Author: Babajanian Karo

TURKEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT “THE PROTOCOLS ARE NOT AN OPEN-ENDED OPPORTUNITY”, THE ARMENIAN PRESIDENT STATES

Mediamax
Aug 30 2011
Armenia

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated today that the
Armenian-Turkish “Protocols are not an open-ended and permanent
opportunity”.

Speaking at the meeting of the Central Office of the Foreign Ministry
and heads of the Armenian diplomatic missions abroad, the President
said that the initiative to normalize relations with Turkey raised
Armenia’s international authority and “dispelled our partners’
illusions about today’s Turkey revealing new manifestations of the
Turkish policy which we have been aware of throughout the history”,
Mediamax reports.

“Nevertheless, we keep on adhering to our position on normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions. Turkey should screw
up some courage to respect the undertaken commitments. At the same
time, the Turkish side should understand that these Protocols are not
an open-ended and permanent opportunity. Most of our friends advised
us to wait till the parliamentary elections in Turkey and we’ll see in
coming months whether or not there are changes in Turkey’s approaches
after the elections. To be honest, the latest two months don’t give
us reason for optimism. We’ll make a decision on our further steps
regarding the Protocols based on the results of our observations”,
the Armenian President stated.

TURKISH BILL ON RETURN OF RELIGIOUS PROPERTY IS WORTHLESS – ARMENIAN EXPERT

news.am
Aug 30 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Turkish bill on Churches and religious property must be
nullified, said PhD in Political Science Levon Shirinyan to a press
conference on Tuesday.

He argues that the bill is nothing but a worthless step that will
not bring any serious change.

‘Washington office of Hay Dat also considers it worthless,’ said
Shirinyan implying the words of Washington Hay Dat office chairman
Ken Khachikayn, who earlier said that only 1 percent of churches
and adjacent property expropriated during the Armenian Genocide will
be returned.

Shirinyan believes that the bill should be regarded in the context of
Turkish policy of bargain, since no bill of the kind has ever passed
in Turkey.

Turkish studies expert Anush Hovhannisyan said that the bill is
directly related to concept of US Congress on Turkey i.e. calling on
Turkey to return the religious property of minorities.

‘This is very delicate step aimed at gaining the sympathy of Armenian
community of Turkey,’ she said.

YOU CAN SWEAR BY PHONE – ARMENIAN MP

news.am
Aug 30 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Videotape which captured Tigran Arakelyan gave me the
impression that he is in mentally unbalanced state, said MP from
ruling Armenian Republican Party Rafik Petrosyan to a press conference
on Monday.

The MP did not rule out the assignment of an expertise to confirm
Arakelyan’s limited responsibility and assigned him to involuntary
treatment.

“Demanding his release, we will endanger our society,” said the MP.

Armenian National Movement board member Hovhannes Igityan, the
other participant of the debate noted that the issue of changing the
preventive measure against Arakelyan is political and can be solved
by a single phone call from Rafik Petrosyan.

According to Igityan, in case of Arakelian they accentuate the fact
that he cursed the mother of a police officer.

“In this context, I would like to bring out the incident when an
official replied with a swear to journalist’s legitimate request for
information. Was that official arrested?” said Igityan.

“Swearing on the phone is different. On the phone you can use foul
language but it is different when you insult a policeman publicly,”
replied Petrosyan.

NKR PARLIAMENT ADOPTS DECISION ON GRANTING AMNESTY

ARMENPRESS
19:38, 30 August, 2011

YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, ARMENPRESS: In accordance with Article 86 of
the NKR Constitution, with a decision signed by the Speaker of
NKR Parliament, an NKR National Assembly extraordinary session was
convoked today upon the initiative by the NKR Parliament Speaker and
under the agenda issue “On Granting Amnesty on the 20th Anniversary
of Declaration of the NKR”. NKR NA Speaker Ashot Ghoulyan chaired
the session.

An official from the NKR NA press service reported Armenpress that
the speaker of the NKR parliament stated that 6 amnesties have been
declared in the NKR in the past 20 years and that the amnesties mainly
coincided with some significant state-political events in the country.

