Author: Badalian Vardan

VIVACELL-MTS PRESENTS – “SMS EXTRA” – NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR SENDING TEXT MESSAGES

Noyan Tapan

09.09.2011

(Noyan Tapan – 09.09.2011) September 9, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia –
VivaCell-MTS, a subsidiary of “Mobile TeleSystems” OJSC, is glad to
present “SMS Extra” bundle of services that provides a number of
unprecedented opportunities for sending text messages – flash-SMS,
secret SMS, planning of SMS and much more…

“SMS Flash” – Sent messages appear on the phone display, but are not
kept in the memory… “SMS Nick” – Instead of phone number the SMS
recipient will see the nick of the sender… “SMS Calendar” – SMS
sending can be planned beforehand and the messages will be delivered
in time… “SMS Secret” – The recipient will be able to read the
secret SMS only after entering the special password… “Blacklist” –
The service allows blocking messages addressed to particular numbers
or containing particular words… “Whitelist” – The service allows
blocking all outgoing messages, with the exception of those addressed
to particular numbers or containing particular words… “My SMS” –
The incoming messages will be managed with auto reply, SMS forwarding
and much more…

“SMS Extra” service can be activated and managed from the “Internet
Assistant” self-care portal, by dialing *141# and entering the “Service
Menu”, or by sending the corresponding command to the short number 141.

For more information one can visit , contact 111 free
of charge hotline, chat with us through “111 Online”, or approach
one of our service centers across Armenia.

LEAKED DOCUMENT REVEALS U.S. ANGER WITH ‘DISHONEST’ TER-PETROSSIAN

4323291.html
September 09, 2011

Armenian opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian

YEREVAN — U.S. diplomatic records disclosed by WikiLeaks show
Armenian opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian angering the U.S.
ambassador for being “dishonest,” RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

The documents show that Ter-Petrossian urged the United States to
take control in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process in 2008 shortly
after he accused Washington of seeking excessive Armenian concessions
to Azerbaijan.

In a classified 2008 cable released this week by WikiLeaks, then
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch said in Yerevan that
Ter-Petrossian also told her that he publicly branded U.S. policy on
Armenia “immoral” in order to placate his radical supporters demanding
a new opposition push for power.

Yovanovitch allegedly rejected this explanation as “dishonest,”
deploring Ter -Petrossian’s “lack of integrity” and saying that he
is willing to “sell out his own policy views for the sake of personal
political expedience.”

The leaked cable reveals Yovanovitch’s first meeting with
Ter-Petrossian on November 4, 2008. It says that the meeting
was scheduled for October 20 but that Yovanovitch postponed it to
demonstrate Washington’s “displeasure” with his speech at an opposition
rally held on October 17, 2008.

Speaking at that rally, Ter-Petrossian charged that the United States
and other Western powers are turning a blind eye to a continuing
government crackdown on his opposition movement in their quest for a
“unilateral” resolution of the conflict over the breakaway Azerbaijani
region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Such a settlement, he said, would spell a “national disaster” for
Armenia because it would exclude Russia.

Ter-Petrossian also claimed at the time, according to the leaked
documents, that in return for strong Western support for his regime,
President Serzh Sarkisian is ready to “put Karabakh up for sale”
and renounce Armenia’s political and military alliance with Russia.

According to Yovanovitch, Ter-Petrossian made diametrically opposite
statements when they met three weeks later. She quoted him as saying
that the United States should hijack the initiative in Karabakh
conflict mediation from the Russians by dispatching Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice to the region to negotiate a final
Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement and have it signed in Washington in
the presence of President George W. Bush.

“[Ter-Petrossian] said the U.S. would be doing Armenia and its people
a great favor by intervening to achieve a balanced settlement that
would leave neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan with ‘a loser’s complex,'”
Yovanovitch wrote. She said Ter-Petrossian assured her that his
Armenian National Congress (HAK) alliance “will not do anything to
complicate Sarkisian’s settlement efforts” in the coming months.

