Author: Janet Ekmekjian

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
October 1, 2018


France and Armenia mourn loss of 'unique' singing great Aznavour

by Christian Boehmer, Sabine Glaubitz and Sebastien Kuenigkeit in
Paris and Robin Powell in Berlin

Paris (dpa) -

One of France's most beloved singers and songwriters, Charles
Aznavour, has died at the age of 94.

The French-Armenian musician composed some 1,300 songs during his
seven-decade career, and played roles in about 70 films.

Aznavour's heartfelt, often raw delivery, and songs of love, family,
life on the margins and his parents' native Armenia, won fans
worldwide. He sold more than 180 million albums.

President Emmanuel Macron described Aznavour as "profoundly French,
attached viscerally to his Armenian roots and celebrated around the
world."

"His masterpieces, his voice, his unique brilliance will endure long
after his death," Macron wrote on Twitter. His music had "accompanied
three generations of joy and grief."

"The French people will join the Armenian people in mourning," Macron said.

"This is truly a painful day for the history of our people and our
country," said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

"Aznavour is a man who created not only national, but universal
values, which for many years will accompany mankind towards love and
solidarity, and will guide people for the righteous," Pashinyan said,
according to state news agency Armenpress.

A candle-lighting ceremony was being organized for 8 pm (1600 GMT) at
Charles Aznavour Square in the Armenian capital Yerevan to remember
the late singer.

Aznavour's death brought an outpouring of grief on social media as
soon as it was first reported, and was later confirmed by the mayor of
the southern French commune of Mouries, where he had a residence.

Born on May 22, 1924, he first started singing at his parents'
Armenian restaurant in Paris at the age of 9. Performing was in his
blood, following his singer father and his mother, an actress, who
both arrived in Paris after fleeing violence in Armenia.

A critical turning point for the singer, dubbed the "French Frank
Sinatra," came in 1946, when he met one of the most famous
songstresses at the time, Edith Piaf, who invited him on tour through
France and the United States.

Able to sing in eight languages, the diminutive Aznavour was regarded
as the last great singer of "chansons" - poetic lyric-driven songs
delivered in a half-sung, half-spoken style.

Among his most well-known songs were "La Boheme," "Du laesst dich
geh'n," and "She" - which was covered by Elvis Costello for the hit
Hollywood film "Notting Hill."

His own acting breakthrough came in the French New Wave, with "Don't
Shoot the Pianist," directed by Francois Truffaut in 1960. Dozens more
movie roles followed.

Aznavour received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August last
year. Organizers described him as "an international recording artist
and singing sensation."

Russian Government News
 Friday 4:34 PM EEST


Greetings to President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian and Prime Minister
of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Independence Day, Armenia's national
holiday


Vladimir Putin sent greetings to President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian
and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Independence Day,
Armenia's national holiday.

The President noted with satisfaction that the relations between
Russia and Armenia are based on friendship and alliance. He noted a
high level of bilateral cooperation in trade and the economy, science
and technology, humanitarian activities and other areas.

Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that joint efforts will ensure
further development of the alliance, multidimensional bilateral
cooperation as well as partnership in the Eurasian integration. The
President believes that this serves the interests of the brotherly
peoples of Russia and Armenia and the goals of strengthening regional
security and stability.

                        GROONG's Calendar of events
                        (All times local to events)

                =========================================
What:           Help Armenia Face the Challenges of Alzheimer's Conference
When:           Oct 26 2018 9am
Where:          Yerevan State Medical University
                Koryun St 2, Yerevan Armenian
Misc:           Registration: 9am - 10am | Conference: 10am - 4pm
                As Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia become an increased
                concern, we are taking steps to help Armenia face them. Mark
                your calendars for this very important conference and help
                raise the level of care through awareness and education.
                Speakers include:
                Professor Mikhayil Aghajanov, MD, Chairman of Biochemistry,
                Yerevan State Medical University
                Topic: Understanding Alzheimer's Disease
                Professor Hovhannes M. Manvelyan, MD, Ph.D.
                Chair of Neurology Department, YSMU
                Topic: The Problem of Dementia in Armenia
                Dr. Jane L. Mahakian, Ph.D. President, Alzheimer's Care Armenia
                Topic: Memory Loss: What's Normal and What's Not
                Victor Mazmanian
                Senior Director of Faith Outreach, Silverado Mind Heart Soul 
Ministry
                Topic: Caregiving and Hope
Online Contact: [email protected]
Tel:            Dr. Jane Mahakian (949) 212-4105
Web:            
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.silverado.com_Armenia&d=DwIB-g&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=343FYL7VVu5sd53WvDfnG3WL-Ms0f4mNFxTV4ZxFLwk&s=xJPjopXWgqAv2EEzBCFjxHggjrTdUpttKRiY_oNXpOw&e=

