Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

THE LAUNCH OF STEPANAKERT AIRPORT IS A MATTER OF A FEW WEEKS, BELGIAN NEWSPAPER SAYS

by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Wednesday, November 5, 11:50

Le Vif.be, a well-known Belgian newspaper, has published an article
about the Stepanakert Airport. The article says that Stepanakert is
the only capital city, whose airport services no flights.

The source says that no flights have been made after opening of the
airport, because the Azeri authorities have threatened to shoot down
any plane, even a civil one.

Le Vif.be points out that the objective of the airport is to ensure
air service between Stepanakert and Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

The air service will become the only alternative to the mountainous
road, which is more than 330 km long.

The article touches on Baku’s territorial claims regarding the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and stresses that in 1989-1992 Azerbaijan
bombarded the city of Stepanakert.

The article also quotes Speaker of the NKR National Assembly Ashot
Ghulyan as saying that the airport is to make civil flights only and
that Baku’s threats can receive similar response, however, “Artsakh
never plays such barbarian games”.

The source says that though a flight from the Stepanakert Airport
caused an overexposure in Azerbaijan in June, nevertheless, the
airport will be launched sooner or later. It is a matter of a few
weeks, the article says.

From: Baghdasarian

THE KERRY-ABDULLAH SECRET DEAL

Monday, November 3rd, 2014 | Posted by Editor

The Secret Stupid Saudi-US Deal on Syria. Oil Gas Pipeline War

by F. William Engdahl

Global Research.ca

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks with Saudi Arabia’s
King Abdullah, September 11, 2014.

The details are emerging of a new secret and quite stupid Saudi-US deal
on Syria and the so-called IS. It involves oil and gas control of the
entire region and the weakening of Russia and Iran by Saudi Arabian
flooding the world market with cheap oil. Details were concluded in
the September meeting by US Secretary of State John Kerry and the
Saudi King. The unintended consequence will be to push Russia even
faster to turn east to China and Eurasia.

One of the weirdest anomalies of the recent NATO bombing campaign,
allegedly against the ISIS or IS or ISIL or Daash, depending on
your preference, is the fact that with major war raging in the
world’s richest oil region, the price of crude oil has been dropping,
dramatically so. Since June when ISIS suddenly captured the oil-rich
region of Iraq around Mosul and Kirkuk, the benchmark Brent price
of crude oil dropped some 20% from $112 to about $88. World daily
demand for oil has not dropped by 20% however. China oil demand has
not fallen 20% nor has US domestic shale oil stock risen by 21%.

What has happened is that the long-time US ally inside OPEC, the
kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has been flooding the market with deep
discounted oil, triggering a price war within OPEC, with Iran following
suit and panic selling short in oil futures markets. The Saudis are
targeting sales to Asia for the discounts and in particular, its major
Asian customer, China where it is reportedly offering its crude for
a mere $50 to $60 a barrel rather than the earlier price of around
$100. [1] That Saudi financial discounting operation in turn is by
all appearance being coordinated with a US Treasury financial warfare
operation, via its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,
in cooperation with a handful of inside players on Wall Street who
control oil derivatives trading. The result is a market panic that
is gaining momentum daily. China is quite happy to buy the cheap oil,
but her close allies, Russia and Iran, are being hit severely.

The deal

According to Rashid Abanmy, President of the Riyadh-based Saudi
Arabia Oil Policies and Strategic Expectations Center, the dramatic
price collapse is being deliberately caused by the Saudis, OPEC’s
largest producer. The public reason claimed is to gain new markets
in a global market of weakening oil demand.

The real reason, according to Abanmy, is to put pressure on Iran
on her nuclear program, and on Russia to end her support for Bashar
al-Assad in Syria.[2]

When combined with the financial losses of Russian state natural
gas sales to Ukraine and prospects of a US-instigated cutoff of
the transit of Russian gas to the huge EU market this winter as EU
stockpiles become low, the pressure on oil prices hits Moscow doubly.

More than 50% of Russian state revenue comes from its export sales
of oil and gas.

The US-Saudi oil price manipulation is aimed at destabilizing several
strong opponents of US globalist policies. Targets include Iran and
Syria, both allies of Russia in opposing a US sole Superpower. The
principal target, however, is Putin’s Russia, the single greatest
threat today to that Superpower hegemony. The strategy is similar
to what the US did with Saudi Arabia in 1986 when they flooded the
world with Saudi oil, collapsing the price to below $10 a barrel and
destroying the economy of then-Soviet ally, Saddam Hussein in Iraq
and, ultimately, of the Soviet economy, paving the way for the fall of
the Soviet Union. Today, the hope is that a collapse of Russian oil
revenues, combined with select pin-prick sanctions designed by the
US Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence will
dramatically weaken Putin’s enormous domestic support and create
conditions for his ultimate overthrow. It is doomed to fail for
many reasons, not the least, because Putin’s Russia has taken major
strategic steps together with China and other nations to lessen its
dependence on the West. In fact the oil weapon is accelerating recent
Russian moves to focus its economic power on national interests and
lessen dependence on the Dollar system. If the dollar ceases being the
currency of world trade, especially oil trade, the US Treasury faces
financial catastrophe. For this reason, I call the Kerry-Abdullah
oil war a very stupid tactic.

