Author: Badalian Vardan

FRANCE
La danse de la pluie d’Armen Saakyan
Ouest-France

mercredi 6 fevrier 2013

nantes Edition

La pluie est le thème de l’exposition du peintre d’origine arménienne,
installé à Nantes depuis 2005.

Les Nantais ne devraient pas trop être dépaysés en ce moment, avec
l’exposition d’Armen Saakyan. Lequel a pris pour thème la pluie, qu’il
fait tomber à Paris à Nantes ou bien ailleurs. Pourtant ce n’est pas
vraiment elle, la vedette, mais plutôt les personnages qui
l’affrontent. Le peintre rend à merveille les gens dans leurs
mouvements, ceux qui courent pour eviter les gouttes, ceux qui
trottent tete baissee sous leurs parapluies… Il s’agit la de
personnages plutôt elegants, que l’on voit evoluer dans des
centres-villes. Ils sont representes de manière assez stylisee, et on
distingue a peine leurs visages deliberement estompes.

Une lumière discrètement bleutee

Mais l’interet de cette peinture, c’est surtout l’atmosphère qui s’en
degage, que le regardeur partage avec les acteurs. Le travail sur la
lumière est interessant, avec ses reflets sur les parapluies ou sur le
sol des trottoirs. Elle se diffuse a travers une multitude
d’interstices. Les tableaux semblent monochromes, mais en fait c’est
une lumière discrètement bleutee qui les habite.

Jusqu’au 22 fevrier, à la galerie des glaces, 8, quai de Versailles, a Nantes.

dimanche 17 février 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

Chanson
Le Come back de Sevan (Malakian)

L’eau a coulé sous les ponts depuis la Star Academy 7 (2007) pour
Sevan le second fils d’Henri Verneuil.

Du rappeur `rebelle des beaux quartiers` (Senor Azzad), comme une
certaine presse l’avait qualifié, Sevan (Malakian) nous revient en
empruntant les voies de la pop avec Juste toi et moi, un titre qui, en
vérité, lui ressemble beaucoup plus depuis qu’il a fendu la cuirasse
d’une adolescence révoltée après avoir vécu la séparation de ses
parents (1999) et le décès de son père (2002). Dans une interview pour
les NAM (2007), j’avais détecté ce mal de vivre le poussant à la
provocation pour exister par lui-même. Une image volontairement
déformée par la petite lucarne qui ne correspondait pas à sa réalité,
même s’il l’a revendiquait fièrement.

A bientôt 28 ans (12 août), Sevan semble avoir trouvé sa voie ; celle
qui mène au succès.

Jean Eckian

dimanche 17 février 2013,
Jean Eckian ©armenews.com

Mediamax, Armenia
Feb 15 2013

NSC: They tried to extort large amount of money from Director of
“Zvartnots” airport

Yerevan/Mediamax/. The National Security Service of Armenia revealed a
case of extorting a large amount of money from Director of “Zvartnots”
international airport Juan Pablo Gechijyan.

Armenian citizen Karen Simonyan (son of Ashot) introducing himself as
a member of international terrorist organization on January 21, 2013 –
February 14, 2013, sent electronic messages to the e-mail of Juan
Pablo Gechijyan and his family members at various internet clubs of
different Yerevan districts threatening to kill the, Mediamax was
informed in the press service of the NSC.

Karen Simonyan demanded from the Director of the airport AMD80mln not
to realize his threats.

On February 14, Karen Simonyan was arrested. The investigation
department of the Armenian National Security Council instituted a
criminal case on the fact.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
February 14, 2013 Thursday 01:02 PM GMT+4

CIS Mission to contribute to free elections in Armenia – Lebedev

MOSCOW February 14

– The CIS Observation Mission’s task is to contribute to holding free
and democratic elections in Armenia, CIS Executive Committee chairman
Sergei Lebedev said.

Before leaving to Yerevan on Thursday, Lebedev told journalists that
the Mission’s task “is to fulfil its functions independently in
compliance with the country’s law”.

The Mission involved 212 representatives from Russia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
the CIS Inter-parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Union State of Russia and Belarus, and the CIS Executive
Committee. “These are deputies of national parliaments, members of
central election committees and election commissions of different
levels, as well as diplomats,” Lebedev said.

He said the Mission and its headquarters had started working in
Yerevan on January 24. They studied the work of district election
commissions for the preparation of the elections in Yerevan, Armavir
and other areas. “Observers were given an opportunity to study the
protocols of the commissions’ sessions and talk with members of the
commissions,” Lebedev said.

