Author: Babajanian Karo

Voice of Russia
June 3 2012

Tigran Sargsyan reappointed Armenia’s prime minister

Tigran Sargsyan has been reappointed prime minister of Armenia. The
corresponding decree by President Serzh Sargsyan was made public by
his press service.

52-year-old Sargsyan has headed the Armenian government since 2008. He
is also deputy chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, headed by
President Serzh Sargsyan.

According to the Constitution of the Republic, on Thursday the cabinet
resigned, since the new parliament was convening for its first
meeting.

TASS

APA, Azerbaijan
June 2 2012

Azerbaijan organizes informal discussions of UN Security Council on
topic `The peaceful settlement of disputes, conflict prevention and
resolution: mediation, judicial settlement and justice’

[ 02 Jun 2012 11:11 ]
Baku – APA. Permanent mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations
organized the informal discussions of the UN Security Council (Arria
Formula meeting) on topic `The peaceful settlement of disputes,
conflict prevention and resolution: mediation, judicial settlement and
justice’.

The mission told APA that Security Council’s member states, UN’s other
member states, UN secretariat, international governmental
organizations, more than 120 representatives of civil society and
scientific circles attended the meeting.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov and Professor at
Cambridge University of the United Kingdom Malcolm Shaw delivered
speeches at the discussions.

In his keynote speech, Azerbaijan’s Permanent Representative to the
UN, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev spoke about the significance of these
discussions. He said that the meeting aimed to hold discussions on
important issues such as peaceful settlement of disputes, prevention
and settlement of conflicts, as well as to illustrate the role of
mediation in propagandism of peace based on the continuous and
international law, the role of settlement based on law and justice.

At first Professor Shaw presented a report on the settlement of
international disputes, legal bases of mediation in prevention and
settlement of conflicts and settlement mechanisms.

Then, in his speech, Azimov spoke about conflict situation, especially
the mediating efforts taken in the context of conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, shared his opinions on its different aspects, as well
as the main factors of the successful mediation.

The other participants also delivered speech at the meeting. They
spoke about the importance of prevention and settlement of the
international disputes and conflicts, the role of the UN and regional
organizations in this process, different initiatives put forward by
the separate countries.

They noted the importance of UN General Assembly’s resolution 65/283
on `Strengthening the role of mediation in peaceful settlement of
disputes, conflict prevention and resolution’ adopted on June 22,
2011, from the point of view of peaceful settlement of conflicts,
propagandism of the mediation efforts in conflict prevention and
resolution and ensuring the useful rules for existing and future
mediation.

The participants welcomed Azerbaijan’s such initiative to organize the
discussions on such important topic.

Permanent Representative of Armenia to UN opposed the topic and spirit
of discussions and attempted to distort the opinions sounded by the
speakers. In particular, he said that the conflict occurred not
between Azerbaijan and his country and accused Azerbaijan of reducing
the mediating efforts on this conflict to the minimum.

In return, Azimov said that there were many evidences showing that the
abovementioned conflict occurred only between Armenia and Azerbaijan:
`It is sufficient to note two of them. Firstly, Armenian citizens
serve in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and the documents of
captivated Armenian soldiers confirm this fact. Secondly, President of
the Republic of Armenian participate as a conflict party in the
negotiations on conflict settlement’- deputy minister underlined.

Due to the other moments noted by the Armenian representative, Azimov
said that Armenia was the only country that didn’t join the consensus
for resolution on `Strengthening the role of mediation in peaceful
settlement of disputes, conflict prevention and resolution’ adopted by
UN General Assembly in 2011. In this case, the speech of this
country’s representative about significance of mediating efforts sets
wondering.

Civil Georgia, Georgia
June 2 2012

Freedom House Urges Clinton to Raise Human Rights During Caucasus Visit
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 2 Jun.’12 / 11:50

U.S.-based rights group Freedom House urged Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton `to make human rights and democracy shortfalls in the Caucasus
region the cornerstone topic in private meetings and in public
statements’ during her visit to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan on
June 4-6.

`Encouraging and supporting democratically accountable systems in the
Caucasus region is essential,’ David J. Kramer, Freedom House
president, said. `While we realize there are a range of policy
interests to be discussed during the trip, Freedom House calls for a
particular emphasis on the ongoing concerns about human rights and
democracy throughout the region, especially in Azerbaijan and
Armenia.’

In case of Azerbaijan, Freedom House urged the Secretary of State to
address issues of intimidation of political activists and their
imprisonment in `deeply flawed trials’, use of force to break up
antigovernment rallies, as well as freedom of press. On Armenia,
Freedom House stressed that its reforms were hampered by `the deep
relationship between politics and business, which effectively prevents
the advancement of greater accountability and transparency.’