The Kerry-Abdullah secret deal

On September 11, US Secretary of State Kerry met Saudi King Abdullah
at his palace on the Red Sea. The King invited former head of Saudi
intelligence, Prince Bandar to attend. There a deal was hammered
out which saw Saudi support for the Syrian airstrikes against ISIS
on condition Washington backed the Saudis in toppling Assad, a firm
ally of Russia and de facto of Iran and an obstacle to Saudi and
UAE plans to control the emerging EU natural gas market and destroy
Russia’s lucrative EU trade. A report in the Wall Street Journal noted
there had been “months of behind-the-scenes work by the US and Arab
leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State,
but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a
fresh US commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad,
whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority.” [3]

For the Saudis the war is between two competing age-old vectors of
Islam. Saudi Arabia, home to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina,
claims de facto supremacy in the Islamic world of Sunni Islam. The
Saudi Sunni form is ultra-conservative Wahhabism, named for an 18th
Century Bedouin Islamic fundamentalist or Salafist named Muhammad
ibn Abd al-Wahha. The Taliban derive from Wahhabism with the aid of
Saudi-financed religious instruction. The Gulf Emirates and Kuwait
also adhere to the Sunni Wahhabism of the Saudis, as does the Emir
of Qatar. Iran on the other hand historically is the heart of the
smaller branch of Islam, the Shi’ite. Iraq’s population is some 61%
majority Shi’ite. Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad is a member
of a satellite of the Shi’ite branch known as Alawite. Some 23% of
Turkey is also Alawite Muslim. To complicate the picture more, across
a bridge from Saudi Arabia sits the tiny island country, Bahrain
where as many as 75% of the population is Shi’ite but the ruling
Al-Khalifa family is Sunni and firmly tied to Saudi Arabia. Moreover,
the richest Saudi oil region is dominated by Shi’ite Muslims who work
the oil installations of Ras Tanura.

An oil and gas pipeline war

These historic fault lines inside Islam which lay dormant, were
brought into a state of open warfare with the launching of the US
State Department and CIA’s Islamic Holy War, otherwise known as the
Arab Spring. Washington neo-conservatives embedded inside the Obama
Administration in a form of “Deep State” secret network, and their
allied media such as the Washington Post, advocated US covert backing
of a pet CIA project known as the Muslim Brotherhood. As I detail in my
most recent book, Amerikas’ Heiliger Krieg, the CIA had cultivated ties
to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood death cult since the early 1950’s.

Now if we map the resources of known natural gas reserves in the
entire Persian Gulf region, the motives of the Saudi-led Qatar and
UAE in financing with billions of dollars the opposition to Assad,
including the Sunni ISIS, becomes clearer. Natural gas has become
the favored “clean energy” source for the 21st Century and the EU is
the world’s largest growth market for gas, a major reason Washington
wants to break the Gazprom-EU supply dependency to weaken Russia and
keep control over the EU via loyal proxies like Qatar.

The world’s largest known natural gas reservoir sits in the middle of
the Persian Gulf straddling part in the territorial waters of Qatar
and part in Iran. The Iranian part is called North Pars. In 2006
China’s state-owned CNOOC signed an agreement with Iran to develop
North Pars and build LNG infrastructure to bring the gas to China.[4]

The Qatar side of the Persian Gulf, called North Field, contains
the world’s third largest known natural gas reserves behind Russia
and Iran.

In July 2011, the governments of Syria, Iran and Iraq signed an
historic gas pipeline energy agreement which went largely unnoticed in
the midst of the NATO-Saudi-Qatari war to remove Assad. The pipeline,
envisioned to cost $10 billion and take three years to complete, would
run from the Iranian Port Assalouyeh near the South Pars gas field
in the Persian Gulf, to Damascus in Syria via Iraq territory. The
agreement would make Syria the center of assembly and production in
conjunction with the reserves of Lebanon. This is a geopolitically
strategic space that geographically opens for the first time,
extending from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.[5] As Asia Times
correspondent Pepe Escobar put it, “The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline –
if it’s ever built – would solidify a predominantly Shi’ite axis
through an economic, steel umbilical cord.”[6]

Shortly after signing with Iran and Iraq, on August 16, 2011, Bashar
al-Assad’s Syrian Ministry of Oil announced the discovery of a gas
well in the Area of Qarah in the Central Region of Syria near Homs.

Gazprom, with Assad in power, would be a major investor or operator
of the new gas fields in Syria. [7] Iran ultimately plans to extend
the pipeline from Damascus to Lebanon’s Mediterranean port where it
would be delivered to the huge EU market. Syria would buy Iranian gas
along with a current Iraqi agreement to buy Iranian gas from Iran’s
part of South Pars field.[8]

Qatar, today the world’s largest exporter of LNG, largely to Asia,
wants the same EU market that Iran and Syria eye. For that, they
would build pipelines to the Mediterranean. Here is where getting
rid of the pro-Iran Assad is essential. In 2009 Qatar approached
Bashar al-Assad to propose construction of a gas pipeline from Qatar’s
north Field through Syria on to Turkey and to the EU. Assad refused,
citing Syria’s long friendly relations with Russia and Gazprom. That
refusal combined with the Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline agreement
in 2011 ignited the full-scale Saudi and Qatari assault on Assad’s
power, financing al Qaeda terrorists, recruits of Jihadist fanatics
willing to kill Alawite and Shi’ite “infidels” for $100 a month and a
Kalishnikov. The Washington neo-conservative warhawks in and around
the Obama White House, along with their allies in the right-wing
Netanyahu government, were cheering from the bleachers as Syria went
up in flames after spring 2011.

Today the US-backed wars in Ukraine and in Syria are but two fronts
in the same strategic war to cripple Russia and China and to rupture
any Eurasian counter-pole to a US-controlled New World Order. In
each, control of energy pipelines, this time primarily of natural gas
pipelines–from Russia to the EU via Ukraine and from Iran and Syria
to the EU via Syria–is the strategic goal. The true aim of the US and
Israel backed ISIS is to give the pretext for bombing Assad’s vital
grain silos and oil refineries to cripple the economy in preparation
for a “Ghaddafi-“style elimination of Russia and China and Iran-ally
Bashar al-Assad.

