Author: Babajanian Karo

GADDAFI SON SAIF AL-ISLAM DISMISSES REPORTS ON HIS INTENTION TO SURRENDER

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 1, 2011 – 11:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Saif al-Islam, the son of the ousted Libyan leader
Moammar Gaddafi, has dismissed the recent news about his intention to
surrender to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, according
to albawaba.com.

In the recent message, Saif al-Islam warned his supporters against the
press reports about his intention to surrender. He urged loyalists
of his father’s regime to be patient and vigilant amid “efforts of
creating doubts in the hearts of everyone.”

Saif al-Islam hinted he is on the Libyan soil-while the former
intelligence chief Abdullah Sanusi, is outside Libya, as he said:
“Some people say we are arrested, which means that it will be handed
over to the ICC while others claim that we handed over ourselves,
and this analysis is wrong in the sense that brother Abdullah Sanusi
is outside Libya. While the reports say I was detained, how can both
of us will be handed over as reported the news?!”

Saif al-Islam stressed he could not betray his father, who did not give
up and never cheated: “We do not give up. We will win or die,” he said.

NEW KYRGYZ PRESIDENT URGES U.S. AIRBASE CLOSURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 1, 2011 – 11:29 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Kyrgyzstan’s President-elect Almazbek Atambayev has
called for the closure of the United States’ airbase at Manas in the
central Asian republic, RIA Novosti reported.

“I don’t think the base at Manas guarantees the security of
our country. I would not want to see another country carry out
a retaliatory strike against the base. A civil airport is a civil
object, and it should remain so,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan “would observe all international agreements,” he stressed,
but when the current Manas base agreement expires in 2014, the American
facility there should go.

Kyrgyzstan could set up a transport hub for Afghanistan for “passage
of civilian traffic, maybe together with Russia,” Atambayev said.

“There is no political game here. It’s not really very good to arrive
at the country’s main airport and see military equipment there,”
he said at his first press conference after preliminary presidential
election results were announced on Sunday, October 30.

With 99.96 percent of the ballots counted on Sunday, Atambayev won
the election with 63.24 percent of the vote. His nearest rival was
the leader of the United Kyrgyzstan party Adakhan Madumarov, with
14.76 percent.

The Manas base was set up near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in 2001
in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in America to support military
operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The facility remains
key to supply operations for the ongoing military campaign there.

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov has said previously that the
future of the base as a transit point for U.S. military cargo should
be decided by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a grouping
of Central Asian states including several former Soviet Republics.

WHO IS LEFT ON THE LIST
JAMES HAKOBYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:45:14 – 01/11/2011

On March 1, 2011, the leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon
Ter-Petrosyan submitted a 15-point list of demands to the authorities.

One of the points concerned those officials whose dismissal the
Congress demanded from Serzh Sargsyan.

Some of the 15 points were fulfilled during a couple of months, for
example, the release of political prisoners and the restoration of
the right to hold rallies in Freedom Square.

The greater part of the points remained unfulfilled. Moreover,
Congress did not even dwell on them later perhaps for the reason
that Serzh Sargsyan assured during the dialogue between ANC and the
coalition that he would have dealt with the issue of dismissals.

However, it is already a fact that Serzh Sargsyan has already dismissed
two officials from the list – Karen Karapetyan and Alik Sargsyan.

Ter-Petrosyan’s whole list was the following: “For outrageous
omissions, arbitrariness or professional lacks in the economic
management and ensuring of legacy, to dismiss the Prime Minister
of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan, Vice-Premier Armen Gevorgyan, Head of
the Central Bank of Armenia Artur Javadyan, President of the State
Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryan, Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan,
Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Head of the National Security
Service Gorik Hakobyan, Chief of Police Alik Sargsyan, Head of the
Special Investigation Unit Andranik Mirzoyan, Head of the Penitentiary
Department of the Ministry of Justice Hayk Harutyunyan”.

2 of 10 officials have already been sacked. Who will be the next? It
seems obvious that it is high time for the dismissal of the President
of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatryan, who has several
times been almost fired, but something or someone hindered.

