Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ATTENDS EASTERN PARTNERSHIP, VISEGRAD GROUP MEETINGS

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 6 2012
Russia

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian attended a meeting with
his counterparts of member states of the Eastern Partnership and the
Visegrad Group in Prague on Monday, News Armenia reports.

Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy, and Stefan Fule, EU Commissioner for Enlargement
and European Neighbourhood Policy, participated in the meeting as well.

Nalbandian noted progress in bilateral cooperation of Armenia and the
European Union, emphasizing approval of 24 association agreements
and simplification of the visa regime. He said that negotiation on
a free trade zone will start in the nearest future.

The foreign minister discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh process,
preparations for parliamentary polls of May 6 and reforms with
Stefan Fule

The Eastern Partnership is an EU project for rapprochement with former
USSR states Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus,
initiated by Polish foreign minister with Swiss assistance on May 26,
2008. The partnership was founded in Prague on May 7, 2009, when the
Czech Republic was chairing the EU.

The Visegrad Group was founded by Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
and Hungary on February 15, 1991, during a meeting of presidents and
prime ministers Lech Walesa (Poland), Vaclav Havel (Czechoslovakia)
and Joszef Antall (hungary).

OSCE MG PRESENTS NAGORNO-KARABAKH RESOLUTION PLAN TO SIDES OF CONFLICT

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 6 2012
Russia

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Robert Bradtke (USA),
Jacques Faure (France) and Igor Popov (Russia) – and the personal
representative of OSCE chairman, Andrzej Kasprzyk, visited Yerevan,
Nagorno-Karabakh and Baku on March 2-6. They met Azerbaijani and
Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan and the authorities
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Trend reports.

The OSCE officials presented a plan for realization of the joint
statement the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents made at
the trilateral meeting in Sochi on January 23. The co-chairs proposed
measures to settle the conflict.

ARMAVIA RENEWS SERVICE

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 6 2012
Russia

Rosaviatsiya has renewed service of Armavia, halted at 0.00 am on
Tuesday, News Armenia reports.

Armavia cancelled flights to and from Yerevan to Moscow and
Rostov-on-Don. Armavia neglected demands for payment for services of
air navigation equipment, which resulted in flight cancellation on
March 6.

A letter arrived to Rosaviatsiya at 12.02 pm on March 6, stating that
the Armenian airline company would pay $178,000 for December 2011 no
later than March 20, 2012.

Armavia was established in 1996. Mikhail Bagdasarov, President of MIKA
Limited, purchased all shares of the company in 2005. Armavia carries
out over 100 flights in over 40 directions and 20 states of the world.

It has Airbuses, CRJs, Boeings and Sukhoi Superjets (a new generation
plane from Russia).

FAMILY CELEBRATES 102ND BIRTHDAY OF WEYMOUTH ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVOR.
By Sue Scheible

Wicked Local

March 5 2012
MA

WEYMOUTH – The photo card that Asdghig “Starrie” Alemian’s children
gave family and friends for her 102nd birthday celebration this weekend
shows a bold-looking young woman sitting in a tree in 1931 in Detroit.

“She has a wonderfully spirited look,” her son Alan noted Sunday.

At age 21, Alemian had already experienced far more heartache and
challenges than most ever imagine. She was a survivor of the 1915
Armenian genocide, after losing both parents. She made a new start
in this country when an uncle in Weymouth brought her here from a
Syrian orphanage.

Alemian turned 102 on Thursday and as 70 people gathered to honor
her long life and her courage, she was in her element.

“She’s in party mode and enjoying every minute of it,” her daughter
Claire Alemian said at the home they share.

With a radiant smile and finely chiseled features, “Starrie” Alemian
proclaimed, “I have no secret!” and burst into a laugh, when asked
“the longevity question” for possibly the 102nd time in the past two
days. Then she added, “I never wore makeup, not even at my wedding!”

On Saturday, she celebrated for five hours at The Red Parrot in Hull
with five generations, good food, Armenian music and dancing. Although
she doesn’t get up and dance anymore, she clapped up a storm.

