Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

SELF-DETERMINATION PRINCIPLE SHOULD BE REALIZED TOGETHER WITH OTHER ONES, BRITISH MINISTER THINKS

Mediamax
Sept 18 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. David Lidington, Minister of State at the Britain~Rs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said today in Yerevan that “the
principle of self-determination should be applied together with other
ones” in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Addressing a news conference in Yerevan, he avoided giving a direct
answer to the question whether it’s true that when it is within
Great Britain’s interests, it is one of the main defenders of
self-determination right as in case of Kosovo and Falklands whereas
when it isn’t – it supports another approach, Mediamax reports.

He noted that “the self-determination right is stated in the proposals
of the OSCE Minsk Group” adding that “it should be realized together
with other principles within a single package”.

From: Baghdasarian

HOLLANDE TO RECEIVE AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DURING “WORKING VISIT” TO PARIS

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
September 17, 2012 Monday

PARIS, Sept 17 (KUNA) — French President Francois Hollande will
meet here Tuesday with Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, for
talks during the Azerbaijani’s working visit to the French capital,
diplomatic sources confirmed Monday.

Aliyev is due here Monday and will meet the French leader Tuesday
afternoon for bilateral and regional talks, the source indicated.

High on the agenda will be the growing tensions and often deadly
clashes between Azerbaijan and its neighbour, Armenia, who are still
at odds over sovereignty of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

France, alongside the United States and Russia, is a “co-president”
of the Minsk Group, which is seeking to mediate a solution to the
conflict and Foreign Ministers from the protagonists were received
here in Paris in July to try to ease the tensions.

The Azerbaijani pardon in early September of one of its military
cadets, convicted of brutally murdering an Armenian officer while on
joint training in Turkey, has again inflamed tensions between the two
countries, who went to war from 1988-1994 over the disputed territory.

(end) jk.asa KUNA 171334 Sep 12NNNN

From: Baghdasarian

TALENT AND MODESTY INSEPARABLE – ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

news.am
September 18, 2012 | 18:52

YEREVAN. – The Viktor Hambardzumyan prize is to eternalize the name
of the famous astrologist and unite scientists of various countries,
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said at the National Academy of
Sciences of Armenia on Tuesday during the award ceremony. The President
awarded Estonian astrophysicist Jaan Einasto (Tartu Observatory)
and Russian theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist Igor Novikov
(Space Research Institute) with Viktor Hambardzumyan prize. “Viktor
Hambardzumyan was not only an eminent scientist but also a man of
high moral values. Talent and modesty are inseparable,” Sargsyan said.

From: Baghdasarian

ARAM KARAPETYAN: “CONSULTATION WAS BUT A SHOW”

02:35 pm | September 17, 2012 | Politics

Aram Karapetyan, Leader of the New Times Party (NZhK) predicts cabinet
reshuffle ahead of the 2013 presidential elections in Armenia.

“Everything in Armenia is done in advance to show others that
something has happened in the country,” said the NZhK leader who
predicts changes in the government by the year-end.

Serzh Sargsyan’s recent consultation in the executive body testifies
to Aram Karapetyan’s belief.

“The show was a good one but it was badly staged,” he said.

The NZhK leader excludes the possible cooperation between Armenia’s
first and second presidents, ‘at least on an official level.’

Asked whether [Armenia’s second president] Robert Kocharian will run
for president during the 2003 elections, Mr Karapetyan said, “He will
if the outer forces demand it. But so far, there is no demand.”

The NZhK leader confirmed his intention to participate in the 2013
presidential race though he predicts difficulties on his way connected
with his registration as presidential contender.

From: Baghdasarian

L’ARMENIE DEBUTERA LA RADIODIFFUSION EN NUMERIQUE EN 2015
Stephane

armenews.com
mardi 18 septembre 2012

La transition en cours en Armenie vers une radiodiffusion numerique,
qui reduit significativement le nombre de TV au niveau interieure
et les stations de radios, sera achevee en janvier 2015 selon le
gouvernement.

Le cabinet du Premier ministre Tigran Sarkissian a annonce jeudi la
date après l’approbation des paramètres des emetteurs numeriques qui
devront etre installes et fonctionnes par une unique societe.

L’operateur doit etre choisi dans le cadre d’une offre internationale
deja lancee par le gouvernement.

Andranik Aleksanian, vice-ministre des transports et des
communications, a dit au service armenien de RFE/RL (Azatutyun.am)
que dix societes locales et etrangères ont deja soumis des offres
preliminaires.

