Author: Badalian Vardan

MARTIROS SARYAN’S ASHTARAK PUT UP FOR AUCTION ON EBAY

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

13:37, 19 July, 2014
Inline images 2

YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. “Ashtark” painting by
prominent Armenian artist Martiros Saryan was put up for auction
on Ebay. The artist completed the painting in 1948. The preliminary
price of the painting is USD 1,2 million.

As reports “Armenpress”, July 21 of the current year
is the deadline of the auction. There is no information about the
owner of the painting on the website, but it’s stated that he
lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. According to the website,
this is the original canvas with the artist’s signature on it.

Martiros Saryan was an Armenian painter, the founder of the Armenian
national school of painting.

He was born into an Armenian family in Nakhichevan-on-Don (now
part of Rostov-on-Don, Russia). In 1895, aged 15, he completed the
Nakhichevan school and from 1897 to 1904 studied at the Moscow School
of Arts, including in the workshops of Valentin Serov and Konstantin
Korovin. He was heavily influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin and
Henri Matisse. He exhibited his works in various shows. He had works
shown at the Blue Rose Exhibit in Moscow.

He first visited Armenia, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1901,
visiting Lori, Shirak, Echmiadzin, Haghpat, Sanahin,Yerevan and
Sevan. He composed his first landscapes depicting Armenia: “Makravank,”
1902; “Aragats,” 1902; “Buffalo. Sevan”, 1903; “Evening in the Garden,”
1903; “In the Armenian village”, 1903, etc. which were highly praised
in the Moscow press.

>From 1910 to 1913 he traveled extensively in Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

In 1915 he went to Echmiadzin to help refugees who had fled from the
Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. In 1916 he traveled to Tiflis
(now Tbilisi) where he married Lusik Agayan. It was there that he
helped organise the Society of Armenian Artists.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 he went with his family
to live in Russia. In 1921 they moved to Armenia. While most of his
work reflected the Armenian landscape, he also designed the coat of
arms for Armenian SSR and designed the curtain for the first Armenian
state theatre.

>From 1926 – 1928 he lived and worked in Paris, but most works from
this period were destroyed in a fire on board the boat on which
hereturned to the Soviet Union.

In the difficult years of the 1930s, he mainly devoted himself again
to landscape painting, as well as portraits. He also was chosen as a
deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet and was awarded the Order of Lenin
three times and other awards and medals. He was a member of the USSR
Art Academy (1974) and Armenian Academy of Sciences (1956).

Saryan died in Yerevan on 5 May 1972. His former home in Yerevan is
now a museum dedicated to his work with hundreds of items on display.

He was buried in Yerevan at the Pantheon next to Komitas Vardapet.

up-for-auction-on-ebay.html

SANASARYAN: AZERBAIJAN WANTS TO CAUSE PANIC AMONG ARMENIAN PUBLIC

Saturday,
July
19

Azerbaijan does not want a resumption of hostilities in the Karabakh
conflict zone, Heritage Party member David Sanasaryan said at a press
conference today.

“Azerbaijan does not want war. Its purpose is to cause panic among
the Armenian public,” Sanasaryan noted.

He criticized Armenia’s domestic and foreign policies. He also
expressed concern over the sale of arms to Azerbaijan by Armenia’s
strategic partner – Russia.

TODAY, 14:07

Aysor.am

OPPOSITION BLOC MEMBER COMMENDS STATEMENT BY ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER

13:48, 19.07.2014

YEREVAN. – Member of Yerevan city council Davit Sanasaryan commended
the statement by Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan that Armenia should
rely on itself while defending its borders.

Sanasaryan, member of opposition “Barev, Yerevan” bloc, is confident
that Armenia must rely on its forces, not those of Russia or the West.

“I do not like when they say the future of our land is in the hands
of others. Yesterday I read Seyran Ohanyan’s statement indicating
that Armenia is capable of ensuring its own security without external
forces. I really liked it and do support such an approach,” Sanasaryan
told reporters.

He noted that for many years Armenia has been negotiating the Madrid
Principles that are unacceptable for the Armenian people: return of
seven regions around former Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region and
deployment of peacekeepers.

“Nevertheless, we are being imposed these principles. Not external
forces, but Armenian authorities are to blame, as they are unable to
influence anyone,” he emphasized.

