would be a landmark for democracy after irregularities marred the
last parliamentary election in 2007 and clashes killed 10 people
after the presidential vote in 2008.

“Armenia deserves recognition for its electoral reforms and its open
and peaceful campaign environment,” said Francois-Xavier de Donnea,
head of the observer mission from the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

However, he added that “in this race, several stakeholders too often
failed to comply with the law and election commissions too often
failed to enforce it.”

“As a result, the international commitments to which Armenia has
freely subscribed were not always respected,” he said in a statement.

Election day was generally calm and peaceful, but marked by
organizational problems and undue interference in the process, mostly
by party representatives, the observers said.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Writing by Steve Gutterman, Editing
by Timothy Heritage)

From: A. Papazian

Russian Embassy in Armenia expresses condolence to those injured in
Republic Square accident

14:04, 5 May, 2012

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS: Russian Embassy in Armenia expresses its
deepest condolences to the citizens injured as a result of May 4
balloon explosion in Yerevan Republic Square, their relatives and
friends.

“We wish fast recovery and well-being,” the message runs, Russian
Embassy in Armenia told Armenpress.

From: A. Papazian