Author: Edgar Tavakalian

168: The Republican Party of Armenia declares that it is not in favor of the proposed draft: Statement of the “Republican Party of Armenia” Faction

Edgar Tavakalian
| 17:25 | October 22 2018
Category
Politics

On the Government of the Republic of Armenia has initiated an extraordinary sitting including the draft law “On making amendments and additions to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia”.

A number of factors have affected the formation of the RPA faction’s position on the draft.

As known, successful electoral reforms require broad discussions in order to encourage both – participation of the public and political forces in the reform process, and their reception of the final results of the reforms. The involvement of all the political forces is the only modus ensuring consensus on the changes in the electoral legislation. However, the way of the organization of the discussion on the draft and its presentation to the National Assembly prove that the Government has adopted diametrically different policy.

Thus,

• One can recall, that a working group consisting of representatives of the four factions was formed in the National Assembly, within which the “Yelq” (“Way Out”) Faction included representatives from the Civil Contract Party of the Prime Minister. It is noteworthy, that the parliamentary format of discussions within the international standards is considered the most effective way of drafting the electoral code, and in a number of cases (e.g. adoption of electoral system) broader consensus of the political forces is required. Already in August the parliamentary working group had summed up its proposals and sent them to the Government. However, even important proposals submitted as consensus by all four factions of the parliament were altogether ignored by the Government.

• The draft has been officially submitted to the National Assembly on October 17, 2018. Factions of the National Assembly had therefore had only two full working days to study the final variant of the draft. While the Government insists that the initial version had been posted on the “e-draft” website two weeks ago, it is irrelevant, since the initial version of the draft significantly differs from the version submitted to the National Assembly. Only to emphasize the scope of substantial alterations, it suffices to note that the draft posted on the “e-draft” website contained 87 articles, whereas the final one presented to the parliament only 69 articles.

• The draft has been hasty submitted not only to the National Assembly, but also to the Venice Commission. The draft has been submitted to the Commission only a few days ago. As a result the Venice Commission didn’t have an opportunity to hold a formal discussion and present formal opinion. In fact, for the first time the Venice Commission has been deprived of the opportunity to give an opinion and anticipate changes in the draft of the electoral code on the basis of that opinion before its adoption by the National Assembly. There is no OSCE / ODIHR opinion either.

• The proposed regulations are intended to be implemented during the upcoming extraordinary elections. In general agreeing to the idea of preterm elections, we have repeatedly opposed the haste in attempts of holding the elections until the end of 2018. Holding the elections within two months under pressure from the executive power deprives the political parties from the opportunity to reorganize and revise their tactics under the new electoral regulations. Such approach contradicts international standards. As established by the Venice Commission, while alterations of the electoral systems cannot per se be interpreted as a negative phenomenon, it is negative to change it just before the elections. The reason is that such haste, even in the absence of political manipulations, leaves an impression that they are available. In order to avoid it, the Commission recommends that if the Electoral Code is subjected to significant change, the new system should come into force at least one year after the adoption of the new law. It was reaffirmed by the President of Venice Commission in his October 19 statement – pointing to the need to maintain a one-year period for significant changes in the electoral code, such as the abolition of territorial lists.

Based on the afore-mentioned, the Republican Party of Armenia declares that it is not in favor of the proposed draft.

The next Cesar Awards will be dedicated to Charles Aznavour

Edgar Tavakalian
Panorama, Armenia
Oct 5 2018

The next ceremony of the César awards, the annual French cinema, will be dedicated to great French-Armenian Chansonnier Charles Aznavour, who died Monday at the age of 94 years, the Academy of Caesar announced on Thursday, according to the report by The Siver Telegram.

As the source reports, Charles Aznavour has also been an actor in sixty movies, in François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Claude Lelouch, Volker Schlöndorff, or Atom Egoyan.

He has played in “Shoot the piano player” by François Truffaut, “The Testament of Orpheus” of Jean Cocteau, “Taxi for Tobruk” of Dionysius of the Patellière, “The tin Drum” by Volker Schlöndorff, or “Ararat” of Atom Egoyan.

“Charles Aznavour was an absolute artist! Singer, songwriter for the songs and for movies… It was also a tremendous actor who wrote scenarios or dialogues… His career in movies was admirable,” said the president of the Academy of the arts and techniques of cinema, Alain Terzian, in a press release. “The 44th annual ceremony of Caesar him an homage”, he added.

