Author: Badalian Vardan

CHARBEL: ISSUE OF SYRIAN KURDS IN BOURJ HAMMOUD ‘EXAGGERATED’

NOW LEBANON

Nov 13 2011

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that the issue related to the
expulsion of Syrian Kurds from Bourj Hammoud and its vicinity ” has
been exaggerated by media outlets.” Bourj Hammoud is a suburb east
of Beirut and is inhabited largely by Armenians.

An-Nahar quoted Charbel on Sunday as saying: “The truth is that some
residents in Bourj Hammoud have been displeased with robberies and
attacks that have occurred and this is what made the citizens raise
their voices and call on the municipality to organize the area.”

Charbel said that the municipality can assist Lebanese authorities
in resolving security issues in Bourj Hammoud but “it does not have
the right to kick anyone out, and neither the Tashnaq party nor any
other party has the right to interfere in such issues.”

Charbel added that based on information he has obtained, Syrian Kurds
are not being forced out of Bourj Hammoud.

“Reality has shown that no vengeful or unfair measures have taken
place,” Charbel told the daily.

The minister said that he will not accept any “politically-motivated”
measures to be taken against Syrian Kurds in the area.

Last month, Future News television quoted Syrian Kurds as saying that
a Tashnaq-related group informed Syrian Kurdish families living in
Bourj Hammoud “of the importance to evacuate their rented houses in
the area.”

The report added that the request was made after members of these
families participated in protests against the Syrian regime in front
of the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.

However, Tashnaq party leader MP Hagop Pakradounian later clarified in
an interview that “the municipality asked foreign workers – whether
they are Syrian, Egyptian, Sri Lankan or Filipino – especially those
who do not have identification papers and official or registered
lease contracts, to evacuate the region.”

He added that the municipality will allow foreign workers who live
with their families to remain in Bourj Hammoud.

ACCUSED SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT FOR MURDER OF 23-YEAR-OLD

epress.am
11.12.2011

The trial of the May 12, 2010 murder of 23-year-old Khachik Lazarian
concluded Friday at the Court of General Jurisdiction of First Instance
of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun Administrative Districts of Yerevan.

The judge ruled to drop the charges under RA Criminal Code Article
235 Section 1 (“Illegally procuring, transporting, keeping or carrying
weapons, explosives or explosive devices”) against Arsen Aharonyan by
granting him amnesty; however, the judge ruled to sentence Aharonyan
to 5 years in prison under charges of RA Criminal Code Article 258
Section 4 (“Hooliganism combined with medium gravity damage to the
health of the person”).

Recall, that Arsen Aharonyan, who is the nephew of former Arabkir
district mayor Hovhannes Shahinyan, was initially accused of murder to
which he admitted his guilt; however, he later retracted his testimony,
after which Vram Baghdasaryan was accused of murder.

Note, during investigation of this case, former head of the RA Police
General Department of Criminal Intelligence Hovhannes Tamamyan,
“failing to do his duties and undertake necessary measures to reveal
a crime,” was dismissed from his position and arrested.

The court issued a guilty sentence to Vram Baghdasaryan for murder
and sentenced him to 14 years’ imprisonment. Other accused, Petros
Grigoryan and Davit Sandaljyan, which were named as accessories to
the crime, were granted amnesty and dismissed from the court.

The remaining two accused, Hayk Sandaljyan and Artur Pokharyan were
sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment.

Prior to the ruling being issued, the youth said their final words,
asking the court to issue a fair ruling. Vram Baghdasaryan said he
did not commit the crime he was being accused of.

Speaking to Epress.am, Baghdasaryan’s attorneys said they will be
taking the case to the appeals court.

“Without evidence, without justification, they imprison a man for
14 years. And this is considered a shameful trial. An unjust court
issued an unjust ruling,” said one of Baghdasaryan’s attorneys,
Gayane Khachatryan.

The Yerevan-based Helsinki Association for Human Rights produced a
video covering the judicial process (see below, in Armenian only).

SWEDISH AUTHOR’S BOOK ON WWI HAS CHAPTER ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 12, 2011 – 14:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Beauty and the Sorrow is Swedish author Peter
Englund’s extraordinary new history of the first world war, which
follows the lives of 20 people caught up in the conflict. Among them
are an American ambulance driver, an English nurse in the Russian army,
a South American adventurer fighting for the Turks, a 12-year-old
German girl and several other civilians. In the course of 227 short
chapters (some of them no more than a page long), they take turns
to tell us what they saw or felt on a given day. Interspersed with
authorial commentary, their testimonies make up a haunting chronicle,
and a convocation of ghosts, an article in The Guardian says.

The book is thick with other forebodings of the WWI. A dapper
Ottoman official, on orders from his paymasters in Constantinople,
stands calmly by as Kurds bestially slaughter Armenian Christians
in present-day Turkey. “He represents a new species in the bestiary
of the young century,” says Englund – that of the well-dressed,
articulate mass murderer who condemns thousands to death at the mere
stroke of a pen. In Nazi Germany such bureaucrats would become known
as Schreibtischtater – “desk-murderers”. Apprenticeship in Ottoman
obedience in April 1915 required a stunted moral imagination; lack of
imagination (not sadism) had made the official cruel, the article says.