On Georgia, Freedom House said: `Georgia affords some but not all of
the institutional safeguards and holds promise for more meaningful
reform, if the right steps are taken. The upcoming parliamentary and
presidential elections in Georgia present a test for civil society in
Georgia to develop more effective and mature political platforms.’

Georgia’s indicators in an annual report by Freedom House, Freedom in
the World 2012, remained unchanged and the country is still deemed
`partly free’. In recent Freedom House’s survey on global press
freedom, Georgia’s ranking has improved for third consecutive year,
but the country still remains in the category of `partly free.’

A group of Georgian election watchdog, legal advocacy and media
organizations have also appealed to Secretary Clinton ahead of her
visit to Georgia on June 5, calling on her to raise the need for
further legislative amendments to improve electoral environment in the
country ahead of the October parliamentary elections.

Secretary Clinton will hold talks with Georgian leadership, civil
society and opposition representatives in Black Sea resort town of
Batumi. She will arrive in Georgia from Armenia and will then travel
to Azerbaijan on June 6.

Heritage Party leader not to run for president

news.am
June 02, 2012 | 14:42

YEREVAN.- Leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian has no intention
to run for president’s post, he told journalists during the party’s
special congress held on Saturday.

Hovannisian gave an evasive answer asked why the p arty had not
appealed election results in the Constitutional Court but welcomed
Armenian National Congress bloc’s initiative.

During the congress Heritage Party has to decide on the board members.

MCCAIN ACCUSES U.S. ADMINISTRATION OF IRAN CYBER ATTACK DETAILS LEAK

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 2, 2012 – 14:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – U.S. Senator John McCain on Saturday, June 2
accused President Barack Obama’s administration of leaking details
of a reported cyber attack on Iran and other secret operations to
bolster the president’s image in an election year, AFP reported.

“Again we see these leaks to the media about ongoing operations,
which is incredibly disturbing. Doesn’t this give some benefit to
our adversaries?” McCain told reporters in Singapore, where he was
attending a summit on Asian security.

McCain, who was defeated by Obama in the 2008 presidential election,
said there had been ill-advised leaks previously that revealed details
of the U.S. raid last year that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden and other operations.

“We know the leaks have to come from the administration. And so we’re
at the point where perhaps we need an investigation,” said McCain,
the most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “So
this is kind of a pattern in order to hype the national security
credentials of the president and every administration does it. But
I think this administration has taken it to a new level.”

The New York Times reported Friday that Obama accelerated cyber
attacks on Iran’s nuclear program using the Stuxnet virus, and expanded
the assault even after the virus accidentally made its way onto the
Internet in 2010.

The operation, begun under President George W. Bush and codenamed
“Olympic Games,” is the first known sustained U.S. cyberattack ever
launched on another country, employing malicious code developed with
Israel, according to the Times.

McCain said he believed the U.S. president had authority to launch such
an attack. “But I also believe that it would be helpful if he talked
to a select few leaders of Congress. Most presidents have done this,”
he said.

The White House “never” briefed lawmakers on the assault, he said.

The Times said its report was based on 18 months of interviews with
current and former US, European and Israeli officials, and was adapted
from the book “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising
Use of American Power,” by David Sanger, set to be published next week.

The cyber attack, aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear
weapons, sowed widespread confusion in Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant,
the newspaper said.

SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT DISCUSSED IN UN SECURITY COUNCIL

11:24 . 02/06

Azerbaijan’s permanent mission to the UN organized informal discussions
on the topic “Peaceful settlement of conflicts, their prevention and
solutions: mediation, legal decision, and justice” in the UN Security
Council on June 1.

Besides UN Security Council member-countries, other UN member states
representatives, the UN Secretariat, intergovernmental organizations
representatives, more than 120 representatives of civil society and
Armenia’s permanent representative to the UN Karen Nazaryan attended
the meeting.

Tert.am informs citing Turkish sources, Deputy Foreign Minister Araz
Azimov and professor at Cambridge University Malcolm Shaw participated
as keynote speakers.

While opening the meeting, Azerbaijan’s permanent representative to
the UN, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev said that the meeting aims to find
the ways of resolving disputes, of preventing conflicts on the basis
of international law.

Armenia’s permanent representative to the UN Karen Nazaryan stated
in his speech the conflict is not between Armenia and Azerbaijan
and accused official Baku of hampering the attempts to resolve the
conflict.

In response, Azimov once again repeated the position of the Azerbaijani
authorities in this issue and again accused Armenia “for occupying
Azerbaijani territories”.