                =========================================
What:           "Toward Sis with an Eyewitness View"
                a lecture is given by Bishop Torkom Donoyan
***************************************************************************

Armenian News's calendar of events is collected and updated mostly from
announcements posted on this list, and submissions to [email protected].

To submit, send to Armenian [email protected], and please note the following
important points:

a) Armenian News's administrators have final say on what may be included in
        Armenian News's calendar of events.
b) Posting time will is on Thursdays, 06:00 US Pacific time, to squeeze in
        a final reminder before weekend activities kick in.
c) Calendar items are short, functional, and edited to fit a template.
d) There is no guarantee or promise that an item will be published on time.
e) Calendar information is believed to be from reliable sources. However,
        no responsibility by the List's Administation or by USC is assumed
        for inaccuracies and there is no guarantee that the information is
        up-to-date.
f) No commercial events will be accepted.
        (Dinners, dances, forget it. This is not an ad-space.)
g) Armenian News is a non-commercial, non-partisan, pan-Armenian outlet.


*******************************************************************
    The Critical Corner
    The Literary Armenian News
    Review & Outlook
    World News
    The Entertainment Wire
    Probing the Photographic Record
    Armenia House Museums
    ...and much more

© Copyright 2018,  Armenian News Network / Armenian News, all rights reserved.

Regards,
--
Armenian News Network / Armenian News

Los Angeles, CA     / USA

                                        Thursday, 

Israel Accuses Drone Maker Of Bombing Armenian Soldiers, At Baku's Request


Nagorno-Karabakh -- Smoke from fire rises above the ground in Martakert 
district, after an Israeli-made Azerbaijani "suicide" drone was shot down by 
the Karabakh army, 4 April 2016.

Israel has accused an Israeli drone maker of bombing ethnic Armenian soldiers 
in Nagorno-Karabakh at the request of Azerbaijani clients during a sales 
demonstration, government and local media reported.

The accusation by Israel’s Justice Ministry on Wednesday did not specifically 
mention Azerbaijan or Nagorno-Karabakh in its statement. But Israeli media said 
a complaint filed with the Defense Ministry, which promoted an investigation, 
made it clear that Azerbaijani officials and Armenian soldiers were involved.

The Defense Ministry complaint was leaked to the Maariv newspaper, which first 
reported the incident in August 2017. It was unclear who exactly filed the 
complaint.

In its statement on August 29, the Israeli Justice Ministry said it plans to 
indict the chief executive, deputy CEO, and other officials and employees of 
Aeronautics Defense Systems for the incident, which it said occurred earlier in 
2017.

"Aeronautics and 10 of its employees were informed that they were set to be 
charged, pending a hearing," the Justice Ministry said, according to The Times 
of Israel.

The Aeronautics team is suspected of "fraudulently obtaining something under 
aggravated circumstances," along with violations of Israel's security export 
control law, the newspaper reported.

In response, the Yavneh-based firm said it is “convinced that after we first 
present our position at the hearing, the State Prosecutor’s Office will reach 
an informed decision that there is no reason to put the company or any of its 
officers in court and will order the case closed.”

An official at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington declined to comment to RFE/RL 
on an Israeli legal proceeding, saying he did not want to interfere in another 
country’s internal matters.

The Maariv and Times of Israel reports said Aeronautics officials in 2017 were 
working on a potential $20 million deal with Baku, when Azerbaijani officials 
asked them to demonstrate their Orbiter 1K armed drone on Armenian soldiers.

