Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK: ARMENIA’S GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OUT NEW LOAN FROM INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

11:42 * 17.06.14

Armenia’s government plans to take out a new loan from international
organizations to purchase a large consignment of cash registers.

The government claims the cash registers are to be provided to
different economic entities free of charge. Among the “beneficiaries”
are shops in Armenia’s borderline regions and other “small businesses.”

However, the government’s initiative has aroused serious doubts.

Experts say that the cash registers, each worth $50-$60, are going to
be purchased from a Taiwanese company for $400 each. The cash registers
are produced for Armenia, with the Cash Register Installation Office
non-commercial organization importing them to Armenia.

Interestingly, the organization’s activities are a closely-guarded
secret.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIANS ARGUE OVER STATUE TO STALIN OFFICIAL

The Conway Bulletin
June 16 2014

Jun 15, 2014

YEREVAN, June 11 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia intends to honour
Anastas Mikoyan, a senior member of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s
government, by erecting a statue of him in the centre of Yerevan.

Many Armenians, though, are appalled by the decision to build a statue
to Mikoyan — a man accused of signing the death warrants of hundreds
of his countrymen in the 1930s during the so-called purges. They
suspect it is part of a wider plot to curry favour with Russia where
Stalin and his associates have experienced something of a resurgence
in popularity.

Armenia views Russia as a key ally, ensuring that there is a
military balance with Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus and offering
the sugar-sweet potential of joining its Eurasian Economic Union,
which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus.

With a hint of dry irony, Alina Abrahamyan, a 35-year-old historian,
said: “This is another brilliant example of crawling under Moscow’s
feet. Or it is just Moscow’s decision to erect Mikoyan’s monument in
its Armenian suburb?”

Mikoyan was a Bolshevik and Soviet statesman who served under Vladimir
Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev. Mikoyan
was the only Soviet politician to remain at the highest levels of
power within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and some revere
him for this.

Some others also say that Mikoyan was an adept politician who was
able to argue the Soviet Union’s position among the top statesmen of
the day.

“Mikoyan was a politician equal to Churchill. It was due to him that
the world escaped a third World War, as he was the famously able to
calm the Caribbean tensions down,” 70-year-old Maya Manouelian said.

“But at the same time we know that he signed executions of so many
Armenians. He, though, did not have an alternative as his political
status forced him to do it.”

From: Baghdasarian

Ya Libnan, Lebanon
June 15 2014

Hezbollah helps Syrian army recapture Kasab near Turkey

Sunday, June 15, 2014 8:13 PM

Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah recaptured the strategic
town of Kasab, near the only border crossing with Turkey in the
northwestern province of Latakia, according to a report by Tehran
Times.

“Units from the army are reestablishing security in the province of
Latakia after killing a large number of terrorists and destroying
their weapons,” Tehran Times quoted Syrian state television as saying.

The Syrian regime has always been referring to the Syrian rebels as
“terrorists”.

Kasab, a mostly Armenian town, is strategically located near the only
border crossing with Turkey in the mostly Aalawite Latakia province.

Tens of thousands of Hezbollah fighters are actively trying to save
the regime of the embattled president Bashar al Assad despite the
Baabda accord which calls for distancing Lebanon from the Syrian
conflict.

Twenty-nine fighters of the Iranian backed Shiite Hezbollah militant
group were reportedly killed in Syria’s Rankous between Friday and
Saturday, during clashes with the Free Syrian Army ( FSA), FSA
Commander Abu Omar Alloush was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Rarely a day passes in Lebanon without an announcement about martyrdom
of Hezbollah fighters in Syria.

From: Baghdasarian

Press TV, Iran
June 15 2014

Militants escape Kasab near Turkey border

Foreign-backed and Takfiri militants have fled the strategic town of
Kasab in northwestern Syria following the army presence in the area.

The militants, mostly from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, withdrew
from the Armenian town near the Turkish border on Saturday.

