Author: Badalian Vardan

Aujourd’hui en France
Lundi 23 Décembre 2013

Mathieu Madénian surfe sur l’effet Drucker

AUTEUR: T.D.

Ses vannes acérées et son débit de mitraillette secouent chaque
dimanche l’allure tranquille de « Vivement dimanche ». Mais, avant de
squatter le canapé rouge de Michel Drucker, Mathieu Madénian s’était
déjà fait un nom avec son premier one-man-show, créé en avril 2010 au
Point-Virgule. Un spectacle qu’il joue non-stop depuis, à Paris
(Trévise, Bataclan) puis en province. Au total, plus de 120000
personnes ont applaudi ses blagues sur les Arméniens, les femmes, les
politiques.

« On en est à deux ans et demi de tournée et on prolonge jusqu’en
décembre 2014, se réjouit l’humoriste de 37 ans. Grce à Drucker, mon
public s’est élargi. On retourne dans des villes où on a déjà joué,
mais dans des salles plus grandes, 800 places au lieu de 200. Et c’est
plein, alors je ne vais pas faire la gueule! J’aurais bien voulu faire
un nouveau spectacle plus tôt, mais celui-là est tellement demandé que
je serais bête de dire non. »

Un marathon qui ne suscite aucune frustration chez le comédien. « Je
ne peux pas me lasser, puisque je change le spectacle tous les soirs,
je veux que le public de Bordeaux ne voie pas la même chose que celui
de Lyon. En quatre ans, j’ai ajouté quarante-cinq minutes et plein de
choses sur ce que je vis ou ce que j’observe. Je rebondis sur
l’actualité. En même temps, j’ai commencé à écrire le prochain, que je
créerai en janvier 2015. Le premier est un spectacle de puceau, je me
présente aux gens, le suivant sera plus sociétal, je donnerai mon avis
sur ce qui me touche. Je jouerai peut-être les deux en même temps, le
nouveau à Paris et l’ancien en province. Je n’ai plus de vie sexuelle,
donc c’est pas grave! »

Le Parisien, France
Samedi 28 Décembre 2013

Le dernier survivant du groupe Manouchian

VAL-DE-MARNE

ARSÈNE TCHAKARIANA 96 ans, Arsène Tchakarian est le dernier survivant
du groupe Manouchian, l’un des groupes les plus actifs de la
Résistance, essentiellement formé d’étrangers combattants pour la
libération de la France. Cet Arménien d’origine, qui vit à Vitry,
raconte régulièrement son histoire aux écoliers. Il a publié aussi un
livre, « les Commandos de l’affiche rouge », en 2012. En juin 1943,
Charles – son nom de code – a 22 ans. Il participe à l’attaque d’un
car rempli d’officiers allemands et à des repérages trois mois plus
tard qui conduiront trois de ses compagnons à abattre Julius Ritter,
colonel SS qui supervisait en France le Service de travail obligatoire
(STO). Le groupe de résistants deviendra célèbre pour avoir perdu 23
hommes en 1944, exécutés par les Allemands. La même année, l’Affiche
rouge – propagande nazie visant à discréditer leurs actions – est
largement placardée dans les villes françaises. Lui s’en sortira, par
ses relations avec un membre de l’armée française.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
dec 29 2013

Can the EU be blamed for ErdoÄ?an’s authoritarianism?

Å?AHÄ°N ALPAY
[email protected]

The other day a Brazilian reader of my column asked: `Do you think
there are similarities between protest demonstrations in Taksim,
Ä°stanbul, and Maidan in Kiev?’ And more interestingly: `Is it possible
that difficulties Turkey encountered in relations with the European
Union have played a role in ErdoÄ?an’s slide into authoritarianism?’

There are indeed some similarities between this summer’s protests in
Taksim and those in Maidan this winter. I believe that in both cases
young people belonging to educated middle-classes have demanded
freedom and democracy in line with EU norms. In both cases their
governments have tried to suppress the protests by force and by
organizing counter-demonstrations. Both Turkey and Ukraine are divided
between those who favor EU integration and those who do not.

