Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA DELIVERS NEW FACT SHEET ON AZERBAIJAN

July 25, 2013 – 11:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Throughout this year, the Armenian Assembly of
America (Assembly) has taken steps to address a serious concern of
the Armenian-American community: the ongoing threats against Armenians
by Azerbaijan.

As Congress looks to approve U.S. foreign aid priorities this week,
the Assembly visited over 125 Members of Congress and hand-delivered
the new 2013 Assembly Press Kit outlining funding priorities for
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, including the Assembly’s new FACT SHEET
on Azerbaijan.

Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Azerbaijan had once again
violated the ceasefire agreement along the line of contact some 200
times. These relentless attacks on Armenian civilians, some targeting
a kindergarten school, illustrates the growing hostility of the Aliyev
regime, and coupled with its bellicose rhetoric, raises the specter
of a new war in the South Caucasus.

On the heels of the cross border attacks, it was announced that
Azerbaijan had begun receiving over $1 billion in new weapons and
armaments from Russia.

Therefore, it was timely that a few days later, the Commission on
Security & Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) held
a briefing entitled “Troubled Partner: Growing Authoritarianism in
Azerbaijan.” There, the Assembly provided key testimony highlighting
the litany of examples of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime, including
but not limited to its suppression of basic freedoms, attacks on
journalists, destruction of the centuries-old Armenian cemetery
in Julfa, Nakhichevan, intransigence in the Nagorno Karabakh peace
process, interference in the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process,
and massive military expenditures totaling over $6 billion dollars
for FY2011-FY2012.

“The Assembly remains deeply troubled by Azerbaijan’s intransigence
and ongoing threats against America’s ally Armenia,” stated Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITIONIST SAYS NEGOTIATIONS WITH AUTHORITIES IMPOSSIBLE

10:59 25.07.13

The leader of the Social-Democrat Hnchakyan party is skeptical about
the Heritage party’s proposal on organizing a pan-Armenian round
table discussion in September.

Lyudmila Sargsyan says the plan offered by the party’s leader,
Raffi Hovhannisian, is an attempt to maintain certain positions on
the political arena.

“If the call prompts measures for a round-table discussion expected to
bring the opposition around a round table together with the authorities
for developing an agenda over pan-Armenian issues, that’s already
unfeasible” she told Tert.am. “The situation, which we now have thanks
to the authorities, is naturally very advantageous to them. Hence they
are not going to make any reforms or change the rules of the game; the
existing rules help them reproduce themselves and maintain power. So
to what extent does it make sense to make such a call? We know very
well that the authorities do not need to develop a national agenda;
they are satisfied with what we have today.”

Sargsyan further emphasized the need of distinguishing opposition’s
radical wing from the opposition in general.

“There is both an opposition and a radical opposition. I classify
myself as a radical oppositionist. Hence a round table discussion with
the authorities is not realistic for me. Not because I don’t think it
is possible to talk to the authorities or try to develop an agenda,
but because I understand that the authorities’ agenda is completely
different; it is not intended to make any changes or violate the game
rules,” she added.

Sargsyan, who represents the opposition Armenian National Congress
(ANC) faction in parliament, disagreed to the opinion that the
opposition has now gone underground. “Our young [activists] attend the
protests against the increased public transport fares, and those taken
[to the police] were mostly young people, active members of the ANC.

So, you don’t have any grounds to say that the opposition is passive.

Whenever you see activeness in any place, you can make no doubt that
the opposition is there.”

But the politician agreed to Heritage leader’s remark that the
political developments are going to gain ground in autumn.

“I think the processes will grow into bigger developments. And I find
that the situation today calls for measures to avoid hampering the
civil initiatives, instead of trying to offer any assistance. The
people have to realize that they have rights in our country. They
have to realize that they are to to protect those rights. As for the
political forces, they will join the civil initiatives and we will
be ready to develop our agenda and move ahead in September after the
initiatives become active to a sufficient extent,” she said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

DARFOUR : LA RECRUDESCENCE DES VIOLENCES INTERETHNIQUES

Publie le : 25-07-2013

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose cette information publiee sur le site de l’ONU le 24 juillet
2013.

ONU

24 juillet 2013

Conseil de securite: inquietude devant le regain de violence
interethnique au Darfour

Le nouveau representant special conjoint Union africaine-Nations Unies
au Darfour, Mohamad Ibn Chambas, s’est inquiete, mercredi matin,
devant le Conseil de securite, de la recrudescence des violences
interethniques dans la region et des consequences de ces violences
sur les populations civiles.

