Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

GERMANY PLANS SPECIAL EVENTS AHEAD OF GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

14:11 * 30.12.14

As part of its Armenian Genocide recognition campaign, Germany is
planning more activities and events to mark the tragedy’s centennial,
says the head of the German Union of Armenian Academicians.

“Ahead of the Genocide centenary, we thought of implementing the
‘Four-Month Cultural Autumn’ project from August until November to
ideologically prepare the residents of the university city Bochum
and the neighboring towns,” Azat Ordukhanyan told a news conference
in Yerevan.

He said that the initiative comprised eight big programs aimed to
raise awareness of the big tragedy.

German newspapers have published around 35 articles whose authors,
Orduchanyan said, have not avoided using the term Genocide.

“We have applied to the Yerevan City Hall’s Nature Protection
Department with a proposal for planting 155 trees,” he said, adding
that the figure was selected with a special intention to coincide
with the Union’s 155th anniversary.

“We have also proposed creating an Armenian-German friendship
mark. We do not want to mark the centennial, relying on the standard
cross-stone-based approach. We are heading to the next centennial
with the green color,” he added.

He described the idea a good attempt to prove that the brutal headsman
(the Turk) did not manage to annihilate the Armenian nation. “Germany
publishes numerous books in the German language, so it is not only
the Armenians who remember the day. We closely collaborate with the
ethnic minorities in Germany,” Ordukhanyan added.

From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJAN SHUTS DOWN RADIO FREE EUROPE OFFICE

UPI United Press International
Dec 29 2014

By Ed Adamczyk

BAKU , Azerbaijan, Dec. 29 (UPI) — Employees of a U.S.-funded radio
station in Baku, Azerbaijan, were detained for up to 12 hours after
a raid in a government crackdown on journalists.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty offices in the Central Asian capital,
known locally as Radio Azadliq, were raided Friday by police and
prosecutors. Computers, flash drives and other equipment were seized,
and 12 employees, including the station’s cleaning woman, were
questioned at a police station over the weekend. All were released,
and no charges were formally filed.

The station said it was an attempt to silence one of Azerbaijan’s
last remaining independent news sources, and Nenad Pajic, Radio Free
Europe chief editor told Voice of America the raid was “a flagrant
violation of every international commitment and standard Azerbaijan
has pledged to uphold.”

“(There were) No allegations. What we do know is they (police) say
they (are investigating) our operations. That’s it. We assume (staff
members) are going to be asked questions about our operations, maybe
about salaries, maybe who works, who doesn’t work, this kind of stuff.

Frankly, this is, from my point of view, not important at all,
because officials are going to say what they want to say.”

He added the government of President Ilham Aliyev has arrested over
200 journalists in the past three years and has shown increasing
antagonism toward local news organizations.

The U.S. State Dept. called on Azerbaijan to respect an “international
commitment to respecting press freedom.” Jeff Shell, chairman of the
U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors which funds Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty, said, “This unwarranted action is an escalation of
the Azeri (Azerbaijan) government’s abusive attempt to intimidate
independent journalists and repress free media,” in demanding the
radio station reopen.

Supporters of Azerbaijan’s regime have warned foreign-backed
organizations could be helping to provoke a revolution on the model
of North Africa’s “Arab Spring,” and the government has accused some
non-governmental organizations of working in concert with neighboring
Armenia, which has territorial disputes with Azerbaijan.

From: Baghdasarian

U.S. ‘ALARMED’ AS AZERBAIJAN TARGETS RFE/RL’S BAKU OFFICE

Big News Network
Dec 29 2014

RFE Monday 29th December, 2014

The U.S. State Department says its concerns about the human rights
situation in Azerbaijan are deepening after authorities there raided
and closed RFE/RL’s Baku bureau and interrogated its employees and
contractors.

State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told a December 29 news briefing
in Washington: “These actions, along with the denial of access to legal
counsel during these interrogations, is further cause for concern.”

Rathke said the United States is calling on Baku “to adhere to their
OSCE and other international commitments to uphold human rights and
basic freedoms.”

He added that the raid and closure of the U.S.-government-funded
broadcaster’s bureau came five days after U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry had raised Washington’s concerns about human rights in
Azerbaijan during a phone conversation with President Ilham Aliyev.

The offices of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, known as Radio Azadliq,
were raided on December 26 by investigators from the state prosecutor’s
office who confiscated documents, files, and equipment before sealing
off the premises.

Twelve bureau employees who were detained on December 27 and December
28 for questioning were released only after signing a document vowing
not to disclose details about the investigation.

At least eight more current and former employees were summoned to
prosecutors on December 29.

Rathke’s comments followed reports earlier in the day that Aliyev
had pardoned 87 people convicted of crimes, including several that
are widely considered political prisoners.

