Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

DICTATORS AND THEIR FAMILIES SEEK OUT NEW FRIENDS AMONG THE TWITTERATI

The Times (London)
February 12, 2013 Tuesday
Edition 1; Ireland

It’s human nature: every dictator wants to be liked and is flattered
by attracting new followers.

Little wonder, then, that an order has gone round Azerbaijan’s Ministry
of Economic Development this week to press the “Like” icon on the
Facebook page of President Aliyev. Or as those on Twitter know him,
@presidentaz.

Autocrats of the world are uniting around the idea that they should
be using their thumbs to woo social media.

Partly out of vanity (you don’t need the secret police to tell you how
many followers you have accumulated), partly to wrongfoot a virtual
opposition that is building up as internet usage expands, leaders
such as the Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame
and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have become players.

Even the First Families have become involved.

Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Karimov of Uzbekistan –
reputed to have boiled alive two of his critics, an old-fashioned way
of unfollowing – is a passionate user of Instagram. Most recently she
tweeted pictures of herself in yoga positions wearing tight gym gear.

That’s @gulnarakarimova.

Parody accounts abound, naturally, but these new social media entrants
are the real thing.

@Posts photos The Chechen leader, known for his robust approach to
critics, reveals an almost poetic side that could not possibly have
been dreamt up by a social media adviser. “Grozny at night is so
beautiful,” he tweeted under @RKadyrov, writing in Russian. “I rode
through the streets. I sat at a cafe. I had a sausage and pasta.

Aromatic Kalmyk tea with milk. I recommend it.”

Ayatollah Khamenei has a cyberspace expert, who says that the Supreme
Leader’s Facebook page was set up by fans. But he has been posting
personal black and white photos from the 1970s that could only have
come from his mantlepiece.

It is not exactly revealing, but it wasn’t so long ago that the
Iranian authorities were denouncing Facebook as a wicked Zionist tool.

Mr Aliyev has a two-pronged strategy.

On Facebook he is Mr Nice Guy, posing around the world with his
glamorous wife, Mehriban, (@aboutfirstlady), but on Twitter he can
snarl. “Armenia as a country is of no value,” he tweeted last November
to howls of protest from his neighbour. “It is actually a colony,
an outpost run from abroad, a territory.”

As of last night the President had 35,604 Twitter followers (not many,
presumably, from Armenia) and follows only two accounts: his office
and himself.

It is the gaffes – the embarrassed retreats – that show that there
is a real person at the other end of the smartphone.

In between postings about yoga and her social life, one Twitter
follower asked Ms Karimova what she thought about reports of torture
in Uzbek prisons.

Back came the reply: “MAY I HAVE a FIRM PRECISE CASSES to look at to
get equinted with it and to talk to you then. email:[email protected]”
She never did get back.

From: Baghdasarian

MEGALOMANIAC BILLIONAIRE AIMS TO DESTROY AZERBAIJAN WITH ARTIFICIAL MCCITY

GreenProphet.com
February 11, 2013 Monday 2:16 AM EST

Iyou ask him, Ibrahim Ibrahimov will probably tell you that his plan
to build an archipelago of artificial islands[1], scores of apartment
buildings, bridges and the world’s newest tallest tower will is good
for Azerbaijan, but really the billionaire is on a path that will
destroy everything that makes the capital, Baku, so special.

The New York Times recently profiled the billionaire, who is one of
the country’s most powerful men. With close ties to president Ilham
Aliyev, he is uniquely positioned to realize a sudden mad idea he
had while flying from Dubai to Baku to build the artificial Khazar
Islands on the Caspian Sea[2]. And though he claims this is not the
case, the plan sounds eerily like Dubai[3]. Except worse.

While Dubai has damaged both the desert and the Arabian/Persian Gulf
with its rapid coastline development, Ibrahimov also plans to take
down Baku’s rich collection of architectural gems with thousands of
shiny new apartments, 55 artificial islands, eight hotels, an airport,
a snazzy yacht club and a Formula One[4] racetrack.

Some of these mosques, mansions and palaces date back to the 7th
Century, according to NYT. But Ibrahimov’s 24 year old assistant
gushes that all of it – including the street vendors – will be gone
by the time the so-called vision is realized by 2022.