La situation en matière de securite au Darfour demeure fragile,
comme en temoignent les recents evenements tragiques, dont l’attaque
qui a tue 7 Casques bleus tanzaniens et blesse 17 autres membres
de l’Operation hybride Union africaine-Nations Unies au Darfour
(MINUAD), le 13 juillet dernier, a souligne Mohamad Ibn Chambas,
qui a pris ses fonctions le 1er avril.

Depuis le debut de l’annee, la violence inter- et intra-communautaire
dans plusieurs parties du Darfour, de meme que les affrontements entre
les forces gouvernementales et les mouvements armes non signataires du
Document de Doha pour la paix au Darfour de 2011, se sont intensifies,
a-t-il explique.

” Ces violences ont cause des pertes en vies humaines, le deplacement
force de populations et une degradation du tissu economique et social
qui touche, au premier chef, les civils “, a-t-il souligne, alors
que les violences interethniques dans le nord, le centre et le sud du
Darfour reflètent des tensions croissantes concernant l’accès a l’eau,
a la terre et aux ressources minerales.

Le Representant special conjoint a affirme que la MINUAD continuait
d’encourager les differentes parties a etablir un dialogue en vue de
s’attaquer aux causes profondes de ces affrontements, notamment en
appuyant les diverses initiatives locales de mediation.

” Ces quatre derniers mois, le personnel militaire de la MINUAD
a fait l’objet d’attaques a quatre reprises “, a-t-il rappele,
en precisant que le Procureur special pour les crimes de guerre au
Darfour l’avait informe, cette semaine, de l’ouverture d’une enquete
concernant l’embuscade dont a ete victime le personnel des Nations
Unies, le 13 juillet dernier.

Estimant que la MINUAD avait besoin de materiel, de formation et
d’une plus grande souplesse dans son deploiement actuel, il a salue
la decision de deployer desormais les contingents pour une periode
d’un an et non plus six mois.

” Cela permettra a la Mission de disposer d’un personnel qui connaît
mieux la situation sur le terrain “, a-t-il dit. Il a aussi considere
que l’acquisition d’helicoptères de transport tactiques en vue de
lancer des poursuites contribuerait considerablement a dissuader
les embuscades.

Tandis que 2013 marque la dixième annee de conflit au Darfour, le
Representant special conjoint a reaffirme que le Document de Doha
pour la paix au Darfour, signe en 2011 par le Gouvernement soudanais
et le Mouvement pour la liberation et la justice (MLJ), demeurait la
seule option durable pour la paix et le developpement dans la region.

” Les parties signataires du Document de Doha ont continue a ~uvrer
en vue de son application, en depit de la lenteur des progrès sur le
terrain “, a conclu Mohamad Ibn Chambas, en appelant le Conseil de
securite a appuyer ces efforts.

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : ONU

LE FILM SUR PARADJANOV REMPORTE LE PRIX DU MEILLEUR FILM UKRAINIEN AU 4E FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DU CINEMA D’ODESSA

CINEMA

Le film sur le cineaste armenien ” Paradjanov ” ou ” Le prof de
geographie a bazarde le globe ” d’Alexandre Veledinski a remporte
Prix du meilleur film ukrainien du 4e Festival international du
cinema a Odessa (Ukraine). Le film a egalement remporte le Grand
Prix du public. ” Paradjanov ” est suivi par le film ” Dabba ” du
realisateur indien Ritech Batra.

Serge Avedikian qui est egalement l’un des ” regisseurs ” du film
en compagnie d’Elena Fetisova y tient le rôle principal de Sergueï
Paradjanov dans long metrage qui retrace la vie du grand cineaste.

Krikor Amirzayan

jeudi 25 juillet 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

DEUX ARMENIENS DU KARABAGH CONDAMNES POUR ESPIONNAGE

JUSTICE

Deux residents armeniens du Haut-Karabakh reconnus coupables
d’espionnage pour l’Azerbaïdjan a travers l’Internet ont ete condamnes
a de longues peines de prison mardi.

Un tribunal de Stepanakert a juge Rafael Avagian, un soldat armenien
de 22 ans ne au Haut Karabagh, et son ami Davit Barseghian coupable
de haute trahison et d’espionnage, et les a condamnes respectivement
a 11 et 10 ans de prison .

Les deux hommes ont plaide non coupables aux accusations decoulant
de leur communication avec un obscur etranger via un reseau social
en ligne russe. Ils ont dit qu’ils n’avaient jamais pense qu’ils
collaboraient avec l’espionnage azerbaïdjanais.

