Author: Edgar Tavakalian

The national minorities residing in Armenia have decided to unite efforts to call the attention of the world to the events that happened 100 years ago. They have prepared a message to the leaders of the UN member states.

Representatives of the 11 national minorities of Armenia are preparing to address an official letter to the heads of the UN member states. Strongly condemning the genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, the minorities demand from the progressive world to “establish justice and restore the rights of the national minorities residing in Turkey.”

“As descendants of the peoples that have seen consequences of the genocide, and are aware of the bitter results of denialism, we call on the Ambassadors of the UN member states to condemn the crime of genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago and anticipate an adequate assessment of this heaviest crime against humanity,” the letter reads.

Representative of the Armenian Assyrian community Razmik Khostoyev said “the material demands from Turkey are between the lines.” He believes claiming lands from Turkey is still untimely.

Siaband Bakoyan, representative of the Yezidi community said “the failure to condemn results in new crimes.  “In this particular case I mean the mass killing of Yezidis in the Middle East starting from August 2, 2014,” he said.

Adelina Livshic from the Jewish community confesses that “many in Israel accept there was genocide, but one should remember about geopolitics.”

In an interview with the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan explained the reasons behind Armenia’s decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union.

“Armenian cognac can’t really be sold in Paris,” Sargsyan, speaking through a translator, said. “But it does well in the Russian Federation.”

In other words, he said, he took a “pragmatic decision.” One-third of Armenia’s exports go to Russia and its partners, including agricultural products on which thousands of jobs depend. In addition, Russia sells natural gas to landlocked, energy-poor Armenia “at quite a good price.”

The president stressed that Armenia still pursues good relations with the European Union. But a free-trade agreement with Europe would not have delivered much, he said, especially as long as Armenia’s border with Turkey remains blocked. Armenia’s economy would have to evolve over ten to fifteen years to take advantage of a free-trade regime with Europe. “But in the meantime there is a need to survive,” he said, “and people are not ready to suffer during this long term.”

Armenians are suffering now from the rift between Russia and the West, he said, in three ways: Armenian exports to Russia, Russian investment in Armenia and remittances from Armenians working in Russia — which account for one-fifth of Armenia’s GDP — all are down. This hurts in a country of 3 million people that in 2013 ranked 152nd in the world in income per person.

But, he added, “had we not acceded to the Eurasian Union, we would have faced more painful problems.”

Sargsyan said he will not be seeing President Obama on this trip, but he was diplomatic on the president’s refusal once again, in deference to Turkish objections, to use the word “genocide” to describe the crimes against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago.

“I think had he said it, it could have been useful,” Sargsyan said. “The United States should have put values over interests.”

CZECH REPUBLIC AND ARMENIA START TO COOPERATE TO REDUCE OBSOLETE PESTICIDES DANGER
Sona Hakobyan

"Radiolur"
30.03.2010 17:30

Czech non-profit organization Arnika and Armenian Women for Health and
Healthy Environment (AWHHE) have launched a new project to help the
rural communities to implement sustainable agriculture and eliminate
the danger of chemical pollution in Ararat and Armavir regions.

The project is focused on finding of technical solutions to eliminate
several hot spots contamination by obsolete toxic pesticides caused by
their improper management and storage, including so-called persistent
organic pollutions (POPs). It will also help Armenia to implement
international Stockholm convention.

Arnika will bring its expert skills regarding the real danger of
pesticides stored in selected hot spots or being still used, and
experience with cleaning up similar burdens in the Czech Republic.

"It is necessary not only to clean-up contaminated sites, but also
to deal with the contamination responsibility, not to allow new risk
to the public health and the environment," says Jindrich Petrlik,
executive director of Toxics and Waste program of Arnika.

"Chemical contamination can debase the quality of water, soil, and
other environmental compartments. This vicious cycle of dependency
can be broken by raising awareness and promoting alternatives," says
Lilik Simonyan, expert of the AWHHE on toxic chemicals. Due to lack of
relevant information, citizens are not able to organize and fight for
their rights, which should also be addressed by the project activities.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Sisters Academy
440 Upper Gulph Road
Radnor, PA 19087
Contact: Susan Pogharian
Tel: 610-757-7090
Fax: 610-687-2450
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

If I could do anything, I would………

Many thoughts swirled around the minds of Armenian SIsters Academy fifth
grade students as they designed a visionary page for web search engine
Google. The online site hosts an annual contest encouraging K – 12
students to use their imaginations and express what they would do in the
world.

When asked their favorite part of the process, some students enjoyed
drawing while for others, writing about their design was the best,
though most challenging, portion. Students were limited to 50 words to
express the thinking behind their drawings. Nareen Babaian’s theme of
helping animals expressed her desire to be a future veterinarian, while
classmate Sophia Ohannessian found inspiration for world peace from the
globe in her classroom. Barkev Sarkahian’s idea revolved around
`Shape Shifting Giants’ which formulated in his mind after reading a
similarly-themed story. Their teacher, Mrs. Susan Dallas, enjoyed
watching her students take their ideas and bring them colorfully to
life.

