Author: Babajanian Karo

HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK: EXTREMELY LOW LEVEL OF FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA

10:26 * 10.04.15

An extremely low level of foreign investments in Armenia was registered
in Armenia this January-March.

Official data on foreign investments in Armenia will be summed up
and published this May. According to the preliminary data, however,
the situation is disastrous.

Small investments were made in Armenia’s energy sector, mining industry
and agriculture. Some investments were made in retail trade, apparently
due to the Carrefour chain.

Investments total US $10m, whereas they have in recent years been
US $100-120m.

Armenia’s Statistical Service expected this situation and decided to
employ new methods of investment registration, which can by no means
be compared with the previous methods.

LA COUR EUROPEENNE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME A CONDAMNE LA REPUBLIQUE D’ARMENIE A UNE AMENDE DE 71 000 EUROS

ARMENIE

Jamanak, Hraparak et RFE/RL relèvent que la CEDH a satisfait a trois
requetes contre la RA, contraignant celle-ci a payer 71 000 d’euros
pour des > et > a l’encontre
de quatre citoyens de la RA en detention. La plupart des dommages
ordonnes par la Cour, 62 000 euros, doit etre payee a une famille,
dont deux membres auraient ete brutalement tortures en 2004 dans un
commissariat de police de la region du Guegharkounik pour avouer
un meurtre qu’ils n’auraient pas commis. Les juges et procureurs
armeniens ont a plusieurs reprises refuse d’enqueter sur leurs
allegations de torture. La Cour europeenne a egalement donne raison a
un citoyen d’Armenie, Artak Davtian, demandant a la RA de lui verser
9 000 euros, pour >. Celui-ci
pretend que pendant trois ans, on lui a refuse des soins medicaux
urgents en prison. La Cour a egalement satisfait a une requete du
Comite d’Helsinki contre la mairie d’Erevan pour avoir refuse en
mai 2008 d’autoriser un rassemblement a Erevan contre les brutalites
commises au sein des organes judiciaires. Depuis 2005, 55 arrets ont
ete pris par la CEDH contre la Republique d’Armenie. Ils ont coûte au
budget de l’Etat plus de 500 000 euros de compensations. De l’avis des
commentateurs, ces decisions mettent en evidence des abus generalises
lors des gardes a vue et detentions.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 3 avril 2015

vendredi 10 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

GAGIK MINASYAN: IRAN WILL GIVE PREFERENCE TO ARMENIA

12:42 | April 10,2015 | Economy

China’s Silk Road initiative will be advantageous to Armenia, says
Gagik Minasyan, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee
on Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs, Aravot.am reports.

Speaking at the Pastark Club on April 10, Mr Minasyan referred to
the perspectives of Armenia-Chinese and Armenian-Iranian relations.

One of the routes of the new Silk Road will pass through Iran and
reach the Black Sea. It will go through Armenia or Azerbaijan. Gagik
Minasyan believes that Iran will give preference to Armenia, for it
[Iran] does not have ‘good relations’ with Azerbaijan. China’s opinion
is equally important on the issue. Mr Minasyan says in this context,
China’s interests coincide with those of Iran.

REPUBLICAN MP ASKS PARENTS OF DEAD SOLDIERS NOT TO “GRIST TO THE MILL OF THE ENEMY”

04.09.2015 14:46 epress.am

The parents of soldiers who have died in the army during peacetime are
looking forward to the annual report of the RA Prosecutor General
Gevorg Kostanyan, which has been approved for the agenda of the
forthcoming session of the National Assembly. The parents, who held
a protest action in front of the building of the National Assembly
on Thursday, April 9, stated that they were keen to find out how the
Prosecutor was going to justify the failure to disclose their sons’
killings, and whether the MPs will bring up the issue of crimes taking
place in the military at the Parliament.

Ruling Republic Party MPs Samvel Aleksanyan and Tachat Vardapetyan
passed by the parents in front of the NA building, without paying
attention or saying anything to them. Meanwhile, Aleksanyan gave
10,000 drams (around $21) to a beggar nearby; the latter bowed and
crossed himself in gratitude to the MP.

