Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

UK AMBASSADOR: NOBODY HAS IDEA OF AGENDA OF ARMENIA-EU COOPERATION

During a talk with the correspondent of ‘Haykakan Zhamanak’ daily,
British Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Aves frankly confessed that
nobody has an idea of the further agenda of cooperation between
Armenia and the European Union.

He said that at the moment nobody knows what steps will be taken next;
intense discussions are underway in Brussels, besides, his colleagues
in London and other European cities are holding discussions on the
issue. He added that as far as he understands, the promotion of ties
is also under discussion in government circles of Armenia.

From: Baghdasarian

CONSUMER CONCERNS: REMOVAL OF BAN ON IMPORT OF AZERI AND TURKISH FOODSTUFFS STIRS DEBATE IN ARMENIA

| 25.09.13 | 11:59

By Gohar Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

The decision by Armenia to lift the ban on the import of foodstuffs
from two neighboring states with which it is in a state of conflict
has been seen by many as an instance of treachery that will again
hit the interests of local producers and consumers.

On June 7, 2013, Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan canceled the
September 15, 2009 decision that prohibited the import of vegetable and
animal products and raw materials of Azerbaijani and Turkish origin.

Last week the Ministry of Agriculture published on its official website
a clarification in which it said that after the prohibition order
came into force the mentioned products and raw materials continued
to be imported through various ways including document forgery and
other machinations.

“Armenia and Turkey are members of the World Trade Organization,
and members of this organization cannon apply any trade restrictions
in relation to another country. So, such restrictions cannot be
established by order of a minister, as under the Armenian Constitution,
restrictions of people’s rights and freedoms, their obligations can
be set exclusively by laws,” the clarification says, adding that the
Ministry’s food safety service has the sufficient potential to check
the safety of imported food products.

Aware & Protected Consumer NGO head Babken Pipoyan says that although
there are necessary laboratories in Armenia, the problem is that the
imported goods are not subjected to examination.

“Sometimes it reaches a level when certain officials dare to say
that there are no laboratories for certain tests, for example,
for benzopyrene. In reality, however, thus they avoid additional
costs. If the border is opened and corresponding tests are conducted
no one will complain,” says Pipoyan.

He also says that several years ago he raised an alarm over the import
from Georgia of Turkish tomatoes and cucumbers so that a specific
order of importing goods from Georgia be established.

“Georgia will never provide a guarantee for Turkish goods, it will not
indicate that it was manufactured in Georgia. An item shall be subject
to examination at the border, then enter Armenia. If we conduct a
small survey among our citizens, we shall see that they would prefer
local production. Will there be proper labeling so that people can
distinguish the imported goods from local production?” says Pipoyan,
adding that in the last few months such products as lemon, gum,
grains of corn, yeast have been imported to Armenia from Turkey, but
only the chewing gum was subjected to laboratory tests and violations
were found. According to Pipoyan, no Azerbaijani products have been
imported since June 7 yet.

While Armenia has no diplomatic ties with either Azerbaijan or Turkey,
it is no secret that Turkish products have a significant share of the
local market of nonfoods. Turkish goods are in great demand because
they are not expensive and can beat Chinese products by quality.

Azerbaijani goods are not particularly welcome on the Armenian market.

For example, garlic with Azeri labeling that was found in Armenian
shops in 2011 stirred a debate in the country and was quickly taken
out of sale, as was Azeri tea earlier.

But some people in Armenia believe that importing goods from historical
foe Turkey and Azerbaijan, with which there is still a conflict over
Karabakh, should not be allowed at all.

Karabakh war veteran Hakob Dashyan believes it is at least an act of
betrayal against the Armenian people.

And filmmaker Arshak Zakaryan says that the import of Turkish goods
should be banned as long as the border with Turkey remains closed,
while Azeri goods can be brought only after the end of the war.

From: Baghdasarian

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AFFIRME QUE LES DIVERGENCES SUR LA DECISION SUR L’UNION DOUANIERE N’AFFECTERONT PAS L’EFFORT DE FUSION

ARMENIE

Le chef du parti Heritage Raffi Hovannisian, qui a vivement critique
la decision du pouvoir actuel de rejoindre l’Union douanière, estime
que la reaction relativement douce de l’opposition ne nuira pas a
l’effort de fusion en Armenie.

” Beaucoup n’ont pas encore exprime leur position sur cette question.