The plan’s biggest selling point, according to Ibrahimov, the building
that is supposed to draw scores of wealthy investors to a country
bordered by Armenia and Iran, is a 3,445 foot skyscraper called,
rather unimaginatively, Azerbaijan Tower.

He will live in a penthouse at the top, he has said, a goal that
instantly reminded me of my 14 year old cousin’s naive declaration that
he wants to be so rich one day that he will have his own skyscraper
in Manhattan.

Ibrahimov is 40 years older, but he is no better able to keep his
ambitions in healthy check than my young cousin.

When he got off the plane on which he hatched his USD 100 billion
McCity idea, he didn’t head down to the local planning office. Nor
did he contact his nearest environmental protection agency. Instead,
he went straight to his developers and had blueprints drawn up.

We would be willing to eat our words if this is not the case, but
the haste with which the ‘vision’ was put into place suggests that
environmental due process was perhaps overlooked.

Which is interesting since Ibrahimov admitted that The Palm smells
bad as a result of poor environmental management when that artificial
island was built in Dubai. Artificial islands disrupt the natural
ecosystem in which they are built, not to mention the mountain that is
being destroyed to provide the necessary ‘foundation’ of rock and soil.

Like Abu Dhabi, Azerbaijan got rich with oil. But so far, the
country’s leadership appears to possess none of the humility regarding
environmental pressures that the Gulf country has demonstrated.

And this is dangerous. An inland lake, the Caspian Sea is home to a
dazzling variety of species, but already it is beset with pollution
problems – largely thanks to Azerbaijan’s outdated oil refineries.

Then there is the not-so-slight issue of rising water levels. The
Caspian Sea has risen about 2.25 meters since 1978, according to
UNESCO[5]:

In addition to the danger posed to oil fields (e.g.in Kazakstan and
Azerbaijan), the sea-level rise results in changes in: water regime,
hydrochemical regime of river mouths, dynamics and chemical composition
of groundwater, structure and productivity of biological communities
in the littoral and in river mouths, sediment deposition patterns,
pollution by heavy metals, petroleum products, synthetic organic
substances, radioactive isotopes and other substances.

This doesn’t bode well for artificial islands.

From: Baghdasarian

PATIENCE RUNS OUT: EU TO CRACK DOWN ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENT PRODUCTS

By Christoph Schult in Brussels

Photo Gallery: A Deceptive ‘Made in Israel’ Label Photos
AFP

Israeli settlers living in the Palestinian terroritories often
deceptively give their products a “Made in Israel” label. The European
Union wants to move soon to end the practice and appears to be set
on a collision course with the country.

The wine section on the basement floor of the Galeria Kaufhof
department store in downtown Cologne has a good assortment of wines
from around the world. Above the bottles, the shelves bear little
tags showing the prices and flags of the countries of origin.

ANZEIGE

One cubicle has a tag showing a blue Star of David on a white
background. At first glance, one might be led to believe that the
wine comes from Israel. It even says “Wine of Israel” on the label.

However, it requires a good bit of geographical and historical
expertise to figure out the true origin of this [email protected] ($20) bottle
of wine. The label says it is a 2008 “Gamla” Cabernet Sauvignon,
“Produced & Bottled by Golan Heights Winery.” The address provided is
“12900 Katzrin, Israel.”

But that address isn’t in Israel. Katzrin is a settlement in the Golan
Heights. Until the Six Day War of 1967, the rock plateau stretching
some 60 kilometers (37 miles) belonged to Syria. The Israeli army
has occupied both it and the Palestinian West Bank ever since.

The international community has never recognized Israeli sovereignty
over these areas, and the Geneva Convention outlaws the establishment
of settlements within occupied territories. Nevertheless, successive
Israeli governments have allowed colonies to be built up within them
and, today, some 650,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and
East Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently confirmed what little
concern the Israeli government has for respecting international law
on this issue. “The days of bulldozers flattening settlements to the
ground are over,” he told the daily tabloid Maariv.

Israel held parliamentary elections on Jan. 22 and is now in the
process of forming a new coalition government to be led by Netanyahu.

Although the coalition will include the liberal parties in the
political center, politicians representing settlers will also have a
strong voice in the new government. This configuration is diminishing
the hopes of politicians in Berlin, Brussels and Washington who were
eager to revive the comatose Middle East peace process.

