Author: Badalian Vardan

OVER THE LAST PERIOD NUMBER OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN AZERBAIJAN ROSE BY 5

17:59, 11 July, 2014

YEREVAN, JULY 11, ARMENPRESS. As a result of the “care” of the
President of Azerbaijan, in recent months the number of political
prisoners in the country has increased by 5 people. As reports
“Armenpress”, citing Turan, on his Facebook page says the Chairman
of Azerbaijan Popular Front Party Ali Kerimli.

The Azerbaijani politician listed the names of political prisoners
in Azerbaijan: civil rights activist Bashir Suleymanli, journalist
Rauf Mirkadyrov, lawyer Aliabbas Rustamov, defender Emil Mammadov,
young activist Orhan Eyubzade.

Official Baku denies the existence of political prisoners in
Azerbaijan. However, international organizations pay much attention
to this issue.

PACE appointed rapporteur on political prisoners. Local human rights
activists have compiled a list of political prisoners, according to
which they are 130. Another human rights group claims that the list
includes 81 people.

Amnesty Ä°nternational admitted the existence of 30 prisoners of
conscience in Azerbaijan.

1/3 OF YOUNG MEN IN ARMENIA ARE SINGLE – STATS

July 11, 2014 | 14:06

YEREVAN. – The average age of marriage has increased in Armenia.

Garik Hayrapetyan, a representative of the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) Armenia Office, stated the aforementioned at a press
conference on Friday.

As per Hayrapetyan, in the case when the average age of marriage in
the country was 24 years of age back in 2001, today this is 26 years
of age. More specifically, women get married at 25 years of age,
whereas the men, at 29 years of age.

“At present, the number of single young people up to the age 25 is
around 30 percent [in Armenia]. And every third among the 30-year-olds
has not formed a family,” he noted.

Hayrapetyan also stressed that an average of 1.5 children fall
per woman in Armenia today. As a result, according to the UNFPA
representative, if the situation does not change, the population growth
in Armenia will be in negative numbers by the year 2017. In other
words, the number of deaths will exceed that of births in the country.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

AMBASSADOR: FRANCE HOPES FOR WIDER INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AHEAD OF 100TH ANNIVERSARY

YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. France hopes for a wider international
recognition of the fact of Armenian Genocide ahead of its 100th
anniversary in 2015, French Ambassador to Armenia Henri Reynaud said
Friday at a news conference.

He said French President Francois Hollande had repeatedly expressed
wish to attend the events to be held in Armenia to mark the
anniversary.

The ambassador also welcomed Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s
invitation addressed to the Turkish president who will be elected to
come to Armenia for these events.

France wants, he said, to see progress in the process of normalization
of Armenian-Turkish relations and it is ready to support Armenia’s
efforts to reach this progress.

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. The
border between the two countries was closed in 1993 at Ankara’s
initiative.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey remain tense because of
Ankara’s biased stance on Karabakh problem and its painful reaction
to Armenia’s efforts to obtain worldwide recognition of the fact of
Armenian Genocide.

Thaw in Armenian-Turkish relations began in 2008 on Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative.

On October 10, Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers signed
the protocols on establishment of diplomatic ties between the two
countries and development of bilateral relations. The protocols had
to be ratified by the two countries’ parliaments, but on April 22,
2010, the Armenian president, seeing that Turkey was dragging its
feet, signed a decree ceasing the process of ratification. He said
Turkey was not ready to continue the process.

Armenian genocide was the first genocide committed in the 20th
century. Turkey rejects the accusation of massacres and the killing
of one and a half million Armenians during World War I.

The fact of the Armenian genocide is recognized by many countries,
particularly by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, most of the U.S.

states, as well as by the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina,
Belgium, Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Common House of
Canada, the Seym of Poland and lower house of Italian parliament.

–0—-

– See more at:

ARMENIA TO TAKE STEPS TO IMPROVE ITS GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS RANKS

YEREVAN, July 11. /ARKA/. Armenia’s government approved today a
package of steps to be taken for improving Armenia’s rank in Global
Competitiveness report.

Garegin Melkonyan, the first deputy economy minister, said that
Armenia went three notches up and was 79th among 150 countries in
the latest ranking.

He said that despite this improvement, the government decided to take
more effective measures to ensure more significant improvement.

In 2013, Armenia ranked 79th among 148 countries improving its previous
position by three notches.