Les autorites armeniennes ont commence le processus de numerisation
en juin 2010 avec le passage d’amendements sur une loi sur la TV et
la radio qui a ete critiquee par les ONG locales et internationales
aussi bien que quelques gouvernements Occidentaux.

Des associations regroupant des medias armeniens croient qu’ils ont
amorce une transition pour prolonger et serrer leur contrôle des
ondes hertziennes.

Les autorites ont ecarte la critique et la Commission Nationale
de la Television et de la Radio (HRAH) a lance un appel d’offres
pour l’obtention de licences en 2010. Le regulateur d’etat a refuse
d’accorder une frequence a A1 +, la principale chaîne de television
independante d’Armenie dont la diffusion s’est arretee en 2002,
acceptant au lieu de cela une offre rivale soumise par un chaîne
favorable au gouvernement.

La HRAH a aussi pris la decision de faire arreter dans la deuxième
ville du pays Gyumri la chaîne de television GALA et plus d’une
douzaine d’autres stations de televisions regionales qui devront
cesser leurs emissions dans le format analoguique a la fin du processus
de numerisation.

Tandis que l’Armenie passera entièrement les emissions au numerique a
partir du 1er janvier 2015, le gouvernement a dit que les emissions
en analogie continueront avant qu’au moins 95 pour cent des menages
n’aient des decodeurs. Selon Andranik Aleksanian, le gouvernement
est confiant que ce taux sera realise a temps pour la date annoncee.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA: WOMEN STILL SHUT OUT OF LOCAL POLITICS
By Gayane Lazarian – Caucasus

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #658
Sept 14 2012
UK

Quota system exists for national elections, and some argue it should
apply to female representation at local level.

The number of women standing in local elections in Armenia has barely
changed from four years ago, despite government pledges to increase
participation. Activists are now saying it might be is time for local
polls to be subject to the same gender quotas as national elections.

In a first round of local elections held on September 9, only nine
women were elected to a total of 397 posts as mayor or local government
chief. All nine already held the post and were simply re-elected. If
women ended up winning only two per cent of the posts, it would have
been hard for them to do much better since only five per cent of
those who stood for these municipal posts were female. More than a
third of female candidates pulled out before election day.

“In terms of [female] candidate participation, the numbers are almost
the same [as the last polls]; the change is insignificant change, a
difference of only ten,” Tigran Mukuchyan, head of Armenia’s Central
Election Commission, said.

The election commission has yet to announce results for the 535 local
assembly elections held at the same time, as recounts are taking place
at some polling stations, so the scale of female representation there
remains unknown.

Another round of local elections will take place on September 23,
but all the signs are that women will not enjoy much success. No
Armenian city has ever had a female mayor, and only 24 out of 866
villages are headed by a woman.

This consistently poor showing has prompted experts like Tamara
Hovnatanyan of the ProMedia-Gender group to call for a quota system.

“The government’s obligations under its Millenium Goals programme
require that by 2015, ten per cent of leadership positions in local
government must be filled by women. At the moment, it’s only two per
cent,” she said. “It’s already obvious this cannot be achieved in
the time assigned for it.”

A quota would not an entirely radical step, since such a system is
already in use in parliamentary elections, where parties must ensure
that women account for 20 per cent of the candidate names on the lists
they submit for use in proportional representation. In practice,
however, the method has fallen a long way short of ensuring fair
representation for women. (See Women Fail to Gain Ground in Armenian
Election on the May legislative polls.)

In Armenia’s second city, Gyumri, there were just seven women among
the 71 candidates standing for 21 seats on the municipal assembly. Not
one got in. No woman ever has.

Local businesswoman Karine Mkrthchyan got just 140 votes, and
attributes her lack of success to the largesse distributed by some
other candidates.

“Economic necessity stops people making their own choices,” she said.

“In one part of the city, they slaughtered animals and handed out a
kilogram of meat to every voter. At the other end of the city, they
gave people 1,000 drams [2.50 US dollars] or offered to top up their
phone balance.”

In the town of Goris, Ruzanna Torosyan was the only woman standing
but won a seat on the local council.

She doubts a gender quota would change much, and thinks it is up to
women to improve their own chances in politics.

“It isn’t men stopping us. It’s very important look at how prepared a
woman is, how presentable she is, whether she writes her own speeches
and gets her ideas across to people,” she said. “An artificial
requirement won’t give us anything.”

