Author: Badalian Vardan

ALMOST ALL HIGHWAYS OF ARMENIA ARE PASSABLE

20:48, 17 December, 2012

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Almost all roads of Armenian
Republic are passable by 8:00 PM, December 17. The Ministry of
Emergency Situations of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress”
that Selim Pass, Tigranashen part of Ararat-Yeghegnadzor Highway,
Berb-Chambarak, Sevan-Chambarak highways, as well as “Satan’s Bridge”
part of Vanadzor-Alaverdi highway are almost impassable.

Rime covered certain parts of the Armenian highways. The cleaning of
the roads is still in progress. In accordance with the information from
the Department of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs of Georgia the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is open only for
the automobiles and microbuses having up to 30 seats.

TURKISH AUTHORITIES WILL BE COMPELLED TO ANSWER FOR GENOCIDE AND FORCED DEPORTATION: “TARAF” JOURNALIST

14:20, 17 December, 2012

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. After his visit to Diyarbakır –
historical Tigranakert, columnist of the Turkish “Taraf” newspaper
Roni Margulies, wrote in his Twitter profile that the Turkish
authorities will be compelled to answer for the Armenian Genocide,
forced deportation, pains, and sufferings.

As reports “Armenpress” Margulies stated that thirty-thousand people
used to lived in Diyarbakir in 1890, ten thousand of them were
Armenians, ten thousand were Muslims, and the rest were Christians
and Jews. Then some events took place there and now everyone is
Muslim. He underscored: “Every time I come to Diyarbakir I think
about who will answer for those 100 years. We shall force the Turkish
authorities to give an account for the Genocide, forced deportation,
pains, and sufferings. I do not say the state will give an account,
but we shall compel the state to give an account for all that.”

ARTUR BAGHDASARYAN TO PARTAKE IN SESSION OF CSTO COLLECTIVE SECURITY COUNCIL

11:24, 18 December, 2012

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The Secretary of the National
Security Council Artur Baghdasaryan will pay a working visit to the
Russian Federation on December 18 to partake in the joint session of
the Secretaries of Security Councils and Ministers of Foreign Affairs
and Defense of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, as well
as in the sitting of the Collective Security Council of the CSTO. The
Press Service of the National Security Council of the Republic of
Armenia informed “Armenpress” that more than two dozens questions
are involved in the agenda of the session regarding various spheres
of activity of the organization.

ALAIN DELON VISITED HOLY ECHMIADZIN

13:33, 18 December, 2012

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS: His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians hosted world famous French
actor Alain Delon in Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on December 18.

As information center of the Holy See informed Armenpress, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians presented the quest the
historical mission of Mother See in the life of Armenian people,
dwelled on century date friendship between Armenian and French people
and the role of French Armenian community in the strengthening it.

In the course of the launched meeting His Holiness stressed Armenians
always recall with particular sympathy and love the films of renowned
actor and expressed his appreciation for the services rendered to
humanity. After the meeting famous actor visited museums of Holy See,
got acquainted with national spiritual heritage of Armenian people.

RENCONTRES DU PRESIDENT SARKISSIAN AVEC LES LEADERS D’ARMENIE PROSPÈRE ET DU PARTI DACHNAK
Stephane

armenews.com
mardi 18 decembre 2012

Le week-end dernier, le chef de l’Etat a eu des rencontres separees
avec Gaguik Tsaroukian et les representants du parti Dachnak Hrant
Margarian et Armen Roustamian. Son service de presse, qui a confirme
la tenue des entretiens, s’est abstenu de dire quoi que ce soit sur
leur contenu. Les quotidiens relèvent que suite a l’entretien avec
le chef de l’Etat, M. Tsaroukian, dont l’annonce de candidature a la
presidence ne faisait plus de doute, semble etre dans l’incertitude.

Alors que Haykakan Jamanak relève que d’après les milieux
pro-gouvernementaux M. Tsaroukian aurait change d’avis quant a sa
candidature, 168 Jam relève que des membres de son parti auraient
recu, ces derniers jours, des ” visites ” de representants d’organes
judiciaires et fiscaux qui leur auraient transmis le message que ”
desormais leurs infractions a la loi ne resteraient pas inapercues
“… D’après les informations de ce journal, M. Tsaroukian aurait
lui-meme sollicite cet entretien avec le chef de l’Etat, a l’issue
duquel il aurait songe a ne plus avancer sa candidature. Selon les
informations de Hraparak, M. Tsaroukian aurait indique au President
Sarkissian qu’il ne briguerait pas la presidence, mais qu’il ne
soutiendrait pas non plus le President sortant.

