Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIA AND GEORGIA AGREE TO SHARE STATE SECRETS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 25 2014

25 June 2014 – 5:53pm

Armenia and Georgia agree to share state secrets

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

A secret document on the exchange of state secrets between Georgia
and Armenia was the most visible outcome of last week’s visit by
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to Tbilisi. The agreement was
highly criticized among the Georgian opposition, who claimed that
Georgia’s military secrets would be passed on to Russia via Armenia,
a member of the CSTO.

A former minister of culture, Nika Rurua, expressed his concern that
the secret document would “close Georgia’s path to NATO.”

The rector of the Diplomatic Academy of Tbilisi, Iosif Tsintsadze,
noted that it was not clear what secret information will be exchanged
according to the document, since there are several levels of security
on any information. He also said that he cannot understand why it
was necessary to conclude such an agreement and called it “nonsense.”

Petre Mamradze, the head of the Institute of Government Strategy,
drew attention to the fact that the path to NATO had closed for
Georgia after the military operation of Saakashvili in August 2008. He
recalled that President Obama had recently stated that Georgia will
not be accepted into NATO in the near future.

GAZPROM LOSING IN ARMENIA

The Messenger, Georgia
June 25 2014

Wednesday, June 25

According to the information from Gazprom in Armenia, the company
that provides Russian natural gas to Armenia is incurring losses.

The audit results illustrated that the company’s performance is quite
poor. For the last five years the company has not gained profit and
its existence is only explained through the strategic partnership
between Armenia and Russia. (The Messenger)

NO DEMOUNTED MONUMENT RESTORED IN 9 YEARS

11:20 / 25.06.2014

The talks as if Ministry of Culture has applied to court to stop the
demounting works of ancient Afrikyan building do not correspond to
reality, Karo Ayvazyan, head of Yerevan territorial department of
the History and Cultural Monuments Preservation Agency told Nyut.am.

Armenia’s Helsinki Committee and Urbanlab Yerevan have applied to
the administrative court.

On June 23 Culture Ministry’s History and Cultural Monuments
Preservation Agency head sent a writ to the police on stopping the
demounting works claiming that the company doing it has not submitted
necessary documents. Within an hour the company presented the necessary
documents.

Ayvazyan said the permission to destroy the building was not given
by the agency headed by him and it cannot stop the process. “We must
control the process and in case of registering flaws suspend the
actions until they are settled but if the construction is legal and
all the documents exist we cannot do anything,” Ayvazyan said, adding
that the building is included in the Old Yerevan project and will be
gathered stone by stone in 60 meter distance from the current place.

“It has its place according to the chief Yerevan plan while till
that Glendale Hills organization will keep the stones in Sebastia
administrative district,” he said.

The speaker convinced that they are going to form an act of the
number and quality of the stones and if losses or damages are
registered during the demounting works the organization will take
the responsibility.

As to the photos, videos showing how carelessly the demounting works
are being done, Ayvazyan said that it is the reason why they are
against demounting. No matter how careful transportation is being
done during it the monument losses some of its values.

“From 2005 Old Yerevan project is being implemented with some buildings
being demounted but no real steps toward the implementation of the
project are being done. 8-9 years is enough while neither of the
transported monuments have been restored,” he said.

OCTOBER 2014: MONTH OF ARTSAKH IN EUROPE

June 25, 2014

After the Third Conference of European Armenians held in October
2013 in the premises of the European Parliament, during which Bako
Sahakyan, President of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, greeted the audience
from the European Parliament podium, the European Armenian Federation
for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) is announcing the month of October
2014 as “Artsakh month”. The EAFJD, in cooperation with the Armenian
National Committees of Belgium, Netherlands, France and Germany,
as well as with the representative offices of Artsakh, is planning
to implement different activities and projections.

Within the entire month of October, book presentations, exhibitions
of paintings and drawings and other works as well as film projections
will be organised at the presence of intellectuals and artists form
Armenia, Artsakh and other countries. The EAFJD in cooperation with
some Armenian National Committees n Europe, on the occasion of the
20th anniversary of the ceasefire, wishes to draw the attention of
international community and political circles on the fact that the
Republic of Artsakh now is an accomplished and functioning state that
shall be considered by parties suggesting solution to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict.

