Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIAN SOLDIER WOUNDED IN AZERI SHOOTING

14:39 29.08.2013

Private of the NKR Defense Army Arshak Lazarian, born in 1994, was
wounded as a result of firing from the Azerbaijani side at the military
positions in the northern direction of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

The condition of the wounded soldier is satisfactory. Probe into the
details of the incident has been launched, Press Service of the NKR
Defense Ministry reports.

ATOM EGOYAN AND ARSINEE KHANJIAN APPEAL FOR RELEASE OF CANADIANS IMPRISONED IN EGYPT ADD TO …

The Globe and Mail , Canada
Aug 27 2013

SIMON HOUPT
The Globe and Mail

Filmmaker Atom Egoyan and his wife, the actress Arsinee Khanjian, have
joined a growing chorus of calls to release two Canadians arrested
by Egyptian authorities more than a week ago.

In a brief video posted to YouTube, the Cairo-born Egoyan asks for
the immediate release of “our good friends,” filmmaker John Greyson
(Lilies, Zero Patience), and the London, Ont.-based emergency-room
physician Tarek Loubani. “These are very, very important members
of our community, they’re very, very dear friends, they’re people
of the highest, highest character, and I think this has all been a
tremendous misunderstanding.”

He adds: “They are exceptional human beings.”

Greyson and Loubani were detained on Aug. 18 when their supporters say
they got lost in Cairo and wandered into a police station to ask for
directions. They were arrested along with seven other foreigners, none
of whom have been charged. Despite protests by the Canadian government,
Egyptian prosecutors last week obtained an order permitting the men
to be held for an additional 15 days without charge.

The men had arrived in Cairo intending to continue on to Gaza, where
Dr. Loubani trains physicians in advanced cardiac and trauma life
support, but the turmoil in Egypt had delayed their travel.

On Tuesday, a Globe and Mail editorial called for their immediate
release, saying that keeping them in prison “is indefensible.”

In the YouTube video, which has been posted on TarekandJohn.com,
a website advocating for their release, the Beirut-born Khanjian
greets viewers in Arabic and explains that she is good friends with
the two men. She then adds in English: “They have been very actively
important members of our community, as artists, as members of our
civil society, they have represented our culture, our arts, and –
in the case of Tarek – the sciences in this country.”

“We are not only proud of them but we love them as friends, we expect
them to be safe and sound back to Canada, and we are looking forward
that you would do everything possible to make this happen, because
they are very important lives to be saved and celebrated with joy
and not with dread.”

A petition on Change.org calling on the Canadian government to “help
free Tarek and John” had more than 82,000 names as of noon on Tuesday.

The men are expected to appear before an Egyptian prosecutor on
Wednesday afternoon to present documents proving they were not part
of the anti-government protests that have roiled Egypt this summer.

MPS DEFY CAUCASUS TRAVEL WARNING

The Australian
Aug 29 2013

by: Mark Coultan, NSW political correspondent

A NSW parliamentary delegation, including a senior government minister,
travelled to a disputed region in the Caucasus in defiance of a strong
travel warning from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The delegation, which included the NSW Minister for Transport, Gladys
Berejiklian, went to the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh last
month, addressed its parliament and had meetings with its president.

Nagorno Karabakh, which has a population of 143,000, is not
internationally recognised as a country and is considered a breakaway
region of Azerbaijan. Following the break-up of the Soviet Union,
it fought a war, backed by Armenia, with Azerbaijan which ended in
an armed truce in 1994.

The delegation’s trip followed an extraordinary motion passed
through the NSW upper house which, in effect, recognised Nagorno
Karabakh as a separate country by recognising it had “the right
to self-determination”, and calling on Australia to recognise its
independence.

The motion, which received no publicity, was passed without dissent
last October without even the Foreign Minister being aware of it.

It was another foray into international affairs by the NSW upper
house, which offended Turkey in May by passing a motion condemning
the massacre of Armenians and others during and after World War I.

That caused Turkey to threaten to prevent NSW parliamentarians,
including the Premier Barry O’Farrell, from travelling to Gallipoli
for the centenary of Anzac landings in 2015.

Following this, the Armenian National Committee of Australia issued
an invitation to NSW parliamentarians to visit Nagorno Karabakh.

Christian Democrat Fred Nile said MPs had to pay for the trip
themselves, which had reduced the numbers.