The withdrawal came after tanks of the Syrian army took position in
the nearby villages signaling an impending attack.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants
left behind “only a small number” of their men.

The militants are said to have pulled back to their strongholds in the
rural mountainous region of Jabal al-Akrad.

Kasab’s liberation is strategically important as the town is located
near the only border crossing with Turkey in the Latakia province.

The militants took control of the mostly Armenian-populated town last March.

Meanwhile, units of the Syrian army made major gains in their battles
against militants elsewhere in the country.

The Britain-based observatory said on Friday that at least 130,000
people have been forced out of their homes since late April.

The group added that Takfiri militants of the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) were preventing food and medical supplies from
reaching some neighborhoods of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. Over
160,000 people have reportedly been killed and millions displaced due
to the violence fueled by the foreign-backed militants.

According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies —
especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are supporting the
militants operating inside Syria.

From: Baghdasarian

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
June 14, 2014 Saturday

TRIAL BEGINS: Family fears Cuban court has made its decision

Transportation executive spent over two years in jail before charges
laid but suspicion is outcome has been determined

by KIM MACKRAEL
OTTAWA

More than 21/2 years after his arrest in a wide-ranging corruption
investigation, a Canadian business executive accused of bribery and
tax evasion is pleading his case before a Cuban court – but his family
fears the outcome has been predetermined.

Cy Tokmakjian, 74, appeared before a Cuban court on Monday for the
beginning of a trial that is expected to last two weeks. His charges
relate to bribery, contractual issues, and commercial crimes against
the Cuban economy and he is being tried alongside at least 16 other
individuals who either worked for or had dealings with his company’s
operations in Cuba.

Originally from Armenia, Mr. Tokmakjian founded a transportation
company in Canada in the early 1970s and later expanded the firm’s
operations to Cuba, Barbados and several other countries. He was
arrested in September, 2011, and held in a Cuban jail for nearly 2 1/2
years before any charges were laid.

Lee Hacker, a spokesman for Mr. Tokmakjian’s family and vice-president
of finance for the Tokmakjian Group, said Mr. Tokmakjian maintained
high ethical standards in his work and did not break Cuban laws.

“The allegations and charges made against the Tokmakjian Group by
Cuban authorities are completely baseless and the defence will show
that clearly,” Mr. Hacker said in a written statement that was
provided to The Globe and Mail. “However, because of serious concerns
with the lack of due process, transparency and independence in the
Cuban system, we fear that the outcome has already been
predetermined.”

A statement outlining Mr. Tokmakjian’s defence, obtained by The Globe,
says the businessman invited Cuban officials for meals at his home and
gave Christmas and New Year’s gifts to a range of recipients but made
no attempt to obtain any favours in return.

Earlier this year, the Tokmakjian Group filed a claim against the
Cuban government with the Ontario Superior Court. A statement of claim
alleges that the company’s assets were improperly seized and that the
Cuban government interfered with Tokmakjian Group’s commercial
relations with its customers.

The trial comes one year after another Canadian businessman, Sarkis
Yacoubian, was sentenced to nine years in prison on corruption-related
charges after he reportedly co-operated with Cuban authorities in
their investigation. Mr. Yacoubian was expelled from Cuba in February
and has since returned to Canada. He did not have to serve the
remainder of his sentence when he returned to Canada because Cuban
authorities did not arrange a transfer.

The 2011 arrests of Mr. Yacoubian and other business executives and
their trials came as a surprise to foreign investors and raised
questions about the security of their assets in Cuba. Experts say the
arrests, combined with attempts to increase the Cuban government’s
control of some foreign businesses, have clouded the country’s
business environment at a time when the government is trying to
attract more capital to the communist economy.

