Author: Garo Vardanian

Artsakh and Azerbaijan cannot exist in a common political area- Pashinyan

Garo Vardanian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 22 2020

The elections held in the Artsakh Republic throughout its history are incomparable in terms of democracy with those held Azerbaijan and come to demonstrate the existence of different realities in the two countries, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated on Saturday at the third joint meeting of the Security Councils of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh Republic.

“This circumstance comes to prove that Artsakh and Azerbaijan cannot exist in a common political area in any case as the level of democracy in Artsakh from over 3, 5, or 10 years on has been well ahead of the democracy in the neighboring country. This is not only an irreversible reality but I am confident, will be vividly illustrated once again during the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Artsakh,” Pashinyan said.

Speaking of the geopolitical reality in the region, Pashinyan noted that they are responsible not only for the security of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh but for the wider regional and global security.

“I am happy to state that Armenia and Artsakh share this approach, and our mission and responsibility are to ensure our national security, the regional security and contribute to the global security. This remains an important agenda issue for us and one of the topics of our bilateral cooperation,” Pashinyan said.

Sports: Armenian judokas to compete in 3 qualification events

Garo Vardanian
MediaMax, Armenia
Feb 20 2020
 
 
 
Armenian judokas to compete in 3 qualification events
 
 
Armenia judo team has returned from the 14-day training camp in Kazakhstan.
 
Most of the judoka lack experiences, so as many matches as possible were organized for them. Head coach of the team Hovhannes Davtyan has told the National Olympic Committee of Armenia that the training camp improved the team significantly.
 
The team will resume training on March 13 in Tsaghkadzor, where the judoka will focus on fitness. They are to participate in 3 qualification events in Yekaterinburg, Tbilisi and Antalya. There will be joint training with Georgian and Russian teams in that period.
 
The European Championship in Prague, scheduled for May 1-3, is a qualification event as well.

Armenian President meets with US Ambassador

Garo Vardanian

Save

Share

 18:57,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met with US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy on February 18.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, the interlocutors exchanged views on cooperation between Armenia and the USA in various spheres. Particularly, the sides assesses promising the spheres of modern technologies, particularly, the implementation of joint projects in the sphere of artificial intelligence. In this context, the sides referred to the possible cooperation in the sidelines of the president-initiated ATOM project, the goal of which is to transform Armenia into a leading country in the spheres of artificial intelligence and mathematical modeling.

During the meeting the Armenian President and the US Ambassador also exchanged views on the referendum for Constitutional changes scheduled on April 5.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Winemaking, crafts, cuisine: Gastro Yard tourism project steadily grows in Armenia

Garo Vardanian

 

Save

Share

 09:41,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. The Gastro Yard pilot program implemented in Armenia back in 2018 is becoming more and more widespread across the country. By seeing the successful experience residents of various communities also express a wish to implement this interesting tourism initiative in their communities. The program is funded by the Russian government and is implemented within the frames of the UNDP’s Integrated Rural Tourism Development (IRTD) project.

IRTD project development expert Lusine Balayan told Armenpress that the Gastro Yard project consisted of two components – food and winemaking, food and crafts. Gastro Yards are unique touristic destinations which aim to promote rural local hospitality, authentic food and beverages. Tourists have chance to get to know local culture, people and history of Armenia.

“Gastro Yards are not just some kind of places, people live there and introduce tourists on our traditions, culture, cuisine, handmade works, etc. In 2018 we have implemented several pilot projects in different provinces of Armenia, including Tavush, Aragatsotn, Vayots Dzor and Ararat”, Lusine Balayan said.

As these projects resulted in success, in 2019 we announced competition for the implementation of Gastro Yards projects with 3 components: food-winemaking, food-crafts, food-crafts-winemaking. More than 130 applications were submitted. The committee selected those who passed to the second stage, conducted on-site monitoring to assess the potential of beneficiaries. The winners got an opportunity to build their own Gastro Yards in their communities.

Within the framework of this project the beneficiaries are provided with support, including equipment, as well as consulting, designing support. For instance, there was a major assistance for winemaking. In order to ensure the sustainability of the project the beneficiary was provided with the necessary equipment for making homemade wines for a three-year term. These technologies are designed for ensuring the entire period of producing wine. They are also cooperating with specialists who follow the quality of wine and the proper implementation of the production.

“The project was so successful and interesting that the Armenian government also participated in it, and we are very happy for that”, she said.