We will keep the public informed on the detailed programme through
a separate press release by the end of July.

European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy,

Brussels

TOMBSTONES, BUILDING WALLS CRACKED FROM MINE EXPLOSIONS IN ARMENIA: ZHOGHOVURD

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

06.25.2014 10:18 epress.am
06.25.2014 10:18

Residents of the town of Shamlugh in Lori marz (province) report
that the daily explosions produced by Aparag Mining LLC near the
town cemetery is causing the tombstones and walls of buildings next
to the open pit to crack, reports local dailyZhoghovurd.

The mine is located 80-100 meters from the town cemetery.

“They are conducting explosions with such force that it seems to us
it’s a great earthquake and the building is about to collapse.

They conduct explosions every day. Before, they would warn [us]
before conducting the explosions, now who’s thinking about that?” the
residents informed the newspaper.

In addition, the company intends to expand the area of the mine at
the expense of the cemetery.Zhoghovurd underlines that, according to
the Republic of Armenia Code on the Lithosphere [AM], it is prohibited
to exploit the subsoil near cemeteries.

Aparag Mining has a plant for producing explosives, which operates
in the town of Kajaran, Syunik marz, and in the village of Hankavan,
Kotayk marz. One of the consumers of the emulsion explosives produced
by the company is Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine.

ne-explosions-in-armenia-zhoghovurd.html

ARMENIAN SOLDIER IS KILLED ON THE BORDER

Today – 10:13
25/6/14

On June 24 at about 22:50 Armenian soldier Armen Arthur Avetisyan
(born on 1995) was shot dead on the border between Armenian and
Azerbaijani troops, Eastern side, while carrying his military duty.

Press service of Artsakh Defense Army informs about this.

NKR Defense Ministry shares the terrible pain of the loss and expresses
condolences to A. Avetisyan’s family, relatives and fellow-workers. The
case is under investigation.

ZARDUSHT ALIZADE: APART, ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN WILL ALWAYS REMAIN NON-DEMOCRATIC FASCIST STATES

Interview of the known Azerbaijani political expert, one of the
leaders of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan, an expert on the Caucasus,
Zardusht Alizade with ArmInfo news agency

by David Stepanyan

Wednesday, June 25, 02:58

Several dozens of young people died for the first half year of 2014
at the border in the conditions of the “frozen” Karabakh conflict.

A war between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be disastrous for Armenia,
in case of opening the front in Nakhijevan.

One cannot but think so looking at the future theater of military
actions, unless there is Russia’s factor. From Nakhijevan to Yerevan
there is some 70 km – distance. However, Russia’s factor will not
allow that war, and much less after the August War of 2008. It became
clear then that Russia will not allow any change in the correlation
and configuration of forces in the Karabakh conflict zone. Therefore,
I think, whatever happens in Nakhijevan – clashes, murders, wounds
on the frontline – it will not change the general situation. I am
confident that Russia does its best for Armenia and Azerbaijan to
remain “hanged from the hook” of the Karabakh conflict. If Russian
‘peacekeepers’, de-facto occupational forces, were deployed in the
Karabakh conflict zone, Moscow could say that the issue is settled. So
far, in the Kremlin they think that the current situation of no war
– no peace is stable enough to leave it unchanged. Therefore, all
these skirmishes depend on the domestic situation in both Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Sometimes Armenians make provocations, sometimes
Azerbaijanis start skirmishes often before landmark events,

signing of important contracts. All this happens not without
participation of Russia, the authorities and the military in Yerevan
and Baku. Generally, I am more than convinced that the situation
is stable now and neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan seek to resume the
military actions.

Before the elections or signing of important contracts young people
die…

The death of dozens of young people at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
is more the so-called lyrics, and the reality is in the true economic
and political interests of our elites at stake. The authorities have
already formed a habit to brainwash masses by the “Karabakh danger”
and to neutralize the opposition. Something seems to be happening
with the elites and increasing their desire to neutralize. As a
result, we have skirmishes, incidents and death. They want to send
a message to the community and show that there is an external enemy,
a danger that requires consolidation, suppression and neutralizing of
somebody, etc. I don’t know what is happening at present, as elites
are closed in our countries and everything concerning them is a great
secret. Processes have been developing within the elites: the processes
of distribution of resources, financial flows, positions. And any
row between ministers with participation or without participation
of the president is always accompanied by skirmishes at the border
under the slogan “Karabakh is in danger!”.

