Author: Babajanian Karo

ARF Leader on Raffi’s Hunger Strike: All Avenues of Struggle Were Not Exhausted

Posted by Weekly Staff on March 12, 2013 in News

YEREVAN (A.W.)-ARF Bureau member Vahan Hovanessian visited Raffi
Hovannisian on Freedom Square to express solidarity with the opposition
leader, two days after the latter started a hunger strike.

Vahan Hovanessian speaks to journalists on Freedom Square

Vahan Hovanessian had a brief conversation-not audible to
journalists-with Raffi Hovannisian, telling journalists surrounding
them, “I am not here to see you.”

But when asked what he thought about Raffi Hovannisian’s hunger strike,
the ARF leader said, “That, I can tell you. I think this is taking
it to an extreme. Everything aside, Mr. Hovannisian has earned a
large number of votes. I don’t think all avenues of struggle were
exhausted. This is my honest conviction.”

He added, “Of course, I am not here to give lessons or advice; I am
here to express my solidarity. But I would have loved to express that
solidarity in other arenas, and not here.”

Asked what else Raffi could have done, the ARF Bureau member said
that his party has answered that question repeatedly.

The ARF argues that regime change can be accomplished gradually,
starting with the Yerevan municipal elections in May. Negotiations
between opposition parties to form an opposition front in recent days
have not yielded concrete results yet.

On March 10, Raffi Hovannisian said during a rally that on April 9,
Serge Sarkisian will be sworn in as president “over my dead body,”
adding that he will start a hunger strike on Freedom Square.

“If on April 9, Sarkisian takes his fake oath on the Holy Bible,
and if the Catholicos desecrates the Bible and blesses the candidate
[Sarkisian] who mocks the people, then that will happen over my dead
body,” he had said.

Raffi Hovannisian has since remained on Freedom Square, where several
political leaders and thousands of supporters have visited him to
express solidarity with the barevolution leader.

SECRECY IN THE INVESTIGATION OF ATTACKS ON ARMENIAN WOMEN

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 12 2013

ORHAN KEMAL CENGÄ°Z

We all sighed a huge relief when we heard that Murat Nazaryan, who is
suspected of murdering one and attacking many elderly Armenian women
in the Samatya district of Ä°stanbul, had been arrested. Nazaryan is a
Turkish citizen of Armenian descent. This has of course, in the eyes
of many, eliminated the much-feared possibility that these murders
and attacks against Armenian women in Ä°stanbul had been committed
out of hatred.

The police came out with quite a convincing explanation as to how
and why they arrested the suspect. They looked at all the records of
video surveillance cameras in the region and saw Nazaryan stalking
some elder Armenian women. In addition to this, police reported that
there was a perfect match between the DNA samples collected from the
crime scene where one of the victims was killed and Nazaryan’s own.

There were however, some questions that were left unanswered:
Nazaryan may be the attacker, but is it possible that there are other
attackers? How did police all of a sudden become so sure that Nazaryan
committed all these attacks and murders on his own? In this vein,
I found what Rober KoptaÅ~_, the editor-in-chief of the Armenian
daily Agos, said to be quite interesting:

“I’m not one of those who are highly skeptical about [Nazaryan]. I
researched his story and found out that he didn’t have a good
childhood and has some psychological problems. … He also apparently
confessed. I don’t think police would try to force a confession in a
case that has drawn so much public attention. … But is there anyone
behind the attacks? This is something that needs to be investigated
and answered. We haven’t been able to see the evidence or [Nazaryan’s]
statement due to the decision to keep them confidential. We’ll see what
will happen and what will be revealed during the court proceedings.”

The Human Rights Association’s (Ä°HD) Eren Keskin recently visited
Nazaryan in prison, and also has concerns over what she says is
a strange decision to keep the file closed to the public. Keskin
told the Independent Communication Network (Bianet) that she “does
not understand why there is secrecy over the file nor what the
authorities want to hide from the public.” She indicated that file’s
confidentiality should be lifted.