Conservative MP Peter Kent has followed Mr. Tokmakjian’s case and
visited him in prison last fall. He said he is troubled by reports the
Cuban court may not review all the evidence Mr. Tokmakjian’s lawyers
had asked to present.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and
Development would not say whether it is assisting Mr. Tokmakjian,
citing privacy concerns. “Consular services are being provided to the
Canadian citizen who is detained in Cuba,” Beatrice Fenelon wrote in
an e-mail when asked about Mr. Tokmakjian’s case. “Canadian consular
officials in Havana are engaging local authorities and continue to
monitor the case closely.”

Officials at the Cuban embassy in Ottawa could not be reached to
comment on the matter.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIE
Une entreprise libanaise va établir des vergers de noix de pécan en Arménie

La société libanaise Gardenia Lebniz Farms va établir des vergers de
noix de pécan dans la région du Kotayk avec une variété américaine du
fruit a déclaré le ministère de l’agriculture.

Cette décision fait suite à une réunion du ministre de l’agriculture
arménien Sergo Karapetian avec l’ambassadeur du Liban en Arménie, Jean
Makaron, le président de Gardenia Lebniz Fermes Nicola Abu Faisal et
un représentant de la même société Jamil Abdeim.

La société libanaise a déjà choisi 20 hectares de terres dans Yeghvard
et va planter les premiers arbres de noix de pécan apportés de l’Etat
américain de Californie.

dimanche 15 juin 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

VATICAN
> déclare
Sa Sainteté Aram Ier au cours du dîner de clôture avec la délégation
arménienne

Le dernier soir de sa visite officielle au Vatican, Sa Sainteté Aram
I, le clergé l’accompagnant et les délégués ont tenu un dîner de fête.

Après des chants joyeux, la récitation de poèmes et de grces, le
Catholicos s’est adressé à la délégation et a décrit la visite comme
une étape positive dans l’oecuménisme et qui a donné une visibilité à
l’Arménie et la cause arménienne. Se référant au Catholicosat de
Cilicie, il a dit que les fidèles sont au coeur de sa mission. Il a
ensuite reconnu l’urgence de la réforme de l’Église, et a annoncé que
les deux Catholicos avaient accepté de faire de la question leur
priorité.

Dans sa conclusion, Sa Sainteté a exhorté les délégués et à travers
eux les fidèles dans leurs diocèses de s’impliquer dans la vie de
l’Église et de donner une expression concrète à sa vocation et à la
mission.

La soirée s’est achevée par le chant de l’hymne de la Cilicie et les
bénédictions finales du Catholicos Aram I.

dimanche 15 juin 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

Belfast Telegraph, Ireland
June 14, 2014 Saturday

Significant debut inspired by a long-forgotten atrocity: Anyush

The inspiration for Martine Madden”s debut novel, Anyush, came from a
photograph of a woman”s naked, emaciated body by the road beside
those of her two dead children.

Taken in secret by young German soldier Armin Wegner during the
massacre of Turkey”s Armenians in the genocide of 1915, this
devastating image stayed with Madden, then herself the mother of
several small children.

Along with the discovery of these photographs it was Madden”s
friendship with two Lebanese Armenians during the years she lived with
her husband in Abu Dhabi that gave her the idea for her novel.

The final impetus came when having returned home to Ireland, Madden
sat at her computer, composing a piece for the local primary school on
the treatment and prevention of head lice (of all things). Putting
words on a virtual page reminded her of how much she had missed
writing and, now her youngest had begun school, she found herself with
the quiet time to get back to it.

Written in deceptively simple language, this meticulously researched
and moving novel is based on the true stories of individuals who lived
through the terrible atrocities of the Armenian genocide.

It is told through a series of diary entries of Dr Charles Stewart,
who runs a local hospital with his wife Hetty, and interspersed with
third-person narratives of Anyush Charcoardian and Captain Jahan
Orfalea, whose dangerous love affair forms its central theme.

The eponymous main character, Anyush, is a young Armenian girl who
lives in the small village of Trebizond with her cantankerous mother
Khandut and her beloved grandmother Gohar.

Her strength of character is evident from the opening chapter where we
see her defiance and bravery against the gendarmes.

