Author: Hambardsumian Paul

REPATRIATION SUCCESS STORY: 239 ARMENIANS HAVE RETURNED FROM FRANCE
Kristine Aghalaryan

an/
2009/06/08 | 19:10

An interview with Armen Ayvazyan, Project Director of the French
Armenian Development Foundation

Mr. Ayvazyan, when was the French Armenian Development Foundation
(FADF) established and for what purpose? What projects is the FADF
involved in now?

The FADF was founded in 2004 by the Association Armenienne d’Aide
Sociale (AAAS), the first Armenian welfare organization to be
established in France in 1890. The AAAS centers on three directions:
retirement homes, social assistance and development projects in
Armenia.

Our aim is to assist in the long-term and sustainable development of
Armenia by formulating a variety of projects, basically in the social
sector. Presently, we are focused on the migration issue and assist
in the voluntary return to Armenia of those who had left and now find
themselves in legal limbo in France. Another project deals with the
disabled. In January 2008, with joint financing from the European Union
and the AAAS, we launched a project called "Deaf Dialogue is Possible"
with the aim to strengthen the development skills of the people with
hearing disorders (PWHD), one of the poorest and isolated groups of
society. Along these lines we have established a non-profit Social
Integration Center. A third program of ours is entitled "Advancing
the Rights of Children and Adolescents with Psychological Problems".

What is the project that deals with the voluntary return to Armenia of
individuals residing in France without legal status? How does it work?

This project is called "Return to Sources" and was started in November,
2005. The project is co-financed by the European Refugee Fund (ERF)
in partnership with the French National Agency for the Reception of
Foreigners and Migration (ANAEM).

Within the framework of the project, an Information and Training
Center has been opened in Paris. Detailed information on the
economic and socio-political environment in Armenia is provided to
beneficiaries. The Center prepares their future reintegration in
Armenian society by exploring with them possible income generating
ventures.

In Armenia, French Armenian Development Foundation (FADF) helps
concerned beneficiaries to draw up a business plan for setting their
micro-business activities. The FADF is in charge of the follow-up. The
staff provides assistance, prepare the feasibility study and assist in
the actual launch of the micro-business. What standards are involved
in deciding who should return to Armenia?

That’s a decision of the French National Agency for Migration. If an
individual meets those standards they will be offered an opportunity
to be included in the repatriation program that includes a variety of
assistance measures covering transportation costs and even outright
monetary grants to facilitate the return to Armenia.

If a person meets the requirements of the French National Agency for
Migration and wishes to return to Armenia, what resources are available
to facilitate their reintegration into Armenian society and ensure
a somewhat normal life? Do you also offer assistance in this regard?

The individual would get in touch with the Voluntary Repatriation
Center run by the AAAS in Paris. The Center will review the options
available to the returnee in terms of earning a living in Armenia. The
Center formulates an action plan for repatriation that they send to
us. Thus we know in advance who is returning and their plans. We meet
with these returnees and stay in contact with them

We don’t get involved in locating suitable housing for the repatriates
but will offer informational assistance if needed. We might offer
a list of apartments for rent or help the person find work if they
don’t wish to start their own business. We’ll provide information
about the job market, what professions are in demand, and even help
the person write a professional-style resume. In the past, we offered
monetary assistance to all repatriates facing a housing problem. Now,
we offer such assistance to beneficiaries under the age of twelve and
over seventy at around 600 Euros per year. They can spend the money as
they chose. This year, we plan to allocate thirty such housing grants.

During the first three months, a period we call "social accompaniment",
we assist with getting the repatriate’s paperwork in order. We
accompany the person to the various agencies when needed. If there
are medical issues to be addressed, we also direct the person
to the correct agencies. In the same three month period, we also
formulate a small business plan for the person if they desire to
open a private concern. We study the market and grant up to 7,000
Euros in start-up funds. We don’t hand out cash but use the funds to
cover the purchase of equipment and materials; whatever is necessary
to launch a business. The aim is to ensure that the person returning
will have a source of income to cover their living expenses. Within
the parameters of the program, some forty business plans have been
financed. In April of this year, an additional thirteen business plans
have been formulated and work is underway to purchase the necessary
equipment and materials.

In addition, we also offer retraining assistance so that the
beneficiary can become competitive in the job market. Our first
priority is to treat the individual with a sense of respect and
dignity.

Committee sessions regarding the allocation of business start-up monies
are convened under the auspices of the French Embassy in Armenia.

To date, how many repatriates have you assisted? How many individuals
have returned to Armenia via your organization?

During the period November 15, 2005 – April 30, 2009, 239 individuals
have returned to Armenia. 27 in 2005-2006, 43 in 2006-2007 and 107
in 2007-2008. 62 individuals have returned as of November 15, 2008.