ARMENIA: MONOPOLY STRUCTURE

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
July 18 2014

18 July 2014 – 11:24am

By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

Experts believe that the monopoly structure the Armenian government
supports is the main cause of countless socio-economic problems. Small
and medium-sized enterprises pressured by larger competitors are
closing down due to lack of equality. About 3,000 shops have closed
in the country in the last 3 years. According to a World Bank report,
Armenia is the last in the list of anti-monopoly policy and intensity
of domestic competition in Europe and Central Asia. As a result,
the population suffers from high unemployment and low incomes that
are in a negative proportion to growing prices for goods and services.

Declarative statements of the government about growing economic
activity and high economic “achievements” do not correlate with the
reality characterized by lack of competitive climate in the economy.

Small and medium-sized businesses offering jobs have to develop in
such conditions. The socio-economic situation in the country has been
going downhill in the past six years: the number of the unemployed and
people living in poverty and leaving the country rocketed. According
to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, over a million people
live in poverty and extreme poverty. The poverty level increased by
about 10%, compared with 2008.

According to the UN, the average unemployment level is 15.4% in
Armenia. 18.7% of people aged 18-30 and 23.45% aged 20-24 have no
jobs. Unemployment among people aged 15-24% exceeds 40%. It is alarming
that 83.5% of young Armenians would accept temporary residence abroad
and 36.8% would leave the country for good if they could.

In order to understand the cause of such a situation, one needs to
analyze the political situation in the country. The ruling Republican
Party of Armenia has absolute political monopoly of power. This gives
it power over the economic monopoly, which in its turn strengthens
political domination. A small group of criminal oligarchics closely
connected to the government has the majority of the Armenian economy
in its hands.

The government strives for reproduction and control over economic
resources in the hands of large monopolies with direct access to
prevailing authorities. Armenian human rights activist Karen Andreasyan
said in his report published in February 2014 that tax and customs
functionaries are still engaged in business, gaining advantage over
other businessmen.

Connection between large business and the state system and power and
wasteful spending of foreign loans have forced the West and Russia to
reconsider their policies in granting Armenia loans, becoming another
blow for the weak economy.

The government promotes development of large business at the expense
of small and medium-sized ones. High taxes and constantly changing tax
laws have provoked an investment drop of 60% in the Armenian economy.

Economic analyst Vaagn Khachatryan said that reduction of investments
could threaten growth of the GDP. Russia, U.S., UK, France and other
countries cut investments in Armenia by about 70-80%. Influential
investors of the diaspora, full of experience given by foreign
Armenians and suffering from racketeering of Armenian high-ranking
officials, have decided to cut donations to construction of churches
in their homeland, something corrupt functionaries are concerned about.

Some specialists are searching for solutions to socio-economic
problems (such as poverty and unemployment) in realization of special
agricultural programs, development of programs to train young people
leaving school after grade 9, encouraging entrepreneurship. Maybe it
has its logical reasons, but resolving the numerous problems in the
country requires systemic changes. Until then, as long as they remain
unaccomplished, unemployment, poverty and migration will only grow.

SUCCESS STORY: FROM STREET CHILD TO ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR

Get Bucks, UK
July 18 2014

Jul 18, 2014 13:04
By Laura Mowat

An orphan, Vartan Melkonian grew up living rough on the streets of
Beirut. He is now a conductor for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
and gives talks at the UN on street children. Laura Mowat reports

Sunset to you and I might mean a time where we can leave the office
and go to the pub. For street children like Vartan was, it was the
most terrifying time of the day, when he had to face the daily tango
of reality as a street boy and find shelter for the night.

“People take moments of pleasure by looking at the sunset. For us,
for me, it was the worst time of the day, there was nowhere to go. I
had to find any alcove to sleep in,” the former street child said.

The musician worked different jobs, such as shoe shining, selling
chewing gum and shovelling sand onto lorries. He would earn ten pence
a day, which was enough to buy some bread and he was thankful for the
fertility of Lebanon as finding food in dustbins was never an issue.

He said: “You don’t notice that it is scary as that is your life
and that is what you do. It is only when you look at it from an
intellectual point of view now that it might seem scary of course. You
have to make decisions crucial to your existence and that comes
naturally.”

Vartan became a street child when he left an orphanage just outside of
Beirut when he was eight-years-old. His parents were Armenian and came
to Lebanon as refugees when there was the Armenian Genocide in 1915,
which left 1.5 million people dead. Vartan spent his first eight
years in the refugee camp with his parents.

