Author: Badalian Vardan

WILL RUSSIANS SHAKE ARMENIA?
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:14:47 – 12/07/2012

Two interesting issues have become urgent in the Armenian press:
the gas price increase and the possible new loan from Russia. The
ministry of energy of Armenia confirmed Armenia is negotiating with
Gazprom on the gas price, while no state body has confirmed or denied
the rumors on the new loan from Russia. According to these rumors,
Armenia is trying to receive a loan of USD 800 million or 1 billion.

The gas issue is again on the political plane being an important
instrument or lever in the hand of Russia against Armenia.

In addition, this lever is used in a very appropriate moment not only
because Russia is worried with Armenia’s good relation with the West.

The case is that Armenia is going toward the presidential elections
and will do anything to ensure the gas price does not rise by then
since it will be a tough harm to the economy and the social state of
the citizens, plus, the presidential election is in winter- February.

In this sense, the rumors on the loan of 1 billion are no accident. It
is interesting that the information on the gas price has been
confirmed, while the loan issue is not commented on.

The point is that Russia is trying to kill two birds with one stone:
it increases the gas price and tries to alleviate this burden with
the help of a loan.

Maybe Armenia had hoped to do it with the help of Western donors,
but the donors’ conference was postponed. And the official Yerevan
explained that it had never been sure, so the event was postponed
for a better preparation and bigger effectiveness.

The European position is that Armenia will have the donors’ conference
only after the presidential elections if the election mechanism is
improved, or the corruption is fought better and the country activates
its efforts in the Karabakh issue.

The Armenian power seems to have no other way because it had to
think about it earlier. The point is not about funds, a new source of
subsidizing the gas price, but merely, about economic modernization
thanks to which, Armenia could render its economy more or less
resistant to the gas price repressions.

Armenia had to think about this years ago, but then, they were not
engaged in preparing and modernizing the economy to resist the gas
repressions, but they were selling everything to compensate for the
gas price increase for election reasons.

An example: in 2006, when fifth power block of Hrazdan TPP was sold
to Russia, which was later subsided for three years: both the gas
sold to the population and the gas supplied for the business. More,
the bigger subsidies went to the enterprises of Gagik Tsarukyan and
Mikhail Baghdasarov. By the way, Tsarukyan was considered Robert
Kocharyan’s and Baghdasarov – Serzh Sargsyan’s people.

At first sight, Armenia made a brilliant deal with Russia ensuring no
gas price for three years for the population and the business. But,
this first sight had to be strengthened by systemic reforms,
modernization of the economy, diversification, innovative economy in
those three years. While, instead of these steps, in the 2006-2008
period, the Armenian authorities were engaged in distributing and
redistributing the power, which brought to zero the three-year gas
“ceasefire”.

Armenia is again facing the same issue and once again, the same version
is proposed: the gas price increases but it is subsided. And Armenia,
again, does not have any way or resource to refuse this version
because otherwise, Russia could provoke serious shakes; moreover,
it seems to have succeeded in forming an alliance in the face of the
Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress.

Under these conditions, there is no doubt, Serzh Sargsyan will not
run the risk and will not increase risks for the prospect of the
state not even to reduce his risky state for a short time.

“BEST ACTRESS” AWARD!!!! American-Armenian Actress Anoush NeVart Wins International Film Festival Award!

July 11, 2012

Anoush NeVart, the American-Armenian actress Los Angeles, July 6,
2012 – Anoush NeVart, the American-Armenian actress, has just won
the prestigious “Best Actress” Award at the Tokyo International Short
Shorts Film Festival! Ms. NeVart played one of the two lead roles as
“Dahab” in High Card Trumps to win the nomination.

This year, the Tokyo International Short Shorts Film Festival received
more than 4,543 entries from 112 countries. Of that number, only 79
were selected to compete in the festival. Winning films are eligible
to enter the 2013 Academy Awards in Los Angeles, CA.

