Author: Babajanian Karo

STATE COMMISSION: INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS GET APPEAL ON AZERBAIJANI SERVICEMAN CAPTURED BY ARMENIA

Trend
July 31 2012
Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani State Commission on POWs, Hostages and Missing Persons
began taking important military action to liberate a serviceman of
the Azerbaijani army, held captive in Armenia, the commission told
Trend today.

The Commission sent a formal appeal to the relevant international
organisations immediately after getting information that on July 26,
20-year-old Farajev Firuz was captured by Armenian troops.

The representative office of the International Committee of the Red
Cross in Armenia is assisting in this matter.

The Commission is concerned that the information about Farajev’s
family disseminated by the media after his capture will prevent work
being done on his release.

Local media have distributed personal information about Farajev’s
family without any agreement with them, any clarification or additional
testing.

The state commission stated that as the only organisation dealing
with the liberation of prisoners and hostages, including Farajev,
it takes all necessary measures and disseminates information about
it when it considers it necessary.

‘Taking into account all of this, the State Commission recommends
that the media proceed from the general interest, to prevent the
spread of unproven, unfounded personal and family information while
covering this issue’, the report says.

SYRIAN ARMENIANS CAN BE SETTLED IN AZERBAIJAN’S OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

APA
July 31 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Anakhanum Hidayatova – APA. Dashnaktsutyun party created a
special committee on problems of Syrian Armenians in its office in
the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

APA reports quoting “yerkramas.org” website that the issue of the
settlement of Syrian Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh was discussed at
the meeting.

Suren Khachatryan, head of so-called “Kashatag” region established
by Armenians in the occupied Gubadli, Zangilan and Lachin regions of
Azerbaijan, said he was addressed by Armenians for settling in this
area. He said they agreed to settle one family and expressed readiness
to accept five more families. Khachatryan said seven families from
Syria came before the latest incidents and 5 families stayed there.

IT’S TIME FOR ARMENIAN FEST AT FESTIVAL PARK AUG. 5

Journal Times

July 31 2012
WI

RACINE – Armenian Fest will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday,
Aug. 5, at Festival Park, 5 Fifth St. The festival, known as the
largest Armenian Festival in the Midwest, is sponsored by St. Mesrob
Armenian Apostolic Church.

At 10 a.m. before the festival begins, the Divine Liturgy of the
Armenian Church will be offered in the Green Room of Festival Hall.

There will be Armenian music all day, outside under the big tent by
the Mideast Beat for folk dancing.

Armenian food that will be available include shish kebob dinners, rice
pilaf, sarma, lahmajoon and cheese boeregs, plus numerous Armenian
pastries and breads.

A silent auction will be held from noon to 5 p.m. in Festival Hall.

There will also be a cultural booth with books and gifts for sale and
an Armenian marketplace. A dunk tank, golf putting and various games
and activities will be available for children. A raffle drawing will
be held at 7 p.m. Prizes are: Grand prize, $1,000; second place $300;
third $200, and fourth, $100.

There is no admission fee to the festival, however, a freewill offering
will be accepted. Proceeds from donations will go to the Northside
Food Pantry and to Armenian orphanages.

SYRIAN ARMENIAN CHILDREN TO SPEND THEIR VACATIONS IN TSAGHKADZOR AND HANKAVAN

ARMENPRESS
AUGUST 2, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS: Syrian Armenian children will spend some
part of their summer vacations in Armenian camps. Armenpress reports
that the project of organizing summer camps in Armenia for Syrian
Armenian children was proved during the session of the Government on
August 2.

During the briefing Minister of Diaspora of Armenia Hranush Hakobyan
mentioned that the children would be chosen not by the ministry but
institutions of Armenian community in Syria. “We will transfer as
much children to Armenia as will choose the communities. We can say
that the airplane in Damascus is already full and is ready to transfer
the children to Armenia and the election in Aleppo still goes on. We
think that we will be able to transfer 300-400 children to Armenia
and organize their summer vacations” mentioned Hakobyan. The summer
vacations of Syrian Armenian children is planned to organize for
two weeks in Tsaghkadzor and Hankavan. The minister of Diaspora also
suggests the children spend their vacations in Armenian families in
order “not to be isolated”.

MINISTER TIGRAN DAVTYAN VISITED ARMENIA TECHNOLOGY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

hetq
12:43, August 2, 2012

Yesterday the Economic minister of Armenia, Mr. Tigran Davtyan,
visited Armenia Technology Center of Excellence. The Technology Center
of Excellence includes several companies such as Gallery-Systems,
Boomerang Software, Energize Global Services, and these companies
provide IT services to global and well-known clients as well as
develop innovative technologies and software applications.