Confrontation Course

This has prompted the European Union officials to move forward with
planning that will put them on a confrontation course with Israel.

The main issue is settlement policies. At a meeting in December,
the foreign ministers of the EU’s 27 member states reiterated “their
commitment to ensure continued, full and effective implementation
of existing European Union legislation and bilateral arrangements
applicable to settlement products.” In other words, they intend to
prohibit the sale of goods produced in the occupied territories —
or at least as long as they are falsely labelled.

Sanctions against products from the settlements would be a major
blow to the Israeli economy. Each year, the settlers export some
~@220 million worth of goods to Europe, whereas the comparable figure
for the Palestinians is a mere ~@15 million. Israel has accordingly
reacted very negatively to the plans in Brussels. In a response to the
plans, the Israeli Embassy in Berlin argued that there are territorial
disputes all over the world. “If this kind of labelling regulation is
not universal, and seeks to single out one place exclusively, namely
Israel,” it said, “then this measure will be inherently iniquitous
and discriminatory by nature, and it should be treated as such.”

Such charges have not been intimidating to officials in Brussels.

Employees of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU
diplomatic service ushered in by the Treaty of Lisbon, recently sifted
through the entire corpus of EU legislation in order to determine
which directives and regulations could be cited in efforts to ban
settler-made products. The list of applicable legislation, which
SPIEGEL has obtained, shows that the lion’s share of potentially
banned products involves foodstuffs.

Difficulties in Verifying Origins

For example, European Council Regulation 1234/2007 sets rules “on
specific provisions for certain agricultural products,” including
wine. Among the product information that must be declared is origin.

But, in practice, the law is constantly violated.

Council Regulation 479/2008 stipulates who is responsible for
monitoring that wine is properly labelled. Article 62 says: “The
competent authorities of the Member States shall take measures to
ensure that a product referred to in Article 59(1)” — including wine
and related grapevine products — “not labelled in conformity with
this Chapter is not placed on, or is withdrawn from, the market.”

The red wine from the Golan Heights sold in the Galeria Kaufhof is
imported to Germany by Champagner und Wein Distributionsgesellschaft
mbH & Co. KG, a company based in the northern German state of
in Schleswig-Holstein. But the state’s ministry responsible for
agriculture doesn’t see any reason to take action. A ministry
spokeswoman says that since Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Labor has already provided a document confirming the origin of the
wine, there is no deception in the matter.

The EU member states also rely on the information supplied by Israeli
exporters when it comes to fruit and vegetables. It is difficult to
verify precisely where an orange or olive has been harvested. Right
now, one of the main things EU officials are looking into are dates
that are grown by Israeli settlers in the occupied Jordan Valley.

Products from Israeli cosmetics firm Ahava are also the subject of
dispute. The company produces creams and shower gels that contain
minerals from the Dead Sea. The products’ packaging includes the
details, “Dead Sea Laboratories. Israel.” In truth, the products are
manufactured at the edge of the Dead Sea in the occupied West Bank.

The company refused to answer detailed legal questions. “Ahava works
in coordination with the German authorities, the European Commission
and under the law,” the company stated, tersely. But the apparent
calm was feigned. Ahava immediately informed the Israeli Embassy in
Berlin about SPIEGEL’s reporting.

The German importer of Ahava products is based in Wiesbaden, so any
control of its products is the responsibility of the city, which is
the state capital of Hesse. In a written response to a query from
SPIEGEL, the city’s consumer protection department wrote that because
the company’s headquarters is officially located within the recognized
borders of the state of Israel, “nothing misleading can be detected.”

Countries Turn Blind Eye to Imports

But officials at the EU in Brussels have a different view. Under
EU Regulation 2005/29, a trader is considered to be conducting
misleading actions when it presents material information “in an
unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.” The European
Commission considers such practices to be “misleading omissions”.

Officials in Brussels have come to the conclusion that controllers
in many EU member states are simply turning a blind eye to products
originating from Israeli settlements.