The small and midsize businesses also raise the issue on Gagik
Khachatryan’s dismissal, sure only in private talks, and even the
major business, in public mode through its propaganda means. We know
that Tigran Sargsyan, whose tax reforms do not succeed entering
already the field of direct activities of the tax service, is an
“advocate” of Gagik Khachatryan’s dismissal. Armenia’s partners,
international financial organizations, which are the main supporters
of the Premier in the home politics, also raise the issue on the tax
reforms of Armenia. While, they need to revise their support if Tigran
Sargsyan turns out unable to use it for the tax reforms.

The issue on the Prosecutor General’s dismissal is becoming more
urgent in the governmental field too. The Prosecutor General has
recently tried to hit the Military Prosecutor Gevorg Kostanyan.

Apparently, Aghvan Hovsepyan feels more danger inside his department
rather than in the government in general, because being an “old person”
in the system, he would have not lost his influence and control over
the situation so quickly. The so-called preventive attempts of the
Prosecutor General to attack the Military Prosecutor betrayed his
serious fears.

No doubt along with the issue on the dismissal of the Prosecutor
General, the same issue will be maturing in the Special Investigation
Unit. In general, it is obvious that Serzh Sargsyan needs to build
his force chain, which cannot be limited by the Police, and force
structures will soon be involved in this chain too, and even if this
issue is not solved by the parliamentary elections, then, prior to
the presidential ones, the construction of the chain will be complete.

This means urgency of the issue on the dismissal of the former Chief
of Police, acting Head of the Penitentiary Department Hayk Harutyunyan.

Though, this issue became urgent after the replacement of the Minister
of Justice, when a person of another quality and kind, Hrayr Tovmasyan,
was appointed to this office. Then, the press raised the question how
two completely different people in terms of quality, the Minister
and the Head of a key department of the ministry, are going to
work together in the same structure. Now, it is obvious that Hrayr
Tovmasyan fails to fulfill the whole systemic reforms and changes he
used to speak about in the beginning of his office. In other words,
it is necessary to eliminate the centers of repression in the system,
the key one of which is Hayk Harutyunyan.

As for the Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, vice-Prime Minister Armen
Gevorgyan and Central Bank head Artur Javadyan, then, the most probably
version here is Armen Gevorgyan’s dismissal. No doubt, Gevorgyan is
in the government due to Robert Kocharyan’s influence.

Consequently, along with the reduction of Kocharyan’s influence, grows
the possibility of Gevorgyan’s dismissal. Kocharyan’s influence,
judging by the current home political and internal governmental
processes, and the support of the West and Russia to Serzh Sargsyan
in this connection, is evidently decreasing. The issue is whether
the reduction is as much to enable the dismissal of the vice-premier.

In case of Tigran Sargsyan, a version based on mutual compromises
can occur when the Prime Minister suspends his activities with the
beginning of the election campaign, until the end of the election. On
the one hand, this will be a gesture discharging the mistrust of
the society towards the government, on the other hand, it will be
an expression of democracy, when an official leaves the office when
taking part in the elections. For example, the Prime Minister of
Kirgizia made this step and has recently been elected President.

Sure, this will just be the pattern of democracy in Armenia, rather
than content, but if the authorities revises at least the forms,
and does not take up the traditional methods, this fact stands for
serious changes in the social-political situation.

As to the Head of the Central Bank Artur Javadyan, then here,
Ter-Petrosyan and the society will be defeated by Serzh Sargsyan. If
Javadyan remains CB President, it will not harm Armenia’s future
because Javadyan is not the official who is more or less autonomous
in the hierarchic system of power of Armenia. Though his structure
is very important in terms of its functional significance, both for
economic development and life of the governmental system, nevertheless,
Javadyan is not like Tigran Sargsyan in the office of the President
of the Central Bank.

Sure, Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s list released on March 1 would need
amendments in these months, because many other processes took place,
new issues, new realities and situations came up. But there is no
doubt the list won’t be changed anyway, but only amended.

