Author: Babajanian Karo

ISSUES ON EXPANDING ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN EDUCATIONAL COOPERATION DISCUSSED

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 29, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, ARMENPRESS: Deputy Education and Science Minister
of Armenia Manuk Lazarian received today a delegation headed by
Doctor-Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University V. Hekelekyan.

The scientific and educational group of teachers and schoolchildren had
arrived in Armenia March 17 to participate in international Olympiad
organized with the support of Armenian Education and Science Ministry
and with participation of Quant College, press service of Education
and Science Ministry told Armenpress.

Manuk Lazarian highly assessed conduction of analogical joint events,
expressing hope they will be of continuous nature. Other issues on
expansion of the cooperation were discussed as well.

TWO FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES READY TO PENALIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

news.am
March 29, 2012 | 17:40

French presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande
confirmed their readiness to adopt the law criminalizing the Armenian
Genocide denial despite recent decision of the Constitutional Council,
they said in an interview with Nouvelles d`Armenie.

Nicolas Sarkozy said he had taken on an obligation and would fulfill
it as his duty as a president of the Republic is to protect French
citizens who are threatened by the denial.

In another interview his opponent Hollande said that country’s
responsibility is to recognize genocides proved by historic studies,
for instance the Armenian Genocide. The denial of the genocides is a
manifestation of violence which has no place in the Republic, he added.

Hollande stressed that government’s hurry on the genocide bill during
campaign is a propaganda stunt.

The bill criminalizing the genocide denials, including the Armenian
Genocide, proposed by Valerie Boyer, was adopted by the French National
Assembly and ratified by the Senate on Jan. 23.

Later the Constitutional Council of France recognized the bill as
non-constitutional.

RUSSIA, INDIA NEGOTIATE JOINT DEVELOPMENT OF HYPERSONIC CRUISE MISSILE

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 30, 2012 – 13:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Russia and India are in talks to jointly develop
a hypersonic cruise missile and will soon agree on a general outline
of the design, the head of the BrahMos Indian-Russian cruise missile
program, Praveen Pathak, said on Friday, March 30, at the Defexpo
defense show in Delhi.

“In the near future, we will set up a joint working group which will
work out the parameters of the missile in cooperation with developers,
and also decide how much each side will contribue to the project,”
Pathak said.

The weapon will be capable of flying at Mach 5-Mach 7 speeds, he said.

“We want to create a weapon which would not differ much from the
existing BrahMos missile in weight and dimensions, so that it could be
used in existing launchers on ships or mobile launchers. In this case
it would not take too much work to convert such systems to hypersonic,”
he said.

India will also carry out the first test-firing of the air-launched
variant of the BrahMos Russian-Indian supersonic cruise missile by
the end of this year, BrahMos head Praveen Pathak said on Friday at
the Defexpo defense exhibition in Delhi.

“We hope by the end of the year we’ll carry out the first launch from
an aircraft. It will be an air-launch,” he said.

Work on adapting the air-launched variant of BrahMos to arm India’s
Su-30MKI aircraft is being undertaken for the Indian air force, he
said. Several aircraft have already been modified to carry the weapon,
he added.

The Indian air force has already taken delivery of enough of the
ground-launched variant to equip two battalions. The missiles will be
based near India’s borders to strike at enemy airfields, air defense
sites and radar stations, said Pathak.

India tested a ground-launched BrahMos earlier this month. “The missile
flew its maximum range, 290 km. The terminal phase of the flight was
a steep diving trajectory. This is one of the requirements for the
ground forces,” he said, adding that a steep diving attack profile
was necessary for hitting targets in mountainous terrain.

BrahMos, a derivative of the Russian NPO Mashinostroeniye 3M55 Yakhont
naval cruise missile, is one of the most capable weapons of its class,
combining long-range (up to 290 km), high speed (up to Mach 2.8)
a heavy warhead of up to 250 kg, a low radar profile and a variable
attack profile, including low level flight down to 10 meters and up
to 14,000 meters. The weapon operates on a fire-and-forget principle.

The ground-launched variant weighs around three tons at launch,
RIA Novosti reported.

RA HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER ASSESSES 2011 ACTIVITIES OF MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

hetq
15:24, March 28, 2012

Shortcomings and problems identified

New food safety public service of the Ministry of Agriculture has
not fully taken control over the sale of meat, while among other
functions food safety is also included into the functions of the
Ministry of Agriculture.

Agricultural insurance has not been invested yet; however, insurance
can provide the agricultural sector entrepreneurs with assistance in
case of damages caused by natural disasters.