Je ne veux pas devancer leurs positions finales, mais ce que je
m’attends dans les prochains mois c’est que cela ne sera pas l’objet
ou le vecteur d’une lutte. Avant cette decision, qui a transgresse
l’avis du peuple, nous avions beaucoup de questions sur lesquelles
nous pouvions fusionner ” a dit Raffi Hovannisian a ArmeniaNow.

Il pense que l’Union douanière permettra de restaurer les relations
verticales qui existaient autrefois dans l’Union sovietique et que
l’Armenie se joint a cette union en raison de ” la qualite de ses
autorites illegitimes “.

Les principaux partis armeniens de l’opposition, a l’exception des
partis Heritage et Democrates libres, ne se sont pas explicitement
prononce contre la decision du President Serge Sarkissian a rejoindre
l’Union douanière de la Russie, la Bielorussie et le Kazakhstan.

La Federation revolutionnaire armenienne (FRA, par exemple, a critique
la forme sous laquelle la decision d’adherer a l’Union a ete faite et
presentee au public (sans debat public ou de consultations avec les
partis politiques), mais le representant du Conseil executif de la FRA
d’Armenie Armen Rustamyan a declare que la decision est une question
” d’existence de l’Armenie ” et que la situation est très semblable a
celle qui existait en 1918-1920 lorsque l’Armenie devait se joindre a
la Russie bolchevique dans ce qui allait devenir l’Union sovietique. ”
Notre tâche est de remettre 42000 kilomètres carres de territoire a
nos generations a venir “, a declare Armen Rustamyan.

Le parti du Congrès national armenien a aussi, en fait, cesse de
critiquer le pouvoir pour la decision elle-meme. Par ailleurs,
repondant aux questions des lecteurs du site ilur.am, le chef du
parti, l’ancien president Levon Ter-Petrossian a exprime une opinion
que l’integration europeenne de l’Armenie a ete une ” aventure ”
de la part de Serge Sarkissian.

Le parti Armenie prospère dirige par Gagik Tsarukyan, qui se positionne
comme une alternative au gouvernement actuel, a declare a travers son
porte-parole qu’il presenterait sa position qu’en ” l’Armenie se sera
au moins engage sur la voie et aura parcouru une certaine distance
” vers l’union douanière. Dans le meme temps, Gagik Tsarukyan a dit
qu’il ne voulait pas la deterioration des relations russo-armeniennes.

Raffi Hovannisian estime que malgre certaines divergences sur la
question de l’union douanière, il pourra toujours cooperer avec les
autres partis politiques sur ” mille et une questions nationales “,
comme ” les droits humains ” , ” les elections volees “, etc.

Neanmoins, il estime que l’etat d’urgence a ete cree et que l’Armenie
se joignant a l’Union douanière met en danger la notion d’Etat.

” M. Sarkissian doit demissionner pour le bien de l’Armenie “, a
declare Raffi Hovannisian, qui, selon les resultats officiels des
elections presidentielles de fevrier dernier, a termine en deuxième
position et a conteste pendant des semaines la reelection de Serge
Sarkissian au moyen de manifestations de rue.

Dans le meme temps, le chef de l’opposition a souligne qu’etre contre
l’Union douanière ne doit pas etre interpretee comme etre anti-russe.

Il a dit qu’il se serait egalement s’opposer a l’accord d’association
entre l’Armenie et l’Union europeenne si elle devait contenir une
disposition qui endommage la souverainete de l’Armenie.

” Nous sommes contre le retablissement de l’Union sovietique et sommes
en faveur de l’Etat de l’Armenie, et seulement si ces deux conditions
sont respectees, nous aurons une relation strategique avec la Russie.

Mais l’Occident doit aussi modifier son approche ” a souligne Raffi
Hovannisian.

Par Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow

mercredi 25 septembre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

FOUR FOREIGNERS EXCLUDED FROM AZERBAIJANI LIST OF “PERSONA NON GRATA”

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Sept 23 2013

23 SEPTEMBER 2013, 14:49 (GMT+05:00)

By Sara Rajabova

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has decided to exclude four foreign
nationals, previously included in its list of “persona non grata”
for the illegal visit to the Armenian-occupied territory of Azerbaijan.

The foreigners excluded from the list of “persona non grata” are
a member of the Russian State Duma Aleksey Mitrofanov, head of the
Moscow office of ‘Voice of America’ James Brook, and Johns Hopkins
University students, Ivan Benovich and Nichola Vondra.

The names of these individuals were excluded from the list after
their appeal to the Azerbaijani government, in which they requested
their names to be excluded from this list. They regretted about their
visits and stressed that they recognize the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan.

