Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

THREE FAMOUS MEN (AND ONE WOMAN)

Today’s Zaman
Oct 29 2012
Turkey

PAT YALE

Born in Uskudar in what was then Constantinople, Calouste Gulbenkian
(1869-1955) was an Armenian who made a fortune in the oil business,
helping to create what was once the vast Royal Dutch/Shell company.

For most people he will be best known as the man whose money laid
the foundations for the fabulous Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, but for
Turks he is also the man who persuaded Sultan Abdulhamid II to invest
in the oilfields around Mosul in what is now northern Iraq. Nicknamed
“Mr. Five Percent,” Gulbenkian amassed a vast fortune and an impressive
art collection. On his death he was said to be one of the richest
men in the world.

Born in what was then Smyrna (Ä°zmir), Aristotle Onassis (1906-75)
was a phenomenally wealthy Greek shipping magnate who became almost
equally famous as the man who turned his back on the opera singer
Maria Callas to marry the widowed Jackie Kennedy.

Born in Fener in Ä°stanbul, Elia Kazan (1909-2003) was a filmmaker
who was probably best known for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the movie
that gave Marlon Brando his big break.

Three very different men who became famous for very different things,
but behind their obvious differences lay something they all had in
common, namely family roots in the Central Anatolian town of Kayseri,
more specifically in what is now the suburb of Talas.

Given his role in public life and his incredible wealth, surprisingly
little is known about Calouste Gulbenkian’s background, although a
book called “In Search of the Gulbenkians” by Edhem Eldem suggests
that his father Sarkis was born in Talas, then moved to Ä°stanbul as
a youth, following a pattern that had been established by the family
in the 18th century.

While the Gulbenkians may have realized at an early stage that they
had a much better chance of succeeding in business in Constantinople,
they remained attached to their ancestral home, a place renowned
for a beauty that was until recently almost forgotten. Then in 1998
Talas was selected by the environmental and cultural conservation
organization CEKUL to serve as one of the cities in its 7 Bölge 7 Kent
(7 Districts, 7 Towns) project. Now belatedly the lovely Gulbenkian
family home is slated to be converted into what will be Kayseri’s
first true boutique hotel.

Aristotle Onassis’ father Socrates also came from Talas (then called
Moutalasski), but, like Sarkis Gulbenkian, he understood that his
business was more likely to prosper in the west of the country and so
migrated to the then cosmopolitan port city of Smyrna where Aristotle
was born and grew up speaking four languages. But whereas Calouste
Gulbenkian appears to have left Turkey for England after a brush with
the Ottoman police, Aristotle was one of the millions of Greeks forced
to flee Turkey in the aftermath of the Turkish War of Independence.

After a few years in Argentina, he backtracked to Athens and went on,
like Gulbenkian, to become phenomenally wealthy with interests in
everything from tobacco through Olympic Airways to shipping.

Elia Kazan’s parents, George and Athena Kazantzoglu, were also Greeks
from Talas who moved, via Constantinople, to the US where his father
became a carpet dealer in the years leading up to the First World War.

His granddaughter Zoe wrote and stars in the well-received “Ruby
Sparks” which is showing in cinemas around the world as I write.

Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN FRAUDSTER ADMITS GUILT OVER US SMUGGLING RING

RAPSI – Russian Legal Information Agency
Oct 29 2012

NEW YORK, October 29 – RAPSI. David Mirzoyan, a key member of the
notorious international organized crime enterprise known as the
Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization that stole more than $100 million
through a wide-range of money making fraudulent schemes, has pleaded
guilty, the office of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New
York Preet Bharara said.

The organization stole the identities of licensed doctors and thousands
of real Medicare beneficiaries and then filed applications to bill
Medicare in the names of the doctors, providing clinic addresses which
were more often than not mailbox addresses. Each clinic existed for
a maximum of three months. After receiving the money for the sham
services, the organization would close the clinic and set up a new one.

>From 2006, with the stolen identities of doctors and patients in hand,
the organization billed Medicare for over $100 million for fictitious
treatment.

In November 2010, the U.S. authorities initiated criminal cases
against 73 individuals on charges of stealing personal data, running
counterfeit credit card schemes and trading smuggled cigarettes and
fake medication.

The investigators’ material reads that most of the accused are
Armenian, Kazakh, Russian and Ukrainian born residents.

Mirzoyan faces 75 years in prison. His sentence will be announced on
February 6, 2013.