It may be speculated that the EU’s resistance to Turkey’s European
integration has to a certain extent played a role in Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an’s slide into authoritarianism. If the EU had
consistently backed its accession process, Ankara may have
consolidated democracy and rule of law, so that such a concentration
of power could have been avoided. This, of course, is mere
speculation. The real causes of ErdoÄ?an’s slide into authoritarianism
certainly lie elsewhere.

ErdoÄ?an, after taking half of the vote in the last general election,
and convinced to have taken the military under control, began to
behave with overblown self-confidence. Since he believed he alone knew
what was best for the country, he decided to take all power in his own
hands. Taking advantage of the weakness of the opposition parties, he
decided that he could do anything he liked and only be held
accountable in elections. And thus he increasingly turned towards a
Vladimir Putin-like arbitrary and authoritarian rule, aiming to
consolidate this by instituting a `Turkish-style presidentialism’ that
would effectively avoid the legislative and the judiciary to stand in
the way of the executive.

I do not, however, share the view that `ErdoÄ?an is an Islamist who
wants to move Turkey away from the West,’ as argued by many local and
foreign pundits. Judging from his performance so far, I believe he is
a pragmatic religious nationalist. When he said `Let us into the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization and save us from the trouble of
trying to get into the EU’ to Putin, it seemed he was only expressing
his anger over Turkey’s blocked accession. When his government
appeared to flirt with the idea of buying a Chinese missile defense
system, the motive was most likely to induce rival Western companies
to come up with more favorable offers.

ErdoÄ?an’s government has most recently taken initiatives that are
likely to please Turkey’s Western allies. Such initiatives include
unshelving of the protocols signed with Armenia four years ago and the
opening of borders and establishment of diplomatic ties, and
restarting talks for a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem.
There are even signs indicating an initiative to mend Turkey’s ties
with Israel. Ties with the West are so important for Turkey that, at
least for the foreseeable future, whichever party is in power Ankara
is not at all likely to move away from the Western alliance while it
pursues its national interests in other directions as well. How well
governments serve national interests is, of course, another matter.

ErdoÄ?an’s demagogic discourse blaming foreign (the US, the EU and
Israel) and local (the Gülen movement and the `interest lobby’)
conspiracies for the mass demonstrations against his government and
the corruption probe against several ministers, bureaucrats and
favored businessmen is an example of the well-known tactic of
deflecting responsibility onto others employed by all governments who
fall into deep trouble, avoiding facing their mistakes and
wrongdoings, and attempting to cover them up. With such discourse
ErdoÄ?an appears to damage even his own Foreign Ministry. Doubts about
whether this tactic can save his government are growing.

Weekend Australian
December 28, 2013 Saturday

A persecuted people face life in exile

by MATTEO FAGOTTO

Beset by violence and marginalisation, thousands of Christians are leaving Iraq

“THEY held me captive for five days, without food nor water,
constantly beating me. One day I heard them coming down the basement
where I was held.

“Suddenly, I felt a cold blade under my neck and someone told me, `If
you become a Muslim, we will not kill you.’ ”

Sitting on an armchair in the living room of his new house in Erbil,
the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, 63-year-old Rostom Sefarian
suddenly stops his account, clearly struggling to hold back the tears
filling his eyes. After gulping heavily for a few moments, he composes
himself and continues, holding the cross he kept throughout his
captivity.

“Once, they took it and put it inside a bottle full of pee while I
was watching. `Let this cross help you now,’ they said, laughing.”

It was July 2006 and Sefarian, an Armenian Christian living in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul, had been kidnapped by a group of Islamic
fundamentalists while working in his grinding machines workshop. At
that time he was just the latest victim in a series of abductions and
killings of Iraqi Christians that continue today.

“They kept me constantly handcuffed and blindfolded. I just had a
sack of charcoal as a pillow and a bottle for my physical needs,” he
says, sorrow darkening his face.

After five days Sefarian was released, when his family agreed to pay a
hefty ransom of $US72,000.

It was the second time Sefarian had been kidnapped by one of the many
armed groups active in Mosul, the first time being a one-day
imprisonment in January 2005 that ended after his family paid
$US12,000 to his captors.