Sunday morning brought more than 40 family members to her son’s house
for breakfast.

“Our mother has always been a very courageous person who had a real
spirit of determination,” Alan Alemian said.

In Armenian, her name is a term of endearment meaning “Little Star.”

Alemian still votes in every election and will be interviewed by
the Weymouth Historical Society. She has been active in the Armenian
community in Watertown, and in 2007 she was honored at a State House
ceremony recognizing victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

Her memory remains sharp for the details of those tragic early years,
and once she starts talking, the recollections pour forth. But for
Alemian and her family, it is the other aspects of her life that she
now likes to focus on.

That includes her seven children, five still living, that she and her
late husband, Sarkis, raised while running Alemian’s Delicatessen in
Jackson Square and then Alemian’s Package Store. Her immense pride
in 12 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and three great-great-
grandchildren. A lifetime of hard work and skills, including the
needlepoint she learned to do in the Syrian orphanage. You can see
the delicate handiwork in the family home nearby.

While she no longer lives there, decades of family photos fill the
rooms, along with the family piano her daughter Sylvia played. Alemian
lives across the street with her daughter Claire and she has constant
company. She remains strong and well in the neighborhood where she
created her new life in this country.

In 1922, an uncle, Garabed, brought her to Weymouth and she has lived
there ever since, except for two years with cousins in Worcester.

At age 16, four years after arriving, she married an Armenian from
her hometown, Sarkis Alemian, and they set their sights on building
their new life together, working long hours at a factory and then at
their family businesses.

Within 10 years, they bought their first house and as the years went
by, they invested in real estate, kept the family close by and welcomed
other Armenians.

“My mother raised so many children other than her own,” Claire
Alemian said.

Her husband died in 1982 at age 82, and her two oldest sons, Edward
Jr. and Haig, died in their late 30s. Her other five – Sylvia, Alan,
Susan, Stephan and Claire – remain nearby.

“My mother has a strong sense of Armenia identity,” Alan Alemian said,
“but she loves this country and thinks of it as her home. It gave
her safe haven.”

IRAN MUSCLES IN ON AZERBAIJAN
By Robert M Cutler

Asia Times

March 6 2012
HongKong

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested
in contributing.

MONTREAL – The debate over Iran and its relations with the
international community has taken on such a character that egregious
errors of fact and logic cannot be allowed to stand, especially
when they concern relations with smaller neighboring countries such
as Azerbaijan.

Polemics from Tehran against Baku reflect the fact that Iran’s
anti-Azerbaijan policy is driven by three motives. It is worthwhile
to enumerate them after the briefest recall of the situation on
the ground.

Wars between Russia and Persia in the early 19th century ended the rule
of local khans and established the present border between Azerbaijan
and Iran, as the former was made part of the Russian Empire (and
later Soviet Union) while “southern Azerbaijan” became part of the
Persian Empire. Since 1991, the independent Republic of Azerbaijan
has emerged as an autonomous player in Caspian Sea and world energy
markets with significant offshore deposits of oil and gas.

With a population just over 9 million scattered over an area of 86,600
square kilometers (approximately the size of Portugal), including
Nagorno-Karabakh, the 20% of Azerbaijan’s land surface occupied
by Armenia since the 1994 ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh War,
Azerbaijan’s energy resources and geopolitical location have given
it over the past two decades an international profile far higher than
could otherwise be expected.

The three motives that drive Iran’s anti-Azerbaijan policy are:

First, Azerbaijan’s independence attracts the attention of the ethnic
Azeri minority in Iran. [1] Second, Iran cannot stomach Azerbaijan’s
relations with the West in matters of security and energy. Third, the
secularism of the Azerbaijani model gives the lie to the millenarian
pretensions of the Tehran regime. Let me address these matters in
sequence.

