Author: Badalian Vardan

Hraparak: Armenian parliament to convene special session on EEU treaty

11:39 18/10/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

The Armenian National Assembly Speaker hosted a consultation meeting
on Friday to discuss the ratification of the treaty on Armenia’s
accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The Prime Minister
participated in the meeting, Hraparak reports. According to
preliminary information, an agreement was reached to convene a special
parliament session on November 17. Prior to it, the document will be
submitted for the consideration of Armenia’s Constitutional Court. The
treaty is expected to be ratified by the end of this year.

Source: Panorama.am

Chorrord Ishkhanutyun: Kotayk Governor buys apartment in Paris

11:15 18/10/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

Chorrord Ishkhanutyun newspaper reported recently that Governor of
Kotayk province of Armenia Aram Harutyunyan bought an apartment in
Great Britain with rather a large sum of money.

His apartment-purchasing voyages are gaining momentum, the newspaper says.

His wife and sister have bought an apartment in France, which has
reportedly been registered under the name of the Governor’s sister,
Anush Harutyunyan, Chorrord Ishkhanutyun writes.

Source: Panorama.am

QATAR AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: LETTER TO RAYTHEON ON ARMS SALES TO QATAR

Right Side News
Oct 17 2014

Written by Qatar Awareness Campaign

Thomas A. Kennedy
Raytheon Company
870 Winter Street
Waltham, MA 02451-1449

Dear Dr. Kennedy:

This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Qatar Awareness
Campaign Coalition. The purpose is to inform you and the public of the
activities of Qatar. Raytheon, a major American military contractor and
leading manufacturer of guided missiles, is set to be a substantial
provider of sophisticated weapons systems to the terrorist-sponsor
State of Qatar for many years; and has just reaffirmed their commitment
to supply Qatar with surface-to-air missiles.

Qatar, however, is no mere sponsor of random terror. Not only was
Doha home to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Indeed, Qatar
is the principal country that supported the so-called “Arab Spring”
uprisings, which saw the demise of Mubarak, Gaddafi, and nearly –
possibly still – Bashar al-Assad. The relevant point to consider
regarding these revolutions is, cui bono?

It is a testament to Qatar’s dedication to Islamic supremacy, and
concomitant mass-murder of the “infidel,” that in Egypt and Libya,
the Qatari-hosted Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliated political
parties came to dominate the countries’ governments. In Syria, the
Qatari-backed rebels, including the al-Nusra Front and even ISIS –
are poised to assume control should the Assad regime fall.

As a direct result of these Qatari-backed uprisings, the Middle East
and North Africa are quite literally in political and social chaos –
anarchy. Libya and Syria have become havens for transnational criminal
syndicates, who traffic men, women, children, and narcotics for
profit. There is an ongoing genocide against any population who dares
oppose the diabolical rule of the Islamic State, on a scale unseen in
the Middle East since the genocide of the Armenians during World War I.

In light of these events and the Qatari coordination behind the scenes,
it is distressing that Raytheon:

Just this month, announced that they would be proceeding with a $2
billion sale of sophisticated weaponry to Doha. Specifically, it is
for $2 billion worth of Patriot Missiles Defense Systems.

Hosted students from Qatar University to “to give them up-front,
hands-on demonstrations of technologies that have made Raytheon a
powerhouse of innovation.”

Why provide America’s mortal enemies with the capacity to defend
themselves? Qatar can reasonably be blamed for turning the Middle
East into a vast lawless region, where not even strongmen can check
the indiscriminate killing, smuggling, and slaving. Qatar has created
exactly the kind of environment that existed in Afghanistan prior to
9/11, across three continents!

Additionally, Qatar it is involved in Taliban narcotics trafficking
through a relationship with the Pakistani National Logistics Cell, and
profits from operating a virtual slave state. The only country with
an “embassy” for the Taliban, Qatar has leveraged its relationships
with violent jihadi groups to its own benefit, and to the detriment
of the United States and her allies.

The QAC Coalition and petitioners ask that you consider the attached
sourced report on Qatar’s activities. The links cited are vetted and
credible sources. We hope you take the time to verify the truth of
the statements for yourself.

