Author: Badalian Vardan

GEVORGYAN SEMINARY ANNOUNCES ADMISSION

news.am
Aug 11, 2011
Armenia

ECHMIADZIN. – Seminary of Holy See of Echmiadzin (Theological
University) announces admission for 2011-2012.

All those with secondary (or higher) education, under 21, citizens
of Armenia or any other states as well as followers of Armenian
Apostolic Church can be admitted, press service of Holy See informs
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The admission is based on exams and an interview. The applications are
submitted every day, except Sunday, till August 23. Contacts phone:
(010) 517-185, (010) 517-180.

ARMENIA: PROPERTY DISPUTES FUELING CHURCH TENSION BETWEEN YEREVAN AND TBILISI
Gayane Abrahamyan

EurasiaNet

Aug 11, 2011

The Georgian Orthodox Church’s claim to several monasteries in
neighboring Armenia is stoking religious tension between the two
South Caucasus neighbors.

The fact that Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as a
state religion (in 301 AD) is a source of national pride in Yerevan,
and government officials accordingly tend to be quick to defend the
prerogatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Authorities in Georgia,
the third country to make Christianity its state religion (in 326 AD,
after Ethiopia), feel similarly strongly about the rights of the
Georgian Orthodox Church. These deeply held opinions ensure that
cross-border property claims are a delicate topic.

Armenia Neither church today enjoys the status as a state religion,
although both represent the faith of a large majority of Armenians
and Georgians respectively.

In the post-Soviet era, church relations have travelled on a bumpy
path. A brief thaw set in after Georgian authorities in July approved
regulatory changes that would allow the Armenian Apostolic Church to
gain official status in Georgia. The Georgian Orthodox Church opposed
the revisions, but Armenian Apostolic Church representatives told
RFE/RL that it believed the objections did not have sectarian roots.

These days, property disputes are the primary source of tension. In
Armenia, the Georgian Orthodox Church desires official status and
ownership of five monasteries in areas near the Armenian-Georgian
border that it claims were founded as Georgian churches. Four of
the disputed properties are in the Lori region – the monasteries
of Akhtala, Kobair, Hnevanq, and Khuchap. The fifth, the Kirants
monastery, is in the Tavush region.

The Armenian Apostolic Church supports its Georgian counterpart’s
request for official status, but Armenian church leaders object to
handing over the monasteries.

“It [the Georgian Church] demands churches whose ownership is still
disputed,” claimed Armenian Apostolic Church spokesperson Father
Vahram Melikian.

The Armenian Apostolic Church contends that though these monasteries
may have functioned as Georgian believers during the 11th and 12th
centuries, they were built as Armenian Apostolic churches and should
remain so.

Practical considerations also should be taken into account, added
Father Vahram. The low number of ethnic Georgians living in Armenia
-only about 600, according to government data – does not justify the
transfer of five monasteries, Vahram contended.

During a June visit to Tbilisi, Armenian Apostolic Church Catholicos
Karekin II gave a more open-ended answer to Georgian Orthodox Church
Patriarch Ilia II on the matter. “You put your arguments down, we’ll
look at them. What prevents us from resolving these questions?”

Karekin II said in an unofficial videotaped chat posted on YouTube.

Ethnic Georgians in Armenia approach the church-property issue
gingerly. Local Georgian Orthodox believers do not yet have official
registration, a status that would grant them the ability to build
churches. The law is applicable to all religious communities with
at least 200 members. “It is unclear why they have not registered,”
Father Vahram commented.

At Yerevan’s St. George church, which serves a tiny Georgian Orthodox
community, the priest, Father Alexander, said that he petitioned
Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II in 2006 to be recognized
as a Georgian Orthodox church, “but didn’t get any answer.”

Religious rights watchdogs in the past have reported that some
Christian denominations skirt registration requirements since they
see it as an avenue for government interference.

Members of Armenia’s ethnic Georgian community tend to look to
Patriarch Ilia II and Catholicos Karekin II to take the lead on
tackling the question of ownership of the Lori and Tavush monasteries.

The property disputes go both ways. The Armenian Apostolic Church lays
claim to five churches in Tbilisi and one in the southern Georgian
town of Akhaltsikhe, which has a large ethnic Armenian population.