His wife’s cousin, also a Christian, was kidnapped on another occasion
but was not lucky enough to survive: after three days, he was found
dead by his family.

Today, Sefarian is one of the 35,000 Christian refugees from all over
Iraq who have found shelter in Kurdistan, the autonomous northeastern
part of Iraq and the only stable region of the country.

But what was once a haven for Christians is rapidly turning into the
last departure point for the tens of thousands who feel they have no
future in their home country.

The Christmas bombings in the Christian neighbourhood of Doura in
Baghdad, which caused the death of 34 people last Wednesday, are just
the latest in a series of attacks and problems Iraqi Christians have
had to face.

Hampered by a lack of economic prospects, mixed with language and
cultural barriers, and with no proper political protection, more and
more Christians are leaving the region, abandoning Kurdistan, and
Iraq, for good.

According to recent estimates, the Iraqi Christian population has
shrunk to between 300,000 and 500,000 from a high of 1.3 million
people in 1991, raising fears about the possible extinction of one of
the most ancient Christian communities in the world.

A 2011 report by the International Organisation for Migration shows
the number of displaced Christian families in the four northern
governorates of Iraq (three of them in Kurdistan) decreased from 1350
to fewer than 500, while in the same year the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees in neighbouring Turkey recorded an increase in Iraqi
refugees, half of them (about 1700) Christians.

Divided into five different religious confessions that range from
Catholic Chaldeans to Nestorians and Orthodox, Iraqi Christians are
almost all ethnic Assyrians, a neo-Aramaic or Syriac-speaking
population tracing its origins back to the ancient community that used
to inhabit Mesopotamia more than 4000 years before Christ.

Evangelised during the first three centuries AD, Assyrians have
embraced Christianity ever since, fiercely resisting the periodic
attempts of Arabisation and Islamisation carried out by Arab and
Ottoman rulers throughout the centuries.

Proudly calling themselves the original inhabitants of Iraq,
Christians are now facing one of the toughest challenges to their
existence: numbering just a few hundred thousand out of more than 30
million Iraqis, Christians have been politically sidelined in a
country organised along sectarian and ethnic lines dominated by the
far bigger Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities.

“We are the weakest link in the Iraqi mosaic,” explains Keldo Ramzi,
the Christian secretary of the Chaldo-Assyrian Youth Union in Erbil.

“If anyone wants to send a message to the US, he targets Christians
or bombs churches.”

The worst attack happened in October 2010, when a series of suicide
bombings hit the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, causing the
death of 58 people.

According to a recent report published by the Assyrian International
News Agency, at least 71 churches have been attacked or bombed in Iraq
since 2004. Itself home to a local Christian population numbering
about 160,000, Kurdistan has long been a haven for Iraqi Christians.

Thanks to its ethnic homogeneity and the political autonomy gained in
1991, the region has been able to avoid the daily bombings and
sectarian killings that have ravaged Iraq since the 2003 US-led
invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Here, local authorities proudly boast, all religions are protected,
according to the spirit of the new Iraqi constitution. “We respect
Christians, and Christians respect us (Muslims),” declares Kamil Haji
Ali, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Minister of Endowments and
Religious Affairs.

But even if Christians can profess their faith in relative safety
here, many, like Sefarian, claim their civil and economic rights are
not respected. After selling his four-storey house in Mosul, in August
2006 the old man moved with his wife and son to Erbil, where he now
rents a small apartment in Ankawa, a Christian enclave on the
outskirts of the city.

But without a pension or other forms of assistance from the Iraqi
government, Sefarian is forced to rely on his son’s wages to survive.

“In Mosul, I was living like a king,” he says, laughing bitterly as
he casts a quick glance at the pictures of Christian saints and
crosses adorning his living room. Here in Erbil he has to renew his
residence permit every year, a procedure that includes finding a local
sponsor and takes time and money.

“I can’t find a job at my age. I don’t speak (Kurdish) and don’t have
any means to survive.”