First, Azerbaijan’s independence attracts the attention of the ethnic
Azeri minority in Iran, which comprises over a quarter and possibly
as much as a third of Iran’s population. Like other ethnic minorities
in Iran (which together comprise half the country’s population),
ethnic Azeris are denied the right to educate their children in their
national language and to use it in interaction with state institutions
such as during judicial proceedings or in written bureaucratic forms.

[2]

In the early 1990s, the then Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey
made a few statements about “southern Azerbaijan” (ie, ethnic Azeri
locales in northwest Iran) upon which Iranian commentators have
drawn ever since, in order to seek to justify Tehran’s support for
“Christian” Armenia over “Muslim” Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh
War.

However, Elchibey left the presidency in Baku nearly two decades
ago and no subsequent leader has ever repeated his views. Indeed,
as demonstrated by the facts documented below, Azerbaijani state
policy has respected the integrity of the Iranian state rather more
scrupulously than Iran has respected Azerbaijan’s.

Second, Iran cannot stomach Azerbaijan’s relationship with the West
in matters of security and energy. But it is Iran that has been
threatening Azerbaijan for over a decade rather than vice versa as
some commentators have it.

Thus, in the summer of 2001, the deployment of military force by
Iran in the Caspian Sea and the threat of its use compelled a BP-led
exploration mission including an Azerbaijani vessel to cease its work
on the offshore Alov hydrocarbon deposit. [3]

Moreover, Iran has for years already been seeking not only by words
but by deeds to destabilize the legitimate government of Azerbaijan. A
few examples demonstrate the point. Fifteen Iranians and Azerbaijanis
were convicted in Azerbaijan in 2007 for spying on US, British,
and Israeli interests, including oil facilities, and conspiring to
overthrow the government. In 2008, Azerbaijani authorities exposed
and thwarted a plot by Hezbollah operatives with Iranian assistance
to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Baku. [4]

Four months ago, the Azerbaijani journalist Rafiq Tagi was murdered
in Baku for publishing an article critical of Iran, likely by an
Iranian agent or pro-Iranian elements in Baku. [5] And in December
2011, three Azerbaijani men were detained after planning to attack
two Israelis employed by a Jewish school in Baku. [6]

Against this background, warnings, for example, that Iran “could …

engag[e] in counter-covert operation activities” in Azerbaijan and that
“Tehran will take it to the next level and most likely take action
inside Azerbaijan” represent admissions of responsibility for what
has already been occurring. (See, Tehran takes issue with Azerbaijan,
Asia Times Online, February 15, 2012). This would be risible if the
events themselves were not so tragic in their consequences.

Third, the secularism of the Azerbaijani model gives the lie to the
millenarian pretensions of the Tehran regime, this being all the more
dangerous to the theocrats since Azerbaijan has a predominantly a
Shi’ite population. Hypocritical to its own religious declarations,
Iran has favored “Christian” Armenia over “Muslim” Azerbaijan from
the start of the conflict between the two South Caucasus countries.

The Tehran regime’s advocacy of Islamic and Muslim unity is revealed
as a thin tissue seeking to obscure the assertion and pursuit of
Iran’s own national interests as conceived by its ruling elite
(“mullahklatura”), just as Moscow’s advocacy of international
proletarian unity was during the Cold War a cover for asserting and
pursing Russia’s national interests, as conceived by the Soviet ruling
elite (“nomenklatura”).

Iran’s support for Armenia has come in more than words. To indicate
but a few deeds: Iran opened a crucial gas pipeline to Armenia in
2007 providing an energy lifeline, is constructing two hydroelectric
plants on the Araks River that marks their common border, and has
built a highway and railroad between the two countries. [7]

Armenia has reciprocated Iran’s attention. According to a US State
Department cable released by WikiLeaks, Armenia has facilitated
the purchase by Iran of rockets and machine guns later used to kill
American troops in Iraq. [8] In March 2011, Armenia’s President Serzh
Sargsyan accepted the invitation of Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad
to celebrate Novruz (Persian New Year) in Tehran, where the leader
from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, underlined that the Iranian
government “has placed no limits on the development of cooperation
with Yerevan”. [9]

With Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s descent into
anti-Israeli demagoguery to compete with Iran in Arab public opinion
and distract the Turkish electorate from his government’s faltering
economic performance, Azerbaijan today represents the institutionalized
historical memory of the 2,400-year coexistence of Turkic Muslims
with Jews.

