Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIAN COURT STARTS HEARING OPPOSITION CHALLENGE AGAINST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Xinhua General News Service, China
March 11, 2013 Monday 1:17 AM EST

The Constitutional Court of Armenia on Monday started hearing the case
of opposition leader and Heritage Party chief Raffi Hovhannisyan who
claimed widespread fraud in the presidential election last month.

According to the final result released by the Central Electoral
Commission of Armenia, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan was
re-elected with 58.64 percent of the vote in the election on Feb. 18,
whereas opposition candidate Hovhannisyan came in second with 36.75
percent.

Hovhannisyan has asked the court to annul the result.

Sargsyan will be represented in the court by the Minister of Justice
Hrayr Tovmasyan and head of the parliamentary Standing Committee on
State and Legal Affairs Davit Harutyunyan.

After holding a series of peaceful rallies in the capital Yerevan
and in the regions, Hovhannisyan announced in front of hundreds of
supporters on Sunday in Yerevan’s Freedom Square that he was starting
a hunger strike protesting against the officially announced election
results and asking for the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan.

“If Serzh Sargsyan puts his hand on the Bible and takes the oath of
the President on April 9, then that will happen over my dead body,”
declared Hovhannisyan.

HASAN CEMAL TO PRESENT HIS NEW BOOK ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN THE USA

21:37, 13 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS: Hasan Cemal, the grandson of Young Turk
Party leader Jemal Pasha on April 15 will present his new book “1915:
Armenian Genocide” at St. Thomas Armenian Church in Tenafly. As reports
Armenpress, referring to The Armenian Weekly, Cemal, a journalist,
scholar, and author, will be presented with the National Award Banquet.

The book, which has become a bestseller in Turkey, presents factual
information about the Armenian Genocide and speaks about Cemal’s
personal transformation-from someone who once denied the Armenian
Genocide to someone who not only recognizes it, but is willing to
risk publishing a book on his findings.

In addition to his personal story and evidence of the planned
massacres, passages from Cemal’s grandfather, Jemal Pasha, one of
the masterminds behind the Armenian Genocide, are also quoted from
his own memoirs from 1919.

Cemal visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan five years
ago, and writes in his book, “To deny the Genocide would mean to be
an accomplice in this crime against humanity.”

The banquet will take place in Saddler Hall of St. Thomas Armenian
Church.

KARINE NALCHAJYAN: EXISTENCE OF MILITARY PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THE ARMY NECESSARY
Alisa Gevorgyan

“Radiolur”
16:14 13.03.2013

Is it necessary to implement the institute of officer-psychologists
in the armed forces? According to psychologist Karine Nalchajyan, the
civilized world has long stopped disputing the issue. International
experience shows that the existence of military psychologists in the
army is simply necessary.

Almost all state and private higher educational establishments in
our country have Departments of Psychology, but only the Pedagogical
University after Khachatur Abovyan prepares military psychologists,
and the graduates are mostly female. Karine Nalchajyan says, however,
she has never seen any female psychologist working in the army.

“The Armenian society is not yet ready to see women in the armed
forces. Greater attention should be paid to the involvement of male
psychologist with relevant education,” she said.

There are officer psychologists in some military units, who are
graduates of the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute, Karine Nalchajyan
said, adding that the state should pay greater attention to the issue
and allocate financial means for the development of that institute.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY MONITORING: PARLIAMENT SEEN AS “ADJUNCT” TO GOVERNMENT

POLITICS | 13.03.13 | 15:15

Photo:

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

The level of initiative displayed by the fifth convocation parliament
of Armenia is assessed by experts as lower than that of the previous
parliament, both in terms of law-making and influence in political
decisions.

Lusine Vasilyan, in charge of NA Monitoring project which has
implemented the research, says if in case with the parliament of
the fourth convocation the government-National Assembly ratio in
legislative initiatives was 86 to 14 respectively, the current ratio
(during its two sitting periods) is 94 to 5.

During its two sitting periods the parliament of fifth convocation
has adopted 94 laws, 89 of which were government-initiated.

Aram Manukyan, secretary of oppositional Armenian National Congress
(ANC) faction, says the data make it clear that the National Assembly
has turned into government-adjacent body.

“Two of the parliament-authored laws concerned the inner rules of
parliament procedures and only three were related to the society,”
he says.

“Monitoring of the National Assembly’s Fifth Convocation” report says
that the coalitional factions – the Republican (RPA) and the Rule of
Law parties – voted against only one percent of the bills submitted
to the parliament during the fall sitting, which Vasilyan says is an
indicative of their unreserved consent with the government policies.