In his view, the results of the work prove that the election campaign
“proceeds within national legislation. Presidential candidates have
equal chances for the propaganda in order to inform electors about
their programmes”, the CIS Executive Committee chairman said.

On the day of the elections the CIS Mission will monitor all election
districts. “The Mission will present its conclusions at a press
conference scheduled for February 19,” Lebedev said.

Armenian presidential election process into question – expert

NEWS.AM
February 16, 2013 | 22:03

YEREVAN. – Unlike the previous elections in Armenia, when results of
already completed elections were arguing, the upcoming presidential
elections put into question the entire process, expert Manvel Sargsyan
told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

`The fact that two parliamentary powers [Prosperous Armenia Party and
Armenian National Congress] did not recognize the legitimacy of the
presidential elections and did not participate in it, established an
unusual situation. This unusual situation became more evident when two
of the presidential candidates [Arman Melikyan and Andreas Ghukasyan]
stated that they do not accept the legitimacy of the elections,’ the
expert stated.

Iran’s annual electricity exports to hit $1b: official
Economic Desk

On Line: 10 February 2013 15:15
In Print: Monday 11 February 2013

TEHRAN – The value of Iran’s electricity exports will hit $1 billion
by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), the Fars
News Agency quoted deputy energy minister Mohammad Behzad as saying.

He added that since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar
year, Iran has exported over 9.2 gigawatt hours of electricity to
neighboring countries.

The amount showed a 33 percent increase in comparison to the same
period in the previous year, he noted.

The managing director of the Iran Power Generation Transmission and
Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR), Homayoun Haeri, announced
on December 15, 2012 that Iran currently trades 12.3 gigawatt hours of
electricity with neighboring countries, namely Turkey, Armenia,
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Nakhchivan and
Iraq.

Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has
attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction
of three new power plants.

Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou has said previously that by the
end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016),
Iran will have boosted its electricity generation capacity by 25GW to
reach 73GW.

We witnessed collapse of Armenian opposition – Richard Giragosian

NEWS.AM
February 16, 2013 | 16:34

YEREVAN.- If incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan is a chess player, he
must play faster and braver, political analyst Richard Giragosian told
reporters.

Head of Regional Studies Center said Armenian authorities should
implement political reforms more quickly and efficiently.

Asked whether elections will be followed by an uprising, political
analyst said this is unlikely to happen.

`We witnessed the collapse of the opposition. I can not consider
Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, or Armenian National Congress
as an opposition force. In the countries with normally functioning
democracies, political parties are `producing’ political leaders. In
Armenia, the situation is quite the opposite: strong leaders create a
political party around themselves,’ he said, adding that society is
tired of having artificial candidates such as Arthur Baghdasaryan and
Artashes Geghamyan.

Political analyst said Raffi Hovannisian and Hrant Bagratyan are
trying to introduce some ideas, but they lack professional qualities,
professional campaign and strategy.

Adibekian: 44% of NKR residents in favor of unification with Armenia

Saturday,
February 16

Adibekian: 44% of NKR residents in favor of unification with Armenia

Sociometer Center has carried out a survey among citizens of Armenia
and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with the aim of identifying their
attitudes towards such issues as the normalization of Armenian-Turkish
relations without preconditions and the Karabakh conflict settlement,
the Center’s Head Aharon Adibekian said at the meeting with reporters
today.

According to the survey, 41.5% of Armenian citizens and 31.5% of
Karabakh citizens are in favor of Armenian-Turkish normalization
without preconditions, while 55.2% of Armenian citizens and 65.5% of
NKR citizens are against.

`The Karabakh conflict settlement is the 8th among the most urgent
issues in Armenia and the 7th in the NKR. The most important problems
are economic development, raising wages, educational, healthcare,
court, and legal reforms,’ the sociologist noted.

The survey showed that 44% of NKR residents are in favor of
unification with Armenia, 44% are for independence, 8.8% – for de
facto independence. 0.2% of respondents were in favor of NKR as part
of Azerbaijan, and 3% declined to answer.

`In Armenia, 48.4% of citizens are in favor of unification with NKR,
30.8% are for independence of the NKR, 14.6% – its de facto
independence,’ Adibekian said.

When commenting on the presidential candidates’ positions on the
Karabakh conflict settlement, A. Adibekian said the incumbent
president of Armenia has the most realistic stance.

