Author: Babajanian Karo

OikoTimes.com, Greece
Dec 4 2011

GOODBYE YEREVAN HELLO ROTTERDAM

Posted by TEAM on Dec 4, 2011 in GALLERY, YEREVAN 2011 LIVE

Personally I am not impressed of what I see in the Armenian capital,
Yerevan. I expected more from the country that fights badly every year
to win the senior Eurovision edition.

First I start with the stage: It looks like a morning show on a trash
TV. The stage design is not working in the videos I have seen. The
stage lights seem weird and mostly towards the cameras instead of the
singers.

The official Junior Eurovision website had very limited coverage, the
photos were too dark and the delay of the rehearsal videos for at
least 1 hour per country didn’t help me personally.

On the other hand, our team in Yerevan report the positive things of
the 2011 Junior Eurovision Song Contest edition:

About stage – I haven’t seen any difference with Minsk (all
comparisons with adults’ Eurovision, IMHO, aren’t rightful because
they are absolutely different events). Hall is a bit smaller – because
Minsk-Arena is usually used for hockey matches of KHL while Karen
Demirchyan center is ordinary soviet building (yes, with interesting
architecture, but `on soul’ it’s soviet House of Culture)

Press-center has very smaller size. In Minsk, there were near 50
computers – there are only 22 and 2 tables for laptops.

Internet access is permanent while at 2010 sometimes it stopped,
that’s why for our radio in Minsk we had to use cable.

Assortiment of food in catering (in Demirchyan center) is larger – you
can eat even hamburgers, hot-dogs, but also hachapuri, shaurma and
normal dishes (spaghetti, rice with meat). Prices of food are very
cheap – for example, 05 l of Pepsi costs near 70 eurocents. Taxi from
Demirchyan Center to center of Yerevan costs 2 euro – like public
transport in European Union!

All Armenians are well-wishing to foreigners. But, unfortunately, only
the one foreign language they speak is Russian. But it’s normal
situation for Asian countries of former USSR. Security sometimes don’t
speak even Russian – but their main quality is that they’re really
unnoticeable. Not like in Minsk where they really enjoyed to search
you near the entrance from the first day.

At this point oikotimes.com would like to thank everyone who worked
for the website during the Junior Eurovision. Special thanks to Anton
and Ivan for their great work from the press center, Moshe Melman who
gave the first Hebrew impressions for JESC on the net and the Greek
team in Athens although forced to cancel the trip they managed to co
ordinate things in the best maximum way. Thank you all and we may see
you in Rotterdam for the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest edition.

Journal Times, WI
Dec 4 2011

Mid-East Beat at George’s Tavern
Event occured on Sat, Dec 3 2011, 9:00 pm – 11:59 pm CST

Mid-East Beat keeps Armenian tradition

RACINE – Music is an expression of the environment from which it
evolves. Nowhere is that truth more evident than in the music of
Racine’s own Mid-East Beat. They will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec.
3, at George’s Tavern, 1201 N. Main St. The cover charge is $10.

The Mid-East Beat was formed in 1982 to keep alive the sounds and
culture of the Armenian people. Vahan Kamalian plays the Oud, a
pear-shaped stringed instrument of Middle Eastern origin that some say
dates back to the third century B.C. Jim Hardy plays the clarinet,
which is a commonly acceptable substitute for the Duduk, a traditional
Armenian woodwind. Kai Kazarian sings and plays guitar, which is a
relatively new addition to Armenian bands. A relatively new member to
the Mid-East Beat is Michael Kamalian on Dumbeg, which is a drum made
of metal or clay that is placed between the knees and played with bare
hands. It is of Syrian Arabic origin and derives its name from the
distinctly different sounds obtained when striking it in the middle or
on the edge.

The band was drawn together by a common interest in music, having been
exposed to Armenian music while growing up.

Listening to the group is like being transported to another world, and
as anyone who has been to an Armenian picnic will attest, Armenians
are not shy about inviting the uninitiated to join their traditional
dance.

The group’s painstaking commitment to tradition results in a sound
that is truly authentic.

The Mid-East Beat performs mostly in the Midwest, common venues are
church picnics, weddings, anniversary and birthday parties.

George’s Tavern
1201 N. Main St.
Racine, WI

No violations at Russia State Duma poll in Armenia

December 4, 2011 – 16:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – As of 4 pm 2966 Russian citizens in Yerevan cast
their ballots in State Duma elections on Sunday, Dec 4, the press
secretary of Russian Embassy in Armenia stated.

As Sergey Abelyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net no violations were reported
during the vote, with the Communist Party of Russia observer
testifying to the same.