From: Baghdasarian

RICHARD GIRAGOSIAN: “THE BOYCOTT OF U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WILL STRENGTHEN THE POSITIONS OF THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY”

Mediamax
Oct 29 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Director of Regional Studies Center Richard
Giragosian said today that the boycott of U.S. presidential elections
will reinforce the positions of the Armenian community.

The expert said that whoever becomes U.S. President, he will have
problems with American Armenians, because of ignoring their problems,
Mediamax reports.

Richard Giragosian said that the Armenian-U.S. relations will remain
strong and consistent irrespective of who will be in the White House
in the coming 4 years- Obama or Romney.

At the same time, he expressed the opinion that Obama’s re-election
will benefit the Armenian community of USA and Armenia, as Romney has
a more aggressive stance on Russia and Iran and doesn’t understand
the essence of the Karabakh conflict.

From: Baghdasarian

NKR PRESIDENT THANKS ANC AUSTRALIA AND NEW SOUTH WALES STATE

2012-10-29 15:30:08

The President of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan,
personally extended his gratitude on behalf of his nation to the
Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) and to the
state of New South Wales.

During a telephone call arranged between Sahakyan and ANC Australia
Executive Director Vache Kahramanian, Sahakyan thanked ANC Australia
for its efforts in leading the successful drive for NSW’s recognition
of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and its people’s right to
self-determination.

“We thank the Armenian National Committee of Australia and all
those who took part in ensuring the recognition of the Republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh. We are convinced that the actions taken to support
the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the past will continue in the
same manner into the future. Such actions not only further resolve
the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh but also act in significantly raising
the morale of our citizens,” Sahakyan said.

The motion which was unanimously adopted on Thursday 25th October
acknowledges the 20th anniversary of independence for the Republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh, it supports the right to self-determination
of its people, and it “calls on the Commonwealth Government of
Australia to officially recognise the independence of the Republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh and strengthen Australia’s relationship with the
Nagorno-Karabakh and its citizens.”

Kahramanian assured President Sahakyan that “the Armenian National
Committee of Australia and its network of organisations around
the world will continue their advocacy efforts in ensuring the
international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

From: Baghdasarian

FAMILY LIVING IN WRETCHED CONDITIONS RECEIVES AID

05:47 pm | Today | Social

A week ago A1+ Company referred in a news article to a family of four
living in dire conditions in Armenia’s Ararat city.

Sofik Alaverdyan with her four underage children aged between 3,5
and 14, lives in one of the hostels of the city. All the children in
the family have contracted tuberculosis. Sofik’s husband died three
years ago. The desperate mother has to leave her underage children
alone and work in the fields of the neighbouring village.

After reading the story, many of our compatriots decided to help the
family. A1+ has received numerous calls from Armenia and abroad.

Armenak Harmandayan, a French citizen of Armenian descent, says he
could not remain indifferent towards the family and decided to help
them through his brother Ara Harmandayan who resides in Armenia.

Sofik Alaverdyan was both happy and surprised to receive the help
as she had received any aid before. In their turn, the children were
delighted to see sweets in the box.

“I am grateful to all benefactors for their kind and caring attitude,”
said the mother.

From: Baghdasarian

IS WAR RAISIN IN ELECTION?
Hakob Badalyan

Comments – Monday, 29 October 2012, 14:22

Serzh Sargsyan made a noteworthy statement during his meeting with
young artists. He said that a lot of spheres of life in Armenia need
funding but Armenia needs to have an army and money to sustain it.

Sargsyan stated that when the situation becomes tense, everyone starts
thinking about security, and when the situation is not so tense,
everyone focuses on daily issues. Sargsyan thinks it is normal and
stresses that in case the situation becomes tense, everyone will
think only for security, not their salary.

This is noteworthy especially on the eve of the presidential elections
and also taking into account the issues Armenia is facing presently.

Prior to the presidential elections, Armenia is facing severe social
issues and economic situation. It is obvious that Serzh Sargsyan is
more vulnerable than his rivals in regard to these issues.

If his rivals stress the social and economic situation, Sargsyan may
face serious difficulties despite the populist social undertakings
of the government.

Actually, at the meeting with the young people Serzh Sargsyan hints
the “alternative” to the social sphere is security when everyone will
forget about salaries.

Security is Serzh Sargsyan’s only “credo” which may ensure favorable
conditions for him pushing the social and economic agenda to the
background. The important thing is that the issue of security should
be under his control otherwise Serzh Sargsyan may become the “victim”
of agenda manipulations.

No doubt few efforts are needed to make the situation tense in
Armenia. A small incident at the border may bring this issue forth to
feature the elections. Most probably, this will be Serzh Sargsyan’s
“election tool” if other tactical tricks turn out useless to ensure
control over the situation.