Do you have exact figures of the number returning to Armenia monthly?

About 5-15 individuals per month.

What are the repatriation costs, per person, that your organization
incurs?

I can’t give you the exact breakdown. The financial side of the
equation is dealt with by our French partner organizations.

Based on your observations how are the repatriated families getting
on? Do they have adequate housing and work?

Most own their own homes but others rent. Finding work is the main
problem.

There have been cases when people returning to Armenia leave for
France again.

The follow-up monitoring of the social reintegration process of the
repatriates lasts for one year. The FFAD meets with the beneficiaries
to review the process and outstanding issues if they so desire. It
is entirely possible that a few of the repatriates leave Armenia for
foreign shores but most remain.

NKR MFA: OUR COUNTRY CONDUCTS INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
09.06.2009 16:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ NKR Deputry FM Vardan Barseghyan has received a
delegation headed by British House of Lords Vice Speaker Caroline
Cocks. At his guests’ request, Mr. Barseghyan introduced the history
and principal trends of NKR Foreign Ministry’s activities, also
focusing on permanent representations’ work in foreign countries.

Parties also touched upon Karabakh-Azerbaijani conflict settlement
process. In particular, they noted that Azerbaijan uses all kinds of
resources for conducting an anti-Armenian propaganda and distorting
the essence of Karabakh conflict. Thereupon, it was proposed that
a book based on real facts be published in several languages and be
distributed among people. Conducting an independent foreign policy
and striving for international recognition, NKR seeks to establish
good-neighborly and friendly relations with its international partners,
states, organizations, and individuals, Mr. Barseghyan noted.

In her turn, Baroness Cox stated that she tried to involve new persons
in her delegation, in order to expand the circle of NKR’s friends,
hoping that they would become Artsakh’s "ambassadors" and facilitate
the resolution of the Karabakh issue. At the end of the meeting, the
guests were given CDs entitled "Crimes Without Punishment". They tell
about Azerbaijan’s crimes against Armenian civilians at the current
stage of Artsakh national-liberation movement, NKR Foreign Ministry’s
press service reports.

FRENCH PARLIAMENTARIAN TO CONTRIBUTE TO GAINING THE RIGHT OF KARABAKH PEOPLE TO SELF-DETERMINATION

ArmInfo
2009-06-09 09:56:00

ArmInfo. Nagorno-Karabakh MPs met French parliamentarian, Head of
the France-Armenia Friendship Group Mr Francois Rochebloine and
Secretary of the Friendship Group Mr. Jean-Pierre Delannoy at the
Nagorno-Karabakh National Assembly, Monday.

As ArmInfo own correspondent in Stepanakert reports, Speaker of the
NKR Parliament Ashot Gulyan highly assessed Francois Rochebloine’s
visit to Karabakh and pointed out that the latter supported Karabakh
people’s fight for freedom and independence. The Speaker said that
the French diplomat, who is visiting the NKR for the third time,
is well aware of the processes in the region and Nagorno-Karabakh
itself. For his part, Francois Rochebloine expressed his content with
the changes in Karabakh and pointed out that these changes demonstrate
the recent development in various spheres in Karabakh.

Francois Rochebloine stressed that he supports Hay Dat and Karabakh
people’s fight for their freedom. He said one shouldn’t cast
doubt on Karabakh people’s right to self- determination and added
that he will contribute to gaining of the NKR people’s right to
self-determination. At the same time, he pointed out that there are no
people without a territory. According to him, during the Soviet time
a number of controversial laws were adopted, particularly, Karabakh
was unlawfully joined to Azerbaijan. He added that the international
community should be provided true information about Karabakh. According
to the French MP, one shouldn’t trust a state (Azerbaijan is meant –
editor), which alongside with negotiations, comes out with militarist
statements and threats, and one shouldn’t trust the president who
feels hatred for Armenians. It is necessary to ensure security of
Karabakh territory and people, as well as respect for the political
and cultural identity of Karabakh people at the international level.

Furthermore, he stressed the significance of support to the economic
and social development of Karabakh by means of private investments. He
expressed hope that in the near future the Karabakh conflict will
be settled. Francois Rochebloine handed a commemorative medal of the
French parliament to Ashot Gulyan. For his part, Ashot Gulyan handed
a commemorative medal issued on the occasion of the 20th anniversary
of Karabakh national liberation movement to the French parliamentarian.

During a separate meting with the French MP, Ashot Gulyan pointed out
that the NKR legislation has been brought in compliance with European
standards. On June 8 and 9 Francois Rochebloine will visit the NKR
regions and meet the population.