“The voting record of both these factions has almost the same picture –
mainly ‘for’ votes. In case with the Prosperous Armenia Party faction,
abstentions prevail, conditioned by its neither pro-establishment
nor oppositional status. The Armenian National Congress, Armenian
Revolutionary Party (ARF) and Heritage have more balanced ratio of
‘for’, ‘against’ and ‘abstained’ votes,” she says.

Seventy bills among the adopted 94 are of social-economic character.

During the fall sitting none of the opposition’s legislative
initiatives was approved.

Drawing parallels between the pre-election party platforms and their
post-election activities, project member, expert Gor Abrahamyan says
there was an inconsistency in RPA’s activities related to the Ethics
Commission. ANC did not have a complete platform, rather a collection
of platforms, and acted more from the position of objecting and
politicizing everything, with little focus on substantial discussions.

“Heritage and ARF have acted in accord with their platforms, although
their platforms have some romantic approaches, meaning there is no
clear action plan, for example in Dashnaks’ case, on how to create
200,000 jobs their platform claims possible,” says Abrahamyan. ARF
MP Artsvik Minasyan counters that all the calculations are available
upon request and have not been included in the platform because of
their volume.

The monitoring report points out that judging from the declared
finances 20 law-makers of the Armenian parliament are millionaires.

The top five include four Prosperous Armenia Party MPs – Gagik
Tsarukyan, Vahan Karapetyan, Gurgen Arsenyan, Grigori Margaryan and
Republican Samvel Alexanyan.

PAP is the richest faction with its 36 MPs who have declared total of
around $98.1million income, followed by the ruling Republicans. The
total of financial means declared by the Heritage’s 5 MPs is $118,000,
which is the lowest amount among all the other factions.

The statistic survey has been held by Mandate informational NGO within
the framework of the Monitoring of the NA Legislative Activities
project. The full report can be found at
website.

HIS HOLINESS CATHOLICOS ARAM GREETS THE ELECTION OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS I

16:18 14.03.2013

In a letter addressed to His Holiness Pope Francis I, His Holiness
Catholicos Aram I congratulated the election of the Pope “with profound
spiritual joy and in the spirit of Christian love and fellowship”,
expressing hope that “at these challenging times, facing the Roman
Catholic Church, his election will bring a new hope towards the
Church’s mission and witness”.

Aram I also hopes that “the simplicity of His Holiness’ life”, his
“particular emphasis on the ‘church of poor’, and firm commitment
to the pastoral outreach of the church will certainly generate a new
vitality for the Catholic Church’s evangelistic engage­ment.”

Referring to the ecumenical involvement of the Catholic Church, Aram
I expects that it will “acquire even broader articulation on global,
regional and local levels”, and the ecumenical col­laboration, which
is deeply rooted in the history, between the Armenian Catholicosate
of Cilicia and the Church of Rome will continue “with renewed impetus”.

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGE CONCERNED ABOUT ELECTION FRAUD

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

Constitutional Court Judge Kim Balayan

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)-A member of Armenia’s Constitutional Court on
Wednesday expressed concern over irregularities reported during last
month’s presidential election, saying that they have fuelled public
distrust in its official results.

Kim Balayan spoke of many Armenians’ “dissatisfaction” with the
official vote results as he questioned a police representative during
a court hearing on opposition appeals to annul the February 18 vote.

He said he wants to have a “clear conscience” when deciding whether
to back the appeals lodged by Raffi Hovannisian, the main opposition
candidate, and Andreas Ghukasian, an election outsider.

The nine-member court is due to hand down its verdict on Thursday. Few
expect it to invalidate President Serzh Sarkisian’s disputed victory.

The Armenian authorities insist that there were only minor violations
that could not have affected the election outcome.

“Whether or not those violations affected the overall [election result]
is a separate matter,” said Balayan. “But it’s obvious that there
were violations.” He wondered if law-enforcement authorities need
“additional levers” to detect fraud.

Representatives of the police and prosecutors testifying at the
hearing said the police investigated more than 250 reports of fraud
but in the vast majority of those cases presumed eyewitnesses were
unwilling to come forward when contacted by law-enforcement officers.

Zaruhi Postanjian, a representative of Hovannisian, attributed this
to an “atmosphere of fear.”

NEW POPE HAS CLOSE TIES WITH ARGENTINE-ARMENIAN COMMUNITY

NEWS | 14.03.13 | 10:35

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church,
reportedly has close ties with the Armenian community of Argentina
where the news of his election yesterday was taken with great
enthusiasm.

Bergoglio was elected Pope in a surprise choice on Wednesday, taking
the name Francis I and becoming the first non-European pontiff in
nearly 1,300 years.

The Armenian community in Argentina, a predominantly Catholic country,
took the news with joy, with its members saying that Archbishop
Bergoglio has always been in friendly ties with them and participated
in different events dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, attended a
liturgy conducted by the Catholicos of All Armenians, reported the
Latin American correspondent of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun).