It came 82nd among 144 in the 2012 ranking. In 2013, Armenia got
back the position it had in 2005, when the country was included in
the report for the first time.

Armenia showed a one-to-20-point progress in macroeconomic
environment, commodity market effectiveness, technologic preparation
and entrepreneurship improvement indices.

Armenia improved its inflation index by 104 points – in 2011 Armenia’s
7.7% average monthly inflation ensured the 105th rank to it among
142 countries, and in 2012, Armenia, with its 2.5% inflation, already
stood in the row of those countries accounting for inflation below 2.5%
and came first among 43 countries.

Instead, its labor market productivity index plunged 20 notches to
50th rank and its lending availability index sank 19 notches.

Armenia’s indices of healthcare, primary education, hither education,
retraining, market volumes, salary payment flexibility, government
funds non-targeted usage, innovation opportunities, clusters
development and places in aircrafts worsened as well. –0—-

– See more at:

HENRI REYNAUD HAILS ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S INVITATION TO HIS TURKISH COUNTERPART

15:28 11/07/2014 >> POLITICS

France hopes for a wider recognition of the Armenian Genocide in
connection with the Genocide centenary, French Ambassador to Armenia
Henri Reynaud told reporters in Yerevan.

“With this commitment, the French President has repeatedly voiced
willingness to participate in Armenian Genocide centenary events
in Yerevan,” the Ambassador said, adding that he welcomes Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan’s invitation to his Turkish counterpart to
visit Armenia on April 24, 2015.

Mr Reynaud noted that France would like to see progress in
Armenian-Turkish normalization in the context of the centenary of
the Armenian Genocide. He also said that France is willing to support
Armenia’s efforts in this issue.

Source: Panorama.am

PM ERDOgAN TO ANNOUNCE “VISION STATEMENT” FOR PRESIDENCY

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
July 11 2014

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will announce his “vision
statement” for the upcoming presidential elections with a ceremony
in Istanbul today, with the participation of some nongovernmental
organizations, academics, minority representatives and artists.

Erdogan, who is running for presidency against Ekmeleddin Ä°hsanoglu
and Selahattin DemirtaÃ…~_, will announce the statement that outlines
his program and vision for leadership if he is to win the elections.

Preparing for the first-ever presidential elections that will be held
by popular vote in the country, Erdogan is expected to outline his
“2023 targets,” a date Erdogan refers to, coinciding with the 100th
anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic.

According to pro-government daily Yeni Ã…~^afak, the statement includes
a wide variety of issues, such as writing a new Constitution,
the Kurdish peace process, Alevis’ problems and accession to the
European Union.

Erdogan has invited religious leaders, such as Chief Rabbi Ishak
Haleva, acting head of the Armenian Patriarchate Aram AteÃ…~_yan, Greek
Patriarch Bartholomew and Turkish Syriac Catholic Deputy Patriarch
Chorepiscopus Yusuf Sag to the event to be held in Halic Congress
Center in Istanbul.

July/11/2014

SYNOPSIS: BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES FOR GAMMA-RAY LASERS

Physics
July 10 2014

Hamlet Avetissian/Yerevan State University

Self-Amplified Gamma-Ray Laser on Positronium Atoms from a
Bose-Einstein Condensate

H.â~@~IK. Avetissian, A.â~@~IK. Avetissian, and G.â~@~IF. Mkrtchian

Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 023904 (2014) Published July 10, 2014

Gamma-ray lasers could have a number of important applications,
from high-resolution imaging to new ways to probe or control nuclear
transitions. But building such lasers is still impossible because
of the lack of suitable amplification media and mirrors. As reported
in Physical Review Letters, Hamlet Avetissian and colleagues at the
Yerevan State University in Armenia have theoretically investigated
a gamma-ray laser based on a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of
positronium–hydrogenlike atoms made of an electron and a positron.

Their analysis suggests that such a laser could be easier to build than
previously thought, since it could be based on a single-pass scheme
that does not rely on gamma-ray mirrors. Although physicists have yet
to make a positronium BEC, recent advances in the manipulation of the
short-lived particles suggest the authors’ theory might soon be tested.