Arayik Lazaryan, head of the State-Legal Department of the NKR
President’s Staff, presented the session’s agenda issue. He mentioned
that the draft decision was developed on the basis of practice of the
NKR, the RA and other countries. According to the statistical data
reported by Arayik Lazaryan, over 25% of the persons in prison will be
released; all the persons subject to punishment, which is not related
to imprisonment, will be released from the punishment. The number of
some criminal or judicial cases subject to quashal is over 60-80%.

The Permanent Commission on State-Legal Affairs submitted a positive
opinion on the draft decision. Hovik Jivanyan, deputy chairman of
the Commission, presented the opinion and mentioned that the document
was discussed at the Commission’s extended sitting.

In the result of a vote, the parliament adopted the decision on
granting amnesty. The NKR National Assembly extraordinary session of
4th convocation is over.

MAN FOUND DEAD IN NAKHICHEVAN MINISTRY

Tert.am
18:14 30.08.11

A 31-year-old airport technician from the landlocked Azerbaijani
exclave Nakhichevan has been found dead at the Ministry for National
Security after being accused of “working for Iran,” the RFE/RL
reported.

Family members of Turac Zeynalov, a resident of Arazun village in the
exclave’s Julfa district, say they were shown his body on August 25,
a day after he had been summoned to the ministry.

The family said Zeynalov also showed signs of being beaten to death,
including bruises and blood stains across his body and a disfigured
head.

Zeynalov’s father, Shuriyye Zeynalov, said he was told by authorities
that his son had committed treason because he had “worked for Iran.”

The father claimed his son was beaten to death because he had refused
to sign a confession. The family said they were not given any medical
documentation about the cause of his death.

The local Turan news agency reported that there was no immediate
information available about four other men who were also reportedly
summoned to the ministry recently.

Elman Abbasov, a correspondent working at the Institute for Reporters’
Freedom and Safety (IRFS) told RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service on August
29 that he met with Zeynalov’s family and was concerned about the
fate of the man’s parents.

“Summoning somebody to the National Security Ministry on a groundless
claim and beating him to death does not conform to legal norms, laws,
and humanity,” Abbasov said. “Even if a man is guilty, he should be
punished according to the law.”

Abbasov maintained that he is also concerned about the fate of Turac
Zeynalov’s parents.

“Turac’s wife told us their home was also searched. But nothing was
found there,” he said, adding that authorities had admitted they had
“slapped Turac once or twice in order to educate him.”

Eldar Ibrahimov, a member of parliament from Nakhichevan told RFE/RL
that did not have any information about Zeynalov’s death. Ibrahimov
dismissed the reported beating death, saying it “could be an unfounded
rumor.”

SEYRAN OHANYAN IS IN CROSS-BORDER MILITARY UNITS

ARMENPRESS
12:37, 30 August, 2011
YEREVAN

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan visited today the cross-border
military units of Noyemberyan. The Minister’s visit coincided with the
annual holiday of the military unit. Congratulating the soldiers and
officer staff on that occasion, the Minister noted that the military
unit has played a significant role in Armenia’s independence and
initial period of Artsakh liberation fighting, when military operations
were running not only in Artsakh, but at the northern-eastern border
of Armenia as well.

“The military unit has a glorious history, and has registered high
indexes in 2010-2011 both in regard to military preparedness and
replenishment,” Mr. Ohanyan said, adding that defense of the homeland
borders is an honor for everybody. “Among our biggest achievements
over 20 years are these military units, which fulfill their tasks
with honor,” the Minister said.

Afterward a number of soldiers of the military unit were awarded with
certificates of appreciation, medals and valuable presents. The latter
presented their fighting capacity by demonstrative military exercises.

The Minister was accompanied by Tavush Governor Armen Ghularyan.

“TIGRAN PETROSYAN’S 8TH COMMEMORATE OF THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP “WILL TAKE PLACE IN CRIMEA

Noyan Tapan
30.08.2011 | 10:25
Sport

(Noyan Tapan – 30.08.2011) From September 23 to 25 Word’s Chess
Champion Tigran Petrosyan’s 8th commemorate will take place in Crimea.

