Author: Badalian Vardan

Levon And Raffi: Cosa Nostra

Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Raffi Hovannisian have joined the class of
`winner candidates’ including Vazgen Manukyan, Karen and Stepan
Demirchyan. But they announced that they will not give up their
struggle. Ter-Petrosyan said that even if they have to fight for 100
years with no result, they will do that, and Raffi Hovannisian said
that he is going to continue rallies and civil forums.

Fight is fight when it produces some result. Result can be different,
it depends on how you perceive it. It can be tangible and intangible.
In the first case, nothing has changed. The government and its
monolith have become stronger. In this sense, the results of the fight
are negative.

The intangible part is more interesting. Thanks to the movements in
2008 and 2013, public thinking underwent huge change. It gave up
unrealistic ideas and realized the power of law and right. Civil
activists emerged who adopted new and effective mechanisms of fight
which differed from the algorithms of the political class.

In this context, political forces failed to be adequate to the new
situation and continued acting in accordance with the old logic the
essence of which was the fight for power and trade with the
authorities. For its part, it brought about split between political
leadership of movements and civil claims.

In the result of negotiations with the government the Armenian
National Congress headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan entered the
parliament, Raffi Hovannisian’s Barev Yerevan in the Council of Elders
of Yerevan. Both parties are constantly losing public confidence and
support.

The appreciable result both movements ensured is the progress of
thinking and the system of values of the society. It is noteworthy
that the speed of progress is directly proportional to the speed of
collapse of political parties. The society makes tough assessments of
those forces which preferred their own interest in the form of
mandates and quotas to the public interest and ambitions, taking part
in crimes against the society. The political forces were as much
afraid of the public result of movements as the government.

So, the issue is not the result but the assessment and behavior. It is
easy to blame the public for everything, saying that it sells its vote
and has a slave’s thinking. The difficult part is to be adequate to
the real, intangible result which does not suppose for mandates and
money but self-sacrifice. But our political forces prefer anyone else
to die but not them. In this case there is no need to be offended by a
dying society.

Levon and Raffi can go to the village of Martz and join the heroic
resistance of villagers against the construction of water power plant.
They can put up their tents there and fight till the end to achieve
their lasting victory. This will be an action and a result, both
tangible and intangible.

This is the logic of today’s fight. The society decided that it will
not `die’ anymore but those who tried to achieve their own goals at
the expense of the society will.

Haik Aramyan
14:08 11/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Karabakh War veteran declares sit-in (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

May 11, 2013 | 13:04

YEREVAN. – Today, I have come out fighting and, together with my
friends, I demand a review of the method for the calculation of the
pensions of the Karabakh War veterans and the military servicemen.

Karabakh War veteran, Reserve Colonel Volodya Avetisyan who, together
with a dozen of his friends, declared a sit-in on Saturday in Armenian
capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square, stated the aforesaid on the
same day (PHOTOS).

`We, the freedom fighters, have fulfilled our task: To protect the
country and the people. We came out triumphant in the [Karabakh] war.
Now, it is the [Armenian] government’s turn to do everything so that
we come out triumphant this time, too. I did not become rich. My
wealth is my six children, my family, and the Armenian nation. We, the
freedom fighters, demand normal pension,’ Avetisyan stated, and added
that their sit-in will continue until May 14.

To note, on Saturday morning, Volodya Avetisyan was summoned to
Yerevan Police Department, where he met with Yerevan Police Chief
Ashot Karapetyan. Upon his return from this talk, Avetisyan informed
that they had a friendly conversation, during which he presented the
demands of their sit-in. In Avetisyan’s words, the Police did not
attempt to convince him not to stage this protest.

Russian base in Armenia supplemented with modern military equipment

14:19, 11 May, 2013

YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS: The Russian military base located in
Armenia was supplemented with new units of portable control for
air-defense sub-units. As reported by Armenpress, quoting the Russian
`Oruzhiye Rossii’ (Weapons of Russia), the collection of the equipment
contains advanced automated systems, internal and external
communication tools, as well as navigation and ground navigation
systems, radiation and chemical reconnaissance equipment and devices
for night visibility.

It is stated that during 2013 the recruitment of new military
equipment for the Russian military base will be continuative.

Chess and football taught in schools of Armenia

Saturday,
May 11

80,588,500 AMD was allocated this year from the budget of Armenia’s
Chess Academy for the printing of 4th grade chess textbooks.

Chess was included in Armenian schools’ curriculum in 2011. 2nd and
3rd graders have been taught chess until now. This year 4th graders
will also study chess, for the first time.

Chess lessons will be given to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders twice a week.

By the way, in addition to chess, football is also on the curriculum
of Armenian schools. Unlike chess, football is a compulsory subject
for all pupils, from 1st to 12th graders.