L’avocat de la defense, Arkadi Israeli, a qualite le verdict
d’injuste. Il a fait valoir, entre autres choses, que les enqueteurs
n’ont pas reussi a etablir l’identite de l’agent azerbaïdjanais
presume qui a commence a communiquer avec ses clients il y a un an.

Avagian, principal suspect dans l’affaire, a declare au cours du procès
que l’homme s’est lui-meme identifie comme Samvel Azatian et pretend
etre un representant base a Istanbul d’une association caritative de
la diaspora armenienne. Il aurait dit a Azatian, selon sa version,
que l’organisme prevoyait de lancer des actions de bienfaisance au
Karabakh et avait besoin d’informations detaillees sur les forces
armees du territoire conteste ainsi que sur les institutions civiles
et les infrastructures.

Avagian a reconnu avoir envoye des photos et d’autres details sur
les unites de l’armee du Karabakh et avoir recu environ 1000 $ et
plusieurs autres ” cadeaux ” en retour. Il a egalement admis avoir
ensuite verse a Barseghian 200 $ pour se rendre a dans un district
au sud sous contrôle armenien du Karabagh pour prendre des photos de
colons armeniens de Syrie qui y vivent.

Selon Avagian, l’interlocuteur en ligne, lui a par la suite demande
de faire une promesse ecrite d’effectuer des ” tâches secrètes ”
pour de l’argent. Le soldat qui sert sur une base contractuelle dans
l’armee du Karabakh a reconnu avoir signe un document correspondant
et l’avoir envoye a Istanbul peu de temps avant son l’arrestation de
Barseghian en mars.

Les arrestations ont ete annoncees par le Service de la securite
nationale de l’Armenie (NSS), le 25 Juin. Dans un communique, le SNRS a
egalement signale la detention pour des accusations similaires d’une
femme de 31 ans servant dans l’armee armenienne.

Selon le SNRS, cette femme, Mane Movsisian, communiquait a travers
Facebook et d’autres reseaux en ligne avec un agent de renseignement
azerbaïdjanais anonyme base en Turquie. Elle lui aurait donne ”
informations de nature militaire sur l’Armenie. ” Sans autres details.

jeudi 25 juillet 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

YEREVAN AIRPORT BETTER LOCATED THAN DUBAI; TRANSAERO LAUNCHES VNUKOVO LINK LAST WEEK

anna.aero (Airline Network News & Analysis)
July 24 2013

With a population approaching nearly 1.25 million, representing over
a third of Armenia’s total population, the capital Yerevan (the 13th
in the country’s history) is one of the world’s oldest continuously
inhabited cities, with a history dating back to the 8th century BC.

With a skyline dominated by Mount Ararat, the city is served by
Zvartnots International Airport, which handled close to 1.7 million
annual passengers in 2012, representing nearly 6% growth.

There is an undeniable growth trend evident, with the airport doubling
its traffic in the last decade. This comes despite the loss of Armenian
Airlines, when it was taken over by Armavia in 2003, the latter then
becoming the nation’s flag carrier, but which subsequently failed
itself in March this year. The growth prospects of the airport are
therefore borne out by the fact that passenger traffic is only down
just over 3% in the first six months of 2013.

S7 now market leader after Armavia’s exit

The collapse of Armavia has dramatically altered the airline
landscape at Yerevan. When comparing schedules for this August to
those operated in the same week last year, the impact of Armavia’s
83 weekly services is marked – as they represented nearly 40% of all
the airport’s flights. The airport has bounced back to some extent,
as the drop in weekly frequencies is only 16% lower than 12 months
ago. The loss of Armavia has partly been responsible for a surge in new
carriers in Yerevan, as the airport has welcomed nine new airlines,
including two now in the top 10 – Ukraine International Airlines
and Georgian Airlines – in the last year. However, the net number of
airlines at the airport has only increased by four (from 27 to 31)
as five airlines have stopped flying to Yerevan (three altogether –
Armavia, AeroSvit Airlines and Kuban Airlines), including British
Airways’ daily Heathrow and Meridiana’s twice-weekly Rome Fiumicino
services (replaced by Alitalia in December 2012), both of which were
terminated last October.

The top 10 airlines represent over 70% of all flying at Yerevan,
with all of them showing year-on-year frequency growth. Leading the
annual growth table is flydubai, which has grown by 133% in the last
12 months, with Transaero Airlines not far behind, adding a daily
Moscow Vnukovo service this week (LINK TO NIBS) to its existing daily
Moscow Domodedovo operation.