In a narrow sense, as Washington neo-conservatives see it, who controls
Syria could control the Middle East. And from Syria, gateway to Asia,
he will hold the key to Russia House, as well as that of China via
the Silk Road.

Religious wars have historically been the most savage of all wars
and this one is no exception, especially when trillions of dollars in
oil and gas revenues are at stake. Why is the secret Kerry-Abdullah
deal on Syria reached on September 11 stupid? Because the brilliant
tacticians in Washington and Riyadh and Doha and to an extent in Ankara
are unable to look at the interconnectedness of all the dis-order and
destruction they foment, to look beyond their visions of control of
the oil and gas flows as the basis of their illegitimate power. They
are planting the seeds of their own destruction in the end.

William Engdahl is author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil
Politics in the New World Order. He is a contributing author at BFP and
may be contacted through his website at
where this article was originally published.

Notes:

[1] M. Rochan, Crude Oil Drops Amid Global
Demand Concerns, IB Times, October 11, 2014

[2] Nihan Cabbaroglu, Saudi Arabia to pressure Russia Iran
with price of oil, 10 October 2014, Turkish Anadolu Agency,

[3] Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes, Deal With Saudis Paved Way for
Syrian Airstrikes: Talks With Saudi Arabia Were Linchpin in U.S.

Efforts to Get Arab States Into Fight Against Islamic
State, Wall Street Journal, September. 24, 2014,

[4] POGC, North Pars Gas Field, Pars Oil and Gas Company website,

[5] Imad Fawzi Shueibi , War Over Gas-Struggle over the Middle East:
Gas Ranks First, 17 April, 2012.

[6] Pepe Escobar, Why Qatar Wants to Invade
Syria, Asia Times, September 27, 2012,

[7] Ibid.

[8] F. William Engdahl, Syria Turkey Israel and the Greater
Middle East Energy War, Global Research, October 11, 2012,

From: Baghdasarian

DAILY TELEGRAPH NOVEMBER 5 1914

The London Scottish Regiment becomes the first Territorial regiment
to see action

12:01AM GMT 05 Nov 2014

* Download the whole paper pdf & view * (34mb)

There were two firsts reported in the newspaper today, although as one
was a British defeat, its portrayal was by no means accepted as such.

On the happier note, the first Territorial regiment to take its place
in the firing line gave “a glorious lead” to those who would follow,
as the London Scottish regiment “made a brilliant charge” against the
opposing Germans (pages 9 and 11 with a picture of their commander
on page 12).

On the debit side however was the Royal Navy’s first defeat for over a
century, as Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s squadron was defeated off
Chile by the Germans at the Battle of Coronel, which had been fought
four days’ earlier. As the only reports disseminated so far were by the
Germans though, “the Admiralty cannot accept these facts as accurate
at the present time” and the paper clung to the hope that what we had
here were the usual “German lies” and “when full accounts of the action
are received, they may considerably modify the German version” (page
9). Alas no, the feeling of naval invincibility which had permeated
the senior service since Trafalgar was to receive a serious jolt.

Also in today’s paper

– It seems quite dangerous for members of the army back at home,
as a soldier is the subject of an attempted murder by his girlfriend
after an argument on page 3 and another is shot at whilst guarding
the Great Western mainline near Reading – page 4

– The French wine vintage for 1914 is reported to be excellent – page 4

– Not enough men are responding to the call to arms, and this is
blamed upon an impression given to the contrary – page 6

– Russia responds to Turkish attacks by invading Armenia – pages 7
and 12

From: Baghdasarian

ERDOGAN: MASTER OF POLITICAL DUPLICITY

Mirror Spectator
Editorial 11-8 Nov

By Edmond Y. Azadian

Any politician claiming to exercise moral principles has to be cast
as a hypocrite. World history has never witnessed a war to uphold
some moral principles yet almost all wars have been waged under the
cover of moral principles, religious and human rights and above all,
under the cover of promoting democracy.

Media outlets during the last decade or so have been harping on about
how the Arab Spring grew out of popular uprisings in the Middle
Eastern countries against dictators. After trumpeting that lie so
loudly and for so long, the manufacturers of that lie remained as the
only believers while the people at the receiving end of that Spring
only witnessed death, destruction and bloodbaths. And mind, only
the secular governments were toppled, while the medieval potentates
remained under additional protection from those very same powers
which concocted the legend of the Spring, which, incidentally created
further mayhem for the region.

Only opportunists, manipulators and political jugglers could survive
and thrive in that kind of atmosphere. One such political animal has
proven to be Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom the West considered
the right statesman to facilitate their plans, adorning him with
the most gratuitous qualifications, such as “mildly Islamist,” or
“moderately religious,” and so on while the latter used and abused
the religion and the epithets of democracy to further his own agenda,
at the expense of the naivete of his handlers. Erdogan turned out to
be the master of political duplicity and from now on his words and
actions need to be measured under that paradigm.

It is true that under Erdogan Turkey became an economic powerhouse and
regional military superpower, but Turkey’s growth had to serve the
ambitions of its ruler, who dreamt to revive the “glorious” Ottoman
Empire and sitting at the top of the pyramid of power to play the
caliphate of modern times.

First, he used the Gulenists to destroy the secularist power of the
Kemalists. Once he achieved that goal, he began to purge the courts,
the military and the police of those very same Gulenist elements.

In the meantime, Turkey’s Achilles’ heel is the Kurdish issue, which
may eventually lead to the country’s territorial partition. While
entertaining the Gulenists and purging the Kemalists, he opened a
dialogue with the Kurds. He did not consider any logical or legal
impediment to negotiate with the jailed leader of the Kurds, Abdullah
Ocalan, offering some vague promises to disarm the military arm of
the PKK. Now that he Kurds have been fighting a life-and-death battle
against the Islamic extremists of ISIS, Turkish army is bombarding
the Kurdish forces within the country first, by denying any help
to the beleaguered Kurdish forces under siege in Kobani, across the
Turkish border and second, to weaken the Kurdish armed resistance in
preparation for future negotiations.