The important is the fact that it is a list offered by Ter-Petrosyan.

Ter-Petrosyan needs to be viewed here as a figure expressing the
public moods. The society is the author of the list, the “original”
version of which is much longer.

HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK: ARMENIA’S DEFENSE OFFICE ‘PARADE-GROUND FOR RESIGNATIONS’

Tert.am
10:27 01.11.11

Reliable sources informed the newspaper that Armenia’s Ministry of
Defense will soon become a “parade-ground” for resignations.

Rumor has it that the resignations of Minister of Defense Seyran
Ohanyan and Chief of the Joint Staff Yuri Khachaturov are on the
agenda. The sources say that First Deputy Minister of Defense David
Tonoyan will replace Seyran Ohanyan and Deputy Minister of Defense
Alik Mirzabekyan will replace Yuri Khachaturov.

INTERNATIONAL LAW ‘OBVIOUS SOLUTION’ TO KARABAKH CONFLICT

news.az, Azerbaijan
Oct 31 2011

News.Az interviews Arturas Melianas, Liberal MP and deputy chairman
of the Lithuanian parliamentary committee on social affairs and labour.

Azerbaijan and Lithuania are not just partner countries. Your country,
as it is often said, is an advocate for Azerbaijan in the process of
European integration and actively lobbies the interests of Baku in
Europe. What do people in Vilnius think about Azerbaijan’s current
path of development?

It is obvious that Azerbaijan has found its own path of development.

This can be seen firsthand by visiting your country. This also applies
to social development and economic growth, as well as tolerance,
which is quite noticeable. I mean the normal coexistence of different
cultures, religions and peoples. So I think that Azerbaijan has
already found its way, which is successful, the envy of many, and is
confidently following this path. I’m sure it will provide a promising
future to the country.

But of course, we all know that there is a very serious problem,
which I think the international community simply must finally resolve.

You are referring to the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani
land of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Is the world
interested in this?

Here I completely agree with officials from Baku, who criticize the
international community for the lack of attention to this issue because
no one has been able to settle the conflict in 20 years. There are
almost no results or they are scarcely felt. I think it’s bad that
various international organizations, which are maintained with a lot
of money, have not been able to solve this problem.

What should be done in this situation? Is it so difficult for the
world to understand the root of the problem?

I believe that many people need to think that it is effective to
search for ways to resolve the conflict. The situation is obvious.

Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is violated and international law
should be complied with. So, you need to find more specific methods
to address this issue. I think they do exist. I am hopeful that that
this will happen soon.

Has your country managed to draw international attention to the
occupation of Azerbaijani land to some degree during its OSCE
chairmanship in 2011?

Yes, you are quite right. Lithuania along with some other countries
has felt what the influence of more powerful states means. Of course,
Lithuania constantly raises this question and not only during the
OSCE presidency.

Of course, this is not so easy. Other eastern European countries also
support us. Moreover, we must admit that other countries are more
engaged in other issues, which are a priority for them, for example,
economic issues that are really relevant today. And these countries
delay the solution of problems such as Karabakh.

But I think that it is inevitable to raise the Karabakh, Transnistria,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia problems constantly. These issues must be
resolved, otherwise Europe may itself face similar conflicts if the
perpetrator is not punished.

APPLES, ORANGES OF THE CONFLICT

news.az, Azerbaijan
Oct 31 2011

News.Az reprints a letter published in The Guardian, St Edward’s
Island, Canada, entitled “Apples, oranges of the conflict”.

In his letter titled “Locked in ethnic and territorial disputes”
in The Guardian of 18 October 2011 (ironically, the day also marked
the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s Declaration of Independence),
Henry Srebrnik listed some historical facts and linked them to the
present-day Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Some of
these associations, however, need clarification.

The ideology of [pan-]Turkism, which originated in the 1880s, did not
seek to create a unified Turkic empire, was never directed against
any other group, including the Armenians. It was a social movement for
liberation and modernization of the Turkic-speaking Muslim communities
within the Russian Empire. According to its key ideologists – Ismail
Gasprinski, Ali Huseynzade, and Yusuf Akcura – Turkism was aimed at
a language reform as a way of educating and bringing Turkic peoples
closer to the progressive and secular European values.