Turkish official denied Armenian Genocide at conferance in Oslo
07.06.2009 00:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At a panel discussion on the limits of laws on
Holocaust Denial at the International Freedom of Expression Exchange
Conference in Oslo, Norway on Friday, a Turkish consulate official
interrupted a discussion on the denial of the Armenian Genocide,
claiming that Armenians were brutally murdered and deported from their
homeland for treason, Asbarez reports.
A person describing himself as an official at the Turkish consulate in
Norway, objected to the use of the word `genocide’ used by speakers to
describe both what happened to Jews in the Third Reich and what
happened to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
`They were not deported because they were Armenians or because of
their race, but because they collaborated with the enemy,’ the
official claimed.
But thousands of pages of official government archives from the United
States, Russia, France, Germany, and even Turkey, point to the
indisputable fact that in 1915 the Ottoman Turkish government set out
to annihilate the indigenous Armenian population inhabiting the lands
under its dominion not for collusion, but for being Armenian.
Between 1915-1923, the government executed a systematic campaign to
exterminate the Armenian people and remove them from their historic
homeland. The Armenian Genocide, recognized as the first genocide of
the 20th century by historians the world over, resulted in the death
of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians and the loss of millions of
dollars in property and land now under occupation by the Republic of
Turkey.
But talking about this history is a crime in Turkey. According to
Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu, who spoke at the panel, Articles 301
and 305 of the Turkish Penal Code prevent people from discussing the
Armenian genocide. Zarakolu, the owner of Belge Publications, has
himself been convicted under Article 301 for `denigrating the Turkish
state or state organs’ and for `inciting hatred and hostility.’
Zarakolu said that these `laws encourage denial.’
But the consulate official disagreed, arguing that Article 301 and
other such laws were designed to `protect the unity of their territory
and security.’

Indian Express, India
June 7 2009

An Armenian link, fading

Alokparna Das
Posted: Sunday , Jun 07, 2009 at 0245 hrs IST

From a distance, it almost looks like a mosque, complete with a dome
and mini minar or chhatri-like projections on its four sides, of which
only two have survived. Its peeled-off plaster and dilapidated state
reveal layers of slim bricks dating back to the later Mughal period. A
closer look and one can spot a plaque announcing the Armenian
Association in Kolkata as the trustee of the place. A faded signboard
identifies the building as a nearly three-century-old Armenian chapel.

Located near the Kishanganj Railway Station in Sarai Rohilla area,
this is the only surviving Armenian place of worship in the
city. Built most likely around 1781-82, this rundown building and some
tombs at its back survived the Revolt of 1857 only to be encroached
upon by a colony that’s now called the `Christian Compound’.

The place was not always as congested as it is now. Professor
A. Dasgupta, a retired Delhi University teacher, has fond memories of
a quiet cemetery and a medieval structure adjoining it when she stayed
in the vicinity as a child. `The solitude, the all-pervading silence
and shaded greenery of the cemetery, the adjoining kuchcha road with
no habitation, except the railway colony, are part of my cherished
memory of the place. Every day, I was taken for a morning walk to the
place. Of all the graves, that of a six-year-old girl used to haunt
me’perhaps because I was a child myself,’ she says.

Photo: The chapel; the tomb of Armenian trader and Sufi poet Hazrat
Sarmad; graves at the back of the chapel, encroached upon by what is
now called the `Christian Compound’

menian-link–fading/472575

Haykakan Zhamanak , Armenia
June 5 2009

Karabakh accord to be signed in July

Is he ceding?

A meeting between [Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and [Azerbaijani
President Ilham] Aliyev took place in St Petersburg yesterday.
According to our sources, at the meeting Sargsyan gave verbal consent
to the option for the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement which was on the
negotiating table.

Our sources also say that agreement was reached to sign an agreement
on the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement during yet another meeting on the
Nagornyy Karabakh issue in Italy in early July – in which presidents
of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries – Obama, Medvedev and
Sarkozy – will take part. It is about returning liberated territories
[currently Armenian-controlled Azerbaijani territories around Nagornyy
Karabakh], return of Azerbaijani refugees to Nagornyy Karabakh, and
holding a referendum later.

Meanwhile, [former Armenian president and currently opposition leader]
Levon Ter-Petrosyan announced at the 1 June [opposition] rally :"Serzh
Sargsyan is not the president of the Republic of Armenia, he is a
regular occupier. No document signed by him has a legal force for us,
especially if this document concerns the cause of the settlement of
Nagornyy Karabakh issue."

JUNE 5 MARKS WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

A1+
02:11 pm | June 05, 2009

Society

June 5 marks the International Environment Day. A number of events
will be organised in Armenia today.

An environmental march will kick off at 6:30 p.m. from Conservatory
Park.