The case of Kobani is a turning point, and revealing case about
Turkey’s standing within the US-led coalition against ISIS. Although
Turkey has nominally joined the coalition, it is working at
cross-purposes. The irony and Turkish duplicity reside in the fact
that Erdogan’s government not only is refusing to fight against the
coalition-designated enemy, namely ISIS, but it has also banned the
US bases in Turkey from carrying out their mission. On top of all this
travesty, Turkey has been arming the ISIS forces and facilitating their
barbaric atrocities in Kobani, Mosul and other occupied territories
in Iraq and Syria.

Under immense pressure form Turkey’s allies, the foreign minister,
Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated cynically that no civilian population is
left in Kobani, let two terrorist groups destroy each other.

Erdogan’s government is trying to implement the same policy of
duplicity with Israel but certainly not for too long. His angry
outbursts against Israel are intended for two main purposes: to comfort
his conservative power base at home and win kudos from the Arab street,
which can be converted into lucrative business in the Arab world.

The Financial Times, which has dedicated a supplement to Turkey in
its September 22, 2014 issue, writes, “In August of 2014, Mr. Erdogan,
speaking at a presidential campaign rally, as Israel bombarded targets
in Gaza that was to kill 2,100 Palestinians, he said, ‘Those who
condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism.'”

The same article, further down, underlines the contradiction between
Erdogan’s words and actions, stating: “Not withstanding the acrimony,
trade between the two countries continues to new highs. Israel and
Turkey bought a record of $5 billion of each other’s goods in 2013.”

The Financial Times also indicates that Turkish energy links have grown
20 percent in 2014 as compared to 2013 and that an energy deal is on
the drawing board to build a pipeline utilizing offshore Leviathan
Field in the Mediterranean.

No matter how much the western media may portray the Arab world
in denigrating terms, the Arab countries have already detected the
hypocritical policy of Erdogan’s government and they have already
lodged a sobering response during Turkey’s recent campaign to gain a
non-voting membership in the United Nation’s Security Council, where
Ankara failed miserably. Foreign Minister Cavusoglu justified the
defeat by announcing, “We will not give up our principles for votes.”

No one has yet questioned what those principles are.

Although Armenia is a small fish in Turkey’s political pond, Erdogan
and his ventriloquist, Ahmed Davutoglu, are planning to use the same
deceptive means. The protocols, which were much in Ankara’s favor,
were not ratified by that country’s parliament after so much fanfare.

Of all the statesmen, Hillary Clinton stated that the ball is in
Turkey’s court. And still it remains there, neglected.

Mr. Erdogan, after emphatically stating that “our ancestors did not
commit a genocide,” eventually deigned to extend a dubious condolence
to the survivors and the children of those “deportations.”

In preparation to preempt the impact of the Armenian Genocide’s
centennial, the Turkish government has sent out feelers to different
Armenian communities in fact-finding missions. Those facts will help
the Turkish government to formulate its stand on he Genocide issue to
deflate Armenian activism. It was an early sign of that campaign to
engage veteran journalist Etyen Mehcubian as Davutoglu’s senior advisor
“to deal with issues of democracy.” The Turkish government is trying
to get credit that for the first time a non-Muslim has been assigned
to that high position. But turning the tables, we need to ask that
if Turkey is not a racist country, why is it that a non-Muslim has
not been allowed to reach such a position before?

We have to wait and see what kind of spin the Turkish government
will put on the Genocide issue. That will impact also President
Obama’s position.

In the meantime, the actions of Armenians in the homeland and in the
diaspora will be commensurate with the clout they have internationally.

Mr. Erdogan and his prophet, Ahmet Davutoglu, have the unwarranted
presumption that they are shaping history. But their actions and
their policies speak to the contrary. The motto of “zero problems
with neighbors” proved to be an illusory balloon. Actually, it ended
up with “zero neighbors with a multitude of problems.”

From: Baghdasarian

Blewett Scholarship Winners Announced

By Michael Lucibella

The American Physical Society awarded five M. Hildred Blewett
scholarships this year to women returning to their careers after a
hiatus, the largest number of winners since the beginning of the
program.

Chosen by the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, the
five include three new recipients and two returning recipients from
last year. Amy Daradich of the University of Ottawa and Leslie Kerby
at Los Alamos National Laboratory first received scholarships in 2013,
while Ani Tshantshapanyan of North Carolina Central University,
Monique Tirion of Clarkson University, and Lusaka Bhattacharya of
Oklahoma State University are new.

The scholarship is a one-year grant of up to $45,000 that can be used
towards a wide range of necessities, including equipment procurement,
salary, travel, tuition, and dependent care. This is the tenth year
the scholarship has been awarded.

Ani Tshantshapanyan was first drawn to physics during high school in
Armenia. “My parents are chemists, they’re also PhDs,” she said. “I
grew up in that environment of science.”

She received her PhD in semiconductor physics from the Yerevan State
University. At the same time, she had also been working as a
laboratory assistant and then as a senior lecturer at the department
of applied physics at the Russian-Armenian University, also in
Yerevan, Armenia.

Then in 2012 her husband Karen, who also has a doctorate in physics,
took a job in Durham, North Carolina. “We moved to a different country
and finding a secure job was not easy,” Tshantshapanyan said.

After her third child was born last June, Tshantshapanyan decided to
step away from research for a short while to spend more time raising
her three children. “After about one year I started to search for a
position,” Tshantshapanyan said.

