Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

TURKISH CITIZEN TRIED TO SMUGGLE NARCOTICS INTO ARMENIA VIA GEORGIA

15:00, 16 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 16 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Georgian police officers have
seized 9.6 thousand pills of the Tramadol drug from Turkish citizen
Yusuf O, who was traveling to Armenia via Georgia. This is what the
press service of Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on
February 16, as “Armenpress” reports. According to the press service,
the Turkish citizen was arrested at Sarpi control point right after
crossing the Georgian-Turkish border.

“While searching the arrestee’s truck, police officers seized 9,600
pills of the Tramadol drug which, based on the conclusion provided
after the expert examination, contain 480 grams of the Tramadol
narcotic,” as stated in the press release.

From: Baghdasarian

MANOYAN: WITHDRAWAL OF PROTOCOLS A WELCOME STEP, BUT NOT ENOUGH

By Weekly Staff on February 16, 2015

YEREVAN (A.W.)–Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun
(ARF-D) Bureau member Giro Manoyan has called President Serge
Sarkisian’s decision to withdraw the Turkey-Armenia accord from the
National Assembly a first step to completely neutralize the protocols,
however, he stressed that Armenia must take this further. “This is
a welcome step, but is not enough. It is necessary to completely
neutralize and recall the signatures,” Manoyan told Yerkir.am, adding
that there has always been the possibility of withdrawing from the
protocols.

Giro Manoyan

According to Manoyan, Sarkisian mentioned the possibility of
withdrawing from the accord as early as September 2014, during
his speeches at the 5th Armenia-Diaspora Conference and UN General
Assembly.

He also noted that the ARF-D demanded the withdrawal of Armenia’s
signature from the very beginning, when it was clear that Turkey was
not ready to establish relations with Armenia without preconditions.

ANCA issues statement

Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director
Aram Hamparian released a statement stressing the importance of
withdrawing Armenia’s signature from the Protocols. “Withdrawing
these flawed and failed Protocols from Parliament represents a step
in the right direction–one that needs to be followed immediately by
the next logical step of withdrawing Armenia’s signature from these
Ankara-inspired accords,” said Hamparian.

Aram Hamparian

“As we stressed in 2009–and as is painfully clear today–Armenia
should never have signed these one-sided agreements. Once in
place, despite Turkey’s obvious lies and endless preconditions
and manipulations, this farce was allowed to continue for far too
long. Even through all of this, we remain encouraged that, despite
Ankara’s efforts–through the Protocols and other instruments of
denial– to downgrade the Armenian Genocide from an unpunished
international crime into a simple bilateral conflict, the Armenian
people–in our homeland and diaspora–remain united in our resolve
for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide, ”
concluded Hamparian.

Earlier today, Sarkisian sent a letter to the Chairman of the
National Assembly Galust Sahakyan, informing him about his decision
to withdraw the protocols from the National Assembly of Armenia,
reported Armenpress.

On April 23, 2009, an agreement of “mutual understanding,” defined as
a “roadmap,” had been agreed upon by Armenia and Turkey assuring the
world that mutually beneficial relations between them were forthcoming.

In the days leading to the signing of the proposals, Sarkisian made
a tour of several Armenian communities around the world, including
New York, Paris, Beirut, and Los Angeles, only to be met with scorn
and outrage.

Public outcry had virtually no swaying influence on the resolve of the
Armenian authorities, and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian alongside
his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu signed the protocols in Zurich
on Oct. 10, 2009.

On April 22, 2010, only seven months after signing the accord,
Sarkisian made a statement, in which he made it clear that the
political majority in the National Assembly considered statements from
the Turkish side unacceptable, “specifically those by Prime Minister
[Recepy Tayyip] Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the
Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Turkish parliament directly dependent
on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabagh.”

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S NAIRIT WORKERS PREPARE FOR NEW PROTESTS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 16 2015

16 February 2015 – 9:58pm

Workers of the Nairit Factory in Yerevan have held protests at the
yard of the facility. The new protests were provoked by Minister for
Energy and Natural Resources Yervand Zakharyan’s response to their
demands for salaries, Epress.am reports.

According to Anush Arutyunyan, spokesperson of the factory, Zakharyan’s
letter reiterated his words of February 2. Zakharyan assured that
salaries would be paid on February 25. The staff of the factory,
however, was expecting him to present a clear schedule of payments.

Some activists went to the government’s building. There they got
a promise that the prime minister will give a response on February
20 personally.

The workers have been demanding salaries for already 18 months.

From: Baghdasarian

‘SWISSLEAKS’: KAREKIN II’S ACCOUNT LEAKED

02.09.2015 14:19NEWS

Account data of around 100 thousand clients revealed as more details
of the leaked HSBC files emerge. The account of Karekin II, Catholicos
of All Armenians is also among the revealed accounts.

