Author: Babajanian Karo

Turkey Interferes in Pasadena City Business

asbarez
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

Pasadena City Hall

PASADENA – An official from the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles met
with a Pasadena City official in an effort to thwart plans by city to
erect an Armenian Genocide monument. The Armenian National Committee
of America Pasadena chapter issued a statement Wednesday denouncing
Turkey’s brazen attempts to interfere in city government business.
Below is the text of the announcement:

During the month of August, the Republic of Turkey initiated a meeting
with the City of Pasadena to probe for information about the newly
formed and independent Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee
(PAGMC). The meeting took place at Pasadena City Hall between the Vice
Consul of the Republic of Turkey in Los Angeles and the City’s
management directors. Vice Consul Arif Celik’s consultation was
politically driven stating that the government he represents held a
`difference of opinion’ about the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America – Pasadena cannot let such
statements go unchecked: the Armenian Genocide is a historical fact
and will not be allowed to be subjected to `differences of opinions’
or debate. The nation of Turkey should acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide and not interfere with American politics, in American cities
and proposed projects by American citizens and residents. Under the
American Constitution, the citizens of states, cities, and towns
acting through their elected officials, are empowered to conduct their
civic affairs without the interference of foreign governments. The
Turkish government, which is among the world’s worst violators of
freedom of expression, consistently seeks, and has frequently
succeeded at the federal level, in imposing a gag rule on American
calls for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide. The
initiation of a meeting by a foreign nation’s officials with a local
U.S. municipality is politically driven and, therefore, is deemed as
an attempt to intervene in the affairs of our local American
communities. Preserving heritage and memorializing ancestors who were
killed by way of genocide is not subject to the political positions of
foreign nations.

Pasadena has been home to Armenian-Americans for several decades, many
of whom are descendants of the Armenian Genocide. In the past, the
City of Pasadena has conducted an official census count of its
Armenian-American residents and has amended its Affirmative Action
ordinance to uphold Armenian-Americans as a Protected Class. In 1991,
the City of Pasadena established the city of Vanadzor, Armenia as its
sister-city and raised the Armenian Tri-color flag over Pasadena City
Hall on May 28 to commemorate Armenia’s Day of Independence. For more
than 30 years, the City of Pasadena has adopted resolutions and issued
official proclamations to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.

It is intrusive for the republic of turkey to hold a political
Interest over how local communities stand against various crimes
Against humanity such as the 1915 Armenian genocide. The vested
Interest of a foreign national government in local u.s. community
Issues is invasive, unacceptable, and is viewed as an encroachment on
American rights and values.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the
largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy
organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination
with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the
Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country,
the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community
on a broad range of issues.

3 penitentiary employees fired in Armenia

news.am
August 22, 2012 | 19:32

YEREVAN. – Three employees of the Nubarashen and Vanadzor
penitentiaries at the Armenian Ministry of Justice were fired by the
decree of the Justice Minister Hrayr Tovmasyan on Wednesday for not
carrying out their duties properly.

Two employees of the Nubarashen penitentiary, Vahagn Grigoryan and
Arman Artashesyan, were fired as they tried to pass a cell phone to
one of the prisoners in an exchange for a reward, the Ministry’s press
service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

At the same time another employee of the Vanadzor penitentiary Sayat
Avagyan for unjustified absences following the vacation.

Armenia’s external debt manageable – Finance Ministry

news.am
August 22, 2012 | 18:10

YEREVAN.- Armenia’s external debt level remains manageable, Deputy
Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan told reporters on Wednesday.

He recalled that the public debt makes about $3.6 billion, of which
external is about 3.1 billion. In addition, debt service in 2012 will
make $270 million.

`External debt is fully manageable. In the medium term, the government
envisages a number of loan agreements but their volume will meet
solvency norms,’ he assured.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), in late 2011 Armenian
government’s external debt made 2955 million, the debt of CBA – 754
million

The IMF report as of June 2012 said Armenia’s external debt will reach
36.9% of GDP by the end of this year and in the period of 2013-2015 –
35%, 33% a

Armenian fund cannot afford renovating Armenian Church in Turkey

news.am
August 22, 2012 | 18:38

ANKARA. – The Armenian Church St. Gevorg in Mardin, Turkey is left without care.

The church’s destiny is yet indefinite, even after it passed to the
fund of the Armenian Catholic Church in Mardin, Turkish Evrensel.net
reports adding the church cannot afford renovating the St Gevorg.