The press secretary, however, had no information as to the process of
voting in Gyumri.

TURQUIE-ARMENIE
Joe Biden encourage la ratification des accords arméno-turcs

Lors de sa récente visite en Turquie, le vice-président américain Joe
Biden s’est entretenu des relations arméno-turques avec le président
Gül ainsi que le président du Parlement turc. Selon la chaîne de
télévision CNNturk, Joe Biden a affirmé sa satisfaction de voir le
dossier de la normalisation des relations diplomatiques arméno-turques
être représenté au Parlement. Le vice-président américain aurait
souhaité que dans les prochains mois ces accords arméno-turcs soient
ratifiés par le Parlement turc. Rejetés par le Parlement, le dossier
de ces accords arméno-turcs étaient revenus à l’ordre du jour en
septembre.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 4 décembre 2011,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Andrey Ryabov:Transference of the Karabakh conflict to the military
stage is the main threat for Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus
Interview of Andrey Ryabov, a member of the Moscow Carnegie Center
Research Council, with ArmInfo News Agency

arminf
by David Stepanyan

Sunday, December 4, 11:02

What threats to the Russian interests in Armenia and Azerbaijan do
you observe?

Undoubtedly, the main threat for Russia in the South Caucasus is
defrosting of the Karabakh conflict and its transference to the
military stage. The point is that today Russia is forced to combine
close geo-political relations with Armenia and its energy interests,
in which Azerbaijan plays a serious part like a transit and
oil-producing country. Today these problems are becoming more and more
relevant for Russia, taking into account the fact that Russia did not
manage to make an arrangement with its Western partners on transit of
energy resources via the South Caucasus. At the same time, the fact
that during Dmitry Medvedev’s presidency 6 trilateral meetings of the
presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were held says that
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a priority for Moscow.

In this context, they in Russia believe that in conditions of neither
peace nor mutual understanding in the region, the best choice for
everyone is maintenance of the post-military status quo. After the war
08.08.08. there were too many concerns about Russia’s becoming a
revisionist super power changing the borders in the region. But Russia
has no such idea acceptable to all the conflicting sides. Neither has
it an opportunity to realize such ideas. In this context, Moscow made
quite a reasonable decision to maintain the status-quo, I think. Today
the relations between Russia and Georgia look more or less stable and
have no pre-condition for changing of the situation established by the
results of the war 08.08.08. For this reason, Russia is more anxious
about resumption of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The fact that Azerbaijan is building up its military potential and
forming its own not so big military and industrial complex is the main
threat. In Russia they strictly understand that transference of the
status-quo around the Karabakh conflict to the military conflict will
have very hard and probably irreversible consequences for the Russian
policy and its influence in the South Caucasus.

Let’s talk about the reasons…

There is no doubt that in case of resumption of the Karabakh conflict
Russia, as a partner, will lose its significance for both parties to
the Karabakh conflict. This is the reason of such great efforts of
Moscow and President Medvedev to preserve the status-quo, which
President Putin will probably continue as well.

Do the OSCE MG other co-chair states really support Russia’s efforts
to resolve the Karabakh conflict?

I have got an impression that over the last years the USA and Europe
have realized that Russia also has exclusive possibilities to maintain
peace in the region. Interaction between Russia, the USA and France in
this context has been improved certainly. Nevertheless, I do not trust
in the scenarios saying that Azerbaijan will get a permission to break
the status-quo in the Karabakh conflict zone in exchange for provision
of its territory for attacks on Iran. President Aliyev’s rather shaky
positions require, at least, more confidence and no mistake from him.
In addition, resumption of war is so risky that it is within the
interests of both the USA and France to maintain the status-quo. In
this light, interaction with Russia has been enhanced over the last
few years. Russia is allowed to display activity in maintenance of the
status-quo. At the Summit in Astana in 2010 all the member-states and
super powers “proved” their inability to resolve the Karabakh
conflict. The status-quo is the best solution in the given situation.
It cannot last forever, indeed, but it has no alternative.

So you don’t share the opinion that in an attempt to gain leadership
in the region Russia and the United States may play the Iranian card,
do you?

I don’t believe that the “controllable chaos” theory is possible now
that the Arab spring has come. The situation in the Greater Middle
East is getting increasingly uncertain, and this uncertainly has
already covered one of the key countries of the region – Syria. Nobody
can predict what will come of it, so, it will hardly be reasonable for
anybody – whoever they are and whatever resources they have – to stake
on the controllable chaos scenario. The economic crisis has limited
the great powers’ foreign policy capacities. So, I don’t think that
the US Government will take such a risk.