Since women with a higher education outnumber men six to four, there
must be reasons why they are shut out of politics.

Money is one. Mrkrtchyan pointed out that access to funding was often
a practical barrier to women hoping to enter politics. Women often do
not control money or assets, and may need their husband’s permission
to spend money on election campaigning.

“The most important thing is for women to break down the stereotypes
in their own families before they can enter civic or political life,”
she said.

Lilit Zakaryan, a member of the Association of Women with a University
Education and an expert on gender issues, said female candidates
tended to come from the healthcare or education sectors, but were
held back by the perception they would not cope with the big decisions
of government.

“Why should an uneducated man be able to do this, but not an educated
woman?” she asked. “Women are responsible and should be able to do
a lot in local government. If men raise global issues, women are
involved in the small social issues that are part of life, as well.”

From: Baghdasarian

GOULASH DIPLOMACY: WHY VIKTOR ORBAN SHOULD RESIGN

Huffington Post
Sept 17 2012

by Christopher Atamian. Writer, director, producer, and translator

On August 31st, the Hungarian government, under direct orders from
prime Minister Viktor Orban, extradited Azerbaijani Army lieutenant
Ramil Safarov to Baku. Safarov had already served eight years in
a Budapest jail for killing Gurgen Margarian in 2004. As has been
widely reported in the press, Margarian, an Armenian officer who
was a fellow participant in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise,
was hacked to death in his sleep with an ax by Safarov.

Orban first stated that he transferred the prisoner to Azerbaijan
on the understanding that he would serve out the rest of his life
sentence in his home country. In later statements, Orban admitted
that he not only signed the extradition agreement himself, but
that he had repeatedly been warned that if Safarov were extradited
to oil-rich Azerbaijian, he would be pardoned and even celebrated
by Ilham Aliyev’s brutal dictatorial regime. In the past, Aliyev has
referred to Armenians in only the most vile of terms and continually
threatened to destroy Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh by military
means. Not surprisingly upon his arrival in Baku, Lieutenant Safarov
was pardoned by Aliyev, restored to military duties and promoted to
major. He was also given an apartment and awarded back pay for his
time in prison.

In the press, Safarov has been hailed as a national hero.

The pardoning of Safarov sets back the quest for peace in the Caucasus,
as it is a direct provocation to the Republic of Armenia and increases
the possibility of a renewal of armed conflict between Armenia and its
neighbor Azerbaijian. Unfortunately both Margarian’s murder and his
murderer’s pardon falls in line with continued violence and hatred
against Armenians that has existed unabated for several hundred
years. This type of barbaric act — a hate crime pure and simple —
should belong to the dustbin of human history. Yet after the Safarov
incident and the murders a few years back of Hrant Dink and Sevag Sahin
Balikci in Turkey — the first a renowned Armenian journalist, the
second a young Turkish-Armenian man performing his military service —
we can only conclude that the continued hatred against Armenians that
is propagated in Azerbaijian and Turkey in schoolbooks and the media —
is doing its job of fanning the fires of ethnic and religious hatred.

The United States, the United Nations and other international
organizations and governments should apply all available pressure on
the Azeri government to honor its agreement with Hungary and return
Safarov to where he belongs for the rest of his life — a jail cell.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban — who has most probably parlayed
Safarov for loan guarantees or cheaper priced Oil from Baku, should
on his end understand the grave consequences of his actions and of
his remarkable moral bankruptcy and resign immediately.

From: Baghdasarian

SAFAROV CASE HAS ADDED NO CONFIDENCE TO NEGOTIATIONS ON NAGORNO KARABAKH

arminfo
Tuesday, September 18, 13:26

Despite expectations from Baku and Pan-Turan aspirations, the
Government of Hungary preferred condemning Safarov’s pardon. The note
of protest to the Azerbaijani Embassy and Ambassador dated September
2 2012 shows that the actions of the Azerbaijani party contradict
the official promise to ensure execution of the sentence in the
motherland. Deputy Minister of Justice of Azerbaijan in his letter
dated Aug 15 2012 assured that Safarov could be paroled only in 25
years after the verdict. In Baku they reneged on their own promises,
Vladimir Kazimirov, Ambassador (retired), First Deputy Head of the
Association of Russian Diplomats, Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
(Russia) in 1992-1996, writes in his notes.