While the region has registered an impressive economic boom driven by
oil exploitation since 2003, many Christians claim to have experienced
only the worst part of it. Houses in Ankawa have been sold to Muslims,
contravening a “gentlemen’s agreement” Christian politicians say was
reached with the KRG to preserve the Christian identity of the area.

“They are building new, very expensive apartment towers that nobody
here will be able to afford,” claims Naurad Youssif, a 41-year-old
Christian from Ankawa working at the local post office.

“Christians here are a poor community and those apartments will not
be for us.”

The fall of Saddam has not brought only problems, though. While under
the previous regime Assyrians were assimilated to Arabs, the new Iraqi
constitution recognises them as a distinctive ethnic group, allowing
them to use Aramaic (instead of Arabic) in churches and schools for
the first time in Iraqi history.

But the aftermath of the Arab Spring, with Islamist parties winning
elections in Tunisia and Egypt, has not gone unnoticed here, raising
more doubts about how a democratic Iraq may turn out for Christians.

“If political Islam will take control of the government here, I don’t
know what might happen to us in 50 years,” says a worried Farouk Anna
Atto, director of the Ankawa Syriac Heritage Museum, an exhibition
illustrating the history of Assyrians.

Faced with a constant haemorrhage of people, some Assyrian parties are
proposing to create an autonomous region in the Nineveh plains, an
area of 4000sq km east of Mosul, where Christians could live as a
majority and govern themselves. The project, which would create a
Christian enclave in an oil-rich area whose control is still contested
between Kurdistan and the Iraqi central government, has been already
rejected by many Christians.

“It’s a project the Catholic Church has always opposed,” says
43-year-old Afnan de Jesus, an Arab Chaldean nun, originally from
Mosul, who converted to Christianity.

“I think it would be very dangerous to live just among ourselves,
isolated from the others,” she adds, looking at the three other nuns
sitting in the main room of their convent in Ankawa. The Little
Sisters of Jesus, as the religious order is called, were forced to
leave the Baghdad neighbourhood of Doura in 2006, after violence and
killings had reached an unbearable level. Before 2003 Doura was home
to more than 2000 Christian families; now only 150 remain.

Yet if the majority of local Christians seem resigned to choose
between a life in exile and an uncomfortable existence here as
second-class citizens, a young and active wing of the Christian
population is trying to fight this passive mentality. Globalised and
English-speaking, many Christian youngsters are employed by foreign
companies working in Kurdistan, aware of their rights and willing to
keep on living in Iraq, no matter what.

To do so, they are ready to break the nexus between religion and
politics that, in their opinion, has created so many problems.

“If we reclaim our rights under the name of Christianity we will be
very weak, because churches cannot interfere with governments,”
explains Savina Rafael Daoud, a 22-year-old Assyrian woman from
Ankawa. Taking advantage of the overall good relationships between
Kurds and Christians, some youngsters are willing to engage with the
local society, something the Christian community has refrained from
doing so far.

“Christians are not very brave here. Yes, there are problems to
solve, but this doesn’t mean we should leave this country,” says
Salim Kako, an Assyrian politician. “We cannot look for the shadow
all our life.

“We have to go under the sun and fight for our rights.”

Agence France Presse
December 29, 2013 Sunday 1:17 AM GMT

World War I in numbers

PARIS, Dec 29 2013

Millions of dead, millions more wounded, widowed and orphaned, the
dizzying figures from World War I provide a small clue to the scale
and horrors of the 1914-18 conflict.

The lack of reliable statistical tools at the time makes figures on
the Great War difficult to pin down, accounting for sometimes
substantial variations between historians.

The number of victims on the Russian and Ottoman sides remains
particularly uncertain.

AFP has compiled the most widely accepted figures related to the
conflict, and provided average estimates in cases where major
discrepancies still exist.

MORE THAN 70 NATIONS: The figure is slightly anachronistic, since many
of these nations had yet to gain independence from the six empires and
colonial powers — Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Russia
and the Ottoman Empire — at the heart of the conflict.

A dozen independent nations went to war in the summer of 1914, the
rest entering the conflict later like Italy in 1915 or the United
States in 1917. Together the belligerent nations accounted for more
than 800 million people, or more than half the world’s population at
the time.