High Card Trumps is a story about war, macaroons and competitive
motherhood, told through two mothers of American servicemen dealing
with prejudice, honor, sacrifice and love.

Last seen in the high profile ABC pilot Don’t Trust the B- In
Apartment 23 as Middle Eastern mother, Mrs. Yilmaz, Ms. NeVart has
played Middle Eastern characters over 10 times in the past 5 years,
including Sedona Film Festival’s award-winning “Cries from Ramah”.

With award-winning shows like Homeland on Showtime (2011 Golden Globe
for Best Series – Drama), finding ways to integrate Middle Eastern
culture into the tapestry of American life becomes rich fodder for
film-makers and television producers alike. Ms. NeVart is repped by
True Artists Management (310)289-7905.

L’ECOLE TEBROTZASSERE TOUJOURS AU TOP
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
jeudi 12 juillet 2012

Une belle reussite que celle de l’Ecole bilingue Tebrotzassère au
Raincy (Seine- Saint-Denis), qui pour la 10ème annee consecutive peut
s’enorgueillir d’avoir porte son enseignement au plus haut degres
au benefice des elèves de 3ème qui tous ont passe victorieusement le
Brevet des Collèges. Un record !

Mention très bien, bien, assez bien et deux seulement sans mention
pour la première fois en six ans, alors que lors des cinq annees
precedentes, tous avaient recu une mention.

Felicitations au conseil d’Administration, au Directeur Haïg
Sarkissian, au responsable du collège Monsieur Azarian, ainsi qu’aux
enseignants, a l’ensemble de l’equipe Tebrotzassère, et bien sûr
aux elèves.

ARTSAKH PRESIDENT TO OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS: DISTORTED NEGOTIATION FORMAT PIVOTAL HINDRANCE IN THE WAY OF CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Panorama.am
18:26 11/07/2012 ” Region

On 11 July Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received the
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassadors Robert Bradtke of the
United States, Jacques Faure of France and Igor Popov of Russia.

President Sahakyan discussed with the Co-Chairs issues related to the
settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict and regional trends.

Bako Sahakyan named the destructive policy of Azerbaijan and the
distorted negotiation format as the pivotal hindrances in the way
of conflict settlement. In this respect, the President urged the
Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to keep on working towards bringing
Azerbaijan into a constructive stream and restore the full-fledged
negotiation format.

NKR Acting Foreign Minister Vassily Atajanyan, Personal Representative
of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk and other officials
were present at the meeting, presidential press office reported.

“AZERBAIJAN’S DECONSTRUCTIVE POLICY IS THE MAIN OBSTACLE FOR THE CONFLICT SETTLEMENT”

19:09 . 11/07

Today, NKR President Bako Sahakyan received OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairs
Robert Bradtke, Igor Popov and Jacques Faure. The Azerbaijan-Karabakh
conflict was the main topic of discussion.

Bako Sahakyan said Azerbaijan’s deconstructive policy and the
distorted negotiation format are the main obstacle for the conflict
settlement. In this respect, the country’s head called on the Minsk
Group co-chairs to continue their work to bring Azerbaijan to a
constructive course and to restore the full-fledged format.

NKR acting Foreign Minister Vasili Atajanyan, Personal Representative
of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk and other officials
were present at the meeting.

No other details were reported on the meeting.

After the meetings in Artsakh the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are
already expected in Yerevan: with Serzh Sargsyan and Edward Nalbandyan
they will discuss the results of the meeting of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani FMs held on June 18 in Paris and the current situation
in Nagorno-Karabakh talks.

GERMANY AGREES TO COMPENSATE NAZI VICTIMS

04:09 pm | July 11, 2012 | Social

Germany has agreed to provide restitution payments to an additional
80,000 Holocaust survivors living in the former Soviet Union.

The agreement, which was reached earlier this week in negotiations
between German officials and Claims Conference representatives, is
likely to result in additional payments of approximately $300 million.