Despite the favorable business environment created for manufacturers
and practical and positive steps undertaken by the Ministry, the
results were not sufficient.

State Security Service of the Ministry did not properly supervise
the activities of the companies producing bread.

There are not sufficient slaughterhouses in the country for
performing butchering properly.

Positive developments

In Agriculture the increase of gross product was around 14.1%
compared to the last year, due to the increase in volume of livestock
production, fisheries, vegetables, fruits.

In 2011 production of grain crops has exceeded the previous year’s
level by 34.8 percent, the size of crop yield and production efficiency
has significantly increased.

Positive changes were registered in the field of horticulture. Fruit
gross output increased by 83.7 percent over the previous year. Growth
in the production of the crop was also registered.

The provision of fruit and vegetable processing companies exceed the
previous year’s level, respectively, 1.7 and 3.9 times. Corresponding
payments were fully made.

Fairs for agricultural products were organized inYerevanevery
Saturday and Sunday in order to support the sale process of
agricultural products.

Considerable work has been done in favor of entrepreneurs in terms
of credit available to agriculture activities. By two phases of the
project more than 25 000 unit credits were provided by interest rate
subsidies with 17.4 billion AMD.

Legislative changes have been made by the Ministry that allow to
import agricultural tractors, other equipment, fertilizer, seed,
pesticide, as well as by exempting the sale of the value added
tax to promote the availability of their purchase by agricultural
entrepreneurs as well as promote their import and expansion of the
volume of their usage.

Assistance was provided to increase the level of technical
equipment of cooperatives. Consumer cooperatives were established in
33 communities of 5 marzes ofArmeniaspecialized in cattle-raising.

Karen Andreasyan,

Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia

The list of the identified positive developments, gaps and shortcomings
is not exhaustive.

The introduced Chapter (6) of the HRD Annual Report 2011 is available
in full at .

The HRD Annual Report 2011 was developed based on the complaints
received by the Staff of the Human Rights Defender, legislation
analysis, trustworthy and non-disclaimed publications in press,
reports of the international and local organizations as well as
information received during the interviews with field specialists
and human rights defenders.

AZERBAIJANIS PRESENT PHOTOS OF MASSACRED ARMENIANS AS PROOFS OF “AZERBAIJANI GENOCIDE”

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 30, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. A regular made up work compiled of
false facts about the so-called “genocide of Azerbaijanis” in 1918
has been issued.

Many of the photos that found place in the “1918: Mass killings in
Azerbaijan in photo series and documents” work raise doubts. Many of
them are commented in a following way: “crimes of Armenians in Baku”,
“pogroms of Armenians organized in Guba” etc.

With the request of Armenpress political analyst Hrant
Melik-Shahnazaryan provided some of the originals of the presented
photos with their comments.

“The photos show the crimes of Tartars against Armenians, but the
work says the opposite,” Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan explains.

By the way, the photos of the book, described as “scientific”,
are said to reflect the events of 1918. It says the atrocities were
committed by the Armenian revolutionaries together with the soviet
“red army”. But the comments left on the opposite side of the original
photos say that these photos are dating back to 1904 and prove the
atrocities committed by Tartars.

The regular sample of Azerbaijani falsification has been published
in four languages – Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian and English.

YEREVAN MAYOR MEETS FRENCH SINGER PATRICK FIORI

news.am
March 30, 2012 | 13:14

YEREVAN.- Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan received on Friday renowned
French singer Patrick Fiori.

Fiori arrived in Armenia~Rs capital with other French performers to
participate in the month of Francophonie.

Mayor spoke about close relations between the two states, business
ties with Yerevan~Rs sister cities Paris and Marseille.

In his turn, Patrick Fiori said he had already toured Yerevan and is
impressed by the city.

French singer, who is of Armenian origin, said he is ready to assist
Armenian-French cultural initiatives. He has an aspiration to organize
free of charge performances and present world famous Notre-Dame de
Paris musical.

Taron Margaryan invited Patrick Fiori to attend Yerevan-Erebuni
celebrations.

EUROPEAN COURT ACCEPTS DISABLED TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST’S LAWSUIT AGAINST TURKEY

news.am
March 30, 2012 | 12:57

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) accepted to examine the
lawsuit against Turkey, which was filed by the physically challenged
Armenian journalist Cevat Sinet, who lives in Turkey’s Batman (Sasun)
Province.

On September 21, 2010, Sinet had applied to for a disability card,
but he was denied.

