Author: Badalian Vardan

94 citizens still at hospitals

armradio.am
05.05.2012 11:27

As of 10 a.m. Yerevan time 94 citizens injured as a result of balloon
blast at the Republic Square on May 4 were still getting treatment in
medical institutions of Yerevan. Twenty-five are at the resuscitation
department.

All medical institutions are supplied with necessary medicines.
Necessary treatment is provided at a high level, Press Service of the
Ministry of Healthcare informs.

The condition of the patients is satisfactory, the Ministry said..

APA, Azerbaijan
May 5 2012

Azerbaijani embassy in Argentina investigating Uruguayan Foreign
Minister’s statement sounded in Armenia

[ 05 May 2012 12:24 ]

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva – APA. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry is
investigating the information, spread by the Armenian media on
statement of Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro on `We support
the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict on the basis of the
principle of self-determination of peoples’, APA reports.

Spokesman for the FM Elman Abdullayev says the Ministry tasked
Azerbaijani embassy in Argentina on this issue: `The embassy will
investigate whether this statement was sounded by Uruguayan Foreign
Minister or the information was distorted by Armenian media’.

Abdullayev noted that after the official response of Uruguay,
Azerbaijan would announce its positions connected with this issue.

Patch.com
May 5 2012

Storm Damages Evanston Church, Floods Apartments

No one was seriously injured in Thursday’s storm, but several
buildings sustained damage.

By Jordan Graham

Last night’s storm kept Evanston residents indoors and off the roads,
but it also caused a fair amount of damage around town.

St. James Armenian Church, 816 Clark St., was hit hardest when part of
its façade collapsed, said Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.
Bricks from the building tumbled out onto the sidewalk, even injuring
a few people, he added, though no one was seriously wounded.

Additionally, many parts of Evanston experienced localized flooding.
Several Noyes Court apartments had some form of water damage, and one
apartment was `seriously flooded’, Bobkiewicz said.

Members of the Evanston Fire Department and city Community and
Economic Development staff were reportedly on scene at both locations.

Take a look at the damage sustained by St. James Armenian Church in
the photos above.

Pravda, Russia
May 5 2012

Hundreds of balloons explode in Armenian capital during concert
05.05.2012

After the fire on Republic Square in the center of Yerevan, the
capital of Armenia, the people were not allowed to leave the square.
The incident occurred when many balloons filled with gas caught fire
and exploded, EPress.am website reports.

The video published by 1in.am portal shows the police and a
plain-clothed man detaining a young man as the latter is trying to
leave the square. The man, a participant of the meeting, was telling
them that he only wanted to go to a safe place. The video also shows
the host of the meeting, which was held in the form of a concert,
asking the audience to “give it up” to another artist.

Armenian President Serj Sarkisian was not staying on the square at the
moment when the accident occurred. The host of the concert, Nazeni
Ovannisian, was trying to calm people down saying that “nothing
extraordinary has happened, let’s continue our concert.”

The police let everyone leave only by 9:00 p.m., after the concert finished.

“The police could do it not to let the potential culprits escape from
the scene. No one could know the true reasons of the explosion on the
square at first. What if it was a terrorist act? What if the terrorist
was trying to escape?” spokespeople for the Yerevan police said.

As many as 154 people were injured as a result of the explosion on the
square. All of them were hospitalized. Their condition was estimated
as satisfactory. The majority of the injured individuals suffered the
burns of their faces and hands. The youngest of the injured is a
4-year-old girl.

Hundreds of white balloons, which the participants of the meeting were
holding not far from the stage, burst into flames immediately, having
scattered drops of melted rubber around.

The meeting and the concert were organized on the threshold of the
parliamentary elections. The elections are to take place in Armenia on
Sunday, May 6th.

“The law-enforcement bodies have already started investigating the
accident. The culprits will be found and punished accordingly,”
Armenian President Serj Sarkisian said.

“Most likely, the balloons were filled with hydrogen. Helium is
absolutely inert – it does not come into any chemical reactions
whatsoever,” officials said.

The Volokh Conspiracy
May 4, 2012 Friday 11:30 PM EST

“Call Me Irresponsible, Call Me Unreliable, Throw in Undependable Too”

I blogged about Turkish Coalition of America, Inc. v. Bruininks (8th
Cir. May 3, 2012) when the district court decision came down, and
yesterday the Eighth Circuit agreed with the district court’s bottom
line (though disagreed with the district court’s decision about
standing). I think the District Court and the Eighth Circuit both got
it quite right – the defendant university’s labeling the Turkish
Coalition’s site “unreliable” and advising students against relying on
the site in their research papers doesn’t violate the Coalition’s
First Amendment rights, and is also not actionable libel:

TCA alleges that the defendants defamed it by stating that TCA’s
website (1) engages in “denial” of the Armenian genocide in Turkey
during World War I, (2) is “unreliable,” (3) presents a “strange mix
of fact and opinion,” and (4) is an “illegitimate source of
information.” …

