Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

UN MANUSCRIT ARMENIEN EXTREMEMENT RARE DE NAREKATSI MIS AUX ENCHERES SUR INTERNET

ARMENIE

Un manuscrit très rare de Grigor Narekatsi, moine armenien, poète,
philosophe mystique et theologien, a ete mis en place aux enchères
sur eBay avec un prix de depart de 30000$.

Le Directeur de l’Institut armenien des manuscrits anciens
(Matenadaran) Hrach Tamrazyan a dit au site Tert.am que la partie
armenienne verifiait maintenant les informations.

” Nous sommes toujours interesses par ces informations et, si nous
pouvons, acquerir des manuscrits precieux. Nous avons recemment trouve
deux manuscrits de Narekatsi ” a declare Hrach Tamrazyan.

La date limite pour la vente de l’ancien manuscrit armenien est le
26 août.

jeudi 15 août 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

L’ARMENIE CHERCHE A DEVELOPPER SES RELATIONS AVEC LE KURDISTAN

kurdistan

Le chef du Departement des affaires etrangères au gouvernement regional
du Kurdistan Falah Mustafa a recu le 6 août le vice-ministre armenien
de l’Economie, M. Tigran Harutyunyan, et sa delegation.

La delegation comprend un membre du Parlement armenien , M. Manvel
Badeyan, l’ambassadeur d’Armenie en Irak, M. Murad Muradian, et des
dirigeants et des representants des entreprises armeniennes. Le but
de la visite est de developper davantage les liens entre le Kurdistan
et l’Armenie.

S’exprimant au nom du gouvernement regional du Kurdistan, le ministre
Mustafa a dit que le gouvernement regional souhaite solidifier les
relations avec l’Armenie. Il dit : ” Nous avons vu une volonte de
developper davantage les relations des deux rives, et j’espère que
l’Armenie va ouvrir une representation diplomatique au Kurdistan afin
d’augmenter les relations politiques, economiques et sociales ”

Il a egalement ajoute que la presence diplomatique permettrait de
developper davantage echanges culturels et educatifs entre les deux
parties.

La reunion a egalement porte sur le passe tragique et difficile que
les deux nations ont subi dans leur histoire.

jeudi 15 août 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

COOPERATION ENTRE LA RUSSIE ET L’ARMENIE

Defense

Le chef d’une agence gouvernementale russe en charge des ventes d’armes
a des Etats etrangers s’est rendu a Erevan mercredi 14 août moins de
deux mois après la signature d’un accord militaire russo-armenien.

Aleksandr Fomin, qui dirige le service federal russe pour la
cooperation militaire et technique, s’est entretenu avec le president
Serge Sarkissian et le ministre de la Defense Seyran Ohanian.

Le ministère armenien de la Defense a declare que lui-meme et Fomin se
sont entendus sur la mise en place de centres agrees pour la reparation
et l’entretien de materiel militaire et des armes en Armenie. La
creation de ces centres est prevue par un accord russo-armenien qui
a ete signe par Ohanian et Fomin a Erevan le 25 juin.

Le president russe Vladimir Poutine a officiellement autorise son
gouvernement a signer le nouvel accord de defense avec l’Armenie en
janvier. Un article du journal russe Nezavissimaïa Gazeta, signale que
Moscou aidera aussi les Armeniens a lancer la production de certains
types de vehicules de munitions et de vehicules blindes.

jeudi 15 août 2013, Laetitia ©armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA: SEPARATE PROTESTS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 14 2013

14 August 2013 – 3:07pm

By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

The Yerevan Council of Elders set up a new payment system for street
parking on August 1. One hour of parking on streets with red marking
and signs costs 100 drams, one day costs 500 drams, one week 1000
drams (about $3), a year 12,000 drams ($30). Free parking is only
allowed for 5 minutes. Exceeding this time will be punished with a
fine of 5,000 drams.

Besides the special areas, parking in Yerevan was 90% free. The city’s
authorities plan to form 20,000 fee-based parking lots with security
cameras. The tender to organize the lots was won by Parking City
Service that will receive 70% of the sum paid by drivers parking their
vehicles. The program will improve the transport system, but such a
high share for the Parking City Service has cast public doubts on the
transparency of the deal. Some believe that the deal has a mechanism of
“bribes” for the local authorities.

According to some observers, if the mayor’s office complies with a
distribution of income at a rate of 30 to 70 for the company, then the
Parking City Service must have something very powerful backing it up.

They even name ex-member of parliament Alexander Sargsyan, brother
of President Serzh Sargsyan.