As a rule, the appeals asking to cancel this decision indicate that
these persons were taken to the occupied territory by deception.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan
occupied by Armenia are deemed illegal and individuals paying such
visits are included in the “black list” of the Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry released a list of 335 people those
declared persona non grata over illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied
territories.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned foreign officials and diplomats
over visits to the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia,
saying this contradicts international law. The Foreign Ministry
has stated that such visits, paid without prior notification of the
relevant authorities of Azerbaijan, are illegal and damaging to the
settlement process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus
neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing
efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless
so far.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been
enforced to this day.

From: Baghdasarian

MIN. AL-SALEH ATTENDS ARMENIA NAT”L DAY CELEBRATION

Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait
Sept 22 2013

23/09/2013 | 01:02 AM|Kuwait News

KUWAIT, Sept 22 (KUNA) — Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas
Al-Saleh on Sunday evening represented the Kuwaiti government at the
celebration of Armenia Embassy to mark the country’s 22nd National Day,
highlighting development of bilateral ties and cooperation.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the celebration, Al-Saleh
said his ministry developed plans to ward off any spillover of possible
regional economic problems on the citizens and expatriates in Kuwait.

“The government offers subsidy to staples for citizens but in case of
any eventuality the government will be responsible for ensuring the
minimum needs of both citizens and expatriates alike,” he made clear.

The minister was commenting on recent press reports that the government
mulls issuing ration cards for non-Kuwaitis.

Asked about the reported contamination of vegetables and fruits in
Syria, the Minister said: “Kuwait Municipality’s committee on food
safety and the Environment Public Authority work closely to implement
the ban on food imports from Syria.” On the bilateral ties with Armena,
Al-Saleh said the two countries maintain constantly growing relations
in such areas as economy and commerce.

The trade exchanges grew slightly in the farm and food sectors in
the recent years, he noted.

On his part, Armenia Ambassador to Kuwait Fadey Charchoghlyan commended
Kuwait’s “limitless relief effort” for the Syrian refugees in his
country.

The State of Kuwait was one of the first countries which responded
promptly to the humanitarian needs of the Syrian refugees in Armenia,
he said.

The Armenian-Kuwaiti ties are growing steadily in all political,
economic, cultural, social, commercial and educational fields thanks
to the supports of leaders of both countries, he pointed out.

Charchoghlyan noted that the exchanged visits on all levels help
promote the bilateral ties.

He appreciated the roles of Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(KCCI) and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) in promoting the joint
investments.

He voiced hope for signing an agreement with Kuwait on educational
cooperation, and academic and student exchanges, noting that Yerevan
University launched a college for Arabic teaching and Islamic sciences.

The Armenian diplomat also expressed hope for pushing the level of
relations of his country with GCC and other Arab countries to the
level of the relations with Kuwait.

Armenia has a 6,000-strong community in Kuwait who enjoy security
and welfare, he added. (end) rkf.nfa.gb KUNA 230102 Sep 13NNNN

From: Baghdasarian

GUNFIRE AS EXTENSION OF POLITICS ON AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA BORDER

Transitions online, Czech Rep.

Sept 23 2013

Mutual recriminations as both sides note a rise in cross-border
shooting. From IWPR.by Jasur Mammadov Sumerinli and Vahe Harutyunyan23
September 2013

While cross-border gunfire involving Azerbaijani and Armenian forces
is all too common, a recent sharp increase in incidents has left
analysts wondering what is going on.

The consensus is that the skirmishes are not a precursor to wider
hostilities. Instead, commentators on each side believe they are a
reflection of domestic political problems in the other country.

As an illustration of the rise in shooting incidents, Armenian defense
officials said one soldier died and six were injured in August,
whereas there had been no casualties in July.

An Armenian tank outside Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabakh,
serves as a war memorial. Photo by Marshall Bagramyan/Wikipedia.

The incidents happened on Armenia’s eastern border with Azerbaijan,
on its southeastern frontier with Nakhichevan – an Azerbaijani exclave
territory – and on the “line of control” around Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said the
nature of the “enemy action” was unusual.

“This isn’t reconnaissance, nor is it designed to improve their
position, or to prepare for sweeping military operations,” he said.

“The Azerbaijanis’ aim is to inflict as much harm as possible on our
military personnel.”

In Azerbaijan, officials said it was the Armenians who started or at
least provoked the shooting. The Defense Ministry said its monitoring
indicated that most of the gunfire was taking place around Karabakh
and on the border with Nakhichevan.

Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said the Armenians were
trying to divert public attention from their government’s own failings.