In the positronium-BEC laser, first theorized at Bell Labs in 1993,
annihilations of electron-positron pairs are stimulated by photons
of the same energy ( mega-electron-volts); annihilation thus plays
the role of electronic transitions in a regular laser. Previous
theoretical papers have investigated classical laser schemes, with
the BEC gain medium placed between two mirrors. But the new work
of Avetissian and colleagues shows that a simpler scheme could be
possible: under certain parameter combinations, a very efficient
cascade of annihilations, triggered by spontaneous emission, could
determine lasing in one pass. This efficient process is enabled by an
instability arising thanks to the simultaneous coherence of the BEC
and the photon beam. The authors suggest that such “double coherence”
may be exploited as a general lasing mechanism for BECs based on
other atoms or quasiparticles. — Matteo Rini

AHARON ADIBEKYAN: ARMENIANS ARE NOT REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE

Thursday,
July
10

The Armenians are not revolutionary people. Director of Sociometer
sociological center Aharon Adibekyan expressed this opinion at a
meeting with reporters today. In his words, the results of a survey
carried out in Armenian provinces show it.

“Only one in six citizens of Armenia is capable of actions aimed at
changing the situation,” the sociologist said, citing the example of
protests against the compulsory accumulative pension system and the
rise in public transport fare, in which only the most active part of
society participated.

According to Adibekyan, only 15% of the country’s population can
resort to revolutionary actions or use force for solution of vital
problems, 5% are prepared for protest actions without use of force,
20% are prepared for rallies and signature campaigns, and 60% of
citizens chose not to answer the question.

TODAY, 19:49

Aysor.am

GOVERNMENT SET TO ASSIST NATURAL DISASTER-HIT FARMERS

19:01 10.07.2014

A Cabinet sitting was held today, chaired by Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan. Opening the meeting, the Prime Minister said, “Yesterday we
paid a visit to Shirak Marz and called at several local communities. We
are facing a serious problem, with about 21 communities having lost
100% of crops due to a devastating hailstorm.

I have instructed the local governments, the community administrations,
the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Territorial
Administration to set up a joint commission to look into the
problem. The commission is given a deadline to identify the extent
of the damage by the next Cabinet sitting so that the Government may
take a decision to support the affected farmers. It has come to my
knowledge that we face a similar situation in Stepanavan. I hereby
order the Minister of Agriculture to travel to Stepanavan and study
the situation on the spot after the cabinet meeting.”

The meeting amended five previous decrees to harmonize those government
decisions aimed at enforcing the National Assembly-approved new funded
pension-related laws that were enacted on July 1, 2014.

The State Property Management Department-managed 160 homes as provided
to children left without parental care for 10-year free use were
handed over as social housing to the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs Ministry, which currently supervises the Social Housing
Service Center SNCO.

The meeting approved a national program of action aimed at improving
Armenia’s performance under the Global Competitiveness Index. Progress
reports shall be submitted to the Ministry of Economy by the 10th
working day of the month following each half-year. The Minister of
Economy was old to summarize the reports so delivered and submit
relevant information to the Government Staff on the 15th working day
of the month following each half-year.

The Government amended one of its earlier decisions and made
reallocations in the 2014 State budget to ensure that the proceeds
of the grant facility signed between the State Migration Service
of the Ministry of Territorial Administration of the Republic of
Armenia and the Repatriation and Departure Service of the Ministry
of Security and Justice of the Kingdom of the Netherlands be used for
the reintegration of those 100 Armenia citizens who have been forced
to return to Homeland. The reintegration implies support to enter
the labor market or to start a small business, take educational or
vocational training courses, get social, legal, medical assistance
and temporary accommodation, airport arrival or other personal needs.

According to the aforementioned grant agreement, the Ministry of
Territorial Administration-affiliated State Migration Service shall
provide each repatriated citizen a maximum of 1000 euros during
a year. To this end, over 31 million drams in 2014 and about 37
million in 2015 shall be credited to the State Migration Service’s
off-budget account.

AZERBAIJAN VIOLATES PROVISIONS OF TREATY ON CONVENTIONAL ARMED FORCES IN EUROPE

15:51, 10 July, 2014

YEREVAN, JULY 10, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan does not follow the provisions
of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and violates it
more and more every year. The neighboring state especially acquires
battle tanks, armored vehicles and long-range guns. “About this Armenia
warns the special institutions dealing with the issues concerning the
implementation of arms treaty, but the real steps that the country
can undertake are to ensure their own safety,” said the Head of
the Department of Arms Control and International Security of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry Samvel Lazarian in his conversation with
the reporters. The main suppliers of weapons to Azerbaijan are Russia,
Israel and Ukraine.

According to Samvel Lazarian, since 2007 the Russian Federation
has suspended the implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe, there is no hindering factor and the country can
sell weapons.