What logic do the `Arab revolutions’ meet then?

Should there be a revolution in Syria, countries like Qatar and Saudi
Arabia (with their moderate Islam and tendency for modernization) may
suggest that they may become better regional partners for the United
States than Israel is now.

What about Libya?

While in Tunisia and Egypt everything was spontaneous, in Libya and
now in Syria the West is playing a specific consistent game. Whatever
it is, this game is dangerous and unpredictable, and the European
Union has very limited power to keep it on the positive track.

Back on the Karabakh conflict. What probable scenario of the Karabakh
conflict resolution can be predicted given the day-to-day realities?

I agree with the opinion of most analysts saying that there is a
threat of resumption of the military phase of the Karabakh conflict.
However, I think that the rational stance of super powers, including
Russia, allows keeping the conflict frozen for rather a long period of
time, even despite Baku’s aspirations for changing the military
balance with Armenia. The point is that another conflict in the
Greater Middle East is pregnant with extremely grave aftermaths for a
wide circle of countries, not just for the South Caucasus.

US’ goal is to keep Karabakh conflict unresolved, says Russian analyst
12:41 – 04.12.11

The goal US pursues in the South Caucuses is keeping the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict unresolved, prominent Russian journalist,
analyst Maxim Shevchenko has said.

In an interview with the Azerbaijani news agency SalamNews, Shevchenko
said that the reason is that they want to permanently keep Nagorno
Karabakh as a boiling point in the region.

`The Americans’ goal is to keep the Karabakh conflict in a dependent
situation by neither returning the territories to Azerbaijan, nor
recognizing them as part of Armenia,’ said he.

`Their goal is to permanently keep Karabakh as a boiling point, a
potential source of war, because Karabakh is holding the entire South
Caucasus in tension,’ Shevchenko added.

Speaking about Georgia, he said that it is beneficial for US to see a
president in Georgia like Mikheil Saakashvili.

`The Americans’ goal is to keep a leader in Georgia such as
Saakashvili who has set the active part of the Georgian elite against
himself,’ said he.

According to Shevchenko the Georgian elite has as a result emigrated
and lives by the remittances sent from the US.

Tert.am

APA, Azerbaijan
Dec 3 2011

Secretary General of Turkey’s ruling party: Zengezur, which is
Azerbaijan’s historical land, a Turkic place, is in the territory of
Armenia

[ 03 Dec 2011 12:25 ]

`Turkey will not open the borders with Armenia as long as the
occupation of Karabakh continues’

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Turkey will not open borders with
Armenia as long as the occupation of Karabakh continues, Secretary
General of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), MP
Haluk Ipek said at the conference in Erzurum on the theme `Azerbaijan
and Turkey relations in the 20th year of independence’, APA reports.

`As Secretary General of Turkey’s ruling party I want to say the
following. Armenia has violated Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and
occupied 20 percent of its territories, the occupation continues. The
organizations like UN and NATO see Armenia as an aggressor. Turkey
closed the borders with Armenia because of the occupation of
Azerbaijani territories by this country. The borders will not be
opened as long as the occupation continues,’ Haluk Ipek said.

AKP Secretary General also went into the details of his recent talk
with the US Ambassador to Turkey.
`We discussed with the US Ambassador to Turkey a number of issues,
including the Armenian issue. I told him that all our archives are
open. Our archives concerning the happenings in Erzurum are also open,
while Armenia, France and other countries do not open their
archives.Estimation of events happened in history is the work of
historians, but the solution of current processes – work of
politicians. 16-17 years ago Armenians committed massacre in Khojali,
about 680 people were murdered. Duty of politicians – to solve the
current problems’.

Ipek noted that Zengezur, which is Azerbaijan’s historical land, a
Turkic place, is in the territory of Armenia. This land, belonging to
Yerevan khanate, is the territory of Azerbaijan: `Currently, all
historical works, monuments located in Armenia are destroyed by them.
At the same time, historical Azerbaijani, Turkic monuments in Zangazur
area too…
Why? Because, Turkey is a window of Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan,
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to the west. The strategy formerly pursued
by Stalin while trying to expand territory of Armenia over Zangazur
till Iran, is still supported by some western states’.

He also added that the declaration of independence of Turkic republics
20 years ago caused concern of Europeans. `Everyone is afraid of
unification of the Turkic world. Therefore, the whole world does not
respond to the Karabakh problem. 20% of territories of one state are
under occupation, but the west remains silent, does not react’.

Targeted News Service
December 2, 2011 Friday 11:44 PM EST

Film Lifting Veil on Armenian Women Who Were Forced Into Bondage
During Genocide to Be Screened at Ramapo College

MAHWAH, N.J.