The father-of-two seeked solace in music, he could write music before
he wrote words and when he walked the streets of Lebanon, he would walk
in tempo rhythm. He gathered other street boys, taught them harmony
and they would hum hymns together. They would hum as the solution
to the fact they all spoke different languages. The band of street
boys became quite well known in the city and they were particularly
popular among American sailors.

He said: “It was about dedication and not giving up on the case.”

Through a random encounter on the street, a band member from the
band Inotorni took interest in the young talent and asked Vartan
to join his band. This X-factor like meeting played a big role in
giving Vartan a ticket for success; it helped him to afford to buy
a property in Beirut when he was 18.

He said: “It was a sensation that one can not describe easily to
have your own place. I had never sat on a chair, I had never been
into someone’s house. I didn’t know how to tie shoe laces. If no one
tells you these things then you don’t know it at all.”

When he was a street child, the conductor would often get shooed on
by smart hotels.

When I asked Vartan whether he is surprised about how far he has come,
from a boy with nothing to a conductor for one of the most successful
orchestras in the world, he said that he always knew his fantasies
would become his reality.

His response, which simply demonstrates the underlying optimism
he always had, was: “If you want to, you will finish a race, not
necessarily first, but you will get there if you aim for it. They
weren’t fantasises that I never thought I could achieve.”

Vartan as a spokesman for the United Nations now gives speeches about
street children and explains that children on the streets do give
back if given the chance. He is a patron for the Consortium of Street
Children, which Sir John Major set up when he was the prime minister.

He has given speeches in Westminster as well as Colombia where he met
the president and called for more to be done to help homeless children.

He said: “If we invest in children and give children a chance, you
will be saving children like me.”

Having his unique experience, the musician said: “Too many people in
the world think ‘what is my right rather than what can I give?”

He came to England when he was a young adult and he worked in the
north of the country as well as in the East End singing and producing
music. He brought up his children in London and in Chenies where he
is grateful they could have a different start to life than his own.

A few months ago, in his role of patron for the Consortium of Street
Children, he gave Prince William a prize at a polo competition.

The father-of-two, who has not stopped smiling warmly at me since
we began talking tells me about a time his daughter as a child,
when probed what her father did, proudly said: “My daddy is an orphan.”

>From nurses to social welfare, Vartan feels bitter about the people
who complain and turn a blind eye to the good things that the West
provides.

“We should be grateful to the nurses in England compared to Lebanon
where you die for not having enough money,” he said.

When I asked how similar Buckinghamshire is to Beirut, Vartan laughed
and said: “It is very different. The only thing that is the same is
that we are all human and we all breath the same air.”

He said: “When I used to see the children coming home from school
and saying to me ‘What’s for dinner?’ that is something so alien to
me. I am so pleased they are able to do that and not look through
the rubbish bins for their next meal.”

When we finish talking in the Amersham cafe, a waitress, who I hadn’t
realised was also engrossed in his words, approached the table and
thanked Vartan for sharing his tale. I couldn’t agree with her more.

Vartan’s daughter, Veronica, has threatened to write a book of her
father’s intoxicating life, I do hope this materialises. I, for one,
would love a signed copy.

Vartan is a patron of the Consortium for Street Children

ARMENIA NEEDS CLEAR STRATEGY, FOREIGN POLICY – VAHAN ARTSRUNI

17:18 * 18.07.14

Armenia must have a clear strategy and foreign policy, musician Vahan
Artsruni told reporters on Friday.

“When the government has no clear strategy or foreign policy, the
burden is laid on the soldiers. We chose such a strategy,” he said.

With respect to the sale of Russian arms to Azerbaijan he said:

“The arms have ‘spoken’ now. And situation is serious on our borders.

If a similar situation had developed 20 years ago, we would have
realized it was the outbreak of war.”

Armenian News – Tert.am

FREEDOM FIGHTER BEATEN TO DEATH: POLICE CONFIRM INFORMATION

13:50 | July 18,2014 | Social

A criminal case has been opened in connection with the death of
freedom fighter Vardan Tumanyan. Two persons, Sargis Ghukasyan and
Gevorg Sargsyan, have been put under arrest, the press service of
the Armenian Police informed A1+.