Father Vahram said the property claims were motivated by an Armenian
church desire to defend the religious rights of ethnic Armenians
living in Georgia. Such explanations, however, leave many in Tbilisi
feeling suspicious.

Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for ArmeniaNow.com in Yerevan.

ARMENIAN VOLUNTEERS ARRIVED FROM ABROAD COOPERATE WITH GYUMRI PEOPLE

ARMENPRESS
August 11, 2011
GYUMRI

Fifteen volunteers of the Armenian Volunteers’ Union cooperate with
Gyumri NGOs within the framework of a program of “To Hayq” benevolent
foundation. The volunteers arrived from different countries – Brasilia,
Argentina, Jordan (Hordanan), Jerusalem, the USA, Canada, Germany,
etc, have been working by different programs from May to October,

Gyumri Coordinator of “To Hayq” foundation Shoghik Michaelyan told
Armenpress that the majority of the volunteers are students and work by
their profession. The latter are currently working at “Young Lawyers’
Association”, “Nor Luys”, “Biosofia”, “Geofon”, “Youth Initiatives
Center”, “KAZA”, “Pyunik” NGOs and Gyumri Aesthetic Center.

“Not all the volunteers arrived in Armenia wish to work outside
Yerevan, but those who are in Gyumri have again expressed wish to come
here. According to them, Gyumri is a town with unique architecture,”
Shoghik Michaelyan noted. She said that the volunteers arrived in
Gyumri have already managed to make friends with Gyumri people.

MALE EXODUS REAL DISASTER FOR ARMENIA

Tert.am
11.08.11

An estimated 60,000 Armenians are leaving their country each year in
search of a better life, and the mass exodus has caused a startling
new trend: whole villages populated almost entirely by women, the
Huffington Post interne newspaper reports, quoting BBC.

While many men are leaving the former Soviet nation to go to Russia
to earn enough money to support their families, women and children
are usually left behind to work in the fields, the BBC is reporting.

One mother-of-two said that many women fear their husbands will set
up second families in Russia, which has happened often. As Milena
Kazaryan, a resident of Dzoragyugh says.

“All of the women are really scared. We phone every morning and
every evening, to find out what our husbands are up to. It’s always
really stressful wondering whether he’ll come back or not. A lot of
the women here worry because they think that in Russia all the girls
are beautiful. And the problem is that the men work very hard so of
course they also want to relax. That’s why they’re scared.

“It’s really tough because the whole family is just waiting and
waiting for the men to come back. All we want is jobs in Armenia
so that our families can stay together and so that fathers can see
their children grow up. A family is more than just the mum. We need
the dads here too.”

As one human rights activist writes, the lack of men is starting to
be felt throughout Armenian society, and the birthrate is already
starting to be affected. “There’s a new generation of girls growing
up who have no chance of getting married because all the boys are
leaving the country,” Karine Danelyan wrote in a letter to the
government.”So birthrates here in Armenia are now too low to keep
the population stable.”

Meanwhile, Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan recently tried to
downplay speculations about the mass exodus, and said the government
has had success in promoting the nation’s birthrate. “Today we have 3
million permanent residents in Armenia, and twice as many Armenians
living outside the country.” Noting that migration was not as large
as has been previously claimed by the media, he added, “This reflects
the mobility of our nation, that is, our citizens can move freely,
since there are favorable conditions for it.”

Many of those migrants, Sargsyan said, were seasonal workers who
eventually return home. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991,
Armenia had an estimated 4 million residents, at least one-quarter
of which have since emigrated for employment abroad.

PRESIDENT WRAPS UP VISIT TO RUSSIA

news.az
Aug 10, 2011
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has completed a one-day working
visit to Russia.

He held wide-ranging talks his Russian counterpart, Dmitriy Medvedev,
in Sochi on Tuesday.

They exchanged views on key issues in Russian-Azerbaijani relations
and regional affairs, including the current state of resolution of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, according
to the Russian president’s website.

They discussed matters arising from Dmitriy Medvedev’s visit to Baku in
September 2010, including the implementation of agreements on trade,
energy, investments and banking, the legal status of the Caspian Sea
and humanitarian issues.

At the start of the talks, Ilham Aliyev thanked Dmitriy Medvedev
for his personal role in the Karabakh peace process: “I would
like to express my gratitude once more for efforts to settle the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In Azerbaijan we value very highly your
personal involvement in the process. The rounds of talks have brought
the positions of the sides closer.”

