Author: Babajanian Karo

PRESS RELEASE
RAFFI HOVANNISIAN CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]
Website:

08 February 2013

Raffi Hovannisian Marches Through Kotayk, Promises Return of Emigrants

Yerevan–Raffi K. Hovannisian took his presidential campaign to the
village of Proshyan in the Aragatsotn region today where he addressed
a large crowd of supporters and paid tribute to the memory of
Commander Karot and all Armenian troops who sacrificed their lives for
their homeland.

Hovannisian then went to Yeghvard and Hrazdan, where his town hall
meeting turned into outdoor rally due to the overflow of supporters.
Describing his plan to create thousands of new well-paying jobs,
Hovannisian highlighted the necessity to restore Hrazdan to its once
powerful industrial potential. `The corrupt condition of the Armenian
state has led to inexcusably high unemployment, which is one of the
main cause of emigration from Armenia,’ Hovannisian said.

In his last meeting of the day in the town of Abovyan, a packed town
hall crowd erupted in applause many times throughout Hovannisian’s
speech and chanted `Hayastan!’ after its conclusion. `Let us all be
masters of our homeland,’ Hovannisian said.

Raffi Hovannisian Campaign Headquarters

KUWAITI MODERNIZED, FOLKLORIC MUSICAL EVENING IN ARMENIA

08/02/2013 | 01:53 PM | Kuwait News

Kuwaiti modernized, folkloric musical evening in Armenia

YEREVAN, Feb 8 (KUNA) — The Kuwaiti cultural delegation here continued
its presentation of Kuwaiti cultural and heritage aspects by featuring
an evening of Kuwaiti modernized and folkloric music, which was
conducted by the national troupe of music and folkloric arts and held
at the Armenian national theatre of music and theatrical shows.

On his part, Sahel Al-Ajmi, chairman of culture and arts department
at NCCAL (the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters),
told KUNA that the troupe, consisted of 28 artists, presented a
various compilation of Kuwaiti and eastern music, using many string
instruments such as violin, Oud, and Qanun accompanied by Kuwaiti
drums, noting that the audience had also a taste of classic Kuwaiti
traditional and popular songs and anthems, that was performed in old
Kuwait during various labor at sea and desert.

He asserted that music has a special distinctiveness in crossing
boundaries of language and gathering the world and people on
understanding it, pointing out at the same time that it is within
the roots and depth of Kuwaiti art and culture and due to that the
NCCAP continues its cultural and artistic exchange with countries
and people around the world.

Also, Al-Ajmi noted the distinctive Kuwaiti-Armenian relations, which
dates back to a half century and continues to prosper and develop
especially since the cultural agreement between the two countries
that was signed in 2009, which also includes exchange of diplomatic
missions and mutual official visits.

The evening was attended by Armenian Minister of Culture Hasmik
Poghosian, Secretary General of Kuwait’s National Council for Culture,
Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) Ali Al-Youhah, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Armenia
Bassam Al-Qabandi, Armenian Ambassador to Kuwait Fadey Charchoghlian,
members of diplomatic missions for various countries, and number of
visual and readable media. (end) yt.ma KUNA 081353 Feb 13NNNN

STALIN STATUE DAUBED WITH PINK PAINT IN GEORGIA

TBILISI, February 8 (RIA Novosti) – Unknown vandals have daubed pink
paint over a statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin near Tbilisi,
the capital of his homeland, Georgia.

The incident, which took place in the Georgian village of Dideba,
is the third in the series of similar pink-paint attacks on Stalin
monuments in the former Soviet state this year.

On Thursday, unknown attackers in the village of Akura, eastern
Georgia, pulled another Stalin statue off its pedestal and poured
pink paint on it.

In January, another Stalin monument was also damaged and daubed in
pink in Zemo Alvani, in eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region.

Local residents blame the attacks on activists from President Mikheil
Saakashvili’s United National Movement, who have opposed calls voiced
by Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition for
restoration of damaged Stalin monuments.

The Stalin statue attacks may be linked to a new action campaign,
dubbed “I painted a Stalin statue,” unveiled by Georgia’s Facebook
users, who claim they attacked the monument in Akura. The vandals
have threatened the attacks on Stalin statues will continue.

