Author: Badalian Vardan

Interfax, Russia
Nov 21 2014

Armenia cuts diamond imports from Russia in 2014 on declining demand
for finished diamonds

YEREVAN. Nov 21

Armenia diamond-cutting enterprises have sharply reduced imports of
uncut diamonds from Russia owing to the poor market for finished
diamonds, the head of the industrial policy department of Armenia’s
Economy Ministry Armen Yeganyan told Interfax. The decline comes
despite cancellation of export duties in the middle of the year.

Armenian enterprises purchased 96,000 carats of diamonds from Russian
Alrosa (MOEX: ALRS) in 2013. They purchased just 38,000 through the
first 10 months of 2014 and are unlikely to make up the shortfall
compared with 2013 by year-end, Yeganyan said.

Russia cancelled the 6.5% export duty on diamonds shipped to Armenia
effective from July 1. In fact, most of the purchases were made in the
last few months, he said.

This year the imports are cut in Armenia, unlike last year, when
almost all of the uncut diamonds were re-exported to third countries.
Since June, re-export of the Russian imports has been prohibited.

Yeganyan predicted that imports would pick up in 2015, but declined to
specify a figure.

Armenia imported a total of 107,000 carats of diamonds in 10M 2014 and
175,000 carats in full-year 2013. It imports diamonds from Russia,
Namibia, Guinea, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and other countries.

Jh of

Trend, Azerbaijan
Nov 22 2014

Pro-Armenian forces in Turkey can’t make people forget their history – MHP

22 November 2014, 17:45 (GMT+04:00)
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Pro-Armenian forces in Turkey will never be able to make the people
forget their history, Deputy Secretary General of Turkey’s National
Action Party (MHP), Abbas Bozyel told Trend on Nov.22.

He was commenting on the conference entitled ‘The Sealed Gate:
Prospect of Turkey-Armenia Border’ held by the Ankara University
jointly with Hrant Dink Foundation.

‘Holding of such conferences in Turkey once again proves the existence
of forces hostile to Turkey’s statehood,” Bozyel said.

He said Turkey can’t restore relations with the country which has
included Turkey’s eastern lands to Armenian Constitution as its own
lands and have occupied the territories of Azerbaijan – a brotherly
country for Turkey.

“Although such events are today held in Turkey, the country’s policy
and the position of Turkish people with respect to Armenia remains
unchanged,” said Bozyel.

The diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia were severed in 1993.

The break in relations and closing of the Turkish-Armenian border in
1993 were due to Armenia’s claims for recognition of the “Armenian
genocide” in the world, as well as Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani
lands.

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Nov 22 2014

Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute threat to regional security

22 November 2014

(AA) The Nagorno Karabakh issue constitutes a threat to regional
security, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Turkey, Faiq Bagirov, said on
Friday.

Nagorno Karabakh is a de facto independent Armenian-majority region
inside the Republic of Azerbaijan, and has attempted several times in
the past — through both violent and democratic means — to unify with
the Republic of Armenia.

Speaking at a conference in Ankara, Bagirov said, “Security problems
have begun to become the destiny of the Caucasus.”

Stating the problems affect not only the region but also international
actors, he added: “The South Caucasus has been unable to reach
stability for the past 25 years.”

In February 1988, the regional parliament in Nagorno Karabakh voted to
declare its independence from Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s parliament in turn voted to recognize the region’s
independence, a move that forced the evacuation of over 200,000 ethnic
Azerbaijanis from Armenia.

Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians lost their lives in the resulting conflict.

Bagirov called on Armenia to end the occupation and make regional
cooperation its government policy.

If they refused, he warned that “good neighborly relations will only
remain as wishful thinking.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire in 1994, but never agreed a
peace settlement.

The Sundial, CSUN, CA
Nov 22 2014

Student voices: Maintaining heritage languages

By Negin Daneshfar

There is an overwhelming lack of foreign language education throughout
schools in the United States. Many individuals experience a withdrawal
from their mother tongue and either speak English with their families
or drop out of foreign language programs at a young age.