The envoy told top U.S. State Department officials that Ter-Petrossian
also justified his harsh verbal attacks on the West voiced at the
October 2008 rally. She quoted the HAK leader as saying that he simply
sought to sell his decision to suspend antigovernment demonstrations
in Yerevan to “the radical elements in his opposition movement.”

In his 45-minute speech at the rally, Ter-Petrossian asserted that
further street protests would “weaken Serzh Sarkisian’s positions
and thereby increase possibilities of exerting external pressure on
him and clinching concessions from him.”

Throughout the summer of 2008, senior HAK figures told supporters
to get ready for renewed “decisive” actions against the Sarkisian
administration. One of them stated that the October 17 rally will
mark a “turning point” in the opposition movement’s struggle.

Yovanovitch is quoted as saying that Ter-Petrossian said that the
protest suspension involved “great risks” for him and that he had
“no other way to get people off the streets and back in their homes.”

Yovanovitch, who completed her three-year tour of duty in Armenia in
June 2010, dismissed the alleged explanation. “Painting the United
States in an immoral light on resolving [the Karabakh conflict]
is intellectually dishonest no matter the motive,” she told
Ter-Petrossian, according to the cable.

Yovanovitch suggested the following motives behind his “dishonest
rhetoric.” “Our read is that [Ter-Petrossian] saw support for public
rallies dwindling with each passing month, and was desperate to find
a face-saving tactic,” she allegedly told officials in Washington.

“Empty-handed after months of a stridently rejectionist strategy,
LTP chose to cloak himself  in nationalism and concoct a conspiracy
theory of great-power machinations to cover his political retreat.”

Levon Zurabian, a close Ter-Petrossian associate who coordinates the
HAK’s day-to-day activities, insisted on September 8 that there were
no contradictions between what the ex-president said at the rally
and the conversation he had with the U.S. ambassador.

In particular, Zurabian, who was also present at that meeting with
Yovanovitch, strongly denied her claims that Ter-Petrossian admitted
misleading his most loyal supporters. “Ter-Petrossian never said such
a thing, and I refute that,” he told RFE/RL. “And Marie Yovanovitch
also refutes herself in that report.”

But Zurabian would not comment on whether Ter-Petrossian indeed urged
the U.S. to aggressively push for an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.

Ter-Petrossian was quoted in the documents as questioning Russia’s
commitment to Karabakh peace in another leaked cable which Yovanovitch
allegedly sent to Washington in August 2009. The confidential document
also publicized by WikiLeaks gives details of a meeting in Yerevan
with Matthew Bryza, the then U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

“LTP worried that Russia does not actually want a solution, but rather
a lingering problem that leaves both Armenia and Azerbaijan dependent
on Russia,” reads the document.

Ter-Petrossian’s alleged concerns contrasted with his exceedingly
positive public statements on the Russian government. The HAK leader
has been far more critical of the Western powers in his public
pronouncements made since the disputed February 2008 presidential
election. He has repeatedly accused them of tolerating human rights
abuses in Armenia for “geopolitical considerations.”

Zurabian claimed that relations between American diplomats and the HAK
began worsening in September 2008 because Armenia’s leading opposition
force refused to unconditionally back Sarkisian’s controversial policy
of rapprochement with Turkey.

“We were angry that for the sake of geopolitical aims the United
States can turn a blind eye to the trampling of democracy,” he said.

“We were angry with the United States for that reason, while the
United States probably had motives to be angry with our position.”

“But over time — when it became obvious that our evaluations are
correct, that Turkey will not delink relations with Armenia from the
Karabakh issue, that Serzh Sarkisian is exploiting the normalization
process to keep political prisoners and destroy the opposition —
the same Marie Yovanovitch learned to respect Levon Ter-Petrossian,”
added the HAK coordinator.

CENSORSHIP AND MORE?: PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE PLACES INJUNCTION ON INFORMATION RELEASE RELATED TO NEWSPAPER’S LAWSUIT
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
09.09.11 | 15:10

Armenian’s media community is unhappy with another lawsuit against a
news outlet, by which not only the outlet’s inventory has been banned
but an unprecedented decree has been issued prohibiting the release
of any information about the case.