The Beauty and the Sorrow is a chronicle of human loss, atrocity and
famine. What happened at the Marne, in the Ottoman province of Armenia,
on the Gallipoli peninsula, at Ypres, in the Piave and on the Asiago
plateau was tragic, inhuman, it says.

RULING PARTY’S FASCIST AIRS
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:42:34 – 12/11/2011

Delivering a speech at Tata’s show dedicated to the international
youth day and sponsored by the Republican Party, Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan spoke about future victories in chess and football. “And
that potential is in this hall,” Tigran Sargsyan said.

Perhaps it is worthwhile to dwell on this note. And in the hall was
the youth who are fans of Tata, a rabis city folk singer. The youth
listening to Tata may contain a potential for football but the youth
with a chess potential will hardly attend Tata’s show. But this is
not the problem. At that moment, Tigran Sargsyan remembered football
and chess but perhaps he meant other victories too so he meant that
there was potential for other victories too.

This is already a hint at the main problem.

Several thousands of young people gathered at Tata’s concert. They were
Republicans or pro-Republicans. When the prime minister announces that
the potential of victories is in this hall, it smells like fascism.

Several times more young people were outside that hall and they hardly
have less potential than those inside the hall. When the prime minister
says that the potential is in this hall, he paraphrases his earlier
statement “who fails to join the Republicans will not reach anywhere”.

In the world, the “we” election rhetoric is popular, yes we can,
Obama said in the United States. Let’s do it together, Yedinaya
Rossiya says in Russia.

In Armenia, however, “we” is not an attempt to reach out to the public
but a threat and blackmail: We are this, and if you do not become part
of us, we will not let you reach anywhere. This is the impression of
the election campaign of the ruling party. This gradually resembles
fascism, when everything is identified with one structure.

US TO BRING SOUTH CAUCASUS OUT OF RUSSIA’S INFLUENCE – AZERI EXPERT

Tert.am
12.11.11

The United States has launched the Big Caucasus project in an attempt
to diminish Russia’s influence on the South Caucasus, according to
Rasim Agaev, an Azerbaijani political analyst.

“The United States is seeking to neutralize Russia’s influence on
the South Caucasus countries. That’s why it is implementing the Big
Caucasus porject that was launched under [former President] George
W Bush to strengthen the country’s positions in the region, pushing
forward the US interests,” Regnum news agency has quoted the expert
as saying.

Agaev noted that the United States may thus have a bridgehead against
Russia and Iran.

He further spoke of the obvious anti-Russian policies of Georgia
and the pro-American orientation of Azerbaijan’s top classes and
opposition circles. As for Armenia, he said the country is facing
serious political reforms, with the influential circles of the Armenian
Diaspora desiring to bring the country out of Russia’s influence.

“Historically, Armenia is strongly oriented towards Russia, so it’s
not going to be an easy task,” he said, not ruling out the possibility
of finding a solution.

Agaev noted that the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is a key element
of the Big Caucasus project.

“If it is settled in favor of Azerbaijan, Americans will have
difficulty in resolving problems with Armenia, and just visa versa”
he added.

The expert said that a success in Karabakh deal would push Washington
to merge the North and South Caucasus into a larger geopolitical
region called the Big Caucasus. The move, according to him, would
completely deprive Russia of having any influence on the region.

EUROPE MUST CONTRIBUTE TO LIBERATION OF AZERBAIJANI LANDS – GERMAN ENVOY

news.az
Nov 11 2011
Azerbaijan

Head of the Central Council of Azerbaijani Diaspora in Germany Tengis
Sade baron zu Romkerhall yesterday met with the German envoy Herbert
Quelle.

During the meeting Ambassador Quelle discussed the development of
an independent and democratic state of Azerbaijan, emphasizing on
the economic growth, social and political stability and recognizing
the unprecedented achievements of Azerbaijan in the international
community.

He also mentioned the importance of support for Azerbaijan by the
European countries to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to
liberate the occupied lands from the Armenian invasion.

PALY GRAD TO DISCUSS ARMENIAN INTERNET PROJECT

Palo Alto Online

Nov 11 2011

The ‘Hidden Road Initiative’ is subject of talk at Stanford’s Bechtel
International Center

A Palo Alto High School graduate has helped to build a “virtual road”
— the Internet — into Aghbradzor, Armenia, a mountain village whose
roads to the rest of the world are cut off by severe weather for six
months a year.

Nanor Balabanian, now a fourth-year political science major at the
University of California at Santa Barbara will discuss the Hidden
Road Initiative in a presentation at Stanford University’s Bechtel
International Center Friday (Nov. 11).

Balabanian’s project was funded by the Strauss Foundation as well as
a donation from Paly English and journalism teacher Esther Wojcicki,
who Balabanian said was one of several teachers who inspired her when
she and her family moved to Palo Alto from Lebanon her sophomore
year. Her father is pastor of the Calvary Armenian Congregational
Church in San Francisco.

