Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIA’S EEU MEMBERSHIP TO HELP COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA IN IT GROW STRONGER – SAMSUNG RUSSIA

YEREVAN, April 2. /ARKA/. Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian
Economic Union (EEU) will enhance interaction with Russia in IT,
head of corporate sales at Samsung Russia Sergey Kirichenko told ARKA.

Kirichenko participated in a meeting of leading Russian and Armenian
IT companies at Yerevan Ayb High School on Wednesday.

Representatives of Russian IT companies are currently in Armenia for
the “IT Summit-2015: IT Industry Leaders’ Meeting”. The summit is held
by the Russian association of computer and information technologies
in the Armenian capital on April 1-3. On Wednesday April 1 the
participants discussed how to form a new generation of specialists
and to prevent the “brain drain” at the Ayb High School in Yerevan.

Traditional ties with Russia will grow stronger as Armenia integrates
in the EEU, Kirichenko said.

Being an international player, the IBM is also interested in attracting
new resources, the best knowledge and the most talented developers,
he said.

It is early to talk about new projects to come up after the conference,
but they will discuss the matter, he said.

There was strong math tradition in Armenia in Soviet times, and that
is where gifted programmers and many other things come from, he said.

-0–

PRESENTACION DEL NUEVO EMBAJADOR ARGENTINO ANTE LA COMUNIDAD ARMENIA

2.4.15

En la noche del martes 1° de abril se presento al flamante embajador
de Argentina en Armenia, el Dr. Gonzalo Urriolabeitia, ante dirigentes
y representantes de la comunidad armenia.

“Ser embajador en Armenia es algo muy particular porque voy a
representar no solo a los argentinos, sino tambien a los armenios
que viven en la Argentina, que tambien son argentinos”, expreso
Urriolabeitia, en el acto del que participaron tambien la consul de
la embajada de Armenia, Ester Mkrtumyan, el embajador de Armenia en
Argentina, Alexan Harutiunian, y el arzobispo Kissag Mouratian.

“La flor que usted deposite en memoria de nuestros martires, estara
dedicada a quienes cayeron para que la armenidad perdure. En ese
momento nuestro corazon latira junto al suyo”, dijo Alberto Djeredjian,
representante de la Institucion Administrativa de la Iglesia Armenia.

El abogado Gonzalo Urriolabeitia había sido confirmado como el nuevo
embajador de Argentina en Armenia por medio del decreto 307/2015
publicado en el Boletín Oficial, firmado por la presidenta Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner y el canciller Hector Timerman.

Urriolabeitia reemplazara a Diego Álvarez Rivera, uno de los
organizadores de la importante mision comercial a Armenia que llevo
a cabo la Secretaría de Comercio Exterior argentina en 2013, de la
cual participaron una gran cantidad de empresarios.

El flamante embajador fue uno de los que recibio en noviembre de 2013
a la delegacion de parlamentarios armenios que visitaron el país.

Ademas, Urriolabeitia fue encargado de prensa en la embajada de Brasil
entre 2002 y 2008, y luego trabajo en la Cancillería argentina a
partir del 2010 en la Direccion de Asuntos Parlamentarios. Estudio
en el Instituto del Servicio Exterior de la Nacion y se recibio de
abogado en la Universidad Catolica de La Plata.

REVISION A LA BAISSE DE LA CROISSANCE ARMENIENNE

Economie

Dans une revision a la baisse de ses projections anterieures,
la Banque mondiale a declare hier que la croissance economique en
Armenie sera probablement lente(un peu moins de 1 % cette annee),
en raison des effets de contagion de la recession en Russie.

La banque avait prevu que l’economie armenienne augmenterait de 3,5 %
en 2015. Le gouvernement armenien avait ete encore plus optimiste,
prevoyant un taux de 4,1 % de croissance.

Laura Bailey, chef du bureau d’Erevan de la Banque mondiale, a declare
que le chiffre ne devrait pas depasser 0,8 %. Elle a averti que meme
cette projection de croissance pourrait s’averer trop optimiste
dans le cas d’une crise plus profonde que prevue en Russie ou des
fluctuations drastiques renouvelees du taux de change du dram armenien.