After doing so, the Coalition of the Qatar Awareness Campaign calls
on you to exert due influence on the Qatari government to cease
any type of involvement in all forms of Islamic terrorism, slavery,
and drug trafficking!

Sincerely,

Lt. Col. Allen B. West (US Army, Ret) AllenBWest.com

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr Center for Security Policy

Pamela Geller Atlas Shrugs

Walid Shoebat Shoebat.com

Charles Ortel Washington Times

Paul E Vallely, US Army (Ret) Chairman, Stand Up America

Robert Spencer Jihad Watch

**& the entire Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition.

NAMING THE WORST THING IMAGINABLE

Good Magazine, Israel
Oct 17 2014

by Jeremy Martin

The word by which we call a thing has power. Kill one man, for
example, and 12 jurors may call you a murderer. Kill a million,
and your countrymen may call you a leader. Thanks to the tireless
crusade of Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Holocaust refugee, the world at
large has another word for these mass killings: genocide.

Lemkin, who had been a public prosecutor in Warsaw before World War
II, is the central subject of 2005 MacArthur Fellow Edet Belzberg’s
latest documentary Watchers of the Sky. Having studied linguistics
in university, Lemkin first coined the term “genocide” in 1943 to
describe the deliberate killing of a large group of people with
the goal of total annihilation. Though the vile atrocities of the
Holocaust inspired the word, the act itself predates modern history.

Lemkin reasoned that humanity as a whole couldn’t seem to fathom
the systemic execution of 6 million Jews, or 1.5 million Armenians,
or–as Rwandan genocide survivor Emmanuel Uwurukundo describes it
in the film–the slaughter of 100,000 men, women, and children per
day using only machetes. There needed to be some objective measure,
some agreed-upon name, of such hatred and the crimes it inspired in
order to effect legal prosecution.

What Lemkin himself seemed to have trouble fathoming was the
reluctance world leaders would have, despite his pleas, to applying
this straightforward word to the obvious atrocities it described as
they were occurring. Though he fled Poland in 1941 to escape the
very thing he’d pledged himself to fight (but hadn’t yet named,)
Lemkin first became aware of such mass-scale horrors as a teenager
studying what the Republic of Turkey to this day insists on calling
“the events of 1915,” a.k.a. the Armenian Genocide. During the last 15
years of his life–time he spent, according to colleagues interviewed
for the film, haunting first the Nuremberg Trials then the United
Nations as a malnourished, sleep-deprived specter–Lemkin never ran
out of hideous, tragic instances of genocide to call attention to,
each a condemnation of political leaders who continued to allow such
hatred. As the man himself said in an archival interview, “I became
interested in genocide because it happened so many times.”

And it kept happening, Lemkin sadly realized, because the powers that
be were reluctant to name, let alone condemn, genocide as it occurred
due to a variety of Machiavellian concerns. Naming a genocide implies
an obligation to take the complicated and often politically unpopular
steps necessary to stop it. (See: The U.S. government’s delay in
recognizing the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.) Fully recognizing genocide
as an inherent crime against humanity also impinges on sovereignty,
some might argue, as it limits the state’s power to govern its own
citizens, which apparently includes the option to murder the masses
at will.

The threat of genocide, as Watchers so effectively reminds us, is
ever-present and the wheels of progress turn so slowly as to appear as
if they’re not moving at all. As Lemkin–a man whose intimate knowledge
of atrocity could not prevent it from devouring his family, a man who
held millions in his heart but whose funeral was reportedly attended
by less than a dozen people–wrote, “I was shamed by my helplessness.”

While these are some of the most disheartening words ever set to
paper, Watchers also presents a counterpoint: a single notebook page
of Lemkin’s on which a two-word phrase has been repeatedly transcribed:
“I believe.”

So if the frustrated attempts of Lemkin (and those that follow in
his footsteps) to pose these simple arguments to people in positions
of unfathomable power make you feel hopeless, take heart. You’re in
good company. If you can’t stomach the footage of Bosnian citizens
being gunned down or marched off to rape camps interposed with shots
of General Ratko Mladic showing off on the ski slopes, realize that
humans are not designed to accept such horrors. The important thing is
that we do not deny they exist. If we stare at the abyss long enough,
it will stare back. But we might also get a clearer picture of its
outline, so we can spot it looming on the horizon.

