Author: Badalian Vardan

TOP ARMENIAN ADVISOR DISCUSSES MEETING WITH DAVUTOGLU

Monday, December 16th, 2013

Chairman of the Republic of Armenia’s Public Council Vazgen Manukian
(Photo: Armenpress)

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met not
only his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian but also veteran
politician Vazgen Manukian during his visit to Yerevan last week,
it emerged on Monday.

Manukian, who was a key member of Armenia’s first post-Communist
government and now heads a body advising President Serzh Sarkisian,
said he was invited to speak with Davutoglu immediately after the
latter arrived in the Armenian capital on Thursday morning.

“A member of the Turkish delegation phoned me in the morning to ask
whether I would mind meeting [Davutoglu,]” Manukian told RFE/RL’s
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “I said I don’t mind. I find it hard
to tell why he wanted to meet me, but during our conversation I got
the impression that they have come not so much to make statements as
to gauge public mood here.”

Manukian was one of the top leaders of the 1988 popular movement for
Nagorno-Karabakh’s reunification with Armenia that eventually ended
Communist rule in the republic and led it to independence from the
Soviet Union. He served as prime minister from 1990-1991 and defense
minister from 1992-993.

Manukian stressed that he talked to Davutoglu in his private
capacity and expressed only his personal views. He defended the
Turkish minister’s lukewarm reception by Armenia’s leadership, a
fact reflecting a widespread sense in Yerevan that Ankara is trying
to imitate another thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations to stave off
greater international recognition of the Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman Empire during its forthcoming 100th anniversary.

“In a sense, the Turks fooled us on the protocols issue,” Manukian
explained, referring to Turkey’s refusal to unconditionally implement
the 2009 agreements on the normalization of bilateral ties. “We
followed a rocky path, overcoming serious complications, but Turkey
stopped at some point. As if that wasn’t enough, it linked the Karabakh
issue to relations with Armenia.”

According to Manukian, the genocide issue was discussed during their
conversation. He said he told Davutoglu that Armenians around the
world will continue campaigning for genocide recognition regardless
of interstate relations between Turkey and Armenia.

“I told him the story of our family as an example,” he said. “My
grandfather had five sons when they fled the southern shores of Lake
Van. Only one of them, my father, was alive by the time they reached
modern-day Armenia. … Many other Armenian families can tell similar
stories.”

“Apart from historical memory and our duty to our grandparents, we
have a feeling that Turkey will remain dangerous to us as long as it
refuses to acknowledge the genocide,” added Manukian.

Hurriyet Daily News quoted Davutoglu as telling Turkish journalists
in Yerevan that the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians
were “totally wrong” and “inhumane.” But he seemed to stand by the
official Turkish line that they did not constitute genocide.

Manukian was one of the architects of the foreign policy pursued by
newly independent Armenia’s government in the early 1990s. Unlike
Diaspora-based traditional Armenian parties, the government of then
President Levon Ter-Petrosian did not set any preconditions for
normalizing relations with the Turks. It also avoided any territorial
claims to Turkey.

After a brief period of mutual engagement, Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in April 1993 in response to a successful Armenian
military operation in and around Karabakh that precipitated
Azerbaijan’s subsequent defeat in the war. Manukian was Armenia’s
defense minister at the time.

Manukian said he told Davutoglu that the border closure was a serious
mistake as it stripped Ankara of any leverage against Yerevan. He
claimed that the chief Turkish diplomat partly agreed with him.

“He admitted that if you shut down everything you lose a chance to
influence things,” said Manukian. “He said that if they had been
more flexible in 1993 they would have been in a better position to
influence events in the South Caucasus.”

The Hindu, India
Dec 15 2013

Samvel is champion

GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan won the SREI International Grandmasters chess
championship on Saturday.

The Armenian emerged the champion with 7.5 after a five-way tie
ensured at the end of the 10th round.

Ter-Sahakyan edged out IM Mikhail Mozharov of Russia by half a Bucholz
tie-breaking point to grab the first prize of Rs. 2 lakh.