Only around 20 countries were to remain neutral throughout the
conflict, most of them in Latin America or northern Europe.

70 MILLION SOLDIERS: Some 20 million men were mobilised by the warring
parties at the outset of war in 1914, a figure that rose as the war
dragged on in time and expanded in scope.

Close to half of those mobilised were killed or injured.

Eight million men were mobilised in France, 13 million in Germany,
nine million in Austria-Hungary, nine million in Britain and the
British Empire (chiefly India), 18 million in Russia, six million in
Italy, four million in the United States.

10 MILLION MILITARY DEAD, 20 MILLION INJURED

France: 1.4 million dead, 4.2 million injured

Germany: 1.8 million dead, 4.2 million injured

Austria-Hungary: 1.4 million dead, 3.6 million injured

Russia: 1.8 million dead, five million injured

Britain and British Empire: 900,000 dead, two million injured

Italy: 600,000 dead, one million injured

Ottoman Empire: 800,000 dead

Serbia suffered the worst losses proportionally to the size of its
army, with 130,000 dead and 135,000 wounded — three quarters of its
forces.

The emblematic battles of Verdun and the Somme, in 1916, left 770,000
and 1.2 million dead, wounded and missing, on both sides.

But the opening weeks of the war took the heaviest toll in human
lives, with 27,000 French soldiers killed in a single day on August
22, 1914, the deadliest day in the history of the French army.

Seventy percent of the dead and wounded were hit by artillery fire.
Between five and six million were mutilated for life. Poison gas, used
on the battlefield for the first time, claimed 20,000 lives —
relatively few in terms of the war’s overall toll — but was to loom
large in the shared memory of the conflict, and with consequences for
many of the survivors long after the war had ended.

MILLIONS OF CIVILIAN DEAD: In addition to military losses many
millions of civilian lives were lost to the fighting. One million
Armenians were massacred by Turkish forces, while some historians
believe that up to five million people died in the Russian civil war
and lingering conflicts that simmered on after 1918 in eastern Europe
and Turkey.

A Spanish Influenza epidemic that broke out at the end of the war
claimed another 20 TO 40 MILLION LIVES among populations often
weakened by years of deprivation.

SIX MILLION PRISONERS OF WAR

20 MILLION LIVING UNDER OCCUPATION at the end of 1915, most of them in
Belgium, France, Poland and Serbia, living under German,
Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian rule.

10 MILLION REFUGEES across Europe, most of them in Russia, Serbia,
France, Belgium, Germany and Armenia.

THREE MILLION WAR WIDOWS, SIX MILLION ORPHANS

1.3 MILLION SHELLS FIRED, most of them on the Western Front, including
330 million fired by French artillery and 60 million during the Battle
of Verdun alone.

10 BILLION LETTERS AND PACKAGES exchanged between fighters on the
Western Front and their loved ones during more than 50 months of
conflict.

180 BILLION DOLLARS: The estimated cost of the war for the seven main
belligerents — Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
Russia and the United States. Two thirds of the cost was borne by the
Allies and one third by the Central Powers. It was the equivalent of
three to four times the combined GDP of the European powers, who were
ruined by the conflict.

Comments on $6.2 billion outflow from Armenia

16:13 – 29.12.13

More than $6.2 billion was siphoned from Armenia from 2002 through
2011 as a result of government corruption, tax evasion and other
illegal activity, reports, citing the
Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) watchdog.

The major reason is, according to the GFI, the worst investment
environment in Armenia, economist Zoya Tadevosyan, an Armenian
National Congress (ANC) member, told Tert.am.

`If we compare, we can see much lower investment levels in Armenia,’ she added.

The second reason is the corrupt Armenian authorities, and foreign
investors are well aware of that.

`The authorities are well informed of the situation. So the country’s
political elite has no hopes for Armenia’s better future. They are
well aware of what they are doing, and this is the cause of capital
outflow,’ Tadevosyan said.

For the past five years, about $1 billion a year has been siphoned from Armenia.