CONSTANT ATTEMPTS OF US TO INTERFERE IN INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF AZERBAIJAN UNACCEPTABLE

Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 16 2014

16 October 2014, 18:22 (GMT+05:00)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.16

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry considers constant attempts of the United
States to interfere in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan unacceptable,
said the statement of the acting head of the press service of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hikmet Hajiyev.

The statement came as a response to the critical statement of the
representative of the US State Department on the human rights situation
in Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan has fully secured the rule of law and the independence
of the judicial system,” Hajiyev said.

Such baseless interference by the United States is a violation of
the rule of law and the commitments made by the United States, said
the statement.

“Attempts to transform human rights into a foreign policy tool, which
is used to exert political pressure, have long lost its influence,”
Hajiyev said. “It is unacceptable to treat human rights selectively,
with a policy of double standards. The states acting as “messengers”
of human rights, in this case the United States, should treat more
carefully the rights of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced
persons deprived of their basic rights as a result of the Armenian
aggression, as well as the facts of ethnic cleansing on the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan.”

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 U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

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

U.K. STUDENT UNION REJECTS ANTI-ISLAMIC STATE MOTION AMID CLAIMS OF ‘ISLAMOPHOBIA’

Haaretz, Israel
Oct 16 2014

Meanwhile, a London university union rejects motion to commemorate
Holocaust Memorial Day that some members said was ‘eurocentric.’

By Haaretz | Oct. 16, 2014

The U.K.’s national student union has rejected a motion condemning
the Islamic State amid claims that it is Islamophobic.

Last month, the motion calling on the body to condemn the brutal
Sunni militant group was put to the National Union of Students’
National Executive Council.

The motion urged students “to condemn the IS and support Kurdish
forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust
in the US military intervention,” according to student news website
The Tab. It also called for unity among Muslims.

The motion had already been adopted by Scotland’s national student
union, but Black Students Officer Malia Bouattia called on students
to reject it when it reached the NUS executive council meeting in
September.

“We recognize that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a
justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia,” The Tab cited her as
saying. “This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence
is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”

Bouattia, a student of postcolonial theory and language at the
University of Birmingham, is planning to put forward a new motion
against IS that will “in no way pander to Western imperialistic
intervention or the demonization of Muslim peoples.”

Daniel Cooper, one of three people behind the rejected motion, wrote
about the meeting on his blog. “I have looked again and again at the
contents of the motion, yet I cannot track any Islamophobia or racism,”
he wrote. He also noted that the motion specified that it did not
express “confidence or trust in the U.S. military intervention.”

An NUS spokesman said in response: “At our most recent NEC meeting,
a motion on this issue was presented and voted on by all members. Some
committee members felt that the wording of the motion being presented
would unfairly demonize all Muslims rather than solely the group of
people it set out to rightfully condemn.

Of course NUS does not support Isis and a new motion will be taken
to the next NUS National Executive Committee meeting, which will
specifically condemn the politics and methods of Isis and offer
solidarity for the Kurdish people.”

Meanwhile, the student union at London’s Goldsmiths University this
week rejected a motion to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and
other victims of genocide for being “eurocentric.”

The motion, brought to a vote at the Goldsmiths Students’ Assembly
Tuesday, was rejected by 60 votes to 1, The Tab reported.

Goldsmiths University Education Officer Sarah El-alfy urged students to
reject the “eurocentric” motion, according to The Tab. Another student
who attended the meeting tweeted that the union is “anti-Zionist”
and that the motion was “colonialist”

The motion stated: “The Student Union recognizes the unspeakable
horrors of the Holocaust, of the other genocides, of totalitarianism
and racial hatred. It further recognises that commemorating the victims
of genocide, racial hatred and totalitarianism, and promoting public
awareness of these crimes against humanity, is essential to sustaining
and defending democratic culture and civil society, especially in the
face of a resurgence of neo-fascism, racial hatred and neo-Stalinism
across Europe.”

The motion suggested that the union organize commemorative events
on Holocaust Memorial Day, on the European Day of Remembrance for
Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, on the Holodomor Genocide Memorial
Day Act and on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Howard Littler, president of the union described the incident as
“a storm in a teacup.”