The reports said two employees refused to carry out the attack before two 
higher-ranking executives eventually agreed to do it. They said the drone did 
not directly hit their targets, but two soldiers were injured in the attack.

Israel suspended Aeronautics' export license after the complaint was filed with 
the Defense Ministry, the report said.

According to Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army, the Azerbaijani military 
most recently attacked its frontline positions with a suicide drone on July 7, 
2017. The commander of an army unit stationed in northeastern Karabakh said 
that two of his soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.

The Azerbaijani army heavily used similar suicide drones manufactured by 
another Israeli company during the April 2016 hostilities in Karabakh. Baku had 
bought the Harop drones as part of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed 
with Israeli arms manufacturers.

Armenia has long expressed concern at the Israeli-Azerbaijani arms deals, 
saying that they undermine international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict.

The drone scandal was exposed by the Israeli paper more than two weeks after 
Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi visited Yerevan in an 
apparent bid to improve his country’s frosty relationship with Armenia. Hanegbi 
met with then Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and other senior Armenian 
officials in late July 2017.




Armenia Explores Arms Deals With India

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

Pinaka Missile system

Armenia is exploring the possibility of buying rocket systems and other weapons 
manufactured by India for its armed forces, the Defense Ministry said on 
Wednesday.

“A group of our military officials, who are India at the moment, are looking 
into Indian weapons and several of them are of interest to us,” the ministry 
spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“The Indian defense industry has quite interesting solutions on various 
offensive and defensive weapons which interest us,” he said. “But I can’t speak 
of any concrete projects or agreements right now.”

The Times of India daily last week quoted a senior executive of an Indian 
defense firm as saying that the Armenian military is showing an interest in the 
Pinaka multiple-launch rocket systems manufactured by it.

“We carried out extensive firing trials for their delegation last month at 
Pokhran in Rajasthan,” said KM Rajan of the Defense Research and Development 
Organization. “The results were excellent.”

Hovannisian said in this regard that Pinaka, which has a firing range up to 75 
kilometers, does not represent Armenia’s “sole and greatest interest” in Indian 
weapons. But he did not elaborate.

Another Armenian Defense Ministry delegation visited India and toured a number 
of Indian defense enterprises in May 2017. The ministry said it discussed with 
Indian officials “mutually beneficial variants of developing cooperation in 
this direction.”

The Indian ambassador in Yerevan, Yogeshwar Shangwan, said afterwards that his 
country is ready to deepen relations with “friendly” Armenia “in all areas.” 
“Even in the area of defense, we are open to cooperation with Armenia,” he told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service in June 2017.


India - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Armenian President Serzh 
Sarkisian in New Delhi, 3Nov2017.

India’s arch-foe Pakistan staunchly supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict, refusing to not only establish diplomatic relations with Armenia but 
also formally recognize the latter as an independent state. Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev said after October 2016 talks in Baku with then 
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the two Muslim nations will step up 
bilateral defense cooperation.

Russia has been by far the most important supplier of weapons and other 
military hardware to the Armenian army. Hovannisian said Yerevan now wants to 
somewhat diversify its arms procurements.

“Of course we seek to work with a single supplier in order to facilitate the 
process of delivery, maintenance and training [of military personnel,]” said 
the official. “But there are weapons that should be acquired from other states 
because opportunities are numerous. And India, by the way, is one of those 
countries which have made huge progress in this area in the last 15-20 years.”




Turkish American Lobbyist Arrested In Armenia

        • Emil Danielyan

Armenia - Turkish American activist Kemal Oksuz is questioned by Armenian 
police, .

The former head of a Turkish American lobbying group that had cooperated with 
Azerbaijan’s government has been detained in Armenia on an arrest warrant 
issued by U.S. law-enforcement authorities.

Kemal (Kevin) Oksuz used to run the Texas-based Turquoise Council of Americans 
and Eurasians as well as the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan. The two 
groups came under scrutiny after organizing in 2013 an all-expenses-paid visit 
to Azerbaijan by 10 members and 32 staffers of the U.S. Congress.