`The authorities are making a poor mouth, claiming they cannot raise
pensions or solve social problems. They even say the people must
support them as much as they can,’ Tadevosyan said. Citizens that are
patiently watching the authorities implementing their `plunderous
policy’ are voluntary participants in their crimes.

Since huge funds are in Armenian officials’ hands, the capital outflow
is evidence the authorities do not see any future for the country,
says ex-chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Bagrat Asatryan.

According to the GFI, cash outflows from the country dramatically
increased in 2007, averaging approximately $1 billion per annum
through 2011.

Asatryan noted that the cash outflows include both domestic and
foreign funds flowing through Armenia.

`It is common knowledge that Armenia is a transit country for
siphoning funds from other countries, particularly Russia,’ the
economist said. So Armenia may be involved in money laundering.

`Numerous facts can be cited, including luxury housing construction,’ he said.

According to the report, a total of $4.5 billion was siphoned from
Georgia from 2002 to 2011. A total of $17 billion was siphoned from
Azerbaijan.

Dervishians bring Armenia to your fingertips

by Tom Vartabedian

Published: Sunday December 29, 2013

Baykar Dervishian displays a number of items for sale as proprietor of
a business called The Armenian Vendor.

FRAMINGHAM, MASS. – What started out as an only trip to Armenia in
2005 has turned into a burgeoning enterprise for Ed Baykar Dervishian.

Together with his Armenia-born wife Narine, the two have nurtured a
business called “The Armenian Vendor” which travels the circuit at
bazaars and conventions peddling anything and everything under the
native sun.

It’s America’s answer to Vernissage — the open-air market you’ll
find inside Yerevan — with merchandise that stretches the gamut from
CDs and DVDs to food, T-shirts, games and promotional items.

On a recent visit to Sts. Vartanantz Church, I stumbled across a
recording of Armen Tigranian’s opera “David Beg” which I hadn’t heard
since my childhood days and — get this — a scented candle with
red, blue and orange wax.

My shopping was far from complete, adding an Armenian flag to replace
one that’s seen its better days, a T-shirt featuring a manual
typewriter (nostalgic) and lastly some gift cards from Zadig Orphanage
— a place after my own heart.

I visited that orphanage during a trip to Armenia and was so enamored
by the children there and the artwork they portrayed that I wound up
sharing my experience with the Armenian press.

On any given day, you’ll find the Dervishians tending to business with
three children in tow — Anna, 7; Tanya, 5, and Natalya, 12 months.
No, they’re not for sale though you might think they’re part of the
inventory.

It all adds up to a dedicated, hard-working Armenian family, steeped
in the roots of their Armenian ancestry and taking every initiative to
promote it.

It’s about a guy who graduated from Lehigh as an engineering major
with a minor in music who saw a need for Armenian commodities and
decided to address it.

Hence their motto: “We bring Armenia to your front door.”

“Growing up in New Jersey, there were no local Armenian stories from
which to trade,” Baykar recalled. “Moving to New England, I decided to
expand what was already inside the Watertown markets by creating a
website (Armenianvendor.com) where anyone anywhere around the world
could shop effortlessly and buy whatever they wanted. It’s been eight
years and has matured immensely on its own.”

Behind every successful man stands his woman and Baykar is no
exception. Without his wife, he admits, there’s no way this venture
could prosper. Narine worked 15 years in finance and puts the
experience to work here, juggling her day job with three kids, this
business and housekeeping chores.

They’ve recruit the help of many friends in bringing the products back
from Haiastan and getting them sold at various events. Sponsors also
get a slice of the pie so everyone benefits.

“Many Armenian organizations were skeptical about how we would fit
into their venues,” Baykar added. “But now, we’re doing picnics and
bazaars all over New England and the Mid-Atlantic area. People tell us
they attend these events just to browse over our product line and see
what they can find.”

Besides music and videos, Armenians are hot after tee shirts and
unusual items created by n artisans throughout the world. Though by no
means a Karsh, Dervishian’s photos of Armenia are another good sell.
The stories behind the images are free and entertaining. Children’s
toys, books and educational items are always up for grabs, especially
during Christmas.