“There was a broad range of political backgrounds in the room. There
was the opinion that the motion could have been more inclusive. We
intend to bring in a more exhaustive list to add to the Holocaust
motion at the next meeting,” the report cited him as saying.

TRIO-QUARTET “BACKS” THE GOVERNMENT

October 16 2014

Freedom Square indirectly welcomed the accession of Armenia to EaEU
“It’s not a matter of impression, but a goal to back the government,
restrain the possible complaint, and divert the attention. I am
deeply convinced that the actions by the government, and the trio of
the four, and I do not know how many they are now, were aimed at one
goal: they led Armenia to loss of sovereignty, the Eurasian Economic
Union, in organized and systematic way,” such opinion was expressed
by Artur Ghazinyan, the Head of the Center for European Studies, in
the conversation with “Aravot,” referring to the question-observation
of whether he did not get the impression from the rally of Trio held
on Friday that these forces, by and large, supports the government
in Eurasian integration process, moreover, they indirectly welcomed it.

Note that at the rally of the Trio: PAP, ANC and “Heritage”, only the
“Heritage” Party leader Raffi Hovannisian spoke against the Eurasian
Economic Union, and whose speech was left unfinished. Later, ANC leader
Levon Ter-Petrosyan called those expressing against the irreversible
process, by his definition, “convulsion of 20-30 people”.

Yesterday, in the conversation with the journalists at the press
conference, the ANC faction leader Levon Zurabyan completed the
picture, mentioning, “If you are against the Eurasian Union, who
obstacle you to go on the very same day and talk there, protest against
Serzh, who signed the agreement. I accuse these twenty – thirty people
suffering from convulsion in selling Armenia. They are nervous, but
do not go complaining. History will record that on that day when,
according to their conclusion, selling of our country’s sovereignty
occurred they did not conduct any protest action.

Ter-Petrosyan speaks about it, you are unable to set up an agenda.” It
turns out that being against the selling of Armenia’s sovereignty is
not included in the agenda of the Trio-Quartet, they complain, but are
complaining about the administration rather than this administration
sold Armenia’s sovereignty. One can assume that the October 10 rally
actually showed that incompatible figures were gathered who cannot take
a long way together. Probably, especially, despite all allegations, two
days after the rally, Raffi Hovannisian said that there is no single
agenda. The structure of the Trio-Quartet was initially amazing for
Artur Ghazinyan. “These forces were not able to form one single agenda,
because the “Heritage” has always acted as an advocate of Armenia’s
Eurasian integration, it took the course, which was led by the Trio
pulling forces: PAP and ANC. But here, a question arises. What does
the “Heritage” do in this structure? The answer is a simple. It solves
the issue of its staying in the political agenda.”

The other forces: PAP and ANC, according to our interlocutor, are
solving the issue of preservation of the neo-Soviet regime in Armenia,
as they well understand that the independence generation has already
been established in Armenia, which, sooner or later, will submit an
application for the change of regime, which will bring changes in
all areas. “Therefore, conventionally speaking, the forces of the
old guard are doing everything to prevent the natural process of
generational change. But it is only a matter of time.”

Nelly GRIGORYAN

Read more at:

42 PERCENT OF ARMENIA’S POPULATION IS POOR

14:23 17/10/2014 >> SOCIETY

According to statistics, about 42 percent of Armenia’s population
is poor, of which 10.2 percent is extremely poor, sociologist Aharon
Adibekyan told reporters on Friday.

One in six families in Armenia goes to sleep hungry, the sociologist
said.

Meanwhile, the expert said, only 19.4 percent of poor people
acknowledge their poverty. According to him, the first reason is that
poor people try to protect themselves from psychological discomfort.

Today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The
2014 theme is: Leave no one behind: think, decide and act together
against extreme poverty.

AMBASSADOR: FESTIVAL OF IRANIAN FILM TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN

by Ashot Safaryan

Friday, October 17, 14:17

The Minister of Culture of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan received the
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic
of Iran Mr. Mohammad Raiesi.