This year as well more than two dozen such yards are expected to open in the Republic. The official opening ceremony of ART-TAKARD GASTRO YARD will take place on February 15, at the village of Khachpar of Ararat province.

Gastro Yard project aims at contributing to the diversification, development and promotion of tourism services in rural communities of Armenia. It creates tourism services based on rural household economies. The project includes three main services – food, homemade wine and crafts.

Interview by Anna Gziryan

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




ACNIS reView from Yerevan #4, 2020_Editorial_The 7th Point: With What to Replace the Old System

Garo Vardanian
Editorial 

 

08 FEBRUARY 2020  

In 2018, in the days of the regime change carried out under large waves of popular pressure, Nikol Pashinyan promised to change the incumbent “corrupt system” with a new democratic one.

As a slogan, such words leave a strong impression, but complications set in when one tries to understand what kind of system used to prevail and, as a consequence, what kinds of system change need to be made in order to achieve the new one.  The new government has not presented to the public any concrete or conceptual approaches in this regard.  Only recently Mr. Pashinyan attempted to propose such a concept, composing a six-point “all-national consensus.”

Naturally, it is laudable that even belatedly they are trying to give meaning to the “revolution” and to present a vision for the future. But these six points, whether or not they end up getting implemented, are incomplete.

What, for example, does systemic corruption mean?  These are relations upon which the system is built and functions according to the principle of written and unwritten laws.  The written laws are for the people, while the unwritten ones are for the ruling circles.  Hence big capital is formed and set into action, offices are distributed, and the country is divided into spheres of influence.  In short, the nation is governed by shadow levers.

When systemic corruption is overcome, and the system enters the evolutionary phase, the members of the system now begin to live and work according to the written rules.  In other words, the system once run on closed, shadow-based understandings is replaced by an open one, transparent before the public and operating under laws.

Once that transition takes place in our life, it will be possible to assert that in 2018 a revolution truly took place, bringing with it a new, fundamental and deep transformation in our relations.

Welcoming of course Nikol Pashinyan’s six points, we must note that it is time to give effective solutions to a string of pressing mainstream issues.  And so, a) in domestic political life, violence must be ruled out and the destiny of the country must be determined exclusively through elections; b) in the case of Artsakh, the people of Armenia and the entire Armenian nation have long expressed their united standpoint and, in the name of national reunification, voluntarily endured many sacrifices; and c) real, not rhetorical reforms in the judicial system are the imperative of the time–the courts must be really independent.

The list of issues that have ripened long ago can go on and on.  But let us not be carried away by dreams or illusions, registering instead one simple fact.  No thought, idea, program or concept can see the light of day without the seventh consensus or, as it is often referred to in the intellectual heritage of humanity, the “social contract.” This relates to rights, social life, and the bedrock of economy that is known as the right to property and the sanctity of property.

Without coming to a popular consensus on this matter, we will be unable to build the rightful state of our dreams, under the rule of law and, as its result, with quantum progress.

  

Winner of Tigran Mansurian Music Composition Competition announced

Garo Vardanian

Save

Share

 14:44, 7 February, 2020

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. Young composer Bryn Kirsch has been named as the winner of the Tigran Mansurian Music Composition Competition, the Dilijan Chamber Music Series said on Facebook.

The winner received a $2,500 prize and will also be given a professional recording and performance of his piece.

Students enrolled in a college, university, or conservatory in the state of California
during the year of entry are eligible to apply for the Competition.

One of the missions of the Competition is to encourage the creation of chamber music that demonstrates a tangible connection to Armenian art, culture, and/or history.

The Dilijan Chamber Music Series is dedicated to showcasing traditional pieces of Western classical chamber music, as well as pearls from the treasury of Armenian chamber works. Founded by members of the Lark Musical Society, this concert series is aimed at encouraging new devotees to chamber music, while simultaneously inspiring seasoned concertgoers. 

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan




NSS Armenia arrests high ranking official for abuse of power

Garo Vardanian

Save

Share

 20:53, 5 February, 2020

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 5, ARMENPRESS. Chairman of Urban Development Committee of Armenia Vahagn Vermishyan has been arrested on the suspicions of receiving bribes of particularly large amount, ARMENPRESS reports the National Security Service of Armenia informs.  

The National Security Service of Armenia has revealed that Vahagn Vermishyan received bribes from individuals engaged in construction or constructing companies in 5 separate cases ranging from 1 million to 2.5 million AMD. He received the bribes both personally or through other peoples.