To reflect the distrust towards the authorities, a new initiative
was formed on social networks, entitled “We will not pay for illegal
parking lots”. Its members promised to combat the new initiative of
the mayor’s office. “The decision on fee-based parking lots is illegal
and does not stem from public interests. Public territories should not
be handed over to a private company that gets 70% of its income from
parking lots. The private company acquired the data base of citizens
with cars, the company will make video records, fine Armenian citizens,
which is an outrageous violation of the Constitution of the country
and of human rights,” the initiative says.

Recently, with the help of public initiatives, the decision of the
Yerevan Mayor’s Office to increase fees for public transport by 50%
was halted. The struggle of young activists against unlawful ecological
projects was a success as well.

Such civil activism can only be welcomed, but the rising number
of protests, despite some achievements, have not turned into a mass
protest movement, although the country faces the needed socio-economic
situation to provoke such events.

In general, the processes in Armenia have taken a cyclical form:

– elections at a certain level based on various technologies to
reproduce the authorities

– protests of citizens against the elections

– the pointlessness of the struggle and the internal political
tranquility that follows, supplemented by countless promises to
improve the socio-economic situation that are not kept in most cases.

But the cycle remains incomplete, because the public outrage does not
turn into an adequate-scale protest. The civil outcries are local,
resulting in a partial solution of a problem, whether a natural
disaster or social hardships of separate groups of people etc.

Perhaps, the cause of the incomplete cycle is a result of
disappointment with lack of progress in the struggle. The social
moods may have been affected by the refusal of oppositionist leaders
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, head of the Armenian National Congress, and Gagik
Tsarukyan, head of the Prosperous Armenia Party, to run for president.

Another reason is the passivity of the opposition, a lack of systemic
recipes to fight, instead of separate protests against a certain
problem.

As long as this does not happen, people will have to find solutions
for the situation in the country themselves. One of them is migration.

According to the National Statistical Service, 1.017 million Armenians
left the country in January-June 2013 and only 922,000 arrived. The
negative balance totals 123,000, exceeding the figure of the previous
year by 30%. The negative balance will change as some migrants will
return from seasonal work. But at such rate, it can be predicted that
about 80,000 would emigrate from Armenia.

The emigration rate is growing catastrophically. According to data,
about 200,000 people have emigrated from Armenia in the last 3 years.

From: Baghdasarian

PUTIN’S REMARK ON KARABAKH “WAKE-UP CALL” FOR BAKU’S MILITARY ASPIRATIONS

August 14, 2013 | 21:37

YEREVAN. – Russian President Vldimir Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan
was not discussed during the meeting of Armenian ruling party,
spokesperson said.

Eduard Sharmazanov, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Armenia,
said the Azerbaijani leadership was trying to use the visit for
domestic policy goals in the context of pending presidential elections.

Russian President’s statement on solving Karabakh conflict exclusively
by political means was a “wake-up call” for Azerbaijani leadership’s
military aspirations, he added.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

CIS AIR DEFENSE DRILLS KICK OFF IN RUSSIA

August 14, 2013 – 22:25 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Some 20 units from a joint air defense system of
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a bloc of former Soviet
republics in Eurasia, have begun a large-scale exercise in Russia’s
Volga region, a Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman said Wednesday,
Aug 14, according to RIA Novosti.

During the first stage of the Combat Commonwealth 2013 air defense
exercise, the units from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan will be redeployed to the Ashuluk firing range near the
Caspian Sea where the active phase of the drills will take place,
according to Col. Alexey Zolotukhin.

The three-stage exercise, which involves over 500 personnel and some
100 combat vehicles, will continue until September 12, Zolotukhin said.

Conducted annually, Combat Commonwealth exercises are part of efforts
to build a joint air defense shield for the CIS. An integrated air
defense network was set up by 10 CIS member countries on February
10, 1995.

The main purpose of the network is to ensure the protection of the
member countries’ airspace, as well as early warning of missile attacks
and coordination of joint efforts to neutralize potential air threats.

From: Baghdasarian

DIVORCE RATE UP IN ARMENIA THIS YEAR – DEBATE

14:52 14.08.13

The divorce rate in the six months of 2013 increased by 14.2% to
1,822 cases in Armenia compared to the same period of last year,
an Armenian official has said, citing the latest divorce statistics.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Head of the National Statistical
Service’s Census and Demography Department, Karine Kuyumjyan said that
the number of married males is down 2% this year. Instead, she noted,
there is a big number of divorced men or widowers.

“While the number of unmarried women has seen a 2-percent increase this
year, the number of those married has decreased exactly that much,”
she said, pointing out to the high number of unregistered marriages.

As for repeated marriages, Kuyumjyan noted that men in Armenia marry
for a second time more frequently than do women.

Sedrak Seedrakyan, a Psychology Professor also attending the news
conference, spoke about the reasons, citing jealousy a major motive
behind most divorces.

“Our studies are not in line with the real statistics that exist.

Compatibility in marital life is often focused on the social aspect.

