Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

Municipales 2014
Alexis Govciyan 4ème de liste de Delphine Bürkli

Mercredi 5 février, Delphine Bürkli, Conseillère de Paris, tête de
liste de la mairie d’arrondissement du 9ème à Paris pour
l’UMP-UDI-MoDem, a inauguré sa permanence de campagne de la rue de
Douai, en compagnie de ses colistiers, dont Alexis Govciyan, proposé à
la 4ème place. Elle aura face à elle Pauline Véron (PS) qui reprend le
flambeau de Jacques Bravo dont c’était le dernier mandat dans le 9ème.

Dans les locaux exigus de son QG, nombreux étaient venus soutenir
cette jeune femme dynamique et souriante, dont en premier lieu
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Christian Saint-Etienne, tête de liste de
l’UDI (11e), ainsi qu’entre autres, Alain Touhadian (photo), Président
de l’Association Arménienne d’Aide Sociale (AAAS).

Protégée de Pierre Lellouche, Delphine Bürkli, 40 ans le 5 juin
prochain, native du 17ème, a passé son enfance dans le 9ème où ses
parent étaient commerçants. De ce fait elle connaît bien la communauté
arménienne qu’elle a d’ailleurs rencontré le 20 janvier dernier. Dans
sa jeunesse elle a pu approcher Arpik Missakian (Haratch) qui
fréquentait régulièrement le restaurant de ses parents. La candidate
évoque avec ferveur >, dit-elle.

Élevée dans le quartier du square Montholon, fief arménien des
premiers réfugiés dès le début du XXème siècle (*), elle a baigné de
plein pieds dans la culture arménienne. >,
dit-elle >

Quatrième de liste, Alexis Govciyan pourrait briguer un poste
d’adjoint au maire à déterminer en fonction des portefeuilles >, a-t-il indiqué.

Dans son combat à la conquête du 9éme, Delphine Bürkli, promet de
lutter contre les problèmes d’insécurité et de propreté. Par le manque
d’espaces verts, et de s’atteler à une politique du logement. >, a-t-elle
affirmé. Elle se dit confiante quant à sa prochaine victoire. Réponse
le 30 mars.

Jean Eckian + photos

(*) après les massacres hamidiens (1894) et ceux d’Adana (1909)

jeudi 6 février 2014,
Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com
– 107

From: Baghdasarian

PRESS RELEASE
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

05 February, 2014

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund reconstructs Stepanakert’s Sayat-Nova Music
College

Through the sponsorship of Moscow industrialist and Hayastan All-Armenian
Fund Benefactor Member Armen Shakhazizyan, the fund is implementing
extensive renovations at Stepanakert’s Sayat-Nova Music College. The project
is co-sponsored by the government of Nagorno Karabakh.

The refurbishment of the Sayat-Nova Music College, which has a total area of
1,925 square meters, comprises major structural and cosmetic improvements.
To date, the building has been reinforced and thoroughly redesigned, and its
exterior has been overlaid with marble tiles. When renovations are completed
within a few months, the beautiful landmark, which was built in the Soviet
era, will be transformed into an ultra-modern educational facility, complete
with well-lit staircases, a state-of-the-art auditorium, and soundproofed
classrooms.

In the past three years, Armen Shakhaziziyan has sponsored an extensive
renovation of the Stepanakert Retirement Home and the construction of a
potable-water network in Artsakh.

From: Baghdasarian

ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN NOT DECISIVE ON NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

February 05, 2014 | 17:32

YEREVAN. – Four non-coalition parliamentary factions will petition
to the Constitutional Court, ARF Dashnaktsutyun MP Armen Rustamyan
told reporters after an initiative to set up an interim committee on
gas issues was voted down.

Asked about the demand of government’s resignation voiced by ANC,
Rustamyan said there are not against the idea.

“We are not against the idea, because we have raised the issue
of no-confidence vote. We simply refrain from repeating the ideas,
since, by repeating we do not become stronger. If we are to address
this issue, then I think that we have to change the context,”
Rustamyan said.

He also added that the faction had received an offer, but the matter
needs to be discussed.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

HISTORIC ARMENIAN CHURCH TO REOPEN IN TURKEY’S EAST

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Feb 5 2014

04 February 2014 16:39 (Last updated 04 February 2014 16:41)
1,700-year-old St. Bartholomew Monastery church was reopened to
worship last year after relocation of army base.

VAN, Turkey

A church in the 1,700-year-old St. Bartholomew Monastery in Turkey’s
eastern city Van will be restored and opened to tourists.