The lawsuit has been filed against Hraparak, a daily critical of
the government, however the outlet has not received a notice yet. On
Wednesday the judicial orders compulsory enforcement service officer
visited the newsroom, showed the decree imposing a three million
AMD ($8,200) ban on the inventory and prohibiting publishing any
information related to the lawsuit.

Hraparak’s Editor-in-Chief Armine Ohanyan supposes that Judicial
Department head Misak Martirosyan’s suit was filed based on articles
on insult and slander and has to do with a letter made public in
an article titled “Judicial department or at Misak’s” published by
the newspaper in August. In that letter to the justice minister and
prosecutor-general, judicial system officers were complaining of the
inconsolable state of things at the department and blaming Martirosyan
of “promoting corruption’. Ohanyan told ArmeniaNow that an official
from the Justice Ministry had given them the letter and they simply
published it.

Ohanyan qualifies the court decree as “an attempt at censorship
and disgrace”.

“If they get away at least once, it will continue endlessly, they
are trying to impose censorship. The judicial system is not growing
independent and isn’t letting us to do either,” she says.

Ohanyan says that she met Martirosyan after the article was published,
and had quite an easy and effortless conversation, and that he was not
angry. So she would never have thought that he might file a lawsuit
against them. Ohanyan believes that by doing so Martirosyan is trying
to defend himself against the accusations of bribery and illegal
activities voiced against him in the letter and made public; also
the 6th inspectorate of the RA police is now looking into the issue.

NEW STREETS, MUSEUMS AND HOTELS SET TO BE BUILT IN YEREVAN

epress.am
09.09.2011

Yerevan chief architect Narek Sargsyan, speaking to reporters today,
outlined the urban projects planned in the Armenian capital in the
coming three years.

Sargsyan listed the square adjacent to the Khachatur Abovyan statue
and Brazil Square (next to Hrazdan stadium) as being in the work
for construction. Other plans include implementing the “Old Yerevan”
program, building a hotel next to the Republic Square metro station,
developing Melik-Adamyan St., as well as reconstructing the squares
adjacent to the circus and the train station.

Furthermore, the chief architect noted that a new urban council with
new regulations and structure will be established, as well as the
development of a concept of construction regulations for Republic
Square.

Sargsyan also mentioned the building of new museums in the city.

“The Charles Aznavour house-museum will open in Yerevan at the
start of October. There are also plans to build a Hrant Matevosyan
house-museum,” he said.

The architect also emphasized the importance of building new streets to
ease traffic in main thoroughfares in the city. A direct link between
Amiryan and Proshyan streets is in the works, as well as joining Aram
Khachatryan and Mamikonyants streets, and Saryan St. to Surb Zoravor
Church and Ghazar Parpetsi Lane, he said.

THIEVES TIE UP ARMAVIR FAMILY IN BED; STEAL CASH & JEWELLERY

hetq
00:51, September 9, 2011

A little after midnight, 7 masked men broke into the home of Vardan
Vardoumyan in the village of Arshaluys, in Armavir Marz.

The thieves proceeded to tie up Mr. Vardoumyan, his wife and three
kids in their beds where they had been asleep. Initial reports say
that family members were also beaten.

The masked marauders took $1,800, 1,150 Euros and approximately 3.5
million AMD in gold and silver jewellery before making their escape.

10 ANS APRES, PARIS COMMEMORE LE 11 SEPTEMBRE

Source/Lien : Licra
Publie le : 09-09-2011

Info Collectif VAN – – Dans le cadre de la 4e
Journee Internationale Contre le Terrorisme, un concert se tiendra
en hommage a toutes les victimes du terrorisme avec le soutien de la
Ville de Paris, le dimanche 11 septembre 2011 de 10 h a 12 h, Kiosque
du Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris 6e. Chacun se souvient du 11 septembre
2001. Chacun sait où il etait quand il a appris l’impensable nouvelle.