“You are Armenian, it is written ‘Christian’ on your identity card. We
cannot give you a disability card,” the Batman Social Service’s civil
servant had told and subsequently insulted him.

Next, Cevat Sinet applied to the Human Rights Union, and, with the
latter’s assistance, a lawsuit was filed against the civil servant,
but the prosecutor’s office ruled against the case.

And after unsuccessfully exhausting all of Turkey’s judicial instances
to restore his rights, Sinet finally petitioned to ECHR.

“I applied to the ECHR [against Turkey] for insulting me, mocking my
religion, and debasing me,” the Armenian journalist stated.

STATUE TO GREAT ARMENIAN PHILANTHROPIST TO OPEN IN YEREVAN

Tert.am
30.03.12

A statue to the prominent Armenian oil magnate and philanthropist ,
Alexander Mantashev, is going to open in Yerevan’s Abovyan street in
the near future.

The sculpture, to be erected in a beautiful site between two churches
(St. Anna and St. Katoghike), has been created by merited Armenian
artist Tigran Arzumanyan.

According to a press release by the Yerevan City Hall, the decision
to erect the sculpture was made back in June 2011 based on a positive
conclusion by the municipality’s Fine Arts Board.

LETTERATHe : EXPOSITION DE PHOTOS ET PROJECTION D’UN FILM SUR LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 30 mars 2012

La municipalite italienne de Letterathe consacre le week-end prochain
a l’un des evenements les plus tragiques, et oublie depuis longtemps,
au siècle dernier : le genocide des Armeniens. Le programme comprend :

Vendredi 30 Mars, a 17h, a la Villa Bottini : “Le genocide armenien,
1915-1922” a travers l’histoire d’Antonia Arslan “. Introduction de
Claudio Strappaghetti.

Samedi 31 mars, au centre culturelle Agora a 10h30 s’ouvrira une
exposition photographique sur le genocide armenien, par l’association
Italiarmenia, les photos d’Armin Wegner. Sera present le consul
honoraire de la republique armenienne Pietro Kuciukian.

L’exposition est dediee a Armin T. Wegner, intellectuel allemand
qui a fui en Italie en 1936, photographe, ecrivain, poète, militant
des droits civils et temoin du massacre des Armeniens. L’exposition
restera ouverte jusqu’au 14 avril de 9h30 a 18h30 A 17h30 le film “Le
Mas des Alouettes” de Paolo et Vittorio Taviani, avec une introduction
par Antonia Arslan, auteur du roman et le prof. Maurizio Ambrosini,
expert en histoire et critique de cinema.

LES OBSEQUES DE GARBIS ARTIN AURONT LIEUX SAMEDI A MARSEILLE
Ara

armenews.com
vendredi 30 mars 2012

L’association pour la recherche et l’archivage de la memoire armenienne
(A.R.A.M.) a la tristesse et la douleur de vous annoncer le decès de
son fondateur, Mr Jean Garbis ARTIN.

Age de 81 ans, Jean Garbis ARTIN nous a quitte mardi 27 mars 2012.

Ne en 1930 dans le quartier de Saint-Jerôme a Marseille de parents
armeniens rescapes du genocide de 1915, c’est la qu’il grandit dans
le militantisme pour la cause armenienne.

Chef de troupe puis commissaire regional des scouts armeniens, joueur
et responsable du club de football UGA, il s’engage dans plusieurs
associations et participe a toutes les actions pour la reconnaissance
du Genocide des Armeniens. Au lendemain du tremblement de terre de 1988
en Armenie, il effectue plusieurs sejours sur place pour piloter la
construction de 80 chalets envoyes par les collectivites territoriales
de la region provencale, puis pour convoyer des aides pharmaceutiques
et medicales vers diverses regions du pays. Depuis 1997, il oeuvre au
sein de l’association pour la recherche et l’archivage de la memoire
armenienne (A.R.A.M.) en collectant inlassablement des documents,
des temoignages, des photos, des archives familiales qui sont autant
de preuves irrefutables contre le negationnisme d’Etat de la Turquie.

Jean Garbis ARTIN etait aussi un temoin et un acteur de l’evolution
d’une communaute dynamique, en organisant des expositions et des
conferences partout en France, qui ont permis d’ancrer la memoire
armenienne en Diaspora.

Ses obsèques auront lieu samedi 31 mars 2012 a 9h30, a l’eglise
apostolique armenienne de St Jerôme dans le 13ème arrondissement
de Marseille.

Conformement aux souhaits de la famille, ni fleurs, ni couronnes. Dons
a l’association ARAM.