With regard to the first challenged statement, TCA argues that the
Center’s accusation of “denial” is false because the term “denial,” in
the context of genocide studies, is a term of art that implies denial
of well-documented underlying facts associated with a genocidal event.
TCA points out that its website does not deny certain underlying
historical facts about the fate of Armenians in Turkey during World
War I, such as that “certainly hundreds of thousands of Armenians died
during” what it characterizes as “the Armenian revolt.” Under TCA’s
interpretation, however, the term “denial” would merely express a
subjective evaluation of the credibility of the historical sources for
every assertion on the TCA website, many of which TCA admits are
“contested.” Such an evaluation of credibility is essentially an
opinion, “not capable of being proven true or false,” and thus not
actionable in defamation, because different historians might well come
to different conclusions. On the other hand, the “denial” statement
reasonably can be construed as stating simply that the TCA website
denies that the treatment of Armenians within Turkey during World War
I meets the definition of the term “genocide.” A statement about the
content of the TCA website is capable of being proven true or false.
Because the TCA website does, in fact, state that it is “highly
unlikely that a genocide charge could be sustained against the Ottoman
government or its successor” based on the historical evidence, the
Center’s statement under this interpretation is true and, thus, still
not actionable….

The remaining three statements can be interpreted reasonably only as
subjective opinions, rather than facts.

Interfax, Russia
May 4 2012

Diamond exports from Armenia down by half in Q1

YEREVAN. May 4

Exports of cut diamonds from Armenia were down 55.4% year-on-year in
the first quarter of 2012 at 29,000 carats, a report from the
country’s Customs Service says.

Diamond export value was up from $17.5 million at $18.7 million.

The country’s Economy Ministry told Interfax that the customs value of
the stones was up though carat weight was down due to the republic
cutting larger diamonds at higher prices and thus exporting more
valuable jewels.

The republic imported 70,000 carats of uncut diamonds for $23.5
million in Q1 versus 106,000 carats for $27.3 million in the same
three months of 2011.

The lion’s share of the imported uncut diamonds are cut and then
exported mainly to Europe, the United States, and Russia. The ministry
said the drop in exports and imports by carat weight was a product of
lower world demand for cut diamonds.
Cf

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
May 5 2012

Songs instead of politics

Alexei Vlasov. Exclusively to VK

In late May Baku will host the 2012 international Eurovision song
contest. The level of preparation is so high that guests of
Azerbaijan’s capital should have no doubts – everything will be
perfect: from welcoming guests to the technical aspect of the project.
At the moment the last preparations are being completed and in few
days a number one state of readiness will be declared.

In the year since the victory of the Azerbaijani duet in the musical
contest, many experts were concerned with the question – how will this
event affect the difficult relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
On the one hand, it is a chance for a small step toward each other.
Youth culture in its `global wrapping’ is a thing that should bring
neighbouring countries closer. On the other hand, there were views
that the musical contest-2012 might become a reason for mutual
accusations. In Armenia a serious discussion appeared on the
participation in the contest and broadcasting it in the media. There
is no one point of view. The official position is more `homogeneous.’
But rejection of broadcasting it might put Armenia in a very difficult
situation, and Azerbaijan is not the point here, it is about the rules
of the game, which were not created in Baku.

Here the question arises – is it necessary to unite politics and a
musical party artificially? Probably Eurovision 2012 should be
considered as a way to turn away from the past for some time and see
that the new generation of 16-20 year-old people has different values
and priorities. From this point of view, the contest gives a splendid
opportunity for rejecting stereotypes of the past and looking to the
future, where popular culture and modern communications make borders
between countries disappear. Armenian-Turkish dialogue started from
football diplomacy, and sport cannot be blamed for postponing
ratification of the protocols.

The authorities of any country in such cases should consider an
obvious factor – isolation from an event which is a part of global
trends means staying far away from the development process.

The address and answers of the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Edward Nalbandian and Luis Almagro, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uruguay during the joint press conference

04.05.2012

Good afternoon.

I am pleased to welcome my counterpart, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay Luis Almagro who is in
Armenian on an official visit.

Armenia and Uruguay are thousands of kilometers away, but Uruguay is
very close and friendly country for Armenia and the Armenian people.
Uruguay is the first country which recognized the Armenian Genocide in
1965 and it’s not accidental that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uruguay started his official visit to Armenia by visiting the Genocide
Memorial. We are very grateful to the people of Uruguay and the
Uruguayan leadership for the opening of their doors and providing
shelters to our compatriots – the survivors of the genocide, and
thousands of Armenians live in Uruguay, for whom Uruguay has become a
second homeland. We have very close and warm relations with Uruguay.
On May 27 of this year we are going to celebrate the 20th anniversary
of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries. Uruguay is one of the first countries, that recognized our
independent Republic, on December 26 of 1991.

Today we had an opportunity to touch upon a wide range of issues of
bilateral relations, the steps to be undertaken towards the
strengthening of legal framework. We have 8 agreements signed between
the two countries, and the drafts of new agreements were exchanged and
we are going to expand this framework. We talked about the steps to be
undertaken towards the development of trade and economic relations
between the two countries, cultural ties and cooperation in the
spheres of health and tourism. We touched upon regional and
international issues over which we have very close positions. We
agreed upon the more intensification of the cooperation in the
international organizations and holding of consultations between the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries.