The parliamentary delegation was made up of seven MPs led by Liberal
MP Jonathon O’Dea and including Mr Nile, Liberals David Clarke and
Marie Ficarra, and Labor MLCs Shaoquett Moselmane and Amanda Fazio. Ms
Berejiklian, who is of Armenian background, was the only minister on
the trip.

Australia has one of the largest populations of the Armenian diaspora
in the English-speaking world. Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe
Hockey is of Armenian descent.

The DFAT travel warning says: “We strongly advise you not to travel to
the Armenian-occupied enclave of Azerbaijan known as Nagorno-Karabakh
and the military occupied area surrounding it because of the risk of
armed conflict along the border and ceasefire line with Azerbaijan.”

Mr Nile said they had not consulted DFAT because “they would have
told us not to go”. He acknowledged the delegation could have been
misconstrued as an official Australian delegation.

A spokesman for Bob Carr said Australia did not recognise Nagorno
Karabakh.

MORE THAN 60 PEOPLE INFECTED WITH COLIBACILLUS IN ONE OF ARMENIA’S PROVINCES

YEREVAN, August 29. /ARKA/. More than 60 people have caught coliform
bacterium in Armenia’s Aragatsotn province, the healthcare ministry’s
press office reported today.

Five residents of the province’s Oshakan and Voskevaz villages with
coliform bacteria were taken to Ashtarak city’s hospital.

Specialists of hygienic and anti-epidemic center have immediately
toured houses in these villages and found out other 58 infected people,
of whom 14 are now in Ashtarak’s hospital for treatment, four are in
Yerevan’s Nork clinic and others are receiving outpatient treatment.

All the patients had similar symptoms – temperature lift, sickness,
stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea.

“Preliminary examination has shown that coliform might come from
drinking water,” the press release says. “Intense chlorination has
immediately been started to kill the bacteria.”

Specialists are touring households and explaining people how they
can avoid infection.

“Things are under control,” the press release says. —0—-

– See more at:

SOME ARMENIAN HISTORIC HOUSES IN MUS TO BE PROTECTED BY STATE

16:30, 29 August, 2013

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS: The 3-5 stable houses, which
remained after the destruction of the Armenian houses in the Kale
District of MuÅ~_ Province, are possible to be taken under the state
protection. As reported by Armenpress, this was stated by the Turkish
aykiridogrular.com News website.

According to the website, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture
of Turkey has developed a project, which aims at reconstructing
the abovementioned Armenian houses and take them under the state
protection.

As earlier was reported by the Turkish media, in the framework of the
urban renewal project the Housing Development Administration of Turkey
(TOKI) intends to build 864 residential houses and 107 offices in
the place of the Armenian houses in the Kale District of MuÅ~_. The
TOKI has agreed with the 85% of the local population to carry out the
reconstruction works on the territory of about 60,000 square meters.

Many of the local population, living in the Kale District of
MuÅ~_ Province, refuse to take the money suggested by the Housing
Development Administration of Turkey and leave their houses. The
TOKI representatives announced that in any case they will demolish
the houses and if the population does not leave voluntarily, their
goods as well will remain under ruins.

An electronic signature collection has been organized against the
demolition of the historical Armenian houses in the MuÅ~_ Province, the
initiators of which appealed to join them and prohibit the devastation
of the last Armenian historical tracks in MuÅ~_. “Armenians, Greeks
and Assyrians are being subjected to genocide. The process, launched
by the genocide in 1915, is currently continuing as a cultural and
economic genocide. To kill a culture means to kill the mankind. It
is a historical genocide”, – says the statement.

The confiscation of properties of minority foundations dates back to
the early days of the Turkish Republic. The 1936 Law on Foundations,
known as the 1936 Declaration, ordered all foundations to submit a
property declaration listing immovable and other properties owned by
each and every foundation. Following the death of the nation’s founder
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, those property declarations were forgotten.

When the Cyprus problem escalated in the 1970s, the General
Directorate of Foundations asked non-Muslim foundations to resubmit
their regulations. Yet those foundations did not have such regulations
because of a practice during the Ottoman Empire where such foundations
could only be established by individual decrees of the sultan of the
day. After receiving a negative response from these foundations, the
General Directorate of Foundations made a ruling that the declarations
of 1936 would be considered their regulation. Unless these declarations
did not carry a special provision entitling the foundation to acquire
immovable property, the General Directorate expropriated all immovable
property acquired after 1936.These expropriation acts were in violation
of both the Lausanne agreement and property rights.