Mr. Richard Bezjian, the president and CEO of the companies in the
Technology Center, provided the tour to the Minister and explained
different products and services being undertaken in the center. The
Minister was accompanied by his deputy and his group of associates and
also present were reporters and the media coverage of TV stations. Of
particular interest was Gallery-Systems DOOCAT banking platform which
provides Mobile Banking and Mobile Commerce and can be utilized by
banks, financial institutions and telecom companies.

The new world of mobile communications accompanied by the use of
popular smart-phones is revolutionizing the banking industry. DOOCAT
is one of the front-runners and a brand name in the Mobile Banking
platform global initiative. Unibank will be rolling out DOOCAT in Q4
2012 and other banks are in the negotiation with Gallery-Systems to
also provide DOOCAT services.

First mover advantage is key in these changing times where banks who
provide such innovative services will attract more clients and those
who don’t may fall behind.

“This is the beginning of new era of Mobile Banking and with our DOOCAT
platform we provide all banks a ready solution to be quickly installed
and offered to their customers immediately” – said Richard Bezjian,
the president and CEO of Gallery-Systems. – “Beyond the Mobile
Banking and bank account balance viewing and transfers DOOCAT is
differentiated from all other competing products due to its advanced
and fuller functions. These include utility payments and particularly
Commerce which includes paying at supermarkets or purchasing products
via smart-phones by the use of DOOCAT” – added Richard Bezjian.

Indeed with these advanced features DOOCAT is way ahead of the curve
in providing one of the most robust and feature-rich Mobile Banking
and Commerce platforms in the World.

In the debut DOOCAT was presented in Moscow, Russia on June 29 at a
Mobile Banking conference. Conference attendees included many of the
well-known Russian banks, telcos and financial institutions. At an
unexpected over capacity filled audience the feedback by the attendees
clearly was overwhelmingly positive for DOOCAT.

Minister Tigran Davtyan during the demonstration of the DOOCAT was
given the smart-phone and personally experienced how easy it was by
clicking a few buttons on the screen of the phone to make a payment
and purchase. “I am very excited to see such a product and a new
banking solution” – said the Minister.

The minister himself is an avid user of smart-phones and he showed
how he has come to rely on the use of the smart-phones and how quickly
the mobile networks have improved the service and how attractive and
easy it has become for people to conduct research, get information
or do banking via smart-phones.

The demonstration test purchase via DOOCAT showed the Minister and
all visitors a glimpse of the future. “DOOCAT and such technology
are essential for advancement of the banking sector and the use of
smart-phones and tablets are increasingly becoming the dominant way
for people to operate. And I am truly and pleasantly surprised by
this team and the DOOCAT platform” – said the Minister.

Gallery-Systems is dedicated to combine and enhancethe DOOCAT
platform. It employs teams of engineers who are preparing the next
generations of DOOCAT and its different releases that run on Apple
I-phone, Google Android and Windows Mobile platforms.

Gallery-Systems with the DOOCAT mobile banking system will be
exhibiting at international CARTES exhibition to be held in Paris in
November 2012.

WHAT WILL PUTIN TELL SARGSYAN?
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:30:37 – 02/08/2012

The information office of the president reports Serzh Sargsyan has
left for a short vacation today and will spend part of it abroad. He
will interrupt his holiday and leave for Russia for a working visit
to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on August 8.

The fact that Serzh Sargsyan will interrupt his holiday to leave for
Moscow means the Moscow visit is urgent otherwise why should Sargsyan
interrupt his holiday if he could postpone the visit till after the
vacation. The schedule of presidents is busy, especially that of the
Russian president but if Putin has decided to interrupt Sargsyan’s
holiday means he has something urgent to tell him.

Moreover, maybe what he is going to tell is not even so important but
he wants to interrupt the holidays just in order to put psychological
pressure on Serzh Sargsyan and to show that Armenia is ready to rush
at Moscow’s call. By interrupting his holiday and leaving for Moscow,
Sargsyan confirms Putin’s “truth”.

At the same time, Sargsyan cannot refuse to leave for Moscow since
the domestic situation in Armenia is not clear. Serzh Sargsyan enjoys
the support of the West but the latter, for example, refused the
promised money and delayed its allocation after the presidential
elections with the condition that the quality should be better and
reforms should be intensified.

Later, Armenia was rumored to ask for money from Russia. The government
has neither denied nor confirmed this information, saying the process
of requesting money from foreign countries is an ongoing process.

Serzh Sargsyan needs money to activate the economy and eliminate
threats of possible social revolt. The issue is not only the social
revolt. Merely, it is of vital importance for Serzh Sargsyan to show
social progress ahead of the elections, otherwise the current economic
policy and its sad outcome will just intensify nostalgia for Robert
Kocharyan’s “double-digit growth”.

In order to resist to all this, Serzh Sargsyan needs to find money
and ensure economic activation prior to the presidential elections,
or he needs to convince Moscow that it is possible to work with him and
there is no need to consider the option of Robert Kocharyan’s return.