Through her husband, she found a postdoc position at North Carolina
State University studying the complex geometry of quantum dots, which
have been used in detectors and lasers.

“My research is about the physical properties of so-called quantum
dots,” she said.

“Properties of quantum dots can be controlled by their external shape
and many other physical properties.”

With the help of the Blewett fellowship, she hopes to publish more
papers on her research, as well as develop software to further her
work. She hopes also to establish contacts with other research
institutions nearby and ultimately find a private company to
collaborate with in order to commercialize the kind of quantum dots
she’s been helping to develop.

Monique Tirion is returning to physics in order to work on better
understanding the dynamics of proteins. X-ray crystallography is a
well-established method for studying the makeup of proteins that make
life possible. However, it turns out that scientists have been seeing
only part of the story. “So people have been admiring these static
images for a long time,” Tirion said. “We can take it a step
further… We can make those static images [into] dynamic images.”

Using software she has been helping to develop, she has been able to
calculate the normal vibrational modes of the different proteins based
on their shapes. The work has helped explain some of the finer points
of how these protein systems behave. “It’s not an easy computation,
but if you carry it through, the insights you gain from it can be very
exciting,” Tirion said. “The static images really can’t elucidate how
all of these little mysteries are resolved.”

She said she’s always been driven by her fascination with the
biological sciences and trying to understand how the world works and
what makes things happen. “It’s just a natural evolution,” Tirion
said. “The world around us is so astounding, the trees and the flowers
and whatnot. My effort to understand that naturally came to this
scale, nanoscale where I’m working.”

Tirion attended Texas A&M University for her undergraduate degree in
physics, and then Boston University for her PhD. There she met Daniel
Ben-Avraham, her future husband. Shortly after receiving her
doctorate, her husband took a job at Clarkson University in upstate
New York. The two moved to the small town of Potsdam, and a short time
later her son Yoel was born.

Yoel was born with three health issues. “All three individually take
some effort to supervise, but all three at the same time was a bit
overwhelming, so I decided to give it my full attention.”

She carefully monitored his diet and homeschooled Yoel until he
started the 7th grade, and today he is much healthier. With Yoel doing
well, Tirion has been able to return to research. Thanks to the
Blewett support, she hopes to take the recent work she’s been doing on
proteins even further.

“I would like to make it more easily available to the
crystallographers,” Tirion said. “I’m not sure where it will go, but
I’m just analyzing these systems and sharing them with the
crystallographers, and seeing where it takes me.”

Lusaka Bhattacharya grew up in India and had always been interested in
the sciences. “Physics is very interesting to me because in physics
you have mathematics, a theoretical part, and you have an experimental
part,” Bhattacharya said. “My mom is also a mathematician so I decided
that that means I would study physics.”

She studied theoretical nuclear physics at the Saha Institute of
Nuclear Physics in India and received her PhD from the University of
Calcutta in 2012. Studying nuclear physics there, she focused on
studying the quark-gluon plasma, and traveled a great deal to present
her work around the world. “It is a very new field so you can explore
a lot,” Bhattacharya said. She added that the idea of learning about
what made up the universe just an instant after the Big Bang was what
attracted her to the field.

While working on her doctorate, she met her husband, and the two
married in 2010. He finished his degree early and traveled first to
Helsinki, and then to Oklahoma, for his postdoc work. After
Bhattacharya finished her doctorate in 2012, she moved to Oklahoma to
join her husband. “My husband is a theoretical physicist like me, but
it is very difficult to get a postdoctoral position in the same
university,” she said.

It was the first time the two had been able to live in the same city
for an extended period of time. Bhattacharya decided to take some time
away from research and start a family. Earlier this year, her first
child was born. “Now he’s almost nine months old so now I think I
should start my career again,” she said.

She started volunteering at Oklahoma State University and
collaborating with her mentor at Kent State University. She’s helping
to develop a photon probe for detecting when particle collisions have
created a quark-gluon plasma.

For more on the Blewett scholarships, see the M. Hildred Blewett
Fellowship web page.

(c)1995 – 2014, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY

From: Baghdasarian

IRAVUNK: SCANDAL IN HERITAGE PARTY

12:38 04/11/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

Citing its sources close to Heritage Party, Iravunk newspaper writes
that a scandal happened in the party as some representatives of the
youth wing began digging dirt up on Zaruhi Postanjyan. According
to the newspaper, it was found out that these people have links with
young activists from Prosperous Armenia and now Heritage cannot decide
what to do with its members who became “spies” of Prosperous Armenia.

Source: Panorama.am

From: Baghdasarian

TRUST BETWEEN BAKU AND YEREVAN IS ONLY POSSIBLE AFTER DE-OCCUPATION, SAYS AZERBAIJANI MINISTER

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Nov 3 2014

3 November 2014 – 11:27am

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said that trust between
Baku and Yerevan was only possible after Armenia’s withdrawal from
the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, 1news.az reports.

Hasanov’s statement was a response to Armenian Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanyan, who had declared the need to create an atmosphere of trust,
withdraw snipers, rule out sabotage operations, create mechanisms of
investigation of incidents on the contact line.

From: Baghdasarian

Arpafilmfestival.com
itsmyseat.com/affma/
Gia Ghadimian, [email protected]
310.428.9544

The Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA.org) announces its 17th
annual Arpa International Film Festival to be held November 14-16th, 2014
at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

Founded in 1995, the AFFMA is a non-profit organization formed for the
purpose of promoting the arts and enhancing the cultural environment of our
community by supporting artists who bridge the cultural divide, unifying
diverse people and cultures through the arts.

At the helm of AFFMA is the Arpa Film Festival. For the 17th year, Arpa has
received hundreds of submissions featuring the films of up-and-coming
writers, producers, and directors from more than 15 countries. With award
winning films including: As it Used to Be and Sombras de Azul, along
with SXSW nominated, I Believe in Unicorns, the Arpa Film Festival is
attracting viewers and tastemakers from all over the world.

