IRAN, ARMENIA LAUNCH ‘FRIENDSHIP MONUMENT’
Trend
Oct 3 2011
Azerbaijan
A so-called “friendship monument” between Armenia and Iran opened
on the Megri border checkpoint in Armenia, the hIranian news channel
IRINN reported.
According to the channel, the monument is a window opening to Iran.
At the opening ceremony, representatives of the two countries put
four cypresses around the monument.
AZERBAIJAN INCLUDES CALIFORNIA SENATOR IN “BLACK LIST”
Trend
Oct 3 2011
Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has included California Senate
Environmental Quality Committee chairman, Senator Joseph Simitian
into the “black list”, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman
Abdullayev told Trend.
Simitian illegally visited the occupied territories of Azerbaijan
without permission from Azerbaijan’s appropriate agencies.
“Prior to his visit to Armenia, Simitian held meetings in Baku,”
Abdullayev told Trend.
“However, unfortunately, he traveled to the Azerbaijani lands occupied
by Armenia showing disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, not informing the relevant bodies of the
Azerbaijan Republic and without permission. Accordingly, the ministry
made a decision to include him in the list of persona-non.”
Azerbaijan’s position on this issue is strict and indisputable:
those who showed disrespect to Azerbaijan and its laws will be
included in this list. This is a flagrant violation of domestic law,
Abdullayev said.
He said a person who makes the laws and is a member of the legislature
of California, should not himself violate any laws.
Simitian visited Nagorno-Karabakh, met with representatives of the
separatist regime, the Armenian media reported.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.
LEBANON’S SPEAKER ARRIVES IN ARMENIA
news.am
Oct 3 2011
Armenia
YEREVAN.- The delegation headed by Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih
Berri arrived on a three-day official visit to Armenia on Monday at
the invitation of Armenian Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.
The members of the delegation laid wreaths at the memorial to the
victims of October 27 terrorist attack in the Armenian Parliament.
The ceremony was followed by a private meeting of the Speakers,
parliament’s press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.
The sides discussed regional problems, stressing importance of
cooperation in international agencies.
IN A LETTER TO ERDOGAN, ARAM I SAYS THE ARMENIAN PEOPLE STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE
AsiaNews
Oct 3 2011
Italy
The Armenian Orthodox Catholicos of Cilicia says returning part of the
assets seized from Churches by the Turkish government after 1936 is
not enough. He wants the return of everything seized and lost after the
genocide as well as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Beirut ~V Recent steps by Turkish authorities to return properties
seized from religious minorities after 1936 are ~Sincomplete~T,
Catholicos Aram I Kechichian said in an open letter to Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, whose titular see is
located in the Turkish province of Cilicia, justice for the Armenian
people will come only when Turkey acknowledges the genocide of 1915
and when private and Church assets seized at the time are returned.
Here is the text of his letter (translated by AsiaNews):
By way of the press, we have learnt that your government plans to
return properties seized from religious minorities after 1936. Such a
decision undoubtedly stems from recent rulings by the European Court
of Human Rights as well as inquiries by the US Congress into Turkish
pressures on Christian minorities (See Nat de Polis, ~SHistoric
decision: Erdogan returns seized property to religious minorities,~T
in AsiaNews, 29 August 2011).
As spiritual and lawful head of the Holy See of Cilicia (Armenian
Orthodox), which was uprooted from its historic see and installed in
Lebanon, and as representative of the children of the Armenian Church
who were exiled from Turkey and dispersed throughout the world, we
consider your decision of 27 August 2011 to be incomplete and unjust.
The Holy See of Cilicia remains the lawful owner of numerous buildings,
churches, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, cemeteries and other
properties that belong to the church, seized by Turkish authorities
at the time of the Armenian genocide of 1915.
The same is true for the children of the Armenian people, who are the
lawful owners of houses, businesses, estates and other assets passed
down from their ancestors and lost during the genocide planned and
executed by the Ottoman Turkish government.
Your government’s decision may meet the requirements of the European
Union, but it may never be considered as just or legally relevant.
Mr Prime Minister, although taken in the name of justice, your
decision is biased and selective and denies history and democratic
values and principles.
Of course, international institutions like the European Court of Human
Rights and the European Parliament and its parliamentary bodies are
tasked with defending democratic principles and values and ensure
that they are respected; however, the people is the conscience and
memory of such principles and values.
As League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Nobel Peace
Prize winner for 1922 Fridtjof Nansen said in Armenia and the Near
East that the Armenian people never lost hope, bravely working and
waiting. “They continue to wait,” he wrote.
Allow me to add that the Armenian people will never cease to demand
justice from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian people
will never cease to demand the restoration of their human rights.