Vardan Tumanyan, 55, nicknamed Horse Vardan by his milirary friends,
was beaten up in Nor Nork district in Yerevan. His relatives claim
that Vardan was killed by the guards of Ella night club. The relatives
gave the names of two more people, Vardan and Babken, who allegedly
participated in the beating.

NO FRIENDS IN NEED?: LACK OF OFFICIAL REACTION AS PROMINENT ARMENIAN BUSINESSMAN GETS ARRESTED IN MOSCOW

Analysis | 18.07.14 | 11:44

By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent

Hayrapetyan Victim of Azeri “Order”?: Detention of Karabakh native
leads to public speculation

A court in Moscow on July 17 issued an arrest warrant for the
well-known Armenian businessman, Levon Hayrapetyan, who is charged
with financial machinations connected with the sale of a Russian oil
company in 2007.

The arrest of the entrepreneur and philanthropist who has invested
millions of dollars into Nagorno-Karabakh’s economy, its social
infrastructure and army has caused concerns and sympathy among the
public. However, at the official level, no statement was made, apart
from the nervous answer to a media question by Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan, who said that the Armenian authorities cannot demand
the release of a man who has broken the law just because he is a
philanthropist.

Neither did the Armenian Embassy in Russia or the Union of Armenians
of Russia make any statements. It causes perplexity in society –
in online social networks opinions are already voiced that perhaps
the activities and position of Hayrapetyan was not liked by many
oligarchs in Armenia and abroad.

Hayrapetyan has repeatedly called on wealthy Armenian businessmen
who made big money on the privatization and exploitation of national
wealth to invest in the development of the country. He also spoke
critically about some officials and even called for drawing up a
“list oligarchs” who should “emigrate” from Armenia. Against this
background it is no wonder that President Serzh Sargsyan, who claims
to be the president of not only 3 million citizens of Armenia,
but also a 10-million Armenian people scattered around the world,
does not stand up for Hayrapetyan, at least publicly.

However, it is unlikely that the businessman’s arrest was
connected with his attitude towards the Armenian government. The
official version looks quite realistic against the background of the
continuing redistribution of property in Russia where there is quite
keen competition between the three giants – Rosneft, Gazprom and
AFK Systema. Rosneft is trying to purchase the Bashneft oil company,
which is now part of Systema, and it is not ruled out that Hayrapetyan
has become a victim of this particular ‘redistribution’.

But there is also a version connected with the activities of
Hayrapetyan in Karabakh, where a Suvorov Military School is now being
built with his sponsorship. The connection of this school with the
Armenian and Russian armies has been emphasized from the very start
of the construction project – it has even been named after two Russian
generals of Armenian origin, Suvorov and Madatov.

Armenia refuses to let the Russian peacekeepers into Karabakh and
Hayrapetyan’s close friend – the first commander of the armed forces
of Karabakh Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (Komandos) recently began to openly
state about the negative role of Russia in the Karabakh settlement
and accuse Moscow of selling weapons to Azerbaijan.

Against this background, there is speculation that the arrest of
Hayrapetyan may be related to the inability of Moscow at this stage
to ensure its military presence in Karabakh and a positive background
for itself in Armenia.

HRAPARAK: AZERBAIJANI SABOTEURS HAD EUROS AND GOLD

11:53 18/07/2014 ” DAILY PRESS

Citing unnamed sources, Hraparak says that the Azerbaijani saboteurs
detained in Karabakh had Euros and gold which were perhaps intended for
bribes. According to some reports, one of the saboteurs had an Armenian
passport which he got at the police department of Stepanakert in 2007.

The press service of Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army denies the reports.

Defense Minister Movses Hakobyan said the rumors are false, but
declined to answer the question about how the saboteurs managed to
penetrate into the Armenian territory.

Source: Panorama.am

AYRAPETYAN’S LAWYERS TO APPEAL AGAINST HIS ARREST

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
July 17 2014

17 July 2014 – 4:42pm

Ruben Markaryan, the lawyer of Armenian businessman Levon Ayrapetyan,
says the defense is going to appeal against the entrepreneur’s arrest,
RIA Novosti reports on Thursday.

The arrest has recently been ordered by Moscow’s Basmanny Court.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the Armenian
businessman earned $2 billion from selling the shares and was accused
of money-wasting and legalization of illegal income.

Ayrapetyan, the tenth richest Armenian businessman and one of the
main Nagorno-Karabakh sponsors, was detained at Moscow’s Domodedovo
Airport upon his arrival from Nice on Tuesday.