The unrelated 1919-1920 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia was
not indecisive. Azerbaijani forces defeated Armenian militants and
remained in control of the Mountainous (Nagorno) Karabakh in 1919. The
Allied Powers recognized the authority of Azerbaijan-appointed
governor of Karabakh, Khosrov Sultanov, as did the region’s Armenian
community. According to a prominent Armenian scholar, Professor
Richard Hovanissian of UCLA, the Armenian Republic also recognized
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over the Mountainous Karabakh in 1919.

The conflict did not re-emerge in 1991, but in 1987-88, when ethnic
Armenians in Karabakh and in Armenia advanced demands to transfer
the territory from Azerbaijan to Armenia. The first victims of the
conflict were two Azeris killed near the town of Askeran, and the
first refugees of the conflict were Azeris expelled from Kafan and
Gugark districts of Armenia in late 1987.

Neither modern Turkey nor Azerbaijan ever viewed Armenia as an
ideological or geographical barrier for co-operation. A perfect
proof of that is Armenia’s neighbour Georgia, an ancient Caucasus
nation that preserved its rich cultural identity while living in
peace and understanding with its Turkic neighbours. So the ball is in
Armenia’s court to cease the occupation of Azerbaijani territories,
to disassociate its foreign policy from fairy tales, and to live in
synergy with its ages-old neighbours.

Javid J. Huseynov, Ph.D., general director, Azerbaijani-American
Council (AAC) Los Angeles, California.

This letter was published in The Guardian, St Edward’s Island.

ARMENIAN DIPLOMACY SHOULD GET OUT “OF THE PARALYZED STATE”, VAHAN HOVHANNISYAN THINKS

Mediamax, Armenia
Oct 31 2011

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Head of the “Dashnaktsutyun” parliamentary
faction Vahan Hovhannisyan said today that “our diplomacy can resist
Azerbaijani initiatives in the UN but it should get out of the
paralyzed state and start taking active measures to this end”.

He noted that “Armenia should have actively protected its candidacy in
the competition for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council”,
Mediamax reports.

“At first, the competition was between Slovenia and Azerbaijan. I
am sure if Armenia were among the candidates it would have got a
considerable percent of votes. We would have had quite a different
picture: the UN members would support Slovenia rather than one of the
countries having problems with each other”, said Vahan Hovhannisyan.

According to him, Armenian authorities try to prove that Azerbaijan’s
election as a non-permanent member of UN Security Council can’t cause
any trouble and there are no reasons to worry. “Unfortunately, soon
we will enjoy the bitter fruits”, added the MP.

TASHNAQ EXPLAINS DECISION ON FOREIGN WORKERS IN BOURJ HAMMOUD

NOW LEBANON
Oct 31 2011

The Tashnaq Party on Monday denied media reports the party “is kicking
out” Kurds living in Bourj Hammoud, Dora and Nabaa, saying instead
the issue is “related to the reorganizing of the area.”

“The issue is [only] related to the reorganizing of the
areas… considering the increased number of foreign workers who
live there.

The number of [foreign workers] living in one or two-room apartments
can exceed 15, which annoys [other] people living in these buildings,”
the party said.

The statement added that foreign workers do not have legal standing
with the local municipalities to rent apartments in Bourj Hammoud,
Dora or Nabaa.

“The area has been [transformed] from a residential one into one full
of foreigners who do not have legal residency in Lebanon. Upon the
citizens’ demands… and the party’s concerns… [we have] requested
the municipality to end the abnormal situation.”

The party added that there are no political, ethnic or sectarian
motives behind its request.

Future News television quoted on Saturday Syrian Kurdish people as
saying that a Tashnaq-related group informed Syrian Kurdish families
living in Bourj Hammoud “of the importance to evacuate their rented
houses in the area.”