Here Serzh Sargsyan will need foreign support. The mediators to
the Karabakh issue should perhaps assume the role of “guarantors”
of the situation because without them Serzh Sargsyan will be unable
to control the developments, and his election trick may grow into a
major provocation.

Judging by the fact that the international community has never been
against the use of the Karabakh issue in home affairs by the Armenian
authorities, presumably it will not disagree with such a scenario this
time either, especially if the issue is to repress possible chaotic
developments in Armenia which are possible because the field of Serzh
Sargsyan’s rivals is uncertain and the actors in this sphere have as
many problems with each other as each of them has with Serzh Sargsyan.

The probability of chaotic developments is high because the society’s
role is minimal and it has almost no influence on political processes
and actors.

In this case, the role of the society is important not only in
terms of its influence. The issue is that the Armenian society needs
defined approaches to the home political factors, formulas, which
would be the basis for the use of the “security” topic, to help the
society avoid manipulations and not render the important element of
security an obstacle for the public and state development and one of
the reliable sources of continuous reproduction of the system.

Apparently, this issue has been urgent in Armenia for a long time and
it should be one of the key points of the public-political discussions
to bring the society to basic equal ground.

From: Baghdasarian

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
October 27, 2012 Saturday
First Edition

Signals from a careful commuter;
LUNCH WITH GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN

by Philip Clark

There will be no announcements until this Minister has done the track
work, writes Philip Clark.

She’s got the toughest job in the government and she’s famously shy
about her private life. For some she’s going to be the next premier,
for others she’s the politician with the unpronounceable surname, but
for a woman who ought to have the weight of the world on her shoulders
Gladys Berejiklian is travelling light.

“I am very customer-focused,” she smiles when asked how the job of
fixing Sydney’s transport woes is going.

“If I get presented with a proposal the first thing I ask is: how does
it help the customer?”

So far the customers appear to be giving her the benefit of the doubt.
But for how long? A year and a half into her ministry, Gladys
Berejiklian, member for Willoughby, NSW Minister for Transport, knows
public patience can’t last.

But if she is feeling anxious she isn’t showing it.

We talk over a Friday lunch at the New Shanghai restaurant, downstairs
in Chatswood Chase. It’s in the middle of her electorate and she knows
people everywhere. There is even a baby to admire. The place is as
busy as … well a Chinese restaurant in Chatswood and Berejiklian
wastes little time on the menu. “I’m starving!” she exclaims and
immediately suggests the Rainbow Beef as a specialty of the house. We
settle for that with stir-fried green beans and some salty prawns and
dumplings. I suggest the eel. She’s not keen but I go ahead anyway and
end up being the only person who has a go at it.

We sit close together on stools at a small table that is soon crowded
with dishes and chopsticks and her preferred tipple of green tea. As
we talk I notice her acknowledge people with a discreet wave of the
hand or a smile. Such is the political life.

Up close, Gladys Berejiklian is friendly and warm and knows her
ground. She is polite and makes time. She is interested and asks
questions, despite glancing at her BlackBerry to remind her she has
six meetings in a row after our lunch. It’s a punishing work schedule
that begins early and finishes late. It can make a mess of your health
but she looks well and says she gets to the gym.

I don’t comment on her clothes but do notice a silver necklace with a
name I can’t read. I politely inquire; “It’s my name in Armenian,” she
replies with a laugh. “I had a bet in the office that you would never
bother asking about it!” I feel suitably chastened.

Berejiklian is well aware that success in the transport portfolio is
one of the key measuring sticks by which Barry O’Farrell’s government
will be judged.

But what does success mean?

Well for a start she won’t be rushed. “I understand that people want
me to announce things but that was what Labor did. Announce things all
the time and never do anything. I won’t do that.”

In Victoria, Barry O’Farrell’s Liberal counterpart, Ted Baillieu, has
earned the sobriquet “Timid Ted” for his hesitancy on the path to
reform. Critics level the same charge against O’Farrell. He’s too
cautious; he won’t get on with things.

As Nick Greiner once exasperatedly said to me about O’Farrell, “Look,
Barry is Barry.”

Berejiklian bristles at the idea that O’Farrell might go down in
history as a do-nothing Premier. “Barry will be remembered very well,”
she says firmly. “He is doing a lot behind the scenes and making the
decisions that set the solid foundations for the future.”

After 16 years in opposition and with a landslide on his lap it was
O’Farrell who last year famously brushed aside an interview request
from the ABC’s election-night host, Kerry O’Brien, with the words,
“I’m only going to talk to Gladys.”

