Author: Badalian Vardan

STEFAN FULE: EU RESPECTS ARMENIA’S SOVEREIGN RIGHT AND DOES NOT ACCEPT PRESSURE

September 13, 2013 | 15:44

YEREVAN. – EU respects Armenia’s sovereign right to join the Customs
Union but does not accept any possible pressure on the country,
the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Å tefan
Fule said.

Fule said he was assured that no pressure had been exerted on Armenia.

“Who am I to question that?” he said in Yerevan on the margins of
informal meeting of Eastern Partnership FMs.

At the same time, the EU offiical noted that such complaints were
heard in the European Parliament.

He also recalled the statement of the EU delegation about violence
against civic activists who expressed concern about the foreign policy
of Armenia.

“We are calling upon the Armenian authorities to bring the perpetrators
to justice,” he said.

ARMENIA TO TOUGHEN PENALTIES FOR INEFFICIENT USE OF WATER RESOURCES
by Karina Manukyan

ARMINFO
Thursday, September 12, 21:37

On September 12, the National Assembly of Armenia introduced amendments
in the Code of Administrative Violations in the first reading.

Armenian Minister of Nature Protection Aram Haroutyunyan said that
the document aims to enhance the efficiency of the use of water
resources and to prevent violations. The individuals violating the
service rules will pay a penalty 100 times as much as their wages
(instead of the current penalty, which is 80 times as much as their
wages), and officials will pay a penalty 300 times as much their
wages (instead of the current penalty which is 150 times as much as
their wages). As soon as the amendments are adopted, nearly 1,000
artesian boreholes in Ararat Valley will be decommissioned and this
will lead to more effective use of the surface water resources. The
settlement of this problem needs financial resources, part of which
will be raised due to the toughened penalties. For this purpose,
a special Fund will be set up at the Finance Ministry.

Since 2009, the Ministry has been conducting a monitoring on efficient
use of water resources. Nearly 30 cases are annually submitted to
the law-enforcement structures.

ORINATS YERKIR: NO ONE IN ARMENIA IS AGAINST CUSTOMS UNION

September 13, 2013 | 12:20

YEREVAN. – There is no one in Armenia who is against Armenia’s
accession to the Customs Union.

The coalition government’s junior partner, Orinats Yerkir (Rule of
Law) Party National Assembly (RLP NA) Faction leader Heghine Bisharyan
stated the abovementioned during an NA briefing on Friday.

“In reality, even those people, who are formally against membership
in the Customs Union, welcome this deep down inside,” Bisharyan said.

She added that everyone in Armenia has relatives who work in Russia,
and all of them want for the two countries to have good relations.

As per Bisharyan, it is only natural that Armenia chooses its
strategic partner.

“We all want for the Armenians living in Russia to feel secure,”
the RLP MP concluded.

To note, following the talks that were held on September 3 in Moscow
between Armenian and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir
Putin, Sargsyan had announced that Armenia plans to join the Customs
Union and subsequently engage in the formation of the Eurasian
Economic Union.

PROSPEROUS ARMENIA AND ARF NOT GOING TO JOIN RULING COALITION

September 13, 2013 | 13:50

YEREVAN. – The reports alleging that Prosperous Armenia will join
the ruling coalition are far from reality, secretary of party’s
faction said.

Naira Zohrabyan assured reporters the issue is off the table.

“We do not have a task to join the ruling coalition,” she told a
briefing in parliament on Friday.

Head of the ARF Dashnaksutyun faction Armen Rustamyan ruled out his
party’s joining the collation, too.

“Appointment of MP Vahan Hovhannisyan to the post of an Armenian
Ambassador to Germany and cooperation with the authorities on
foreign policy issues are not indicating an intention to join ruling
coalition,” he added.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ARMENIAN RULING PARTY LEADERSHIP SIGNALS UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR CUSTOMS UNION

NEWS | 13.09.13 | 12:03

All of about two dozen members of the executive body of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) support the decision to join the
Russia-led Customs Union, spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said.

Talking to media after the body’s meeting late on Thursday Sharmazanov,
who is one of the leading members of the RPA and also occupies the
post of deputy speaker of parliament, said: “I can’t speak for all
150,000 members of the party, but all members of the executive body
are for joining the Customs Union.”

The RPA spokesman disagreed with opinions that it constitutes a
policy U-turn considering that Armenia has negotiated an Association
Agreement with the European Union for nearly four years before opting
for integration with Russia. He called it a “clear calculation”,
according to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Earlier, the Armenian leadership signaled its readiness also to
continue political dialogue with Brussels as far as it did not run
counter to Yerevan’s commitments regarding the Russia-led union.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CALLS ON ARMENIA POLICE CHIEF AND HEAD OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE TO FIND AND PUNISH THOSE WHICH WERE GUILTY FOR ATTACKING CIVIC ACTIVISTS
by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Thursday, September 12, 21:40

Human Rights Watch urges Armenia Police Chief, Vladimir Gasparyan,
and Head of Special Investigative Service, Vahram Shahinyan, to take
all appropriate measures to promptly, thoroughly, and effectively
investigate the attacks, identify and bring the perpetrators
to justice, and make clear that such violence against peaceful
demonstrators will be neither tolerated nor condoned. In his letter,
Hugh Williamson, Director Europe and Central Asia division Human
Rights Watch, worries about the growth of the violence cases against
the participants in the peaceful demonstrations and actions in Yerevan.