Stalin remains a divisive figure in his former homeland, cherished
by many as the local hero who rose to the top of the Soviet Empire,
but reviled by many as a cruel tyrant who wreaked havoc in his home
republic with vicious political repression, particularly against
those to whom he bore grudges from his past and political opponents.

ARAM HARUTYUNYAN’S REGISTRATION RECOGNIZED VOID BY CEC

19:19, 8 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS: Central Electoral Commission of
Armenian Republic has unanimously recognized Aram Harutyunyan’s
registration for presidential candidacy void. Armenpress reports,
President of Central Electoral Commission Tigran Mukuchyan informed
that presidential candidate Aram Harutyunyan applied to the Central
Electoral Commission on February 8 to withdraw his candidacy.

The candidates running for president are as follows: incumbent
President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, leader of
“Freedom” party Hrant Bagratyan, leader of the Union for National
Self-Determination party Paruyr Hayrikyan, former Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arman Melikyan, leader of
“Heritage” party Raffi Hovhannisyan, epos expert Vardan Sedrakyan,
and political scientist Andreas Ghukasyan.

The election campaign launched on January 21 and will last until
February 16. The deadline of submitting resignations to the Central
Electoral Commission of the Republic of Armenia is 18:00 o’clock,
February 8. The electronic votes will launch at 08:00 o’clock on
February 9 and last until 20:00 o’clock February 13. The votes will
kick off on February 18 at 08:00 and will last until 20:00 o’clock.

Final results of the presidential elections will be announced on
February 25, 2013.

HEAD OF ARFD FACTION: “CREATION OF A PARTY ON THE BASIS OF THE ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WILL CRYSTALLIZE THAT STRUCTURE”

ARMINFO
Friday, February 8, 18:12

“Creation of a party on the basis of the Armenian National Congress
will crystallize that structure,” Armen Rustamyan, Head of ARFD
Faction in the Parliament, briefed in the parliament, Friday.

To recall, First president of Armenia, Leader of Armenian National
Congress (ANC) Levon Ter-Petrosyan voiced the idea of creating
a single party on the basis of ANC in an interview with Chorrord
Inqnishkhanutyun newspaper, on Thursday. He said that inside ANC there
are certain difficulties as many political forces and figures have
left the Congress. He realizes that ANC can no longer exist in the
same format. “I’d like to say that the forces loyal to the Congress
are currently studying this issue,” the first president said.

Rustamyan believes that Ter-Petrosyan’s decision was the most adequate
response to the situation inside the Congress.

“Decision making has become a very hard process inside ANC. Many
representatives of the Congress lack consensus on many major issues.

In order to soften the situation, it was necessary to reorganize the
Congress,” Rustamyan said.

He believes that many political parties in the country also need such
kind of crystallization, which will rehabilitate the political system
in general.

AKRAM AYLISLI, AZERBAIJANI AUTHOR, PUNISHED FOR PITYING ARMENIANS

By AIDA SULTANOVA and PETER LEONARD
02/08/13 07:58 AM ET EST

BAKU, Azerbaijan — A respected Azerbaijani author has been stripped
of his pension and national honors for “insulting the dignity” of his
country with a novel that describes Azerbaijanis attacking Armenians.

Akram Aylisli’s “Stone Dreams,” set during the wake of a bitter
war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh, drew protests after its publication for its
sympathetic depiction of Armenians. The Azerbaijani government has
long laid all the blame for the war on Armenia.

Late Thursday, President Ilham Aliyev announced his decision to strip
the 75-year-old Aylisli of state honors and his pension.

In the novel, which was published in a Russian magazine last year,
Aylisli refers to mob violence by Azerbaijanis against helpless
Armenians in Baku.

One passage vividly describes the scene of a mob beating up a man they
thought was Armenian and another episode suggests that an Azerbaijani
man threw an elderly Armenian woman from a balcony.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and some adjacent territory
have been under the control of Armenian troops and local ethnic
Armenian forces since the end of the six-year war in 1994.

Hair-trigger sensitivity dominates accounts of the period in
Azerbaijan, and attempts to question the widely accepted narrative
of Armenia’s exclusive guilt draw furious reactions.