Ramapo College issued the following news release:

Director Suzanne Khardalian will screen and lead a discussion of her
film “Grandma’s Tattoos,” at Ramapo College of New Jersey on December
9 from3:45 to 5:15 p.m. in Room B222/223.

The film is a personal film about what happened to many Armenian women
during the genocide. It is a ghost story-with the ghosts of the
tattooed women haunting us-and a mystery film, where many taboos are
broken. As no one wants to tell the reel and whole story, and in order
to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, the director makes us move
between different times and space, from today’s Sweden to Khardalian’s
childhood in Beirut. The viewer is taken on a journey into the secrets
of the family.

Eventually, Khardalian’s mother reveals the secret behind Grandma
Khanoum’s blue marks. “Grandma was abducted and kept in slavery for
many years somewhere in Turkey. She was also forcibly
marked-tattooed-as property, the same way you mark cattle. Grandma
Khanoum’s fate was not an aberration. On the contrary, tens of
thousands of Armenian children and teenagers were raped and abducted,
kept in slavery. Although after World War I U.S. and European
missionary and aid groups rescued over 90,000 of these victimized
Armenian young girls and children, the film makes clear that the
ordeal for these survivors of genocide did not end there.

Suzanne Khardalian is an independent filmmaker and writer. She studied
journalism in Beirut and Paris and worked as a journalist in Paris
until 1985, when she started to work on films. She also holds a
master’s degree in international law and diplomacy from the Fletcher
School at Tufts University, and contributes articles to different
journals. She has directed more than 20 films that have been shown
both in Europe and the U.S. They include “Back to Ararat” (1988),
“Unsafe Ground” (1993), “The Lion from Gaza” (1996), “Her Armenian
Prince” (1997), “From Opium to Chrysanthemums” (2000), “Where Lies My
Victory” (2002), “I Hate Dogs” (2005), “Bullshit” (2006), and “Young
Freud in Gaza” (2009).

The screening and presentation are free and open to the public. It is
being co-sponsored with the Armenian National Committee of New Jersey.
For more information or to reserve a seat, please call 201.684.7409.

Contact: Anna Farneski, Assistant Vice President, Marketing and
Communications, 201/684-6844

Expert: Gagik Tsarukyan will not leave ruling coalition of Armenia not
to create problems for his business

arminfo
Saturday, December 3, 14:59

Leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan will not create
additional problems to his business by withdrawing from the ruling
coalition, Sergey Shakaryants, political expert, told media Saturday
when commenting on the recent discrepancies of the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia and Tsarukyan’s party.

The expert explains the given discrepancies with the election
campaign. As full-fledged political parties they cannot but have
disagreements on the threshold of elections, but this will not go
beyond mutual accusations and insignificant conflicts. Shakaryants is
sure that Tsarukyan will not sacrifice his business projects. In
addition, RPA is not interested in losing such a serious force as
Prosperous Armenia Party, he said.

Generally, he thinks, it is quite favorable for the ruling parties to
cooperate with a wide spectrum of political forces and RPA is also
interested in renovation of its party list. To recall, on Nov 29 the
leader of the “Prosperous Armenia” party territorial structure Armen
Hovannisyan (born in 1965) was arrested in Jermuk town in line with
the 268th article of the Armenian Criminal Code (illegal drugs
circulation with no purpose to sell them in a large volume).
Hovannisyan was detained on suspicion in keeping and using of drugs.
The preliminary investigation is underway.

Commenting on the arrest Tsarukyan’s Spokesperson Khachik Galstyan
called it a display of pressing on the party and said that Prosperous
Armenia will come out with relevant statement later.

ARMENIA TO DECIDE ON ITS PARTICIPATION IN EUROVISION CONTEST IN BAKU

Tert.am
03.12.11

Armenia will decide on it’s participation in the Senior Eurovision
Song Contest 2012 to be held in Baku only after the Junior Eurovision,
Head of Armenia’s delegation to Eurovision Gohar Gasparyan has said.

Speaking at a TV program, she said all the rights to the Eurovision
contest belong to Armenia’s public broadcaster which will decide
whether or not Armenia will participate in the contest hosted by
Azerbaijan this year.

Since Azerbaijan won the Eurovision contest this year, the Armenian
public has largely discussed the rationality of the country’s
participation in Eurovision against, especially the backdrop of
inimical relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed
area of Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenia is hosting the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011
on Saturday. The show will take place at the Karen Demirchyan
Sports-Concert Complex in Yerevan.