ARMENIA’S TOURISM POSTER WINS IN UNWTO 2013 VETTOR GIUSTI COMPETITION

17:04 29.08.2013

Armenia was recognized the winner of the Europe nomination at the
UNWTO 2013 Vettor Giusti tourism poster competition.

The news was officially announced today during the 20th General
Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
held in Zambia and Zimbabwe from 24-29 August.

Presented by the National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia and
the RA Ministry of Economy, the “Symphony of Stones” poster was named
the best among 44 member-countries of the UNWTO Commission for Europe.

The Vettor Giusti tourism posters competition is held every two years
on the occasion of the sessions of the UNWTO General Assembly. This
year the Assembly is attended by over 140 countries.

Armenia’s “Symphony of Stones” poster will be displayed at the entrance
hall of the UNWTO building in Madrid and will be viewed on the UNWTO
website until the next edition of the Vettor Giusti posters competition
in 2015, the Public Affairs Office of the National Competitiveness
Foundation of Armenia informs.

PETAK HOTEL COMPLEX USED AS PROSTITUTION DEN

Thursday,
August
29

Edward Baghdasarian, 56, and Nikolai Beglarian, 58, (the names of both
men are changed) have been convicted of running a den of prostitution
in Petak hotel complex located at 17A Arshakuniants Street in Yerevan.

The two men were charged under Article 262 part 2 point 5 of the
Criminal Code.

The defendants pleaded guilty. A petition was filed to examine the
case under an accelerated procedure.

The court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Shengavit administrative
district found Baghdasarian and Beglarian guilty of the crime indicated
in Article 262 part 2 point 5 of the RA Criminal Code and sentenced
them to 3 years in jail. Under Article 70 of the Criminal Code,
the punishment was not applied conditionally and Baghdasarian and
Beglarian were put on 18-month probation each.

TODAY, 13:02

Aysor.am

FOOD IS OF A GREAT CONCERN IN ALEPPO

11:26, 29 August, 2013

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. Standards of living again deteriorated
in Aleppo. The roads providing food to the city have been blocked. The
journalist of the Aleppo-based “Gandzasar” weekly Zarmik Poghikyan
stated this in a conversation with “Armenpress”. “The road to the city,
which was used to provide food and petroleum to the Aleppo population,
has again appeared in the centre of clashes and certain difficulties
aroused for providing food to the people,” she noted. According to
the journalist of the Aleppo-based “Gandzasar” weekly Zarmik Poghikyan
there are only three open central bakeries in the city and the people
have to stand in line to buy food for hours. The vegetables and food
prices have also palpably increased. At the course of the previous
two weeks the government supplied patrol to the people, but currently
it was stopped. Among other things Zarmik Poghikyan underlined that
the situation is not calm from the viewpoint of security and clashes
continue still.

EGGS COST 75 DRAMS IN YEREVAN STORES
by David Stepanyan

Thursday, August 29, 12:59

Within the frames of the price hike for local production eggs noticed
for the last weeks, at present an egg cost 75 drams in Yerevan stores.

Not only big but also medium-sized and small eggs grew in price and
became 65 and 50-55 drams respectively. Earlier they cost 60-65 drams,
50-55 and 40-45 drams respectively.

The owners of the retail stores said that the egg prices have grown as
the producers themselves increased them. This looks at least strange
as in summer poultry plants want to sell this perishable product
for low price as soon as possible. For instance, in summer 2010 the
retail price of an egg was 20-15 drams. The reasons of such a price
hike may be the feed price hike and the electric power tariff growth
from 30 drams up to 38 drams for a kilowatt, as a result of which
the expenditure of the poultry plants for keeping their production
in refrigerators has grown much. As for the State Commission for
Economic Competition, it still remains silence.

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO BELGIUM WILL BE WITHDRAWN SOON – NEWSPAPER

August 29, 2013 | 07:12

YEREVAN. – Armenia will withdraw Ambassador to Belgium Avet Adonts
who was appointed in 2009 when Prosperous Armenia was a part of ruling
coalition, Hraparak daily writes.

Previously Prosperous Armenia’s withdrawal from the coalition did not
affect Avet Adonts, but talkativeness of his former party fellows
played its role. The newspaper’s source says the reason for his
dismissal is disclosure of certain information concerning diplomatic
circles by Prosperous Armenia representatives. The leak was attributed
to Adonts, the newspaper writes.

The matter is representatives of Prosperous Armenia claim that embassy
employees are accompanying the wives of high ranking officials during
their shopping tours to European states.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am