As Analitike.at.ua Company announced, the tournament will take place
in Ukraine’s level than in internationa.

During the Chess Memorial many events directed to the recognition of
chess will be realized. The events will include dramatized presentation
about chess, concert with participation of Crimean and Ukrainian pop
singers, international TV with gross master Rafayel Vahanyan and USA
national team member Aleksandr Onishyuki.

WEBOMETRICS RANKING: YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY HOLDS 1051ST POSITION AMONG OVER 20,000 UNIVERSITIES OF THE WORLD

arminfo
Tuesday, August 30, 17:07

According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the
Yerevan State University (YSU) has gained the 1051st position among
over 20,000 universities, YSU Rector Aram Simonyan said at today’s
press conference when replying to ArmInfo correspondent’s question. He
added that according to Webometrics, YSU is in the lead among the
Armenian universities.

“This is a prestigious world rating. We think that YSU’s index is
high enough, taking into account that about 24,000 universities in
the world were rated by Webometrics. Most of these universities are
in Europe and approximately 8,000 of them are in the United States.

Certainly, we do not compare ourselves with the Universities
of Cambridge or Harvard. But we occupy good positions among the
universities similar to YSU”, he stressed.

Simonyan added that in order not to be behind the dynamically
developing trends of world science and education, YSU is constantly
working at new projects and cooperates with foreign universities. One
of these projects envisages possible reception of two diplomas
simultaneously.

At present, 15 students of YSU are studying at one of German
universities alongside with their education at the Yerevan State
Universities. “As a result, they will be awarded two diplomas”,
he said.

Simonyan also pointed out that approximately 1280 lecturers currently
work at YSU, among them 180 professors and over 460 PhDs.

To note, the Webometrics University Ranking is a ranking system
based on university web presence, visibility and web access. This
ranking system measures how strongly a university is present in the
web by its own web domain, sub-pages, rich files, scholarly articles
etc.The central hypothesis of this approach is that web presence
is a reliable indicator of the global performance and prestige of
the universities and as such, is an indirect way to measure all the
university missions (teaching, research, transfer). Although the Web
is universally recognized as the one of the most relevant tools for
scholarly communication, it is still very rare these indicators are
used for the evaluation of the scientific research and the academic
performance of universities. Webometric indicators are provided to
show the commitment of the institutions to Web publication.

DIALOGUE TO CONTINUE SHOULD PARTIES SIGN NEW DEAL, SAYS ACTIVIST

Tert.am
30.08.11

Only a new deal between the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC)
and the authorities can push the parties to continue the dialogue,
says film director Tigran Khzmalyan, a member of Sardarpat movement.

“The process will continue if the parties sign a new deal, but it
conflicts with the interests of our country and our people,” he told
Tert.am on Tuesday, when asked to comment on the possibilities of a
renewed dialogue.

The activist said the dialogue between the opposition alliance and
the ruling coalition has nothing to do with real life developments,
a factor that makes the society indifferent to the process.

He further stressed the importance of system reforms, calling for an
active campaign in that direction.

IRANIAN POLICE SEIZED 17.5 TONS OF NARCOTICS OVER PAST 5 MONTHS

PanARMENIAN.Net
August 30, 2011 – 16:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Iranian law enforcement police squads have seized
over 17 tons of different types of illicit drugs in the country’s
Southern province of Hormozgan on the rims of the Persian Gulf in
the past 5 months, a provincial police chief announced on Tuesday,
August 30.

Hormozgan’s Police Chief General Mohammad Ali Akhoundi told reporters
that his forces have seized 17,572kg of different types of narcotics
during the first five months of the current Iranian year (started on
March 21).

The commander stated that the seizures included 12,527kg of opium,
4,149kg of hashish and other types of illicit drugs.

Akhoundi stressed that police have also disbanded 70 drug rings and
arrested 1,534 drug-traffickers and dealers during the said period,
Fars New Agency reported.