I absolutely agree with Ms. Keskin. These murders and attacks have
caused much concern in the public and everyone has the right to learn
of any development in the case. If there is such a simple explanation
for these attacks and murders, namely one frantic former criminal who
attacked all these women to rob them, why on earth did the prosecutor
decide to put a stamp of “confidential” on the file?

In any case, the decision to do so is extremely problematic. If
this is not an “organized” or “terrorist” crime, what on earth is
this decision of secrecy aiming to protect? In terrorist crimes,
for example, the state wishes to protect witnesses or conceal some
information from the members of the organization who have yet to be
caught. Is there any witness who needs to be protected, or are there
some accomplices in the crime who the prosecutor wants to keep from
learning further about the case? Or, is this simply a precaution to
prevent public involvement in the case — to prevent people from
asking pressing questions about the quality and the depth of the
investigation and prosecution?

I do not know the answers yet, and we will most probably not be able
to find out any more until this extremely suspicious decision to make
the file secret is lifted.

ARMENIA TO CHAIR THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Trend, Azerbaijan
March 12 2013

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said on Thursday that
Armenia will take the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of
the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on May16.

He said this during a press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart
Linas LinkeviÄ~Mius in Yerevan.

According to him, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Thorbjorn Jagland will visit Armenia in the second half of March when
the programme of events will be approved.

‘WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO VICTORY’ – ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

20:20 ~U 12.03.13

People coming to Freedom Square must be optimistic, Heritage party
Chairman Raffi Hovannisian told journalists on Tuesday.

“I, for my part, will inspire you, and I demand the same from you,”
he said.

“We are on our way to victory now, and we must make our modest
contribution to this struggle,” Mr Hovannisian said.

He read out two letters he received. “Should anything happen to you,
Armenian citizens will lose their hope and not be able to struggle on,”
one of the letters says.

Mr Hovannisian is determined to do his best. “Freedom is the sense
of our struggle, and we will gain freedom with love,” he said.

Asked whether he will end his hunger strike if Armenia’s President
Serzh Sargsyan comes to Freedom Square – and some of the MPs from
the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) do not rule it out –
Mr Hovannisian said: “Sometimes I consider the ‘ifs’ important,
but my principles rule them out. I would be glad if Mr Sargsyan came
to the square before the Constitutional Court issues its ruling. I
have repeatedly stressed that the CC has the last chance to clean
its ways and present the true picture. I hope they will not justify
obviously rigged elections. Finally, I am ready to listen to all of
Mr Sargsyan’s proposals.”

He noted that a CC ruling and Serzh Sargsyan’s decision, which will
recognize the people’s constitutional rights, may be an opportunity
for him to end his hunger strike.

However, if Serzh Sargsyan fails to find the strength to announce his
resignation before April 9, “we will jointly celebrate new Armenia’s
inauguration, which will be an unprecedented event both in terms of
quality and in the number of people.”

THOMAS DE WAAL: ARMENIA’S PROBLEM WAS NOT SO MUCH ELECTION DAY AS THE PLAYING FIELD ITSELF

ARMINFO
Tuesday, March 12, 19:05

After a period of dormancy, politics is back to the countries of the
South Caucasus, Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at the Russia and
Eurasia Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in
Washington DC, says in his article “Political Tremors in the Caucasus”.

The countries of the South Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia –
experienced mass political turbulence in the 1990s, but for years it
looked as though people had lost faith in public engagement and were
content to tolerate any ruler who guaranteed a modicum of stability.

That is no longer the case: After a period of dormancy, politics is
back, Waal says.

“Now the country under the spotlight is tiny Armenia. The country held
a presidential election on February 18 in which serving president
Serzh Sargsyan was elected to a new five-year term. An easy victory
for Sargsyan appeared pre- ordained as two other presumed rivals
dropped out of the race. But in the last two weeks of the campaign,
opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian, independent Armenia’s first
foreign minister, surged forward”, he says. “Had the campaign lasted
two weeks longer it is quite possible that Hovannisian’s momentum
would have carried him into a second round run-off”, he says.