For the purpose of hiding the traces of his acts, Vahagn Vermishyan violated the ban for officials to engage in business activities and established an architectural company registering it in the name of his trusted person and suggested the people who applied to him to do the architectural works with that company, guaranteeing them favorable conditions for their future works.

Vahagn Vermishyan and others suspected in the crime have been arrested. After being interrogated, Vermishyan admitted his guilt.

Preliminary investigation is underway.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Music: Rock Aid Armenia: how the ultimate version of Smoke On The Water was recorded

Garo Vardanian
Louder
Feb 5 2020

By Dave Everley (Classic Rock) 10 hours ago

What happened when members of Queen, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Yes and more came together to record a Deep Purple classic

(Image credit: Michael Putland / Getty Images)

The 1980s was the decade of the charity single. In the wake of Band Aid’s world-beating 1985 hit Do They Know It’s Christmas, you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing a bunch of pop stars putting on their serious faces and churning out a song to raise money for a worthy cause.

Heavy metal did its bit. In 1986, Hear N’ Aid weighed in with Stars, a charity single featuring Ronnie James Dio, Dee Snider and Ted Nugent raising money to combat world hunger via the medium of 80s rock. Three years later, another group of A-list musicians released a money-raising cover of a classic anthem. The song was Smoke On The Water, the all-star band was Rock Aid Armenia.

The brainchild of charity campaigner John Dee, the project – initially called Live Aid Armenia – was conceived in the wake of the 1988 Armenian Earthquake, which killed over 25,000 people and devastated the country‘s infrastructure.

“I felt I had to do something, after helping with the immediate fundraising that was taking place in the UK, I decided to launch a fundraising push that would gather together people I know in the rock business,” Dee later said.

Smoke On The Water wasn’t the first Rock Aid Armenia single. Members of Aswad, Culture Club and Haircut 100 had released a cover of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? earlier in 1989. But it would be the guitar-centric follow-up that provided the project’s most enduring moment.

The first person Dee called was Dave Gilmour, just off tour with the reconstituted Pink Floyd. Others swiftly fell in line behind him, including Queen guitarist Brian May, who in turn called Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and ex-Free/Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers. Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan had seen the aftermath first hand after playing a show in the Armenian capital Yerevan a year after the quake hit, and signed up.

“I took a trip to [the city of] Spitak and saw the devastation,” Gillan recalled. “There were so many vivid images. The Mayor Of Spitak told me that all music had stopped in the city: on the radio, in the church, even the birds had stopped singing.”

With Gillan onboard – and Deep Purple manager Phil Banfield involved in the organisation – Purple’s 1971 signature song Smoke On The Water was a shoe-in for this million-dollar collective to cover. “It’ll probably be a horrendous racket,” joked Brian May during one of the five sessions that took place at Metropolis Studios between July and September 1989.

While May was present for the very first session on July 5, he was little more than an onlooker due to a broken arm. “I had an argument with the kerb on a skateboard,” he explained. He’d recovered enough by the second session to lay down the immortal Smoke On The Water riff with Dave Gilmour, the latter cutting loose on a trés 80s Steinberger headless guitar. 

(Image credit: Michael Putland / Getty Images)

May wasn’t the only representative from Queen. Bandmate Roger Taylor was roped in to play drums, though it transpired he was second choice. John Dee had originally wanted Rush’s Neil Peart to play on the track, but a shift in dates scuppered the plan.

Peart’s absence barely dented the Fantasy Football-levels of star quality on display. The prog wing put in a show of strength: Yes bassist Chris Squire flew in from LA, while his sometime bandmate Geoff Downes shared keyboard duties with Keith Emerson. The latter insisted on including a snippet of ELP’s Fanfare For The Common Man in the song. “I wanted it to be a musical contribution,” he said. “If it was anything less than that, I would have just sent the money in,” he added churlishly.

The guitar frontline was no less impressive. Tony Iommi pitched in with his own take on the greatest riff he never wrote, though even the Sabbath guitarist was overshadowed by the presence of the song’s original architect, Ritchie Blackmore. “Ritchie has yet to put his piece on, so he’ll probably rub everyone else off,” said Brian May wryly before the Man In Black arrived for the second session.

For some participants, it was an opportunity to fanboy out. Iron Maiden frontman and Purple devotee Bruce Dickinson enthusiastically admitted that he had been “playing this in pubs when I was 17.” Paul Rodgers was more serious. “This kind of thing is great because all of the politics that separate various people and their various things can be thrown out of the window,” he said.