The well-known epitome of this relationship in modern history is the
Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II’s formal invitation to Jews expelled from
Spain and Portugal in 1492 to take up residence in Turkey.

That being so, the ruling elite in Tehran view the very existence
of Azerbaijan as giving the lie to their own pretensions about the
immutability of conflict between Jews and Muslims in general. They
thus seek to remove that existence.

As far back as 1999, for example, in reference to the Gabala radar
station in Azerbaijan, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the
Iranian armed forces Hassan Firouzabadi threatened the Baku government
by pointing to the presence of “Shiite Azeris with Iranian blood in
their veins” in the region where the base might be established. [10]

Firouzabadi has continued in this manner for over a dozen years. Just
last August, he personally threatened the Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliev with a “dark future” if he did not “pay heed” and cease
“to bar Islamic rules”. [11]

But can Iran’s aggressive words and deeds be at all justified? Is
Azerbaijan actually hostile to Iran? The facts say no. Azerbaijan has
supported Iran’s right for peaceful nuclear program. [12] In January
2011, it signed a five-year agreement to supply least one billion
cubic meters of natural gas annually to Iran. [13] Most notably,
Azerbaijan has pledged that its territory would not be used for
military purposes against Iran. [14]

Yet we read in Asia Times Online (see above reference) that Baku should
“prepare for the worst consequences if its territory or air space
[is] used for strikes against Iran”, because it “has entered into a
Faustian bargain that may well backfire”.

The author of that article explicitly mentions the failed car bomb
in New Delhi and an incident in Tbilisi in order to assert that they
“serve as a warning sign that [Baku] could be witness to similar, if
not worse, troubles threatening [Azerbaijan’s] peace and tranquility
if it continues to favor Iran’s adversaries”.

Still more striking, he writes: “Tehran’s ruling elite may resort
to offensive measures inside[!!] Azerbaijan, … scaring energy
investors, and thus introducing economic hardship”; and again, Iran
“retaliat[es by] … sowing the seeds of instability in the South
Caucasus-South Caspian region”; and again, “Tehran will take it to
the next level and most likely take action inside [the first “inside”
was not a mistake!] Azerbaijan.”

Further facts could be adduced to demonstrate how Baku, not Tehran,
has the right to be the aggrieved party between the two; however,
there are limits to the patience that an author is entitled to expect
of a reader. Nevertheless, the facts already presented here must
surely make clear the perils of “reportage” that only recites the
views of one power in the region, while trusting that readers far
away lack in-depth knowledge of it.

Such a commentary as the one cited here, when it is brought up
against real and indisputable (and documented) facts on the ground,
is revealed as a compendium of such shamelessly open threats as have
long characterized the Tehran regime, threats that, when publicized
in certain ways, may in turn represent a signal for a terrorist
mobilization by agents already in place.

In that context, it is worth noting that as recently as late February,
members of a terrorist cell created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
(Sepah) and the Lebanese Hezbollah were arrested in Azerbaijan.

[15]

Notes: 1. The ethnic group is actually called “Azerbaijani” although
“Azeri” is in wide popular use. Here I use “Azeri” for the ethnic
group in order to avoid confusion, since “Azerbaijani” is also the
proper adjectival form of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

2. International Federation for Human Rights [FIDH], The Hidden side
of Iran: Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities,
[Dossier] no. 545a, (Paris: FIDH, October 2010), pp. 15-16. All URLs
were verified on 21 February 2012.

3. Robert M. Cutler, “Renewed Conflicts in the Caspian,” FSU Oil &
Gas Monitor, No. 145, 13 August 2001, pp. 4-6.

4. Sebastian Rotella, “Azerbaijan seen as new front in Mideast
conflict”, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2009.

