Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

GAS PRICE TO REMAIN UNCHANGED IN ARMENIA

Tert.am
03.04.12

The gas price will remain unchanged in Armenia, AMD 180 per 1,000
cubic meters.

“We will go on purchasing gas at the same price. Armenia’s minister
of energy and chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission
discussed the issue,” Shushan Sardaryan, Head of the Press Service,
ArmRusGasProm company, told Tert.am.

According to media reports, Armenia’s authorities are not informing
the public of the planned rise in the gas price for Armenia on the
threshold of elections.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN DELEGATION REFUSES TO PARTICIPATE IN MEETING UNDERTAKEN BY AZERBAIJAN IN FRAME OF EURONEST

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 3, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS: In response to Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev’s passionate and angry speech at Aprils 3 plenary session
of Euronest in Baku, the Armenian delegation prepared an open letter,
which was handed over to representatives of the European Parliament and
Eastern Partnership member states in the sessions hall of Mili Mejlis.

As member of the Armenian delegation Naira Zohrabyan told Armenpress,
Ilham Aliyev’s speech was beyond diplomatic correctness.

“As always, Aliyev pointed out all the issues, which Azerbaijani
delegates traditionally voice: 20% occupied territories, “ethnic
cleansings” and so on. The latter also referred to genealogy of
Karabakh appellation, trying to prove the impossibility of its
connection with Armenia. All this proves one more time that suchlike
meetings must not be held in Baku,” said Mrs.

Zohrabyan. She said after Aliyev’s rhetoric Armenian delegates voiced
their complaint against analogical approaches and offensive statements.

“After Aliyev’s speech head of Armenian delegation Vahan Hovhannisyan
reconfirmed Armenia’s position that it is unacceptable to conduct
the plenary session in Baku,” said Naira Zohrabyan, adding that in
general, the session was running in a strained atmosphere and the
Armenian party, taking into consideration the analogical rhetoric of
the Azerbaijani President, has refused to participate in the meeting
undertaken by Azerbaijani party for today.

“Our delegation adopted a joint decision to refuse to participate
in all the meetings organized by Azerbaijan. Simultaneously, we will
continue our works within the scope of the activity of Euronest,” noted
Mrs. Zohrabyan, adding in her address she told the representatives
of the European Parliament and Eastern Partnership that if Aliyev’s
offences do not get adequate response, the Armenian party will have
all the rights to doubt the authority of Euronest as international
authoritative platform.

During the opening of the plenary session Vahan Hovhannisyan had
stressed that Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates had agreed not to
refer to Karabakh conflict within the frameworks of Euronest and not
to discuss issues, the solutions of which were impossible to look
for in this platform.

To remind, Armenia’s parliamentary delegation left for Baku to
participate in the 2nd plenary session of Euronest Parliamentary
Assembly April 1. The delegation comprised MPs Vahan Hovhannisyan,
Artak Zakaryan, Naira Zohrabyan, Lilit Galstyan, Khachik Petrosyan,
Styopa Safaryan, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Aram Safaryan, Manvel Badeyan,
Responsible secretary Karine Shimshiryan.

From: Baghdasarian

RETURN OF MEDITERRANEAN REGION
Igor Muradyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:33:56 – 02/04/2012

The history of the Mediterranean is the history of mankind but
after the cold war the growing importance of Asia Pacific and other
geopolitical regions seemed that the Mediterranean Sea which has
become NATO’s lake is doomed to lack of conflict. However, new
scenarios and controversies occurred which led to focus on this region.

It should be noted that the efforts of France and Great Britain to
form a new area of influence in the Mediterranean did not get an
appropriate support from the European Union and first of all Central
Europe – Germany and others. There are signs that the United States is
not satisfied with the establishment of the French-British military
alliance though cooperation within the framework of NATO is being
strengthened.

Despite solidarity there are controversies between the United States
and leading European states on a number of problems, including the
given region. Certainly, these are controversies between partners,
and they do not bring confrontation into the relations but in the
course of time serious issues may occur.

Russia’s influence is extremely weak now, and it is clinging to its
last bastion in Syria, which is related to efforts to restore its
presence in the Near East rather than its navy base.

The Arab states who demonstrate a great solidarity with the United
States rather than among one another are facing a number of challenges
from Israel, Iran and Turkey and are trying to ensure guarantees
of security from the United States, and now, already in the first
approximation, from NATO.

However, a more serious challenge is Turkey’s regional expansion
which is facing a choice – either return under the U.S. control or
continued efforts to increase its influence in the Near East. The
processes and developments in the western Mediterranean saliently
demonstrate controversies between Turkey and the United States which,
apart from efforts to improve relations with Turkey, carry on the
policy of curbing the Turkish expansion.