Dmitriy Medvedev has hosted nine meetings of the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents to discuss resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

The last meeting in Kazan in June ended without significant progress
being made.

He will meet Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on 12 and 13 August
at a Collective Security Treaty summit in Kazakhstan.

Ilham Aliyev was seen off at Sochi International Airport on Tuesday
by the city’s mayor, Anatoliy Pakhomov, and other officials, state-run
news agency AzerTAj reported.

He arrived in Azerbaijan later on Tuesday and was met at Heydar Aliyev
International Airport by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and Baku mayor
Hajibala Abutalibov.

News.Az

RUSSIA’S USE OF RADARS IN AZERBAIJAN NOT CONTRADICTING ARMENIA INTERESTS

Trend
Aug 10, 2011
Azerbaijan

Russia’s use of the radar station in Azerbaijan does not contradict
the interests of Armenia’s security and favors improvement of the
situation in the region, Armenia’s First Deputy Defense Minister
David Tonoyan said in an interview, published by the ministry’s press
service on Wednesday.

“With the strategic character of the Armenia-Russia inter-allied
relations, we do not at all consider Russia’s use of the Gabala radar
station as actions contradicting Armenia’s security, but, rather on
the contrary,” he said, Itar-Tass reported.

The Gabala radar station is a part of the Russian system of missile
warning. It is located not far from the city of Gabala in Azerbaijan.

The station used to be the USSR’s major element of anti-missile
defense. As Azerbaijan gained independence, the station became its
property, and Russia has been renting it. The agreement stated the
station’s status as an information-analytical centre which is property
of Azerbaijan and which is being rented by Russia for the term of ten
years till 2012 with an option of extension. The rent term expires
in December, 2012. Russia has been using the station to control the
air and space in the southern direction and to warn about possible
launches of ballistic missiles, including from countries like Iran,
Pakistan and India.

In late July, Russia’s Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was in
Azerbaijan on a working visit, where he discussed, among other issues,
extension of the Gabala station’s rent. Following the visit, Serdyukov
told reporters that “Russia has drafted suggestions on further use
of the Gabala radar station, including its modernization.” As he
said, a working group will come to Baku to discuss with Azerbaijan’s
counterparts technical issues of further use of the station. Besides,
within two years Russia will finalize reconstruction of the Gabala
radar station.

RUSSO-GEORGIAN WAR ‘A DETERRENT’ TO ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN

news.az
Aug 10, 2011
Azerbaijan

News.Az interviews Azerbaijani political expert Leyla Aliyeva.

On 9 August, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev discussed the Karabakh
conflict with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi, while he
will do the same at a meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
in Kazakhstan on 12 August. Do you expect success from these meetings?

Russia itself will remain within certain limitations until it
changes and until the political situation changes. These limitations
of domestic politics are reflected in Russia’s ability to resolve
conflicts. I can see serious changes neither within Russia itself nor
in its interests. Therefore, I do not think that there could be some
serious progress in Russia’s mediation.

Then how can you explain Russian President Medvedev’s active mediation?

They will hold elections next year. The pre-election situation and
foreign policy also play a role here. Western countries are now more
preoccupied with their own problems, and Russia is trying to use this
in an attempt to regain its influence in the Karabakh conflict after
what happened in Georgia.

Everybody understands that if the Karabakh conflict is resolved,
whoever helped reach a settlement will hold sway in this region.

Russia, therefore, wants to show that it holds the key to the Karabakh
conflict and that it can turn this key. But in reality, the key turns
only so far.

Do you see any chances of a final resolution of this conflict?

Breakthrough can be achieved only through strong political dynamics
in all three countries.

Is Russia the third country?

Yes, Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Geographically, the region is
not in the critical interests of the EU or US. Relative stability
is maintained. Stability in this region is sufficient to meet the
fundamental interests of all the great powers. Therefore, a crucial
breakthrough in the Karabakh conflict depends on the conflicting
sides themselves, and on Russia, but only, I repeat, if the political
situation in all three countries changes.

Did the 2008 Russia-Georgia war speed up resolution of the Karabakh
conflict?