I had invited Aznavour to Yerevan to participate in Francophonie summit, in the sidelines of which he had to sing – Emmanuel Macron

Edgar Tavakalian
| 19:28 | October 1 2018
Category
Culture

French President Emmanuel Macron had invited world famous French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour to participate in Francophonie summit in Yerevan, in the sidelines of which he had to sing, French President Emmanuel Macron twitted.

“I had invited Aznavour to Yerevan to participate in Francophonie summit, in the sidelines of which he had to sing. The French people share the sorrow of the Armenian people”, he wrote.

Charles Aznavour, France’s eternal crooner poet

Edgar Tavakalian
Bangkok Post
Oct 1 2018


Charles Aznavour, France’s eternal crooner poet

  • 1 Oct 2018 at 19:45 0 comments
  • WRITER: AFP


PARIS – They told him he was too ugly, too short and that he couldn’t sing. But Charles Aznavour, who has died aged 94, became one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the 20th century.

He was dubbed France’s Frank Sinatra, but unlike the American crooner, Aznavour wrote his own songs, often breaking taboos about marriage, homosexuality and men talking about their emotions.

With lyrics that talked of sex, depression and flagging libidos, he said what was then unsayable, such as his 1973 hit “What Makes a Man”, about a gay transvestite.

Still performing to packed stadiums well into his 90s, Aznavour continued to write every day and push the boundaries, eulogising the smell of his Swedish wife’s armpits in one song celebrating their 50 years of marriage.

“It’s a kind of sickness I have, talking about things you’re not supposed to talk about,” he said.

“I started with homosexuality and I wanted to break every taboo.”

“I felt strongly and I had to take a stand,” he said.

The same fearlessness made him a tireless campaigner for the recognition of the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide, becoming Armenia’s ambassador to Switzerland and permanent delegate to the United Nations.

Born Shahnour Varinag Aznavourian in Paris on May 22, 1924, to parents who had fled the massacres, Aznavour sold more than 180 million records in a career spanning eight decades and as many languages.

A gifted actor as well as linguist, Aznavour brought a rare intensity to the stage, turning every song into “a one-act play”.

And it was his leading role in Francois Truffaut’s film “Shoot the Piano Player” in 1960 that catapulted him to fame outside France.

– Refugee heroes –

He would later appear in the Oscar-winning “The Tin Drum”, playing a kindly Jewish toy seller.

In fact, Aznavour saw himself “more as an actor who sings than a singer who acts”.

Yet starring in more than 60 films did not stop him writing over 1,300 songs in a staggeringly prolific career.

It was only by chance that Aznavour was born in the French capital, where his parents were waiting in vain for a visa for the US after escaping the collapsing Ottoman empire.

Instead they set up a little emigre restaurant called Le Caucase (the Caucasus), where Aznavour and his sister sang and danced from a very young age.

Later the family hid Jews and Armenians fleeing the Gestapo during the German occupation, including the Resistance leader Missak Manouchian, who was eventually captured and beheaded by the Nazis.

Manouchian’s wife Melinee only escaped thanks to the Aznavourians, who were later honoured by Israel for their bravery.

Having left school early — a decision he forever regretted — to become a song-and-dance man, Aznavour got his big break after the war when he opened for the rising French star Edith Piaf.

She took him to America as her manager and songwriter while he worked on his voice, “singing until my throat was sore. And it paid off. My voice developed from a small tenth of an octave to a range of nearly three octaves,” he said.

Aznavour lived with Piaf for eight years, though he insisted he never became one of her many lovers because “she was not my type”.

Either way she badgered him into getting a nose job.

– ‘Armenia in my heart’ –

Even so, his solo career had a rocky start, with the man who would later be named “Entertainer of the Century” by CNN and Time Online, once being booed off stage.

“They said I was ugly and short; that the ill should not be allowed to sing,” he told AFP, referring to his unique tenor voice.

But he had his first number one hit in 1956 with “Sur Ma Vie” (In My Life). That was followed by one of his biggest hits, “Je M’voyais Deja” (It Will Be My Day).

Buoyed by the success of “Shoot the Piano Player” he took New York’s Carnegie Hall by storm in 1963 before touring the world and seeing his songs recorded by stars from Ray Charles to Liza Minnelli and Fred Astaire.

He also performed duets with Sinatra, Elton John, Sting and Celine Dion and his song “She” was re-recorded by Elvis Costello for the British romantic comedy “Notting Hill”.

Aznavour was always strongly associated with France’s large ethnic Armenian community, and in 1988 he led humanitarian efforts to help the victims of the earthquake that shattered his parents’ homeland.

“Armenia and Armenians are in my heart and in my blood. It was unthinkable that I would do nothing faced by so much misfortune and suffering,” he wrote, describing the quake as a turning point in his life.