I’d love for you to check out the official release below and see if you
think it’s a fit for any publications you are currently writing for.

Thanks so much for the consideration!

ARPA CELEBRATES 17 YEARS OF INDEPENDENT

FILMAKERS AND HONORS

MIKE CONNORS AND ANGELA SARAFYAN

Los Angeles, CA (October 29, 2014) The Arpa International Film Festival (
) has announced the official program and selections
for it’s 17th Annual International Film Festival, a 3-night premiere event.
Opening night red carpet and screenings will take place at The Egyptian
Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Friday, November 14th. Arpa, per tradition,
will close out the festival on Sunday, November 16th with the official
award ceremony announcing Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best
Short Film, Best Music Video, Best Director and Best Screenwriter.

The festival will showcase 50 films from over 16 countries. This years
distinguished panel of judges include producer/director Marc Bienstock;
VP of Production at Lotus Entertainment, Angus Sutherland; President of
Feature Division at Aspire Entertainment, Campbell McInnes; Original
Entertainment’s Daljit DJ Parmar; Emmy Award-winning producer Stan
Brooks; and award-winning filmmaker/actor Sebastian Siegel.

Two international premieres are set to capture the attention of audiences;
the short film Catatonia, written and directed by Karen Khosrovyan and Jivan
Avetisyan’s Armenian feature film Tevanik. Tevanik is a film told in
three parts: The first tells the story of Aram, whose childhood abruptly
comes to an end by tragic events. The second, about Astghik’s feminine
mystique and how her peace turns to war in one single day: losing a friend,
a love, and her idol. In the final story, 14-year-old Tevanik also finds
himself in the middle of the war, learning about life, death and survival.
Tevanik is the recipient of the Best Feature Prize in the Armenian
Panorama Competition at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in July.

=80=8B

Both films will open the festival on Friday evening followed by one of this
year’s biggest festival circuit hits, I Believe In Unicorns, which was
reviewed as one of the `biggest breakouts of the 2014 SXSW Film Festival’
by Indie Wire.

Film screenings will continue at the Egyptian Theatre on Saturday, November
15th starting at 12:15PM in the Spielberg Theatre with gripping
documentaries, Hannah: Buddhism’s Untold Journey and You Have His Eyes.
Saturday features include Eric Boadella’s Toastmaster, starring David
Hovan. The evenings centerpiece screenings include, When My Sorrow Died,
showing at 7:30pm and reviewed below.

=80=8B

`What makes Robert Nazar Arjoyan’s film so entertaining is that its subject
loves the camera almost as much as the camera loves Armen Ra. Whether
preening at home like a 1940s femme fatale or performing live in concert,
Armen is very much his own creation.’ -The Huffington Post

Rounding out Saturday’s centerpiece is, 37:A Final Promise, whose
director Randal Batinkoffwas noted as having delivered `an affecting and
involving romantic drama’ by Variety. 37: A Final Promise premieres at
9:15PM inside the Rigler Theatre.

=80=8B
Closing the festivities on Sunday night, Arpa will show Jack Topalian’s
Newlyweds before presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to actor Mike
Connors and The Rising Star Award will be presented to actress Angela
Sarafyan. The Arpa Foundation Award will also be presented to filmmakers
and individuals whose films deal with subjugated peoples, ethnic cleansing,
forced deportation, massacres and genocides.

=80=8B
Beyond a list of award-winning films, the festival boasts an RSVP list fit
for an event at the world famous Egyptian Theatre. Evening screenings will
be followed by light Mediterranean cuisine and cocktail reception.

ABOUT ARPA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

For over 17 years, Arpa film festival continues to promote independent
filmmakers, cultivating cultural understanding and global empathy in the
heart of Hollywood. Through the generous support of our donors and
sponsors, our yearly film festival event inspires people of all backgrounds
and creates opportunities for creative expression. Arpa’s dedicated
production team is committed to make a difference in fueling the global
arena of independent cinema. For more information, visit
;

For Tickets, please visit:

###

From: Baghdasarian

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

===============================================Monday 3 November 2014
CRIMEA: “ALL OUR PRIESTS AND NUNS WILL HAVE TO LEAVE BY THE 2014 YEAR END”

Russia’s Federal Migration Service is not extending residence permits for
foreign citizens who have been working for Crimean religious communities,
leaving Simferopol’s Roman Catholic parish without its senior priest,
Polish citizen Fr Piotr Rosochacki, who had worked in Crimea for 5 years.
All other Catholic priests and nuns will have to leave by the end of 2014.
Similarly, almost all Turkish Muslim imams and religious teachers have been
forced to leave Crimea. The Federal Migration Service in Crimea told Forum
18 News Service that only registered religious communities can invite
foreign citizens. No Crimean religious communities have registration, and
under a Russian law which entered into force on 1 July all religious
communities must apply for re-registration by 1 January 2015. There is
uncertainty about what will happen to applications from communities under
bodies outside Crimea or Russia – including Crimea’s Armenian Apostolic,
Old Believer, Moscow Patriarchate, Roman Catholic and Kiev Patriarchate
parishes.

CRIMEA: “ALL OUR PRIESTS AND NUNS WILL HAVE TO LEAVE BY THE 2014 YEAR END”

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Russia’s Federal Migration Service has refused to extend residence permits
for foreign citizens who have been working for local religious communities
in Crimea for some years. This has left the Roman Catholic parish in the
capital Simferopol without its senior priest, Polish citizen Fr Piotr
Rosochacki, who had worked in Crimea for five years. All other Roman
Catholic priests and nuns will have to leave by year’s end. Catholic
appeals to the authorities against this have not been heeded. Similarly,
almost all Turkish Muslim imams and religious teachers have been forced to
leave Crimea. Yana Smolova of Russia’s Federal Migration Service in Crimea
insisted to Forum 18 News Service that only registered religious
communities can invite foreign citizens.