Quant a l’entretien du President Sarkissian avec les representants
du parti Dachnak, Hrant Margarian a indique que la rencontre
a porte sur la plate-forme politique en 7 points qui avait ete
presentee par le parti Dachnak en novembre dernier. Selon lui, Serge
Sarkissian a rejete au moins deux des idees avancees par ce parti :
l’instauration d’un regime parlementaire en Armenie et l’annulation
officielle des protocoles d’accord armeno-turcs. S’interrogeant sur
l’utilite d’une telle rencontre, M. Markarian a declare que ” d’un
point de vue strictement fonctionnel, cette rencontre avait certes
son utilite, mais aussi parce que nos arguments et nos points de vue
pourront eventuellement influer sur la manière de voir les choses du
President de la Republique. Si tel etait le cas, nous lui en saurions
gre. Dans le cas contraire, on ne pourra pas nous reprocher de ne
pas avoir essaye “. Le parti Dachnak a eu l’occasion de discuter de
sa plate-forme politique avec Armenie prospère et d’autres forces
de l’opposition avant la rencontre avec le President Sarkissian. Le
parti Dachnak devrait annoncer d’ici la fin du mois de decembre quel
candidat il soutiendrait pour ce scrutin crucial. / Rapporte par
l’ensemble de la presse

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 11 decembre 2012

mardi 18 decembre 2012, Stephane ©armenews.com

APA, Azerbaijan
Dec 15 2012

Ahmet Davutoglu: We want the UN and OSCE to be more active so that
Armenia withdraws from the occupied Azerbaijani territories

[ 15 December 2012 19:52 ]

Baku. Mayis Alizadeh – APA. `The enhancement of the economic relations
between the regional countries is very important in fair solution of
the frozen conflicts,’ said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
while responding to APA’s question at the press conference following
the 27th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Black Sea
Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

To APA’s question `In your speech at the UN General Assembly in
September, you underlined that international organizations didn’t
sufficiently work for the solution of the frozen conflicts. Recently,
Prime Minister Erdogan has also strongly criticized international
organizations, including the UN Security Council, because of their
indifferent positions to the regional conflicts. Armenia, member of
BSEC, has been occupying the territories of Azerbaijan for 25 years
and Russia has problem with Georgia and Moldova. Which steps are you
going to take at the international organizations towards the solution
of regional conflicts?’, Davutoglu said:

`At the UN General Assembly and other meetings I criticized the
Security Council for not paying desired attention to the international
and regional conflicts. It is the number one task of the UN to solve
these problems fairly. There are problems among the BSEC member
states. As you have said Armenia has occupied Azerbaijan’s
territories, Russia has problems with Georgia. It should be taken into
account that BSEC is making efforts to achieve peace, stability and
welfare in the region through enhancement of the economic relations
among the member states. We think that the more economic relations
among the member states are strengthened, the easier it will be to
solve the frozen conflicts in the region. We want the UN and OSCE to
be more active so that Armenia withdraws from the occupied Azerbaijani
territories.’

Ahmet Davutoglu mentioned that Ukraine, the upcoming chairman of BSEC,
will also take over OSCE chairmanship.

“I held one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Grishchenko
and thoroughly discussed the ways of increasing OSCE’s influence in
the fair solution of the frozen conflicts in the region. I hope the
more our economic relations within BSEC are strengthened, the more
significant steps will be taken towards the solution of the frozen
conflicts in our region,” he said.

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Dec 15 2012

Republican Party nominates Armenia’s president as election candidate

15 December 2012 – 5:02pm

As a result of voting at Saturday’s 14th special congress of the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the party delegates
unanimously nominated RPA Chairman and serving President Serzh
Sargsyan as the RPA candidate for the presidential elections that will
be held in the country on February 18, 2013, News.am reports.

`Dear Republicans, I thank you once again for nominating [me] and
defending my candidacy with such enthusiasm. I am confident that we
will jointly be able to win the trust of our people, and we will
continue to bear responsibility for Armenia’s development for the next
five years.

Once again, I assure [you] that during that time I will not permit any
action which you could become ashamed of. I thank you,’ President
Serzh Sargsyan noted, in his turn, addressing the delegates.

The Voice of Russia
Dec 15 2012

Armenia’s President to seek another term

A convention of Armenia’s governing Republican Party has nominated
President Serge Sargsyan to run for another term in elections
scheduled for February.

He pledged every effort to strengthen political and economic stability
and seek a peaceful solution to the problem of Nagorny Karabakh.

In a message to the convention, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
said he was looking forward to an even closer partnership between
Russia and Armenia.