“Armenia’s problem was not so much election day as the playing field
itself: A media heavily controlled by the government, local officials
serving the narrow ruling elite rather than the state as such. The
head of the OSCE election observer mission, Heidi Tagliavini, picked
up on this when she commented on “the blurring of the distinction
between the state and the ruling party”, Waal says.

“Raffi Hovannisian is a decent man, unsullied by the corrupt practices
of post- Soviet politics. But he is also a California-born outsider
whom few imagined could be president of Armenia. Evidently, he has
mobilized a protest vote that is bigger than himself. Hovannisian
himself has not recognized the result, and he has been surprisingly
effective at organizing mass rallies across the country. But it is
hard to see how he can prevail in the short term against a president
who now has international legitimacy and controls all the levers of
power in Armenia”, he stresses.

“Over the longer term, however, the president has a problem. Opinion
surveys show high levels of discontent in Armenia about corruption,
poverty, and abuse of power. This manifests itself in mediocre economic
performance and a continuing brain-drain from emigration.

Sargsyan is a man of consensus who likes at least to listen to his
opponents. If he does not want a very long and bumpy second term,
he must now think about what steps he can take that will meet the
population’s discontents half-way – while he knows that tinkering
with the system may end up undermining his own authority”, Waal says.

Thomas de Waal thinks that as president of a nation whose compatriots
are scattered across the world, Sargsyan also faces the challenge of
continued competition with the Armenian diaspora.

WHO’S RICH, WHO’S ACTIVE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY? MONITORING OF NATIONAL ASSEMBLY’S ACTIVITY
Nvard Davtyan

“Radiolur”
18:49 12.03.2013

The Parliament Monitoring Program has summed up the results of
monitoring of the activity of the National Assembly of fifth
convocation during the fist two sessions. The report has been
developed on the basis of combination of journalists’ remarks, expert
analysis and the statistical program of the parliamentmonitoring.am
website.

“The 5-part report is the first about the parliament formed in May
2012. Therefore, the information refers to the MPs and political
forces represented in the National Assembly and the relations between
them. The report includes reference to the legislative activity and
provides an expert analysis of the laws,” head of the program Lusine
Vasilyan told reporters today.

Thus, according to the results of the study, the Parliament has been
less active in presenting legislative initiatives and with the level
of involvement in political decision-making processes, Lusine Vasilyan
said.

The Republican and Orinats Yerkir factions have voted against only 1%
of the bills. This can be assessed as unequivocal solidarity with the
Government’s policy. Prosperous Armenia has mostly abstained from
voting. In case of the remaining three factions – the Armenian
National Congress, the Armenian Revolutionary federation and the
Heritage – the pro and con votes have been distributed more
proportionately, Lusine Vasilyan said.

As for the statistics of questions and speeches, the study has
revealed change of behavior in favor of the Republican faction (151
questions and speeches). The Heritage faction has been the least
active with 28 questions and speeches.

The results of the study indicate that the Prosperous Armenia Party
faction is the richest in the Parliament. According to the
declarations submitted by the MPs, 20 of them are “dollar
millionaires.” The top ten includes four representatives of Prosperous
Armenia Party. Gagik Tsarukyan tops the rating followed by Republican
Samvel Aleksanyan. The declarations presented by MPs representing the
Heritage faction are the most modest.

PUBLIC, POLITICAL, CULTURAL FIGURES VISIT ARMENIAN EX-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

17:05 ~U 12.03.13

A number of political, public and cultural figures have visited
Heritage party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian, who went on a hunger strike
last Sunday.

Among the visitors were Khosrov Harutyunyan, an MP from the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Petros Makeyan, Chairman of the
Democratic Homeland party, Ararat Zurabyan, ex-chairman of the Board
of the Armenian National Movement (ANM), as well as Karapet Rubinyan,
Lilit Galstyan, and Shant Harutyunyan and Artistic Director of the
Agulis puppet theater Yervand Manaryan.