The author of the notes is no longer engaged in peaceful resolution
of the Karabakh conflict, but Safavor case reminded about different
abilities of the parties to assume and fulfill commitments. Yet
in the wartime in 1991-1994 the mediators were often facing
Baku’s unwillingness and refusals to fulfill even the documents
and agreements it had sighed. Azerbaijan often openly violated and
breached documents. A question arises as to whether official Baku is
able to fulfill any agreement? On April 30, 1993 at the initiative of
Azerbaijan, the UN SC adopted formula 822. Yerevan and Stepanakert
also adopted and confirmed that, while Baku didn’t even respond. In
summer and autumn of 1993 Azerbaijan refused from ceasefire for many
times and even breached ceasefire after signing a relevant treaty.

Azerbaijan demand fulfillment of the UN Security Council’s four
resolutions, specifically the provisions related to de-occupation,
while it has never fully or timely fulfilled any of their demands
or calls.

Kazimirov brings several documents signed and breached or cancelled by
Baku. Among them was the ceasefire arrangement achieved personally with
Aliyev and Kocharyan on Dec 16 1993, the protocol on ceasefire signed
in Moscow on Feb 18 1994. In a week after May 12 1994 ceasefire,
Azerbaijan signed “small treaty” confirming the ceasefire at the
request of Jan Eliasson, but canceled it in two days, Kazimirov writes.

The most scandalous case is connected with the agreement strengthening
the ceasefire regime signed by the three parties on February 4,
1995 under the aegis of OSCE. The document was coordinated with
Heidar Aliyev beforehand, but Baku neither observed it nor suggested
canceling, re-signing, correcting or making additions to it. Despite
suggestions of Yerevan and Stepanakert to redo the agreement, Baku
continues totally ignoring and even concealing existence of the given
agreement, Kazimirov notes. As for the OSCE, it displays no proper
insistence in that case.

There are many examples proving how unreliable is official Baku.

Suffice it to say that Baku does not want to recognize survival of the
ceasefire of 1994. Heydar Aliyev realized what a termless agreement
means and came out for peaceful resolution of the conflict. In the
meanwhile, Ilham Aliyev declares that the war is not over yet. In
Baku they call the line of the contact a frontline, and Armenia and
Karabakh enemies. Military rhetoric in Baku rattles, Kazimirov writes.

“Baku presents the consequence of the war – occupation of the
Azerbaijani regions – as the key problem of the conflict, while the
key problem is the status of Nagorno Karabakh. Baku conceals by all
means possible what really led to occupation in wartime and even denies
the shortest way to the release of the regions i.e. an agreement on
non-use of force. Heydar Aliyev knew that without a ceasefire treaty
it was impossible to start liquidating the conflict aftermaths and
adopted that line of the CIS Council of the Heads of the State in
his statement dated April 15 1994.

Azerbaijan pins too many hopes with the thesis challenging the status
quo. War is even more challenging, while the status quo implies
occupation, tension and conflicts, war policy, arms race, refusal to
remove snipers and inquire into incidents, the Russian diplomat writes.

From: Baghdasarian

CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN CHURCHES CONDEMNED AZERBAIJANI CRIMINAL PARDON

ARMENPRESS
18 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS: Greek Crete Island hosted the
annual meeting of Central Committee of the Conference of European
Churches. In the course of the scheduled meeting launched September
13-14 the issue of extradition of Azerbaijani Armed Forces officer
Ramil Safarov and his subsequent pardon included in th eagenda was
envisaged . As the information system of Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
informed Armenpress, the Conference of European Churches (CEC) members
expressed their regret over the Azerbaijani president’s intolerable
pardoning of the criminal, and extended their solidarity and support
to the Armenian people and the Armenian Apostolic Church praying the
justice to be established and the peace and mutual understanding to
prevail among the nations.

In this regard the CEC Central Committee addressed a formal message to
the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II. Primate of , Malankara
Orthodox Syrian Church known as the Indian Orthodox Church Baselios
Mar Thoma Paulose II also expressed his support pertain to the
painful reality.

From: Baghdasarian

GARRY KASPAROV: ARMENIAN TEAM CAME BACK AND SHOWED THEIR INCREDIBLE FIGHTING SPIRIT

Panorama.am
18/09/2012

If Armenia does not attend the 2016 Olympiad in Baku, it would be
a real tragedy, ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov said in his
interview with Chessbase. Below are some excerpts from the interview.

– What to make of the reports, clearly from FIDE sources, that there
has been a “truce” with Kasparov?