The results (final round): Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 7.5 drew with Levan
Pantsulaia (Geo) 7.5; Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) 7.5 drew with Ivan
Popov (Rus) 7.5; Azer Mirzoev (Aze) 7.5 bt Vladislav Borovikov (Ukr)
6.5; Valeriy Neverov (Ukr) 7 drew with Bharuz Rzayev (Aze) 7; Tornike
Sanikidze (Geo) 6) lost to Tigran S. Petrosyan (Arm) 7.5; R.R. Laxman
(7) bt Jacek Stopa (Pol) 6.

S.S. Ganguly (5.5) lost to Murali Karthikeyan (7); Praveen Thipsay
(5.5) lost to Deep Sengupta (6.5).

Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 6 drew with Bhuvanesh Ramnath (6); Merab
Gagunashvili (Geo) 6.5 bt Swayams Mishra (5.5); Levon Babujian (Arm) 6
drew with Prasanna Rao (6); Hovik Hayrapetyan (Arm) 6.5 bt Visakh
(5.5); Vignesh (5.5) lost to Drazic Sinisa (Srb) 6.5; V Karthik (5.5)
lost to Neelotpal Das (6); Aditya Udeshi (6) bt Prathamesh Mokal (5).
– Special Correspondent

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Dec 13 2013

Armenia, Georgia and Moldova to receive bonus from EU

13 December 2013 – 9:04pm

European Commission will provide Armenia, Georgia and Moldova with
additional funds amounting to 87 million euros in the framework of the
“Eastern Partnership” cooperation program, the official website of the
European Commission reports.

The three Eastern partners will be rewarded for their efforts towards
the development of democracy and commitment to fundamental values.

The amount will be distributed as follows: Moldova will receive 35
million euros, Georgia 27 million, Armenia 25 million.

Los Angeles Times
December 12, 2013 Thursday
Home Edition

CAPITOL JOURNAL;
Leading the way to justice; Former Gov. George Deukmejian’s bold
divestiture policy encouraged the U.S. to take a stronger stand
against South African apartheid

by GEORGE SKELTON
IN SACRAMENTO

Nelson Mandela and George Deukmejian never met. They never even
communicated. But Mandela’s freedom and the demise of South African
apartheid resulted in no small part because of California’s governor.

Many in the United States and worldwide had a hand in pressuring South
Africa into releasing Mandela after holding him as a political
prisoner for 27 years and ending the nation’s oft-violent racial
segregation.

But California’s action in divesting itself of the bigoted regime
greatly increased American pressure and wouldn’t have happened without
Deukmejian.

It’s a hazily remembered story that has scarcely been mentioned in the
wall-to-wall coverage of Mandela’s death and the outpouring of
tributes.

Mandela himself credited California with helping push his nation
toward racial integration.

Deukmejian was an unlikely ally — if you didn’t know his background.

They had little in common: Mandela was a black leftist, Deukmejian a
white Republican and strongly pro-business. But they shared one big
passion: an abhorrence of oppression.

Deukmejian grew up listening to stories about his Armenian family
suffering and dying at the hands of brutal Ottoman Turks in the early
1900s.

“My father lost a sister. She just sort of disappeared,” Deukmejian
told me. “Genocide was being carried out against Armenians. My father
and his brothers escaped to the U.S. My mother’s family also was in
Turkey and suffered.”

By the 1980s, there was a growing movement in America and elsewhere to
pressure South Africa through divestment, refusing to invest or do
business with firms keeping direct holdings in the country. The city
of Los Angeles, under black Mayor Tom Bradley, adopted its own
divestment policy.

In Sacramento, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and
influential Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), both black,
were promoting divestiture legislation.

But Deukmejian wasn’t buying. He vetoed a bill in 1985. He also
blocked attempts to halt University of California pension investments
in firms doing business in South Africa.

“Initially, I was looking at it from a legal standpoint and not saying
too much,” Deukmejian, now 85, recalls. “I believed we legally had a
fiduciary responsibility” to invest in companies that returned the
most earnings for UC and government pension funds.

Legally, that was correct, Deukmejian’s then-chief of staff, Steve
Merksamer, told me. “But sometimes the law is an ass. Segregation was
the law in America for generations, too. Sometimes the law is just
frigging stupid.”

Merksamer, who now runs a highly successful political law and lobbying
firm in Sacramento, had also heard ancestral horror stories. “I had
family killed by the Nazis,” he says. “My grandmother lost everyone.”