The April 1 issue of the Haaretz reported that the naval exercise
Noble Dina is held in Western Mediterranean which has come to replace
the annual Reliant Mermaid exercise held together with Turkey till
2009. The newspaper states that the enemy in this simulation is a
reference to Turkey. The training will hardly have the single purpose
of strengthening Greece and Israel. Most probably, the purpose is
wider and aims to block Turkey in the region.

The western part of the Mediterranean basin is becoming a zone
of disputes over discovered and reliable reserves of oil and gas,
turning this region into a “Persian Gulf”. However, Turkey mainly
makes claims which cannot afford to miss such a great opportunity. It
should be noted that the oil and gas prognoses do not only cover the
offshore area but also the Ionian Sea, mostly the Greek coasts.

The political and analytical literature uses quite reserved evaluations
of the U.S.-Turkish relations while the mass media are full of messages
on examples of the U.S.-Turkish relations.

Nevertheless, the problems of the U.S.-Turkish relations persist,
both in the Near East and the Black Sea and Mediterranean basin which
are closely related to the Near East but increasingly act as regions
with specific and “independent” problems.

From: Baghdasarian

RUSSIA INSISTS ON MORE IRAN MONITORS

Voice of Russia
April 2 2012

Russia has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to increase
the number of its monitors in Iran.

Speaking at the Yerevan State University in Armenia, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that any measures against Iran must
comply with international law and the UN Charter.

The Russian foreign chief noted that IAEA inspectors, who are now
overseeing Iran’s nuclear facilities, haven’t determined any sort
of irregularities.

From: Baghdasarian

EU COMMISSIONER: OSCE MINSK GROUP IS THE ONLY WAY TO RESOLVE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 2 2012
Russia

The EU considers the OSCE Minsk Group as the only format for the
settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Commissioner for
Enlargement Policy and European Neighbourhood Policy of the EU,
Stefan Fuele, said in an interview to the news agency APA, RIA
Novosti reports.

Negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict have been underway since 1992 within the OSCE Minsk Group,
co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. Azerbaijan insists
on maintaining its territorial integrity, while Armenia defends the
interests of the unrecognized republic, while Karabakh is not included
in the negotiations.

The EU Commissioner said that the time had come for Azerbaijan and
Armenia to move towards a peace agreement. He added that both sides
need to understand that the complexity of the situation calls for
concessions and compromises.

From: Baghdasarian

POLITICIAN DISTRIBUTES BARLEY IN VILLAGES AHEAD OF ELECTIONS: PAPER

epress.am
04.02.2012

Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) vice chair, MP Samvel Balasanyan
(pictured) continues his election campaign charity work in the
villages of the Armenian province of Shirak. After distributing barley
through the hands of the Republican Party of Armenia village mayors
in Akhurik, Gharibjanyan, Yerazgavors and Bayandur, the turn has
come to the largest village of Shiraz marz (“province”), Akhuryan,
reports local daily Aravot.

Witnesses say the villagers, hearing about the barley handouts, with
passports in hand, pushing and shoving, and from all corners of the
village, made a dash for the truck distributing the barley.

According to witnesses, one passport gets you one sack of barley, and
the reason for the crowds was that barley distribution was according
to eligible voters’ lists – that is, it was first confirmed whether
the individual in question was eligible to vote or not. Such checks
weren’t made in the other villages, and as a result, fertilizer was
given to anyone who happened to come across.

Asked by Aravot whether he is distributing Samvel Balasanyan’s
barley, Akhuryan village mayor, Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) member Artsrun Igityan said, “Have you ever seen me
hand out anything? I’m far from distributing – especially distributing
someone else’s goods. They know that I don’t get involved in such
issues; that’s why they didn’t approach me.”

From: Baghdasarian

ATAQUE CONTRA IRAN TENDRA CONSECUENCIAS MUY GRAVES SEGIN LAVROV
Yuri Kadobnov

RIA Novosti
02/04/2012

Tema de actualidad: Situacion en torno a Iran

El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Rusia Serguei Lavrov

La primera central nuclear iraní de Bushehr

El ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Rusia, Serguei Lavrov, advirtio
hoy de que un ataque contra Iran tendra consecuencias muy graves.

“Es difícil predecir las consecuencias pero esta claro que seran
negativas y muy graves”, manifesto Lavrov de visita en la capital
de Armenia.

Quienes barajan diversas opciones con respecto a Iran, según el,
deberían asumir una actitud responsable y respetar el derecho
internacional que “prohíbe el llamado uso preventivo de la fuerza”.

El hipotetico ataque militar contra Iran tendra repercusiones negativas
en la seguridad de Armenia, Azerbaiyan y los países arabes.