“Our initial intent was to sell products only from Armenia,” he said.
“But having them shipped was way too costly. Since Armenia is
landlocked, getting them out of the country became a challenge.
Connections with family and friends facilitated our market.”

So he could better help his fellow Armenians, Baykar joined the
Knights of Vartan. He’s also been a parish council member at the
Armenian Church of the Holy Translators in Framingham and helped start
the Armenian School there.

What might surprise you about Baykar is his musicianship. He studied
violin in his younger days and went places with his instrument. He was
in Regional and All-State Orchestras in New Jersey along with many pit
orchestras for plays and ensembles. Much of that has taken a back seat
due to time constraints.

People who know him recognize the stories he’s waiting to tell, even
if it might interfere with business a tad. He’s a genuine resource for
Armenian products, information and events.

There’s the one about a bike-a-thon in New York City a few months ago.
A priest called to order 40 shirts from his inventory to outfit the
bikers – two days before the event!

“There was no way I could ship them on time,” he said. “It was then
that I discovered the power of the Armenian Network.”

Baykar hooked up with Talene Khachadurian, president, New York
Armenian Network, for help. They found a participating biker and got
together along a highway to transfer the shirts and get them into the
proper hands just in time.

The future is today, not tomorrow, for the Dervishians. Depending upon
time, energy and finances, Baykar would love to raise the business
from a local “mom and pop” operation to one with satellite divisions
selling live across America.

The next time you may cross paths with this vendor, drop by and say
“Hye.” It just might make your introduction that much more special.

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Dec 28 2013

Expert says Iran and Armenia are strategic partners

28 December 2013 – 12:10pm

This week Iranian President Hassan Rouhani congratuled his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan on the coming New Year. In his address the
Iranian president called for peace and security for the whole region.

The head of the Modern Iranian Research Centre, Radjab Safarov, says
Iranian-Armenian relations are very close and that mutual trade ties
are developing rapidly.

“Iran and Armenia are strategic partners. Armenia is crucial for
enhancement of Iran’s economic and political influence in the
Caucasus,” the expert says.

Interfax, Russia
dec 27 2013

Iran intending to raise gas prices for Armenia – PM

YEREVAN. Dec 27

Iran is planning to raise gas prices for Armenia and review agreements
on barter shipments of natural gas in exchange for electricity,
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told journalists on Friday.

Sargsyan said this in response to the recent statement from Iran’s
ambassador to Armenia that Iran is prepared to hold talks with
amicable countries, including Armenia, concerning the sale of gas for
a market price that could be lower than the current one.

“In contrast, experience from the last three years shows that Iran is
aiming to reconsider the ‘gas for electricity’ agreements, and raise
the price for gas,” Sargsyan said. “This is probably a diplomatic
misunderstanding.”

In this regard, he said, the latest agreements with Russia on leaving
the price for gas unchanged until 2018 are very advantageous for
Armenia. Currently Russia sells Armenia gas at the price of $189 per 1
thousand cubic meters.

In 2012, Armenia imported 488.3 million cubic meters of gas, up 6.2%
from 2011, from Iran. Iran delivers natural gas to Armenia for CJSC
Yerevan Thermal Power Plant in exchange for electricity at a ratio of
1 cubic meter of gas per 3 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power. As per the
agreement between the two countries, Iran can deliver up to 1.1
billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Armenia a year (around 3 million
cu m a day). Starting in 2014, it can send Armenia up to 2.3 bcm of
gas a year.

Armenia planned to export electricity surpluses to neighboring Georgia
and Turkey, but this has not yet occurred. Armenia imported a total of
2.456 bcm of natural gas in 2012, up 18.7%, including 1.967 bcm from
Russia, up 22.3%.