Academy teachers and staff voted to decide which of the many creative
ideas would represent the Academy in this nationwide contest. Although
all entries were admirable, four students’ work – Zabelle Minasian
(recycling), Anna Terzian (artist), Nareen Babaian (veterinarian) and
Sophia Ohannessian (world peace) will continue on to the regional and
hopefully, national competition. These students’ entries will compete
with other fourth through sixth grade students throughout New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania. Prizes include having their designs hosted on
the Google website, a trip to Google’s New York offices, a laptop
computer or even a $15,000 college scholarship.

ARMENIA, BELARUS ESTABLISH SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION

news.am
March 22 2010
Armenia

Samvel Harutyunyan, Chairman of the Committee for Science and
Education, RA Ministry of Education, participated in a regular meeting
of the task group in charge of the CIS interstate special-purpose
program of innovation cooperation held in Minsk, Belarus, on March 18.

The Committee’s press service informed NEWS.am that Samvel Harutyunyan
presented Armenia’s proposals concerning the cooperation in innovations
between the CIS member-countries.

Harutyunyan held a meeting with I. Voitov, Chairman of the State
Committee for Science and Technologies of Belarus. On March 19,
the Committees signed a cooperation agreement, which provides for
assistance in the fields of sciences of mutual interest. The agreement
also provides for joint contests for financing of joint research
projects and scientific conferences.

TURKISH LEADERSHIP IS BEING MORE AND MORE OF NO TRACTABLE SPIRIT IN ITS STATEMENTS, ARMENIAN DEPUTY THINKS

ArmInfo
2010-02-18 12:45:00

ArmInfo. ‘Not having an adequate reply from the Armenian party the
Turkish leadership is becoming more and more of no tractable spirit in
its statements’, – deputy of the National Assembly from the Heritage
faction, Stepan Safaryan, said at today’s press-conference.

He thinks that the ‘football diplomacy’ has led to the unprecedented
activation of Turkey in the Karabakh settlement. Safaryan added that
the Armenian party as well as the world community make Turkey hurry
in the matter of ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, for
which Turkey requires progress in settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

‘Earlier Turkey’s mediation in the Karabakh conflict was limited only
by blockade of Armenia. At present the situation has changed and
official Ankara does not lose a chance to protect interests of its
‘younger brother’, – Safaryan said and added it would be wrong to think
that activeness of Turkey will be of permanent nature. ‘The way out
from the present situation is in the adequate responds of the Armenian
party to different statements of Turkish officials’, – he concluded.

L’Express, France
22 Jan 2010

L’Arménie accuse la Turquie de faire obstacle à leur rapprochement

EREVAN РLe ministre arm̩nien des Affaires ̩trang̬res, Edouard
Nalbandian, a accusé vendredi la Turquie de faire obstacle à leur
rapprochement et prévenu que le processus pourrait échouer malgré la
signature d’accords historiques pour normaliser leurs relations.

"Si la Turquie n’est pas prête à ratifier les protocoles, si elle
continue à parler la langue des ultimatums, d’avancer des conditions
préalables et de faire obstacle au processus, alors je n’exclus pas
que les pourparlers échouent", a prévenu le ministre lors d’une
conférence de presse.

La Turquie et l’Arménie ont signé en octobre 2009 deux protocoles
prévoyant l’établissement de relations diplomatiques et l’ouverture de
leur frontière commune, mais ils ne peuvent entrer en vigueur avant
leur ratification par les Parlements des deux pays.

Depuis la signature de ces documents, des désaccords sont apparus
notamment sur la question des massacres et déportations d’Arméniens
pendant les dernières années de l’empire ottoman, de 1915 à 1917, que
Erevan qualifie de génocide, un terme rejeté par Ankara.

enie-accuse-la-turquie-de-faire-obstacle-a-leur-ra pprochement_843711.html

BOX: DARCHINYAN READY TO DAZZLE
BY: Adrian Warren

AAP Newsfeed
November 19, 2009 Thursday 5:43 PM AEST
Australia

Australia’s super flyweight boxing world champion Vic Darchinyan
is winning his battle with the scales and is set to dazzle upcoming
opponent Tomas Rojas in California next month.

IBF, WBA and WBC champion Darchinyan completed his final pre-fight
Australian training session on Thursday before flying out to America.

The 33-year-old Sydneysider will be up against the tallest opponent
of his professional career, with the Mexican enjoying an advantage
of around eight centimetres.

Darchinyan (32-2-1, 26 KOs), revealed speed would form an essential
part of his plan to defeat the 29-year-old challenger.