“In the attacks that Human Rights Watch documented, unidentified men
in civilian clothes set upon individual demonstrators late at night
after they left the protest venues. Victims of the attacks sustained
multiple bruises, including light concussions, a broken nose, and
broken bones. In all five cases, police took victims’ reports and in
one case police took the victim to the crime scene. Unfortunately,
to the best of our knowledge, police have not taken further steps
to identify and apprehend the assailants in these cases, even when
one of the victims was able to identify those he suspected of being
his attackers.

The five people whom Human Rights Watch interviewed had been involved
in protests held in front of the city municipal building and the
ruling Republican Party headquarters. They were attacked in three
separate incidents”, – the letter says.

“We urge you to take immediate steps to conduct comprehensive
investigations into all allegations of attacks against peaceful
demonstrators. Such investigations should be conclusive, public,
involve the participation of the victims, and be capable of leading to
the identification and prosecution of the perpetrators. Accountability
for these assaults is essential to demonstrate the government’s
commitment to justice and to prevent any attempts to attack freedom of
assembly. Finding and prosecuting the perpetrators would demonstrate
that the authorities are not condoning or tolerating such violence”,
– the letter says.

EU DELEGATION TO ARMENIA ALSO VOICES CONCERN ABOUT ATTACKS ON CIVIL ACTIVISTS

11:32, September 13, 2013

The European Union Delegation issued the following statement

The EU Delegation expresses its deep concern at recent incidents in
Yerevaninvolving attacks on members of civil society as well as cases
of intimidation targeting human rights defenders.

The EU Delegation calls upon the Armenian authorities to take prompt
and decisive action to bring the perpetrators to justice without delay.

The EU Delegation recalls that respect for democratic principles,
human rights and fundamental freedoms remain essential elements in
the European Union’s bilateral agenda with Armenia.

MANOEUVRES MILITAIRES A GRANDE ECHELLE DES FORCES ARMEES ARMENIENNES LE LONG DE LA FRONTIERE ENTRE L’ARMENIE ET LE NAKHITCHEVAN

ARMENIE

Les man~uvres, d’une duree de sept jours, sont dirigees par le chef
d’Etat major des forces armees, le general Yuri Khatchatourov. Le
Ministre de la Defense, Seyran Ohanian, a personnellement supervise,
le 5 septembre, les exercices, s’entretenant aussi avec les soldats et
les officiers effectuant leur service au sud-ouest du pays. Rappelons
que le 23 août, un incident etait survenu sur la frontière entre
l’Armenie et le Nakhitchevan, qui avait coûte la vie a un soldat
armenien et blesse un autre. Par ailleurs, un communique du Ministère
relève que, le 4 septembre, la partie azerbaïdjanaise a ouvert le feu
en direction des villages limitrophes Movsès et Aygapar de la region
du Tavouch, a la suite de quoi un vehicule prive avait ete touche. La
partie armenienne a riposte, obligeant l’adversaire a cesser le feu. /
Hayots Achkhar, Hayastani Hanrapetoutioun, Haykakan Jamanak

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 6 septembre 2013

vendredi 13 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

President Sargsyan visits Armenia Expo 2013

15:23 14.09.2013

President Serzh Sargsyan visited today the Armenia Expo 2013 annual
universal regional industrial exhibition at the Yerevan-Expo Center.

President Sargsyan toured the exhibition hall, familiarized himself
with the products, technologies and innovation systems on display.

Serzh Sargsyan talked to representatives of the participating
companies about their achievements, problems and future development
programs.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEMORIAL APPROVED BY PASADENA CITY COUNCIL

89.3 KPCC, CA
Sept 11 2013

Bianca Ramirez

The Pasadena City Council has approved the city’s first Armenian
Genocide monument. The Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee
is behind the project, which will be built at Memorial Park.

Bill Paparian, chairman of the board of directors for the nonprofit
organization, described the future memorial.

“The memorial will have a scaffold. And the scaffold will straddle
a large bowl, which will have inscribed in it the symbol for eternity.

And from the top of the tripod, every 21 seconds a drop of water
will drop representing a tear for each life lost. Over the course
of a year, there will be one-and-a-half million tears that will fall
into the pool,” Paparian said.

He said that construction crews will break ground on the monument on
April 24, 2014. It’s set to open to the public on the same date in
2015 – to mark the 100th anniversary of the slaying of 1.5 million
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.