“Hay tantas componentes que sera difícil prever las consecuencias”,
dijo el canciller ruso.

Israel no descarta la posibilidad de atacar a Iran para poner fin
a su programa nuclear que, según sospecha Occidente, persigue fines
militares. Por su parte, Iran declaro en mas de una ocasion que el
Estado hebreo es su “enemigo”.

From: Baghdasarian

HAUT-KARABAKH: LA RUSSIE PRETE A CONTRIBUER AU DIALOGUE (LAVROV)
Ilya Pitalev

RIA Novosti
02/04/2012

Haut Karabakh
Dossier: Reglement du conflit du Haut Karabakh

La Russie est prete a contribuer par tous les moyens a la poursuite
du dialogue sur le règlement dans le Haut-Karabakh, a declare lundi
devant les journalistes le ministre russe des Affaires etrangères
Sergueï Lavrov, en visite a Erevan, capitale d’Armenie.

M.Lavrov a rappele que le president russe Dmitri Medvedev avait tenu
ces dernières annees une dizaine de rencontre avec ses homologues
azerbaïdjanais et armenien pour faire suite au travail effectue par
les copresidents du Groupe de Minsk de l’Organisation pour la securite
et la cooperation en Europe (OSCE).

“Ce travail n’est pas acheve, mais les presidents de Russie,
d’Azerbaïdjan et d’Armenie ont convenu lors d’une rencontre a Sotchi
de poursuivre leurs efforts en ce sens (…) En tant que copresident
du Groupe de Minsk, la Russie est prete a y contribuer, compte tenu
de la volonte des parties”, a indique le chef de la diplomatie russe.

Et d’ajouter que l’Armenie et l’Azerbaïdjan etaient des pays amis et
partenaires strategiques de la Russie qui ne pouvait evidemment pas
etre indifferente aux relations entre Erevan et Bakou.

Le conflit du Haut-Karabakh date de 1988, lorsque cette region
autonome principalement peuplee d’Armeniens a annonce son intention
de se separer de l’Azerbaïdjan. En septembre 1991, les autorites
regionales ont proclame la creation de la Republique du Haut-Karabakh
avec Stepanakert pour capitale. En reponse, Bakou a annule l’autonomie
de la region, declenchant des hostilites entre l’armee azerbaïdjanaise
et les formations armeniennes du Haut-Karabakh soutenues par Erevan
et par la diaspora armenienne. Le conflit s’est poursuivi jusqu’a
l’entree en vigueur d’une treve entre les belligerants le 12 mai 1994.

L’Azerbaïdjan a perdu le contrôle du Haut-Karabakh et de sept districts
adjacents a la region secessionniste.

Des negociations sur le règlement pacifique du conflit sont menees
depuis 1992 dans le cadre du Groupe de Minsk de l’Organisation pour
la securite et la cooperation en Europe (OSCE) copreside par les
Etats-Unis, la France et la Russie. L’Azerbaïdjan ne cesse d’insister
sur son integrite territoriale.

From: Baghdasarian

FM OF CYPRUS TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA ON AN OFFICIAL VISIT

Aysor.am
April 02 Politics

On April 3-4 at invitation of RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
the Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozaku-Markulis is to arrive in
Armenia on an official visit.

The public relations department of the RA Foreign Ministry reports
that during the visit Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, His Holiness
Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan will receive the Cypriot Foreign Minister.

The joint press conference and talks will be held between the Armenian
and Cypriot Foreign Ministers.

Erato Kozaku-Markulis will also visit Tsitsernakaberd where she will
lay wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims.

From: Baghdasarian

‘THEY ARE NOT OF HUMAN RACE,’ BARONESS CAROLINE COX SAYS ABOUT AZERBAIJANI SERVICEMEN

18:48 02/04/2012 ” Analysis

In the history of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, abounding in
numerous facts of atrocity and vandalism by Azerbaijan, the events in
the village of Maragha of the NKR Martakert region are one of the most
extreme manifestations of sadism and barbarity ever known to humanity.

On April 10, 1992, after a three-hour preparatory bombardment,
the subunits of the Azerbaijani regular army invaded the village of
Maragha from the Azerbaijani village of Mir-Bashir (now Tartar). As
a result of the aggression 100 people were massacred – mostly women,
children, and elderly persons. Scores of people were taken hostages
and later were exchanged but the fate of many of them still remains
unknown. Two weeks later, on April 22-23, the village was repeatedly
attacked and the people who had come back to their burnt homes were
forced to abandon the village once and for all.