Armenia’s defence minister offered the OSCE MG co-chairmen to set up
a commission to investigate the border incidents. But they refused
because of lack of funds

When making such a proposal to the intermediaries, Seyran Ohanyan
was confident that the intermediaries will refuse.

Everybody have been playing their own part. Russia under the mask
of an intermediary has been playing its own part according to its
own scenario, and the OSCE MG – its own. Serzh Sargsyan has been
playing a part of a patriot of the Armenian people and partisan of
happiness of the people through Karabakh’s joining Armenia. Ilham
Aliyev has been playing a part of a defender of the Fatherland and
for happiness of the Azerbaijani people through keeping Karabakh
within Azerbaijan. All of them get salary for that and have their own
profit, privatize facilities for a song, buy real estate somewhere,
etc.However, their key business is defending of the Fatherland,
that they have been doing for 20 years.

What or who can change the created situation?

The situation created in Armenia, Azerbaijan and around the Karabakh
conflict, may first of all change Russia, Azerbaijani political
expert. If this country starts splitting as the USSR, it will not
remember Karabakh. The bad reality may change aspiration of our
societies. But if people finally understand how long they were done
up brown and used, this may change much. However, we first of all need
awakening of the civil society, for the latter to stop playing a part
of a defender of the people and their interests, but a defender of
the official position of the state. I am confident that actually all
these so-called non-governmental organizations act like offices of the
Foreign Ministry and various propaganda companies. Anyway, all these
people, stemming from the positions of the radical, non-compromising
and senseless demands, have been automatically turning into the
enemies of democracy and of the future of our peoples. We have to
continue such a model of the conflict settlement which will take into
account interests of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples. Apart,
we will always remain non-democratic and even fascist states.

In Baku Peace and Democracy Institute has taken to take this part. But
today they try to destroy it as well as the people’s diplomacy

Since becoming effective, the “people’s diplomacy” has started
hindering the general line of the authorities of Azerbaijan and
Armenia towards freezing of the conflict, its prolongation and using
like a resource for supporting their power. This process hinders the
authorities with a help of the Karabakh conflict to keep our peoples
in leash, as the people’s diplomacy has suddenly revealed that there
are models of living together of the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. When
we meet each other, we start treating each other with a great respect,
and do not even want to kill each other. I think that even the fact
of killing of an Armenian officer by the Azerbaijani one with axe,
is also the result of manipulation by the public conscience, whipping
up hysteria and enmity in Azerbaijan as well as Armenia,

May the events in Ukraine affect Karabakh?

Russia, France and the USA have as deep disagreements in Karabakh
as they have in Ukraine. For this reason, first, we should forget
about the cooperation of the USA, France and Russia in the Karabakh
conflict. That is to say, they have been cooperating in the Karabakh
conflict just the same way as in the Ukrainian conflict. That is
to say, they have as deep disagreements in Karabakh as they have in
Ukraine, but they arranged to freeze them for the time being.To be
short, the strongest one will freeze the conflict. At the beginning
of the 90s when Azerbaijan and the West were negotiating on the
oil contracts

in Baku, the success of the Armenians in Karabakh and the compromises
of the Azerbaijani government to the oil companies of the West were
developing parallel to each other. In other words, the worse the
situation at the front line for Azerbaijan, the more it was forced to
make compromises. Just for this reason, all the countries of the West
were interested in continuation of the conflict, putting Azerbaijan
down on knees. All this finally resulted in a compromise at $30-40
billion. For all the years of independence Armenia got $2 billion
from the USA.

What is Russia’s profit?

