Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR TO EGYPT DELIVERS LECTURE AT CAIRO UNIVERSITY

news.am
February 24, 2012 | 12:53

YEREVAN. – Armenian Ambassador to Egypt Armen Melkonyan delivered
a lecture on Wednesday at Cairo University devoted to the 20th
anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia
and Egypt.

The lecture was organized by the Center of Armenian Studies, MFA
informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The Ambassador gave in-depth coverage of the Armenian-Egyptian
relations and development prospects.

Melkonyan touched upon the challenges Armenia was faced with during the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh war, blockade, economic
crisis and efforts targeted to overcome those challenges, as well
as democratic, economic improvements and other achievements gained
during the years of independence.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN DRILLS ON PREVENTION OF ILLEGAL TRANSPORTATION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

armradio.am
24.02.2012 12:27

Armenian-Georgian drills on revealing and preventing the
transportation of weapons of mass destruction were held in Yerevan
February 21-23 under the auspices of the US Government.

The exercises, featuring Armenian and Georgian experts of the
sphere, as well as specialists from the US, aimed at discussing the
procedures of reacting to the illegal transportation of weapons of mass
destruction and its components across the Armenian-Georgian border.

The drills focused also on nuclear and radioactive threats and
illegal transportation of goods of dual use. Armenian-Georgian field
trainings on the above-mentioned challenges will be held in June of
the current year.
Content-Type: MESSAGE/RFC822; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-Description:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
From: Mihran Keheyian
Subject: Armenian-Georgian drills on prevention of illegal transportation of
weapons of mass destruction

Armenian-Georgian drills on prevention of illegal transportation of
weapons of mass destruction

armradio.am
24.02.2012 12:27

Armenian-Georgian drills on revealing and preventing the
transportation of weapons of mass destruction were held in Yerevan
February 21-23 under the auspices of the US Government.

The exercises, featuring Armenian and Georgian experts of the sphere,
as well as specialists from the US, aimed at discussing the procedures
of reacting to the illegal transportation of weapons of mass
destruction and its components across the Armenian-Georgian border.

The drills focused also on nuclear and radioactive threats and illegal
transportation of goods of dual use. Armenian-Georgian field trainings
on the above-mentioned challenges will be held in June of the current
year.

From: Baghdasarian

EXPERT: RESOLUTION ACCEPTED BY PAKISTAN MAY BE BOUGHT WITH PETRODOLLARS

23.02.12, 16:33

Expert on Iran, deputy dean of the Faculty of Oriental Sciences of
Yerevan State University Vardan Voskanyan referred to the resolution
accepted Pakistani Senate recently, which is about so called
“Xocali genocide”. The announcement by the expert especially says:
“On February 1, 2012 Pakistani Senate accepted a resolution which
recognizes the events of 1992 in Xocali town as genocide.

Pakistan is a state which is created artificially with serious ethic
violations. And the resolution accepted by the International Affairs
Department of the Senate is just unserious.

This resolution is unserious especially from taking into consideration
the fact that at least two nations in Pakistan accuse this Government
in making genocide towards them. I speak about Belujis and Pashtuns.

It is significant the speaker of US State Department Victoria Newland
was asked about the Belujis genocide on the beginning of the year by
Twitter and the US high level official expressed her deep troubles
though she did not use the word genocide. Anyway this is the first
case when the USA refers to the Belujis genocide issue on such level.

So, the Pakistani authorities would better to be engaged in their
own issue and to be involved in Xocali which is terra incognita for
an ordinary Pakistani person.

And besides this Pakistani authorities are too corrupted. The index
published by “Transparency International” on corruption proves this
every year. And it is not excluded that the resolution is just bought
by Azerbaijani petrodollars.”

From: Baghdasarian

PITY THAT “POLITICIANS” LIKE ZHIRINOVSKY ARE IN POWER IN RUSSIA

Trend
Feb 23 2012
Azerbaijan

The fact that politicians such as Zhirinovsky, is heading the
legislative body of the country is very unfortunate, political
scientist, Professor of Western University Fikret Sadikhov says.

“It is a great pity that a man like Zhirinovsky has gained credibility
among the political elite of Russia, a civilised and powerful country
which is friendly to Azerbaijan. It certainly doesn’t honour those who
create the conditions for the emergence of politicians like Zhirinovsky
whose clown type performances, behaviour externally, statements and
political programmes make him a real clown,” the professor told Trend.