Life was becoming more violent for South African blacks by 1986,
Deukmejian and Merksamer remember. Both concluded they couldn’t live
with themselves if the governor continued to oppose divestiture.

“More people were being injured and killed,” Deukmejian says. “I began
to think about it a little differently and remembering the many
stories I had heard when I was growing up from my Armenian parents and
family.

“They were in Turkey and nobody was helping. A lot of refugees were
hoping to get on British and French ships and be rescued, but those
countries didn’t come through. They were left on their own with no
means to protect themselves.

“I was equating that in my mind to what was happening to blacks in
South Africa.”

So Deukmejian pulled what is known in political parlance — usually
disparagingly — as a flip-flop.

“California cannot ignore the deteriorating situation in that
country,” Deukmejian wrote in a letter to the UC Board of Regents. “We
must not turn our backs on black South Africans at this moment of
great crisis.”

The governor added: “Given the extent of the violence and unrest …
we have sufficient economic justification to question the soundness of
California’s investment in any enterprise” pouring money into that
country. “I also believe that we have cause to question the business
judgment of any company that has not begun plans for an expeditious
departure.”

This did not sit well with Deukmejian’s primary constituency in the
private sector.

“All the business people opposed him because they were making money in
South Africa,” recalls Allan Zaremberg, then the governor’s chief
legislative lobbyist and now president of the California Chamber of
Commerce.

Soon afterward, in an impassioned speech, Deukmejian persuaded the UC
Regents to divest $3 billion in funds over a four-year period. And the
Legislature the next month passed a bill ordering the total sale of up
to $12 billion in state investments, the largest divestiture plan in
the nation.

“We are condemning apartheid in the strongest possible terms that we
can within the powers we have in this state,” the governor told
reporters before signing the measure in Speaker Brown’s hometown of
San Francisco.

Deukmejian also chided his old ally, President Reagan, for not being
tougher on South Africa.

After California acted, more than 100 firms — ranging from IBM to
Coca-Cola — severed direct ties with and sold subsidiaries in South
Africa.

There was some speculation at the time that Deukmejian’s main purpose
was to undercut his 1986 reelection opponent, Democratic Mayor
Bradley, who had been hammering the governor on divestiture. But
looking back, that cynicism was nonsense. Bradley wasn’t ever in the
game that year and lost by a landslide.

Deukmejian showed what can be accomplished by one governor with the
courage to rethink his position and cross his base — certainly a rare
commodity in today’s politics.

CBC News, Canada
December 12, 2013 Thursday 11:22 AM GMT

Ford donates Yousuf Karsh photos to Art Gallery of Windsor

The Ford Motor Company of Canada has donated a lot of Yousuf Karsh
photographs to the Art Gallery of Windsor.

The automaker’s major gift consists of 39 works by the acclaimed
Canadian photographer.

The lot concentrates on the artist’s work following a visit to a
Windsor Ford plant in February 1951.

Karsh took a series of portraits of plant employees working on the
assembly line, in the foundry and at the trade school.

`We thank Ford for this extraordinary gift. This acquisition
represents a culmination of many years of partnership and work between
the Art Gallery of Windsor and Ford of Canada,” AGW director Catharine
Mastin said in a media release. “We look forward to sharing these
great works with a special exhibit in the New Year.”

An exhibition of selected works from the collection will be shown Jan.
25 through April 6 next year.

Karsh is best known for his iconic images of Winston Churchill, Albert
Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and many other heads of state and
government, and celebrities.

`The industrial projects of Yousuf Karsh have been little-studied, yet
were surprisingly a substantial part of his career. They document
important aspects of Canadian history and national life, with a focus
on the City of Windsor and industry,” former AGW curator Cassandra
Getty said.

Karsh was born in Mardin, Armenia and arrived in Canada in 1924.

For more than six decades he maintained a studio in Ottawa.

Karsh garnered a dozen Honorary Doctorates from universities in Canada
and the United States, Companion to the Order of Canada and numerous
professional photography awards.

His exhibition history includes showing at the World’s Fair in
Montreal in 1967 and at the National Portrait Gallery in London,
England.

`Yousuf Karsh’s work helps to demonstrate the proud legacy Ford of
Canada has in Windsor,”Ford of Canada president and CEO Dianne Craig
said. “This is a gift to Windsor and a celebration of a special era of
our everyday heroes captured by a true master.”