On the other hand, this may cause problems between Serzh Sargsyan and
the West. Earlier, the West used to have a mild approach to Armenia.

It is difficult to say whether their attitude has become tough but
it has evidently been clarified, and the limits of maneuvering for
Yerevan have been narrowed.

In this situation, Serzh Sargsyan needs to give loyalty guarantees
to Moscow at the same time satisfying the minimal expectations or
demands of the West relating to the dismantlement of the ruling system.

But the situation is complicated for him because this minimal
expectations will arouse doubts in Russia where they understand
that if at least one stone drops out of the ruling system, it will
collapse. Meanwhile, destruction of the system means collapse
of Moscow’s supremacy in Armenia because it is based on the
criminal-oligarchic system.

No doubt, a difficult meeting is expecting Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow.

The interesting thing is that Serzh Sargsyan’s visit was preceded by
visits of several Russian delegations to Armenia, namely the speaker
of two chambers of the Russian parliament, Russian president’s envoy
on humanitarian issues, the foreign minister of Russia. Serzh Sargsyan
met the Russian PM Medvedev in London.

It is not ruled out that these delegations did not get the answers
to their questions in Yerevan so Putin decided to talk to Serzh
Sargsyan personally.

But at the same time, it is also possible that the meeting with Putin
is initiated by Armenia and through it Serzh Sargsyan is trying to
agree on domestic processes in Armenia for Moscow not to generate a
force-majeure situation in September. And perhaps, Putin agreed to
discuss these issues only after Russian delegations left Armenia with
satisfactory answers.

As to the West’s possible response, the situation is relative here.

The West cannot be satisfied with Armenia’s EU-West sentiment expressed
in the form of statements while de facto governance promotes Russia’s
supremacy or at least does not try to weaken it and build a sovereign
state.

On the other hand, however, the Western policy has quite pragmatic
expressions in Armenia and is characterized by strategic and tactical
harmony, even if there is a formal opposition. The point is that
for strategic success, the West needs to tolerate Russia’s tactical
success in Armenia. In this particular case they will, probably, attach
importance to the lack of danger coming from Russia’s destructive
policy since otherwise not only the Western tactics but the strategy
also would be threatened.

After all, the West proceeds from the reality that it may lead a
strategic policy in the South Caucasus and may maneuver for its sake
while Russia’s tactics has become a strategic goal. Here is a paradox
when Russia’s tactical success works for the Western strategy.

ZHOGHOVURD: FORMER DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER BUYS DAVID ANHAGHT PARK’S FOUNTAINS AND SURROUNDING TERRITORY

Panorama.am
02/08/2012

Former Deputy Defense Minister and member of ARF parliamentary faction
Arthur Aghabekyan has bought the fountains in David Anhaght Park and
the surrounding territory in Yerevan’s Kanaker-Zeytun administrative
district, Zhoghovurd reports.

“That territory is owned by former MP, PAP businessman Ashot Tonoyan,
nicknamed Tonus Ashot. Tonoyan, who runs construction business,
is deeply in debt and already begins to sell his property,” the
paper writes.

GUMRI DANS LE COLLIMATEUR ?
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 2 aout 2012

La presse relève que suite a la demission de Vartan Ghoukassian,
maire de Gumri, de ses fonctions de dirigeant du parti Republicain
dans la region de Chirak, celle-ci ayant fait suite a la decision
du parti Republicain de ne pas soutenir ce maire controverse lors
des elections du 9 septembre, cette ville vivrait dans la terreur
provoquee par la famille Ghoukassian et notamment son fils. Celui-ci
aurait non seulement publiquement menace le candidat d’Armenie
prospère, Samvel Balassanian, qui beneficiera manifestement du
soutien du parti Republicain, mais aussi les habitants de la ville
auxquels il aurait demande d’organiser des actions en soutien a son
père. Les quotidiens s’interrogent par ailleurs sur la decision
soudaine du parti Republicain de soutenir le candidat d’un parti
qui a pris ses distances avec lui, en refusant de rejoindre la
coalition, alors qu’il aurait pu presenter son propre candidat. Les
commentateurs se demandent s’il s’agit d’un eventuel ” rapprochement
” des deux partis, naguère partenaires, a la veille des elections
presidentielles. Et de se demander si le parti Republicain souhaite
faire une ” concession strategique ” a Armenie prospère afin d’obtenir,
lors des elections presidentielles, son soutien. Les commentateurs
s’interrogent egalement sur les intentions du CNA quant aux elections
du maire de Gumri. L’editorial de Hraparak relève que, qui que soit
le nouveau maire de la deuxième ville, il ne sera pas le ” candidat
” des habitants de Gumri, mais quelqu’un impose depuis Erevan.