SVID’s appraisal of Zvartnots is “good”

Entering Yerevan’s monthly passenger data for 2012 into anna.aero’s
Seasonal Variation in Demand (SVID) calculator, the airport performs
well, producing a score of 6.25, giving it a “good” rating. Against
its airport peer from the region Tbilisi, its 2012 score is marginally
better than the Georgian capital city (6.56 – good). However, when
compared to Armenia’s second largest airport, Shirak International,
serving Gyumri in the north-west of the country, it performs worse
than the 70,000 annual passenger facility, which scores 3.72,
but still only a “good” result. Since we started doing SVID scores,
anna.aero has now evaluated over 50 airport’s seasonality performance
for 2012, and Yerevan has entered the rankings at #38 spot overall,
lodging itself between Barcelona (5.4) and Birmingham (7.33).

Forget Dubai (again), Yerevan is centre of world (but not as good
as Baku)!

Most of us have done it – used a MEB3 hub to get from Europe to
countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal or China. But the reality is
that flying via Yerevan offers a shorter alternative than hubbing
through one of these better known airports. This something which
anna.aero discovered last year, when we looked at Baku in Azerbaijan.

While journey distances from Heathrow via Dubai to destinations
like Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Karachi are comparable to those achieved
through Yerevan (although the Armenian capital is still better)
the variance become increasingly stark when looking at points like
Urumqi, Islamabad and Beijing. The average distance to this basket
of routes via Dubai is 8,409 kilometres, whereas for Yerevan it is
just 7,435 kilometres, representing nearly a 12% saving. However,
when comparing the average distances of the Armenian capital to the
Azerbaijani capital (just over 480 kilometres away), Baku narrowly
beats it neighbour by just 78 kilometres. All Armenia needs now is
a global mega-carrier with deep pockets and an insatiable desire to
connect the world to set-up a base in Yerevan.

See tables and graphs at

TURKEY TO RETURN ONLY MEAGER PORTION OF SEIZED PROPERTIES

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

St. Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey

Representatives from non-Muslim organizations in Turkey have announced
that they have received a positive response for only 16 percent of
the applications they made for the return of their properties seized
by the state in the first half of the 20th century, Today’s Zaman
reports, quoting Taraf daily.

Recent remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying his
government has returned properties that in total valued $2.5 billion
to non-Muslims, has brought the issue of property seized from Turkey’s
minorities back on the nation’s agenda.

In 2011, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
government adopted a decree to return all confiscated immovable
property belonging to minority organizations in Turkey.

According to the decree, minority organizations are able to reclaim
real property they had declared back in 1936. All real property,
cemeteries, and fountains will be returned to their rightful owners.

Immovable property currently belonging to third parties will also be
paid for.

The 1936 Law on Foundations aimed to control non-Muslim organizations
by placing them under the guardianship of the Directorate General
for Foundations (VGM).

Since 2011, non-Muslim groups have applied to the VGM demanding the
return of 542 properties. However, they have been unsuccessful in
repossessing most of their seized property over the past two years.

In remarks to Taraf, Laki Vingas, head of the Minorities Foundation,
explained, “One hundred and sixteen minority foundations have applied
for the return of 542 properties, but only 253 properties have been
returned. Applications for the return of 829 seized properties were
rejected. No assessment has been made about the situation of 460
properties. With regard to 18 properties, which were acquired by
third persons, a decision was made for compensation to be paid,”
adding that only 16 percent of the applications have been responded
to in the affirmative.

According to Vingas, the process concerning the return of seized
property belonging to non-Muslims will be concluded within three
months and the rate of repossession will remain at 25 percent at most.

With regard to the rejected applications, Vingas said rejections
mostly happen due to missing documents and failure to determine the
exact location of the property, adding that some minority foundations
have taken legal action concerning their rejected applications.

Å~^ahin Gezer, a member of the real estate commission of the Turkish
Armenian Patriarchate, told the daily that he finds the figure cited
by Erdogan exaggerated, adding that if all the seized property of
non-Muslim foundations had been returned, only then would the value
equal $2.5 billion.

Voicing his disapproval of the slow progress in the return of seized
properties, Gezer said, “The process is running very slowly. The state
knows better than we do what property was ours and what was not. The
documents that the state demands from us are documents that we must
acquire from the state itself. But we cannot get these documents from
most institutions; the documents we want are covered-up secrets at the
end of the day. When we cannot get these documents, our applications
are rejected and we cannot prove that that property was ours.”