Aylisli described the novel as a message of peace and said that he
didn’t expect such a heated response.

“I wanted to show that Azerbaijanis and Armenians aren’t enemies,”
he told The Associated Press. “I never thought it would be so
politicized.”

He said that he hoped that an author in Armenia would consider writing
similar material dwelling on atrocities against Azerbaijanis.

In late January, a youth group representing Nagorno-Karabakh refugees
picketed Aylisli’s home, holding up signs reading: “Why have you sold
yourself out to the Armenians?”

A number of parliamentary deputies have also condemned “Stone Dreams,”
calling it a justification of Armenian separatism that creates the
ideological basis for the illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territory.

In his decree chastising the author, Aliyev said that Aylisli was
trying to cast Azerbaijanis in an inhumane light.

He has “distorted the essence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,
denigrated our distant and recent historical past, and insulted the
dignity of more than 1 million people driven from their homes by the
conflict,” the decree said.

The Institute for the Protection of Media Rights said in a statement
that the campaign against Aylisli was politically motivated.

“All this is a serious threat to artistic creativity in this country,”
it said in a statement.

Commenting on the uproar, Armenian blogger Kevork Oskanian hailed
Aylisli for challenging what he described as government-created
taboos. He also urged Armenians to more closely study the history of
attacks on Azerbaijanis.

“In so doing, intellectuals and artists in both societies could
eventually end up redeeming themselves from their sheepish subservience
to nationalist narratives since independence,” Oskanian said.

____

RUSSIAN PUBLIC FIGURE HAILS ARMENIA’S SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS

February 8, 2013 – 17:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – RusCooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) agency has
received over 100 innovation cooperation offers from Armenia, the
head of the Armenian representation said.

As Viktor Krivopuskov told a press conference, the projects will be
brought to fruition after being approved in the framework of the CIS
intergovernmental cooperation program developed by Skolkovo foundation.

The visit featured meetings between Armenian and Russian young
scientists, with bilateral cooperation programs discussed.

RusCooperation agency deputy head Alexander Chesnokov noted that
cooperation program envisaged donation of Russian literature
to Armenian libraries, with euro 4.5 mln allocated to Byurakan
Observatory.

Dwelling on Armenia’s scientific potential, Mr Chesnokov highly
assessed Armenian-Russian cooperation, haling the country’s prospects
for the development of scientific development.

The delegation further met with Minister of Economy Tigran Davtyan,
deputy speaker of parliament Hermine Naghdalyan and President of
the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Radik Martirosyan, with
discussion of bilateral and intergovernmental cooperation projects
on the agenda.

SYRIA’S CHRISTIANS DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTED BY THE WAR

2-8-2013 0:14:51
Assyrian International News Agency

Stockholm (AINA) — Five years after writing his report By God –
Six Days in Amman, his personal report that changed the perception
of the war in Iraq, Nuri Kino is back with a new one. This time it’s
the war in Syria and its consequences he wants to highlight.

Nuri Kino, award winning Swedish-Assyrian author and investigative
journalist, has met and interviewed nearly one hundred Christian
Syrian refugees. In his personal report he gives voice to this
otherwise silent minority. He is told harrowing tales of systematic
rape and kidnappings. Many, perhaps most of the refugees interviewed
express a desire to leave the Middle East for good and have contacted
human smugglers. A multi-million enterprise has sprung up around the
refugee crisis. Kino has also spoken to several of these smugglers and
investigated the trade. His first-hand report includes an interview
with a young man who reached Sweden after a hellish journey from
Syria. “Jacob” was forced into a sealed container and almost died of
suffocation. Only a few days after leaving the container he and some
seventy other men were forced onto a ship, where only half of them
survived the journey. Nuri Kino says this about his report:

We meet every day by news reports from Syria that evokes strong
emotions. But what do we really know about what is going on there? One
element can get a sense of a TV channel and another in another
TV channel. It is therefore important that the Syrians themselves,
witnesses of atrocities, can be heard. I could write short articles but
these are forgotten after just one day, that’s why I decided to write
a longer report. I waited for the right time and when a Syriac Orthodox
youth organization would go to Beirut, it felt right to go with.