Ambassade de France en Armenie

Service de presse

L’ARMEE TURQUE EN MANOEUVRES PRES DE LA FRONTIERE SYRIENNE
Ara

armenews.com
jeudi 2 aout 2012

ANKARA (Turquie), 01 août 2012 (AFP) – L’armee turque effectuait des
manoeuvres mercredi près de sa frontière sud-est avec la Syrie pour
tester la vitesse et la maniabilite de ses chars, a rapporte l’agence
de presse Anatolie.

Ces manoeuvres se sont deroulees après l’envoi par la Turquie d’un
convoi de chars transportant des armes et des batteries de missiles
sol-air a la frontière syrienne, renforcant ainsi son dispositif a la
frontière du pays, alors que les combats en Syrie se sont intensifies.

Environ 25 chars ont participemercredi aux exercices dans la ville de
Nusaybin, dans la province de Mardin, a seulement 2 km de la frontière,
selon l’agence.

“C’est une manoeuvre militaire, un exercice de routine qui durera
environ deux jours”, a dit le gouverneur local, Turhan Ayvaz, cite par
l’agence Anatolie. La Turquie a renforce son dispositif militaire a
la frontière après qu’un Phantom turc a ete abattu par la Syrie le 22
juin. La semaine dernière, Ankara avait envoye un convoi transportant
des batteries de missiles sol-air vers plusieurs unites deployees
a la frontière, alors que les rebelles se sont empares de plusieurs
postes le long des 900 km de la frontière turco-syrienne.

Ces derniers deploiements interviennent aussi après que la ville
syrienne d’Ifrin, situee près de Kilis et Islahiye, est tombee
entre les mains du Parti de l’union democratique (PYD), une branche
syrienne du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK), selon des
sources rebelles.

Le ministre turc des Affaires etrangère Ahmet Davutoglu devait se
rendre mercredi dans le nord de l’Irak pour evoquer avec des leaders
kurdes irakiens la situation en Syrie, notamment les informations selon
lesquelles certaines regions du nord de la Syrie etaient tombees aux
mains des rebelles kurdes.

L’ARMENIE ESTIME POUVOIR EVITER UNE CHUTE DE SA PRODUCTION DE BLE
Ara

armenews.com
jeudi 2 aout 20

La production de ble en Armenie ne chutera pas cette annee malgre des
conditions meteorologiques moins favorables qu’en 2011, a declare un
haut fonctionnaire mercredi.

” Notre capacite de production totale ne sera pas inferieure a celle
de 2011, contrairement a beaucoup de grands pays producteurs de ble,
” a estime le vice-ministre de l’Agriculture Samvel Galstian. Elle
pourrait meme depasser legèrement le niveau de 2011 qui avait atteint
une production de 223.000 tonnes.

La production de ble armenien avait augmente de 20 % environ l’an
dernier en raison d’un temps relativement clement. Le gouvernement
a egalement attribue cette augmentation a l’importation de 1.000
tonnes de semences de cereales de haute qualite venue de Russie et
distribuees aux agriculteurs armeniens.

Cette distribution fait partie d’un programme gouvernemental visant
a augmenter progressivement la production de ble domestique avec un
objectif de 350.000 tonnes en 2014.

Selon le ministère de l’Agriculture, la superficie totale des champs
de cereales du pays a augmente de plus de 20 % , soit près de 100.000
hectares a l’automne dernier. Le gouvernement espère que cela se
traduira par une augmentation correspondante en 2012 des rendements
de ble.

Les villageois de la province nord-ouest de Shirak, l’une des
principales regions productrices de ble du pays ont impute aux tempetes
de pluies les resultats decevant de la recolte. Certains d’entre eux
se sont egalement plaints de la qualite des soi-disant ” semences
d’elite ” achetees par l’Etat. “Nous etions censes collecter 5 tonnes
[de ble] par hectare, mais nous en obtiendrons 1 tonne tout au plus,”
a declare l’un d’eux a RFE / RL.

Movses Manoukian, chef du departement de l’agriculture a
l’administration provinciale, a estime pour sa part que la production
de ble du Shirak n’est susceptible d’atteindre un equilibre que
grâce aux semences de ble qui ont ete plantees dans 3000 hectares
supplementaires de terres.

Les previsions du secteur montrent que l’Armenie restera fortement
dependante des importations de ble qui viennent principalement de la
Russie et l’Ukraine. Le pays consomme environ 650000 tonnes de ble
chaque annee.

Selon la Banque mondiale, les prix mondiaux du ble ont augmente de 50
% depuis la mi-Juin du fait, principalement, d’une grave secheresse
estivale aux Etats-Unis, le plus grand producteur mondial de cereales.

Des conditions meteorologiques defavorables en Russie, en Ukraine et
dans une grande partie de l’Europe ont egalement joue sur ces taux.