The all-star version of Smoke On The Water was released in November 1989 – virtually the last charity single of the decade. It was far from the “horrendous racket” Brian May predicted. That iconic riff was bigger than any of the guitarists playing it, Ritchie Blackmore included. Gillan, Dickinson and Rodgers took a verse each, with the Purple man belting out the chorus with help from Bryan Adams, who had coincidentally dropped by the studio, only to find himself roped into providing back vocals.

The single peaked at a disappointing No.39 in the UK singles chart, though it marked the start of an enduring relationship with the country of Armenia for both Ian Gillan and Tony Iommi. The pair re-teamed in 2012 to release a single under the name WhoCare, with proceeds going to rebuilding a school in the Armenian town of Gyumri, which had been destroyed in the original earthquake. Bizarrely, Iommi went even further, writing the Armenian entry in the 2013 Eurovision song contest, the power ballad Lonely Planet, performed by Dorians. 

Rock Aid Armenia’s Smoke On The Water might not have troubled Do They Know It’s Christmas for title of Most Successful Charity Single Ever, but the people involved can hold their heads high. “I am very proud of my participation in that project,” Brian May recalled. For Ian Gillan, there was another reason to look back fondly: “It was more fun than some of the sessions we had in Purple.”

Watch videos at

Opposition Bright Armenia faction in legislature: Incumbent authorities have a great "ability"

Garo Vardanian
News.am, Armenia
Feb 4 2020

16:19, 04.02.2020

YEREVAN. – The incumbent authorities have a great “ability” to meaninglessly make a hero out of someone with low trust. Edmon Marukyan, head of the opposition Bright Armenia faction, said this at today’s meeting with reporters in the National Assembly, referring to the current tension between the authorities and Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan.

“The statements are directed to the authorities to bring their actions in line with the standards of the rule of law and democracy,” he said. “Otherwise, these statements will become a report tomorrow in the hands of the co-rapporteurs.”

Head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Ruben Rubinyan responded to this statement and noted that Marukyan was misrepresenting the situation.

Far right groups imposing agendas on society in Armenia: Freedom House

Garo Vardanian
PanArmenian, Armenia
Jan 30 2020
January 30, 2020 – 13:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Far-right movements in Armenia are skilled at imposing their agendas on society and shaping social and political discourse, Freedom House said in a new report.

There has been a significant increase in the visibility and legitimization of far-right activism in public and political discourse since the “velvet revolution” of 2018 in the country, the organization said in a brief describing the growth of far-right movements in Armenia, as well as Ukraine and Georgia.

Tens of thousands of Armenians took to the streets in April–May 2018 to demand the resignation of the then authorities and the formation of a new government and parliament. The then Prime Minister, Serzh Sargsyan, who had been at the helm of the country for 10 year, resigned, while Nikol Pashinyan who led the movement was ultimately elected the country’s new PM

At the head of the new movement is Adekvad, a Facebook group that registered as a political party in May 2019, the report says.

http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/277417/Far_right_groups_imposing_agendas_on_society_in_Armenia_Freedom_House

“The movement reflects typical antiliberal, antiglobalist ideology, calling for a return to “traditional” values and supporting aggression against minorities, such as LGBT+ people. …Adekvad’s young cofounder Artur Danielyan describes his movement as a means of legitimizing ultraconservative and antiglobalist discourse in the country, and considers European movements such as Alternative for Germany to be allies. Despite these professed European influences, however, Adekvad is also widely rumored to receive significant support from the Kremlin,” according to the NGO.

Armenia’s government has adopted a severe stance against Adekvad’s far-right activities early on, the think tank said. Pashinyan has criticized the group, publicly accusing it of being secretly affiliated with the former government and with Russia. Several days after Adekvad announced its intention to form a political party, Pashinyan characterized the movement as “men in black” who were “preparing to solve political issues through violence,” and called on law enforcement to “give a very strong counterblow.” Danielyan and several other members of Adekvad were subsequently detained for several hours by police, and Danielyan was arrested a second time two days later.

“These arbitrary detentions—perceived as having been ordered by Pashinyan—backfired. Instead of turning public opinion against Adekvad, the group received sympathy over what were widely regarded as unjustified arrests,” the brief says.

“While analysts generally acknowledge that Adekvad has no ability to claim political power in the near future, the movement is an increasingly influential presence within Armenia’s political discourse, particularly among youth and social media users.”