Author: Babajanian Karo

BRITISH EMBASSY IN ARMENIA TO MARK THE START OF LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES IN YEREVAN’S LOVERS’ PARK

arminfo
Friday, July 27, 13:57

The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Armenia will mark the start of
the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London in Yerevan’s Lovers’ Park on
Friday evening.

The press service of the Embassy reports that at 11:00 PM they will
present the best British songs and at midnight they will broadcast
the opening of the games on a big screen to be placed in the park.

The games are starting today. They will involve as many as 10,500
sportsmen from 205 countries and will be covered by over 28,000
journalists.

A NEW TURKISH LAW OUTLAWS PURCHASE OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY BY ARMENIAN CITIZENS IN TURKEY

18:34 . 27/07

The new bill which came into force in Turkey deprives the citizens
of Armenia, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Nigeria and Yemen of the right
to buy immovable property in the country.

Whereas the citizens of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the
Arab countries of the Persian Gulf can buy immovable property in
Turkey without preconditions. The citizens of several other countries
have that right on certain conditions. Particularly, the citizens
of Russia and Ukraine were banned form buying property at the shore
of the Black Sea. Georgian citizens may buy property in all parts of
Turkey except for coastal and near-border regions.

Besides, the new law allows foreign citizens to buy no more than 10%
of the territory of each province.

Earlier, the law said that the citizens of those countries could buy
land in Turkey, in which Turkish citizens were entitled to buy land.

LES ARMENIENS D’ARGENTINE ET D’URUGUAY DENONCENT LES AGISSEMENTS DE L’AZERBAIDJAN
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 28 juillet 2012

A quelques jours de la tournee du Ministre azeri des Affaires
etrangères Elmar Mamedyarov dans plusieurs pays d’Amerique du Sud les
responsables des communautes armeniennes d’Argentine et de l’Uruguay
a travers le ” Conseil national armenien d’Amerique du Sud ” ont
manifeste leur mise en garde. Selon le journal ” Armenia ” de Buenos
Aires et Diego Karamanoukian de la radio ” Araxe ” ont mis en garde
les gouvernements des pays de l’Amerique du Sud contre la politique
negationniste et discriminatoire de l’Azerbaïdjan contre l’Armenie et
le Armeniens. En denoncant au passage la course a l’armement de Bakou
et les declarations guerrières repetees contre le Haut Karabagh et
l’Armenie. Les responsables des communautes armeniennes d’Argentine
et de l’Uruguay ont lance nombre de communiques et appels a travers
les medias pour denoncer les agissements de l’Azerbaïdjan.

L’ARMENIE A CONQUIS 13 MEDAILLES OLYMPIQUES INDIVIDUELLES DONT UNE SEULE SOUS LES COULEURS DE LA REPUBLIQUE D’ARMENIE
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 28 juillet 2012

Alors que les 30e Jeux Olympiques d’ete viennent de s’ouvrir l’Armenie
est en quete de sa deuxième medaille d’or. Au Jeux d’Atlanta (1996)
lors de la première participation de l’Armenie aux Jeux Olympiques
modernes, Armen Nazarian (lutte) avait ramene a l’Armenie la première
medaille d’or de l’Armenie. Depuis, l’Armenie qui compte egalement une
medaille d’argent et plusieurs de bronze court vers un nouveau sacre
olympique. Depuis 1952 date de la participation des Armeniens d’Armenie
(sous les couleurs de l’Union sovietique) aux Jeux Olympiques, ils
comptent 13 medailles d’or individuelles. Cette liste ci-dessous ne
comprend pas les medailles olympiques remportees par des Armeniens
dans d’autres pays comme la Bulgarie.

1952 a Helsinki (Finlande) Hrant Chahinian (gymnastique) 1956 a
Melbourne (Australie) Vladimir Yenguibarian (boxe), Albert Azarian
(gymnastique), Igor Novikov (pentathlon) 1960 a Rome (Italie)
Albert Azarian (gymnastique) 1972 a Munich (Allemagne) Faïna Melnik
(athletisme) 1980 a Moscou (Union sovietique) Youri Vartanian
(halterophilie), Edouard Azarian (gymnastique) 1988 a Seoul (Coree
du Sud) Levon Djoulfalakian (lutte greco-romaine), Oxène Mirzoyan
(halterophilie) 1992 a Barcelone (Espagne) Israël Militossian
(halterophilie), Hratchia Bedikian (tir), Mnatsagan Iskandarian
(lutte greco-romaine) 1996 a Atlanta (Etats Unis) Armen Nazarian
(lutte greco-romaine)

Pour ces Jeux Olympiques de Londres, l’Armenie a de reelles
chances de medaille olympique avec Arsen Djoulfalakian (74 kg, lutte
greco-romaine), Youri Partikeev (120 kg, lutte greco-romaine), Tigrane
G. Martirossian (69 kg, halterophilie) ainsi que les halterophiles
Arakel Mirzoyan et Melinee Doulouzian. Le judo avec Armen Nazarian
et Hovhannes Davdian peut egalement decrocher une medaille olympique.