According to reports of the BBC and Le Monde, based on documents
unearthed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ), HSBC Switzerland is alleged to have assisted its wealthy
clients in tax evasion in 10 countries.

According to the documents referred to as “Swissleaks”, there are
11,235 accounts from Switzerland, 9,187 accounts from France, 8,844
accounts from England, 8,667 accounts from Brazil, 7,499 accounts
from Italy, 6,554 accounts from Israel, 4,183 accounts from the USA,
3,625 accounts from Argentina, 3,105 accounts from Turkey and 3,002
accounts from Belgium at the headquarters of the bank in Switzerland.

The Swissleaks documents were revealed through the collaborative
investigation of 157 journalists from 47 countries.

“The Catholicosate is tax exempt”

The ICIJ site has so far revealed the accounts of 64 clients from
among 100 thousand accounts. The list of accounts includes famous names
such as the Jordanian King Abdullah II, Ecuadorian politician Alvaro
Noboa, diamond trader Dan Azoumi, and Formula 1 racing driver Fernando
Alonso. One name is particularly striking: His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. Karekin II was
first listed as a HSBC client in 2000, and his account held as much
as $1,1 million in 2006/2007. A spokesman for the Catholicosate told
ICIJ that the account in question was “opened by His Holiness Karekin
II’s predecessor for the benefit of the Church and its charities. This
account was transferred to His Holiness Karekin II Nersissian upon
the death of his predecessor to be used for the same purposes.” The
spokesman added, “The Catholicosate of the Armenian church is a
national religious institution and is not subject to any taxes”.

From: Baghdasarian

PREDICTION: THE GEO-POLITICS OF THE SOUTH CAUCASUS WILL BE MUCH DETERMINED BY STRENGTHENING OF RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY AND RUSSIA AND IRAN

by David Stepanyan

ARMINFO
Monday, February 16, 22:17

The recent voting at PACE showed that there is no unity in Europe
regarding Russia. The initiators have managed to reach such a decision
with great difficulty and by means of great pressure, Russian political
expert, Vladimir Yevseev, told Arminfo correspondent.

To note, in 28 January PACE voted for depriving the Russian delegation
of the right to vote.

“And latter it will be more and more difficult for the Americans
to control Europe. I mean France which having a new leadership,may
occupy a more pro-Russian position”, – he said.

As for the geo-politics of the South Caucasus, the expert thinks
that it will be much determined by strengthening of relations between
Russia and Turkey and Russia and Iran.

He thinks that in future Moscow, Ankara and Teheran should make an
arrangement on setting up of a principally new system of regional
security, which will lead to decrease of the military and political
role of the USA in the South Caucasus.

From: Baghdasarian

RUSSIAN EXPERT: RUSSIA WILL CONTINUE KEEPING AZERBAIJAN FROM ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT BY FORCE

by David Stepanyan

ARMINFO
Monday, February 16, 22:18

Considering Russia’s obligations to defend Armenia from external
threats, any attacks on the Armenian territory will give it a pretext
for interfering into the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian expert
Vladimir Yevseyav told ArmInfo on Monday.

“They in Azerbaijan are trying to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
by force, so, there may be new tensions in the area. But I don’t think
that this has anything to do with the Ukrainian crisis. Aliyev is
more interested in oil prices as this is the basis of his welfare,”
Yevseyav said.

The expert does not think that Russia should stop its military-
technical cooperation with Azerbaijan. “This would not benefit
Armenia, while Russia would lose its influence on Azerbaijan. If this
cooperation continues, the Russians can at one moment stop supplying
spare parts to the arms they have already supplied and this would be
a preventive step for Azerbaijan,” Yevseyav said.

He is sure that Russia will continue keeping Azerbaijan from attempts
to settle Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by force. “Unlike the Americans,
the Russians seek no PR here,” Yevseyav said.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA 2015: GET TO KNOW THE FIRST GENEALOGY MEMBER

oikotimes.com, Greece
Feb 16 2015

Posted on February 16, 2015 11:06 am by Newsdesk (Europe)

YEREVAN, ARMENIA – Essaï Altounian is the first member of the
band representing Armenia in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest to
be announced. The well-known French-Armenian singer will represent
the continent Europe in the project. Armenian Public TV Company has
announced earlier that Genealogy will be uniting the new generation of
Armenians spread through 5 continents (Europe, Asia, America, Africa,
and Australia) around the world in the year of 1915. The group consists
of 6 artists with Armenian origin – 6 destinies with 1 story

INFORMATION ABOUT ESSAÏ

Essaï Altounian is of Armenian origin but has lived and debuted in
France, where his grandparents had escaped in 1915. About that, he
recently wrote and produced a song called Je n’oublie pas / ChemMorana.