As press-service of the Ministry reported, welcoming the guest,
the RA Minister of Culture expressed her satisfaction and gratitude
to the Armenian-Iranian cultural relations, as well as work carried
out by Iran for the conservation of Armenian cultural heritage. Both
sides reaffirmed the importance of cultural heritage preservation and
willingness of the two sides to continue this process. They stressed
the importance of joint applications on the conservation of intangible
cultural heritage in the framework of the UNESCO projects. Minister
of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan said that progress has been made towards
the implementation of cooperation in the field of film production.

The parties touched upon the joint projects, dedicated to the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. RA Minister of Culture said
that in 2015 Armenia schedules to participate on a high level in
various undertakings to be held in Iran – festivals, exhibitions, book
fairs, etc. Ambassador Mohammad Raiesi expressed his gratitude for
the reception and said that soon Yerevan will host “The Iranian film
week”. He added that the dance ensemble and chorus, which operate in
the structure of Atrpatakan Diocesan Council have expressed wish to
perform in Armenia. Their tour is planned in Syunik Region. Hasmik
Poghosyan highlighted the importance of the project, as it will
contribute to the development of cultural life in bordering areas. At
the end of the meeting RA Minister of Culture expressed the hope that
bilateral relations will continue on the high level.

AMERICAN ARMENIAN CHESS PRODIGY STRIVES TO BECOME THE YOUNGEST GM IN US HISTORY

14:00, 17 Oct 2014

Samuel Sevian may only be 13, but the American Armenian chess prodigy
is in a hurry. He wants to become the youngest Grandmaster in the
history of the United States. That honor currently goes to Ray Robson,
who was crowned two weeks before his 15th birthday. Samuel will be 15
in December next year and is just 14 points from becoming Grandmaster.

“I want to have this title,” he tells AFP on the eve of a tournament
in Arlington, a suburb of Washington. And the longer he can hold the
title the better.

But once he has that in the bag, he will chase his next dream: to be
world champion. If he sounds confident, he has good reason. In 2006,
in his first tournament, he became the youngest US Expert. Then at
nine years, 11 months and 23 days he broke another record when he
was crowned youngest American Master. And at 12 years and 10 months,
the youngest US International Master.

He spends his mornings being schooled at home — he said no school
would accept his tournament-dominated schedule — and then plays
chess for up to six hours every afternoon.

Spending a single day without playing is unthinkable. And the thought
of losing a match?

“Losing is worse than dying,” says the taciturn boy wonder, who moved
his first chess piece at age five with his father Armen and was once
a world champion in his age group. “I fell in love with the game,”
he adds. Now when father and son play chess together the pieces are
arranged to Armen’s advantage, otherwise Samuel wins too easily.

Armen Sevian, a scientist who was born and raised in Armenia and
later moved to the United States, is understandably proud — but also
worried. A chess Master himself in his youth — before he decided to
take up “other interests” — he is eager for his son not to become “a
chess freak.” “I’ve tried to steer him away to something else, pretty
much anything else,” he says, explaining: “If you want to be at a high
level, you can’t do anything else. It’s hours of work and dedication.”

But it is dedication that Samuel appears to relish, and his father
admits that his son showed remarkable talent at a young age. “At age
eight, he played five games blindfolded at the same time,” he says.

“He won all of them.” Armen credits the Kasparov Chess Foundation —
legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov helps train Samuel online —
for helping the boy realize his dream.

“The Garry Kasparov foundation is the only help we get, for trainings.

It partially covers the expenses for the travels. It’s a great help,”
he says. International Master Greg Shahade admits the talent shown
by youngsters like Samuel is frightening. “Children are soaking up
and taking in information at a faster rate than ever before,” he says.

“There is information out there on the Internet that’s fun and easy
to read. There are tactics trainer programs that the top children
are nearly obsessed with.” Samuel, unlike many of his opponents, does
not memorize moves from previous matches because it “is not necessary.”

Instead, he closely studies key positions of the game — opening,
middle and closing moves — preferring a more tactical approach. “You
just have to remember the key positions, not the whole game,” he said.

He painstakingly studies books and chess computer programs, and as well
as getting advice from Kasparov, and meets international Grandmaster
Alexander Chernin every two or three months.