The church, the year of foundation of which is unknown, has served as
a store for agricultural chemicals for a long time, before it was
revealed by the Turkish human rights advocate Ragip Zarakolu.

Afterwards the church was put under government’s control in 2004. It
was decided to make renovation but due to an irresponsible guard
appointed to control work, the church roof collapsed. Only after, it
was passed to the fund of the Armenian Catholic Church.

Expert: Presidential system of governance in Armenia starts hindering
development of democracy and civil society

arminfo
Wednesday, August 22, 17:39

The nomination of a single opposition candidate at the presidential
elections in Armenia is unable to neutralize the consequences of the
bogginess and bureaucratization of the opposition forces, Ruben
Mehrabyan, expert at the Armenian Center for Political and
International Studies, says in his interview with ArmInfo.

To note, earlier Head of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Faction Armen
Rustamyan said that ARFD was ready to cooperate with other opposition
forces to nominate a single candidate at the presidential elections in
Armenia in 2013. The representatives of Heritage Party, in turn,
repeatedly stated that Heritage Leader Raffi Hovannisian might become
a single candidate from the opposition. As regards the Armenian
National Congress (ANC), it has made no decision yet.

“The current institutional crisis in Armenia affects the parties. We
speak about democracy, about the fight for democracy, but at the same
time we have parties, where, figuratively saying, absolute and even
“theocratic” monarchy is ruling. Thus, it becomes senseless to speak
of the fight for democracy with such tools. When speaking of
democracy, one should simply start changing oneself”, he says.

The expert thinks that Armenia needs a wider, non-partisan format,
which sets itself a goal to change the whole structure of state
governance, i.e. the oligarchic, clan system of monopolism. Moreover,
Mehrabyan believes that the presidential system of governing in
Armenia starts hindering the development of democracy and the civil
society. The presidential model of governance lays the bases of this
“absolute monarchy”.

“We need a parliamentary system of governance. Some countries of the
former USSR are gradually switching to that system. They start
“diluting” the institute of presidential power. We see it in Moldova
and Georgia. I think Armenia also needs such “dilution” of the
presidential power and introduction of a system of counterbalances.
And in this matter I see a great potential for reaching a civil and
political consensus on dismantling the oligarchic system”, he says.

CBA rules out transactions between Armenian banks and UN-sanctioned Iranians

August 22, 2012 – 13:44 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Conduction of any financial transactions with
Iranian officials included in UN Security Council’s sanctions list is
technically impossible, head of Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
Financial Monitoring Center said.

`The names and lists are automated in relevant programs of all the
banks. Thus, technically, the program won’t allow for any matches with
these names,’ Daniel Azatyan said.

The Central Bank of Armenia earlier issued a response to Reuters
article, claiming Iran expands presence in Armenian banking system, in
answer to international sanctions.

`The banks in the Republic of Armenia, operating under the supervision
of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), are subject to RA laws, CBA
regulations and internal rules. One of CBA’s supervisory tiers is the
provision of the adequate implementation of financial sanctions
imposed on certain countries under relevant decisions of international
organizations, such as the UN Security Council Resolutions,’ CBA’s
report reads.

`CBA is responsible for checking the matches of the names and lists
specified. For this purpose, the bank submits necessary queries. No
transaction has been conducted so far with officials whose names
match,’ he said, adding that U.S. and European countries urge their
banks against cooperating with Iranian financial institutions.

`The bank shareholders themselves urge employees to be extremely
careful,’ he said.

`Given the fact that Armenian banking system’s assets are rather small
as compared with the international standards, any problem will
seriously affect the image of the bank, the whole banking system and
the country itself,’ Mr. Azatyan said, adding that Armenia boasts good
financial cooperation with Iran.

The Financial Monitoring Center (FMC) was established in 2005 as a
separate unit in the structure of the Central Bank of Armenia. The FMC
is an administrative-type financial intelligence unit, which acts as
an intermediary between reporting entities and law enforcement
authorities. The mission of the FMC is to combat money laundering and
terrorism financing (AML/CFT).

The main function of the FMC is to collect, analyze and exchange
information for AML/CFT purposes. In addition, the FMC represents the
Republic of Armenia in several international organizations and
structures, while actively participating in international AML/CFT
initiatives.