But such a logic would imply that wealthy families should have no
problems at all. The problem, as a matter of fact, has to do with
psychological compatibility, with suspicion being the key cause of
separations,” he said.

Sedrakyan noted that people in Armenia are not used to seeking
psychological counseling despite the fact that there are many
specialists in the country. “The problem for us is that we each think
we are good psychologists. But in the Armenian reality, it is very
hard to delve deep into the sexual life aspects, which often cause
divorce,” he explained.

The specialist further spoke of family aggression, noting that eight
women in Armenia are now facing jail sentence because of killing
their mothers-in-laws.

Ilona Baghinyan, head of the marriage agency Secret of Happiness,
said for her part that they now have now an increasing number of
visitors, the highest in the past five years.

“We register men aged 28-60; women can register starting from age 21.

Men’s first demand has to do with appearance, many wishing slim girls.

As for women, they more often prefer men having a job and a house of
their own,” she added.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

KARABAKH CALLS FOR COOPERATION WITH AZERBAIJAN

August 14, 2013 | 16:41

The Nagorno-Karabakh government expressed readiness to start dialogue
with Azerbaijan on joint management of water resources, Karabakh
Premier Arthur Aghabekyan told RFE/RL Armenian service.

He said the matter concerns the Sarsang reservoir, as well as waters
flowing from Tartar River.

“Sarsang reservoir has more capacity than it is currently used. Both
the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides will gain from proper use of water
canals that were built during the Soviet era,” Aghabekyan said.

Unless Azerbaijan responds to cooperation calls, the Karabakh
government will be obliged to make large investments in border regions
to pump water resources located in the border areas only for its
own territory.

If a dialogue is established, water resources can be used for the
benefit of two sides.

“Eventually, it is a neighboring state. Today they are enemy, but
tomorrow they can turn into merely an opponent. We have to prepare
nations for peace gradually,” he said, noting Karabakh side’s readiness
for near-border cooperation which envisages maintaining of ceasefire
regime and mutual tolerance.

Residents of Terter region of Azerbaijan have recently staged several
protest actions demanding that local authorities should provide water
for agricultural works.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA RELEASES 0.25 PERCENT OF GDP TO FUND SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

YEREVAN, August 14. / ARKA /. Arthur Iskhanian, a correspondent-member
of Armenian National Academy of Sciences, lashed out today at the
government for its failure to keep its promise to increase gradually
funding for science and research.

Speaking at a news conference he said the government funding
for science makes only 0.25% of GDP, although back in 2010 the
government promised to raise it gradually to European average which
is 2 percent of the GDP, by 2020. He said three years have passed,
but no breakthrough was made to increase the funding of science.

According to him this is to blame on the inaction of the government
and top officials. He said 300 million drams were released by the
government in the last two years for 600 young scientists, but this
is very small amount.

Ishkhanian said scientists had long put up with the country’s
leadership’s inattention avoiding to raise this problem and only the
National Academy of Sciences would take some steps in this direction.

However, in the last two years young scientists have been voicing
actively their concerns, and their activity has brought about some
result.. A Facebook initiative group was set up to demand increased
funding of science and it was able to bring together like-minded
people to draw professionally a set of demands and deliver them to
responsible authorities.

“Thus, the scientists have united to fight for their rights and their
fight has resulted in some positive changes,’ he said. -0-

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

NORWEGIAN HONORARY CONSUL TO ARMENIA ADVISES TO FOLLOW PRINCIPLE OF COUNTRY’S PROPORTIONATE DEVELOPMENT

18:22, 14 August, 2013

YEREVAN, AUGUST 14, ARMENPRESS: The changes implemented in Armenia are
only obvious in capital and other big cities and remote regions also
should develop. Such opinion expressed Honorary Consul of Norway to
Armenia Timothy Strait during an interview with “Armenpress”. Answering
the question whether he notices changes during the last 12 years that
he lives in our country he mentioned that a lot of things had changed
in Armenia particularly the quality of gas, electricity water supply
has improved in large cities.

Honorary consul manages “Homeland development initiative foundation”
which though was registered this year but acts in several regions
of Armenia. “We implement programs in Spitak, Talin, Agarak, Berd,
Goris, Meghri and etc. The foundation supports people living in those
regions to make production for export. We give them advises, help in
order they produce more competitive product which will correspond to
external standards,” said Timothy Strait.

Reverberating to tourism development he mentioned that “Armenians
should develop their hospitability and amenity to attract foreign
tourists. There are principles which must be followed fro developing
tourism. People must be ready to receive tourists from all parts of
the world.

“Homeland development initiative foundation” already for the second
year supports organizers of “Honey and berries festival” which is
hold in Berd city of Tavush region which has the aim to attract the
attention of business environment on the region.

From: Baghdasarian