It is natural that we also touched upon the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue. I presented my colleague the recent
developments in the negotiation process. We have similar approach that
the issue should be resolved through peaceful means, based on the
proposals made by the Co-Chairs. We are grateful to the Uruguayan
Minister of Foreign Affairs for his statements on the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

I would like once again to welcome my Uruguayan colleague and pass the
floor to him with great pleasure.

Question: My questions are addressed to both Foreign Ministers.
Minister Nalbandian Azerbaijan assumed the presidency of the Security
Council. Some Azeri analysts do not exclude the possibility that the
resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue might be submitted to the
Security Council. To what extent do you consider it possible?

Edward Nalbandian: Answering the first question about the possibility
that Azerbaijan will try to introduce a resolution at the Security
Council, I would like to say that Azerbaijan may try to do, but we
must be realistic in the sense that the permanent members of the UN
Security Council are co-chairing countries, Russia, the United States
and France, which have repeatedly stated that the format of the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairmanship. The Presidents of Russia, the United States and
France made statements in L’Aquila, Muskoka and Deauville, and Armenia
expressed its commitment to move forward towards the settlement
through the negotiations based on those proposals.

Azerbaijan is denying. I don’t think that it is realistic; that any
unilateral Azeri initiative would be supported at the Security
Council, especially taking into account that position of the
Co-Chairs.

Question: First my question is addressed to the Armenian Minister of
Foreign Affairs. Minister Nalbandian, in the context of the
normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, recently Turkey’s
Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that it is hard to reach an
agreement with several neighboring countries, sepcifically with
Armenia. Please comment, in reality what kind of problems does
official Yerevan cause in this issue?

And the second question, if it’s possible to address the two Foreign
Ministers. Recently there were several cases of violation of the
cease-fire, in particular related to shooting at civilian population.
What is the reaction of the international community to such kind of
phenomena, and Minister Nalbandian, what does Armenian side do to
voice this issue?

Edward Nalbandian: Regarding Davutoglu’s statement, I am familiar with
that statement. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs talks that
Turkey has not good relations with their three neighboring countries.
But I do not think it is so sincere: it is at least twice the number
of countries, i. e. six countries, with which Turkey has not good
relations, with two of which she no relations at all. Davutoglu stated
about Turkey’s willingness to have zero problem relations with its
neighbors, but the result was the recent increase of the problems with
those countries. Regarding the difficulties of reaching agreements
with the neighbors about which Mr. Davutoglu mentioned, I would say
that, yes, we know from our experience that it’s very difficult to
reach agreements with Turkey. And despite all the difficulties which
the Turkish side was bringing in the course of the negotiations, we
came to an agreement and signed the protocols, for which Turkey
created difficulties not only during the negotiations, but even after
the signing, and continues to create them, rejects to respect, ratify
and implement those agreements. So the comments made by Mr. Davutoglu
are not appropriate.

Edward Nalbandian: (In addition to Luis Almagro’s answer) Luis
Almagron’s statement is another good example of the international
community’s approach. The overwhelming majority of countries, if not
all, have such an approach. Maybe in addition to Azerbaijan, Turkey do
not share that approach. But even that country talked against the use
of force, thus disagreeing with the Azeri approach.
I will recall the approach of the international community at the
highest level, when Presidents Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy stated that
the use of force created this situation and a new use of force is
unacceptable and would be strongly condemned by the international
community. The message was addressed to Azerbaijan.
The reaction is voiced not only through the statements. During the
negotiations Azerbaijan is seriously warned about such behavior, that
this behavior is unacceptable and can cause serious consequences, and
first of all for Azerbaijan.

EDUARDO EURNEKIAN TO RECEIVE BUSINESS FOR PEACE AWARD

news.am
May 04, 2012 | 18:24

Oslo’s Business for Peace Foundation has selected Eduardo Eurnekian
as one of the 7 businessmen who are to receive the Business for Peace
Award in 2012.

The award is handed out by an assembly consisting of Nobel Prize
winners. Eduardo Eurnekian will receive the award on May 7 at the
Government Palace of Oslo, Armenia International Airports Company
informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA VISITS PEOPLE WHO SUFFERED FROM THE INCIDENT IN REPUBLICAN SQUARE

ARMENPRESS:
20:56, 4 May, 2012

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan rushed to Nairi Medical Center.

More than 10 people have been moved to the center with light and
medium burns. Those with light burns have already been discharged
from hospital. The majority of those suffered are young people,
the Emergency Situation Ministry told Armenpress. After the first
medical aid the persons with medium burns will be moved to the
Republican Hospital.

***

The incident took place in the Republican Square. As Armenpress’
correspondent reported earlier, somebody smoked next to gas balloons,
which exploded as a result. The square was crowded, as the rally of the
Republican Party of Armenia was to be held. Several people received
body injuries of different level. They were hospitalized by means of
ambulances. Then the normal regime was restored and everything got
ready for the start of the rally.