Author: Babajanian Karo

DIPLOMATS IN ARGENTINA PLAY TENNIS TO MARK ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 12:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A tennis tournament dedicated to the 20th anniversary
of the Republic of Armenia was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
with participation of diplomatic missions accredited to the country.

According to the press office of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, John
Howard Richardson (Australia’s ambassador) and Pavel Sipka (Slovakia’s
ambassador) pair as well as representatives of the Armenian community,
Juan and Simon Jrnazian won the tournament.

Armenia’s ambassador to Argentina thanked all for participation in
the event.

HOW YEREVAN POLICE BUSTED A LOCAL GANG: THE DETAILS

epress.am
09.27.2011 11:40

Three days after police busted an alleged gang suspected of committing
a series of armed robberies in Yerevan, police on Monday revealed the
details of the case. And so it is that on the evening of Sept. 22,
the Criminal Investigations Department received news that the group
is preparing for another robbery.

At around 6 am the next day, on Myasnikyan Ave. near the zoo, a
Mercedes Benz (license plate number 60 OO 086) was asked to stop by
police; however, the driver did not comply, and in trying to escape
he slammed into an electric pole. The driver and a passenger fled the
scene and opened fire at the police officers who pursued them. One
of the men, Artur Manukyan, was found in the bushes on the hillside
and subsequently detained. The second suspect went to a nearby hill
~W whether he jumped off the cliff or fell is not clear. However,
he died on impact.

The firearm which was fired, however, was not found. Found in the
bushes instead was a TOZ-349 factory-produced rifle.

In the vehicle which crashed, police found beneath the driver~Rs seat
a homemade 9mm gun with one bullet in the cartridge.

In the pocket of four-times-convicted Gurgen Hayrapetyan, who fell to
his death from the cliff, police found approximately 2g of a substance
similar to opium.

At around 8:30 am on Sept. 23, police detained twice-convicted David
Galstyan, thrice-convicted Samvel Davtyan and twice-convicted Aram
Hayrapetyan, who were found to be in possession of narcotics during
a police search. On 4:45 pm the same day, police detained Hovsep
Hovnanyan and seized about 2g of yellow-green substance resembling
marijuana from him.

Around 6 pm, police raided a house on Amaranotsayn St. in the Armenian
capital, which served as the gang~Rs gathering place. They found
a AK-74 with 30 bullets, a Makarov semi-automatic with 7 bullets,
a TT pistol with 8 bullets, a BLOW C 06 gas pistol with 5 bullets
and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as masks, gloves and
adhesive tape.

At 10 pm on Sept. 24, in a restaurant on Hrachya Ajaryan St. in
Yerevan, police detained six-times-convicted Artush Hakobyan on
suspicion of banditry. Found attached to his belt was a TT pistol
with 8 bullets and with the factory numbers rubbed off, which was
confiscated.

Also detained at the same scene was four-times-convicted Ruben
Karaoghlanyan ~W found in his pants pocket and subsequently seized was
approximately 6g of a yellow-green substance resembling hashish. Found
in the Hummer belonging to Artush Hakobyan was an Aspirin-UPSA tablets
box containing large amounts of the yellow-green substance assumed
to be narcotics.

Police have since determined that months ago, Artush Hakobyan and
Gurgen Hayrapetyan organized and led an armed gang, which included
David Galstyan, Samvel Davtyan, previously convicted Artur Manukyan
and Kyaram Amoyan.

At 1:10 pm on Sept. 25, police found and confiscated a starter pistol
from Artush Hakobyan~Rs house on Saryan St. At 1:15 pm, police searched
two houses in the village of Garni, where the ringleader of the gang
could often be found. A large number of psychotropic drugs were found
and confiscated.

At 2 pm, found in Ashot Martirosyan~Rs summer house in the village of
Dzoraghbyur were an AK-74, a TOZ rifle, a dagger, a homemade knife,
and 106g of the cannabis plant, while at his home on Hanrapetutyun St.
in the capital, a Heckler & Koch firearm with 7 bullets and 300
bullets of various calibers.

Police state that Artush Hakobyan, Artur Manukyan, David Galstyan,
Samvel Davtyan are detained, while Aram Hayrapetyan, Hovsep Hovnanyan,
Ruben Karaoghlanyan, and Ashot Martirosyan are arrested.

As previously reported, Yerevan Police Chief Nerses Nazaryan declared
that 16 people have been arrested in connection with this case.