A father of six, who married three times, he said the “first time I was too young, the second I was too stupid, and the third I married a woman from a different culture and I learned tolerance”.

PM Pashinyan participates in CIS summit (photos)

Edgar Tavakalian
| 14:57 | September 28 2018
Category
World

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has participated at the CIS Council sitting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan took part in the session, the PM’s office said.

The results of cooperation of 2018 and the main direction for future development of partnership within the organization were summed up. The preparation works for a joint celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War victory in 2020 was highlighted. Several bilateral cooperation documents were signed. The CIS chairmanship was passed on to Turkmenistan.

The Council adopted a statement on the 70th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights protection, approved the CIS Cultural Capital to be held in Tajikistan in 2021, and to declare 2021 the year of architecture and urban development in the CIS.

The 2019-2023 joint intergovernmental program of combating crime was approved and an IT field anti-crime agreement was signed between the CIS states. Amendments were made in the charter of defense ministerial council of the CIS states and the charter of the CIS anti-terrorist center. A number of multilateral cooperation documents in the humanitarian, law enforcement and military fields were signed.

The next CIS summit will take place October 11, 2019 in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan.

At the narrow-format session the Armenian Prime Minister attached importance to raising effectiveness of cooperation within the CIS and deepening of ties. According to Pashinyan steps should be taken to realize the potential of the CIS for developing regional cooperation. “It will contribute to increasing competitiveness of national economic and the welfare of citizens, development of humanitarian ties and strengthening of human relations,” he said.

Speaking about the 75th anniversary of Victory in 2020, the PM noted that May 9th will forever remain a symbol of unbending courage and unity of peoples, who fought together at the front and selflessly struggled for the common victory, bringing decisive contribution in liberating the world from Nazism.

“The Armenian nation has unique attitude in shaping the Victory. Half of the Armenians who were conscripted to the army did not return home from this terrible war. More than 70,000 Armenian servicemen were awarded military certificates and medals, and more than 100 of them were awarded the title of USSR Hero. This holiday, as well as the memory of the fallen, call upon us all to mark the 75th anniversary of Victory deservedly, jointly counter the attempts of re-writing history and glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism propaganda,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan also emphasized the importance of adopting the statement on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Cooperation in the economic, innovative, cultural-humanitarian fields is developing in the CIS. In this context I would like to inform that the Global IT Forum will take place in Yerevan in 2019, which will become an important arena for developing practical and scientific ties between representatives of various countries of the world. We expect our CIS partner countries to have active participation in this important event,” he said.

President Hassan Rouhani invites Armenian PM to visit Iran (photos)

Edgar Tavakalian
| 10:14 | September 26 2018
Categories
Official
Region

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New York City on the sidelines of the 73rd UNGA, Pashinyan’s office said.

Pashinyan and Rouhani discussed various agenda issues of the Armenian-Iranian relations. They attached importance to developing economic cooperation and noted that there is great potential to enhance it. The sides agreed that practical steps are necessary to be taken for boosting commercial ties and realizing the existing potential.

PM Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the Armenian-Iranian relations have unique nature and that the ties must continue developing on the basis of firm friendly ties.

Iran’s president noted that a high level of trust exists between the two peoples. According to President Rouhani, the Armenian community in Iran has an important role and enjoys great respect among Iranians.

Speaking about economic partnership, President Rouhani expressed conviction that the agreement on creating a free trade zone signed with the Eurasian Economic Union will in turn enable to enhance the Armenian-Iranian economic partnership even more.

Pashinyan and Rouhani addressed issues relating to various fields such as cooperation in energy, road construction and improvement of logistic conditions.

Rouhani invited Pashinyan to visit Iran and expressed conviction that the visit will enable to more comprehensively discuss ways for expanding bilateral cooperation.


Armenian police arrest Turkish-American lobbyist

Edgar Tavakalian
EurasiaNet.org
Sept 1 2018
Grigor Atanesian Aug 31, 2018

A dual U.S. and Turkish citizen was arrested in Yerevan on an Interpol warrant from the U.S. on charges related to junkets he arranged for members of Congress to visit Azerbaijan.

Kemal Öksüz – who goes by “Kevin Oksuz” in the U.S. – also was wanted in his native Turkey for his ties to the religious movement headed by the cleric Fethullah Gülen. A headline in the pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah crowed: “High-ranking Gülenist fugitive Kemal Öksüz nabbed in Armenia.”

Oksuz was arrested on August 30 on an American warrant issued a week earlier. He is wanted on suspicion of falsifying facts and submitting false statements to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent non-partisan body.