We follow her story as she witnesses the pure barbarism of war and as
she struggles with the destruction of her village, her mother”s
beatings, the lecherous advances of the village trapper, Husik, and
the immense difficulty of carrying on an affair with a Turkish
soldier.

Madden”s descriptions of the final journey, the death march of the
Armenians out of Trebizond, their malnutrition, suffering and
inevitable death are as every bit harrowing as the closing scenes of
John Steinbeck”s The Grapes of Wrath.

This is a significant work by Madden, and one that sheds important
light on a little-talkedabout atrocity.

It”s the sort of book that gets under your skin and stays with you
long after you have finished reading it.

From: Baghdasarian

CHURCH LEADERS CALL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE IN SYRIA

Standard Newswire, NY
June 13 2014

Contact: World Council of Churches, +41-79-507-6363

GENEVA, June 13, 2014 /Standard Newswire/ — Recognizing the failure
of the Geneva 2 talks four months ago and the ongoing violence and
human calamity in Syria, church leaders and representatives from
Syria gathered in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, to address the challenges
for faith communities in the crisis in Syria.

The group met June 11 and 12 in a consultation at the invitation
of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all
Armenians, in cooperation with the World Council of Churches (WCC).

In a communique released by the group on Thursday, 12 June, they
called for restrictions on funding humanitarian aid in Syria to be
lifted, for an end to the flow of arms and funding to all parties to
the conflict, and for withdrawal of all armed foreign fighters.

Conferees pointed to the current regional humanitarian assistance
addressing the needs of refugees fleeing Syria, and they called for
“further cooperation among the different churches and church agencies”
working there.

They acknowledged the 22 January, 2014 meeting on Syria held at the
Ecumenical Centre in Geneva where church leaders said in a message to
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League joint representative
for Syria, that they were convinced there is no military solution and
there needed to be an “immediate cessation of all armed confrontation
and hostility within Syria” ensuring that “all vulnerable communities
in Syria and refugees in neighboring countries receive appropriate
humanitarian assistance” and that “a comprehensive and inclusive
process toward establishing a just peace and rebuilding Syria” should
be developed.

In Armenia they also called for “the immediate release of the
two Archbishops from Aleppo, His Eminence Boulos (Yazigi), Greek
Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Alexandretta, and His Eminence
Mor Youhanna Gregorios (Ibrahim), Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of
Aleppo, as well as Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, and all captives and
those unjustly imprisoned.”

The leaders gathered on the eve of the Centenary of the Armenian and
Syriac Genocide and prayed for justice and peace. The group included
representatives from the Middle East Council of Churches, the WCC,
the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, and the Community of Sant’Edigio.

Participants came from Armenia, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Norway,
Poland, Russ, the UK and the USA.

From: Baghdasarian

ENVIRONMENTALIST: WILD ANIMALS KILLED IN ARMENIA FOR PREPARING EXOTIC DISHES

June 13, 2014 | 17:30

YEREVAN. – Environmentalists claim wild animals are killed in Armenia
for preparing exotic dishes.

The large restaurant complexes are keeping wild animals to entertain
the guests, and also have dishes from their meat on the menu, head
of Center for Bird Lovers NGO Silva Adamyan said during a press
conference on Friday.

“In order to include dishes from wild boar or a bear, you must obtain
a special permit,” she said.

Wealthy and influential people keep wild animals that are included
in the IUCN Red List only for entertainment, she said, without giving
any names.

“Wild animals are kept in poor conditions, they are often victims of
abuse,” she noted.

Asked whether the organization or Nature Protection Ministry has data
on the number of wild animals kept by individuals, the expert said
there is no such list, although she had addressed previous minister
Aram Harutyunyan.

Silva Adamyan plans to address newly appointed Minister Aramayis
Grigorian with a proposal to conduct appropriate activities to
determine whether the animals are kept legally and in appropriate
conditions.

From: Baghdasarian