Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

MORE THAN 70 APPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL ELECTION OF ARMENIAN SONG FOR “EUROVISION 2013”

18:03, 22 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS: Accepting applications for March 2
national election of “Eurovision 2013” song of Armenia is over. As
reports Armenpress, responsible of “Eurovision” project on Public
TV of Armenia Gohar Gasparyan has noted during press conference on
February 22 that number of applications is more than 70.

“There were applications from Spain, Belgium, Sweden, France, and
Armenia; though unlike songs from abroad, songs from Armenia were of
better quality. In a result several songs have been elected, recorded
and will be presented to the national election,” Gasparyan said.

When responding to question of Armenpress reporter, whether song of
Armenian participant Gor Sujyan and “Dorians” rock band is included
in the list, Gohar Gasparyan has noted that names of songs’ authors
are going to be blacked out till the end of national voting.

“We have decided not to announce the names of the authors for
this time, as very often, hearing the name of author, many people
mechanically vote for their favorite composer. “So it would be fair to
announce the names after election,” said responsible of the project,
noting that this way equal conditions for all the songs were created.

According to her, March 2, day of national election, is going to be
full of surprises, including performance of Malta’s representative in
“Eurovision 2013”.

Vladislav Yakovlev, head of “Junior Eurovision”, “Eurovision Young
Dancers” and “Young Musicians” contests informed that format of
“Junior Eurovision 2013” would undergo some changes.

From: Baghdasarian

HERITAGE TO TRAVEL TO MARZES FEB 23

07:23 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

The next rally of the Heritage party is scheduled to be held at Liberty
Square in Yerevan on Sunday, February 24. On Saturday, the party
representatives will travel to marzes to meet with regional voters.

At present, the ralliers are marching along the capital streets, with
people following [Heritage Leader] Raffi Hovannisian and his allies.

From: Baghdasarian

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN: ARE YOU READY TO WIN? I AM READY

08:05 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

“Why did I go to the presidential residence on foot? … because
I have no complexes, because I have no fear in my homeland. I can
show respect and demand adequate response. I showed my respect [for
Serzh Sargsyan] and at the same time demanded that he recognize the
victory of our people. But he gave me a negative answer,” Heritage
party leader Raffi Hovannisian said at Liberty Square on Friday.

“I suggested calling a new presidential election instead of drinking
campaign but he refused my offer. Then I said, “If you are not ready
for a new election, then punish all election riggers, including
regional governors, heads of headquarters and communities, ministers
and lawmakers,” Raffi Hovannisian said commenting on his yesterday’s
meeting with Serzh Sargsyan.

“You (Serzh Sargsyan) are obliged to punish everyone without exception,
you should publicly say that you will do it and you have proofs for
doing this. Second, if you are not ready to do this and you do not
have opportunity to do and recognize the power of people, then do
not be offended by me,” continue Mr Hovannisian.

“Third I said, “Well, Mr Sargsyan, let us shift to the full
proportional voting system and call extraordinary parliamentary
elections but he again he gave a negative reply. I have nothing else
to say. I just want to remind that our soldiers must protect our
borders and our territorial integrity. The person, who will try to
‘direct’ our soldiers, will have to deal with me and Armenian people.

We are committed to continue out struggle in a peaceful and
constitutional way. Tomorrow we shall ‘take the victory’ to Armenian
cities. We shall visit Ashtarak, Vanadzor, Gyumri and on Sunday we
shall return to Yerevan and rally our supporters here at 3 p.m. I
want to inform Yerevan Mayor, who did not authorize our rally, that
we shall seize every and each opportunity to bring our citizens to
Liberty Square. Are you ready to win? I am ready!” said Mr Hovannisian.

From: Baghdasarian

I DON’T CARE FOR OPINION OF THOSE AT THE TOP

Story from Lragir.am News:

21:52 22/02/2013

Today the famous singer Ruben Hakhverdyan joined the rally called by
Raffi Hovannisian. He said today we need to rid of Serzh Sargsyan and
other wolves who are torturing people. “I don’t care for the opinion
of those at the top. I had lost hope until we got together here,
I found my hope,” Hakhverdyan said. People cheered his speech.

From: Baghdasarian

‘THIS MOVEMENT IS UNSTOPPABLE’: ARF JOINS RALLY ON FREEDOM SQUARE

February 22, 2013

YEREVAN (A.W.)-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation joined the
thousands upon thousands of Armenian citizens gathered at Freedom
Square in Yerevan on Feb. 22, with the party’s Supreme Council
representative Armen Rustamyan delivering a powerful message of
solidarity with the people.