The head of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky,
a candidate for president of Russia, once again defended Armenia
noting that if Armenia requests “Russia it will blow up everything
to the Persian Gulf. ”

Professor Sadikhov noted that Russian society which has grown strong
and wise policies were formed using a serious political and scientific
elite. Unfortunately, we have to endure someone such as Zhirinovsky and
his party which calmly responds to what he says in relation to other
countries and especially those that are part of a single Commonwealth
of independent States.

“We can only regret that people like Zhirinovsky is among those who
define the priorities of the country,” the analyst said.

The professor noted that a country that respects itself and its values,
its history and aspirations towards a civilised society should not
endure such individuals as Zhirinovsky. It is a very serious problem
and a big problem not only for those against whom he makes such
statements, but for the country which he unfortunately represents

“I am glad that the final decision of large questions of Russia’s
foreign and domestic policy doesn’t depend on Zhirinovsky, “a political
scientist said.

From: Baghdasarian

PUBLIC COUNCIL: STOP PARK CONSTRUCTION UNTIL MORE CLARITY
Narek Sargsyan, Vazgen Manukyan

Society | 24.02.12 | 12:50

Armenia’s Public Council chairman Vazgen Manukyan on Thursday called
on the Yerevan Municipality to stop construction in Mashtots Park,
until the legality of the controversial work can be clarified.

For two weeks, the park in the center of the capital has been the
scene of protests as environmentalists are angry that the area green
space is being filled with small shops that had been removed from
Abovian Street and placed in the park as part of an agreement that
never had a public hearing.

At Thursday’s Council meeting, chief architect of Yerevan Narek
Sargsyan said an agreement had been reached to relocate the boutiques
to the park, where they would remain up to three years. “We have
discussed many alternative variants. Not all the shops of Abovian
street will be taken to the park. Till now it is not clear where the
others will be placed,” he said.

Environmental activists Karine Danielyan spoke on behalf of protesters
and said the authorities have lost the trust of young people, who
were deceived. She argued that the green areas of the park must be
preserved, especially as the park is home to one of the city’s busiest
maternity hospitals.

Manukyan said that the Council will hold discussions on the issue
with the Government and with President Serzh Sargsyan.

From: Baghdasarian

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IS UNSATISFACTORY

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:03:47 – 24/02/2012

“There is no intentional attitude towards the Diaspora investors in
Armenia. Local businessmen have the same problems”, said ARFD member
Ara Nranyan at today’s discussion of the Initiative group for the
protection of rights of Diaspora investors.

According to him, Armenia has a general economic field issue. “I am
not satisfied with the business environment. We need to improve it
to make it more attractive for foreign investors”, he said.

According to Nranyan, no one can say foreign investors are more
protected in Armenia than Diaspora Armenians. According to him, the
difference between local and foreign businessmen is that foreigners
run their business from abroad and have no connections in Armenia,
so this creates problems.

At the same time, Nranyan underlined that no large-scale investments
are made in Armenia. He added that there is almost no small and
midsize business on foreign investments in Armenia.

Member of the Heritage parliamentary group Styopa Safaryan noted
that if already non-Armenian U.S. Congressmen say that Armenia has no
favorable business environment that even Diaspora rich men don’t want
to run business here, then I think this is the result of defaming the
country by Armenians. According o Safaryan, the situation in Armenia
allows any local adventurer easily deceive the Diaspora investor.

Safaryan says that state circles and ordinary citizens see the
Diaspora Armenians as a pouch and this issue deepens because the
Diaspora investor does not understand the Armenian reality. In the
result, according to the MP, we have serious precedents here which
can badly influence on Armenia’s rating.

First deputy of the State Revenue Committee Armen Alaverdyan noted
that Diaspora Armenians have the same rights in Armenia as locals.

“Moreover, there are privileges in our legislation for Diaspora
Armenians. There are examples of successful investments by Diaspora
representatives. Issues occur when the Diaspora representatives come
out unable to protect their rights the reason of which is that they
don’t know the legislation”, says Alaverdyan. He called to distinguish
charity from investment.

From: Baghdasarian

TURKEY’S CONTROL BOARD UNCOVERS SEVERAL GUILTY PARTIES ON DINK MURDER CASE

news.am
February 24, 2012 | 13:57

In the “State Secret” section of the Turkey’s Board of Control report
on the murder case of Hrant Dink-the founder and former chief editor
of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly, who was gunned down
in 2007 in front of his office building-serious allegations are made
against the country’s police force and the gendarmerie.

The aforesaid section notes that the information, which intelligence
agent Erhan Tuncel had provided back in February 2006-and according
to which Yasin Hayal was getting ready to kill Dink-was sent to the
Istanbul Police Department by the Trabzon Police, but this information
was not sent to the Trabzon Provincial Hall and Trabzon Gendarmerie.