The Washington Post reported in 2015 that the trip was secretly funded by 
Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company SOCAR in violation of U.S. congressional 
rules. Citing a confidential report by the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics, 
the paper said that through the groups headed by Oksuz SOCAR spent $750,000 for 
that purpose.

The report led the Ethics Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to 
launch an inquiry. Oksuz reportedly refused to testify in the probe.

The Armenian police revealed on Thursday that Oksuz subsequently moved to 
Armenia and set up a company there. In a statement, the police said that U.S. 
law-enforcement authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him on 
August 23.

The American citizen of Turkish descent is wanted in the United States for 
lying to the House Ethics Committee about foreign funding received by his 
organizations, the statement said, adding that he was arrested in Yerevan on 
Wednesday.

The police also released a short video of Oksuz’s first interrogation. Oksuz 
was shown admitting that SOCAR, which is closely linked to the Azerbaijani 
government, covered the travel expenses of the U.S. officials and gave them 
expensive gifts in 2013. “That may have been corruption, I don’t know,” he said.

It was not clear why he decided to relocate to Armenia, a country that has 
strained relations with both Turkey and Azerbaijan. Oksuz admitted that just 
like other Turkish American activists he had lobbied the Congress against 
recognizing the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

“The Armenian Diaspora [in the United States] is strong and does a good job,” 
he told the police. “The Azerbaijani lobby is nothing. They only spend money on 
lobbying but achieve nothing.”

Reporting on Oksuz’s arrest, the pro-government Turkish newspaper “Sabah” 
referred to him as a “high-ranking” loyalist of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based 
Turkish cleric facing coup charges in Turkey. The paper also called his 
Turquoise Council of Americans a “Gulenist umbrella organization.”

Thousands of Gulen supporters have been jailed in Turkey since a failed 2016 
coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.




Government Seeks To Criminalize Vote Buying In Armenia

        • Anush Muradian

Armenia - A polling station in Yerevan, 2Apr2017.

The Armenian government moved on Thursday to make it a criminal offense to buy 
or sell votes in elections held in the country.

Armenia’s existing legislation already bans parties and individual candidates 
from handing out or promising cash, other material benefits and services to 
voters during election campaigns. The practice is punishable only by fines.

Draft amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code approved by Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian’s cabinet call for prison sentences for anyone buying or attempting 
to buy votes.

What is more, they stipulate that Armenians selling their votes will also face 
imprisonment. But such voters will avoid prosecution if they confess to taking 
vote bribes within three days after an election, according to the government 
bill which is expected to be debated by the Armenian parliament next week.

Vote buying was widespread in just about every major election held in Armenia 
in the last two decades. Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of 
Armenia (HHK) was accused by its opponents and media of heavily relying on the 
practice in the last parliamentary polls held in April 2017.Observers from the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that they were marred 
by “many credible reports” of vote buying.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Pashinian said the bill, if passed by the 
parliament, will help to significantly improve the conduct of future Armenian 
elections, including municipal polls in Yerevan slated for September 23.




Press Review



“Zhamanak” reports that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party 
has teamed up with his other supporters to run in next month’s municipal 
elections in Yerevan. The paper notes that it will be the first ballot held 
after the recent “velvet revolution” in Armenia and it could prove the most 
democratic in the country’s history. It says at the same time that with 
Pashinian remaining very popular the elections will hardly be competitive.

“Zhoghovurd” says that Vahram Baghdasarian, a senior lawmaker from the 
Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), was right to say on Wednesday that the HHK 
would not have avoided mass anti-government protests last spring even if it had 
not installed Serzh Sarkisian as prime minister. The paper says that the HHK 
had long retained power through vote rigging and repression. “So it is natural 
that anyone nominated by the HHK for the post of prime minister would have met 
with public resistance,” it says.

“Aravot” reports that residents of seven villages in northwestern Armenia 
blocked a major highway to protest against their incorporation into a single 
community. “This is a highly sensitive issue,” writes the paper. “Many 
arguments are made for and against such a [community] consolidation. It is hard 
to tell whether not the protesters’ demands are justified.” The paper complains 
about offensive comments on social media about the protests.

(Tigran Avetisian)

Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org