DEFENDANT CUTS VEINS IN COURTROOM IN ARMENIA

tert.am
26.07.12

A Yerevan minor court has canceled on July 26 a trial of Stepan
Hovakimyan and Vahram Kerobyan accused of robbery in Moskva cinema
after the defendant Hovakimyan cut his veins in the courtroom,
Hovakimyan’s father Beniamin Hovakimyan told Tert.am.

He said judge Mkhitar Papoyan ordered to call ambulance after which
the young man was taken from the courtroom and received medical
assistance in the court building.

Stepan Hovakimyan and Vahram Kerobyan are accused of stealing over
5 million Armenian drams and 10 thousand Russian rubles from Moskva
cinema on January 10, 2010.

The next trial is slated for August 14. Defendant Vahram Kerobyan
has been released on bail, Beniamin Hovakimyan hoped the same would
happen with his son but the decision was not made due to the incident.

Explaining the son’s step, Hovakimyan said it was a nervous outburst.

He talked to his son a day before and everything was all right.

Stepan Hovakimyan and Vahram Kerobyan have been charged under Article
177 of the Armenian Criminal Code – robbery.

PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR
Garen Yegparian

What if 98 cents of every dollar you had was taken from you?

What if those dollars were in the form of inherited family wealth that
had sustained infants, college students, and octogenarian retirees
alike since time immemorial?

What if on top of taking your wealth, in the process, you were also
saddled with additional debts of unknown magnitude?

What if on top of the theft, loss of legacy, and debts, you were made
sick by the same agents who inflicted the rest of the pain on you?

What if, finally, just to make things look less obscene, the
perpetrators of this travesty threw a few bones your way?

I suspect you would be seething, raging, fuming with anger, and doing
anything you could to remedy the situation.

Well, here’s your chance, because what I described above is exactly
what’s happening in the northern reaches of the Republic of Armenia,
in the forests of Teghut.

Design by Harry Vorperian

It’s anticipated that more than $20 billion dollars worth of
(primarily) copper will be mined from beneath the old growth forests
that currently cover the area over the anticipated 25-ish year life of
the mining operation. Sounds pretty good, right? That a lot of money in
a country with a struggling economy, right? It’ll provide jobs, right?

Except… in the process of extracting the ore

* the whole area will be denuded of the irreplaceable old growth
forest, a whole mountain will be removed and a deep pit left behind;
this seems much like the “mountain top removal” coal mining being
practiced in Appalachia with lethal results * the local villagers
will be left with poisoned land, with toxic mine wastes piled up or,
if in liquid form, held in ponds built with piled up dirt, subject to
failure * the riverways and the area will consequently be impacted,
imperiling local water supplies, for humans and other animals *
local animals, some of holdovers from before the ice age and found
nowhere else, may go extinct * unknown long term cleanup issues will no
doubt arise * people’s health will be impacted much as in Appalachia,
USA or Bhopal, India

But of course, a few dozen of the local folk will have jobs for the
next two decades, but nowhere worth living after that. And, I should
be fair, about $300 million (in today’s dollars) will accrue to the
RoA, that’s about 1.5% of the total value of the ore. Take that,
couple it with the value of the employment I just mentioned, and
related economic activity, and you’ll probably get about 2% of the
total value of the ore, meaning 98% is going to… who knows where.

The ownership of 82% of the company doing the mining is being kept
secret. What are they afraid of? Who needs Azeri snipers killing border
patrols when we’ve got these kinds of unscrupulous companies exploiting
the country’s natural wealth and the people’s desperation for work?

In case you didn’t notice, there’s that 98 cents I started out with.

If righteous indignation burns within you now, be proud of it. Act
on it. Whether on Facebook or other websites, start making your
voice heard. There may soon be petitions and other actions over this
reprehensible arrangement, join in. Let the authorities in Yerevan
and their representatives know how despicable you think this is.