-NOW Lebanon

GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY DENIES CONFLICT WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

Vestnik Kavkaza
Oct 31 2011

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze has denied information
on the failed visit of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and says
that the presidents of the two states have good ties.

Some media sources said in early November that the Armenian president
cancelled his visit due to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili~Rs
condemnation of Armenia for lack of actions taken to clear a landslide
on the Armenian-Georgian border.

JUDGE QUASHES INDICTMENT OF PUGILISTIC PRIEST
By Jeremy Sharon

Jerusalem Post
Oct 31 2011

Greek Orthodox cleric was sued for punching haredi man who spat in
his direction in 2008.

In a rare ruling, a judge in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court dismissed
an indictment filed against a priest who punched a haredi yeshiva
student in the face for having spat at him as he passed.

In June 2008, Greek Orthodox priest Martarsian was walking along
The Armenian’s Street, in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of
Jerusalem, when the yeshiva student spat toward the ground in his
direction.

The priest then punched the man in the face, causing him to bleed.

The priest did not dispute that he had punched the man, but asked
that the indictment be dismissed in accordance with a clause in
the law that allows for charges to be dismissed “if the indictment
contravenes the essence of the principles of justice and fairness.”

Judge Dov Pollock said in his ruling last Tuesday that the court had
heard evidence of daily incidents in which Christian clergy were spat
upon by members of the ultra-Orthodox community, something which,
the judge added, has been occurring for a number of years and which
the police has not acted to prevent.

“Needless to say, spitting toward the accused when he was wearing
the mantle of the church is a criminal offense,” the judge said.

Those who do this “hurt not only the people they spit at, but the
image of our country, tourism and our values.”

The judge criticized the priest for taking the law into his own hands
but said that it was equally deplorable that the authorities do not
take the required action to uproot the phenomenon through prosecution
and education.

“It is intolerable that a man of the Christian faith should be
demeaned because of his religion, in the same way that it is for a Jew,
Pollock said.

“The Jewish people experienced a long history of Christian
anti-Semitism that brought great suffering to Jews and Judaism,”
the judge continued.

“However, with the realization of the return of the Jewish people
to sovereignty and independence, the state must strive not to look
back but to establish a country that guarantees freedom of religion
and worship to every religion, a state where every person is equal
before the law without distinction of race or religion. These things
are the cornerstone of the Declaration of Independence, and the rock
of the foundation of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state.”

The plaintiff told the court that he had not spat at the priest to
degrade him but because he suffered from a medical complaint that
caused him to produce a lot of saliva.

Pollock dismissed this argument owing to the fact that he had not
produced any medical documentation to substantiate the claim, nor
had he needed to spit during the duration of the court proceedings.

“The defendant is being prosecuted for having, in a single incident,
punched a man who spat in front of him, after having suffered years
of being spat at and demeaned while wearing the mantle of the church,
and having never received any response from the authorities for this
distress,” the judge said.

He ruled that the indictment represented a contravention of the
principles of justice, for which he was dismissing the charges.

Shahar Ilan, vice president of Hiddush – For Religious Freedom and
Equality, applauded the ruling and called on rabbis and leaders of
the haredi community to denounce the phenomenon of members of their
community spitting at Christian clergy.

“The haredi leadership has to understand that the fact that we have
established a Jewish state brings responsibility, Ilan told The
Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

“We have to prove that we don’t treat people from other religions as
Jews were treated in the past. The idea that we came here and treated
others as we were treated is simply insufferable.”

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, co-founder of the Center for
Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, also welcomed the
ruling.

“The crime this man committed by spitting at the priest was
embarrassing him. This yeshiva student was in return embarrassed
by having been struck by the priest, so I hope it was a lesson well
learned for this particular yeshiva student,” Riskin said.

“The haredi community’s attitude to the Christian church stems from
the pogroms carried out by Christians mobs against Jews in Europe
for hundreds of years, incited by members of the Christian clergy,
Riskin said.

“But times have changed and a whole new era of Jewish-Christian
relations and understanding has dawned upon the world, and the haredim
– and all Jews – should understand this and act accordingly.”