So if the proverbial political bus rumbles along doesn’t she have the
inside running over the Treasurer, Mike Baird, for succession? She has
seen this coming and her political discipline kicks in. She doesn’t
smile and I get the message.

“Barry is my boss. I don’t agree that I have a more favoured
relationship with him than others. He has good relations with all the
Cabinet.”

What about leading the party one day?

“I don’t have time to take my eye off the job I have,” she says. “I
don’t want to speculate about the future leadership. I am
concentrating on getting the best job done that I can.”

For a person who’s been in politics for so long she is strangely
reticent about her private self and is especially reserved about the
issue of gender in politics.

I ask around these issues until she says, “look I’ve asked you twice,
so please …”

But I can’t resist. After all it’s been the week from hell for
misogynists. Julia Gillard has given them a pasting in Parliament and
all over the world her speech has been tweeted, bookmarked and
applauded. So what did Gladys think?

“I haven’t watched it.”

Really? I look at her but she is quite resolved. It seems hard to believe.

I get a sense of how determined she can be.

“I am not comfortable talking about politics through gender. I have
always felt that the best thing you could do as a woman was to do the
best job possible.”

Yes, but surely she has experienced what many talented women feel, the
everyday, commonplace condescension that accompanies the successful
woman?

“As far as the Liberal Party is concerned I have never experienced any
discrimination,” she replies with a smile.

The daughter of Armenian migrants who fled from Syria and Jerusalem in
the wake of the Armenian genocide and arrived separately in the late
1960s, Gladys grew up in the midst of the biggest Armenian community
in Sydney, centred on Willoughby. The eldest of three sisters, she
studied hard and stayed at home until she was 30. She worked her way
up in the Commonwealth Bank, was interested in politics from an early
age and had Peter Collins as an early mentor. She is a close friend of
the federal Liberal MP Joe Hockey. There’s an Armenian connection
there, too.

She speaks her parents’ language and has a strong sense of her
heritage. She worries as they have relatives in Aleppo and Syria now
is a dangerous place.

Berejiklian is single and elsewhere she has said that perhaps she will
meet the right man some day. I don’t ask her about it. It’s a tough
enough question for anyone in her position and politics doesn’t give
you any privilege on the answer.

Right now she is struggling with trying to prioritise Sydney’s
transport options. There seem to be so many projects and where is the
capital coming from to fund any of them?

I suggest to her that from the outside it looks as though O’Farrell is
hedging his bets on transport and setting up two competing streams of
advice. First there is her Transport Ministry and then there is
Infrastructure NSW, set up in the middle of last year under the
leadership of Greiner, which has just produced a major report to the
government recommending the WestConnex roads project as its priority.
The Premier says he will go ahead with the WestConnex proposal. But
Infrastructure NSW has plenty to say on buses and light and heavy
rail, too. So where does that leave Gladys?

She insists there is no conflict. That Infrastructure NSW was always
going to be used as a vehicle for identifying the key road project and
that’s what it has done.

So how does she want to be remembered after the first term?

“I want the Opal card rolled out across trains, buses and ferries so
it is available for most customers.

“I want to finish the Inner West Light Rail extension, I want the
South West Rail Link well under way and construction happening on the
North West Rail Link.”

I ask about how it can possibly take so long for an integrated
ticketing system such as the Opal card to be introduced when other
cities have their Oyster (London) and Octopus (Hong Hong)? She sighs
and I gather has asked the same question.

She says she has been on the front foot with the bureaucracy. “The
first decision I made as minister was to cut the number of agencies,
from 10 to four. I’d been planning what I wanted to do so it was very
early when I did that.

“It’s taken a while to get the bureaucracy right – now though they
know that every proposal that comes to me needs to show the benefit to
the customer.”

She is “absolutely committed to the North West rail project”, agrees
that light rail can “move more people and is definitely better in some
places”, but adds that “a quality public transport network is one
where modes are integrated and you have the right mode in the right
place”.

She’s no ideologue, “There’s no one answer to Sydney’s transport
issues. We will need everything – heavy and light rail, buses,
ferries, cars, active transport and most importantly integration
between all of these.”

Life and times

1970 Born in Sydney.

1991 Joined the Liberal Party.

1996 Becomes only the third female president of the Young Liberals in NSW.

2003 elected as the member for Willoughby in the NSW Parliament,
succeeding Peter Collins.