Azerbaijan and Armenia are hanging on the hooks of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict that were put under their ribs by Russia in the early
1990s. In early 1991 in my article I gave a clear picture of the
situation..At that time all of the post-Soviet republics were hanging
on such hooks. Those who were wiser got free. Armenia and Azerbaijan
are still hooked. Georgia tore the hooks off its body but left part
of its flesh in Russia’s claws. Today the Georgians are almost free
but they in the Kremlin are doing their best to muddy things up in
Javakheti and Kvemo- Kartli. In Javakheti they are not very successful
as the Armenian authorities perfectly know what a backfire they may
face if they quarrel with Georgia. But in Kvemo-Kartli people are
sheeplike enough to believe you if you tell them that the key reason
why they are unable to sell their tomatoes and cucumbers expensive
is the conflict with Russia and that the only way-out for them is
to break away from Georgia. Likewise the Armenians in the early
1990s were told that once Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh reunified,
they would get happy. What they have today is a default.

The Azerbaijanis in their turn were told that the moment they broke
away from the Soviet Union, they would start living like they in
Kuwait do. What they got as a result is just a life in Azerbaijan.

MINISTER: WE CAN DESTROY ANY FACILITY IN ARMENIA

Wed 25 June 2014 05:38 GMT | 6:38 Local Time

Azerbaijan’s armed forces are in full alert and ready to fulfill any
combat mission.

Reforms in the army created new conditions for improving the
operational, combat and moral-psychological training of the army.

Oxu.az reports referring to Haqqin.az that this was stated in
an interview given to AzerTag by Azerbaijani Defense Minister,
Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov in anticipation of the 96th anniversary
of the Armed Forces.

The Minister said that the country’s military budget has risen 20
times in the short term, measures are taken to improve the social
conditions of servicemen.

The Minister also noted tireless efforts in the preparation of
national cadres and high increase of their professionalism and
intellectual level.

“Currently, 253 military personnel are educated abroad. In accordance
with the Azerbaijan-NATO Action Plan on the joint educationa new
subject “Strategy and planning for defense was introduced into the
training program”, said the Minister.

Zakir Hasanov also spoke about the work towards strengthening the
morale of the armed forces. He noted that in any army severity of
military service and the way to victory are on the shoulders of
ordinary soldiers: “Therefore, there is a daily work to improve
the will and faith to win in the army. We created a new service
“Managing moral-psychological training and public relations”. Military
psychologists are working on the moral and psychological training
of personnel. In addition, special attention is given to the study
of the life and activity of national heroes, historical figures,
heroes of the Great Patriotic and Karabakh War.

Regarding incidents on the front line, which occurred in June, Zakir
Hasanov noted that, despite the declared ceasefire, Armenian armed
forces constantly violate it, firing at our positions and even at
the civilian population living in the border areas, send sabotage
and reconnaissance group to our territory.

“We need to speak to enemy his own language. And we act this way. Be
sure, our army gives them the worthy response and the enemy suffer
losses. Our officers and soldiers destroy enemy positions with return
fire, they will take revenge and avenge our martyrs. We are very
concerned that the Armenian army shoot civilians, kill and hurt them.

Armenians fire from positions in Ijevan, Noyemberian, Berd and
Krasnoselsky areas on human settlements of Kazakh, Agstafa, Tovuz,
Gadabay and Dashkasan regions. These actions of the Armenian side are
aimed at expanding the area of occupation. In this way they demonstrate
their true face to international community once again. But the world
and human rights organizations keep silence. We can act like them. We
can destroy any facility or location in the territory of Armenia. Our
army has all the opportunities to do this. However, the principles
of humanism and humanity inherent in our people do not allow us
to cross the line. What is the fault of peaceful people, children,
old men and women?

We are bringing this issue to the attention of the international
community and organizations – the UN, PACE, EU, OSCE and others,
demanding to stop the occupation policy of Armenia and to liberate
our territories.

Because of the recent situation on the front, hundreds of people
come to us with a request to send them to the front. This comes
out of hatred for the enemy and desire to liberate their homeland”,
the minister said.

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION DOESN’T APPLY TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 24 2014

24 June 2014 – 4:50pm

The right to self-determination does not apply to Nagorno-Karabakh,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said while addressing members of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The president also stresses that although Karabakh was once an
Azerbaijani territory it is now inhabited solely by Armenians, who
do have their own state.

“Armenians have already determined their future and established the
Republic of Armenia recognized by Azerbaijan,” he said.