MURDERED SOLDIER’S MOTHER DISPUTES AUTOPSY: JOGHOVURD

epress.am
09.27.2011 12:37

The family of 18-year-old Aghasi Abrahamyan, who was serving
in a military unit in Nagorno-Karabakh prior to his death under
suspicious circumstances late last month, have received the results
of Abrahamyan’s autopsy, reports local daily Joghovurd (“People” or
“Nation”). Recall, Abrahamyan died shortly after being hospitalized
with serious injuries.

The autopsy reported cause of death as being blunt cranial trauma,
or an injury to the brain. Doctors say the injuries apparent on his
body and to his internal organs occurred 6-24 hours prior to his
death and were caused by a blunt, hard object.

Aghasi’s mother, Mrs. Gayane, told Joghovurd that the family does
not agree with the autopsy report as it does not state that Aghasi’s
ear was torn off and that he had a knife wound in his side. She added
that they are asking all those responsible, those who brutally beat
her son, to be punished.

Meri Sargsyan, a press spokesperson for the Armenian defense
ministry’s investigative service, told the newspaper reporter that
three senior officers and one soldier were arrested in connection
with the case. Sargsyan said that in the interests of the case,
the names of those accused have not been released.

The officers are being accused under RA Criminal Code Article 375
Section 1 for abuse of power and “inactivity.” If convicted, they face
a term of 2-5 years’ imprisonment. The soldier, on the other hand,
is charged under RA Criminal Code Article 359 Section 1 (“breach of
relations… between not subordinated servicemen”).

Joghovurd notes that no one has yet been charged with murder,
“although it was voiced already that the serviceman and the doctor
brutally beat Aghasi Abrahamyan leading to his death.”

EMPLOYEES OF YEREVAN MUNICIPALITY AND REGIONAL ADMINISTRATIONS WILL TRAVEL BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT

ARKA
Sep 27, 2011

YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. All employees of Yerevan Municipality
and regional administrations will start to travel by public transport
from September 27 during a week, press-service of Yerevan Municipality
informed after the working meeting headed by the first vice-mayor of
Yerevan Taron Margaryan.

The goal of the transition of city officials on public transport will
be monitoring, implemented jointly with the Traffic Police of Armenia.

In the frames of this action control over the qualitative and
technical state of public transport and quality of service will be
implemented. Decision will be carried out regarding the final stops
of intercity transport.

Margaryan mentioned also the necessity of conducting monitoring among
the citizens, listening to their opinions and proposals. The results
of monitoring will be summarized at the end of the working week.

He instructed to control the norms of sanitary-hygienic conditions
of subways and markets of the city.

With this purpose, jointly with the Ministry of Health of Armenia it
is planned to conduct special review, in the result of which relevant
measures will be undertaken.

The selected territories should be in the center of attention of
relevant agencies of administrative districts.

MEDVEDEV/PUTIN, PUTIN/KOCHARYAN?: RUSSIA’S STRATEGY LEADS TO SPECULATION FOR ARMENIA
By Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow
27.09.11 | 12:32

After late last week’s official announcement of the Putin for
Medvedev replacement plan for Russia, a question has naturally risen
among Armenian political circles: would Putin’s return also mean
Kocharyan’s comeback, since Russia’s ex-president Vladimir Putin is
known to be favouring his then-Armenian counterpart and loyal partner
Robert Kocharyan?

Members of the ruling coalition do not believe it’s possible, and
make a reference to the memorandum signed early this year according
to which the coalition has committed to support Armenia’s current
president Serzh Sargsyan’s run for a second term in 2013.

However, Kocharyan’s recently activated presence in the political field
as well as “the Putin factor” have lead many to a different assumption.

It is noteworthy that lately Vartan Oskanian, who was foreign minister
during Kocharyan’s presidency, did not exclude such a possibility,
either. Cautious and diplomatically evasive Oskanian, who usually
refrains from speaking about Kocharyan, said in his interview to
“168 hours” local daily newspaper:

“My presumption is that Kocharyan would, after all, have political
involvement. For the start, parliamentary elections: I think there
will be some kind of involvement there.”

(The Armenian Constitution stipulates that a president can serve two
successive terms – as did Kocharyan, but may return to power after
the next election cycle.)

It is worth noting, too, that Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik
Tsarukyan was present at the September 23-24 summit of Yedinaya Russia
(United Russia) party, during which the decision on supporting Putin’s
candidacy for the office was announced.

It is common knowledge that Prosperous Armenia party was founded by
Kocharyan and is his political fulcrum, and Tsarukyan’s participation
in that summit gives grounds for speculation.