Armenian-born Darchinyan revealed he had to shed more weight than
before any previous fight in his professional career.

He said he had allowed his weight to blow up almost 10 kilos over
the super flyweight limit of 52.16kgs in the aftermath of his last
fight loss to Joseph Agbeko in July.

"I was back in Armenia enjoying myself with my friends, eating all day,
I put on lots of weight," Darchinyan told AAP on Thursday.

"It takes a long time to take it off, but I know when I go back to
America I’ve got to be in control of my diet.

"I’ve dropped now to 57kgs, I know I can do it."

Darchinyan reiterated he had only himself to blame for losing his
bantamweight title bout against Agbeko.

He stressed he would revert to the style which worked so successfully
in his masterful performance against Cristian Mijares last November.

"This fight, you are going to see exactly what happened with Mijares,"
Darchinyan said.

"All my angles, all my speed, you are going to see how fast I am.

I’m going to be much faster that I was before."

Rojas is a skilful, busy fighter with very good movement.

Darchinyan will continue sparring with taller fighters when he hits
Las Vegas, where he will remain until just under a week before his
fight in California.

Provided he defeats Rojas (32-11-1, 22 KOs), Darchinyan wants to
have just one more fight at super flyweight against Nonito Donaire,
the only professional to beat him apart from Agbeko.

Donaire won the interim WBA super flyweight title while Darchinyan
moved up to bantamweight to challenge Agbeko.

While Darchinyan would also love a rematch with Agbeko, he is also
keen to fight the man who took away the Ghanaian’s title, Yonnhy Perez.

The Colombian is promoted by American Gary Shaw, who also looks after
Darchinyan’s interests.

TURKISH DAILY ON ARMENIAN VACATIONERS

news.am
Nov 11 2009
Armenia

Armenian travel agents offer tours to Georgia, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy
and Jordan among other countries, but 70 percent of Armenians that
fly out of their country seem to prefer Turkey, especially Antalya,
writes the Turkish Today’s Zaman.

"Armenians coming to Turkey may be a sign of normalization and
accepting facts of life like swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Any
citizen of a landlocked country would feel the same — living in
Ankara and dreaming of the Mediterranean all year long. This longing
is evident in the posters of Antalya’s attractive sun-drenched beaches
hanging on the walls of buildings in Yerevan," the source writes.

"While it is a dream destination for some, it is a provocation
for others… It did not take too long for a youth group from the
nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnaktsutyun, to
rally for the removal of those posters. They went to the Yerevan
mayor’s office and demanded that the Antalya posters be brought down
and not hung up again. The mayor’s office has not yet acted on the
request. If the borders are opened soon, they will never be brought
down," the source writes.

"The nationalists’ logic against traveling and vacationing in Turkey
in general and in Antalya in particular is just like the Turkish
leftists’ logic: Every penny that goes to the ‘enemy’ will return
to us as arms and aggression or exploitation. This must be the
universal language of all nationalists and chauvinists… Another
slogan shared by the nationalists on both sides of the border says:
‘Turkey shouldn’t have won us over.’ Turkish nationalists said the
same thing when nearly three dozen militants belonging to the notorious
terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), came from
Iraq and surrendered to Turkish authorities. As promised, they were
interrogated but due to a lack of criminal records they were released.

They returned to their hometowns with joy and were greeted with
public demonstrations. This was enough to forget why they came back:
to surrender and end hostilities. The government was accused of
giving the impression that the mighty Turkish army was defeated by
the terrorists and all that nonsense," Today’s Zaman writes.

"Government employees are not officially warned against vacationing
in Turkey…The Armenian Ministry of the Economy is encouraging
competitive domestic tours to destinations like Lake Sevan, the
mountain resort of Tsakhkadzor, the mineral water spa of Jermuk and
the historical Nagorno-Karabakh region. Presently vacation packages
to these sights start at about $700 while Antalya offers a week of
good service, sea and sun for only $450," writes the newspaper.

"Well, you may be a patriot, but there is nothing better than a good
warm vacation after a whole year’s hard work, especially when your
old foe is serving you with a friendly smile," the source writes.

TIGRAN SARGSYAN: ARMENIA SUPPORTS RA-JAPAN RELATIONS DEVELOPMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.10.2009 10:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan met Minophagen
Pharmaceutical Co. delegation, headed by company president Tokuichiro
Utsunomiya, governmental press service reported.

Welcoming the gust, RA Prime Minister stated that Armenia supports
RA-Japan relations development, noting that newly appointed Japanese
Premier is a good friend to Armenian scientific community.

In his turn, Minophagen Pharmaceutical Co. President expressed his
wish to contribute to the development of Armenia-Japan relations.

At the meeting, parties discussed collaboration in pharmaceutical
sphere, specifically, possibility of medicine manufacturing in RA.

RA Premier expressed his support for prospective pharmaceutical
programs.