Crimea’s Justice Ministry confirmed to Forum 18 that no religious
communities have registration in Crimea and all the applications for
registration under Russian law have been rejected so far (see below). This
means that no religious communities are in a position to invite new foreign
citizens or to extend residence permits for those already working in
Crimea.

Under a law adopted by the Russian parliament in April and signed into law
by President Vladimir Putin on 5 May, all legal entities in Crimea
(including religious communities) need to bring their statutes into line
with Russian law and apply for entry on the unified register of legal
entities if they wish their legal status to continue. The law entered into
force on 1 July and organisations need to apply by 1 January 2015 (see
F18News 10 September 2014
).

“I don’t know. It’s not my problem”

Asked on 23 October 2014 about the enforced departure of Fr Rosochacki and
the Turkish imams and teachers, Aleksandr Selevko, head of the Religious
Affairs Department at Crimea’s Culture Ministry in Simferopol, told Forum
18: “I don’t know. It’s not my problem.” He referred all enquiries to the
Federal Migration Service. “We lost this function, which has now been
handed to them.”

Selevko confirmed that no religious communities in Crimea have Russian
registration, but similarly indicated that this was not his concern. He
refused to give an example of any help his office had given any religious
community and put the phone down.

No action from human rights Ombudsperson

Kseniya Tyamnik, chief specialist to Crimea’s government-appointed human
rights Ombudsperson Lyudmila Lubina, said no one had appealed to her office
about the Russian Federal Migration Service’s refusal to extend residence
permits for Catholic priests and Turkish Muslim imams and teachers, thus
forcing them to leave Crimea. “We’ve had no appeals, either in writing or
on the hotline,” she told Forum 18 from Simferopol on 23 October. “I can’t
say why people don’t appeal. We’ve had many appeals from citizens on other
issues.”

Asked what action the Ombudsperson would take on the enforced departure of
religious leaders invited by local religious communities, Tyamnik indicated
that no action would be taken.

Tyamnik also said no appeals had been received about the many raids,
seizures of religious literature and fines against Muslim and Jehovah’s
Witness people and communities, which have been criticised by the Council
of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. She also said that the
Ombudsperson was not planning to take any action about these incidents (see
F18News 29 October 2014
).

Enforced departure of Catholic priest

Fr Rosochacki – one of two priests at Simferopol’s Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary parish – was forced to leave Crimea on 24 October, the
day before the expiry of his Ukrainian residence permit which the Russian
authorities refused to extend. “Of course I want to be able to return to my
parish soon,” he told Forum 18 on 28 October.

Fr Rosochacki’s departure followed that of 18 of the 23 Turkish imams and
religious teachers who have long served Crimea’s Muslim community (see
F18News 3 September 2014
). Residence permits
for the remaining five Turkish citizens will expire in November and
December.

The next residence permit for other foreign Roman Catholic priests and nuns
due to expire is that of Sister Irena Olszak on 16 December. “Although
other priests and nuns have Ukrainian residence permits for Crimea valid
into next year [2015], the Russian authorities have said they will regard
them as valid only until the end of this year,” Fr Rosochacki told Forum
18. “This means all our priests and nuns will have to leave by the 2014
year end.”

No registration, no invitations

On receiving a verbal rejection of the extension of his residence permit,
Fr Rosochacki appealed to a number of agencies, including the Prosecutor’s
Office. “I had no response”, he told Forum 18.

Fr Rosochacki had also raised the residence permit denials to foreign
Catholic representatives at a 4 September meeting in Simferopol of Crimea’s
Inter-Religious Council. The meeting was attended by the acting head of the
Russian-backed Crimean government, Sergei Aksyonov, as well as Crimea’s
Chief Prosecutor, Natalya Poklonskaya. In response, Poklonskaya promised to
investigate the issue (see F18News 11 September 2014
).

Despite Forum 18’s repeated requests since 10 September for information on
Poklonskaya’s promised investigation, it has received no response from
Crimea’s Prosecutor’s Office.

Smolova of Russia’s Federal Migration Service in Crimea insisted that the
Catholic community’s lack of legal status was the reason for the refusal to
extend Fr Rosochacki’s residence permit to allow him to continue serving
his parish. “If an organisation in Crimea is registered as a legal entity,
it has the right to invite foreign citizens in accordance with the law of
the Russian Federation,” she told Forum 18 from Simferopol on 27 October.

Asked whether – as no religious community in Crimea has any legal status
recognised by the Russian authorities – religious communities are therefore
deprived of the possibility of retaining their religious leaders if they
are foreign citizens, Smolova responded: “The Federal Migration Service
does not deal with questions of state registration of legal entities.”

Fr Rosochacki remains concerned about how the Catholic community will
secure permission for foreign priests and nuns in future. “The Federal
Migration Service told us they have a lot of work at the moment and would
only be able to deal with any applications again in the new year,” he told
Forum 18.

Greek Catholic residence problems, but none for Kiev Patriarchate

Speaking in Lviv in western Ukraine on 23 October, the head of the Greek
Catholic Church Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk stated that only one of
their five Crimean parishes – in Yevpatoriya – still has a priest. Priests
serving their other parishes – in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta and Kerch –
have been forced to leave because the Russian authorities insist that, as
Ukrainian citizens, they can remain for only 90 days before being required
to leave for 90 days (see F18News 27 June 2014
).