Thousands gathered at Freedom Square in Yerevan on Feb. 22. (Photo
by Khatchig Mouradian, The Armenian Weekly)

ARF Supreme Council representative Armen Rustamyan addresses the crowd
at Freedom Square in Yerevan on Feb. 22. (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian,
The Armenian Weekly)

After a series of speeches by Raffi Hovannisian’s Heritage Party
leaders, other opposition leaders, civil society activists, and
artists, Hovannisian introduced Rustamyan, saying: “Today we are
joined by a political figure whose party, ourparty, the party of
my ancestors, in the name of the fatherland, unity, our national
interests, the rights of the citizen, and our state’s sovereignty,
wages a struggle wherever it is necessary, from Strasbourg to Ankara
to Moscow to Washington…. Please welcome the representative of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Armen Rustamyan.”

Rustamyan first spoke of the ARF decision to come to Freedom Square.

“For a few days now, Freedom Square was waiting for-and wanted to
see-the ARF. And we are now here! We have come here, to this rally,
because as we announced earlier, the ARF stands with you, with the
people,” he said.

Rustamyan noted that the Armenian people proved on Feb. 18 that
it’s impossible to kill justice and freedom. He said, “The people
does not tolerate the rotten political, social, economic, and moral
environment.”

Rustamyan joined other opposition leaders at the rally in their
criticism of the statements of international observers, who deemed the
elections fair. “Regardless of what the international observers say,
it is you who took part in the election, and you know all too well
what really happened,” Rustamyan said.

“This is an unstoppable movement to establish the rule of the people,”
argued Rustamyan.

The rally concluded with a fiery speech by Raffi Hovannisian.

For more photos and detailed coverage, follow us on Facebook and
Twitter.

From: Baghdasarian

DECISION 2013: HOVANNISIAN SAYS ‘COMMITTED’ TO STRUGGLE AFTER NO COMPROMISE WITH SARGSYAN

VOTE 2013 | 22.02.13 | 19:22

Raffi Hovannisian, the main opposition candidate in the Armenian
presidential election, again rallied thousands of supporters in
Yerevan on Friday to declare that he is committed to continuing a
fight for de jure presidency after all his offers of compromise have
been rejected by President Serzh Sargsyan.

Hovannisian, the head of the opposition Heritage party, gathered people
in Liberty Square to present details of his previous day’s closed-door
meeting with Sargsyan, whose election victory he is disputing.

The 53-year-old United States-born lawyer, who officially polled
close to 37 percent of the vote in the February 18 ballot, as opposed
to Sargsyan’s official count of about 59 percent, said all of his
offers made to Sargsyan, including concession of people’s victory,
appointment of new elections or a runoff, punishment of all election
falsifiers, and even holding fresh parliamentary elections according
to an all-proportional system of representation have been rejected.

Hovannisian, whose rally has been hailed by politicians representing
other parties, including Armenian Revolutionary Federation
representative Armen Rustamyan, declared the start of his struggle,
announcing that he will be organizing similar rallies in Armenian
towns on Saturday before returning to Liberty Square in Yerevan for
a big Sunday rally.

He also repeated his appeal to the people to remain peaceful and
abide by a constitutional means of reaching resolution.

Earlier in the day the Heritage Party leader held separate meetings
with U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Heffern and Ambassador Heidi
Tagliavini, the head of the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission,
to discuss the post-election situation in Armenia. No other details
of the meetings have been reported.

In their earlier comments representatives of Sargsyan’s ruling
Republican Party of Armenia rejected claims by Hovannisian that his
votes had been stolen from him, insisting that the opposition leader
and his team have lost “the sense of reality”.

From: Baghdasarian

Defense Ministry refutes Azeri claims of Armenian hostages

February 23, 2013 – 18:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Information circulating in Azeri forums, suggesting
Azerbaijani armed forces have captured 8 soldiers while preventing an
Armenian-organized attack is false, Armenian Defense Ministry
spokesman said.
As Artsrun Hovhannisyan told PanARMENIAN.Net `let them show at least
one hostage if they claim to have captured 8. That’s what we do.
Armenian side always openly announces about Azeri solders taken
hostage.’