A SPIEGEL review of all 27 EU national governments confirmed this
suspicion. The simple question of whether or not products from
settlements in the West Bank or the Golan Heights “come from Israel”
generated highly varied answers. Britain, Ireland, Finland, Sweden,
Estonia, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Cyprus all answered the
question with a clear “no”. These countries consider products with
the labels “Product of Israel” or “Made in Israel” to be misleading.

A spokesperson with the British Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs wrote that, “Items imported into the UK from Israeli
settlements, such as those in the West Bank, can’t lawfully be labelled
as products of Israel.”

Other EU countries expressed uncertainty. Given the country’s difficult
history, officials in Germany are taking pains to avoid anything
that might evoke any kind of historical associations with the Nazis’
campaigns to prevent people from buying products from Jews. German
government officials are urging the European Commission to provide
“guidance assistance on the implementation of EU law in relation to
a consistency with EU law and correct labelling.”

A number of EU countries see no problem whatsoever with the
labelling. They point out that sales are legal as soon as customs
officials have approved the products. However, the only thing that
customs officials check is whether or not the products fall under
the EU-Israel Association Agreement. If they do, then importers are
not required to pay an import tariff.

The Galeria Kaufhof department store chain also sees no reason to
act. The company argues it is the sole responsibility of suppliers
to ensure proper labelling. The company also spoke to the Israeli
Embassy in Berlin before answering a question from this SPIEGEL
reporter. “Suppliers and the embassy were able to give us credible
assurances that their actions are legal,” a company spokesman wrote.

He also added that “Galeria Kaufhof, like the majority of the people,
wish the Middle East peace.”

i-settlements-a-882623.html

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN FM ANSWERS QUESTION ABOUT STEPANAKERT AIRPORT

TERT.AM
23:01 ~U 12.02.13

At a press conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, Armenian FM Edward
Nalbandian answered an Azerbaijani journalist question about the
legality of Armenia’s operating an airport in Stepanakert, the capital
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

He referred to the OSCE MG Co-Chairs’ statement on the opening of
Stepanakert airport, which advises the sides against politicizing
the issue.

“Neither Nagorno-Karabakh nor Armenia has ever politicized the issue
nor do they intend to do so. Azerbaijan is politicking it with its
everyday statements thereby violating all the commitments to the
co-chairs,” Minister Nalbandian said.

Also, neither Armenia nor Nagorno-Karabakh has ever threatened to
use force against civil airplanes, he said.

On the other hand, Azerbaijan keeps on threatening to use force
against civil airplanes thereby violating its relevant commitments.

Neither Armenia nor Nagorno-Karabakh has ever linked the opening of
Stepanakert airport to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem
or to Nagorno-Karabakh status, Minister Nalbandian said.

Both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have repeatedly stated at the highest
level that the opening of Stepanakert airport has only humanitarian
and civic aims.

Things should be viewed as they are, and neither side should escalate
tension by statements that run counter to the international community’s
approaches, Minister Nalbandian said.

From: Baghdasarian

VLADIMIR YENGIBARYAN TO BE BURIED IN ARMENIA

2013-02-12 21:52:03

Legendary boxer and Olympic champion Vladimir Yengibaryan’s corpse will
be repatriated to and buried in Armenia. The Ministry of Sport and
Youth Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that
the sport representatives and Vladimir Yengibaryan’s relatives have
made this decision. The legendary boxer spent last years of his life
in the United States of America, where he passed away at the age of 81.

Vladimir Yengibaryan’s civil funerals will be held in St. Hovhannes
Church, Kond, at 18.00, February 15. The burial ceremony is scheduled
to be held from the same church at 14.00, February 16. Yengibaryan’s
corpse will be buried in the Yerevan City Pantheon.

From: Baghdasarian

HEAD OF PARLIAMENT’S FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETS FUTURE ARMENIAN DIPLOMATS

news.am
February 12, 2013 | 18:35

YEREVAN. – The President of National Assembly Standing Committee
for Foreign Affairs Artak Zakaryan met with Yerevan State University
students of foreign affairs department this Tuesday.

Committee chairman has told the students about the functions of
National Assembly Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs, and
talked about the work of Armenian MPs in different international
parliamentary organizations, parliamentary press service informed
Armenian News-NEWS.am. Artak Zakaryan also noted, that parliamentary
diplomacy gives the opportunity for opinion sharing, presenting
positions, creating objective image of the country and opinion
formation in international institutions.