“Of course, Tsarukyan has participated in Yedinaya Russia’s summits
since 2008, however, that very year is significant, as it (marked
the end of Kocharyan’s presidency) and these meetings were laying
the groundwork in anticipation of Kocharyan’s return,” political
analyst Narine Lazarian, Yerevan’s Slavonic University professor,
told ArmeniaNow. “We don’t even have an idea how many times Kocharyan
personally went to meet Putin, we only know that Putin favors Kocharyan
much more than Serzh Sargsyan,”.

People’s Party leader Tigran Karapetyan believes that “Kocharyan will
definitely come back”.

“If Levon Ter-Pterosyan [Armenia’s first president] returned, why
wouldn’t Robert Kocharyan?” he says.

Heritage party member, MP Armen Martirosyan thinks, nonetheless,
that the current president Serzh Sargsyan has more possibilities
for maneuvering now than Medvedev who never really managed to leave
Putin’s shadow and that he [Sargsyan] can prevent Kocharyan’s return.

“Despite the fact that Kocharyan has solid financial and human
resources, at the moment he is not powerful enough to fight against
Serzh Sargsyan,” he says.

Whispers on Kocharyan’s possible return started spreading somewhere
around mid-year when he increased his presence in the media and gave
lengthy interviews, however , whispers turned into full-sound voices
the fourth book about him got published.

A 500-page book titled “Robert Kocharyan in the fate of the Armenian
cause” tells about Kocharyan’s “heroic deeds”.

In the prologue the author, Marc Amatouni, writes introducing
Kocharyan:

“A powerful public, political leader of modern Armenian history,
infallible military theorist, the carrier and creator of the victorious
arms of the Artsakh heroic battle… the organizer and leader of
modern-day battles of Avarayr in the Great Patriotic war of the
Armenian nation, the reviver of the distorted heroic profile of an
Armenian, and the re-creator and carrier of the authentic image of
the Armenian national, state, and political figure.”

FROZEN PEACE TALK: NEW STATES RECOGNIZED, NKR ISSUE IN A DEADLOCK
By Aris Ghazinyan

ArmeniaNow
27.09.11 | 09:52

Photo:

Sargsyan once again stated in US Karabakh’s independence is not to
be questioned

In the highlight of the activated recognition issue of the Palestine
state and immediately following Southern Sudan’s UN membership, the
Nagorno Karabakh settlement issue has reached a deadlock indefinitely;
at least it has lost its typical sharpness of over the past two years.

Positions of Yerevan, Stepanakert and Baku are being announced more
publicly: the Armenian sides are stating that there exists an ongoing
process of recognition of new states today, and why not then recognize
Nagorno Karabakh as well? The Azeri side counters that violation of
the territorial integrity of a country- member of UN is unacceptable
without that country’s consent.

At the UN General Assembly session on September 18, Azerbaijan raised
the issue of “fictitious elections of local administration bodies
in the occupied Azeri region of Nagorno Karabakh”. Azerbaijan’s
permanent representative to UN Agshin Mehdiyev addressed a letter to
the UN Secretary General asking to put the Azeri foreign minister’s
statement on the General Assembly’s and Security Council’s agendas:

“Baku is stating that the existing unrecognized separatist regime in
the occupied Azeri territories is nothing but an illegal structure
created by Armenia in consequence of ethnic purges of these territories
of their Azeri population. Fictitious ‘elections’ are held to disguise
Armenia’s expansionist policy and the results of its continued
occupation of the territories recognized on an international level
as belonging to Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan’s initiative was unable, however, to hold back Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan from making a number of high-flown statements.

In his speech from the high tribune of the 66th session of the
General Assembly, Sargsyan said: “I would like to congratulate the
newly-elected member of the UN, the Republic of South Sudan. Its path
to having a place in this august hall has been long and difficult,
but the people of South Sudan, through the free expression of will,
exercised their right to live in sovereignty and independently, thus
crossing the path that many of the UN member states present here today
have crossed….The people of Nagorno-Karabakh made the same choice
two decades ago by exercising their right to self-determination, by
withstanding the war unleashed by Azerbaijan, and surviving bloodshed
to earn their right to live in freedom.”

In his address to the American-Armenian community members during
his working visit to New York, Sargsyan was even more blunt in his
statements: “Artsakh has been enjoying its independence for the last
20 years and after the settlement it cannot have a status inferior
to the one it has now and which has been won by its sons’ blood.

Independence of Karabakh or the right of its people for
self-determination is not to be questioned.”