5. Il’gar Rasul, “Rafik Tagi rasskazal o pokushenii” [Rafiq Tagi Talked
about the Attack], Radio Free Europe, 22 November 2011 (in Russian);
see also Rauf Orudzhev and Rauf Mirgadyrov, “Iranskii aiatolla
poprivetstvoval ubiistvo v Azerbaidzhane” [Iranian Ayatollah Welcomed
Murder in Azerbaijan], Zerkalo (Baku), 29 November 2011 (in Russian).

6. “In Azerbaijan, the planned attack on the Ambassador of Israel”,
Baku Today, 25 January 2012.

7. Armen Israyelyan, “Iran, Armenia share interests in regional issues:
20-year-old history of diplomatic relations”, Panorama (Yerevan),
20 February 2011.

8. US Secretary of State, Washington DC, to US Embassy, Yerevan,
“Letter from Deputy Secretary Negroponte regarding 2003 Armenian Arms
Procurement for Iran”, 24 December 2008.

9. Gayane Abrahamyan with Gohar Abrahamyan, “Armenia: Iranian Tourists
Let Loose in Yerevan for Novruz”, EurasiaNet, 1 April 2011.

10. Jomhouri Eslami (Tehran), as cited in “Iran Report”, Radio Free
Europe (1 February 1999).

11. “Iran top commander warns Azerbaijan’s Aliyev not to suppress
people’s awakening”, ISNA [Iranian Students’ News Agency] (Tehran),
11 August 2011.

12. “Azerbaijan supports diplomacy on Iran” PressTV (Tehran), 24
October 2010 (URL as cached by Google).

13. Giorgi Lomsadze, “As Iran Gets a Big Slice of Azerbaijan’s Energy
Pie, Europe Comes Knocking”, EurasiaNet, 13 January 2011.

14. “Editor sentenced over article about possible US attack on Iran”,
Pravda, 30 October 2007.

15. K. Zarbaliyeva, “Terrorist group of Sepah and Hezbollah neutralized
in Azerbaijan”, Trend News Agency, 21 February 2012.

Robert M Cutler is a senior research fellow at the Institute for
European, Eurasian and Russian Studies, Carleton University, Canada.

DOES SARGSYAN NEED OSKANIAN
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 20:40:56 – 06/03/2012

The ex-foreign minister Vardan Oskanian’s membership to the Prosperous
Armenia Party forms a new layer in the political sphere of Armenia
which may be essential in further political developments.

By his membership Vardan Oskanian imparts the party known for charity
only with political image, as well as gives a political shape to his
attitudes to Karabakh and foreign policy.

Hence, the combination of the Prosperous Armenia Party and Vardan
Oskanian may be the basement for the emergence of a new opposition
to Serzh Sargsyan’s foreign policy. Earlier the Prosperous Armenia
Party abstained from expressing detailed opinions on the Karabakh
issue or any other foreign issue or development.

Vardan Oskanyan’s membership means that the PAP will have to express
its opinion. And since Vardan Oskanian was one of the most ardent
critics of Serzh Sargsyan’s foreign policy in the past three-four
years, the PAP must become such unless Oskanian himself becomes
similar to the PAP in his approaches to foreign issues.

There has been no systemic and conceptial opposition to Serzh
Sargsyan’s foreign policy. The opposition Armenian National Congress
adheres to the main or key concept by which Serzh Sargsyan launched
his foreign policy. The approach of the Armenian National Congress
or rather Levon Ter-Petrosyan to Karabakh and relations with Turkey
are in line with the policy conducted by Serzh Sargsyan.

There was a conceptual difference in the approaches of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun however the leaders of this political force drove
the political behavior of this party to the margin. To restore it,
the leaders of this party who shape its behavior must be replaced.