In front of the gates of the Parliament building the parents also
encountered Republic MP Samvel Farmanyan, who, unlike his colleagues,
stopped to listen to the protesters. Farmanyan said that no words
could console the grief of a parent who has lost a son. According to
the MP, he knows the pain, his cousin died in the army, too.

“I can only promise to raise the issue on your behalf when the
Prosecutor General presents his report to the National Assembly,”
Farmanyan said.

He also asked the parents not to generalize the incidents and not to
compare the deaths on the border with breaches of military discipline,
so as not to “grist to the mill of our common enemy.”

Video in Armenian only.

IRANIAN-ARMENIAN STUDENTS SEND OPEN LETTER TO HASSAN ROUHANI URGING TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

11:14 09/04/2015 >> REGION

The Iranian-Armenian students have turned to Iran’s president Hassan
Rouhani with an open letter urging to recognize the Armenian Genocide,
Iranian Armenian community site Hayeli.com reports.

The authors of the letter have drawn Iran’s President’s attention to
the unconstructive policy of Turkey in the region noting that today
Turkey does not only deny the Genocide committed against around
1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, but also sponsors the
terrorist groups in the region which slaughter numerous innocent
civilians in Syria and Iraq.

Highlighting the peaceful coexistence of various ethnical and
religious minorities in Iran, the Iranian-Armenian students call on
Hassan Rouhani to recognize the Armenian Genocide thus preventing
such atrocities in the future.

Despite their serious disagreements concerning the regional issues,
the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey maintain mutually beneficial
economic relations.

As a Muslim country, Iran has been conducting a moderate and cautious
policy regarding the Armenian Genocide over the last years.

Remarkably, however, the MPs of the 6th Majlis of Iran condemned the
Armenian Genocide. Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, then President of Iran,
visited Tsitsernakaberd during his official visit to Yerevan on
September 9, 2004. Vice president of Iran, Hamid Baghaei, pronounced
the word ‘genocide’ during the conference ‘Iran: The Bridge of Victory’
in August 2010. “The government of Ottoman Turkey committed genocide
in 1915; and a certain number of Armenians fell victim to it,”
he said. However, the statement was refuted not to aggravate the
relations with Turkey.

Although the former IRI President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, avoided going
to Tsitsernakaberd during his official visit to Armenia in 2007,
in a meeting with the students of Yerevan State University he said
that Tehran condemns any crime committed in the course of the human
history in response to a question about the Armenian Genocide.

The recent years have seen some changes in the position of official
Tehran regarding the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian community of
Iran not only holds a number of events without facing obstacles,
but also they have been allowed to hold protests in front of the
Turkish Embassy in Iran in the past two years.

Taking into consideration the peculiarities of the Iranian diplomacy,
Tehran is unlikely to recognize the Armenian Genocide today, no matter
how tense the Iran-Turkey relations become.

However, both the political and religious elite of Iran, as well
as ordinary citizens admit the fact of the Armenian Genocide, as
according to the Iranian sources, the Ottoman Turks have not only
perpetrated genocide against the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks,
but also have slaughtered many Iranians in Urmia Region in 1918.

As regards Iran, an important circumstance should also be highlighted:
unlike many Christian countries, as well as Israel that has suffered
genocide, either the political or the legislative authorities of
the Islamic Republic of Iran have never played on the issue of the
Armenian Genocide in discussing their relations with Turkey.

By Armen Israyelyan, Iranian studies expert

KARDASHIANS CAUSE STIR IN HOMELAND

PUBLISHED09/04/2015 | 18:26

OPEN GALLERY 1The Kardashian sisters Khloe, Kourtney and Kim have
ancestral roots in Armenia

The Kardashian contingent’s visit to Armenia is causing a commotion,
but officials are pleased they came.

Kim Kardashian, husband Kanye West, daughter North and sister Khloe
are in the Kardashian ancestral homeland on a high-visibility visit
ahead of this month’s observing of the centenary of the mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Hundreds of celebrity-besotted fans gathered outside the Kardashians’
hotel and followed the group through the capital Yerevan today.

