Author: Babajanian Karo

GREENS ORGANIZE BIKE RIDE IN DEFENSE OF TRCHKAN WATERFALL

arminfo
Tuesday, September 27, 22:08

The Armenian Greens have organized a bike ride in defense of the
Trchkan Waterfall.

The event is a response to the project to build a small water power
plant near the waterfall. The Greens are concerned that the project
may damage Trchkan and the eco-system of the area.

In 2008 Trchkan was proclaimed as a hydrological natural monument.

This however was not an obstacle for the Nature Protection Ministry,
who gave the green- light to the small WPP project.

The bikers have met with the residents of the nearby villages, who
also believe that the project may put an end to the waterfall.

TURKISH PM SAYS NO SANCTIONS ON ISRAEL UNFAIR

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 20:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – If the Quartet was willing to resolve Turkey-Israel
issue, they would have imposed certain issues on Israel today,
Turkish Prime Minister said.

As Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview to TIME magazine, “until
today, the U.N. Security Council has issued more than 89 resolutions
on prospective sanctions related to Israel, but they’ve never been
executed. And furthermore, there were about 200 resolutions issued by
the General Assembly and neither have those been complied with. One
might wonder why no sanctions have been imposed on Israel. When it’s
Iran in question, you impose sanctions. Similarly with Sudan. What
happens with Israel then?”

The PM further urged the international community to support Palestine
on its way to independence. “Through TIME, I’d like to make a call
out to humanity: [the Palestinians] are there to exist. They are not
there to be condemned to struggle in an open-air penitentiary. Israel’s
cruelty in that regard cannot be continued any longer.”

Dwelling on the rift in Israel-Turkey relations, Erdogan noted that
as long as the embargo on Gaza has not been lifted, the relations
between the two countries will never become normalized. “Our mutual
relations with Israel would have been reinforced even further only if
Israel hadn’t victimized the positive relations of two countries with
[its 2010 raid] on the Mavi Marmara,” the PM said.

REPLACEMENTS APPOINTED FOR KUDRIN AS HE HITS BACK AT KREMLIN

Tert.am
23:18 27.09.11

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Tuesday appointed stands-in
for Alexei Kudrin, who was dismissed as finance minister earlier this
week over criticism of President Dmitry Medvedev.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will oversee financial
issues in the Russian cabinet while Anton Siluanov will become acting
finance minister following Kudrin’s dismissal on Monday, Putin said.

He stressed that both appointments had been cleared by President
Dmitry Medvedev.

“This is our joint decision. I hope there will be no setbacks,”
Putin said.

Kudrin was ousted after invoking Medvedev’s wrath by saying he would
decline a job in a future Russian government that Medvedev is likely
to head.

Kudrin cited disagreements with the president on economic policies,
in particular, on considerable defense expenditures, as the reason.

President Medvedev said on Saturday at a United Russia party congress
that he believed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should stand in March
presidential elections.

Medvedev will head United Russia’s ticket at December’s polls and is
likely to be named prime minister in the event of Putin’s return to
the Kremlin.

Kudrin said on Tuesday that his decision had been well thought through
and not spontaneous.

“On September 24 the long-term structure of government in our country
became clear and I stated my position,” he said.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with emotions,” Kudrin said,
adding the Right Cause party that media reports said he could head
was an artificial project that he could not possibly endorse.

ARMENIAN STUDENTS TO VISIT NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Tert.am
22:56 27.09.11

Fifty students from Yerevan Linguistic University after V. Brusov
will visit the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh from October 2-4 within
the frameworks of a program called “We Are Armenia”.

In Karabakh they will meet their peers from the NKR State University.

They will also hand in presents on behalf of Armenia’s Youth Foundation
and the students’ council of the Yerevan Linguistic University after
V. Brusov.

The students will also visit Shoushi, Stepanakert, Gandzasar Monastery,
Amaras, the ruins of Tigranakert and the Berdzor Museum.

IS SHIMON PERES READY TO APOLOGIZE TO TURKEY?