He also answered the questions about the foreign policy of Armenia
and Karabakh conflict.

Artak Zakaryan wished the students success, urging them to be
consistent and purposeful in their professional contribution to the
development of the country.

From: Baghdasarian

RUSSIAN DUMA SURPRISED AT BAKU’S INTERPRETATION OF NARYSHKIN’S REMARKS ON KARABAKH

newsw.am
February 12, 2013 | 19:17

Russia’s Duma calls to join efforts into seeking common decision to
settle the Karabakh conflict.

It is necessary to continue making serious steps to put an end to
the conflict and coordinate positions of the parties, head of Duma’s
committee for CIS Affairs and Ties with Compatriots Leonid Slutsky
told reporters.

He recalled that the Karabakh conflict was discussed during the recent
visit of the parliamentary delegation to Paris.

French lawmakers asked Speaker Sergey Naryshkin about “failure” of
Medvedev-Aliyev-Sargsyan platform. However, Russian delegation gave
relevant explanations.

Naryshkin noted that a number of coordinated positions were elaborated
for them to move forward, Slutsky recalled.

He was surprised to see that Azerbaijani official, namely Deputy
Chairman of ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party Ali Ahmedov, gave his
interpretation to Naryshkin’s words in one of his recent interviews.

“It was Sergey Naryshkin, who, becoming speaker of State Duma, added a
parliamentary component to the fragile matter of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict,” Slutsky noted.

From: Baghdasarian

HRANT BAGRATYAN’S CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS ATTACKED

NEWS.AM
February 12, 2013 | 19:28

Presidential candidate Hrant Bagratyan’s campaign headquarters has
been attacked.

Unidentified persons tore off the posters in Bagratyan’s headquarters
in Ararat. According to Aravot newspaper, Bagratyan is heading to
Ararat to find out the details.

On Tuesday the candidate toured Syunik and Vayots Dzor Regions.

Last week an unidentified person(s) has attacked Hrant Bagratyan’s
campaign headquarters in Yerevan’s Erebuni district.

From: Baghdasarian

RELICS OF STUDENTS OF JESUS FOUND IN THE ARMENIAN OF TABRIZ

19:30 12.02.2013

Relics of Saints were found during the reconstruction of St. Stepanos
Monastery in Tabriz in 2006. These were supposed to be the bones of
martyrs of the Battle of Vartanantz. A group headed by Prelate of
the Armenian Diocese of Atrpatakan Grigor Chifchian is now studying
the relics.

It is noted that as early as the 17th century traveller Jean-Baptiste
Tavernier writes in his memories “The trips to Turkey and Persia”
that in 1668 he saw part of St. Srepanos’ jaw kept in the Church
together with the skull of St. Mathews, parts of the neck and finger
of Saint John the Baptist, the right hand of St. Gregory, Dionysius
the Areopagite’s student, as well as a box including the relics of
the 72 students of Jesus.

A secret cell was discovered in the left part of the Church during
its reconstruction in 2006. There were remains of a rotten wooden box
there, as well as relics resembling the ones described by Tavernier.

According to tradition, the relics were being wrapped in paper with
the name of the Saint and a prayer on it. Excerpts of prayers have
been revealed on the paper fragments found in Tabriz.

The papers differ from each other both with their quality and the
writing belonging to different ages.

From: Baghdasarian

OVER 250 WORKS OF 143 REPORTERS PARTICIPATE IN 2013 NA/NE MEDIA COMPETITION

NEWS.AM
February 12, 2013 | 17:04

YEREVAN.- The British Council, British Embassy Yerevan, the OSCE Office
in Yerevan, United Nations Population Fund and World Vision Armenia
are holding the 5th Anniversary Edition of the Na/Ne media competition.

Over 250 works of 143 journalists participated in this year’s contest
in seven categories: TV programme, radio programme, printed article,
online article, citizen report/blog article, photo report and
commercial advertisement.

The best 21 works were chose in seven categories, organizers said
during the Tuesday press conference in Yerevan.

Materials had to be published or broadcast within the period from
January to December 2012 and covered the activities and achievements,
problems and challenges of women in political, economic and social
spheres.

From: Baghdasarian