Armenian Foreign Ministry: A 42-year-old Armen Virabyan killed in air
crash in Sudan

arminfo
Tuesday, August 21, 17:15

The citizens of Armenia who was killed in an air crash in Sudan on
August 19 has been identified, Tigran Balayan, Armenian Foreign
Ministry Spokesperson, told ArmInfo.

A 42-year-old Armen Virabyan was among the passengers of AN-26 that
crashed in Sudan, Balayan said.

31 people including at least one Sudanese minister were killed when a
plane taking them to an Islamic festival crashed in the south of the
country on August 19.

The Russian Embassy in Sudan reports that among the killed passengers
were also a citizen of Russia and citizens of Armenia and Tajikistan.

The chartered plane AN-26 belonging to Alfa-1 Sudanese air company was
carrying a Sudanese delegation, including government ministers, to
South Kordofan, a war-torn state with ongoing fighting between Sudan’s
army and rebel groups, to attend prayers for Eid al-Fitr, at the end
of Ramadan. All the people on board died in he crash, among them were
Guidance and Religious Endowments Minister Ghazi al-Sadiq Abdel Rahim,
Justice Party Chairman Makki Ali Balayil, State minister at the Youth
and Sports Ministry Mahjub Abdel Rahim Tutu, State minister at the
Ministry of Tourism, Antiquities and Wildlife Issa Daifallah, several
ranking members of the security forces, several officials from
Khartoum, media representatives and six crew members.

Leaders of CIS members to discuss joint programs in Ashgabat

14:38, 22 August, 2012

YEREVAN, AUGUST 22, ARMENPRESS: Presidents and Foreign affairs
ministers of CIS member states on November 1 and 2 in Ashgabat will
discuss issues concerning cooperation in economic and humanitarian
spheres as well as joint actions in security and environmental fields.
Armenpress reports calling press service of CIS executive committee
that the agenda of the session of Presidents and Foreign affairs
ministers had been discussed on August 21 in Minsk during the session
of permanent representatives of CIS member states.

In Ashgabat leaders of CIS member states will traditionally discuss
issues concerning the security of the member countries, especially
strengthening the security of state borders.

Several issues of the agenda will refer to economic cooperation and
humanitarian field.

One of the most important issues of the meeting will be the
preparation works for the 70th jubilee of the victory in Great
Patriotic War.

OSCE to hold the next monitoring on Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijani border

10:31, 22 August, 2012

YEREVAN, AUGUST 22, ARMENPRESS: According to the mandate of personal
representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-office on August 23 the next
observer mission will be held on Nagorno-Karabakh-Azerbaijani contact
line. Armenpress reports that the monitoring will be held near Aghdam.

>From Karabakh side the monitoring will be carried by personal
representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk, his
field assistant Irji Aberle and personal assistant William Pryor.

>From Azerbaiajni side the observer mission will implement filed
assistants of Special representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-office
Antal Herdich and coordinator of OSCE representation in Baku Peter
Kean.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the
world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental Organization.

Game Politics
Aug 21 2012

Azerbaijan Developers Revisit the Nagorno-Karabakh War

August 21, 2012

A new video game developed by a 19-year-old student and promoted by
the Azerbaijani government lets players change the results of the
Spring 1992 capture of the Nagorno Karabakhi town of Shusha by
Armenian and Nagorno Karabakhi forces. The battle marked the turning
point in the conflict for control of the territory.

The game is called Under Occupation: Shusha (or Ä°Å?gal Altında: Å?uÅ?a),
and lets players jump into the boots of an Azerbaijani soldier who
must battle Armenian soldiers in house-to-house battles to retake the
city. The game was created by Farid Hagverdiev, a 19-year-old student
at Baku’s State Oil Academy.

Hagverdiev spent two years developing the game with other students at
the academy and was inspired by several team-based first-person
shooters including Call of Duty and Counter-Strike. It is also the
first video game developed solely by Azerbaijani citizens.

“By creating the game we wanted to support the patriotic spirit in our
youth, which I hope we accomplished successfully,” he told
EurasiaNet.org. The game can be downloaded for free, and has even
managed to capture the attention of the government, who apparently
find it inspiring…

They like it so much that the country’s Ministry of Youth and Sports
recently organized a presentation of Under Occupation earlier this
summer at the Hyatt Regency in Baku.

Hagverdiev and his team of developers are already thinking about
making another game; though this time they wouldn’t mind making some
money off it.