Rathke called the amnesty “a step in the right direction.”

“We urge Azerbaijan’s authorities to build on these pardons by
releasing others incarcerated in connection with exercising their
fundamental freedoms,” he said.

Meanwhile, the OSCE on December 29 denounced Azerbaijan’s targeting
of RFE/RL’s Baku bureau as “another severe blow to free media and
free expression” in the former Soviet republic.

Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on media freedom, said
in a statement that Baku “must allow” work to resume by RFE/RL’s
Azerbaijani service “and safeguard the existence of critical voices
in the country.”

Earlier on December 29, Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of
President Ilham Aliyev’s administration and director of its Foreign
Relations Department, accused U.S. diplomats of “losing their sense
of proportion” over the crackdown on the U.S.-government funded
broadcaster.

Mammadov was responding to criticism from the U.S. Ambassador to
the OSCE Daniel Baer, who wrote on December 27 that Baku’s decision
to shut down Radio Azadliq was “the behavior of a weak, insecure,
corrupt” leadership.

Islam Shikhali, an RFE/RL video reporter, told VOA on December 28
that he had been warned not to discuss his interrogation.

“I was told I shouldn’t give any statements but my lawyer told me this
is absolutely illegal,” Shikhali said. He added that he had been asked
“general questions” about salaries and hiring practices.

Zeynal Mammadli, editor in chief of RFE/RL’s Azerbaijan Service, which
is called Radio Azadliq locally, criticized the government’s “noise,
threats, summonses for questioning without notice,” and harassment
of defense lawyers.

“I am worried about my colleagues,” she said. “I am worried about
their lives after this — their salaries, how they will make a living.

Some of them have bank loans, mortgages. Losing their jobs will
be difficult.”

The office raid and forced questioning come as prosecutors are
investigating the Azadliq office as a foreign-funded entity.

Siyavoush Novruzov, a high-ranking member of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan
Party, defended the raid as a national security issue.

Speaking to local media, he said it was necessary to close the bureau
to prevent espionage, adding, “Every place that works for foreign
intelligence and the Armenian lobby should be raided.”

In Brussels, a spokesperson for the secretary-general of the Council
of Europe said the “closure of [the] Radio Free Europe office again
raises concerns over freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.”

The spokesperson said in a December 28 statement that the Council
of Europe “will request the reason and legal justification for this
action from the Azerbaijani authorities.”

The focus on RFE/RL comes amid a broader crackdown on independent
journalists, activists, and nongovernment organizations that have
raised criticisms about authorities in the oil-rich Caspian country.

As many as 15 journalists and bloggers are currently behind bars in
Azerbaijan, including Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative reporter
and RFE/RL contributor.

Other detainees include Leyla Yunus, one of the country’s best-known
human rights activists, whose work includes the promotion of normalized
ties with neighboring Armenia.

With reporting by VOA

From: Baghdasarian

CSTO’S BORDYUZHA SAYS PEACE ONLY WAY TO SOLVE KARABAKH KNOT

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Dec 29 2014

29 December 2014, 15:01 (GMT+04:00)
By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be settled only by peaceful
political way, said Nikolai Bordyuzha, Head of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO).

“Peaceful resolution of the conflicts doesn’t have any alternative
in the modern world. This is also applicable on the conflicts not
only in Ukraine, but also in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Bordyuzha said.

He added that the problems in Ukraine need a peaceful agreement,
saying: “I opt for a peaceful resolution to all of these conflicts.”

Bordyuzha said Ukraine was repeatedly offered to join the CSTO. “The
organization is still ready to cooperate with Kiev,” he said. “In
particular, the country was invited to cooperate in the fields of
information security and combating the drug trafficking.”

He noted that if Ukraine decides to join the CSTO, there will be
appropriate ground for cooperation.

Member states of the CSTO called for a peaceful settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in a joint statement
issued during their most recent gathering in Moscow on December 23.

The alliance underlined the importance of completion of works on the
basic principles of the conflict’s resolution.

According to the experts, including Alexander Golts, Alexei Malashenko,
Sergei Markov, Pavel Felgenhauer, the CSTO could not intervene in
the negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh problem, since it doesn’t have
any right to be engaged in any process related to the conflict.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made
territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early
1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed
forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE
Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by
the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. However,
the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the
efforts of the co-chair countries for over 20 years.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country’s territories.

From: Baghdasarian

HUNGRY AND HOMELESS PEOPLE GO UNNOTICED IN GYUMRI – NGO CHIEF CONCERNED AHEAD OF NEW YEAR

22:15 * 29.12.14

In an interview with Tert.am, the head of the Gyumri-based NGO
Shirak Center expressed his concerns of the continuing indifference
to residents living in temporary shelters.