It’s unclear what brought Oksuz to Armenia, and when, but a press release from the Armenian police said that upon moving to the country, he opened a business.

According to Armenia’s state register, a U.S. citizen, Kevin Oksuz, registered a “Destination and Event Management” firm called The Sena Group on September 25, 2017. Oksuz is named as the sole proprietor and director of the company. His physical address in the register is listed as “603 N Tazewell / – Washington Arlington 0000” (sic). The company offers a variety of tour packages to Armenia, including “Corporate and Incentive Tours” and “Executive Tours.”

Before leaving the U.S., Oksuz had been lobbying Congress and local governments on behalf of Turkey, Azerbaijan and other Turkic countries. He used a network of nonprofits tied to the Gülenist movement and charter school network; Gülen is Turkey’s most-wanted man, accused of masterminding the coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016.

As first reported by the Washington Post, Oksuz was the focus of an OCE investigation into the 2013 “Vision for [the] Future” event in Baku, attended by ten members of Congress, their spouses, state legislators from 42 states and 32 staffers. The investigation found out that the trip had been secretly paid for by the Azerbaijani state oil firm SOCAR, which paid $750,000 for the event through the Assembly of Friends of Azerbaijan, a Houston-based tax-exempt nonprofit chaired by Oksuz. The sister of Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, at the time the governor of Texas, served as a director for the nonprofit.

The OCE issued 12 subpoenas and 18 information requests and interviewed 10 witnesses about the Baku junket, but decided to “take no further action with respect to any House Member or employee” after the House Ethics Committee asked it to drop the case. Oksuz refused to be interviewed by an OCE investigator, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself.

The junket also included several members of the Obama administration. Former senior advisor David Plouffe, former press secretary Robert Gibbs, and former deputy chief of staff Jim Messina spoke at a SOCAR event to promote the country’s pipeline projects. They also met with President Aliyev and lunched with SOCAR executives. In an interview with the newspaper Washington Diplomat, Kemal Oksuz said that each of the former Obama officials had been paid “no more than $10,000 or $15,000.”

Interviews and emails released by OCE portray Oksuz as an influential DC insider. In an email with the subject line “Pelosi’s Turk,” a lobbyist with the lobbying firm Roberti-White wrote that Oksuz “is a member of DCCC Speaker’s Cabinet and by in large a progressive Democrat. Through his position he has served as the ‘lobbyist,’ for Turkish Americans throughout the south and southwest.” (The DCCC is the campaign organization for the Democratic Party in Congress.)

In another email, Ari Mittleman of Roberti-White wrote that Azerbaijan’s Parliament speaker, ambassador to the U.S. and head of SOCAR all “value Kemal’s opinion.”

According to campaign finance disclosures released by the Federal Elections Commission and Texas Ethics Commission, Oksuz gave over $90,000 to political campaigns in the U.S.

In the documents released by the investigation, Oksuz was seen exchanging text messages with former Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, now the Trump administration’s head of NASA. Bridenstine part of the 2013 Baku junket, and on his return to Washington, he wrote an op-ed for the Washington Times stressing the importance of Azerbaijani gas pipelines to NATO security.

In a video released by the Armenian police, Oksuz was asked about the relative strength of the Armenian and Azerbaijani lobbies in the U.S.

“Armenian diaspora is strong and does a good job,” Oksuz says in the video. “Azerbaijan’s is nothing [in comparison]. They spent a lot of money on lobbying, but don’t achieve anything. Whenever a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide is introduced in Congress, Turkey tries to block it. They call and set up meetings [with Congress members], claiming that there was no genocide. Honestly, I did that myself. Because I didn’t believe [there was a genocide].”

MP Manvel Grigoryan in Armenia medical center

Edgar Tavakalian
  • 18:00 | August 22,2018 | Social
  • Armenian:

MP Manvel Grigoryan, who is remanded in custody, has been transported to the Armenia medical center.

To Tert.am’s question whether Manvel Grigoryan is in hospital within the framework of the assigned examinations, workers of Armenia Medical Center replied:
“Manvel Grigoryan is in the department of endocrinology of Armenia medical center.

They did not give details about what kind of treatment is carried out.

Robert Kocharyan: Consider that I came back (video)

Edgar Tavakalian
  • 18:00 | August 16,2018 | Politics
  • Armenian:

Robert Kocharyan, accused of “March 1” case, gave an interview to Yerkir Media TV, in which Robert Kocharyan responded to his question of returning to politics: “Consider that I came back.”

The full version of the program will be broadcast live on Yerkir Media TV at 20:55.