Chacun a suivi en direct, tetanise, la chute de l’Amerique avec
l’effondrement des tours jumelles de Manhatan. Cependant, au-dela
de l’emotion, par-dela l’hommage aux victimes et a leurs sauveteurs,
les commemorations du 10e anniversaire des terribles attentats du 11
septembre 2001 devraient donner l’opportunite de faire la lumière
sur d’autres realites inquietantes. Ainsi, la Turquie utilise les
lois antiterrorisme pour ecraser la dissidence kurde.

En effet, selon l’Associated Press, “Au moins 35 000 personnes ont
ete condamnees pour terrorisme a travers le monde depuis les attaques
du 11 septembre 2001”. De nombreuses personnes “se sont retrouvees
derrière les barreaux simplement pour avoir agite une affiche ou pour
s’etre exprimees en ligne. (…) Avant les attaques du 11-Septembre,
quelques centaines de personnes seulement etaient condamnees pour
terrorisme chaque annee. (…) La situation permet aussi de croire
que des dizaines de pays profitent de la situation pour ecraser la
dissidence et emprisonner leurs detracteurs. (…).”

“L’enquete a permis de constater que plus de la moitie des
condamnations ont ete imposees dans deux pays -la Chine et la Turquie-
qui sont frequemment accuses d’utiliser des lois antiterrorisme pour
ecraser la dissidence. La Turquie a prononce a elle seule le tiers des
condamnations. “Le monde realise de plus en plus que le terrorisme pose
un danger bien reel et qu’il faut l’ecraser dans l’oeuf, a explique
John Bellinger, un ancien conseiller a la securite du gouvernement
americain. Aussi, de plus en plus de pays autoritaires utilisent la
menace bien reelle du terrorisme pour couvrir une repression qui ne
tient pas compte des droits de la personne.”

“La Turquie, qui compose de longue date avec une minorite kurde
militante, arrive en tete de lice au chapitre des condamnations
antiterroristes. Il s’agit aussi du pays où ces condamnations
connaissent la progression la plus rapide. Si la Turquie jette
des Kurdes en prison depuis des annees, elle a accelere sa campagne
contre l’autonomie kurde en 2006, quand elle a suivi l’exemple de ses
voisins europeens et revise ses lois antiterroristes. Les nouvelles
lois considèrent les manifestations comme des menaces a la securite,
et reservent aux manifestants des peines comparables a celles recues
par des terroristes.”

Hormis cette depeche edifiante de l’A.P., comment ne pas avoir aussi
une pensee pour les 650 000 civils irakiens, victimes collaterales
de l’occupation des forces americano-britanniques en Irak, a
partir de mars 2003 ? La situation dramatique des chretiens d’Irak
(Assyro-chaldeens-syriaques), en butte a des attentats cibles qui
leur laissent pour seul choix “la valise ou le cercueil”, rappelle que
l’attaque contre les tours jumelles du World Trade Center revendiquee
par Oussama Ben Laden, et surtout les guerres “anti-terroristes”
qui en ont decoule, ont surtout contribue a exasperer les tensions
religieuses au Moyen-Orient.

L’administration Bush gardera aux yeux de l’histoire une immense
responsabilite dans ce desastre. Donald Rumsfeld a ete un des stratèges
de la guerre d’Irak en 2003. Selon le documentaire “11-Septembre au
sommet de l’Etat americain” diffuse sur France3 ce mercredi 7 septembre
2011, c’est dès le soir du 11 septembre 2001, que Donald Rumsfeld
a conclu que l’Amerique devait desormais attaquer l’Irak… Donald
Rumsfeld avait procede a la creation du Bureau des projets speciaux
(Office of Special Plans), place sous l’autorite directe de Paul
Wolfowitz, son secretaire adjoint et gere par le sous-secretaire a la
Defense, Douglas Feith. Le travail de cette officine fut d’analyser
le materiel fourni par la CIA et les renseignements militaires et
d’apporter ses propres conclusions a la Maison-Blanche. C’est a ce
bureau qu’a ete par la suite reproche d’avoir gonfle la menace des
armes de destruction massive irakiennes et d’avoir sciemment fourni
de fausses informations pour justifier l’attaque contre l’Irak. Ce
bureau a ete ferme depuis.