Most of the money will go to Nazi victims in the former Soviet Union
who have never before qualified for pensions or payments from German
restitution money.

Most of the money will come from the Hardship Fund, which grants
one-time payouts of 2,556 euro to Jews who fled the Nazis as they
swept eastward through Europe.

All survivors will now receive the equivalent of approximately ~@300
per month.

The Chairman of the Claims Conference said the group has been working
for decades to obtain restitution for Holocaust victims who remained
in the former Soviet Union.

WE COULD HAVE TAKEN NAKHIDJEVAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 14:37:18 – 11/07/2012

Statesman and politician Khachik Stamboltsyan posted a video of
himself, disclosing a story dating back to 1991.

“Following the start of the movement for Karabakh, February 26,
Silva Kaputikyan [writer], and Zori Balayan [journalist] returned
from Moscow after a meeting with Gorbachov and urged people to stop
the rallies because the leadership in Moscow promised to resolve the
issue,” he says.

They deceived people, and people stopped the demonstrations, and the
tragedy of Sumgait and Baku followed, says Khachik Stamboltsyan.

According to him, a lot of Armenian women married to Azerbaijanis were
abandoned and turned out of their homes by their Azerbaijani families.

He says in the passports of those women their nationality was
Azerbaijani, and their patronymic and family names were transcribed
in an Azerbaijani manner, such as Hovsep – Yusuf.

Khachik Stamboltsyan says he hired these women, as well as Russian
journalists, these women acted as guides to those journalists to visit
Azerbaijan via Georgia, allegedly for interviews, they also visited
Nakhidjevan. I told them what questions to ask and what information
to collect about Nakhidjevan.

Mr. Stamboltsyan says his representatives also met with a mullah who
gave them some more information once or twice a year.

“We learned that Azerbaijanis who left Armenia for Azerbaijan after
Baku and speak Armenian are trained in Nakhidjevan to send to Armenia
for subversive acts. They also informed that all the rich residents
of Nakhidgevan moved to Baku and lived in Ermanikend, the neighborhood
where the displaced Armenians used to live.”

Only the middle and poor class was left in Nakhidjevan who also
wanted to leave because they expected retaliation for the massacres
of Baku by the Armenians, and Nakhidjevan’s isolation from the rest
of Azerbaijan would facilitate such intentions. The railway was
operational but they were afraid to use it because they would have
to pass across Meghri, Armenia.

As soon as I learned about this, I telephoned Levon Ter-Petrosyan
and told him that less than 70,000 people are left there, and I had
recordings to prove. He told me to talk to the prime minister. When
I shared this information with Vazgen Manukyan, he said he had set
up a security council led by Ashot Manucharyan, including Simonyants
and Gyurjyan. The latter was a national security officer. He asked
me to hand those recordings to them.

I met Gyurjyan, he admired the huge work done by me, and they left
with the recordings. In the evening he contacted the head of the
railways to send empty cargo cars to Russia via Nakhidjevan and Baku
to transport people of Nakhidjevan to Baku on the way to Russia.

In the meantime, they had dismantled the barbed wire fence on the
Turkey-Armenia border, and the Russian tanks were deployed in Artashat,
Armenia, they also wanted to intervene, and our actions were in line
with the Russian army action.

Manucharyan, Gyurjyan, Simonyants knew everything but did not tell
me in the beginning. As far as I understood, they had not informed
Ghandilyan. According to the plan, they allowed the local people to
get on the cargo cars. On the way to Meghri, near Ordubad, the cars
were suddenly shelled from Meghri. The drivers knew the initial plan
and thought it was a misunderstanding and did not stop. In Meghri the
detachments of Yerkrapah volunteers stopped the trains and welded
the wheels to the tracks to prevent their movement. Turks got off
the cars and run back to Ordubad on foot.