“S’il y avait de fortes variations du dram, cela pourrait perturber
les exportations et le commerce”, a-t-elle explique.

“C’est ce qui nous inquiete”, a-t-elle ajoute, mettant en garde contre
une repetition de la brève crise monetaire qui a frappe l’Armenie
en decembre.

Le vice-Premier ministre, Vache Gabrielian, a semble reconnaître lundi
que le gouvernement devra reviser ses previsions a la baisse. “Le
gouvernement n’a jamais dit qu’il n’y aura pas de changements
dans nos previsions”, a t-il declare aux journalistes. “Il y aura
des discussions au gouvernement bientôt. Je vous presenterai les
previsions ensuite”.

“Notre croissance sera moins forte que prevue”, a declare Arsen
Ghazarian, a la tete de la plus grande association commerciale
d’Armenie. “Elle sera de 0,5 % a 2%”.

mercredi 1er avril 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

ECTHR OBLIGATES ARMENIA TO PAY COMPENSATION TO A FORMER PRISONER

04.01.2015 14:33 epress.am

On Sunday, March 31, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against
Armenia in the case of “Davtyan v. Armenia,” obligating the Republic
of Armenia to compensate Artashes Davtyan in the amount of 9000 euros
for non-pecuniary damages and 60 euros for costs and expenses, the
official website of ECtHR reported.

The case principally concerned Davtyan’s complaint about inadequate
medical care in detention over a prolonged period of time. Relying in
particular on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment)
of the European Convention on Human Rights, Davtyan alleged that his
continued detention, despite his poor health and without the requisite
medical care, had caused him severe physical and mental pain and had
put his life in danger.

According to an official press release issued by ECtHR, Artashes
Davtyan was arrested in March 2003 and charged with large-scale
embezzlement. He was found guilty in November 2005 and sentenced to
six years’ imprisonment. This judgment was later upheld on appeal, and
Davtyan’s appeal on points of law was ultimately dismissed by the Court
of Cassation in June 2006. He was released on parole in June 2006.

Less than a month after Davtyan was placed in detention, doctors
recommended that he have a biopsy of a tumour on his vocal chords as
well as further examinations and treatment. Similar recommendations
were made in January and April 2005. None of these recommendations
were apparently followed up and, in March 2006 following a drastic
deterioration in his health (which included him coughing blood, having
asphyxia attacks and losing consciousness), Davtyan was transferred
to an outside hospital for urgent surgery. He thus had two operations
in March and April 2006 which improved his condition.

Epress.am spoke to Artashes Davtyan’s lawyer, Lusine Sahakyan, who
said that they do not find the amount of compensation sufficient.

Still, according to the lawyer, the fact that the court ruled Davtyan’s
rights were violated is very important.

“It’s vital from the standpoint of preventing such practices in
the future and for finally abandoning such courses of action,”
Sahakyan said.

LIFTING OF SANCTIONS FROM IRAN TO LIBERALIZE ITS MARKET AND ENHANCE ITS AVAILABILITY TO ARMENIA – EXPERT

YEREVAN, April 1. /ARKA/. The lifting of sanctions from Iran will
liberalize its market and enhance its availability to Armenia,
Alexander Iskandaryan, a political analyst and the director of the
Caucasus Institute, told journalists on Wednesday.

Iran nuclear talks are under way now in Lausanne. Iran and six world
powers resumed nuclear talks on Wednesday.

As the talks continued, disagreements remained over how to deal
with Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, how much work Iran can
do in future years on advanced centrifuges and how quickly to remove
economic sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s economy.

Iskandaryan said.

Many are wrong in thinking that Iranian market is open for Armenia,
while actually it applies only to energy. Armenia is badly in want
of available markets – it is being suffocated without them, since
access to Russia’s market is difficult, Europe is too far from here
and our border with Turkey is closed, Iskandaryan said.

he said. Armenia and Iran maintain quite friendly
relations.