In addition, the Trabzon Gendarmerie was clearly informed, by other
intelligence sources, that a murder was being planned against Dink,
Haberturk of Turkey informs.

It is also noted that Istanbul police and its intelligence unit had
not carried out the requirements of the information received from
Trabzon, and it had presented a false report.

The “State Secret” section also informs that there is sufficient
evidence to launch an inquiry against several police and military
officers, and officials.

From: Baghdasarian

TURKISH MAYOR DECLARES ARMENIANS AS ENEMIES
By Artur Hakobyan

news.am
February 23, 2012 | 11:01

The mayor of Bayburt (Baberd), Turkey, organized a celebration event
marking 94th anniversary of “liberating” Bayburt from the Armenians,
and he made a statement containing enmity and hatred toward the
Armenians.

The 21st-century mayor of “democratized” Turkey organized a
presentation, at the heart of the city, during which they demonstrated
how the Armenians had killed innocent Turks and the “heroic” Turkish
soldier had “liberated” Bayburt.

What is more, Mayor Haci Ali Polat, who is a member of Turkish PM
Erdogan’s ruling political party, noted in his speech that the enemy
must be recognized and avenging youth must be raised.

But the mayor’s presentation and his statement infuriated leading
Turkish journalist, analyst, and chief editor of CNN Turk and Kanal
D televisions, Mehmet Ali Birand, who harshly criticized, on live
broadcast, the mayor who was spreading hatred.

“No, Mayor, you are wrong! And furthermore, very wrong! You are growing
seeds of hatred. This presentation was a presentation of hatred,”
Birand said on live air, not concealing his anger.

From: Baghdasarian

“A VERY CRITICAL MOMENT”

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:37:26 – 22/02/2012

The number of people protesting against the set up of boutiques in the
Mashtots Park is growing. Public and political figures, intellectuals
have already joined the environmental activists.

The Armenian advisor to the UN Secretary General Gulnara Shahinyan who
is in Yerevan on a working visit also participated in these protests.

“This is a very critical and alarming moment. This is not only a
breach of environmental rules but also human rights. I think not only
the youth but everyone else should join this protest,” the advisor
to the UN Secretary General said to Lragir.am. According to her,
the cause of emigration is not only poverty but also unlawfulness.

“The law is enforced for one person and is not for the other one.

People are not protected by the law and by their government. This
disappointment leads to emigration,” Gulnara Shahinyan underlined,
adding that Armenia is regressing instead of building democracy.

From: Baghdasarian

HAUT-KARABAKH : L’OTAN RUSSE PROMET SON SOUTIEN A EREVAN
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 23 fevrier 2012

L’Organisation du Traite de securite collective, baptisee “Otan
russe” par certains analystes, apportera toute l’aide necessaire a
l’Armenie en cas d’aggravation du conflit autour du Haut-Karabakh,
a declare mardi aux journalistes le secretaire general de l’OTSC
Nikolaï Bordiouja.

“L’Armenie est membre a part entière de l’OTSC, avec les obligations
et les droits qui en decoulent. Ce pays fournit des ressources afin de
garantir la securite collective, il a donc droit a une aide de la part
de ses allies”, a annonce M.Bordiouja repondant a la question de savoir
comment l’OTSC agirait en cas d’aggravation du conflit dans la region.

Selon lui, il est aujourd’hui impossible de prevoir le developpement
de la situation dans les Etats membres de l’Organisation.

“Tout depend d’une situation concrète dans tel ou tel Etat. Les
decisions seront prises au cas par cas”, a-t-il ajoute.

L’OTSC dispose non seulement de sa Force collective de reaction rapide
mais aussi d’un potentiel politique.

Creee en 2002, l’Organisation du Traite de securite collective
reunit l’Armenie, la Bielorussie, le Kazakhstan, le Kirghizstan,
l’Ouzbekistan, la Russie et le Tadjikistan.

Le conflit du Haut-Karabakh remonte a fevrier 1988, lorsque cette
region autonome principalement peuplee d’Armeniens a annonce son
intention de se separer de l’Azerbaïdjan. Cette demarche a provoque des
hostilites entre les troupes armeniennes et azerbaïdjanaises a la suite
desquelles Bakou a perdu le contrôle de la region. Le cessez-le-feu
decrete le 12 mai 1994 est regulièrement viole par les deux parties.

Bakou et Erevan n’arrivent toujours pas a se mettre d’accord sur le
statut de la region.

From: Baghdasarian