Sargsyan’s speeches in the United States have become a subject of
criticism on the part of Azeri authorities and the ruling party there.

“By his delirious statements that Nagorno Karabakh will never be
returned to Azerbaijan, Sargsyan is trying to compensate for his lost
position in his country,” said Ali Ahmedov, executive secretary of
ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party.

The fact that the negotiation process on the Karabakh issue is
currently in a deadlock is admitted by the Azeri politicians as well.

“Not a single step forward has been made in the Karabakh settlement
issue after the Kazan meeting,” said Araz Azimov, deputy foreign
minister of Azerbaijan, on September 24. “Recently, minister Elmar
Mamedyarov held a meeting with the OSCE MG co-chairs in New York,
however I do not think there was any progress. As of this moment the
talks on the Karabakh issue are in stagnation”.

U.S. SAYS WILL CONTINUE COOPERATING WITH RUSSIA, ITS NEW PRESIDENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 27, 2011 – 12:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The United States will continue cooperating with
the Russian Federation, no matter who would win the next presidential
election, U.S. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

Last weekend Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin to run for president in next year’s election, ending
months of speculation over which man would run for the post.

“The fact is that the President has pursued a reset in our relations
with Russia with not a particular leader but the government of Russia.

And the progress that we’ve made, which has been well recognized,
has come with the entire Russian leadership. That includes President
Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin,” Carney told journalists on
late Monday.

“So we will continue to pursue our relations with Russia in a way
that advance American interests and we believe improve our ties and
are beneficial in ways – beneficial for the American people and the
Russian people,” he added, RIA Novosti reported.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S SPEECH AT MILITARY PARADE CAUSED AZERBAIJANI SOCIETY’S DISTRUST TOWARDS AUTHORITIES – ARMENIAN EXPERT

news.am
Sept 26 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Military parade dedicated to 20th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence caused a wide response in international media, as
compared with the response to the military parade of Azerbaijan,
said the head of Sociometer sociological center Aharon Adibekyan to
a press conference on Monday.

He argued that according to the statistics, around 80 web sites
mentioned the military parade in Azerbaijan however the parade of
Armenia was mentioned in 830 sites, in English, Russian and Turkish.

Psychologist Samvel Khudoyan in his turn touched upon the psychological
impact of the Armenian parade, dividing it into three parts – the
impact on the neutral side, on the enemies and on friends.

“The military parade in Armenia left quite a positive impression on
the neutral side, the international community. For example British
media reported on participation of clergy in the parade, friendly
countries were impressed by participation of Russian troops. As for
the enemies, the statement of Armenian President and the parade itself
caused the mistrust of Azerbaijani society in the military power of the
country. Despite the efforts of Azerbaijani media, Azerbaijani society
has a sense of uncertainty, which, in turn, will lead to aggression.”

TESEV TO PUBLISH REPORT ON PROBLEMS OF TURKISH ARMENIANS

Panorama
Sept 26 2011
Armenia

Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) has released
a report on problems of Turkish Armenians, “Ermenihaber.am” news
site informs.

The report titled “Listen to Turkish Armenians – problems, demands,
and solutions” refers to the issue of textbooks for the Armenian
schools, the teachers’ salaries, chairs of Armenian language and
literature in universities, found Armenian radio and theatres. The
report also highlights need of equal rights for the ethnic groups by
the constitution.

“Expressions and phrases of hostility and aggression against Armenians
must be removed,” reads the report.

Referring to the Armenian-Turkish relations, the report says: “the
ratification of Armenian-Turkish protocols and the opening of the
border will contribute to the normalization of mutual relations. The
strategy of zero problems with neighbors should be implemented
irrespective of genocide and Karabakh issues.”

ARMENIA CONFIRMS ITS COMMITMENT TO DEMANDS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

news.am
Sept 26 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- Armenia once again confirmed its commitment to demands
of the international humanitarian law, head of the working group at
Commission for POWs, hostages and missing persons Armen Karapetyan
told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

As reported earlier, representatives of UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Refugees and International Organization for Migration
transported Azerbaijani POW Roman Huseynov Novruzoglu to a third
state. Armenia’s Defense Ministry said he refused to return to
Azerbaijan preferring to find shelter in the third state.

No prisoners of war are left in Armenia. Meanwhile, three Armenian
POWs and five members of the Armenian family are kept in Azerbaijani
captivity.

Asked whether handing over of the Azerbaijani POW can affect fate
of the Armenian captives, Karapetyan said that the international
humanitarian law does not accept such notion as exchange or any equal
action in relation to prisoners of war.