The Diyarbakır Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation is another
non-Muslim foundation, most of whose applications for the return of
seized property were rejected.

Foundation head Vartkes Ergun Ayık told Taraf that they applied for
the return of 190 properties to the foundation but that only 17 have
been returned to them.

NON-MUSLIM FOUNDATIONS IN TURKEY TO GET BACK ONLY 16 PERCENT OF SEIZED PROPERTY

18:43 24.07.2013

Representatives from non-Muslim foundations have announced that
they have received a positive response for only 16 percent of the
applications they made for the return of their property seized by
the state, Today’s Zaman reports quoting Taraf daily.

Recent remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying his
government has returned property that valued at $2.5 billion to
non-Muslims, has brought the issue of property seized from Turkey’s
minorities back on the nation’s agenda.

In 2011, Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
government adopted a decree to return all confiscated immovable
property belonging to minority foundations in Turkey.

According to the decree, minority foundations are able to reclaim real
property they had declared back in 1936. All real property, cemeteries
and fountains will be returned to their rightful owners. Immovable
property currently belonging to third parties will also be paid for.

The 1936 Law on Foundations aimed to control non-Muslim foundations
by placing them under the guardianship of the Directorate General
for Foundations (VGM).

Since 2011, non-Muslim foundations have applied to the VGM demanding
the return of 542 properties. However, they have been unable to get
back most of their seized property over the past two years.

In remarks to Taraf, Laki Vingas, head of the Minorities Foundation,
explained: “One hundred and sixteen minority foundations have applied
for the return of 542 properties, but only 253 properties have been
returned. Applications for the return of 829 seized properties were
rejected. No assessment has been made about the situation of 460
properties. With regard to 18 properties, which were acquired by
third persons, a decision was made for compensation to be paid,”
adding that only 16 percent of the applications have been responded
to in the affirmative.

According to Vingas, the process concerning the return of seized
property of non-Muslims will be concluded within three months and
the rate of the return will remain at 25 percent at most.

With regard to the rejected applications, Vingas said rejections
mostly happen due to missing documents and failure to determine the
exact location of the property, adding that some minority foundations
have taken legal action concerning their rejected applications.

Å~^ahin Gezer, a member of the real estate commission of the Turkish
Armenian Patriarchate, told the daily that he finds the figure cited
by Erdogan exaggerated, adding that if all the seized property of
non-Muslim foundations had been returned, it would be about $2.5
billion.

Voicing his disapproval of the slow progress in the return of seized
property, Gezer said: “The process is running very slowly. The state
knows it better than us what place was ours and what was not. We need
to take back the documents from the state which the state wants from
us. But, we cannot get these documents from many institutions. What
we want is covered-up documents at the end of the day. When we cannot
get these documents, our applications are rejected and we cannot
prove that that property was ours.”

The Diyarbakır Surp Giragos Armenian Church Foundation is another
non-Muslim foundation most of whose applications for the return of
seized property were rejected.

Foundation head Vartkes Ergun Ayık told Taraf that they applied for
the return of 190 properties to the foundation but that only 17 have
been given back to them.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT DRIVERS JOINING ACTIVISTS IN YEREVAN

16:53 23.07.13

The crowd of activists protesting against the Yerevan City Hall’s
controversial move for raising the public transport fees keep urging
the population to pay the former 100 Drams’ passenger fees (instead
of 150).

Yerkir.am reports that two minibus drivers in central Yerevan have
themselves torn out the notice on the new fare from their cars’
windows and replaced them with signs urging the passengers to stick
to the former amount.

The opposition Heritage party’s leader, Raffi Hovhannisyan, has also
joined the protesters.

YEREVAN’S COMMUNAL ADMINISTRATIONS EXERT PRESSURE ON ACTIVISTS PROTESTING AGAINST RISE IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT FARE IN THE CITY

Arminfo
Wednesday, July 24, 14:25

Yerevan’s communal administrations have started to pressure the
activists protesting against the rise in public transport fare in
the city.

Activist David Harutyunyan told journalists on Wednesday that earlier
in the day a group of employees of the Shengavit administration beat a
young girl who was distributing leaflets at a bus stop and was urging
people not to pay 150 AMD.

On Tuesday evening a group of bus line owners and YerevanTrans
employees used force in order to prevent a protest action in the
center of Yerevan.