In contrast, 11 priests of the Kiev Patriarchate Ukrainian Orthodox Church
– many of whom had fled Crimea after the Russian annexation in March – have
been able to return, Archbishop Kliment (Kushch) of Simferopol and Crimea
told Forum 18 on 28 October. He said five of the 11 had taken up the offer
of Russian citizenship, easing residence difficulties. The others have no
problems at the moment with their Ukrainian passports, as they were already
registered as Crimean residents at the time of Russia’s referendum in
March, he added.

“We went through some tough times earlier this year,” Archbishop Kliment
told Forum 18, “but the situation has now normalised.” He said threats to
sharply increase the rent the Church pays on its cathedral in Simferopol
have apparently gone away at present. The Church had feared this was an
attempt to price them out of the building (see F18News 27 June 2014
).

No registration

No religious organisations in Crimea have gained registration since Russia
imposed its compulsory re-registration following its March annexation of
the peninsula, Irina Demetskaya, head of the Registration Department for
Non-Commercial Organisations at the Justice Ministry in Simferopol
confirmed. She noted that the deadline for applications under Russian law
in force in Crimea is 1 January 2015 (see F18News 10 September 2014
).

The most recent update of the Russian Justice Ministry’s online register of
non-commercial organisations, dated 24 October, similarly lists no
registered religious organisations either in Crimea or in the
administratively-separate city of Sevastopol.

“Only five religious organisations have applied so far and all have been
rejected,” Demetskaya of Crimea’s Justice Ministry told Forum 18 on 23
October. She said one was the Muftiate, another “some Evangelical
Protestants”, but struggled to or did not wish to identify the other three.
She refused to say why all five applications had been rejected.

Many religious communities – including Russian Orthodox, Catholic and
Protestant communities – told Forum 18 that despite the looming deadline,
they are still reviewing how they can apply for registration in a way that
preserves the structures they wish to retain.

What will happen to communities under Ukrainian religious oversight?

Some communities’ religious oversight bodies are outside Crimea or Russia,
such as Crimea’s Armenian Apostolic, Old Believer, Moscow Patriarchate,
Roman Catholic, and Kiev Patriarchate parishes (all of which are part of
Ukrainian-based dioceses). Asked what their situation was, Demetskaya of
the Registration Department for Non-Commercial Organisations at the Crimean
Justice Ministry insisted they could register if they get approval from a
Russian-based organisation, or if they register as independent communities.

Since the Russian annexation, some religious communities have transferred
oversight of their Crimean communities from Ukrainian to Russian bodies. On
1 October, Jehovah’s Witnesses took this step.

However, others have declined to do transfer oversight from Ukrainian to
Russian bodies. The Moscow Patriarchate’s Holy Synod ruled in March that
the Patriarchate’s three dioceses in Crimea should not transfer to the
Russian Orthodox Church and should remain under the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (an autonomous Orthodox church with its headquarters in Kiev under
the Moscow Patriarchate’s jurisdiction).

Similarly, following “long discussions”, a synod in Moscow of the Old
Believer Church of the Belaya Krinitsa Concord decided on 22 October to
leave its Crimean parishes under the jurisdiction of its Ukrainian diocese
for the moment. It postponed further discussion of the issue till the next
synod.

Roman Catholic parishes are part of the Odessa-based diocese in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, Odessa is foreign – they won’t be able to get approval from
there”, Demetskaya of the Justice Ministry stated to Forum 18. Asked if
this means that, if they wish to gain legal status, Crimea’s Catholic
communities will have to distort their canonical structures, she responded:
“Yes.”

Asked what will happen to Moscow Patriarchate dioceses and parishes which
are part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the
Moscow Patriarchate, Demetskaya stated that “all they need is confirmation
from the Moscow Patriarchate in Russia”.

Asked whether Russian officials would allow communities of the Kiev
Patriarchate Ukrainian Orthodox Church to get Russian registration if they
apply for it, Demetskaya appeared unsure. “They’ll get it only if the
Moscow Patriarchate gives its OK”, she responded initially.

Told that the Kiev Patriarchate is independent of the Moscow Patriarchate,
Demetskaya then insisted that like anyone else they could apply to the
state. She refused to say whether officials – who appear to regard Kiev
Patriarchate communities with mistrust – would refuse to process their
registration applications. (END)

Reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Crimea can be found
at .

A printer-friendly map of the disputed territory of Crimea, whose extent is
not marked, can be found in the south-east of the map entitled ‘Ukraine’
.

Reports and analyses on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia
within its internationally-recognised territory can be found at
.

All Forum 18 News Service material may be referred to, quoted from, or
republished in full, if Forum 18 is credited as the
source.

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855.

From: Baghdasarian

Council of Solidarité Protestant France-Arménie
Louise Stierli, Member of the council
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +33 6 15 13 23 96

Visit our Facebook
Press : Asbarez, Connaissance des Arts, Ayp FM, Nouvelles d’Arménie,
Le Courrier d’Erevan

Solidarité Protestante France-Arménie (SPFA) hereby invites
recipients of this email as representatives of the press to attend a
special preview of the Lettres d’Erevan Hermès scarf.
The reception will be hosted by Petrossian Inc. in New York on November
11th 2014 and in Los Angeles on November 12th 2014 following the success
of the reception held at the Petrossian restaurant in Paris in September
2014.

The silk twill scarf will be on sale, by subscription form only, until
December 15th 2014. All proceeds will benefit the humanitarian actions
of SPFA.

This is the second time Hermès has supported the SPFA, ten years after
the release of its Jardins d’Arméniescarf.

Press representatives interested in attending should RSVP as per the
attached invitation.

We look forward to your attendance and support for a remarkable
humanitarian organisation in SPFA. For more information, please visit
our website:

Attachments:

– Invitations

– Lettres d’Erevan presentation and subscription form

– High Definition photographs

From: Baghdasarian