The countries are planning to build two most powerful in South Caucasus
hydro power plants.

One of them will be built in the Armenian city of Meghri, and the
other in Iran’s Karachilar.

Each of these plants will generate 793 million kilowatt/hour of
electric power.

The two countries are considering ways for building a joint oil
pipeline and a refinery. Negotiations over the matter are frozen now.

Armenia and Iran are also negotiating to build North-South
(Iran-Armenia) Railway. —0—-

IRANIAN MP: RECEP PASHA PARTICIPATED IN 130,000 INNOCENT PEOPLE’S MASSACRE IN SYRIA

14:44 01/04/2015 >> Region

Recep Pasha must give up Neo-Ottomanism ideology and apologize to the
great nations of the region, the deputy president of the IRI Majlis for
Security and Foreign Policy Affairs, Mansour Haghighatpour, declared,
according to the Iranian site Vatankhahan.com.

“Erdogan thinks he can take a place among the other sultans as a
winning sultan, yet Recep Pasha must give up Neo-Ottomanism ideology
and apologize to the great nations of the region,” the Iranian
MP particularly said referring to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s recent statement addressed to Iran.

Proceeding with his speech, the deputy president of the IRI Majlis for
Security and Foreign Policy Affairs added, “Recep Pasha, intervening in
the interior affairs of the countries of the region, has participated
in 130,000 innocent people’s massacre in Syria. I think Erdogan just
cannot visit Iran in current state of affairs.”

Mohammad Esmayil Sayidi, another MP from the Iranian Majlis, said that
the Foreign Ministry of Iran must come up with a statement preventing
Erdogan’s visit to Iran because of his sham statements.

According to Iranian site Irdiplomacy.ir, in an interview to the TV
channel France 24, the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in
response to the question whether Turkey is concerned about the growing
role of Iran in the region (Syria, Iraq, Yemen), had said, “No doubt,
Iran wants to take control over the whole region. This is certainly
not a positive development. We have discussed Syria and Iraq with them
[the Iranians]; still, we have not noted a positive move yet. As for
the Islamic State, Iran’s actions are not sincere in that matter. Iran
tries to take control over the territories which are under ISIS’s
possession and take actions at the background of Shia-Sunni split.”

As the Iranian Fars News Agency reports, IRI Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif, in answer to the above-mentioned statement of
the President of Turkey, said, “Those who have suffered irreversible
losses as a result of their strategic mistakes and ambitious politics
had better contribute to the stability of the region with responsible
policy.”

SON OF ARMENIA’S SECOND PRESIDENT INTENDS TO PURCHASE BEST WESTERN CONGRESS HOTEL IN YEREVAN

Wednesday, April 1, 01:21

One of the companies owned by Sedrak Kocharyan, the son of the second
president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, seeks to purchase the Congress
Hotel in Yerevan. Robert Kocharyan’s Spokesman Viktor Soghomonyan
has confirmed this information to ArmInfo. Soghomonyan says that the
parties concerned are currently negotiating to conclude a deal. The
Spokesman has refused to tell any other details.

The hotel management has refused to comment on the shareholders’
intention to put it up for sale. Nor has it provided any information
to ArmInfo about the shareholders themselves. However, according
to unverified data, BEST WESTERN Congress Hotel belongs to Renco Arm
State, a major Italian developer, which has built a number of buildings
in Yerevan. The underground parking lot near the Opera building and
the new cycle track are among the latest projects of the company.

Congress Hotel has 126 standard rooms, as well as 10 executive category
rooms. Independent observers estimate the cost of the hotel at 30-50
million USD.

TURCHIA, MEGA-EVENTO IL 24 APRILE PER . INVITATI TUTTI I PAESI. RENZI COSA FARA?

Tempi, Italia
30 marzo 2015

Leggi di Più: Genocidio armeni.
| Tempi.it

Turchia, mega-evento il 24 aprile per . Invitati tutti i paesi. Renzi cosa fara?