Vahan Tumasyan, who is in daily contact with families living in wagons
since the 1988 earthquake, said foodless and homeless children and
people often remain ignored even in the New Year holiday period.

Asked whether the well-to-do class does anything at all to offer aid to
the impoverished, Tumasyan said he thinks that the public celebrations
they annually organize in the second largest city only add to the
expenses, without fundamentally solving any problem. He said those
celebrations are held normally by people for whom every single day
of year seems to be a holiday. “Let alone the authorities and the
people in government whom I do not even feel like criticizing at all,
and the ordinary Armenians who do not even notice the vast number of
children needing bread, those living in poverty and the people who
are hungry as a matter of fact,” he noted.

Tumasyan said he feels that the kind of active campaign their NGO
conducts towards raising publicity on the impoverished population’s
living standards would have produced a completely different outcome in
any other nation and society. “Those tremendous activities work only
for 10%; but even for that 10% of people it is worth continuing it,”
he added.

Asked to comment on state assistance projects, Tumasyan said they
now have an agreement over assisting the needy with firewood. “The
Gyumri municipality recently participated in the ‘firewood’ project,
and the regional governor [of Shirak] has now joined it too. So
they will offer aid to 100 families after the holidays,” the NGO’s
president said, adding that they still need to do far more to call
for savings by the local authorities for directing resources to the
population’s social needs.

From: Baghdasarian

ALL POLITICAL FORCES WAITING FOR FEBRUARY – ARMEN BADALYAN

14:03 * 29.12.14

In an interview with Tert.am, expert in political technologies Armen
Badalyan said that since Russia’s authorities will specify their
position on constitutional amendments next February no political
confrontation over the matter should be expected in Armenia before
that.

“Armenia’s authorities remain strong. They neither gained nor lost
anything. By ‘mobilizing’ I understand acquiring new allies, higher
ratings. I think that the government has lost part of its rating
during its unsuccessful activities – no economic growth or allies
or supporters.”

As to whether Armenia’s authorities fail to see any threats, Mr
Badalyan said:

“What are they going to do? Are they going to hold their supporters’
congresses? They have what they have and are going to use it as they
think best.”

>From January to the end of February or beginning of March Armenia’s
authorities are supposed to deal with constitutional amendments.

“The matter is expected to be clarified. Specifically, the president
must know the Russian leadership’s position because it is clear that
‘constitutional reforms’ actually imply a change of power. After they
have discussed it, the consequences will be discussed in Armenia. No
confrontation over the matter should be expected until the matter
has been specified.”

Asked why it took Russia such a long time to develop and express its
opinion, Badalyan said he thinks that Russia had much more serious
problems to preoccupy itself with.

“Russia has its own problems, and Armenia is not of such a big
importance for it to force the country to set aside all those questions
to tackle the domestic problems of Armenia. It has to do with Ukraine
and its own economy, the sanctions and anti-sanctions. So why should
deal with Armenia’s problems unless all those questions are resolved. ”

As for possible indirect impacts on Armenia, the expert avoided to
make any predictions. “It’s not me but the Armenian authorities that
link everything with the Russian authorities’ decisions. And the
September 3 [2013] decision was made by the Armenian president,
not me. And that can be said to have diametrically changed the
country’s domestic policies in one night, as we saw the impact of
the declining Dram-Rouble relations on Armenia’s economy. And we saw
the Rouble stabilize after the Dram began stabilizing. As to those
relations’ impact, I don’t know anything yet. And I cannot engage
in fortune-telling.”

From: Baghdasarian

JAVADYAN: ARMENIA’S FINANCIAL SECTOR ABLE TO RESIST SHOCKS

YEREVAN, December 29. /ARKA/. Armenia’s financial sector has repeatedly
proved its ability to resist shocks, Arthur Javadyan, chairman of
the Central Bank of Armenia said Saturday at a traditional New Year
event held by the regulator.

He said deep structural economic and political changes in the world
and the region affect Armenia’s economy.

“However, the Armenian economy has its own peculiarities, and in
this context impacts from Russia’s economy or problems of this
country’s banking sector can’t fully reflect upon our economy – it
is impossible,” Javadyan was quoted by the regulator’s press office
as saying at the event.

The head of the central bank stressed that the recent fever at
Armenia’s forex market was tamed ahead of New Year holidays.

“Our citizens and economic entities are still skeptical about things
in the first months of the next year, but the steps we are taking
pledge stability at the financial market,” he said.

Fever at Armenia’s forex market began on November 24, when the dollar
surged 16.6 percentage points to 435 drams hitting its record high
in eight years.

After the dollar hit a new record high on December 17, jumping 36.86
percentage points against the national currency to 527.20 drams,
it shed 30.2 percentage points on the next day to 497 drams and the
dram started recovering gradually thanks to the measures taken by the
central bank and the government, but volatility still remains at the
forex market.