It also intensified diplomatic activity, scared the participants in
the Karabakh conflict a little and prevented military ventures. It
was, therefore, a deterrent and the August war actually in some way
contributed to the continuation of the status quo. But this foreign
diplomatic activity is still not enough to achieve a breakthrough in
resolving the conflict.

F.H.

COUP ALLEGATIONS PUT RETIRED GENERAL IN JAIL

Hurriyet

Aug 10, 2011
Turkey

Retired Gen. Hasan Igsız, former commander of the First Army and the
former deputy chief of General Staff, was arrested Wednesday as part
of an ongoing investigation into alleged propaganda websites.

Retired Gen Hasan Igsız is a suspect in an alleged coup case. Hurriyet
photo

Retired Gen. Hasan Igsız is a suspect in a probe into the “Internet
Memorandum,” an alleged document by the General Staff about setting up
42 Internet sites to distribute propaganda against the ruling Justice
and Development Party, or AKP, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party,
or PKK, and Greeks and Armenians. The retired general arrived with
his lawyer at Istanbul’s BeÅ~_iktaÅ~_ Courthouse on Wednesday morning
after being called by the police the previous day. Igsız did not
speak during the hearing and was defended by his lawyer, Orhan Onder.

After the charges against Igsız were read in the session, Onder
said the websites were active for 10 years and that fact was admitted
by the General Staff. “However, my client and other people who have
signatures on the document are asked to pay the price,” Onder said.

“Igsız spent 50 years as a military officer and accusing him of a
terror-related crime is just meaningless.”

Igsız was the second suspect to be arrested among a total of 14
people whom the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court on Monday ordered
to appear before the court.

The 14 suspects include Gen. Nusret TaÅ~_deler, the former head of
the Aegean forces who was appointed as head of the army’s educational
command during the recent Supreme Military Council, or YAÅ~^, and
İsmail Hakkı Pekin, the intelligence chief of the General Staff.

The court also ruled that the Internet Memorandum case be merged with
the Action Plan for the Fight against Fundamentalism case. This plan
allegedly includes strategies to end both AKP rule and the activities
of the Fethullah Gulen community, a religious group believed to have
links to the government.

Onder said the websites were prepared within the normal command
structure, with the knowledge of the top commander.

“It is not clear what material was used on these websites, and
the charges are too heavy. If the content of the websites had been
included in the indictment, the charges could have been misconduct
or defamation of the government,” he said.

After Onder made his defense, the court decided to arrest Igsız.

Eight active-duty generals who are also suspects in the same
investigation are expected to appear before the court later this week.

Of the Turkish military’s approximately 300 active-duty generals,
more than 40 are under arrest on charges of plotting to overthrow
the government.

ARMENIA’S JOINING TO INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT CORRIDORS WILL GREATLY INFLUENCE THE SITUATION IN THE REGION, SERGEY MANASARIAN THINKS

Mediamax
Aug 10, 2011
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Manasarian
said that “Armenia is joining international transport corridors
which will have a big influence on the change of the situation in
the region.”

“The “North-South” transport corridor is the shortest way from Europe
to Asia, The exploitation of the road will certainly have positive
influence also from the political viewpoint,” Sergey Manasarian said
in the interview to Mediamax.

He noted that he would like to rule out the political component form
the issue of construction of this road. “The construction of the road
is continued on the territory of Georgia. It is the internal matter of
the Georgian side. In this case we should proceed not from political
aspects but only from the economic component. The Georgian side will
naturally have certain dividends from the exploitation of this road,”
Sergey Manasarian concluded.

ARMENIANS PAY FOR APRICOTS DOUBLE PRICE – SOCIOLOGIST

news.am
Aug 10, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – The price for apricots is twice expensive in Armenia
than in Moscow. Moreover, Armenians tolerate it, head of Sociometer
sociological center Aharon Adibekyan told the journalists on Wednesday.

He believes there will be no civil unrests or clashes, as the
opposition is not strong.

“Generally, the nation is not interested in what the issue of the
discussion between coalition and opposition is,” Adibekyan told and
added that he is interested in the dialogue as much as work concerns.

“If the two sides [authorities and opposition] have come into agreement
on an issue, then it is within their political interests. As Serzh
Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan were once members of united political
group.”

The sociologist believes that demands of the opposition for snap
elections will not bring to anything significant.