– These meetings and this result was for a specific goal of reforming
the badly written rules, to clean up the system. There is no truce
because there was no war. We only want FIDE elections to be about
who can present the best plans for making the organization better and
stronger, and who has the best ideas for promoting chess and helping
all the federations succeed. If the system isn’t fair, if the rules
are ambiguous, then all the focus is on how to exploit the lousy
rules instead of who will do the best job for the world of chess.

Listen, I still have many differences with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and
how he runs FIDE, and I know I’m not the only one. But the best way
to address these differences is to present better ideas, to show a
superior track record, and to let people judge for themselves. Some
bureaucrats can only thrive in a combat situation, turning everything
into an internal battle that only harms FIDE. Let’s see if they can
build something real, to create value for the federations beyond
talking about big plans that never pay off – at least not for the
federations. We will always have disagreements! But don’t harm the
federations or FIDE; let’s talk about real leadership, real results,
and make things better.

– Speaking of leadership, we now have to ask the obvious question:
are you going to run for the FIDE presidency yourself in 2014.

– My answer is still the same, which it’s not about my being a
candidate; it’s about changing FIDE for the better. If there’s a
candidate who can promote a strong agenda for improving FIDE and
the chess world, who can win the election, then I will support that
candidate. This is what I did in 2010 when I supported Karpov, much
to everyone’s surprise. Despite having so little time to prepare and
campaign, the mission of reform attracted considerable support. But
the ticket wasn’t ready, and the ideas were not clear or presented
well due to the rush. Now there will be more time to build the ticket
and every element of the platform. If I think I am the only one who
can do it, then okay, I’ll probably run. But right now there’s no
point in thinking about it when there are so many things to be done.

– Let’s move on to the Olympiad in Istanbul. What were your
impressions, even if you do not want to talk about Russia’s bittersweet
silver medal?

– The Olympiad, in some ways even more than the world championship,
is a crown jewel of the chess world. It doesn’t get the international
mainstream headlines, but it’s wonderful to bring so many chessplayers
from around the world in a single event. Teams of amateurs get to
rub shoulders with the world’s elite and play their hardest. So it
was a real shame to see such poor conditions for the players and such
larcenous financial burdens placed on the federations. So many people I
talked to were outraged by everything from the hotel and food prices,
the meager room allocations, and the site next to the airport instead
of in the city. The cost of sending a team was over double that of
Khanty-Mansiysk! Instead of using the large number of attendees to
leverage better prices, the players and federations were a captive
audience and squeezed at every turn. There was even a “participation
fee” of 100 euro per participant, another quarter-million euros bled
from the federations. This is a just a fresh example of taking money
out of the chess community instead of finding sponsorship to bring
money into it. It is ironic because Yazici is the man who led the
attack for reparations against the federations that sued FIDE over
the election.

Okay, let’s put that in the past and hope it is a lesson well
learned. I have no doubt Tromsø and Baku will be excellently
organized. The organizers there will take this honor seriously and
put on a top-class event without using it as an opportunity to loot
the federations and players.

– Since you mentioned that gold medal, how can Armenia keep pulling
this off? Obviously they have a strong team, and this time they added
Movsesian, so maybe the better question is how can a Russian team
top seeded every time keep finding new ways to fall short of gold?

– Actually, Movsesian already played for Armenia on the European Team
Championship. As for Russia, silver on tiebreaks is not a crime,
I think! Yes, okay, for Russia anything but gold is a failure of a
sort, and the players are always aware of this. It was that way on
all my Soviet and Russian teams, and that sort of pressure is not
always comfortable. I was doubly upset because my old coach Yuri
was there captaining the Russian team. He already built a winning
women’s team and he came so close here. I think they relaxed after
beating Ukraine [in round eight], you know, they thought “okay, we’ve
played the toughest opponents,” and they relaxed against the USA [in
round nine]. Of course the US is a strong team now, but unlike, say,
Ukraine, China, and Armenia they don’t have a really solid core top
to bottom. So maybe Russia relaxed a little and we saw what happened.

And of course Russia has the women’s gold, do not forget, so I
congratulate them as well as our open team for the silver and Karjakin
and Jakovenko for their individual medals.

As for Armenia, we can rule out luck after three golds in six years!

They lost to China but came back and showed their incredible fighting
spirit as a team once again. Not on rating the best team, but great
fighting spirit all the way through. It’s amazing that Movsesian had
the worst score on the Armenian team, but he had the two clutch wins
over Grischuk and Almasi. Pressure performance! You don’t often see
a hero with 50%!

From: Baghdasarian