In Europe maintaining one’s heritage language along with learning
English is encouraged throughout their education. According to the
European Commission, educational systems in some European countries
have an official language policy, which requires schools to teach two
foreign languages. Of course the maintenance of such languages relies
on how often that language is practiced in a particular area.

According to Forbes 18% of Americans report speaking a language other
than English, while 53% of Europeans speak a second language. As a
result of this, more students continue to encounter struggles
maintaining their mother tongue while learning English. Colleges and
universities no longer require foreign language classes but still tend
to include a handful of language courses, which are not always
emphasized in high schools.

Amirbahador Allahnejad, 25, senior business law major and
international student speaks fluent Turkish and English and moderate
Arabic. He picked up Turkish as a child while learning English through
college. He said maintaining Turkish was difficult while speaking
English with others.

“Here and there, you may forget some words because you keep talking in
English,” Allahnejad said. “In general I think I kept up with my
native language, but it was vaguely introduced in schools and I had to
learn through family and friends.”

A study from University of Arizona reports that 67 percent of second
generation students of Mexican and Asian descent in Southern
California preferred to use English over their heritage language.
Among Spanish speakers, 50 percent were fluent speakers and Asian
Americans were comprised of less than 10 percent fluent speakers.

While Allahnejad was taught the basics of Turkish grammar and language
at his school, he learned English from classes taught by a private
teacher since they weren’t offered as part of his school curriculum.

Amir Yazdani, 25, senior construction management major speaks fluent
Armenian and English and moderate Farsi. Yazdani began to learn
Armenian at two-years-old and picked up Farsi from reading, writing
and speaking with family and friends. Like Allahnejad he become more
familiar with English while attending college.

“When I was 15 I wanted to have an international education mostly
focused on English and we didn’t have those services or facilities in
Iran so I had to move out of the country,” Yazdani said. Yazdani was
not fluent when he moved to the United States which was a challenge
but with practice he was able to gain a better understanding of the
language.

Yazdani shifted from mastering his native language and began to
develop his English at a young age. He continued to maintain his
Armenian skills while building on his English between grade schools.

“Learning Armenian at first gave me the ability to learn different
languages like English through experience and made it easier for me to
learn more quickly,” Yazdani said. “It would have been harder if I had
learned English first and then Armenian and Farsi since foreign
languages tend to be more complex.”

Yazdani said he learned English for 10 years in college until he
completely mastered it.

“It’s one of the best tools that I have so far,” he said. “I believe
that it is important to introduce more native languages in schools,”
said Yazdani.

Ifrah Moalih, 19, freshman psychology major speaks fluent Spanish,
English and moderate Somali. Moalih said she did not learn these
languages in school but while she grew up around family members and
friends who spoke Spanish and Somali. Eventually, she was taught how
to read and write Spanish until she developed her English skills in
school.

“I think that the second language should be introduced more in U.S.
schools and universities, I don’t think that it should just be
English,” Moalih said. “Teaching more of the second language in
elementary school actually is easier to learn and a faster process to
remember.”

There are plenty of academic and social benefits that come with
maintaining a heritage language or learning a second language.
Although students such as Moalih are able to use their skills to their
advantage, it is never too late to become more familiar with another
language. The Department of Modern and Classical Languages and
Literatures offers courses in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, German, Hebrew
and Korean all of which allow students to work on their language
skills and gain valuable knowledge of another culture.

The Sunday Times, Sri Lanka
Nov 22 2014

Post-Soviet confidence games

By Stefan Wolff

LONDON – It is starting to look like a pattern. After painstaking
talks, the parties in the Ukraine conflict come to an agreement – only
to have it fall apart or fail to be fully implemented. At least three
separate deals to resolve the crisis have been struck, and each has
quickly unravelled.
Even a unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council
condemning the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and demanding
access to the crash site has failed to produce the desired results.
Over three months later, Dutch investigators have still not been able
to conduct all necessary visits.

The usual diagnosis for the repeated failure to forge a lasting
agreement is a lack of trust on both sides of the conflict, for which
the usual prescription is to introduce a series of confidence-building
measures. If only the Ukrainian national government in Kiev, its
Western allies, Russia, and the Ukrainian separatists could learn to
trust each other, the thinking goes, perhaps a settlement could be
reached.