I cannot understand why this plan was thwarted as we could take
Nakhidjevan without shooting a single bullet and victims. Later I
learned that Ashot Manucharyan had ordered the local detachment of
volunteers to stop the trains.

This is treason because we could have taken Nakhidjevan without
victims, Stamboltsyan says, noting that he has reported.

In conclusion, he says a number of people died in identical
circumstances, went to sleep and did not wake up. He refers to Ashot
Navasardyan, ex-leader of the RPA, Zatikyan, Badalyan, the ex-leader
of communists, as well as Ghevond, the head of the detachment of Meghri
which prevented the movement of trains, and this case was covered up.

ARMENIAN TRANSPORTER SAYS TURKEY’S TRABZON PORT MORE PROFITABLE THAN GEORGIA’S POTI

news.am
July 11, 2012 | 20:53

YEREVAN.- If the Upper Lars checkpoint is closed, it is more profitable
to carry trucks to Armenia via Turkey’s Trabzon port than Georgia’s
Poti, director of the Armenian transportation company told Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

Gagik Aleksanian, director of Megatrans company performing
transportation through Turkey, said goods are transported to Armenia
from Turkey but not by the Armenian vans.

“If Turkey allows transportation by our vehicles, we will definitely
win,” he said adding that transportation via Trabzon port will be
cheaper than via Georgia’s Poti.

“The ferry price in Trabzon is several times lower than in Poti under
the condition that Upper Lars is closed. It is more convenient to
transport goods by land, of course, without reloading the ferry back
and forth. But when Lars is closed, for example in winter, and you
have to take the sea, Turkey is more beneficial,” he added.

As reported earlier, the head of Turkish Trabzon port stated that
the port is ready to serve cargos sent to and received from Armenia.

Armenian Communication and Transport Ministry informed Armenian
News-NEWS.am that they had not received any information from the
Turkish side yet.

NAJJAR WELCOMES NEW CHAPTER OF SECURITY COOPERATION BETWEEN IRAN, ARMENIA

Fars News Agency
July 11 2012
Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar hailed
a new era of security cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan after
signing a comprehensive security agreement with Armenian officials.

Iran and Armenia signed a security agreement on Tuesday to increase
their cooperation in the fields of fighting organized crimes, drug
smuggling, security-law enforcement issues and border affairs.

During the ceremony to sign the agreement, Mohammad Najjar pointed
to the developing trend of cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan,
and underlined that a new chapter of security cooperation has begun
between the two countries.

He expressed Iran’s readiness to transfer experiences in the fields
of fight against drug smuggling, training police officers and custom
experts, organized crimes, repatriation of criminals and convicted
persons, and said that the signed agreement will be a desirable
framework for cooperation between the two countries.

Iran has long taken various diplomatic initiatives to expand its ties
with the neighboring states.

In recent years, Iran and its Northern neighbor Armenia have boosted
cooperation, signed agreements on energy cooperation and agreed to
cooperate in technology and research and to enhance ties in commerce
and economy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart
Serzh Sargsian pledged in December 2011 to further expand “high-level
relations” between their nations and, in particular, give new impetus
to the implementation of joint energy projects that have fallen
behind schedule.

RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN TO FORM JOINT AIR DEFENSES

Vestnik Kavkaza
July 11 2012
Russia

Russia plans to conclude negotiations on formation of common air
defenses with Kazakhstan, it was stated by General-Major Pavel
Kurachenko, Deputy Commander of the Air Forces, News Kazakhstan
reports.

Kurachenko said that the issue will be discussed at the coordination
committee for anti-missile defenses of the CIS at Kyrgyzstan’s
Cholpon-Ata. He expressed hope that documents will be signed in late
2012 or early 2013.

Russia and Belarus have a joint anti-missile system. Armenia is
expected to join it. Deals are planned with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan, the deputy commander said.

Complicated talks with Uzbekistan are slowing down the formation of
common anti-missile defenses in the Central Asian Rregion.