Coming to Paly was a bit of a culture shock after being raised in a
“sheltered” Armenian village in Lebanon, she said.

“But Paly is very open to accepting diversity and technology as part
of the school, and opened my eyes to so many things,” she said.

Balabanian first visited Aghbradzor in 2009, with help from SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory scientist Anahid Yeremian. She
documented the visit with a video camera, and the video began
circulating on the Internet, yielding her an unsolicited $1,000 check
from a lawyer in Los Angeles.

“I’d never seen a check like that at that time,” she recalled.

Using funds from a $10,000 grant from the Donald A. Strauss Public
Service Scholarship Foundation, Balabanian teamed with others in
Armenia and the United States to create the Internet connection for
the school in Aghbradzor.

Participants included students from Stanford University, UCSB,
Yerevan State University in Armenia and Balabanian’s brother Azad,
a Paly student.

For her senior thesis at UCSB, Balabanian is studying the effect of
technology on the youth of Aghbradzor.

Friday’s event at Bechtel International Center begins at 7:30 p.m. and
is co-sponsored by the Stanford Armenian Students Association and UCSB.

CZECH STRIKER CHRAMOSTA ENDS ARMENIA’S GREAT START
by Khachik Chakhoyan

UEFA.com

Nov 11 2011

Armenia 0-2 Czech Republic

The home side’s unbeaten start in Group 3 came to an end as Jan
Chramosta came off the bench to score twice in the closing stages.

The Czech Republic remain on top in UEFA European Under-21 Championship
qualifying Group 3 after inflicting a first defeat on Armenia courtesy
of two late goals from substitute Jan Chramosta.

The FK Mladá Boleslav striker came on at half-time and decided the
match in the closing stages. On 76 minutes, he scored with a powerful
header after Arsen Petrosyan had blocked Marek Hanousek’s effort,
and he added to his tally two minutes into added time after beating
three defenders. Armenia will join Jakub Dovalil’s side on ten points,
however, if they can beat Wales at home on Tuesday.

Armenia made a decent start, and Marek tÄ~[ch in the Czech goal had
to save from Artak Aleksanyan’s shot midway through the opening period.

Vladimír Darida had a good chances to put the visitors in front either
side of the break, and Václav Kadlec then danced past two defenders
but failed to find the target as the game entered its last 20 minutes.

The Czechs were on top and Chramosta ensured that the pressure paid.

ARMENIAN PM, STEVE WOZNIAK DISCUSS PROSPECTS IN IT SECTOR

news.am
Nov 11 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received on Friday
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to discuss recent developments in
world’s IT sector.

Prime Minister welcomed the guest in the government expressing
gratitude for his visit to Armenia.

Armenian PM and Steve Wozniak exchanged views on prospects of
communication technologies, as well as issues related to bilateral
cooperation, government’s press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Apple co-founder spoke about his impressions of Armenia stressing he
is marveled at Armenia and country’s policy.

Steve Wozniak arrived in Armenia to get the Global Award of Armenian
President for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT 2011
(Global IT Award 2011) .

HIGH-LEVEL NORWEGIAN DELEGATION VISITS ARMENIA TO BOOST BILATERAL COMMERCIAL TIES
by: Lilit Gevorgyan

Global Insight
November 10, 2011

On 9 November, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan met with the
Foreign Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Store who is visiting the South
Caucasian republic on an official tour. The visit was to mark the 150th
anniversary of the birth of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian who in his
capacity as League of Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees saved
the lives of thousands of Armenians fleeing the massacres by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1923–acts that have been labelled as genocide
by over 20 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Russia but
denied by modern-day Turkey. The visit was to highlight historic links
between the two countries and reaffirm positive political dialogue,
but most importantly it was to boost co-operation especially in the
energy sector.

The countries launched a three-year bilateral programme to boost the
development of small hydropower plants in Armenia. It is a three-stage
programme which will first assess the environmental and social impact
of the potential small hydropower plants, followed by training of
personnel for the plants and assessment of environmental impact of the
operations of potential plants. The project will also involve other
international experts as well as representatives of international
organisations working in Armenia. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry will
be funding the programme with participation of Armenian Hydro-Energy
Company and the Norwegian Norsk Energy. Norwegian hydropower companies
SWECO, Gauldal Consult AS and the International Hydropower Centre
(ICH) will also support the programme.

Significance:Despite the geographic distance Armenia and Norway have
had relatively strong ties. The newly launched hydropower development
programme is set to give a new impetus to their bilateral relations.

Armenia, owing to its mountainous terrain, is an attractive destination
for companies specialising in hydropower generation.

Norway is a valuable partner in this regard having relevant expertise
and high-tech technologies. If successful, the project could lead to
realisation of the Armenian government’s long-term plan of diversifying
its energy generation, which is currently heavily dependent on ageing
Soviet- era nuclear power station.