. Serzh
Sarksyan, presidente dell’Armenia, non ha risparmiato critiche e ha
attaccato esplicitamente il presidente della Turchia perche .

IL GENOCIDIO. Il 24 aprile 1915 cominciò la campagna dei Giovani
turchi, che sterminarono il popolo cristiano armeno, che abitava quella
terra da prima dell’arrivo dei musulmani, uccidendo almeno un milione
e mezzo di persone. L’obiettivo era quello di ridurre in ogni regione
di almeno il 90 per cento la popolazione armena, colpevole agli occhi
dei nazionalisti di non essere turca. Così, in poco tempo, gli armeni
furono decimati passando da due milioni ai 60 mila circa odierni.

. La Turchia non ha mai ammesso l’esistenza
del genocidio, che ha preceduto quello degli ebrei ad opera dei nazisti
di appena 30 anni, e secondo un recente sondaggio solo per il 9,1 per
cento dell’attuale popolazione turca si è trattato di genocidio. Il
24 aprile è perciò una data molto sensibile, come dimostrato dalle
scritte che pochi giorni fa sono comparse sui muri della chiesa armena
Surp Astuanzazh, in un quartiere di Istanbul: .

E ancora: . Ogun Samast è l’assassino del giornalista turco di
origine armena Hrant Dink.

LA CONTRO-CERIMONIA. L’Armenia ha organizzato per il 24 aprile una
grande commemorazione, invitando nella capitale Erevan quasi tutti
i capi di Stato e governo del mondo. Il presidente turco Erdogan,
invitato alla cerimonia, ha declinato l’invito e organizzato per il
24 aprile una contro-cerimonia per celebrare la campagna di Gallipoli,
durante la quale la Triplice intesa cercò (inutilmente) di conquistare
Costantinopoli durante la Prima guerra mondiale. Peccato che la
campagna cominciò con raid aerei il 19 febbraio e l’invasione di
terra avvenne solo il 25 aprile.

L’AFFRONTO TURCO. Con un atto sfrontato, la Turchia ha invitato anche
i leader armeni a partecipare alla commemorazione. , si
è lamentato il presidente armeno, Sarksyan, rifiutando e accusando
i turchi di voler nascondere il centenario del genocidio. .

COSA FARÀ RENZI? Tutti i leader del mondo sono stati invitati sia in
Turchia che in Armenia. Si ritroveranno quindi a scegliere se recarsi
a Erevan, mostrando solidarieta alle vittime del genocidio, oppure
a Istanbul, per la soddisfazione dei carnefici. Il premier inglese
David Cameron ha gia annunciato che non si rechera in Armenia, . È gia occupato:
quel giorno sara in Turchia. Che cosa fara invece il premier Matteo
Renzi? Non l’ha ancora annunciato.

WORLD BANK DOWNGRADES ARMENIA’S GROWTH OUTLOOK

By MassisPost
Updated: March 31, 2015

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — In a significant downward revision of its earlier
projections, the World Bank said on Tuesday that economic growth in
Armenia will likely slow to just under 1 percent this year due to
spillover effects of a recession in Russia.

The bank forecast late last year that the Armenian economy will expand
by 3.5 percent in 2015 — as fast as it did in 2014, according to
official statistics. The Armenian government was even more upbeat,
forecasting a growth rate of 4.1 percent.

Laura Bailey, the head of the World Bank’s Yerevan office, said
that the figure is unlikely to exceed 0.8 percent. She warned that
even this growth projection could prove overly optimistic in case
of a deeper-than-anticipated crisis in Russia or renewed drastic
fluctuations of the Armenian dram’s exchange rate.

“I don’t have a forecast for what will happen with the dram,” Bailey
told a news conference. “What I am trying to communicate is that
if there were sharp, abrupt changes either direction, that can be
disruptive to exports and trade.”

“That’s what we worry about, not as much whether the dram were to
weaken a bit more gradually or strengthen but the sharpness,” she
said, cautioning against a repeat of a brief currency crisis that
hit Armenia in December.