Mr Prime Minister, your attachment to justice and human rights will
gain in credibility only when you recognise the Armenian Genocide.
ARMENIA’S AGING METSAMOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ALARMS CAUCASIAN NEIGHBORS
Written by John Daly
OilPrice
Oct 3 2011
The USSR might have imploded two decades ago, but debris from its
headlong industrialization drive litter the post-Soviet landscape,
and nothing more unsettles the population of the fifteen new nations
carved out of the Soviet Union than its nuclear legacy.
The poster child for Caucasian nuclear concerns is Armenia’s aging
Metsamor nuclear power plant, which provides nearly 40 percent of
the country’s electricity.
The facility has not only alarmed neighboring Georgia, Turkey and
Azerbaijan but begun to receive international notice as well – on 11
April National Geographic ran a story entitled “Is Armenia’s Nuclear
Plant the World’s Most Dangerous?”
Metsamor, 20 miles west of the capital Erevan and 10 miles from the
Turkish border, encapsulates the dilemma facing many energy-poor
nations heavily dependent on nuclear power – unlike Germany, they do
not have the cash or alternatives needed to shutter such facilities
and consequently, keep them running while crossing their fingers.
Metsamor, which began operations in 1976, contains two VVER-400 V230
376 megawatt nuclear reactors generating about 2 million kilowatt
hours of energy annually. Many environmentalists regard it as an
accident waiting to happen. The Armenian government closed Metsamor’s
Unit 1 in February 1989 and Unit 2 the next month following a massive
December 1988 earthquake which killed more than 25,000, left much of
northern Armenia in ruins and caused more than $4 billion in damage.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the facility itself is a hostage to the
vicious politics disrupting the Caucasus. Armenia went to war with
Azerbaijan in February 1988 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave. During the clash, which lasted until May 1994, Azerbaijan
blockaded roads, rail lines and energy supplies, leading to severe
energy shortages in Armenia. In 1991 pressure to restart Metsamor
increased after a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan was blocked by
a Turkish and Azeri fuel embargo. By the winter of 1994-95, residents
of Yerevan often had only an hour or two of electricity daily, which
the restart of Metsamor’s Unit 2 in October 1995 increased to 10-12
hours per day and has been running ever since, environmentalists
be damned.
Earlier this month however Metsamor was brought offline on 11 September
and will resume operation on 27 October. The EU has classified the
Metsamor’s reactors as the “oldest and least reliable” category of
all the 66 Soviet reactors built in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union.
Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences President Mahmud Karimov
recently voiced his country’s concerns over Metsamor, stating, “The
European Union also expressed the need to close the plant. Despite
regular inspections of the plant by international organizations,
the results of these inspections are kept secret and no information
is given to Azerbaijan about them. The countries of the region –
Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia – have repeatedly proposed allowing the
specialists of these countries to examine the Metsamor nuclear power
plant. But the reports on Metsamor are not available to these three
countries. The Armenian side says ten different committees have checked
the Metsamor NPP in 2011. But the test results are not available to
neighboring countries, that is, the inspections lack transparency.”
Quite aside from its aging technology, Metsamor, high in the mountains,
lacks suitable water resources to use as reactor core coolant in the
event that an earthquake damaged the facility, while Armenia’s parlous
fiscal situation means that its government lacks financial resources
to address the consequences of a possible accident. Metsamor is one
less than a half dozen remaining nuclear reactors of its kind that
were built without primary containment structures.
Nor is the only threat to Metsamor’s operations coming from its aging
technology – more than 140 workers at Metsamor have threatened to
quit their jobs if their wages are not raised, Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty’s Armenian Service reported.
Metsamor Director Ashot Markosian told RFE/RL on 23 September that
despite the workers writing him directly, the plant currently lacks
the funds for a salary increase. Earlier this month several Metsamor
employees sent an open letter to Armenia’s presidential staff, the
Prime Minister as well as European branches of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, accusing Metsamor’s chief engineer Movses
Vardanyan of abusing his official position, nepotism and embezzlement.
But no mind – Armenian authorities have said they will build a new $2-5
billion nuclear power plant to replace the aging Metsamor facility,
which will operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-built power
station. In 2004 the European Union’s envoy called Metsamor “a danger
to the entire region,” but Armenia later turned down the EU’s offer
of a 200 million euro loan to finance Metsamor’s shutdown.
Aging nuclear technology, a disaffected work force in a facility
located in a seismically active region – what could possibly go wrong?
Time for the EU to up its bribe – err, loan.