Similarly, the foreign political concept of the Heritage Party has
a weak political influence for the simple reason that the Heritage
Party has a weak political influence and does not meet the benchmark
of the systemic opposition an indicator of useful effect of which is
measured by the efforts to protects the rights of citizens.

Hence, Serzh Sargsyan’s foreign policy during his four years of
office has lacked a systemic and conceptial opposition. The poltiical
forces are unable to fill in this gap. At present, Vardan Oskanian
and Prosperous Armenia Party have such ambitions.

Will they succeed in something which the political forces failed to
do? Judging by the policy conducted during Vardan Oskanian’s tenure,
expectations are not big since the policy will be implemented by the
party whose foreign policy has not been needed since 2006.

Now the Prosperous Armenia needs something political, and Serzh
Sargsyan needs an influential opposition to his foreign policy which
will be opposition in domestic issues and a resource of competition,
which cannot be ignored by the foreign political centers concerned
with the foreign issues of Armenia.

In the presence of such a system Serzh Sargsyan can maneuver among
the unpleasant proposals of Armenia and avoid pressure by referring
to the opposition.

Consequently, the tandem of the PAP and Vardan Oskanian may shape a
system, also with the help of Serzh Sargsyan, who needs an influential
system. In this context, Sargsyan may needs to ensure the domestic
dimension of the PAP, especially that this party has the relevant
resource. Ostensibly, it requires new agreements on the rules of
coexistence with changing geography. Apparently, this is the context
of the coalition statement of February 13 agreements on the rules of
the game which was followed by Oskanian’s membership to the PAP.

DAVID SAFARYAN BEATS AZERI WRESTLER IN EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 6, 2012 – 18:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – David Safaryan (66 kg) scored a win over Azerbaijani
Emin Azizov in the ¼ final of the European Championships to secure
a minimum bronze medal.

The Armenian wrestler will face off against Alan Gogaev (Russia)
in the semifinal.

Safaryan beat Georg Marchl (Austria) in the first clash.

Another Armenian representative Andranik Galstyan (96kg) dropped out
of the tournament on the first day.

YEREVAN’S MAYOR MUST MAKE A DECISION THAT “GOES AGAINST THE GRAIN”…AT LEAST ONCE
Edik Baghdasaryan

hetq
13:43, March 5, 2012

During an interview with Azatutyun Radio, Yerevan Mayor Taron
Margaryan said that his office didn’t even bother to discuss the
topic of compensation for business owners who had their stores on
Abovyan Street dismantled. The price was too prohibitive, he noted.

As yet, we have been unable to obtain any documents dating from former
Yerevan mayors regarding permission to build these stores on Abovyan
Street in the first place. Who in the Yerevan Municipality granted
permission for their construction up and down the sidewalks on this
prime piece of Yerevan real estate remains a mystery.

Can any of these storeowners provide any contractual documentation?

Even if such paperwork can be dug up from somewhere, we all know that
such permits were “bought” at a price. Thus, it’s absurd to even be
speaking about compensation.

Let those municipal officials “on the take” pay for such compensation
out of their pockets. And high on the list should be Narek Sargsyan,
the current Chief Architect of Yerevan and the man in charge when
those unsightly stores were constructed back in the day.

The money these officials pocketed during their years of tenure is
more than enough to compensate all shop owners in Yerevan.

Mayor Taron Margaryan enjoys a high-level of authority, amassed during
his years of tenure as the Avan District Leader. Now, he faces a
pivotal issue in his budding career.

The question remains as to whether he is capable of making a decision
that goes against the grain and depart from “business as usual”.

If the mayor can do this, he will recruit a mass army of supporters,
including the activist youth. It would be a feather in his cap, so to
say. But first, he must show the will to make such a tough decision
that will irritate only two oligarchs.

Both of these oligarchs enjoy no support or sympathy with the public.

They won’t even be able to muster two citizens to defend them if
Margaryan makes the tough but correct decision.

These oligarchs don’t even have the guts to say – “These stores belong
to us.” Hopefully, they have enough sense to ask themselves whether
it makes sense to do battle with broad segments of Yerevan residents
and active young people all in the name of a few stores.