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 18:39 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reports that Turkey has
rejected a proposal, first floated by the US, for Israeli President
Shimon Peres to personally apologize to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, who would do the same. The rejection is apparently
not absolute, and an apology by Peres, who has international prestige,
could solve the crisis between the two countries.

Senior Israeli sources say that the Turks have left an opening for
further contacts. “The key phrase is creative solutions,” a senior
Turkish official told a local website. “That’s what we’re looking
for now.”

In his first response to Erdogan’s UN speech yesterday, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the remarks were “mendacious
scandalous incitement with no regard to the truth”, according to
Globes.

ALEXANDER ISKANDARYAN DOES NOT THINK RUSSIA’S POLICY WILL CHANGE DRASTICALLY
Karen Ghazaryan

Radiolur
27.09.2011 18:40

“I don’t think Russia’s policy will change drastically,” Director
of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan told a press
conference today, commenting on the possible developments in the
Armenian-Turkish relations after the change of the roles in the
ruling tandem of Russia. Iskandaryan is confident PM Vladimir Putin
will win the elections. However, this will not lead to a change in
Armenian-Russian relations.

Touching upon President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the UN General
Assembly, Iskandaryan said “it completed the chain, which includes
all issues raised by Armenian officials on different occasions.”

“Armenia has been reacting harshly to Azerbaijan’s military rhetoric
in the recent period. There have been certain statements, which make
it clear that Armenia is not going to ignore the bellicose statements
of Azerbaijan,” Iskandaryan said.

Speaking about the participation of Russian soldiers in the
military parade dedicated to the 20th anniversary of independence,
the Director of the Caucasus Institute said it is common practice in
different countries. “Soldiers of all partner countries participated
in the recent parade in Tajikistan. All countries that are somehow
linked to France participate in military parades of that country,”
Iskandaryan said.

WORLD TOURISM DAY SHOULD BECOME PROFESSIONAL HOLIDAY FOR INDUSTRY’S PERSONNEL

ARKA
Sep 27, 2011

YEREVAN, September 27. / ARKA /. World Tourism Day should become
a professional holiday for Armenia’s tourism industry’s personnel,
Robert Minasian, chairman of the Union of Armenian Travel Agencies,
said today when speaking at a news conference.

The World Tourism Day was established by the General Assembly
of the World Tourism Organization in 1979 in the Spanish city of
Torremolinos. The purpose of the holiday is to promote tourism and
highlight its contribution to the global economy, help the development
of relations between peoples of different countries. This year’s
event is taking place under the motto “Tourism unites cultures.”

Mr. Minasian, who is also the rector of the Armenian Institute of
Tourism (it is a branch of Russian International Academy of Tourism)
said Armenia celebrates this day for the third consecutive year at
the government level, which he said indicates the importance the
government attaches to the development of this sector.He said the
sector is facing serious tasks, stemming from sector development
concept implying an increase of foreign tourists visiting Armenia up
to 3 million, domestic tourists up to 1.5 million and the number of
beds in hotels up to 51,000.

According to the National Statistical Service, the number of tourists
visiting Armenia in January-June 2011 increased by 15.6% compared to
the same period in 2010 and amounted to 266,155 people. At the same
time, as evidenced by the statistics, during the reporting period the
number of Armenian tourists travelling outside Armenia increased by
18% from a year earlier to 274,621 people.

AZERBAIJAN CONFUSED ABOUT ITS SHOT DOWN DRONE, ARMENIAN POLITICIAN SAYS

Tert.am
15:25 27.09.11

At his Sept. 27 meeting with journalists, Giro Manoyan, Head of the Ha
Dat office, Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D),
voiced the opinion that Azerbaijan got slightly confused about the
incident with its drone shot down by Armenian armed forces.

This is the reason why Azerbaijan has become “politically more
retrained” now. One more reason for Azerbaijan’s restraint is,
Manoyan said, that the country is now seeking supporters to ensure
its membership in the UN Security Council.