The provincial culture and tourism directorate said that the
restoration project for the church was sent to the Ministry of Culture.

The church had been closed for years as it located within the compound
of an army base.

It reopened for religious services in 2013, when the base was
relocated.

“We are planning to restore the church and open it to tourists by the
end of this year,” said Muzaffer Aktug, Culture and Tourism Director
of the Van province.

“Aside from the restoration of St. Bartholomew’s, we also have many
other projects that include environmental planning and restoration
projects for several Urartu-era castles,” he said.

St. Bartholomew’s Church was built on the site of the martyrdom of
the Apostle Bartholomew, who is reputed to have brought Christianity
to Armenia in the first century.

The area around Van is noted for its numerous Armenian churches and
Iron Age Urartu ruins.

From: Baghdasarian

YEREVAN – ANKARA, THE BIG CHILL

Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Italy
Feb 5 2014

Mikayel Zolyan | Yerevan
5 February 2014

Seven years after Hrant Dink’s tragic death in Istanbul, his dream
of an Armenian-Turkish reconciliation seems as distant as ever

On January 19 thousands of people marched in the streets of Istanbul,
holding signs in Turkish and Armenian, in commemoration of the 7th
anniversary of the tragic death of the journalist Hrant Dink. It may
be a sign of changing times in Turkey that thousands of people took
to the streets in memory of an ethnic Armenian journalist. However,
the dream that was so dear to Hrant Dink, the reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey, seems today almost as remote as it had been before
his murder.

Currently, says Artak Ayunts, a conflict resolution expert from
Yerevan, on the official level the relations between the two countries
are at the lowest point since 2007. Signs are abundant that Armenia
and Turkey are drifting even further apart than they were (if that is
possible). Even though the Armenian-Turkish protocols signed in 2009
have not been formally discarded, neither side has ratified them and it
is impossible to imagine that they will be ratified in the foreseeable
future. Neither the much publicized visit of Turkish foreign minister
to Yerevan, when he took part in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
meeting on December 12 2013, nor the communication between Davutoglu
and Nalbandyan at OSCE meeting in Kiev several days earlier, have
lead to any significant outcomes.

After the meeting between Davutoglu and Nalbandyan in Yerevan,
instead of holding a joint press conference, Davutogly gave a press
conference to Turkish journalists, while Armenian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs issued a statement. Apart from general thoughts, neither side
expressed any new ideas. Some attention was drawn to Davutoglu’s
remarks, quoted by Turkish newspapers: he acknowledged that what
happened to Armenians in 1915 was “completely wrong” and “inhumane”.

However, this hardly can be interpreted as willingness to go beyond
Ankara’s traditional position, since Davutoglu immediately added that
Armenia in its turn should be ready to acknowledge the suffering
that Turks have been through during these events. In other words,
Davutoglu was largely reproducing the traditional Turkish view,
according to which what happened in 1915 was not a genocide organized
by the Turkish state, but rather series of ethnic clashes, of which
both Armenians and Turks suffered.

End of the football diplomacy in Armenia

Armenia has emerged disillusioned from the so called “football
diplomacy”. Signing protocols had been a bold step for Armenia’s
president Serzh Sargsyan, who received a lot of criticism for
it. One of the ruling coalition parties, Dashnaktsutyun, even left
the coalition because of the protocols. The reaction of the Diaspora
was furious, and arguably Sargsyan’s government has never been able
to recover its standing among Diaspora communities (of course, the
Armenian-Turkish deal was not the only cause for this, allegations
of corruption and election fraud also played their part).

There are signs of hardening of the Armenian position, such as the
suggestion by one of the members of the cabinet that the Republic
of Armenia should be renamed into Republic of Eastern Armenia (which
implies a territorial claim to Turkey). Though the suggestion was not
taken seriously and was criticized even by some members of the ruling
party, it is a clear sign of how unhappy the Armenian government is
with the current state of Armenia-Turkey relations.

Attitudes of the Armenian society, which had begun to change
during the times of football diplomacy, are also hardening. The
way a relatively minor incident was covered in Armenian media
showed that the Armenian public is also disappointed in the idea
of Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. Hasan Oktay, a Turkish political
analyst, who has often visited Armenia, and, as it turned out, has
nationalist political views, posted on his Facebook profile photos
of himself holding the Turkish nationalist “grey wolves” salute
in Yerevan’s central square. This does not seem like a major cause
for scandal, but Oktay’s Facebook profile also featured his photos
posing with Armenia’s prime-minister, Tigran Sargsyan, and even with
the Catholicos of all Armenians, Garegin I. Newspapers and social
networks harshly criticized the prime-minister and the Catholicos,
for meeting a Turkish radical nationalist.