The war in Syria is growing increasingly worse every day, and it is
affecting every Syrian citizen, regardless of ethnicity or religion.

But the situation for minorites is even more horrifying. The Christian
minority in Syria has no militia and is targeted by everyone.

Christian Assyrians (also called Chaldeans and Syriacs) and others
have become the number one target for criminals and terrorists.

Between The Barbed Wire gives a voice to this people and is a must-read
for anyone who is involved or interested in issues of migration and
international politics.

The personal report compares the exodus of the Christians from Syria
with that from Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The current
similarities with the situation in Iraq are alarming. At the peak of
the sectarian conflict in Iraq, Christian were killed, some beheaded
in front of video cameras by extremists and driven from their homes
and businesses, targeted by religious intolerance and the prospect
of economic gain. Meanwhile more than half of the Iraqi Christians
have been forced to leave the country.

This is now being repeated in Syria.

Even though Christians make up more than 10 percent of Syria’s
population, this amount is not reflected in the UNCHR registred
refugees numbers who fled to Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The mostly
ignored tragedy of the Christians in Iraq has convinced Christians of
Syria that international authorities will not step up to protect them.

While their plight is well known to the western media outlets they
still are forgotten by international aid organizations. They are
fleeing massively.

Nuri Kino’s comprehensive 40-page report is available here:

By Tuma Abraham This item is available as: html | pdf

ARMENIAN WOMEN’S CHESS NATIONAL HALFWAY TO OLYMPIC MEDAL – LILIT MKRTCHYAN

17:15 AMT, February 7

By Lusine Shahbazyan

YEREVAN.- Armenian women’s chess national is halfway to the Olympic
medal.

“We have to work much to get the title. If we are lucky, we will
become champions,” GM Lilit Lazarian told NEWS.am Sport.

Armenian GM spoke about her plans for 2013, pointing out European
championship as a key challenge.

European team championships will be held in summer, while individual
tournament – in November. Besides, Lilit and her fellow team member
Elina Danielyan will participate in the tournament to be held in India.

“As to the national team, we have no problems. We are holding trainings
to get prepared for the key events. Armenia is halfway to the Olympic
medal,” she said.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION LEADER ADMITS POLITICAL FIASCO – ARMENIAN NA VICE-SPEAKER

TERT.AM
22:57 ~U 07.02.13

In his interview with the Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun, Armenia’s first
president Levon Ter-Petrosyan admitted the reality: the influential
national movement Armenian National Congress (ANC) is now a small
group, and the political struggle of many years has turned into
a fiasco, Spokesman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia and
Vice-Speaker of Armenia’s parliament Eduard Sharmazanov told Tert.am.

“In his interview, Mr Ter-Petrosyan actually confessed that the ANC
is not any more a leading or influential force. If I remember well,
he says that, after the ANC turns into a party, it may become one of
Armenia’s influential political forces. That is, he admits the ANC
is not among the most influential forces now. This is nothing but a
political confession that the 5-year-long struggle led by him is a
fiasco,” Mr Sharmazanov said.

“The social liberalism Armenia’s first president is speaking of –
I have some doubt if they are ready to turn into social liberals in
a week,” Sharmazanov said.

With respect to institutional changes, it is up to the political
force to decide, he added.

As regards the impression that the ANC leader is drawing parallels
between the ANC and US Democrats, as well as with the Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA), Mr Sharmazanov said: “First, I should say that the
Republican Party is associated with all the conservative parties.

National conservatism is the most popular and influential throughout
the world.”

With respect to Mr Ter-Petrosyan’s forecast that Armenia “at the hand
of its authorities will give up its independence and join Russia as its
constituent territory or associate member,” Mr Sharmazanov called it
“absurd and unrealistic.”

“Secondly, during the last five years Armenia has developed its
strategic partnership with Russia, as well as friendly relations and
partnership with the United States and the European Union members. May
be, the foreign policy achievements, which are incorporated in the
mechanisms of consolidating our country’s security system, arouse
concern? This is evidence of high-level Armenian-Russian partnership,”
Mr Sharmazanov said.