OSCE teams elaborates mechanisms for investigating potential incidents
in Karabakh conflict zone

19:57 14/12/2013 » REGION

The numbers of those reported killed or wounded as a result of
ceasefire violations on the contact line in 2013 are lower than those
in 2012, Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej
Kasprzyk told Azerbaijani information agency Trend.

Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan
have made it clear that they intend to build on the momentum of their
meeting in Vienna and intensify the peace process. According to
Kasprzyk this indeed gives ground for optimism in 2014. The ambassador
believes that in the last few weeks there have been optimistic
assessments from Armenian and Azerbaijani officials concerning the
negotiation process.

As Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office noted, with
the permission and assistance of the sides, OSCE teams have visited
the Line of Contact (LOC) on 17 occasions in 2013.

“Local commanders and their superiors, as well as civilian
authorities, have raised a number of serious concerns during these
visits. These concerns include: the risk to life posed to civilians
and military personnel, both from ceasefire violations and
mine-related incidents; and the debilitating psychological and
economic impact on those living close to the LOC,” he noted.

The numbers of those reported killed or wounded as a result of
ceasefire violations in 2013 are lower than those in 2012.
However, the ceasefire remains self-regulated: the risks remain as
serious as ever, and those living close to the LOC will continue to
suffer hardship until such time as the ceasefire is strengthened.

He noted that Both the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the Personal
Representative have mandates to work with the parties to develop
confidence-building and other measures.

As Kasprzyk noted Presidents Aliyev and Sargsyan have called for
additional steps to strengthen the ceasefire and carry out
confidence-building measures in all fields in order to create a better
atmosphere for the negotiations. One of confidence-building measures,
according to him, would be developing humanitarian contacts between
the two sides, expressing their readiness to pursue dialogue between
intelligentsia, academic and public circles.

Besides, according to Kasprzyk his team is helping to elaborate a
mechanism for investigating potential incidents.

Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office also noted that
Implementation of some confidence-building measures is more
complicated than that of others, of course, but these measures can and
– sooner or later – will help reduce tensions on the Line of Contact
and the international border, reduce the risks faced by military
personnel and those living close to the front lines, and create a
better atmosphere for the negotiations, allowing Presidents Aliyev and
Sargsyan to make demonstrable progress towards a lasting political
settlement.

On November 19 in Vienna, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev, had a bilateral meeting which was
followed by a working meeting with the participation of the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs (Russia, France, USA), as well as the Personal
Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office. The statement issued by
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs after the meeting noted that “the
Presidents agreed to give impetus to the further negotiations aimed at
reaching a peaceful settlement, and instructed the foreign ministers
of the two states, to proceed on the basis of what has already been
done, in order to intensify the peace process; they agreed to meet
again in the upcoming months.” In addition, the co-chairs plan to
visit the region before the end of the current year.

Source: Panorama.am

Turkey vainly seeking more important regional role – Alek Yenigomshyan

14:44 ¢ 15.12.13

By using the term `deportation’ Turkey is trying to pre-empt any blows
on it as the centennial of the Armenian Genocide is nearing.

At the same time, official Ankara is thus trying to make its role is
the region acceptable, ASALA ex-member and Preparliament member Alek
Yenigomshyan told Tert.am as he commented on Turkish FM Ahmet
DavutoÄ?lu’s visit to Armenia and his follow-up statement, when he used
the term `deportation,’ noting that was an inhuman act never supported
by Turkey.

According to Yenigomshyan, it is not the first time that Turkish
authorities have used the term `deportation.’

`They admit that Armenians were `deported’ rather than fell victim to
genocide for, as they claim, being treacherous. By using this term,
they are not doing anything new. They are only `adding’ the shade of
`inhuman.’ However, it does not imply any political responsibility for
Ottoman Turkey’s actions. In a narrower sense, it may be considered a
qualitative change, but in a broader sense, no essential changes have
taken place.’

The Turkish FM’s visit to Turkey was not a coincidence. It is related
to new regional developments.

`The visit should be viewed in the context of new programs and of
Turkey’s increasing role. In this new geopolitical situation Turkey is
implementing a deceptive policy,’ he said.