Attend rallies and seminars. Let’s help our compatriots living in
the deadly shadow of this operation. There are cleaner, better,
more publicly beneficial ways of extracting the wealth of the land,
be it metal ores, stones, or anything else.

Oh, and this isn’t the only obscene mining operation in the Republic
of Armenia…

ANOTHER ANONYMOUS LETTER ON PLIGHT IN ARMY

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:16:47 – 27/07/2012

The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office received another
anonymous letter on the state of human rights in the Armed Forces,
the existing problems and violations of field manuals.

On 26 July 2012 the NGO received an email on unlawfulness, violence
and duress by conscript Tatul Grigoryan. It is noted that he is the
nephew of the deputy commander of the same military unit and the son
of a Republican member of parliament.

The anonymous author informs that this conscript, drunken almost every
day, bullies the other conscripts, collects 3400 drams from each
conscript at the end of every month. The higher commanders are not
aware, while the commanders of the company and the platoon cannot do
anything about it because they are afraid. The chief of staff of the
military unit is Grisha Khachaturov, the son of the chief of general
staff of the RA Army Yuri Khachaturov. He is a strict commander and if
he learns about it, he will attend to this but nobody dares tell him.

The ministry of defense is not aware. He even gambled and sent the
loser home to bring the money, once it was 300,000 drams.

Earlier on July 19 the NGO received the first anonymous letter from
an officer who complained of Grisha Khachaturov, the deputy commander
of the 3rd corps, and his friends, duress and tension in the military
units of the 3rd corps.

Referring to the content of the letters, the HCA Vanadzor office
expresses concern about the plight in the 3rd corps which indicates
the lack of efficient mechanisms of internal appeals.

The HCA demands that the Ministry of Defense undertake rapid measures
to resolve problems resulting from violations of field manuals,
based on solutions it proposed earlier.

INTRODUCTION DES PASSEPORTS BIOMETRIQUES EN ARMENIE POUR FACILITER LES PROCEDURES DE DEMANDE DE VISA AUPRES DE L’UE
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 27 juillet 2012

L’introduction des passeports biometriques en Armenie facilitera les
procedures de demande de visa auprès de l’UE a declare Hovhanness
Kocharyan, Chef du Departement des Passeports et des Visas a la
police armenienne.

Le transfert du nouveau système avait ete prevu par le Gouvernement
armenien dans le cadre du Programme de reforme des migrations approuve
en 2008 et execute dans le cadre de la cooperation avec l’UE a-t-il
dit. Kocharyan a assure que les passeports biometriques et les cartes
d’identite permettront de reduire la contrefacon des passeports en
automatisant le processus d’identification.

La production d’un passeport coûtera 37 euros et une Carte d’identite
6 euros.

Le passeport contiendra deux empreintes digitales du proprietaire. La
carte d’identite sera valable dans 10 ans. Elle contiendra les memes
donnees sur la personne en armenien et en anglais.

M.Kocharyan a dit que les passeports sont disponibles pour 25000
drams et les cartes d’identite pour 3000 drams.

ARMENIA’S OLYMPIC ATHLETES IN LONDON

Asbarez
Thursday, July 26th, 2012

On Tuesday the Armenian National Olympic Committee hosted a sendoff
for Team Armenia

LONDON-Athletes representing Armenia in the Olympic Games arrived in
London where they will be competing in a variety of sports, including
boxing, weightlifting, wrestling judo, swimming, gymnastics, shooting,
track & field and taekwondo.

The 25-person team includes four women, two of whom will compete in
weightlifting and the other two in swimming and track each. On the
men’s side, seven will compete in wrestling, six in weightlifting,
four in track & field, two in swimming, two in judo and one each in
boxing, taekwondo, gymnastics and shooting.

President Serzh Sarkisian also left for London Thursday to attend the
opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, which will be held on Friday.

Prior to his departure, Sarkisian issued an encouraging statement to
the athletes.

“Our compatriots in Armenia and the Diaspora will attentively follow
your performances. I believe you will meet the expectations, and will
join Olympic champions and prize winners from Armenia and find your
place in the history book of Armenian athletics,” said Sarkisian in
his statement.

“I am confident that you will represent our country with honor, embark
on fair competition, fully demonstrate your skills, and protect the
honor of Armenia’s athletic flag,” said Sarkisian, who added that he
would like to become an “eyewitness of your victories to share with
you the joy of triumph.”

Armenia took away six bronze medals in the 2008 Beijing Games. This
time, too, they are looking to come back winners.

