Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

MG Co-Chairs issue statement following meetings with FMs

March 4, 2013 – 22:07 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors
Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Jacques Faure of France, and Ian
Kelly of the United States of America) met on March 2 with the Foreign
Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, and on March 3 with the
Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian. The Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej
Kasprzyk, also participated in the meetings.
According to OSCE official website, the Co-Chairs `repeated their
concerns regarding the issue of civilian flights to Nagorno Karabakh
and the recent violence on the Line of Contact.’ They also discussed
ideas to strengthen the ceasefire.
The Co-Chairs will travel to the region in the coming weeks to discuss
with the Presidents next steps aimed at reaching a peaceful resolution
of the conflict.

From: Baghdasarian

International News Network, Pakistan
March 4 2013

Hunger strike to protest wrestling’s Olympic removal
Dated: 2013-03-05

SOFIA: Bulgarian wrestling coach and two-times Olympic champion Armen
Nazaryan has started a hunger strike to protest the sport being dumped
from the 2020 Olympics, the country’s wrestling federation said
Sunday.

“The two times Olympic champion will not eat until the start of the
European Championship on March 22 in Tbilisi, Georgia … and will
only take juices,” a statement said.
“Wrestling has always been on the Olympics programme and it is not
right to take it out. I sincerely hope that my action will convince
the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to review its decision,”
Nazaryan said in the statement.

The IOC executive panel decided last month to exclude wrestling from
the 2020 Games programme, prompting protests from other figures in the
sport as well as creating an unlikely common cause for geopolitical
foes Iran and the United States.

Nazaryan, 38, was an Olympic champion for Armenia in the Greco-Roman
style at the 1996 Games in Atlanta and also won gold and bronze for
Bulgaria at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Athens Games.

He is currently chief coach of Bulgaria’s Greco-Roman wrestling team.

Bulgaria’s women wrestling coach, two times World and four times
European freestyle champion Serafim Barzakov, was also ready to go on
hunger strike to support Nazaryan, the federation added.

Wrestling has been Bulgaria’s most successful Olympic sport with its
athletes winning a total of 16 titles.

The country’s wrestling federation chief Valentin Yordanov has already
protested the IOC’s decision to remove the ancient sport from the 2020
Olympic schedule by returning his 1996 Olympic gold medal to IOC’s
headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

From: Baghdasarian

Minsk Group Co-Chairs reached an agreement on upcoming visit to the
region at the meeting with Edward Nalbandian

19:33, 4 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia
Edward Nalbandian met with the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor
Popov, Jacques Faure and Ian Kelly and the Personal Representative of
the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk on March 3 in Paris.
Issues relating to the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict were discussed. The participants touched upon the proposal of
the Co-Chairs made during the previous meeting on confidence building
measures.

As Armenpress was informed from Armenian MFA, an agreement was reached
about the upcoming visit of the Co-Chairs to the region.

Edward Nalbandian drew the Co-Chairs’ attention to the fact that after
the previous two Paris meetings of the Co-Chairs and the Foreign
Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani side not only did
not publish the agreed upon texts of the joint press releases, but in
their manner which became habitual, presented comments which had no
relation to the content of the discussions during the meetings. It has
become habitual for the Azerbaijani side to reject the proposals of
the Co-Chairs, and then express concerns about the state of the
negotiation process.

Minister Nalbandian once again thanked the Co-Chairs for their
important and significant mediation efforts, expressions of which are
also the joint statements of the heads of the Co-Chair states in
L’Aquila, Muskoka, Deauville and Los Cabos.

The Foreign Minister reassured that Armenia together with the
Co-Chairs will continue the efforts aimed at the exclusively peaceful
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

From: Baghdasarian

Protest at U.S. Embassy in Armenia: Obama Shouldn’t Have Congratulated Sargsyan

17:04, March 4, 2013

Demonstrators staged a protest today outside the U.S. Embassy in
Yerevan to voice their opposition to President Barack Obamas’s recent
congratulatory message to Serzh Sargsyan regarding his re-election.

The demonstrators argued that the United States, as a democratic
country, had no right to certify Sargsyan as the winner given that the
February 18 presidential election in Armenia was fraudulent.

From: Baghdasarian

Gas pipes taken back from Armenia’s Jrashen community due to size issues

18:19 • 04.03.13

Head of Jrashen community Artyom Ghazaryan confirmed the information
of lragir.am that gas pipes brought to the village before the
presidential poll have been taken back. He said though that they were
taken from the village not because Heritage party leader Raffi
Hovannisian got more votes there than the incumbent president, but
because of size issues.

“As far as the size of the pipes was bigger than needed, they were
taken and new ones will be brought,” he said.

Ghazaryan also refuted the information as if the villagers tried to
block the road not letting the cars take the pipes. According to media
outlets, the workers in the cars shouted at people, “You have elected
Raffi, so let him come and connect your village to gas network.”

“I was there myself. They were just workers. What could they say? I do
not think the pipes were taken because of it, it is just the matter of
sizes,” he said.

The head of the village also said the pipes were not brought to the
village for electing Serzh Sargsyan, it was in pre-electoral program.

From: Baghdasarian

Head of UAE parliament invites Armenian Speaker to UAE

March 04, 2013 | 15:36

Armenia’s Ambassador to the UAE Gegham Gharibjanyan met on March 3
with president of UAE Federal National Council Mohammad Ahmad Al Murr.

The sides discussed Armenia-UAE relations, in particular issues
referring to parliamentary cooperation.

President of UAE Federal National Council praised the level of
bilateral relations and expressed authorities’ readiness to expand and
strengthen the ties, underscoring Armenian community’s important
contribution to economy and culture of UAE.