Turkey and the 2015 anniversary

As for Turkey, here the Armenian issue is hardly one of the priorities
for politicians, while the civil war in Syria and the corruption
scandal continue to occupy the headlines of the newspapers. However,
one thing forces the Turkish government to draw attention to the
Armenian issue: next year, in 2015, it will be the 100th anniversary
of the extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide is a date of major symbolic
significance, and the Armenian Diaspora communities are getting ready
for a forceful campaign aimed at genocide recognition.

The Turkish government may use two possible strategies of countering
the negative effects of the genocide anniversary, says historian
Tigran Zakaryan. One is to continue to do what Turkey has done for
decades, responding to Armenian Diaspora’s awareness campaign with
its own lobbying and counter-propaganda. Another possible strategy
is acknowledging certain facts of violence against the Armenians,
and even expressing regret for certain episodes, in order to show
that Turkey has come to terms with its past, without however accepting
that the killings of 1915 constituted a genocide.

Probably, says Zakaryan, Turkish policies will combine elements of
both strategies. However, apart from the external challenge presented
by Armenian Diaspora, the Turkish government will also have to deal
with the increasingly skeptic attitude of various groups within the
Turkish society toward the officially accepted narrative of history.

In any case, the issue of genocide recognition is likely to cause a
lot of headache for the Turkish government until April 2015.

From: Baghdasarian

MINISTER: ARMENIA NOT TO FACE CONFRONTATION WITH WTO AS IT JOINS CUSTOMS UNION

February 05, 2014 | 19:27

YEREVAN. – Armenia should not expect confrontation with WTO with
accepting custom duties of the Customs Union, Economy Minister Vahram
Avanesyan told reporters.

If Armenia increases import duties in case of joining Customs Union,
we will simply have to enter talks with WTO on certain provisions.

The main mechanism is an idea of adequate compensation, he explained.

“Romania joined the EU customs territory being a WTO member. The EU
rates were much higher. So, EU started negotiations with other WTO
members on Romania. The same thing will happen with Armenia in the
Customs Union,” the Minister said.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

NO PLAN TO CEDE MEGHRI TO AZERBAIJAN, SAYS MINISTER

14:59 * 05.02.14

Armenia has never had and will never have any plan to hand over
Meghri to Azerbaijan, the minister of defense has said, dismissing
Azerbaijani side’s allegations.

Seyran Ohanyan made the statement at a meeting with representatives
of the local NGO Armenian Eagles as he was asked to comment on the
“puzzle” of exchanging the southern border town with other territories.

“I very often hear rumors on the exchange of Meghri, as you do. There
has never been such a plan, and there can never be. Armenia’s armed
forces will lead a battle for every inch of land. We guide ourselves
by the principle of continuing the war violence on the enemy’s
battlefield,” he said, responding to Sargis Hakobyan, the person in
charge for the organization’s headquarters of Meghri.

From: Baghdasarian

GOVERNMENT TAKES CARE OF ARRANGEMENTS OF ARMENIAN MAIDAN

Siranuysh Papyan, Interviewer
Interview – Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 14:50

Interview with political scientist Haik A. Martirosyan, PhD (New York)

Mr. Martirosyan, in your opinion, is Armenia ready for its own Maidan?

Armenia has been ready for Maidan for a long time now. However,
determination has left people. Meanwhile, it takes next to nothing to
get Maidan. The government does everything necessary. The government
is finishing the arrangements of the Armenian Maidan.

What prospects of development does Armenia have? Is there a possibility
of revolution in 2014?

There is always a possibility of revolution. However, revolutions
are planned by adventurers and declared by the insane. There are both
in Armenia. A revolution is a spontaneous process which is triggered
suddenly on a wave of huge tension and dissatisfaction built up for
a long time.

As to the prospects of development, I cannot see any prospect of
development in Armenia. A country that lacks a national strategy
where the priority is the financial and economic interests of the
elite cannot develop. This is the best recipe of revolution.

Can you see any possibility of emergence of an opposition in Armenia?

There has always been opposition in Armenia. The issue is that it is
always, including now, crushed, demoralized and discredited while
the new face of the opposition is not known yet. Only totalitarian
and authoritarian countries lack an opposition. We are neither of them.

Semi-authoritarianism supposes an opposition like the one we have. A
new force, a new person, a new approach will come to replace the
departing or departed opposition and will take the lead. The place
cannot remain vacant.