Boxer Andranik Hakobyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am)
on Wednesday before leaving for London that he is in good form and
aiming for an Olympic medal. “We are going [to London] with high
expectations,” said Hakobyan. “We should try to do our utmost to
return home with a medal.”

The youngest of the Olympic team members are 18-year-old swimmer
Anahit Barseghyan and 19-year-old gymnast Artur Davtyan. Also on
the team are wrestling champion Artur Aleksanyan, 20, who earlier
this year won a gold medal at the European Wrestling Competition and
weightlifter Norayr Vardanyan, 24. Vardanyan trained with his father,
Yuri, who won a gold medal in the 1980 Moscow Games. The team also
includes 2008 bronze medal winners 24-year-old Tigran Martirosyan
(weightlifting and 32-year-old Yuri Patrikeyev (wrestling). Veteran
Olympians Armen Nazarian, 30 (Judo), and Norayr Bakhtamyan, 41
(shooting) will compete in their third Olympic Games.

Chairman of Armenia’s National Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukian, has
pledged a $700,000 bonus to athletes for each gold medal. Meanwhile the
government has said it would reward the equivalent of about $72,000,
$48,000 and $24,000 to gold, silver and bronze medalists, respectively.

Aside from the 25 athletes competing in Team Armenia, an estimated
seven athletes of Armenian descent will represent other countries.

Artur Ayvazyan, who won a gold medal in 2008, will again represent
Ukraine in shooting competitions, while Misha Aloyan (boxing, 52 kg),
David Ayrapetyan (boxing, 49 kg) and Arsen Galstyan (judo, 60 kg) will
be competing for the Russian team. Vazgen Safaryants will represent
Belarus (boxing, 60 kg). Tvin Moumjoghlian, 23 (table tennis) and
Gretta Taslakian, 27 (track & field) will compete in the Lebanon team.

Below is the list of athletes (in alphabetical order) and the field
of their competition.

Name Age Competition

Artur Aleksanyan 20 Greco-Roman wrestling, 96 kg Norayr Bakhtamyan
41 Pistol and Air Pistol shooting Anahit Barseghyan 18 Swimming,
100 m backstroke Meline Daluzyan 24 Women’s weightlifting, 69 kg
Artur Davtyan 19 Gymnastics Hovhannes Davtyan 28 Judo, 60 kg
Andranik Hakobyan 30 Boxing, 75 kg Kristine Harutyunyan 21 Javelin
throw Mihran Jaburyan 27 Freestyle wrestling, 55 kg Melik Janoyan
27 Javelin throw Arsen Julfalakyan 25 Greco-Roman wrestling, 74
kg Ara Khachatryan 29 Weightlifting, 85 kg Hripsime Khurshudyan
24 Women’s weightlifting, 75 kg Mikael Koloyan 29 Swimming,
100m freestyle

Tigran Martirosyan 24 Weightlifting, 77 kg

Arakel Mirzoyan 22 Weightlifting, 69 kg

Armen Nazaryan 30 Judo, 66 kg

Gadzhimurad Nurmagomedov, 25 Freestyle wrestling, 84 kg Vardan
Pahlevanyan 24 Long jump Yuri Patrikeyev 32 Greco-Roman
wrestling, 120 kg David Safaryan 22 Freestyle wrestling, 66 kg
Arsen Sargsyan 27 Long jump Norayr Vardanyan 25 Weightlifting,
94 kg Hovhannes Varderesyan 23 Greco-Roman wrestling, 66 kg Arman
Yeremyan 26 Taekwondo, 80 kg

RUSSIA PUSHES FOR EURASIAN INTEGRATION ACROSS FORMER SOVIET STATES

Cihan News Agency (CNA)
July 25, 2012 Wednesday
Turkey

ISTANBUL (CIHAN)- Vladimir Putin’s “return” to the Russian presidency
has been accompanied by a worldwide debate about Russia’s foreign
policy priorities, and in particular the Eurasian Union.

One of Putin’s first moves was to sign an “Executive Order On Measures
to Implement the Russian Federation Foreign Policy,” which stresses
the importance of the so-called Eurasian Union. In this respect, many
have been wondering about the reactions of post-Soviet countries to
this initiative and what tools Russia will deploy to put pressure on
those governments.

However, with regard to the implementation of the Eurasian Union idea,
debates started at the end of 2011 across the post-Soviet region,
where it quickly became that the initiative enjoyed greater popularity
in Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan, where President Nursultan
Nazarbayev had even championed a similar idea before Putin. However,
the idea appealed less to the countries of the South Caucasus.