Agence France Presse —
December 13, 2012 Thursday 4:40 PM GMT

Thousands protest as mass Turkey coup plot trial nears end

ISTANBUL, Dec 13 2012

Thousands of people protested Thursday outside a Turkish prison
complex where the mass trial of almost 300 people accused of plotting
to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan entered its closing stages.

Police used tear gas to prevent large crowds from bursting into the
heavily-guarded Silivri compound near Istanbul where 275 defendants
including former military chief Ilker Basbug have been on trial for
four years in the so-called Ergenekon case.

“We are the soldiers of Ataturk!” the protesters chanted, referring to
the founder of secular Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose legacy has
been fiercely defended by the staunchly secular army in the NATO
member state.

The defendants face dozens of charges, ranging from membership of an
underground “terrorist organisation” dubbed Ergenekon, arson, illegal
possession of weapons and instigating an armed uprising against
Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to
power in 2002.

The defendants in the case — seen as a key test in Erdogan’s showdown
with secularist and military opponents — include Basbug and other
army officers as well as lawyers, academics and journalists.

“Today they label everybody a coup maker… they will continue until
no patriots are left here,” said Emine Ulker Tarhan, a lawmaker from
the main opposition Republic People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker.

Inside the courtroom, arguments between lawyers and the judge over
procedure forced lengthy delays throughout the day although the
hearing was expected to include the final summing up from the state
prosecutor.

One defence lawyer was thrown out for saying: “The defence wants its
right to speak!”

The 2,455-page indictment accuses members of Ergenekon — an alleged
shadowy network of ultranationalists trying to seize control in Turkey
— of a string of attacks and political violence over several decades.

They include a shooting at Turkey’s top administrative court in 2006
which killed a judge and which the state prosecutor believes was
instigated by a retired general, and a grenade attack against the
opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper’s Istanbul headquarters the same year
blamed on the then army command.

Prosecutors believe Ergenekon, named after a mythical place in central
Asia believed to be the homeland of Turks, is made up of loosely
connected branches with an eventual goal of toppling the AKP
government and restructuring Turkey on a nationalist footing.

In a separate case dubbed “Sledgehammer”, more than 300 hundred active
and retired army officers, including three former generals, received
prison sentences of up to 20 years in September over a 2003 military
exercise which the same Silivri said was an undercover coup plot.

Lawyers for plaintiffs in several other criminal cases, including the
murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, also asked
for them to be consolidated with Ergenekon.

Pro-government circles have praised the Ergenekon trial as a step
towards democracy in Turkey, where the army violently overthrew three
governments in 1960, 1971 and 1980.

In 1997, it pressured the then Islamic-leaning prime minister
Necmettin Erbakan, the political mentor of the current premier, into
stepping down in what was popularly dubbed a “post-modern coup”
strategy.

However critics have branded the trial a witch-hunt to silence the
opposition. It is one of a series of cases in which members of the
Turkish army, the second biggest in NATO, have faced prosecution for
alleged coup plots against an elected government.

The Times (London)
December 13, 2012 Thursday
Edition 1; National Edition

‘Price tag graffiti’ despoils monastery and cemetery

by Sheera Frenkel

A Jerusalem monastery and an Armenian cemetery were daubed with
anti-Christian graffiti yesterday, in what Israeli police said was an
attack by right-wing extremists from West Bank settlements.

The slogans “Jesus is a son of a whore” and “Death to Christianity” on
the Monastery of the Cross were identified by nearby graffiti as
“price tag ” – the broad name given to hate crimes by Israeli
extremists, usually against Palestinians and Arabs. The tyres of three
monastery cars were slashed.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, said that he was
“disgusted”, adding: “The Jewish values by which we were raised, and
by which we raise our children, firmly reject such actions. Freedom of
worship for all religions in Israel will be preserved.”

Such graffiti have spread beyond the West Bank and appeared at several
Christian sites.

A police spokesman confirmed that graffiti was “sprayed on the gates
of the entrance of the Armenian cemetery … and on a monastery
belonging to the Greek Orthodox”. He said that on Wednesday a car was
burnt and the graffiti “price tag” and “happy holidays” sprayed in
Shukba, a village on the West Bank.

Father Claudius, head of the monastery, said he noticed the graffiti
just before dawn when he got up to pray. “This is the seventh time
this has happened,” he told reporters, saying that if the vandals had
knocked on the door he would have invited them in for tea to talk to
them about his faith.

After the arrest last week of three men in their twenties suspected of
burning a car and damaging other Palestinian property on the West
Bank, the Israeli High Court ruled not to allow them meet their
lawyers. The news website Ynet said the court was treating “price tag”
incidents as comparable to terrorism.