“We know that Armenia’s domestic affairs are in bad shape. People
express their unhappiness with the authorities every day. In order
to mitigate this, they [authorities] try to project attention onto
Azerbaijan,” he said. “This is always going to be a problem. Armenia’s
aggressive policy has not changed, so there will continue to be
trouble on the front line.”

Sabiroglu also spoke about an incident in early August, on the border
between Armenia and Nakhichevan. According to the Armenian account,
one soldier was killed and a second injured by Azerbaijani sniper
fire. But Sabiroglu described this as “an attempt by Armenia to divert
attention from problems inside its own army.”

“They’re trying to cover up the fact that there was a shootout between
Armenian soldiers, We have reliable information that several soldiers
died and several more were injured in a shootout in an Armenian
military unit deployed on the border with Nakhichevan,” he said.

A mirror-image view of the situation was articulated in Yerevan.

Alexander Arzumanyan, a former foreign minister of Armenia, said the
clashes were being instigated by Azerbaijan, where the authorities
are keen to ensure the re-election of President Ilham Aliev next month.

“The Azerbaijanis have resorted to deliberately escalating tensions
on the border ahead of general and presidential elections on more than
one occasion,” he said. “It’s the familiar policy of the Aliev clan –
dictatorships always need an external enemy.”

Arzumanyan pointed to the widening military imbalance between oil-rich
Azerbaijan and less affluent Armenia. Baku continues to purchase
high-tech weaponry, and Aliev and other officials often warn that if
talks on the future of Karabakh ultimately fail, the army is capable
of retaking it by force.

Armenian officials are clearly unsettled by this build-up but hope
their longstanding alliance with Moscow will safeguard them.

Despite the threats coming out of Baku, Arzumanyan said, “the years
go by, and the Karabakh problem remains unresolved.”

The Karabakh conflict ended in 1994 with a truce that has lasted ever
since, despite the sporadic outbreaks of gunfire. Talks intended to
produce a lasting settlement are mediated by the OSCE’s Minsk Group,
chaired by Russia, the United States, and France, but have failed to
make significant progress. The Karabakh Armenian administration says
it will never give up its claim to independence, while Baku insists
that the ultimate solution must involve regaining control over its
sovereign territory.

“There has been no substantive movement in the positions taken by
the parties to the conflict,” Arzumanyan said. “Then again, Karabakh
isn’t of such paramount importance to [external] states that it would
prompt serious pressure [for a solution] from outside.”

Even with high levels of mutual mistrust and little apparent prospect
of progress in the OSCE-mediated talks, commentators in Yerevan and
Baku are not predicting that things will get out of hand.

“I do not think that the option of returning to war will be decided in
Baku alone, so I see it as unlikely that Azerbaijan would go down that
road,” David Shahnazaryan, former head of Armenia’s National Security
Service, told IWPR. “What I mean is that a number of states are active
in this region, and they are driven by they own interests and by the
fact that they have a political, military, and economic presence –
there’s Russia, the United States, Turkey, the European Union, and
Iran. I wouldn’t say any of these countries wants to unleash a war
in the South Caucasus.”

Zumrud Mammadova, a researcher at the Simulated Forecasts think tank
in Baku, agreed that none of the big players wanted conflict.

“Analysis of what’s going on indicates that neither Armenia nor
Azerbaijan is preparing for war,” she added. “Each side wants to
show its strength and insure itself against current and possible
international responses to its domestic problems. Armenia and
Azerbaijan are doing this to get round the international community’s
demands for democracy.”

Dashdemir Aliev, a retired lieutenant-colonel in the Azerbaijani army
who now heads a veterans’ group, agreed with this point.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan have identical interests in this respect. Both
want to show the international community that they face problems
that are a lot more important than democracy, and hence ward off
international pressure,” he said.

On the Armenian side, Shahnazaryan predicted that the use of
small-scale warfare as a continuation of politics would continue.

“I believe tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will persist,
rising and falling on a regular basis,” he said. “The situation that
now pertains will continue for a long time since no new initiatives
have emerged in the OSCE Minsk Group [talks] format.”

Jasur Mammadov Sumerinli is a defense affairs reporter with the Zerkalo
newspaper in Azerbaijan. Vahe Harutyunyan is a freelance journalist
in Armenia. This article originally appeared on

From: Baghdasarian

CHURCH CLAIMS ETCHMIADZIN PARK TO GET MUCH NEEDED FACELIFT

Grisha Balasanyan

12:26, September 24, 2013

For the past ten years, the park in Etchmiadzin has belonged to the
Armenian Church whose headquarters are located in the same town.