Si les commemorations du 11 septembre partent d’une bonne intention
et d’une necessaire compassion pour les victimes, il importe de rester
vigilant contre toutes les formes de manipulation faites par des Etats
(souvent totalitaires) ou des think tank qui utilisent la “guerre
contre le terrorisme” a des fins strictement politico-economiques.

**

Dans le cadre de la 4° Journee Internationale Contre le Terrorisme :
Concert et Marche a Paris le 11 septembre 2011

CONCERT en hommage a toutes les victimes du terrorisme Avec le soutien
de la Ville de Paris DIMANCHE 11 SEPTEMBRE 2011 de 10 h a 12 h

Kiosque du Jardin du Luxembourg Paris 6° Fresque de Jerôme Mesnager
realisee en musique Marlène Samoun * Witness Gospel * Hushh * Uchronie
* Patrick Zinck * Jean-Chistophe Dehan

Avec les artistes Diagne Chanel, Anna Macina et Eric Pierrot Regie-Son
: OPROZ EVENTS

– MARCHE ET RASSEMBLEMENT ” Non au terrorisme ! ” RUE SOUFFLOT EN
DIRECTION DU PANTHEON 12 h 30 – 13 h 30

Participation de Fode Sylla, Parrain du Collectif Contre le Terrorisme
– Malka Marcovich, consultante internationale en droits humains –
Fazal Ur Rehman Afridi, journaliste pakistanais – Richard Rossin,
President du Mouvement Pour la Paix et Contre le Terrorisme

Associations membres du Collectif Contre le Terrorisme AISC Association
Internationale Solidarite copte – AMLZ Solidarite avec les victimes du
terrorisme palestinien a la memoire de Myriam Lehman Zaoui, membre de
l’Association francaise des Victimes du Terrorisme – APIV Assocition
Pour l’Information et la Verite – ARAPREM Association de Rapatries
d’Algerie (Harkis et Pieds noirs) pour la reconciliation des memoires
– Collectif Israël Verite – Comite Soudan – HEVEL – Institut assyro
chaldeen syriaque – LDIF Ligue du Droit International des Femmes –
LICRA Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisemitisme –
MPCT Mouvement Pour la Paix et Contre le Terrorisme – Paroles de
Femmes – PEREC Pour une Ecole Republicaine Et Citoyenne – Primo Info –
Psychanalyse et Ideologie – Rassemblement pour la Democratie au Liban –
Regards de Femmes – SASSOUN – SOS Racisme – UEJF Union des Etudiants
Juifs de France – Urgences Afrique

Avec le soutien de AAWE, American Wives of Europeans, French Heritage
Society, Mona Bismarck Foundation, Democrats Abroad, Republicans
Abroad, France Syrie Democratie, Objectif Kine, CLEF, Coordination
francaise pour le Lobby Europeen des Femmes, Confederation des Juifs de
France et amis d’Israë, AfVT.org, Association francaise des Victimes
du Terrorisme, American Club of Paris, AFEM, Association des Femmes
de l’Europe Meridionale, Loge Deborah Sam Hoffenberg du Bnai Brith,
Agir Ensemble, Comite Laïcite Republique, Forum femmes Mediterranee

Retour a la rubrique

POPE BENEDICT XV’S LETTER TO OTTOMAN SULTAN MEHMED V ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

news.am
Sept 8 2011
Armenia

Armenian News-NEWS.am presents below excerpts from Pope Benedict XV’s
letter dated September 10, 1915 to Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V on the
Armenian Genocide. In the letter, which is published in the French
website Imprescriptible, the Pope condemns the Armenian Genocide and
urges the Sultan to put an end to suffering of the Armenians.