Organisers of the event say the event aims to raise public awareness
of the threats posed to Armenia’s environment; threats that are being
neglected by government officials.

Environmentalists call to join the march for the sake of Armenia’s
nature.

"Let’s raise the most vulnerable problems of our nature… deplorable
destruction of Teghut, sorrowful Sevan, the ghost of uranium… Nature
is wailing…"

The Armenian-based office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) together
with the Ministry of Environmental Protection organise a photo
exhibition and documentary presentation at 4:00 June 5.

PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA, RUSSIA MEET IN ST. PETERSBURG

dvedev-2/
2009/06/05 | 13:02

Politics

On June 4 RoA President Serzh Sargsyan met with Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev, the 16th meeting between the two since President
Sargsyan took office.

President Dmitry Medvedev placed great importance on his frequent
meetings with Serzh Sargsyan as useful from the perspective of
development of Armenian-Russian cooperation and the development of
personal relations.

Expressing gratitude for the invitation to participate in the
International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, President
Sargsyan said the forum acquires a new importance under the global
financial-economic crisis.

The Armenian President thanked his Russian counterpart for providing
a $500 million stabilization loan.

The parties touched on the process of settlement of the Karabakh
conflict. "After our last meeting we have been working with our Russian
colleagues towards the implementation of prior agreements. The Armenian
side has been diligently working with the support of the Minsk Group
on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, searching for ways that
would allow the people of Nagorno Karabakh to live safely in their
homeland and determine their own future," President Sargsyan stressed.

The parties discussed the issues connected with the further
expansion of the Armenian-Russian economic cooperation, and turned
to the strategic cooperation within the Collective Security Treaty
Organization and the creation of coalition forces.

ARMENIAN PUPIL OF ISTANBUL TAKES FIRST PLACE IN DRAWING INTER-COLLEGE COMPETITION

Noyan Tapan
June 5, 2009

ISTANBUL, JUNE 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The pupils of Armenian
Dadyan college of Istanbul have had great success in Sea and Istanbul
inter-college competition held by Doganca Museum.

The Marmara weekly announced that third-form pupil Selin Chitchian took
the first place and was rewarded with a computer and 500 Turkish liras
(about 0). And fourth-form pupil Garun Atelmsh received 100 liras
(about ) and encouraging gifts for his drawing work.

NATO TAUGHT GEORGIA A LESSON
Georgy Dvali

WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
June 3, 2009 Wednesday

NATO’S MILITARY EXERCISE ENDED IN GEORGIA; Military exercise of the
Alliance in Georgia is finally over.

International military exercise within the framework of the Partnership
for Peace NATO’s Program in Georgia officially ended, yesterday. The
war game in Georgia lasted almost a whole month despite bitter
protests from Moscow. Russia is convinced that the West abets the
Georgian leadership and President Mikhail Saakashvili responsible
for the shooting war in South Ossetia last August.

The exercise in Vaziani not far from Tbilisi began on May 6 and
included two phases. Cooperative Longbow (May 6-19) was focused on
compatibility of international brigades deployed in crises. Cooperative
Lancer that followed concentrated on deployment of battalions in the
field. Over 1,000 servicemen from regular armies of 14 NATO members
and partners participated in the exercise.

Official Tbilisi regarded the exercise as a political gesture rather
than a military event. Russia was categorically against organization
of a military exercise in Georgia. It was convinced then and remains
convinced now that the Alliance encourages Saakashvili and Co to
launch new escapades. (One such escapade resulted in a shooting war
in South Ossetia last year.) NATO leadership feigned innocence and
insisted that the exercise had been planned long ago and had nothing
to do with Russia or runaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In any event, the event was noticeably less grandiose than Brussels
had hoped to make it – partially due to the pressure applied by Moscow,
partially to financial problems. Armenia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova,
Serbia, and Estonia begged off at the last possible moment. Armored
battalion of the Georgian regular army quartered in Mukhrovani mutinied
literally a day before the planned beginning of the exercise. Official
Tbilisi announced right then and there that the putschists were out
to wreck the NATO exercise.

By and large, the exercise was a success – discounting the incident
with a Canadian wounded when a hand grenade exploded before he
tossed it.

Defense Minister David Sikharulidze called the exercise "a
necessary element of Georgia’s prime objective – Euroatlantic
integration." Saakashvili himself visited Vaziani to thank NATO
officers for "support" of Georgia’s efforts to evolve to standards
of the Alliance.

"That was a routine exercise, nothing more. The involved servicemen
drilled peacekeeping operations. The legend stipulated a situation
resembling the Iraqi one," Arsenali Chief Editor Irakly Aladashvili
said. "It is the political aspect of the exercise that really counts. I
mean, NATO supported Georgia despite Moscow’s protests."