Let’s put aside the Mashtots Park issue for the moment.

Does Yerevan need a chief architect who constantly deceives the people
of this city? Hasn’t the time finally come to send him packing?

I am convinced that Narek Sargsyan has been able to deceive the mayor
with equal ease.

Those shops on Abovyan Street were installed with the permission of
Narek Sargsyan and they were illegal.

Why hasn’t the Yerevan Municipality continuously failed to punish
those who approved such illegal decisions from day one?

We all remember how Narek Sargsyan gave his official “blessing” to
turning the green space around Yerevan’s Opera House into one giant
cafe. And now he has the nerve to speak about restoring Yerevan to
its historic glory?

Sargsyan had no trouble pulling the wool over the eyes of the Public
Council during their recent meeting. Council members had become so
enamoured with Sargsyan and so used to his lies, that all they could
do is hang their heads and believe him.

At the meeting, Sargsyan stated that he didn’t even know who the owners
of these stores are. So, in whose name is all this construction being
pushed through for?

Does anyone in Yerevan take Sargsyan at his word when he feigns such
ignorance? Of course not. The chief architect knows everything. The
blueprints for these stores were handled by him. He was the one who
signed off on the project now underway to construct a commercial
center in the vicinity of Hrazdan Stadium.

It remains for Mayor Margaryan to void his 7373-A Decision of December
30, 2011 entitled – “The dismantling of structures on leased property
at 21/3 Abovyan Street and granting of building rights on 247 square
meters of land to Arevelyan Oasis Ltd.”.

Arevelyan Oasis is a company owned by Yuri Beglaryan, brother of
former Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan.

So far, we’ve only been able to ascertain the name of Arevelyan Oasis.

There’s another company that also has been granted land in Mashtots
Park as compensation for being removed from Abovyan Street.

By nullifying this decision, Mayor Margaryan will declare that he
has heeded the voice of the people in the decision-making process.

He will usher in a new tradition of municipal business according
to which the people needs and concerns must be taken into account
before any construction or major changes are made to Yerevan parks
and public spaces.

After all, a city is made up of residents and not just two oligarchs.

STATE TO SUPPORT SOLDIERS IN GOING TO UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 5, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS: Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan,
accompanied by Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, met with soldiers of
one of Yerevan military units, presenting the educational program
implemented in the armed forces. The program aims to improve the
professional skills of demobilized soldiers and their knowledge
on separate subjects, as well as to prepare them for entrance
to universities, primary and secondary specialized educational
institutions, Armenpress reports.

“We should help you to get orientated in education and specialization
during your term of service. Before demobilization, we should clear up
together with you what you want to be your engagement after the army.

The state will stand up for the soldiers, who want to gain knowledge
to continue the education is universities,” said the Prime Minister.

For the purpose 172 aspirants, holders of master’s degree and young
lecturers of State Pedagogical University of Armenia and 6 other
universities will carry out relevant work with soldiers.

“We want any family, who have a soldier, be sure that the state assumes
the commitment of not only creating favorable conditions for service,
but meeting the educational needs of their children as well.

If you wish a distinct work and you need short-term trainings for it,
the state will support you in this issue, too,” Tigran Sargsyan noted.

Seyran Ohanyan expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for
undertaking this initiative.

At the moment this is a pilot educational program and is implemented
in two military units of the republic.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT NATO HEADQUARTERS

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 5, 2012 – 17:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On March 6, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
will visit NATO headquarters. He will meet Secretary General of
NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen and will participate in North Atlantic
Council+Armenia meeting.

RA President is currently on working visit to Brussels.

He will also meet President of the European Council Herman Van
Rompuy, head of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, President
of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, European Commissioner for
Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy tefan Fule and Wilfried
Martens, President of European People’s Party Wilfried Martens.

A meeting with the head of Belgium parliament is also on President
Sargsyan’s visit agenda.