TODAY, 15:06

Aysor.am

President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan convoked an enlarged
working consultation

`4:president-of-the-artsakh-republic-bako-sahakyan-convoked-an-enlarged-working-consultation&catid=11:official&Itemid=23
Friday, 15 February 2013 09:53

On 15 February President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan
convoked an enlarged working consultation dedicated to the development
of the mining industry in 2012 and the activities to be carried out in
2013.

Adviser to the NKR President, academician Grigory Gabrielyants, head
of the department of environment and natural resources Vazgen
Michaelyan, heads and responsible representatives of the geological
prospecting and mining industry enterprises delivered corresponding
reports.

In his speech President Sahakyan noted that mining industry was the
youngest and at the same time one of the strategic and perspectives
sectors which had promising opportunities to become the driving force
of economy and among the important sources of employment, already
providing considerable share of industrial output and state budget
revenues.

According to the Head of State the volume of capital investments in
the sphere has increased in recent years both through the channels of
state budget and private sector, considering important the absence of
monopolistic manifestations in the sphere, which boosts sound
competition and dynamic economic development.

The President emphasized that the development of mining industry must
be accompanied with strict maintenance of nature and environment
protection norms. The Head of State stressed that both mineral
resources and nature are the wealth of Artsakh, and development in one
direction should not be at the expense of another, adding that we must
leave for future generations a healthy environment and a dynamically
developing economy.

President Bako Sahakyan also touched upon the current problems and
future plans in the sphere, giving appropriate assignments to the
heads of concerned structures.
National Assembly speaker Ashot Ghoulyan, Prime-minister Ara
Haroutunyan, mining industry representatives, prominent specialists
>From Armenia and abroad, other officials partook at the consultation.

Dink murder suspect denies informant’s claims

February 16, 2013 – 12:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant and suspect
in the murder case of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, denied
recent claims by an informant that they had planned the murder
together, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

An inmate, referred to as M.A., claiming to have information on Dink’s
killers recently sent a letter to prosecutors.

`I don’t know M.A. I have never been to ArdeÅ?en and Istanbul. That
person is lying,’ Tuncel told daily Radikal. Tuncel, released by the
court in the Dink case, claims that his rights were violated and he
will apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

The informant, who is allegedly serving a prison sentence in Turkey’s
Tokat province in Central Anatolia, said in his letter that he and
Tuncel were supposed to assassinate Dink and three intelligence
officials would oversee them while they committed the crime.

`At that time, I was a gendarmerie informant. After the assassination,
Tuncel and I would go to Artvin first and from there to Georgia and to
Russia with the help of intelligence officials. All the data such as
phone signals and crime scene evidence would be destroyed,’ the
informant allegedly said in the letter. The informant agreed to
cooperate in the investigation provided the protection of his family
was guaranteed by authorities.

Tuncel denied these claims, saying similar claims had been made before
and all of them were revealed to be untrue. `This person is making up
[lies]. Police and the prosecutor should have listened to officials
who have neglected this issue rather than listening to these people,’
said Tuncel.

The informant claimed that he had information on other crimes such as
the murder of Father Andrea Santoro in Trabzon. The informant claimed
Tuncel told him that `we have buried Father Santoro,’ during one of
their conversations. In 2006 Father Andrea Santoro of the Catholic
Church of Santa Maria in Trabzon was murdered. One year later, Dink,
editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was murdered in
Istanbul on Jan 19.

The informant also said he and Tuncel had been planning to assassinate
the priest at Hagia Yorgi located on Büyükada, the biggest island of
the Princes’ Islands.

Tuncel, however, denied these claims too, saying `once again, I do not
know this person [the informant]. I have no ties with the
gendarmerie.’

`There is a structure which goes to the [National Intelligence
Organization] MÄ°T, Istanbul Police Department and Trabzon Gendarmerie.
There is a chain of negligence, such as evident destroyed¦ But I was
not involved in [such a] structure,’ Tuncel said.

`The prosecutor claims that the Ergenekon [coup plot] cell in Trabzon
has committed the murder [of Dink] and says evidence of that was
removed because the phone records have been deleted. But prosecutors
can demand these records from TÄ°B [the Telecommunications
Directorate]. I don’t think they are sincere.’

Tuncel cited the negligence of the Trabzon Police Department as
avoiding his 17 reports on the issue and not protecting Dink even
though he had told them that Dink would be murdered. He said a group,
despite being technically pursued by the police, committed the crime.

Tuncel believes that the Trabzon Police Department and Gendarmerie,
Istanbul Police Department and intelligence department should be
prosecuted if they hide or tamper with evidence. There is no convicted
official in this case, he added.