This brand of economic integration is less attractive in the
South Caucasus, where Russia’s political and cultural hold is
getting weaker: ethnic Russians make up less than 2 percent of the
population in each regional country; Russian education is increasingly
less attractive with both Azerbaijan and Georgia implementing state
education programs to support overseas education in the US and European
universities. Russian as the “lingua franca” is weaker than in Central
Asia. This reminds Russia that a new generation of thinkers in this
region is increasingly westernized in terms of cultural and educational
affiliation, and this could be the “long goodbye” in the sense of
Russia’s influence in the region. In political terms, Georgia sees the
Eurasian Union as a reunion of the Soviet Union, and due the political
stalemate, official Tbilisi’s refusal to participate is understandable.

This can be observed in Azerbaijan more openly, but while the political
and social elite have little confidence in this initiative, it is
still the case that no one wants to anger Moscow. In Azerbaijan, the
official discourse is balanced; the authorities have said clearly
they are currently not interested in a customs union or the notion
of a Eurasian Union, not seeing any benefits for their country. At
the same time, they also want to avoid taking any action that might
damage bilateral relations with Russia — a case in which diplomatic
strategies require careful scrutiny.

Armenia is heavily dependent on Russia in economic and military
terms and sometimes even politically. However, there is no eagerness
to respond at this stage. Broadly speaking, there are two camps:
the political elite, who want less dependence on Moscow and more
integration with Europe and who oppose the idea, and the ruling elite,
who acknowledge their dependence on Russia but don’t want to lose their
financial aid from the European Union and who are moderately against
the proposal. In general, the Armenian reading of Moscow’s integration
projects remains centered on the geopolitical issues (the resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, relations with the EU), rather than
on the need for any kind of supranational Eurasian integration.

>From Russia’s standpoint, Azerbaijan and Armenia are crucial for the
Eurasian integration project. Moscow is applying different types
of pressure in each country, and visits by high-ranking Russian
officials to Azerbaijan and Armenia in mid-July indicate that Moscow
is taking advantage of the international focus on the Middle East,
and has started diplomatic maneuvers.

In Armenia, Russian Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko
met on July 11 with the chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia,
Ovik Abramyan, and urged Yerevan to join the free trade agreement,
which, according to Matviyenko, “creates conditions for invigorated
trade and economic cooperation.” But even the Armenian leadership
has said that Yerevan has no plans to join a customs union with
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, in the run-up to the 2013
presidential elections, Russian-backed politicians in Yerevan are
supporting Putin’s idea, which poses a challenge to the current
government. The Prosperous Armenia Party welcomed the initiative, and
Tigran Urikhanyan, party spokesman, argued that Armenia is already
part of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and has close
economic ties with other ex-Soviet states that can serve as a basis
for Armenian membership of the union.

In the case of Azerbaijan, Russia’s attitude is slightly different. A
few weeks in advance of the visit by Speaker of the State Duma Sergey
Narishkin to Azerbaijan on July 8-9, the Federal National-Cultural
Autonomy of Lezgins held its first conference at Moscow’s President
Hotel. The political importance of this event was reflected in
the hotel’s ownership; it belongs to the Russian presidential
administration and several Russian officials attended the meeting.

This suggests that Russia has renewed interest in provoking separatism
among ethnic minorities. The Lezgin ethnic group lives near the
Azerbaijan-Russia border. Back in 1990s and early 2000s, the Lezgin
separatist movement Sadval, responsible for a number of terrorist
strikes in Azerbaijan, had unofficial support from some forces in
Russia. Regardless, to this day Armenia has played a leading role in
keeping the “ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan” issue alive by financing
and hosting conferences and other initiatives with participation of
representatives of similar separatist organizations. In this context,
if an event that legitimizes nationalist movements is hosted in
Moscow, in a hotel owned by the Presidential Office and attended
by high-ranking officials, this is more than a conference. It’s a
message and a form of pressure directed at Azerbaijan.

At this juncture, the countries in favor of the Eurasian Union seem
to hold such positions mainly because the current political and
economic deadlock gives them no other choice. Other countries have
challenged this integrative strategy not because of Moscow’s lack of
legitimate capacity to generate an integrationist dynamic, but rather
because there are questions over its ability to do so. The low level
of trust in the Kremlin’s role and capabilities is a key element of
the prevailing skepticism about Moscow’s integration project in the
South Caucasus.