But confidence-building measures are not the panacea that they are so
often portrayed to be. To be sure, there are cases where the absence
of trust-building efforts could partly explain why a conflict drags
on. The 25-year tug-of-war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
region of Nagorno-Karabakh is a prime example. But there are also
conflicts in which years of confidence-building measures have not only
failed to produce a solution but have also prevented one from taking
shape.

The parties tussling over Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia spent some 15 years taking part in confidence-building
measures, before Russia upended the status quo in 2008 by recognising
both regions’ independence. Since then, confidence-building has
continued in the form of regular talks in Geneva, but nearly 30 rounds
of meetings over the past six years have yet to yield tangible
progress.
Of all of the so-called “frozen conflicts” in the former Soviet Union,
the dispute over Transnistria, the strip of land between the Dniester
River and Moldova’s border with Ukraine, was once considered the most
amenable to resolution. And yet, even there, two decades of
confidence-building measures have been unsuccessful.

Yes, such measures have helped to maintain open lines of
communication, preventing small disputes from escalating into violent
conflict. But, despite the best efforts of the OSCE, the European
Union, the United States, Ukraine, and even Russia, the conflict is no
closer to a settlement than it was when the process began.

There are three major reasons why real progress has failed to
materialise in Transnistria. For starters, the confidence-building
measures put in place lack local support. Neither the elite nor the
public, on either side of the conflict, see a realistic chance for
rapprochement in the near future.
Second, confidence-building, to some extent, has worked against an
ultimate settlement of the conflict. Since the 1990s, the two sides
have struck some 170 agreements. But, by making the status quo more
comfortable and reducing the need for game-changing moves, these have
been steps away from, not toward, a solution.

Finally, confidence-building does not happen in a vacuum, but within a
specific regional and global geopolitical context. More often than
not, the conflicting agendas of the great powers have stood in the way
of a final settlement.

The lesson for Ukraine is that while building confidence may be
necessary, it is not sufficient to resolve the crisis. If it is to
help move the parties toward a final agreement, certain conditions
must be met. Technical expertise is needed to design and implement
measures that are part of a strategic vision to end the conflict. But
such measures will be effective only if the regional and global
geopolitical environment supports the search for a resolution. Most
important, local leaders must be genuinely committed to the process,
rather than seeking to curry favor with donors.
The lack of technical expertise is not a major problem in eastern
Ukraine. But, as in all of the post-Soviet conflicts, the search for a
solution is not taking place in a favorable geopolitical climate. Nor
are local leaders committed to building trust and confidence; indeed,
separatists are engaged to just the opposite.

Confidence-building measures can help to stabilise a conflict, but the
stability they generate is often fragile and temporary. In an
environment like that in Ukraine, there is a risk that such measures
will sustain, not end, the conflict.

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 21, 2014 Friday

AZERBAIJAN VOICED NEW THREATS ADDRESSED TO ARMENIA

Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan warned Armenia that in case of “another
military provocation” on its side the response would be devastating.
The ministry said, “If the enemy party uses some kind of military
provocation once again the blow that the armed forces of Azerbaijan
will deliver will be extremely efficient and devastating.” Operational
tactical exercises Unity 2014 took place in Nagorno-Karabakh last week
in accordance with the program of military cooperation between Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. According to the version of Baku, on
November 12 Mi-24 helicopter belonging to the armed forces of Armenia
tried to attack positions of the Azerbaijani army. As a result of fire
started by the Azerbaijani party the helicopter was destroyed.

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, November 18, 2014, p. 5

ARMENIE
L’Arménie en mesure d’exporter jusqu’à 120000 tonnes de produits
agricoles vers la Russie en 2015

L’Arménie est en mesure d’augmenter ses exportations agricoles vers la
Russie jusqu’à 100000 voir 120000 tonnes l’an prochain,
comparativement à environ 64000 et 65000 tonnes cette année a annoncé
le président de l’Union des fabricants arméniens Vazgen Safaryan

Mais des mesures décisives doivent être prises pour assurer cela
a-t-il dit lors d’ une conférence de presse.