The dollar traded at 461.58 drams on Saturday. In his speech,
Javadyan also thanked those citizens and companies “who trust the
dram – one of the most important symbols of our independence”.

“I want to refer to independent international experts, who say that the
Armenian dram is one of the most accomplished currencies in developing
countries, especially among our region’s countries,” he said. “Those
who showed confidence in our national currency and refrained from
unjustified deals shielded themselves from foreign exchange losses.”

Javadyan said that now many economic entities are trying to fuel fear
of the dram devaluation to mitigate the damage their own jobbing with
currencies inflicted on them.

He said that new approaches and flexibility are needed to meet global
challenges and strengthen the basis for a long-term sustainable
economic growth.

“It was impossible to resist the recent month’s spontaneous
developments only by standard approaches,” he said. “We understand
that we act in a new environment in which quick changes in public
behavior should be taken into account as well.”

The head of the central bank also said that the regulator was
consistently lowering the refinancing rate throughout 2014 in an effort
to ensure a long-term economic growth and stable prices to the country.

“The development we faced by the end of this year have changed
our policy, and today we can say that we have managed to curb the
financial market’s excessive resonance and to cushion inflation
pressures,” Javadyan said.

On December 23, the Central Bank of Armenia raised the refinancing
rate by 1.75 percentage points to 8.5%. Before that, the regulator
changed the rate on August 12 by lowering it from 7% to 6.75%.

In the government budget for 2014, economic growth is projected at
5.2%, and in the 2015 budget GDP real growth is projected at 4.1%.

Inflation is projected at 4% (±1.5%) in both 2014 and 2015 budgets.

—0—-

From: Baghdasarian

Interfax, Russia
Dec 26 2014

Russian export duty exemptions on hydrocarbons, diamonds for Armenia
extended to 2015-end

MOSCOW. Dec 26

Russia will continue to export gas, oil products and diamonds to
Armenia without charging export duties throughout 2015, the Cabinet
said on its website on Friday.

The day before, the government approved a draft instruction on signing
the protocol to the December 2, 2013, agreement between the
governments of the two countries concerning deliveries of natural gas
and oil products and rough diamonds to Armenia.

The protocol extends the agreement, which provides for duty free
exports of those goods to Armenia in volumes needed for domestic
consumption, for another year, to December 31, 2015.

Jh of

From: Baghdasarian

Turkmen Foreign Ministry website, Turkmenistan
Dec 26 2014

Turkmen-Armenian political consultations held in Yerevan

Text of report by website of Turkmen Foreign Ministry on 24 December

Scheduled political consultations at the level of deputy foreign
ministers were held between the Turkmen-Armenian Foreign Ministries in
Yerevan [Armenian capital] on 24 December. The sides analysed the
current state of and prospects for bilateral relations in the
political, trade and economic, cultural, humanitarian and other
spheres.

The sides noted with satisfaction the efficient development of
mutually beneficial cooperation and said that holding regular
political consultations was one of the important mechanisms that
contributes to promotion of Turkmen-Armenian all-around cooperation.

At the same time, the foundation for the cooperation remains political
dialogue that is being successfully developed by the two countries
within the framework of international organizations, above all, the
UN.

Also it was noted the importance of developing trade and economic
relations by using Turkmen-Armenian potential as well as holding
Culture Days of the two countries, business forums with participation
of Turkmen and Armenian business circles.

At the end of the meeting, the sides stressed the need to continue the
established dialogue for further diversification of the fruitful
cooperation that are of mutual interest.

From: Baghdasarian

The Pasadena Star-News, California
Dec 27 2014

Attack on interracial couple in Pasadena being investigated as hate crime

By Brian Day, San Gabriel Valley Tribune

PASADENA >> Police are seeking a man in connection with an unprovoked
attack on an interracial couple outside a Pasadena coffee shop, which
authorities are investigating as a hate crime, officials said.

A 29-year-old black woman and a 36-year-old man of Armenian descent,
both Glendale residents, were outside a Starbucks at Los Robles Avenue
and Colorado Boulevard about 7 p.m. when the attacker confronted them,
Pasadena police Lt. John Luna said.

“Without provocation, he made reference to the race of both victims,”
Luna said. “The suspect spat on the female victim and punched the male
victim.”

The male victim sought his own medical treatment for a cut to his
lower lip, the lieutenant said. The woman wasn’t hurt. The couple did
not report the crime to police until several hours later.

Luna said the suspect apparently objected to the man and woman being
of different races.

“Based on the fact that race was the provocation, we’re investigating
it as a hate crime,” he said.

Police described the suspect as a black man in his 20s, about 6 feet 2
inches tall and 190 pounds, with his hair in dreadlocks. He wore a red
jacket and blue jeans.

From: Baghdasarian