From: Baghdasarian

SCR Passenger Traffic Increased by 5.1% in January 2013

22-02-2013 13:56:56 | Armenia | Economy

In January 2013 the passenger traffic of CJSC “South Caucasus Railway”
increased by 5.1% compared to the same period last year. According to
statistics in the first month of 2013 SCR transported 35.3 thousand
passengers against 33.6 thousand in January 2012.

In international traffic SCR had 2.3 thousand passengers which is
27.8% more than in January 2012 and in the suburban traffic 33
thousand passengers were transported (an increase of 3.8%).
At the same time passenger traffic in January 2013 increased by 78.6%
from 2071.3 thousand passenger-km to 3700.1 thousand passenger-km.
CJSC “SCR’ keeps to its policy to gradually improve the quality of
passenger service, the level of comfort in trains of local and
international communication. Accordingly, the railway upgrades the
rolling stock, the list of services expands, train speed increases.

CJSC “SCR” Transported 201.2 Million Tons of Cargo in January 2013

In January 2013 South Caucasus Railway transported 201.2 thousand tons
of cargo which is 4.8% more than planned for the first month of the
year. In January rail export reached 27.5 thousand tons which is 32.2%
higher than the planned target.
The volume of freight in import reached 71.1 thousand tons which is
higher than the planned target by 1.9%.
In local rail traffic 102.6 thousand tons of cargo were transported
(up 1.3%) in January 2013.
The railway is gradually increasing its key performance indicators,
including the volume of freight traffic. We achieved these results
thanks to SCR flexible tariff policy aimed at reducing transport costs
in the price of the goods transported.
Improving the reliability of the railway infrastructure has reduced
the delivery time, improve the reliability of transportation, reduced
the risk of cargo loss or damage.

SCR Significantly Improved Efficiency of the Locomotive and Car Parks

In January 2013 South Caucasus Railway significantly increased the
level of efficiency of freight wagons and locomotive fleet.
According to the latest statistics of CJSC “SCR” car turnover compared
with the level in 2012 accelerated by 1.2 days or 41.4%. On average
one car was in circulation during 2.9 days.
The average daily production of one car reached 5148.2 net ton/km /
wagon which is 34.2% more than in January 2012.
The use of performance of the locomotive fleet also improved. In
particular, the average mileage of the locomotive was 364.2 loc-km,
which is more than in January last year by 3.3%.
The Company achieved such results due to its policy of railway
infrastructure and traction-rolling stock improvement on the basis of
comprehensive measures to ensure traffic safety.

– Economy
News from Armenia and Diaspora – Noyan Tapan

From: Baghdasarian

Levon Ter-Petrosian: Raffi Hovannisian won

Saturday,
February 23

`For the time being I see only the protest of people in Liberty
Square. People are indignant as was the case during all the rigged
elections. They do not accept the results, and it is obvious that
Serzh Sargsyan was not elected. I have no doubts that Raffi
Hovannisian has won, `HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosian said today in his
speech at the extraordinary congress of Armenian All-National Movement
(HHSh).

As regards the outside world, Ter-Petrosian said that `although they
speak about democracy, they welcome rigged, shameful elections every
time’. `They prefer to see Serzh Sargsyan as president,’ he noted.

TODAY, 16:48
Aysor.am

From: Baghdasarian

Construction of Memorial Park in the City of Pasadena scheduled to end
on the eve of Armenian Genicide 100th anniversary

16:30, 23 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS: Construction works of Memorial Park
located in USA California state, city of Pasadena are set to start in
2014 and end in 2015 on the eve of April 24. As Armenpress reports,
Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee states, the Memorial
will be constructed and maintained entirely with private funding.
Armenian communities in the Diaspora is one of the strongest Diaspora
communities. It’s important to ensure that there is a public space of
reflection and remembrance for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Last year community leaders came together and formed the Pasadena
Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee to establish and maintain a
public memorial of the Armenian Genocide within the City.

The Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee received 17
submissions for the design of the Memorial and an independent 3 judge
panel unanimously selected the design by Pasadena Art Center
Environmental Design student Catherine Menard.

The central feature of Menard’s memorial’s minimalist design a
carved-stone basin of water straddled by a tripod arrangement of three
columns leaning into one another is a single drop of water that falls
from the highest point every three seconds, each tear drop
representing one life lost. Over the course of one year, 1.5 million
tears will fall into the pool, the estimated number of victims of the
Armenian Genocide.

From: Baghdasarian