The monstrous crimes in Maragha followed the Armenian pogroms and
deportations in the Northern Atsakh, Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad and
other settlements of Azerbaijan and were aimed at frightening the
people and disabling them to live in their homeland. By the depth of
human tragedy, the level of cruelty, the number of people exposed to
violence and captured, the events in the village of Maragha occupy
a special place among the bloody crimes committed by Azerbaijan in
Getashen, Martounashen, Buzlukh, Erkej and the other Armenian villages
in the northern part of the NKR in 1991-1992.

Vice Speaker of the House of Lords of the British Parliament Baroness
Caroline Cox, who visited the place of the tragedy several days later,
was shocked at what she saw. “They are not of human race,” said the
Baroness about the Azerbaijani servicemen who had carried out the
slaughter. Baroness Caroline Cox both took pictures and video-taped
those atrocities committed by the Azerbaijanis in the village of
Maragha and also described them in her book “Ethnic Cleansing in
Progress,” as well as in her numerous interviews.

“It is impossible to describe what we saw there. The village was
completely destroyed. The people were burying the dead, rather to say
anything that was possible to bury, charred human remains, tortured,
cut or sawed parts of bodies. We saw the bloody swords by which
they had done all these brutalities. After killing the villagers
the Azeris robbed and burnt the village. By the way, they told us
that the servicemen were followed by the civilians with trunks who
were going to finish the robbery, – and we saw some of those trunks
scattered all over the land, which the looters did not manage to take
away with them,” witnessed Caroline Cox.

Seda Poghosyan, an eyewitness of the tragic events, who was saved
by a miracle told: “The women, elderly people and children were
hiding themselves in the basements and dugouts. On the third day –
on April 10, 1992, the Azeris invaded Maragha. Several people came
up to the dugout where I along with my daughter-in-law Marine and our
two children – 4-year-old Karen and 2-year-old Vigen were hidden. The
Azeris commanded us to get out of the dugout. The first was an old man
Sasha, Asya and Zabel followed him. As soon as a man was getting out
of the dugout he was immediately killed. My daughter-in-law leaving
her children with me also walked up the stairs. The Azeri, with
a knife in his hands prepared for stab, stopped and began tearing
away her jewellery. Then he tore her dress. She broke into a run,
the Azerbaijani rushed after her. The exit from the dugout was open.

People dashed for the exit. They were noticed by the Azerbaijanis who
were busy with robbery and threw themselves to kill with axes, knives
and scythes. Masya and Ruben Ananyans were overcut immediately. I
saw how my daughter-in-law’s sister Karina was trying to escape from
the executioners.”

Larisa Badalyan, a resident of the village of Maragha, was held
hostage by the Azeris from April 10 till December 2, 1992.

“Women, Zoya, Masho and Tamara, were led out of the cell by turn,
and brought back blood-stained and half-naked. In an hour the door
opened, the armed soldiers burst into the cell and pulled off the
remains of their clothes and raped.

Three days later we were brought to a prison in Kubatly, where I saw
my son Apres, who was mentally ill. His eye came out, his head was
swollen. A young Armenian from Martakert was on the floor beaten up
to death… My son served as a shepherd, I did chores. We slept in a
barrack, ate leavings. My son was often beaten up before my eyes. Once
they brought a body of a dead Azerbaijani and they wanted to overcut
us on his grave…” she witnessed.

In 1997, a number of human rights organizations conjointly prepared a
comprehensive reference on the events in Maragha and submitted it to
the UN Commission on Human Rights. The Helsinki Watch International
Human Rights Organization officially confirmed that scores of
civilians were martyrized and tens of women and children were taken
hostages. However, the international media did not cover the massacre
of the Armenians in Maragha at all and the international community
has not given yet a corresponding assessment to these tragic events.

“You have the most powerful weapon – the truth – said Baroness Cox.

You should bring it to the international structures’ notice that
Azerbaijan attempted to commit genocide against the population of
Karabakh. You must more actively present to the world the mass crimes
perpetrated against Armenians in Maragha, Sumgait, Baku, etc. These
are crimes against humanity. I support the Armenians and comprehend
that they will never be able to live under the Azerbaijani dominion, as
the Armenians of Karabakh, who lived under the control of Azerbaijan,
suffered much.”

The massacre in the village of Maragha, which is still under
Azerbaijan’s occupation, cannot be called a military operation,
as there were no military bases in the village but only peaceful
citizens, who became the main target of the aggression. The crimes
were aimed at deporting the Armenian people from their homeland.

Summarizing the abovementioned, we should state that the slaughter of
unarmed civil population of Maragha is a crime against humanity and
civilization, without period of limitation, and the perpetrators of
this crime must carry punishment to the fullest extent of the law,
NKR MFA reported.

Film Maragha part 1

Film Maragha part 2

Film Maragha part 3

Film Maragha part 4

Film Maragha part 5

From: Baghdasarian