By. John C.K. Daly
NEW CHAIRMAN OF MANAGEMENT BOARD OF ARDSHININVESTBANK
AZG DAILY
04-10-2011
Mher Grigoryan was appointed the new Chairman of Management Board
of Ardshininvestbank on 3rd of October. Introducing the newly
appointed Chairman of Management Board, the Chairman of Bank Board
of Ardshininvestbank Karen Safaryan assured that Mher Grigoryan is
an experienced expert of the Armenian banking system and he will
continue the best traditions of the Bank.
In his turn, Mher Grigoryan noted that he thought the offer interesting
and prospective. “I have to achieve quite an ambitious goal: to make
Ardshininvestbank maximum strong and competitive, keep implementing
new projects aimed at developing retail and corporate business”.
Mher Grigoryan was born in 1972, has legal education. He has been
working in the banking system since 1996. He worked at the Central
Bank of Armenia, Armimpexbank, HSBC Bank Armenia. He held the position
of the Executive Director of Inecobank in 2006-2007. In 2002-2006,
Mher Grigoryan worked in the Yerevan Office of the World Bank as a
consultant. Since 2007 he has held the post of the Deputy Director
General of VTB Bank (Armenia).
Speaks Armenian, Russian and English.
Mher Grigoryan is married, has 2 children.
AZERBAIJAN INCLUDES CALIFORNIA SENATOR IN ‘BLACK LIST’
Tert.am
03.10.11
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has included California Senator Joseph
Simitian into the “black list” of those prohibited to visit Azerbaijan,
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend.
The move comes after Simitian visited the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh
– a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan – without
permission from Azerbaijani authorities.
“Prior to his visit to Armenia, Simitian held meetings in Baku,”
Abdullayev said. “However, unfortunately, he travelled to the
Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia, showing disrespect for the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, not informing
the relevant bodies of the Azerbaijan Republic and without permission.”
“Accordingly, the ministry made a decision to include him in the list
of persona non-grata,” he added.
Earlier, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry included in its “black list”
reporters of the Russian online newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta
(Independent Newspaper) and radio station Echo Moskvy for the same
reason.
MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASHES IN TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
October 3, 2011 – 20:24 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – 3 members of helicopter personnel were injured
when a military helicopter crashed due to a technical malfunction in
Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province on Monday, October 3.
The injured were taken to Diyarbakir Military Hospital. One was
reported to be in critical condition.
The crew on board were returning from leaving a delegate at the Mardin
Regiment Command to Mardin’s Omerli district when the helicopter
crashed.
A team was reportedly working on the crash site to determine the
cause of the accident, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
PACE RESOLUTION: ARMENIA, ALBANIA, AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA EXPERIENCE GENDERCIDE
arminfo
Monday, October 3, 21:37
PACE has adopted a Resolution on Prenatal Sex Selection in Armenia,
Albania, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.
The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women presented the
resolution based on the Swiss parliamentarian Doris Stump’s report on
prenatal sex selection. The report points out the horrifying number
of cases of prenatal sex selection in some countries, particularly,
in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The report says that the
ratio of boys and girls in the first three countries is approximately
112:100, and in Georgia – 111:110. The resolution advocates studying
the reasons of this phenomenon, and suggests that all members of
the Council of Europe should forbid doctors to inform the parents of
their babies’ sex in advance.
The European parliamentarians said that sex selection and abortion
are instances of discrimination against women and disrespect for
their dignity. They stressed the need to break the cultural barriers
urging parents to abort embryos if they are girls. Parliamentarian
from Luxembourg Lydie Err said that this war is not against girls
but against women. It is a kind of gendercide.
She said that though, at first glance, it looks like a demographic
problem, in reality, it is a social bomb of delayed action. So, it
is necessary to understand why people prefer boys to girls and to
fight this in order to overcome cultural relativity and disproportion
between boys and girls.
WHAT MATTERS IS THAT SHOUSHI IS LIBERATED, SAYS FIRST PRESIDENT
Tert.am
03.10.11
Armenia’s first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and has said it does
not matter whether he was aware of the Shoushi operation plant,
adding that what matter is that town Shoushi is liberated now.
Responding to a question at an open-air press conference on Liberty
Square he said: “You are mistaken if you think I will open you a
state secret.”
“I will not open any state secret unless the Karabakh issue is finally
resolved … That is a dangerous talk. Let them say that I was not
aware of the Shoushi liberation,” said Ter-Petrosyan, who is also
the leader of the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress, or HAK.
Shoushi was brought under Armenian control on 9 May 1992.
Further Ter-Petrosyan said may there be victory on Armenia’s side
and it is not important whom it will be ascribed to.
“What matters is that Shoushi is liberated,” said he.