`The policy Turkey pursued in 2008 and 2009 produced no results. So
they are now trying to add some shades to the delicate issues related
to the Armenian people. This approach should be viewed in the context
of their psychological policy,’ Yenigomshyan said.

However, Turkey’s policy has failed.

`As to how long this policy will go on failing, it depends on the
Armenian people’s strong will. A failure may turn into a lucky one if
the opponent, Armenia, implement an even more ineffective policy. The
Armenian people must remain strong,’ Yenigomshyan concluded.

ARMENIE
Yerevan Djur va construire 30 nouvelles stations de pompage d’appoint
dans les 3 prochaines années

L’entreprise Yerevan Djur prévoit d’installer environ 30 nouvelles
stations de pompage d’appoint dans les trois prochaines années a
annoncé le secrétaire de presse de la société Murad Sarkissian.

Les fonds seront disponibles en 2014, mais d’ores et déjà la société
fait les plans a dit Murad Sarkissian sans mentionner le volume réel
du financement.

Les nouvelles stations de pompage d’appoint permettront d’assurer
l’approvisionnement 24 heures sur 24 à plusieurs centaines de blocs
d’appartements dans la capitale, a-t-il dit.

L’attaché de presse a également déclaré quelque 220 conduites
devraient être reconstruits entre 2014 et 2016.

« Nous prévoyons également d’installer environ 39000 mètres de haute
qualité dans des maisons privées à nos frais », a déclaré Murad
Sarkissian. Cela permettra de réduire les pertes d’eau de 50% et le
nombre de pannes de 80%, a-t-il ajouté.

Murad Sarkissian a dit que les travaux de grande envergure sont
prévues pour être réalisées dans la capitale au cours des trois
prochaines années afin d’améliorer le système d’approvisionnement en
eau d’Erevan, y compris le remplacement et la réparation de conduites
et l’augmentation des heures d’approvisionnement.

Tous ces travaux seront pris en charge à partir de deux prêts – l’un
d’eux prolongé par la Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le
développement (BERD) et l’autre par la Banque européenne
d’investissement (BEI), ainsi que des subventions accordées par l’UE.
Le montant total des fonds fournit à la société est de 21 millions de
dollars.

dimanche 15 décembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARMENIE
Le lancement de vols entre Erevan et Astana va donner un coup de pouce
aux relations d’affaires entre l’Arménie et le Kazakhstan

Le lancement de vols aériens directs entre Erevan et Astana la
capitale kazakh va donner une impulsion aux relations d’affaires entre
l’Arménie et le Kazakhstan a déclaré le Premier ministre kazakh Serik
Akhmedov lors d’une rencontre avec son homologue arménien Tigran
Sarkissian.

Le service de presse du gouvernement arménien a déclaré que les deux
hommes ont discuté des perspectives des relations arméno-kazakhs, un
large éventail d’autres questions ainsi que de l’adhésion prochaine de
l’Arménie à l’Union douanière.

dimanche 15 décembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARMENIE-SOCIAL
Des manifestants habillés en Père Noël dans les rues d’Erévan contre
la nouvelle loi sur le régime des retraites en Arménie

Des manifestants qui protestaient contre le projet de loi pour mise en
place d’une loi sur les retraites complémentaires de 5% retenues sur
les salaires, sont descendus en tenues de Père Noël dans le centre
d’Erévan, près de la Place de la République hier. Les manifestants ont
distribué aux passants des tracts qui expliquaient qu’ils étaient
opposés à ce régime de retenue sur les salaires pour les retraites,
qui allait faire l’objet d’une loi. Ils annonçaient également la tenue
d’une grande manifestation publique le 17 décembre.

« Nous sommes venus de la lointaine Laponie afin d’aider nos camarades
qui luttent contre la nouvelle loi sur les retraites. Nous sommes ici
pour distribuer des friandises aux enfants et des tracts aux parents
sur lequel nous dénonçons cette loi » a affirmé l’un des manifestants
à la presse. Rappelons que le 1er janvier 2014 entrera en action une
loi qui prévoit la retenue obligatoire d’une cotisation de 5% sur les
salaires des personnes nées à partir de 1974 afin d’alimenter une
caisse de retraite complémentaire.Photos News.am

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 15 décembre 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com