“At this time, when the powerful empire of Your Excellency is engaged
in a great battle with the powerful nations of Europe, the pain caused
by the horrors tortures our hearts, and, also, the echo of the lament
of an entire people reaches us. Those people are being subjected to
indescribable suffering in the vast Ottoman territory. The Armenian
people have already seen how the majority of their children were sent
for punishment. We now learn that the entire population of villages
and towns must abandon their homes, in order to reach-with unspeakable
difficulties and torture-distant places where poverty and hunger will
be added to their psychological suffering. We believe these unlawful
deeds are carried out against the will of your government.

We therefore petition to you with confidence, Your Excellency, and
urge you to manifest goodness and conscience, and to intervene for
the benefit of a people who, even with the power of their faith,
are compelled to remain loyal to your country.

But Your Excellency, do not allow the innocent to be punished, and
see to it that even those who have gone astray may take advantage of
your sovereign generosity.

Speak your powerful and inspiring words of peace and forgiveness,
and, being assured that they no longer will suffer from violence
and persecution, the Armenian people would bless the august name of
their guarantor.”

168 ZHAM: SPECULATIONS ABOUT ARMENIA’S REPRESENTATIVE AT EUROVISION

news.am
Sept 8 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- Media outlets have been recently discussing the possible
candidates to participate in Eurovision 2012 song contest to be held
in Baku.

“One of the Armenian articles said this year Armenia should be
represented by a contestant who is not resident either of Armenia or
Nagorno-Karabakh not “to worry” Azerbaijan.

Head of the Public Television of Armenia Aleksan Harutyunyan stressed
it is not Azerbaijan’s business whether our representative will be
resident of Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh,” 168 Zham newspaper writes.

EXPERT: NATO RADAR IN TURKEY TO CAUSE REGIONAL TENSIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 10, 2011 – 13:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Deployment of a NATO missile defense shield in
Turkey will create tensions in the region, an Armenian expert said.

“Turkey will never convince Moscow that the NATO radar doesn’t
present any danger for Russia,” Levon Shirinyan told a news conference
in Yerevan

According to him, Ankara will found itself in an awkward position.

“Turkey will never convince Moscow that the NATO radar doesn’t present
any danger for Russia,” Shirinyan said.

“Moreover, it’s not accidental that Iran holds offensive exercise for
the first time over the past 30 years. Tehran has never eyed Ankara
as a reliable regional partner,” he added.

Turkey has recently agreed to host the early warning radar as part of
NATO’s missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile
threats from neighboring Iran.

The Turkish and U.S. governments said the radar system will help spot
missile threats coming from outside Europe, including potentially
from Iran. The system, provided by the United States, is to become
operational later this year.

Iran slammed the decision as “destabilizing.”

HOW KARAPETYAN RESIGNED

Lragir.am News

12:40:09 – 10/09/2011

Yesterday President Serzh Sargsyan accepted the resignation of Karen
Karapetyan, his chief of staff. Our source noted that before submitting
his resignation Karen Karapetyan had a talk with Serzh Sargsyan. He
complained of intrigues around him and said he could not continue
to work in such an atmosphere. Serzh Sargsyan said resign if you
cannot. Perhaps, this answer was unexpected for Karen Karapetyan.

By the way, Karen Karapetyan had appeared in a similar situation
in December of last year but then Serzh Sargsyan did not accept his
resignation. Besides, there was reliable information that the Russian
President Medvedev’s chief of staff, Naryshkin, had interfered for
Karen Karapetyan. It was the period when the ex-mayor of Yerevan
Gagik Beglaryan beat Serzh Sargsyan’s aide, with the “help” of Karen
Karapetyan.

Then rumors came that Karen Karapetyan would be appointed prime
minister, or speaker of the national assembly or head of the election
staff of the Republican Party to balance Hovik Abrahamyan and weaken
his influence.

Yesterday the political board of the Republican Party discussed
Karen Karapetyan’s resignation. Karapetyan was absent. Sargsyan
said Karapetyan wanted to resign to run a business freely. Thus,
Karapetyan will not appointed to another post. In fact, his dream to
be prime minister will not come true.

By the way, Karen Karapetyan was on holiday and returned only a few
days ago. The Republican board discussed other issues of the party.