Seven years ago the archbishop publicly demanded that Turkey admit
the Ottoman-era Genocide of Armenians.

The Vatican used the term genocide to describe the massacres of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in an official communique in 2000,
under Pope John Paul II.

Interestingly, last week Armenia approved the opening of the first-ever
embassy in the Vatican, with President Serzh Sargsyan’s son-in-law
Mikael Minasyan appointed ambassador to the Holy See.

TURKISH JOURNALIST AGAIN CHARGED WITH VIOLATING ARTICLE 301: “THE STATE KILLED HRANT DINK”

15:36, March 14, 2013

Turkish journalist Temel Demirer first fell afoul of the law when
he stated, a day after Hrant Dink had been murdered, that : : “Hrant
Dink was not killed because he was Armenian but because he said that
there had been an Armenian genocide.”

For this, Demirer was sentenced under Article 301, with the prosecution
demanding 2 years imprisonment.

At that time, changes in the controversial Article 301 had also reduced
the maximal sentence for “denigrating the Turkish Nation, the Turkish
Republic, its government or government institutions” to two years.

This trial had been postponed provided that, following Provisional
Articles 1 and 2 of Law 6352, he would not “commit a new crime under
Clause 1 within the next three years”.

Now, Demirer is to be retried for violating the same Artcicle 301.

According to the police, after the first trial, Demirer declared the
following in front of the court building:

“If I don’t say ‘There was an Armenian genocide in Turkey’ or ‘the
state in Turkey is a murderer’ for the next three years, I will be
acquitted. Right now, five minutes after the trial, without waiting
for three years, I say, ‘The state is the murderer of Hrant Dink’. I
also say, ‘There was an Armenian genocide in this country’. If the
court, security forces or the Ministry of Injustice that postponed
my trial do not open another trial, they will be committing a crime.”

Levent Kanat, Demirer’s lawyer, told Bianet that they had learned
about the new inquiry in the news and had not received an official
notification. For Kanat, the investigation is the result of a mentality
that has not changed: “They say they are becoming more democratic,
but that is not true.”

NEWSPAPER: GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA HAS NOT ADOPTED ANY DECISION ON ARMAVIA COMPANY’S LICENSE

ARMINFO
Thursday, March 14, 12:33

Government of Armenia has not yet decided whether to extend Armavia
national air career’s license that expires on March 14 or not,
a local Orakarg newspaper writes.

“The Government has not yet decided whether to liberalize the market
of air transportation or extend the monopoly of Armavia Company,”
the paper writes. Under the contract made on March 14 2003, the
Government has granted Armenia an exclusive right to make flights
to certain routes. As the contract term expires, the Chief Civil
Aviation Department of Armenia must offer the Government to either
extend the monopoly of the company or announce a new contest for air
transportation on the given routes, which will liberalize the market
of air transportation.

“In the meanwhile, there is no draft decision by the above Department
on the agenda of the Government for March 14,” the paper writes.

In line with the Finance Ministry’s strategic development program 2013-
2025 Armenia will switch to “open skies” policy by 2025. This implies
measures to increase the number of state-funded flights, to liberalize
passenger rail travel, to create new and to modernize existing tourist
infrastructures outside Yerevan, to attract well-known foreign hotel
brands. As many as 2.3mln people may visit Armenia in 2025 as a result
against 846,300 in 2012.

Armavia national air carrier was founded in 1996 and meets IATA
standards. In 2005 the shares of Armavia were transferred to Mika
Limited President Mikhail Baghdasarov. Armavia makes over 100 flights
in a week to over 35 destinations in 20 countries.

ARMENIAN FILM PRESENTED FOR RUSSIAN ACADEMY AWARD

TERT.AM
13:01 ~U 14.03.13

An Armenian drama film telling about the Nagorno-Karabakh war has
been presented for the Nika Awards, an annual ceremony held by the
Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences.

“If Only Everyone …” will vie for a prize in the Best film of
the CIS and Baltic States nomination, the National Cinema Center of
Armenia says in a statement.

According to Michael Poghosyan, the film’s producer and a starring
actor, the other movies contesting the title are “Eternal Return”
(Kira Muratova, Ukraine), “All Went Away” (Georgy Parajanov, Georgia,
Czech Republic, Russia), “Earth is My Home” (Ayuba Shokhobidinova,
Uzbekistan) and “Lonely Island” (Peeter Simm, Estonia, Belarus,
Latvia).

The actor has said that no Armenian film has been so far presented
for Nika Awards.

The ceremony is due in Moscow on April 2. It was earlier screened at
the 2012 Moscow International Film Festival.