The Armenian currency weakened by roughly 18 percent against the U.S.

dollar in November and December amid falling remittances from Armenians
working abroad and Russia in particular. Its exchange rate has been
largely stable so far this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian seemed to acknowledge on Monday
that the government too will have to revise its projections downwards.

“The government has never said that there will be no changes in the
[forecast] indicators,” he told reporters. “There will be discussions
[in the government] soon. I will present forecasts to you as soon as
those discussions are over.”

“We are going to have less growth than was projected,” said Arsen
Ghazarian, the head of Armenia’s largest business association.

“Forecasts range from 0.5 percent to 2 percent.”

CORNELL GROWS AS HUB FOR OTTOMAN AND TURKISH STUDIES

Cornell Chronicle
March 31 2015

By Linda B. Glaser

Turkish election posters show candidates dressed in Ottoman Empire
clothes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declares that Ottoman
Turkish study should be mandatory for all schoolchildren.

“The Turkish government is trying to reclaim the Ottoman past as a
way to exert power well beyond the borders of Turkey,” says Mostafa
Minawi, assistant professor of history and director of Cornell’s
Ottoman and Turkish Studies Initiative (OTSI) in the College of Arts
and Sciences. “Turkey is trying to become a regional power in part by
drawing on the complicated Ottoman histories of the region, and thus
a deep understanding of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire is essential
in order to put this into context.”

As a growing hub for Ottoman and Turkish studies, OTSI – a part of the
Cornell Institute for European Studies – has hosted a wide range of
educational events this year, with more to come this spring. OTSI’s
goal is to engage students, faculty and the community at large in
discussion of the region’s political, cultural, economic and historic
dimensions, says Minawi, a Himan Brown Sesquicentennial Faculty
Fellow. The Ottoman Empire covered three continents for around
600 years (1922 is its official end date) and its former sphere of
influence is at the center of many of the world’s most difficult
current conflicts.

“I’m delighted to see OTSI taking shape here at Cornell. The
initiative concerns a part of the world that is of growing importance
in geopolitical terms,” says Fredrik Logevall, vice provost for
international affairs. “We have real and expanding strengths in Ottoman
and Turkish studies on campus, and OTSI helps to harness that in a
powerful way.”

This year’s OTSI theme is World War I in the Ottoman Empire, and in
addition to a course on the topic, OTSI has sponsored and co-sponsored
events across campus, including movie screenings and lectures. Two
more events are scheduled this spring: Fatma Muge Göcek (University
of Michigan) will speak on “Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish
Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians” on April 7;
Eugene Rogan (Oxford University) will speak on “The Arab Experience of
the Ottoman Great War” by focusing on Beirut on April 21. Both lectures
will be held in 110 White Hall at 5 pm and are co-sponsored by the
Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Department of
Near Eastern Studies.

Turkish studies and language have long been a priority of the
Near Eastern studies department, notes Lauren Monroe, chair and
associate professor of Near Eastern studies. “We are delighted that
OTSI is providing a multidisciplinary platform to discuss, share and
promote the academic study of the Ottoman Empire and its successor
nation-states, and we are enthusiastic about and eager to support
OTSI’s rich and diverse programming.”

OTSI has also partnered with the Law School’s Clarke Initiative for
Law and Development in the Middle East and the Einaudi Center on
a project to help sponsor Law School students’ volunteer work with
Syrian, Iraqi and Sudanese refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

OTSI will again collaborate with the Clarke Initiative, and with
Weill Cornell Medical College in an October conference in New York
City that will examine the catastrophic refugee crisis in the Middle
East. While the focus will be mostly on Syrian refugees, panels are
also planned on topics such as Palestinians as protracted refugees
and the “rarely mentioned” refugees from east Africa.

“The conference will tackle real issues on the practical, as well as
the academic levels with experts on a number of dimensions of this
complex problem, including nationality, history, health, economics
and gender,” says Minawi.

Linda B. Glaser is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.