Can the change of government result in a new quality of government
or does the government still need to self-organize and realize its
importance?

Change of government itself is at least an attempt at upgrading
quality. There are two ways of change of government, internal and
external. Internal is when one wing removes another wing of the
government. We experienced this in 1998, and it is clear to everyone
to what extent it was change of government. An external change of
government is one done by new persons and the opposition. And if
there is such a change of government, quality changes will follow
by all means. Otherwise, Kyrgyz, Georgian and, of course, Ukrainian
scenarios will repeat.

The most important revolution, however, is the mental revolution of
the society and determination to claim change from the government.

When such claims are not met, the society implements change on its
own. If demand goes without claims, it will not be met for a long
time. In Armenia, there is demand but there is no claim.

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

PROTEST IN YEREVAN AS MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS VISIT FOREIGN MINISTRY – VIDEO/PHOTOS

13:46 * 05.02.14

Youth activists of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun
(ARF-D) demonstrated outside the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to
express their anger at the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ statements
in Baku.

While they were conducting the protest with the slogans “No to Double
Standards”, “We are Against the Minsk Group Policies”, the diplomats
arrived and, without responding to the journalists covering the event,
entered the Ministry building.

“We have gathered here to remind the Minsk Group co-chairs of their
true mission,” Gerasim Vardanyan, the leader of the ARF-D’s Nikol
Aghbalyan student union, said, adding that he the Minsk Group has
failed to fulfill its mission to promote peace over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The activist said he thinks that the Group’s even-handed attitude to
the armed tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border means encouraging
Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian aggression.

“We are against this, and we demand that the Minsk Group co-chairs
demonstrate a corresponding attitude and posture and call things by
their names,” he said,

Vardanyan refrained from commenting on the Armenian authorities’
position on the issue. “We have, on different occasions, expressed
our attitude to, and position on, the Armenian authorities’ foreign
policies,” he noted.

As part of their scheduled regional tour, the co-chairs headed to
Azerbaijan’s capital on Monday. On Wednesday morning, they arrived
in Yerevan.

The OSCE Minsk group, composed of French, US and Russian co-chairs,
has been spearheading the peaceful efforts over Karabakh since 1992.

From: Baghdasarian

PARLIAMENT OF ARMENIA KILLS BILL ON AD HOC COMMITTEE TO STUDY “GAS DEAL” WITH RUSSIA

by Ashot Safaryan

Wednesday, February 5, 13:48

The National Assembly of Armenia has rejected the bill on establishment
of an ad hoc committee to study the state debt accumulated since 2011
in the gas supply field and the gas tariff with 44 votes ‘for’ and
58 votes ‘against’. The non-governmental factions in the parliament
supported the bill, while the political coalition of the Republican
Party and Orinats Yerkir Party has rejected it.

To recall, 4 parliamentary factions of Armenia: Armenian National
Congress, Prosperous Armenia Party, ARFD and Heritage have come
forward with an initiative to set up a parliamentary committee to
discuss gas deal with Russia.

Earlier, the head of the ARF Dashnaktiutyun parliamentary faction,
Armen Rustamyan, told reporters that the gas deal between Armenia and
Russia contradicts two points of Armenia’s Constitution. In particular,
he said, the clause 31.1 of the Armenian Constitution (“The state
protects interests of consumers and makes events within the frames
of the law”) as well as the clause 33 (“Limiting of competition
and possible types of monopoly may be fixed only by the law”). He
recalled that ARFD said about setting up of a temporary commission
on discussion of the gas issue in 2010, when Russia started making
contracts on gas price for the CIS countries taking into account the
European price making principles.

He pointed at the fact that Ukraine and Belarus use their transit
opportunities. As for Armenia, it cannot use its potential for the
Iranian gas transit, and the temporary commission must touch on this
problem as well.

As for the gas price, it also causes many questions. “It is no
secret, that Gasprom owns the controlling stake of the national gas
distributing companies only in Moldova and Armenia. As of 2010, in
Moldova gas price at the border was $233, and the consumer got it
for $288, that is to say, the margin amounted to $55. “In Armenia,
it was $189 at the border and $393 for the consumer. The commission
wants to study this issue too”, – he said.

To recall, in 23 December 2013 the Armenian parliament has ratified a
controversial natural-gas agreement with Moscow amid protests. The deal
gives the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which already owns 80 percent
of the ArmRosgazprom Armenian-Russian joint venture, the remaining 20
percent. Gazprom will also control all Armenian gas imports until 2043.

From: Baghdasarian