No progress should be expected in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
in the foreseeable future because of Azerbaijan’s destructive policy.

Consequently, no progress should be expected in the Armenia-Turkey
reconciliation process, Manoyan said.

The negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh problem will go on, but
not at the presidential level. The foreign ministers and OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs will continue the work, Manoyan said.

As regards the ARF-D’s steps to get Armenia’s signature withdrawn
from the Armenian-Turkish protocols, Manoyan said that “no decision
has been made on any steps. But should any steps against us be made,
we will take adequate steps.”

U.S. CIVIL WAR’S ONLY ARMENIAN HONORED WITH NEW GRAVE MARKER

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 12:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The only known Armenian to have served in the
Civil War, Khachadour Paul Garabedian, is being recognized with a
new grave marker in a Philadelphia cemetery on Saturday, October 1,
thanks to an anonymous $10,000 donation and the dedication of fellow
Armenian-Americans.

Garabedian was born in the small town of Rodosto near Constantinople
(Istanbul) in Turkey, on August 25, 1836, and immigrated to Lowell,
Mass. in the late 1850s. There he worked as a machinist and became
an American citizen.

In 1864 at the age of 28, he enlisted in the Union Navy.

Garabedian was discharged in August of 1865 in Philadelphia, remaining
there for the rest of his life and becoming the first Armenian in
the City of Brotherly Love.

Garabedian married Hannah Matilda “Tillie” Wynkoop in Philadelphia on
June 18, 1871. The Garabedians had no children, and Garabedian died
at only 45 years old on August 25, 1881, apparently of tuberculosis,
which he may have contracted years before during the war. He is buried
in Fernwood Cemetery in southwest Philadelphia.

An Armenian, Paul Sookiasian, of West Chester, Penn., researching
Garabedian’s early life learned that the original grave marker had
basically disintegrated sometime in the 1950s, leaving the brave
Armenian with his singular contribution to the Civil War in an
unmarked grave.

That was “the reason we needed a gravestone for Garabedian,”
said Sookiasian, who then brought the story to the Philadelphia
Armenian-American Veterans Association.

Sookiasian explained that the group “felt that a traditional
‘khatchkar’ or Armenian cross-stone would be an ideal replacement,”
but fund raising continued slowly until an anonymous donor heard of
the project and sent the PAAVA a check for $10,000.00.

Continuing the Armenian participation, the artist who designed the
khatchkar was Leo Hanian, an ethnic Armenian who fled from massacres
against Armenians in Baku, Azerbaijan at the end of the Soviet era. He
later settled in Philadelphia where he made stone crosses for churches
as well, The Washington Times reported.

ARFD: RETURN OF PROTOCOLS ANOTHER ATTEMPT OF PRESSURE ON ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 15:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Head of Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) and director of
ARF Bureau political affairs office Kiro Manoyan does not expect any
progress in normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations in the near
future. “Return of the protocols to the Turkish parliament’s agenda is
not a surprise. Ankara will use them as another tool of pressure on
Armenia to prevent Yerevan from withdrawing its signature,” Manoyan
told a press conference in Yerevan.

“Turkey just wants to show the international community that the
reconciliation process in under way. However, it’s clear that this
country has not intention to ratify the protocols,” he said.

Turkish council of ministers has brought the Armenian-Turkish protocols
to the parliament’s agenda in what Turkish media described to be
“good will gesture towards Armenia.”

On August 22, 2011, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly has withdrawn
from the agenda 898 bills, including the protocols envisaging
normalization of relations Armenia and opening of the border. The
new Turkish parliament said that the issue of opening of border with
Armenia is no longer actual for the country’s political course.

Besides, in compliance with the parliament’s regulations, a bill that
was rejected by the parliament loses its legal force during six months.

The protocols were signed in 2009 in Zurich by Armenian Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu. In April 2010, RA President Serzh Sargsyan decreed to
suspend the process of ratification of the protocols due to Ankara’s
unwillingness to ratify them.