This means that the Church is responsible for the maintenance of the
park, located adjacent to the Mpother See.

When the park was under the purview of the municipality, it was the
favorite spot for children who came to ride the carousels and play
in the recreation area.

Today, the park has lost its former attractiveness. The benches are
in need of repair and there is only one cafe with a kiddy carousel
or two for children up to the age of seven. The park offers little
for older kids.

There is no grass at all to play on and several trees have withered
and died due to a lack of irrigation.

Recent rainfall has temporarily satiated the dry landscape of the park.

Father Vahram Melikyan, who heads the Mother See’s Press Service,
told Hetq that the grounds hadn’t been watered due to an accident at
the pumping station. He said the problem has been fixed and that the
park will once again get water.

Father Melikyan also noted that plans are being drawn up to improve
the park’s appearance and promised to keep Hetq informed regarding
the details.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN-KUWAITI ECONOMIC AND TRADE RELATIONS ARE GROWING

September 24, 2013 | 04:25

Armenia and Kuwait maintain constantly growing relations in such
areas as economy and commerce.

Kuwait Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh stated the
aforesaid at the celebration of Armenia Embassy to mark the country’s
22nd Independence Day anniversary.

In his words, the trade exchanges between the two countries grew
slightly in the farm and food sectors in the recent years.

On his part, Armenia Ambassador to Kuwait Fadey Charchoghlyan commended
Kuwait’s “limitless relief effort” for the Syrian refugees in his
country, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reports.

He stressed that the Armenian-Kuwaiti ties are growing steadily in
all political, economic, cultural, social, commercial and educational
fields.

The Armenian diplomat also expressed hope for pushing the level of
relations of his country with the other Arab countries to the level
of the relations with Kuwait.

To note, Armenia has a 6,000-strong community in Kuwait.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

PLAN TO DISMANTLE YEREVAN AIRPORT’S OLD BUILDING ON AGENDA AGAIN

12:17 24.09.13

Photo by ARMENPRESS

A plan for pulling down the old building of the Zvarthnots
International Airport is on the Public Council’s agenda despite a
negative conclusion issued earlier by the Yerevan City Hall’s Urban
Development Board.

The topic became actual again after the General Department of Civil
Aviation submitted a proposal to the Council’s Committee fior Urban
Development.

Speaking to Tert.am, President of the Council Vazgen Manukyan said
the justification in the document is not very detailed and needs a
further consideration.

“What has been submitted to us says only that there is such a project,
so we request a debate,” he told our correspondent.

In an article published in April, Tert.am reported that the
municipality’s Urban Development board had unanimously rejected the
proposal for leveling the airport’s old building.

Armenia International Airports, which holds the rights to manage
Zvartnots, confirmed later that they did not have such a plan on
their agenda.

A representative of the company, whom Tert.am contacted today for
comments, said the building is not under their ownership as it
is considered a state property. But the source claimed that the
construction is an obstacle to their development projects.

President of the Urban Development Board Hrach Poghosyan confirmed
later that they had issued a negative conclusion, adding that the
City Hall had also rejected a claim submitted by Eduardo Ernekyan,
the owner of Armenia International Airports.

“I am hopeful the Public Council will pass a negative decision too.

Let me also note that the chief architect has also rejected [the
proposal],” Poghosyan said.

In further comments to Tert.am, the merited architect Sashur Kalashyan
said he also expects the Public Council to reject the plan. “We’ll
set up a professional team to find all the possible ways,” he told
our correspondent.

The airport’s modernist-style building, launched in 1961 ,was put into
operation in 1980. It was designed by the Armenian architects Arthur
Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khchikyan, Levon Cherkezyan and George Shekhlyan,
and a team of constructors.

As for the old building, Kalashyan described it as a
historical-cultural monument which has to be taken under state
protection as in all countries around the world.

A model of the building is to be showcased on the sidelines of an
upcoming architectural congress in Istanbul.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

SHIRINYAN: ARMENIA MADE A RIGHT DECISION

12:01 24/09/2013 ” ANALYSIS

Armenia’s decision to join the Customs Union was right and we must not
think that Armenia will not develop if it stays in the zone of Russia’s
geopolitical influence, political scientist Levon Shirinyan told
reporters when commenting on Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union.

“Russian nuclear umbrella saves Armenia from many threats, and we
must take it into account,” said the expert.

Shirinyan also said that Russia is committed to Christian values and
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is conservative and likes to fight
major battles.

Source: Panorama.am

From: Baghdasarian