2005 Joins the opposition front bench.

2006 Becomes opposition spokeswoman for transport.

2011 Appointed Transport Minister.

From: Baghdasarian

Global Times, China
Oct 28 2012

Chinese Culture Week opens in Armenia

Xinhua | 2012-10-28 10:26:46
By Agencies

A Chinese Culture Week was launched on Saturday in Yerevan in a bid to
further enhance bilateral cooperation.

Hansheng, an art troupe from the Southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, will
give concerts in Yerevan and Gyumri during the Chinese Culture Week,
which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between China and Armenia.

A Chinese art exhibition will also be held at the National Art Gallery
of Armenia.

China held an Armenian Culture Week in 2011, during which the two
sides signed a 2012-2016 program of cooperation in the field of
culture.

From: Baghdasarian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Oct 27 2012

Brothers-in-arms

By Stanislav Davydov. Exclusively to VK
27 October 2012 – 4:58pm

Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation based on principles of strategic
partnership exists in various fields. One of them (and actually one of
the most important) is in the sphere of defense and military
technology. Defense is a very sensitive topic in the Caucasus due to
territorial conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Nonetheless,
Russian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the sphere of defense is developing
and now plays an important role in bilateral relations.

Mutual trade in 2011 increased 47% to 2.8 billion dollars. Around 500
Russian companies operate in Azerbaijan. In 2011, according to data
provided by the Center for World Arms Trade Analysis, Azerbaijan was
the fifth-largest buyer of Russian arms. According to Russian
services, Azerbaijan is ready to spend 1 billion dollars per year on
buying Russian weapons.

Azerbaijan has to improve its security, as one-fifth of its territory
is still occupied by Armenian forces. Azerbaijan doesn’t want to take
part in a war, but it understands that no one will pay attention to a
weak and unarmed state. That is why the increase in defense spendings
in Azerbaijan is quite natural. Nowadays the sum Azerbaijan spends on
defense is greater than the whole Armenian budget.

All rumours that Azerbaijan stopped buying Russian weapons and prefers
Nato analogues are ridiculous. Azerbaijan is still interested in
Russian arms and simple statistics show that. The Azerbaijani army
still buys Russian weapons and bilateral cooperation in this sphere is
well-developed.

One of the most remarkable purchases is the S-300 deal. Azerbaijan has
bought two divisions of the Favorit complex, which were presented to
the public during one of Azerbaijani military parades. All experts
have been impressed by these complexes.

Azerbaijan has also bought an Uran-E naval rocket complex from the
Russian Tactic Rocket Arms corporation. The deal was signed in 2010,
with the complex costing 75 million dollars. It will be finished in
2014.

In 2011 the Azerbaijani ministry of defense also bought several T-90S
tanks from the Russian company Uralvagonzavod. However, the details of
the deal were not reported.

In 2009 Azerbaijan bought nine 2S7 Pion artillery complexes. According
to the agreement, the complexes were delivered to Azerbaijan in 2011.
In 2008, Russia sold 3 Pion facilities to Azerbaijan. The Pion
artillery facility is believed to be the most powerful in world at
present.

Azerbaijan has also bought twenty four Mi-35M helicopters. In the
summer of 2012 another batch of helicopters was delivered to
Azerbaijan. The helicopters were produced by the Rosvertol company
situated in Rostov-on-Don.

The first 4 helicopters were delivered to the Azerbaijani air forces
in December 2011. All in all, one half of the helicopters ordered have
already been delivered to Azerbaijan.

Media outlets reported that the 2010 agreement had been updated and
that the number of helicopters Azerbaijan was going to buy would be
increased. Azerbaijan indeed seems interested in Russian helicopters
and is now the biggest buyer of this kind of military equipment.

All these examples are just a small part of the real amount of the
arms bought by Azerbaijan. As the leaders of the two nations say,
there are no problems in Russian-Azerbaijani relations and cooperation
in the defense sphere is obviously a sign of that.

From: Baghdasarian

French MP expects to pass bill criminalizing denial of Armenian Genocide

news.am
October 27, 2012 | 00:06

PARIS. – Co-ordination Council of Armenian organizations of France
(CCAF) comprised of co-chairs Mourad Papazian and Ara Toranian was
received on Thursday by a French-Armenian group delegation represented
by its president Philipe Kaltenbach and senators Luc Carvounas, Hervé
Marseille, and Bernard Piras.

They discussed the future bill on criminalizing denial of the Armenian
Genocide, the official visit of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
to France and the Armenian parliament France-Armenia delegation visit
to Paris, Nouvelles d’Arménie informs.

The CCAF stated the necessity of work on the realization of the bill.
While Kaltenbach confirmed the desire of the group to pass the bill
sooner and before the next April 24.

From: Baghdasarian