“Kim Kardashian is a lady who’s known worldwide. We should be happy
she came here,” said parliament speaker Galust Saakian.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed around
the time of the First World War. Turkey denies the deaths constituted
genocide, saying the toll is inflated and that those killed were
victims of civil war and unrest.

ART EXHIBIT AT PROVIDENCE STUDIO MARKS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

11:00 * 09.04.15

Providence gallery owner Berge Zobian is proud of his Armenian roots.

When he moved the original Gallery Z to Federal Hill more than a
decade ago, he proudly invited artists of Armenian descent to exhibit
at the gallery.

Since then, he’s created a website devoted to contemporary Armenian art
while continuing to showcase the work of Armenian and Armenian-American
painters, printmakers and photographers, the Provudence Journal
reports,

This month Zobian is honoring his heritage in a more somber way with
Studio Z’s “Centennial Armenian Genocide” exhibit. Featuring a mix of
fine art, archival material and a series of talks and performances,
the exhibit commemorates one of the darkest chapters of the 20th
century: the systematic expulsion and murder of more than 1.5 million
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces between 1915 and 1922.

“For Armenians everywhere, this is really a major part of our history
and identity,” Zobian says. “What the Holocaust is for people of Jewish
descent, the Armenian Genocide is for people of Armenian ancestry.

“Unfortunately, for many years it was treated as a historical footnote
— or even worse, as if it never happened.

It’s really only in the last few decades that people have started
speaking out about it.”

Zobian himself has been speaking out for some time.

Five years ago, he organized an exhibit commemorating the 95th
anniversary of the American Genocide at the URI-Feinstein campus
gallery in downtown Providence. Like the centennial exhibit, that
show featured a combination of period photographs, vintage newspaper
clippings and other archival materials, along with original artworks
inspired by the tragedy.

This time around Zobian is following a similar format, mixing
historical and artistic responses to the Armenian Genocide. At the same
time, he’s added a series of Thursday night talks and presentations,
as well as a secondary exhibit of “art windows” (facing Washington
Street) at the URI-owned Shepard’s Building in downtown.

The main show, however, runs through May 2 at Studio Z — Gallery
Z’s newer space in the former Eastern Butcher Block complex at 25
Eagle St. Tonight’s talk starts at 7:30 p.m. and features artists
John Avakian and Marsha Nouritza Odabashian.

WORRIED YEREVAN RESIDENT: “WHAT PESTICIDES ARE YOU MENTIONING:TREES JUST STARTED BLOSSOMING” (PHOTOS)

16:16 April 08, 2015

EcoLur

On 8 April EcoLur again received an alarm signal from Avan resident,
who was worried about the pruning of the trees implemented in the
park adjacent to “Basic House” shop. “It’s massacre, trees are wholly
cut down,” Avan resident said. In reply to EcoLur’s remark that trees
are pruned to fight against pests as the Municipality clarifies, the
resident said, “What kind of pests are you speaking: trees have just
started blossoming. Anyway, no louse fell down on me while walking
under the trees… Every year trees in this park are exposed to
deep pruning.”

Tree pruning in Yerevan will continue till 15 April. Below we present
Gohar Hajinyan’s photo report on tree pruning in the park adjacent to
“Basic House” shop.

Photos by Gohar Hadjinyan

ZHOGHOVURD: ALCOHOLIC DRINKS PRODUCTION DOWN IN ARMENIA

10:35 09/04/2015 ” DAILY PRESS

Brandy production in Armenia decreased by 31.3 percent in
January-February of this year compared with the last year, Zhoghovurd
reports citing official statistics.

1.547.600 litres of brandy was produced this year against 2,523,700
litres last year. 1.499.200 litres of beer was produced this year, the
newspaper notes, adding that 1.760.000 litres was produced last year.

Some experts believe that this is due to the sharp decline of exports
to Russia.

Source: Panorama.am

REVUE DE PRESSE N°2 – 08/04/15 – COLLECTIF VAN

Publie le : 08-04-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN
[Vigilance Armenienne contre le Negationnisme] vous propose une revue
de presse des informations parues dans la presse francophone sur les
thèmes concernant le negationnisme, le racisme, l’antisemitisme,
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