PRESENTATION OF NOVEL TITLED “HEADHUNTERS” WILL BE HELD

Aysor.am
June 02, 2012

Today in Zangak-97 publishing house the presentation of the Armenian
translation of the Norwegian prominent writer Jo Nesbo’s novel titled
“Headhunters” will be held. The book has been translated in more than
40 languages and has interested many reads in many countries.

During the presentation the horror film shoot by the motives of the
novel will be shown. The book consists of 240 pages.

Headhunters introduces us to the charming villain Roger Brown, a man
who seems to have it all: he is Norway’s most successful headhunter.

he is playing at the dangerous game of art theft. At a gallery opening,
his wife introduces him to the Dutchman Clas Greve.

Not only is Greve the perfect candidate for the CEO position of the
GPS company Pathfinder that Roger Brown is recruiting for; he is also
in possession of “The Calydonian Boar Hunt” by Peter Paul Rubens,
one of the most sought-after paintings in modern art history. Roger
sees his chance to become financially independent, and starts planning
his biggest hit ever. But soon, he runs into trouble – and it’s not
financial problems that are threatening to knock him over this time…

TODAY, 13:12

CHILDREN HELD A DEMONSTRATION BEFORE YEREVAN CITY HALL

19:19 . 01/06

Children’s most important right is the right to play that is the right
of entertainment. Unfortunately, very often adults usually violate
that right, for example, they build garages instead of playgrounds.

Because the children don’t have a place to play they recently
organized a peaceful demonstration before Yerevan city hall. During
the demonstration they threw candies on the door of the municipality.

Dear adults, you don’t have to appear in the situation of the hero
Zaychik of the Russian film, or you shouldn’t remember about us only
on June 1.

Children’s Country TV programme spoke about the problem of improvement
of yards on April 1, too and it was not casual that we were at the
city hall with all our group of friends. Of course, we thought they
would take it as humour and would receive us, but it didn’t happen
so, we only angered them. The demand of our demonstration was the
construction of playgrounds in all our yards. Of course, we were a
little naughty to throw our favourite candies on the doors of the
city hall. And the coworkers of the city hall said it was a wrong
thing to do, that we mustn’t demand it in that way but we must wait
until one day people with kind faces come and build playgrounds not
in selected yards but in all our yards.

We reached our aim to some extent but I am still not sure if I’ll
see a new and nice playground when I come out to the yard next time.

CITIZENS OF ARMENIA CAN APPLY FOR ELECTRONIC PASSPORTS FROM JUNE 1ST

news.am
June 01, 2012 | 17:30

YEREVAN. – Citizens of Armenia can apply for electronic passports,
including biometric guidelines and for IDs from June 1st, deputy Chief
of Police Arthur Osikyan said at a press conference in the Passport
and Visa Department of Police.

He also added that the ID will include a citizen’s electronic data
archive set by the law. While biometric passports will include a
citizen’s personal data, including a digital photo, a signature,
finger prints. As a matter of fact, protection of the data is secured.

Those documents also will simplify the process of granting visas.

Citizens are free to apply for the modern documents.

Another participant of the conference, a Polish representative said
that data stealing and documents’ forgery is a threatening crime for
the modern world, while the new documents make it almost impossible
to commit crimes on this way.

Stressing high level of Armenian-Polish cooperation, Polish Ambassador
to Armenia Zdzislaw Raczynski also paid importance to the installation
of electronic IDs and biometric passports.

AHARON ADIBEKYAN IS AGAIN IN KARABAKH

Karabakh-open.info
Friday, 01 June 2012 11:27

Sociologist Aharon Adibekyan is in Artsakh together with his team and
is conducting public opinion polls. NA deputy, candidate for July
19th Presidential elections Vitali Balasanyan who happened to meet
the sociologist in Stepanakert, writes in his Facebook page about
the warning he got from Mardakert where the polls are conducted
mentioning the names and the phone numbers of the pollees. “The
sociologist considered the case natural whereas I am sure that this
way many pollees will not be honest in their answers. Moreover, the
indication of names and phone numbers will lead to future pursuits. I
am also sure that Adibekyan’s polls are conducted on the order of
the NKR authorities; the proof of this is the support group that
accompanies him. The youth union “Hayrenyats Pashtpan” at the Union
of Liberty Soldiers at the head of the leader Gegham Stepanyan is
actively taking part in the poll conducting. It is quite clear that
the results of the poll are predetermined and Aharon Adibekyan acts
as an English missionary of 1917-1920,” Vitali Balasanyan writes.

We tried to obtain more specific information from the leader of the
youth union concerning the participation of the union members in the
polls. In his conversation with us the leader of the union did not
deny the fact noting that the sociologist worked with his own group,
a number of members of the union just helped him in the initiative.

What polls are conducted by the sociologist and his team is not
clear yet.