At the age of 12 Essaï composed his first song and at the age of 19
signed a contract with Sony France as lead singer of the urban and
pop idol group “Ideal-3”, with whom he scored a top ten hit with
Pardonne-moi.

When Essai was 21 he left the band and signed a solo contract with
Mercury Universal. He cooperated with Jenifer and composed songs for
her album, which eventually received the Diamond Plaque award. He
played the role of Count Paris in Gerard Presgurvic’s musical comedy
Romeo and Juliet, the album of which sold 2 million copies. The
musical comedy Le Roi Soleil for Warner Music France, for which he
wrote S’aimer est interdit, went double Platinum with over 3 million
tickets sold during the three years of its run.

Taking a big leap across the Atlantic to the United States, Essaï
reached out to Kerry Gordy from Motown music. The first single produced
with him, Family, has been an up-tempo, urban song that pays homage
to the sanctity of those who are closest to you. His new album will
be released in the beginning of 2016.

From: Baghdasarian

SERGEY MINASYAN EXPECTS NO NEW PROPOSALD FROM CO-CHAIRS

19:26, 16 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Political scientist Sergey Minasyan does not expect new proposals from
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs countries to the region. According to
him, the discussions will mainly focus on the line of contact.

“I don’t think the Co-Chairs will bring new proposals to the
countries. The mediators will hold serious discussions with the
Azerbaijani side on the situation at the line of contact and the
confidence-building measures,” Minasyan told Public Radio of Armenia.

He’s confident no other issues will be discussed.

The Co-Chairs will arrive in Armenia tomorrow. They are expected to
visit Nagorno Karabakh, as well.

From: Baghdasarian

BHK, HAK, AND HERITAGE PARTIES TO ORGANIZE MASS RALLY AT LIBERTY SQUARE

02.16.2015 11:11 epress.am

The trio of the non-ruling political parties, Prosperous Armenia
(BHK), Armenian National Congress (HAK), and Heritage, is organizing
a rally on February 20th at 4pm at Liberty Square in Yerevan. The
leaders of the three parties, Gagik Tsarukyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
and Raffi Hovhannisyan decided during a meeting yesterday, February 15.

As noted in the parties’ joint press release, the urgent national
rally is being convened to “make a decision together with the Armenian
citizens to resolve the current situation.”

Recall, last week during a Republican Party Council meeting President
Serzh Sargsyan heavily criticized Gagik Tsarukyan, stating that the
latter was fired from the National Security Council, in addition to
proposing audits for Tsarukyan’s many businesses.

Tsarukyan responded to the President’s speech stating the necessity of
urgent presidential elections in order for changing the current regime.

From: Baghdasarian

OTTOMAN GENOCIDE STATEMENT EXCLUDES YEZIDI GENOCIDE; YEZIDI COMMUNITY IN ARMENIA CONSIDERS IT “DISCRIMINATION”

02.16.2015 12:47 epress.am

“Sinjar” Yezidi National Union NGO considers the law authored by
National Assembly deputy Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov related
to the genocide of religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire to
be unacceptable.

The NGO’s statement states that last year Heritage faction MP Zaruhi
Postanjyan presented a draft statement to the National Assembly which
would condemn the genocide of Yezidis, Greeks, Assyrians, and other
national-religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire.

“The draft was rejected with the efforts of the Republican Party
faction. The rejection was justified by Republican Party MP Samvel
Farmanyan, who believed that the statement was not in the interest
of Armenia’s foreign policy.

And behold, after some time, NA deputy Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov
authored a nearly identical draft statement, where the main
difference between his and MP Zaruhi Postanjyan’s statement is that
it does not mention the Genocide of Yezidis. Such behavior is simply
incomprehensible and shocking to the Yezidi community in Armenia. Why
is the National Assembly neglecting the genocide of Yezidis on the
same empire’s territory? It is known, that of the 200,000 Yezidi
families who lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire until 1914,
only 14,000 survived and later continued to be persecuted for keeping
Armenian refugees in their homes. Why is Armenia’s legislature
forgetting these facts and was is the Yezidi Genocide factor that
was not beneficial from a RA foreign policy perspective?

“Sinjar” Yezidi National Union NGO condemns the behavior of coauthors
of the draft toward the Yezidi people and calls for a necessary
amendment to the draft statement; otherwise we would consider it a
discrimination against the Yezidi people,” states the Sinjar NGO’s
statement.

From: Baghdasarian