ARMENIANS INCAPABLE OF MAKING REVOLUTION – SOCIOLOGIST

NEWS.AM
March 12, 2013 | 12:55

YEREVAN. – In the recent times, a hunger strike has become one of
the primary methods of political struggle in Armenia. Moreover, it
is carried out publicly, and with wide media coverage, sociologist
Aharon Adibekyan said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“The methods of political struggle are an important component of the
political culture of any people. A survey was conducted [in Armenia]
in 2002 and in 2003, in line with which peaceful actions were in
first place-with 30 percent-from among the measures to influence
state officials,” the sociologist noted.

As per Adibekyan, however, solely the head of state has a right to
speak on behalf of the people; a political party leader cannot permit
himself to do such thing.

“If someone does [this], he misleads the people. If [Heritage Party
leader, former FM] Raffi Hovannisian [who is declared runner-up to
the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the
presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who claims
to be the real winner in the vote and who declared a hunger strike on
March 10 at capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square] actually received
a majority of the votes, the people should come out to the street
and fight for their votes; the people should stage pickets, make
revolution. But Armenians are not inclined toward [taking] drastic
actions; the Armenian people are incapable of making revolution,”
Aharon Adibekyan maintained.

TRANSFORMATION D’UN COLLEGE ARMENIEN EN MONUMENT DU GENOCIDE A SEVRES A L’OCCASION DU CENTENAIRE DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

A l’initiative de la communaute armenienne de France, le Collège
armenien Samuel Mouradian de Sèvres sera transforme en un
monument-musee du genocide armenien. / Haykakan Jamanak

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 5 mars 2013

mardi 12 mars 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

DEPARTEMENT D’ETAT : L’ARMENIE N’EST PAS UN GRAND PAYS PRODUCTEUR DE DROGUES

L’Armenie n’est pas un des principaux pays produisant des drogues
et la consommation domestique de drogues est modeste indique le
Departement d’~REtat americain dans son rapport 2013 International
Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR).

” Parce que l’Armenie est sans littoral et que deux des ses plus
longues frontières sur les quatre frontières (avec la Turquie et
l’Azerbaïdjan) sont fermees, les options de transport resultantes
limitees rendent le pays moins attirant au traffic de drogue. Avec
l’aide des Etats-Unis et de l’Union europeenne, l’Armenie continue a
developper et executer un regime de gestion des frontières integres,
ameliorant sa capacite de detecter des expeditions de narcotiques
illegales. De plus, en juillet 2012, les Etats-Unis ont fourni des
formations sur l’interdiction du transport des drogues a l’aeroport
international d’Yerevan et la gare d’autobus.

La drogue la plus commune illicite en Armenie est la marijuana,
dont la majorite est cultivee localement. La marijuana et les pavots
grandissent dans la nature de facon sauvage et le gouvernement patronne
un programme d’extermination annuel en août. En 2012, un total combine
de presque 82 tonnes metriques a ete detruit.

Les saisies de narcotiques ont baisse en 2012. La police a procede
a l’arrestation et au demantèlement de plusieurs reseaux fin 2011 et
debut 2012 ce qui explique la diminution. Selon la police, la majorite
ecrasante des importations de drogues illicites est des opiaces produit
en Afghanistan et transitant par l’Iran, avec un volume plus petit
entrant par la Turquie via la Georgie (car la frontière Turque est
fermee a tout trafic). En octobre, une grande saisie est arrivee a
la frontière avec l’iran a Meghri, quand de l’opium a ete decouvert
dans une fausse valise.

Une nouvelle tendance de la contrebande le long de la frontière
iranienne implique des boules en plastique avec des diodes emettant
de la lumière : les boules sont jetees a travers la Rivière Araxe la
nuit, avec des opiaces allant dans une voie (vers l’Armenie) et le
paiement allant de l’autre (vers l’Iran). De plus, les autorites ont
saisi des quantites plus petites de drogues de synthèse via des vols
provenant de France et de colis expedies par la poste de la France
et de l’Espagne. Dans le passe, des amphetamines transitaient de
l’Iran a l’Europe via l’Armenie, mais ce transit semble avoir diminue
significativement après une arrestation majeure” dit le rapport.

mardi 12 mars 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com