“Do you think that every country in which Armenians live should become
an Armenian state?” the president said. “I believe one will do,”
he added.

EMIGRATION EMPTIES ARMENIAN TOWNS

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #741
June 24 2014

Labour force continues to flow to Russia, and new rules will make it
easier for them to put down roots there.

By Arpi Harutyunyan – Caucasus

In the Armenian town of Yeghegnadzor, you can tell whether householders
have a relative working in Russia just by stepping inside their homes.

Ruzanna Manaseryan, for example, has a brand-new flat-screen television
and the windows have been replaced recently – give-away signs that
family members are bringing home the kind of money they could never
earn in Armenia.

Manaseryan’s husband is a builder in the Russia city of Samara on
the river Volga, and her son does the same thing in Adler, a Black
Sea town near Sochi.

Yeghegnadzor, 120 kilometres south of the capital Yerevan, is by no
means exceptional. Much of Armenia’s male population is away working
in other countries The government’s migration agency says that between
80,000 and 120,000 people travel to Russia every year to do seasonal
work, returning home for the winter. Some stay longer – the agency
says between 900,000 and one million are there for a period of two or
three years. Those are massive numbers for a country with a population
of three million.

On Yeghegnadzor’s Tamantsiner Street, the fathers of all but one
family are away in Russia.

“Around 70 people have left our block recently. Either they leave
their homes and the whole family goes, or else the men go to Russia
looking for work,” said Vardanush Sahakyan, the only woman on the
street whose husband is at home

Sahakyan says her family, unlike others, has a stable income, with
one son in the army, the other working at a furniture factory, and
her daughter-in-law employed at a local hospital.

A new Russian law that came into force in April offers a fast-track
route to citizenship to anyone born in the former Soviet Union who
speaks Russian. The application process takes three months, and
requires the applicant to surrender their original citizenship. (See
Armenians Enticed by Russian Passport Offer.)

The law worries many analysts in Armenia, since the population is
falling steadily as people seek a better life abroad. (See Armenia’s
Shrinking Workforce from last year.)

Edgar Ghazaryan, governor of the Vayots Dzor region of which
Yeghegnadzor is the administrative centre describes emigration as a
“disease” eating away at Armenia.

“In our region, it’s mainly people from the towns who leave since
unemployment is particularly serious there,” he said. “There used to be
a lot of factories, but now there’s only one, which makes electronic
components for cars. There used to be a food processing factory,
but that’s gone too.”

Ghazaryan said villagers tended to be better off than townsfolk because
they were sustained by farming, but he claimed that urban were often
reluctant to take local jobs, pointing to the difficulty of finding
builders for a new hotel in the town of Vayk.

Manaseryan said that was plain wrong.

“Before my husband and son moved to Russia, they worked on building
sites here,” she said. “They didn’t get paid for months on end, and the
money they did get was only just enough to cover our weekly expenses.”

IWPR visited the village of Azatek, where local people did not seem
to be as well off as their governor believed. Most of the 600 people
listed as resident there are currently away in Russia.

Azatek resident Marine Movsisyan’s husband has been in Moscow for the
last ten. He sends most of his 1,000 US dollar monthly wage home to
his family, but he only gets to see them two months of the year.

“Last time he was here, he repaired the house, bought a few things
and left again,” Movsisyan said. “He calls us every day, but you can’t
bring up two sons on phone calls alone. It’s very hard. I curse Russia
for ruining our family.”

One of the minority who have chosen to return is Varuzh Harutyunyan,
who studied history at university in Yerevan and then spent a year
working as a builder in Russia. He returned to Armenia in December
and now wants to open a fish farm.

In Harutyunyan’s view, “If they helped us, lightened the tax burden
and created good conditions for employment, no men would leave their
families and go to Russia.”

In Yeghegnadzor, Ruzanna Manaseryan plans to join her husband in
Samara, and says she would give up her Armenian passport if it meant
getting a Russian one.

“My husband sends money every month, but how long can I live on
my own? I want to live with my family,” she said. “It’s sad when
people leave, of course, but as the saying goes, where there’s bread,
there’s home.”

Arpi Harutyunyan is a reporter for Armnews television in Armenia.