A football guide was printed and distributed to physical culture
teachers in 2008, according to Pastinfo news agency.
TODAY, 13:49

Aysor.am

Armenian leadership does not fulfill people’s expectations – PAP spokesperson

May 11, 2013 | 01:37

YEREVAN. – Even though the Armenian authorities were able to create an
impression of a legitimacy of their actions during elections, they did
not fulfill the expectations of the citizenry.

Non-pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Press Secretary
Tigran Urikhanyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am the above-said,
reflecting on the results of the capital city Yerevan Council of
Elders election, which was held on May 5, and on the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) final report on Armenia’s presidential
election, which was conducted on February 18.

`In my personal view, the expectations of the body politic were not
fulfilled under the seeming legitimacy which the authorities were able
to secure,’ Urikhanyan said.

As per the PAP spokesperson, the coalescence of the authorities and
the ruling party is clearly seen, and this manifested itself in the
recent presidential and Yerevan elections.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Saakashvili’s desire to curry favor with Aliyev is becoming trivial
occurrence – Armenian analyst

May 11, 2013 | 00:21

YEREVAN. – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s recent statements,
which he made during the South Caucasus conference that was held in
the Azerbaijani capital city Baku, are linked to resisting Georgia’s
working authorities.

Georgian affairs specialist Alik Eroyants told the aforesaid to
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

`As for the statement that Armenia can be integrated to the united
South Caucasus region, it is very difficult to agree with him
considering the components of the existing relationships among the
countries of the region, specifically [between] Armenia and
Azerbaijan,’ Eroyants also noted.

He added that the Georgian president constantly tries to be liked by
his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev.

`But, now, that strategy resembles something trivial, since
Saakashvili’s standing has fallen to a great extent, especially since
he can no longer be elected president,’ Alik Eroyants stressed.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Russian military base in Armenia to get new military equipment

11:06 – 11.05.13

Russian military base deployed in Armenia’s territory is receiving new
equipment. In near future it will get new special vehicles created on
the basis of vehicle of higher passability KAMAZ 43118 with wheel base
6×6, Tatar-inform reports.

`The military base will also receive new mobile points management for
the military air defense subdivisions, system of navigation and
territory orientation, radiation and chemical exploration devices,
night-watch devices,’ an official from Russian Defense Ministry said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

ARMENIE-ECONOMIE
Doublement de l’exportation du ciment d’Arménie vers la Géorgie

L’exportation du ciment d’Arménie vers la Géorgie a doublé de volume
au cours du premier trimestre par rapport à celui de l’an dernier.
L’Arménie a exporté entre janvier et mars plus de 36 000 tonnes de
ciment en direction de la Géorgie pour un montant de 2,385 millions de
dollars. L’an dernier, sur la même période, l’Arménie n’avait exporté
en Géorgie que 18 000 tonnes. La Géorgie étant le seul pays où fut
exporté le ciment arménien au cours du 1er trimestre. En 2012,
l’Arménie a exporté plus de 175 000 tonnes de ciment vers la Géorgie
pour 9,4 millions de dollars. Le montant total des exportations de
toute nature de l’Arménie vers la Géorgie l’an dernier, représenta 71
millions de dollars. Un montant relativement modeste au regard des
1,428 milliard de dollars des exportations arméniennes en 2012. Les
premiers pays des exportations de l’Arménie étant l’Allemagne (153
millions de dollars), la Bulgarie (129), la Belgique (127), les Pays
Bas (79).

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 11 mai 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Georgian PM looks for a candidate for minister among the Georgian Azerbaijanis

2013-05-09 12:33:35

Georgian Prime Minister is looking for a candidate for minister among
the Georgian Azerbaijanis. Bidzina Ivanishvili said it on Wednesday,
responding to a question of Azerbaijani journalists in Tbilisi.

“I promised that Azerbaijani, our compatriot, will take the post of
advisor or assistant to the prime minister, but we decided to go ahead
and appoint a minister from our Azerbaijanis,” he said.

Ivanishvili said that there are being searched for nominations.

“We are working hard in this direction and we already have a nominate,
but we’ll see,” he said.

Hindustan Times, India
May 9 2013

Anand held by Aronian in first round
PTI
Sandnes, Norway, May 09, 2013

World champion Viswanthan Anand could do little with white pieces as
his opponent Levon Aronian of Armenia held him to an easy draw in the
first round of Norway Chess 2013 super tournament that got underway
here.

It turned out to be rather sedate Anand who has got a tough draw in
the tournament. White pieces against most of the top seeds and black
against lower ranked players means that the Indian ace has to be in
top form to deliver the goods and in the opener Aronian was not
troubled much.

Sergey Karjakin of Russia continued from where he had left – winning
the blitz drawing of lots – and put it across Teimour Radjabov of
Azerbaijan whose woes continued after falling hugely in the world
ranking.

Norwegian world number one Magnus Carlsen could not do more than
splitting the point with former world champion Veselin Topalov of
Bulgaria.