Selon l’expert, il faudrait investir dans l’agriculture et en
particulier des zones franches économiques agro-alimentaires,
devraient être créées dans les villages frontaliers, des prêts ruraux
devraient être subventionnés et la charge de l’impôt devrait être
assouplie pour les producteurs, a-t-il dit.

samedi 22 novembre 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

FOOTBALL-CHAMPIONNAT D’ALLEMAGNE
L’Arménien Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Borussia Dortmund) 4ème joueur le plus
actif de la Bundesliga

Le site de la Bundesliga a établi le classement des joueurs les plus
actifs du championnat d’Allemagne. L’international arménien et milieu
de terrain du Borussia Dortmund, Henrikh Mkhitaryan est classé 4ème
joueur le plus actif du championnat d’Allemagne. Henrikh Mkhitaryan
est crédité de 602 points (164 pour ses tirs, 172 pour la récupération
du ballon, 105 pour les passes et 161 pour les dribbles). Le premier
du classement est l’international Hollandais Arjen Robben qui évolue
au Bayern Munich (657 points) qui devance le milieu Serbe du Borussia
Dortmund Milos Jojic (624) et le Brésilien de Hoffenheim Roberto
Firmino (608).

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 22 novembre 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

Karabakh: Bodies, remains of three Armenian pilots recovered in
overnight operation

Karabakh | 22.11.14 | 12:41

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

The remains of three members of the crew of an Armenian military
helicopter shot downed by Azerbaijani troops near the Line of Contact
in Karabakh last week have been recovered as a result of an operation
conducted by a task group of Armenian armed forces overnight.

According to the press service of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s
(NKR) Ministry of Defense, the task force managed to recover the body
of one pilot and the remains of the other two, as well as the
necessary parts of the helicopter.

The statement issued by the NKR Defense Ministry says that
“considering the official statements of the Azerbaijani side and the
absence of negotiations, the NKR armed forces had to resort to a
special operation to establish the fate of the pilots of the
helicopter downed by the enemy on November 12 at the crash site and
solve the tasks ensuing from it.”

According to the Ministry, during the implementation of the combat
operation two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, while the NKR Defense
Army had no losses.

The incident that resulted from an unprecedented violation by
Azerbaijan of the 1994 ceasefire agreement was deplored by
international mediators, who voiced concern over the escalation of
violence in the conflict zone and specifically called on Azerbaijan to
give the Armenian side access to the helicopter wreckage to recover
the bodies of its pilots. But officials in Baku ignored the calls as
Azeri troops kept the area under intensive fire since November 12 not
allowing Karabakh forces to approach the helicopter crash site.

The three members of the downed Armenian helicopter were Major Sergey
Sahakyan (commander of the helicopter), Senior Lieutenant Sargis
Nazaryan and Lieutenant Azat Sahakyan.

Meanwhile, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, a spokesman for the Armenian Defense
Ministry, praised the the task force for the special operation that he
described as “unprecedented” given that it was conducted in conditions
of “extremely heavy fire” and “other enemy counteraction”.

“The execution was brilliant considering the losses of the enemy that
had been setting up a trap [for Armenians]. For several days we will
still be hearing the names [of Azeri soldiers] who will, naturally, be
‘dying as a result of accidents’. The NKR task force distinguished
itself on its professional day. Glory to the heroes! A brilliant
operation of a world level was conducted, the black guns are silent,”
Hovhannisyan wrote on his Facebook account.

AZERBAIJAN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY EXPRESSES DISCONTENT TO FRANCE

Trend, Azerbaijan
Nov 21 2014

21 November 2014, 15:53 (GMT+04:00)

By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:

Azerbaijani Embassy in France expressed discontent to this country’s government.

The reason for the embassy’s discontent was the signing of a friendship
agreement between the French city of Bouc-Bel-Air and the Azerbaijani
city of Khankendi occupied by Armenia, the acting head of the press
service of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend
Nov. 21.

He said France is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and recognizes the
territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, but unfortunately,
some circles of this country, under the influence of the large Armenian
diaspora, are trying to harm these relations.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.