Kh pr eb of

The News Today (Bangladesh.)
December 27, 2013 Friday

1857 War and the unsung heroes of Bengal

In the annals of modern Indian history, the year 1757 was a watershed
year when Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud – Daulah of Bengal at the
Battle of Plassey. Exactly 100 years after this historical event, the
Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, or the first Indian War of Independence as Marx
called it, cleared the path for the British monarchy to take over the
reins of India from the East India Company, which had established its
control over large parts of the country over the preceding 200 years.
Though most history texts describe this revolt, which originated from
Delhi, Meerut and Lucknow, as seeking to re-establish Moghul rule,
there is more to the uprising. Revisiting the Sepoy Mutiny on its
150th anniversary in 2007, an officer of West Bengal State Archives,
Ananda Bhattacharya, took up the task of unearthing forgotten pieces
of history to explore the role of Bengal in the 1857 revolt. The
revolt began early in 1857 with rumours that the catridges provided
with the new Enfield Rifles issued to the sepoys of the British army
were saturated with animal grease – the fat of a swine used to pollute
one community and the fat of the cow to degrade another.

While there has been a gamut of historical literature on the revolt,
revisiting and exploring its various aspects, the author has
undertaken a probe into contemporary accounts and dug out valuable
information on hitherto unknown socio-economic aspects of the Great
Revolt. In this respect, the history books only mention the episode of
Mangal Pandey, a Native Infantry sepoy from Barrackpore, who was
hanged on April 8, 1857 for his active role in inciting sepoys against
their British masters. In his findings, Mr. Bhattacharya points out
that Bengal was not left behind in the uprising even though Calcutta
was the Capital of British India. “It is a marvel and a mystery that
so many years should have passed away without an explosion. At last a
firebrand was applied to what a single spark might have ignited; and
in the course of a few weeks there was a general conflagration; but a
conflagration which still bears more marks of accident than of
deliberate conspiracy and incendiarism” (Edinburgh Review No. 216).
Being the chief British colonial city, Calcutta and its surrounding
towns had native Infantry platoons in Dum Dum and Barrackpore.

Though Bengal was not the epicentre of this great political upheaval,
Eastern India was not immune to its impact. The mutinies in Bengal
have from the beginning drawn the sympathy of the country. The
mutineers were joined and aided by the civil population. In some
regions of Bengal, the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic
revolt against the British Raj. As in the case of Mangal Pandey
(Barrackpore revolt), sometimes the leaders became folk heroes in the
nationalist movement. In the case of Dacca revolt, this book quotes a
recollection of a witness who said that “without delay the prisoners
were tried the next day and were hanged near Episcopalian Church,
close to the maidan at Antaghar … these sepoys were hanged in the
open, in the heart of the town, perhaps to create an impression on the
mind of the people of Dacca”.

While the Native Infantry sepoys were echoing the revolt of Lucknow
and Delhi, the British Indian Association, under the secretaryship of
Iswar Chander Singh, viewed the happenings at Meerut and Delhi with
disgust and horror of the soldiery at those stations and said that “it
would not meet with support from the bulk of civil population or from
any influential classes”. Three days after this resolution, another
meeting under the chairmanship of Raja Radhakanta Deb was of the
opinion that “it would be the duty of native portion of Her Majesty’s
subjects to render the government every aid for the preservation of
civil order and tranquillity”. So was the case of Mohammedans of
Calcutta such as Haji Mohammed Ispahane and Aga Mohammad Hassan.

The Armenian residents in the city and the French inhabitants too
echoed similar sentiments in support of the government and against the
sepoys. In case of need, these groups said, “their services may be
accepted for the common good and as a proof of their loyalty and
attachment towards Her Majesty of England”. This book also contains
some unpublished documents based on the military despatches by Forrest
and Mutiny papers of Kaye (preserved in the India Office Library,
London). Some of them show a different light of Bahadur Shah and Rani
Lakshmibai of Jhansi about their roles in the Mutiny of 1857.

The concluding part of the book contains the deposition of Shaik
Hedayut Ali, Subedar and Sirdar Bahadoor of Bengal Sikh Police
Battalion, commanded by Captain T. Rattray which gives a broad
background of the mutiny of the Bengal Army and the consequent
rebellion in the Bengal Presidency. The details of reaction of British
soldiers during this crisis shows the valiant minds of local leaders
and the chicanery of the rulers who were living in palaces. This
section is really an eye-opener. In a nutshell, this book throws new
light on the possibility of unearthing untold stories of our valiant
fighters such as Mangal Pandey et al. In that sense, the attempt is a
valid one.