The sides reached agreement to intensify mutual visits and contacts
between the countries.

Mohammad Ahmad Al Murr confirmed his invitation to Armenia’s
Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan to visit the UAE, stressing it
will give an impetus to development of parliamentary cooperation.

They also touched upon regional issues.

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

Azerbaijani make another attempt to accuse Armenians of made-up “genocide”

March 04, 2013 | 12:33

YEREVAN.- Azerbaijanis made an attempt to tarnish reputation of the
official representative of Armenia during the conference held in
Cairo, expert for Turkish studies Ruben Safrastyan said at a press
conference on Monday.

`Our Ambassador to Egypt Armen Melkonyan was addressed a question on
Khojaly,’ Safrastyan said, telling about conference on Armenian
people’s contribution to world civilization.

Ambassador gave a reserved answer but the gathered, being not familiar
with the situation, formed the right opinion on Khojaly events and
real character of Azerbaijani propaganda, Safrastyan added.

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

Azerbaijani diplomacy works with street methods – Armenian turkologist

March 04, 2013 | 13:32

YEREVAN. – In the international arena, the Azerbaijani diplomacy is
conducted not solely by `caviar diplomacy,’ but also by the methods of
street diplomacy, Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Orientology Director, turkologist Ruben Safrastyan stated during a
press conference on Monday.

`This is the diplomacy that applies non-diplomatic methods, [and] we
need to fight against all this,’ Safrastyan stressed.

In his words, the Armenian scholars’ participation in a variety of
international conferences is not limited to attendance alone.

`We meet with the representatives of different peoples, and organize
discussions and present the necessary literature. We also must have an
impact on the environment where Azerbaijani propaganda is carried
out,’ the turkologist noted.

Ruben Safrastyan also expressed a conviction that some processes are
going on in Azerbaijan and they contribute to the weakening of the
ruling Aliyev clan in the country.

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

Azerbaijani man tries to disrupt Armenian heritage conference in Cairo

13:28 – 04.03.13

Director of the Oriental Studies Instiute Ruben Safrastyan on the right

A Cairo-hosted conference devoted to the Armenians’ contribution to
the world civilization might have recently broken down because of an
Azerbaijani student, senior researchers from the Oriental Studies
Institute told reporters on Monday.

Addressing the incident, the Institute’s Director Ruben Safrastyan
described it as an attempt to damage the reputation of the event,
discrediting Armenia’s official representative in the country.

`Our presentations were ignored, with Azerbaijanis demonstrating
absolutely no interest. That student asked the ambassador a question
about the Khojalu events, and the ambassador gave a restrained and
clear reply which the participants didn’t like. And that disrupted the
normal course of the conference,’ he said, adding that Azerbaijan’s
subsequent statements were but disinformation.

Safrastyan noted that an Armenian studies center operating at the
Cairo University for several years now is a very important initiative
which encourages the Arab youth to learn the Armenian language.

`And the regular scientific conference presenting the Armenian nation
was part of the activities,’ he added.

Karen Khachatryan, the Institute’s deputy director also attending the
news conference, said Azerbaijan has been recently pushing for more
active efforts towards raising the problem of the Khojalu events.
According to him, Azerbaijani’s have found the point to silence the
Armenians.

`Our specialists’ guilt was that we failed to be the initiator of the
attack. We all know this perfectly well, with activities in that
direction now being under way,’ he said, calling for more active
measures to prove to the world community that Azerbaijan is actually
misrepresenting the centuries-old history.

Khachatryan added that Egyptian Ambassador to Armenia Armen Melkonyan
managed to provide exhaustive answers at the conference, preventing
the Azerbaijanis from realizing their plan.

From: Baghdasarian

“Retro”: Pseudonyms are interesting, but not conditioned by talent

10:46, 4 March, 2013

This time “Retro” exclusive project introduced by “Armenpress” on the
news history and historical news is dedicated to the literary
pseudonyms of the Armenian writers and peculiarities of pseudonym’s
choice in general. This day has not been chosen accidentally to refer
to this topic. On these days in 1973 the Soviet press unanimously
stated: “Prominent poet Ashot Grashi passed away: this is a heavy loss
for the Soviet-Armenian literature.”

Ashot Grashi or Ashot B. Grigoryan

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, ARMENPRESS. Notwithstanding the young generations
maybe does not read or remember famous Soviet-Armenian writer Ashot
Grashi, but it’s for certain that the elder generation remembers his
name. Ashot B. Grigoryan has chosen an interesting literary pseudonym
for his works – Ashot Grashi, but it’s difficult to say now what has
compelled him to make this choice. But one thing is for sure: pen name
“Grashi” is composed of the first letters of his name and surname.
Contemporary prominent writer Davit Hovhannes, who personally knew
Grashi, also has no information about the origin of Grashi’s
pseudonym. Among other things Davit Hovhannes noted: “Everybody was
used to that name so much, that I didn’t even think about asking him
of its origins.”

Pseudonym contributes nothings to the literature of the poet: Levon Ananyan

Subjective element serves as a basis for the choice of literary
pseudonym, it’s occasional and, hence, it’s rather difficult to figure
out whether it’s a necessity or is of no significance for the writer.
In a conversation with “Armenpress” the Chairman of the Writers’ Union
of Armenia Levon Ananyan noted that the desire for pseudonym is
frequently conditioned with inharmonious surnames, or surnames, which
do not sound Armenian. Sometimes the original names do not seem poetic
to the writers and they decide to change them. (THE FULL VERSION FO
THE ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE IN ARMENIAN)

Article by Arusik Zakharyan

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian