Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIAN C.BANK KEEPS REFINANCING RATE AT 8.0 PCT

Reuters

April 10 2012

YEREVAN, April 10 (Reuters) – Armenia’s central bank kept its key
refinancing rate unchanged at 8.0 percent on Tuesday after data showed
annual inflation remained within the government’s target for the year.

Consumer prices rose 0.1 percent last month after a decline
month-on-month of 0.9 percent in February.

The annual inflation rate stood at 2.2 percent in March, the central
bank said, below 3.0 percent recorded in February and within the
government’s target range of 2.5 percent to 5.5 percent.

(Reporting by Hasmik Lazarian; writing by Margarita Antidze in
Tbilisi; editing by Andrey Ostroukh)

TBILISI ARMENIANS WANT MEMORIAL PLAQUES ON CITY STREETS

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 10 2012
Russia

Mikhail Tatevosov, President of the Union of Tbilisi Armenians,
has requested the Tbilisi Sakrebulo Chairman, Zaal Samadashvili,
to consider setting memorial plaques on buildings in the historic
part of the city, Georgia Online reports.

Tatevosov wants the plaques to have such names as Victor Ambartsumyan,
a notable academician in astrophysics, the brothers Artem and Avraam
(Abraham) Alikhanyan, well-known physicists, classic author Akop
Melik-Akopyan and other notable figures.

The union is willing to pay for installation of the plaques.

OPPOSITIONIST: RAISING THE DEAD WILL HAPPEN IN ARMENIA ON 6 MAY

arminfo
Tuesday, April 10, 18:37

The dead will raise in Armenia on 6 May with the only purpose to vote
for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, representative of Armenian
National Congress, Gurgen Egiazaryan, said at today’s press-conference.

“All these ghost voters hand in hand will go to the election and
naturally vote for the RPA. They will be followed by the citizens
which are out of the country for more than 5 years and then even the
Javahkh Armenians will vote”, – he said.

He also added that the forthcoming parliamentary election will be harsh
and shameful and the number of fraud will grow for dozens of times. He
called on the citizens to take bribes but to vote for those whom they
want to see in the parliament of the 5th convocation. “This time the
bribes will grow and instead of 5000 drams the authorities will be
forced to pay 10ths and even 20thsd drams”, – he said and added that
Armenian authorities have been purposefully de-Armenizing the country
as they are scared of the power change and have been using the votes
of the Armenians from abroad.

MARAGHA – THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

hetq
17:03, April 10, 2012

On April 10 “Foundation against Violation of Law” NGO organized an
event “Maragha – the 20th anniversary”, which was dedicated to the
anniversary of the implementation of another act of genocide by
Azerbaijan towards Armenian people in village Maragha, NKR.

On April 10, 1992 Maragha village was attacked by regular army units of
Azerbaijan, as a result of which the village was completely destroyed,
dozens of people were killed, their bodies mutilated, desecrated
and burned. Two weeks later, the village was subjected to repeated
attacks, the population returned to the village was forcibly expelled,
and houses looted, many of them burned.

List of hostages as of 1st May, 1992 constitutes of 57 people,
including 9 children and 29 women, and a list of killed constitutes
of 59 people. Until today 19 residents of the village are on the list
of missing people.

The aim of the event was not only to honour the memory of innocent
victims of Maragha, against which was carried out this crime, but
also to contribute to the prevention of such crimes against humanity
around the world.

At the event were invited: representatives of the NKR government,
representatives of the office to the President and Prime Minister
of RA, the deputies of the RA National Assembly and the leaders of
parliamentary factions, ministers, Human rights defender of RA,
ambassadors and consuls in Armenia, local NGOs and international
organizations, representatives of higher education and academic
institutions, participants of the Artsakh war, as well as residents
of the village of Maragha – eyewitnesses of the tragedy, relatives
of the dead and injured, mass media.

In presentations were raised the true causes and purpose of that crime:
what happened in v.Maragha – is another act of genocide, carried out
by Azerbaijan, which continues warlike policies directed at expulsion
of Armenians, annexation of territories not belonging to Azerbaijan
and propaganda of unreserved racism.

The speakers were unanimous on one thing: to prevent the recurrence of
similar crimes in the future, suppression and punishment of politics
carried out by Azerbaijan contradicting with the international law –
threat by force, propaganda of racism and war, which requires a legal
assessment according to the norms of corresponding international
organizations and courts.

To the attention of the participants was introduced a documentary
“The Ordinary Genocide. Maragha, April 10, 1992”, which was prepared
by the Center of Information and Public Relations of the President
of Armenia. In the film are presented unknown to the general public
facts and details on the crimes realized in Maragha, which until now
is under the control of Azerbaijan. The co-authors of the film are
the director of the project “Ordinary Genocide” Marina Grigoryan and
the executive director of the “Foundation against Violation of Law”
NGO, the Deputy of the National Assembly of RA Larisa Alaverdyan.

“Foundation against Violation of Law” NGO was first organization,
which since 1991 gathered, defined data and prepared a list of hostages
and prisoners of war from NKR and RA held in Azerbaijan. As a result
of the efforts of the “Foundation against Violation of Law” NGO and
co-operation with other organizations and institutions in 1990s were
returned to their homeland about 2000 hostages, including 20 children.

“Foundation against Violation of Law” NGO

DENMARK TO HAVE CONSULATE IN ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 10, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The Consulate of Denmark will be
inaugurated on April 12.

Her Majesty Danish Queen Margaret Second this year January 2 granted
a license of honorary consul to Armand Pinarbasi.

Michael Borg- Hansen was appointed as Danish Ambassador to Armenia
from 2009 residing in Kiev.

Newly appointed Consul Armand Pinarbassi is the Executive Director
of Grant Thornton International organization, which is one of the
world’s largest auditing and consulting companies. Mr. Pinarbassi
was awarded to “For Merit” French Republic national Medal.

CHRISTIAN CLERICS IN TURKEY FEAR GROWING THREATS

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 10, 2012 – 11:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Christian clerics in Turkey have expressed their
anxiety regarding the growing threats they face in wake of an attack
against Pastor Semih Serkek of the Protestant “Lutuf” (“Grace”)
Church in Istanbul’s Bahcelievler district on April 7, Hurriyet Daily
News reported.

“Attacks against Christian clerics drop off for a while, then they
begin to re-energize. [Such attacks] have begun to accelerate again
in recent days. We hesitate when opening our doors and welcoming the
faithful inside,” Pastor Krikor Aðabaloðlu of the Gedikpaþa Armenian
Protestant Church in Istanbul told the HDN.

Three unidentified individuals attacked and beat Serkek on the night
of April 7, immediately after an Easter service. “They were three
people around the age of 18. They wore [prayer caps] on their heads.

They forced the door open and said they were going to kill me unless
I recited the ‘Kelime-i Þahadet’ [Islamic confession of faith]. I
received a severe blow to my chest,” Serkek told the Daily News. The
attacks were not coincidental, according to Serkek, who had also
served as a mentor to the three victims slain in the Malatya Zirve
Publishing House incident in eastern Turkey.

Pastor Orhan Picaklar of the Agape Protestant Church in the Black Sea
province of Samsun also said he has been living with a personal escort
24 hours a day for the past four years, since a plot to assassinate
him first came to light. “Police [officers] keep watch at the door
during mass; the believers are afraid to enter the church due to the
threat to their lives,” he said. The make-shift church, located inside
an apartment building, also came under attack about a month ago,
Picaklar said, adding that the congregation was chagrined at being
stuck in an apartment. “[The authorities] gave the green light to
the construction of a new church in 2004, within the framework of the
European Union harmonization laws, although with the pre-condition that
it must be no smaller than 2,500 square meters. We have no budget. We
appealed to establish a church building 1,000 square meters in size,
but did not receive approval for it.”

Aðabaloðlu said that in the case of his church, the state intentionally
refused to grant permission for the construction of a church
building. “They are trying to stymie the spread of Christianity in
this way.”

EURONEST PA VICE-PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO ARMENIAN DELEGATION’S BASELESS STATEMENTS

Trend
April 9 2012
Azerbaijan

Vice-President of the EURONEST PA has responded to baseless opinions
of the Armenian delegation.

EURONEST PA Vice-President Elkhan Suleymanov in his letter to President
of the European Parliament Martin Schulz noted that particular measures
were taken to ensure the security of the Armenian delegation in Baku
during the EURONEST PA session and their security was fully ensured
by the Azerbaijani side with high level professionalism.

As the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan told
Trend on Monday, Chairman of the Armenian Delegation Vahan Hovhannisyan
admitted that “they noticed no aggression on the part of Azerbaijani
MPs, the security workers and people, in general”.

“Thus, we tried to be inclusive hosts, caring for the security and
welfare of all our guests, including of the Armenian delegation, and
I believe that we succeeded in doing this. Regretfully, I have to
tell that after the session, during a press-conference in Yerevan,
the Armenian Delegation voiced distorting opinions regarding the
course of the session and tried to cast doubt on the achievements of
the session,” Sulyemanov said in his letter.

The letter says that Chairman of the Armenian Delegation claims that
“the Armenian delegation was completely isolated from mass media and
European MPs” and that only by using his “secret revolutionary tricks”,
he managed to give an interview.

Suleymanov said regarding this point that Hovhannisyan’s interview was
published in all influential Azerbaijani newspapers and disseminated in
“News” programs of leading TV channels.

“He abused the high level hospitality, the absence of hostility against
and the loyal attitude towards the members of the Armenian delegation
by Azeri citizens and called Nagorno Karabakh as “their mountains”
(i.e. Armenian mountains), and disseminated provocative information
stating that Azeri citizens “did not seem eager to die for these
mountains,” Suleymanov said.

In his letter he stressed that the Chairman of the Armenian delegation
states that “all state institutions and agencies had maps on the
walls with Karabakh included. Thus, the authorities are trying to
remind the people of the idea of “Big Azerbaijan,” about the things
they want to forget about”.

“Regarding this, I have to stress that state independence of Azerbaijan
has been recognized by international community within the frontiers
included in the former USSR. Therefore, Nagorno Karabakh is an
inseparable part of the territory of Azerbaijan from both historical
and legal aspects, and our maps are completely the same with ones
which can be found on the walls of all international organizations,
including UN, OSCE, NATO, and PACE. It is preposterous to make such
allegations in public and it only helps to prove the ongoing hostility
and negative intentions of Armenian representatives towards our country
while neglecting the opinion of all international organizations,”
he said.

He underlined that the chairman of the Armenian delegation cast
doubt on the opinions of Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan, regarding the Armenian -Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh
conflict expressed in his speech during the plenary meeting.

“I would like to recall that in his speech, President Aliyev brought to
the attention of the Assembly members the facts which were confirmed
in the resolutions made by international organizations, including the
UN Security Council and its General Assembly, the European Parliament
and theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,regarding this
conflict, called criminal acts against civilians in Khojaly on 25-26th
of February in 1992 as an act of genocide and the Khojaly genocide
“as an act of barbarism and embodiment of fascism.

Thus, it is absolutely unacceptable that our Armenian colleagues
make groundless accusations against the President of the Republic
of Azerbaijan saying that he” wins political dividends through
warmongering”. President Ilham Aliyev stated repeatedly from different
tribunes that though the Republic of Azerbaijan has a right of
self-defense, it is important to achieve peaceful solution of the
conflict and therefore, to continue the process of negotiations”
the letter says.

Suleymanov said in his letter that, during the meeting of Social
Affairs Committee of the EURONEST PA in Armenia of this February,
our hosts in Yerevan surrounded us with speakers, maps and images,
which falsified historic facts, and were, in principle, completely
against international law and several UN resolutions. Meetings were
held in rooms with the map of the occupied Azeri territories being
represented as part of Armenia.

“However, in order not to endanger activities of the EURONEST PA we
preferred to cooperate, to achieve goals of this institution and to
move forward. Therefore, we did not react to such provocative actions.

During the Baku session of the EURONEST PA, the members of the
Armenian Delegation distributed three books to the Assembly members,
which contain anti-Azerbaijan propaganda. The Azerbaijani side did
not react to these provocations in order not to cast a shadow on the
activities of the EURONEST PA and to achieve successful ending of the
second session and in order to reach the goals of the EURONEST PA,”
the letter says.

“We are therefore surprised and disappointed that our Armenian
colleagues responded to our efforts through their point of order
made on the 4th of April. They attempted to unfairly mar the Baku
session of the EURONEST PA which was highly appreciated by Assembly
members and Co-Presidents from both political and technical aspects,”
Suleymanov said in his letter.

“The Baku Session of the EURONEST PA and its successful results
showed once again that Azerbaijan is a peaceful country, open to
cooperation with all. It’s among the top priorities of our country
to achieve the goals of the EURONEST PA. Moreover, we believe that
our right to abide by international law and European values should
be safeguarded and respected, as should it be for all our partners
and friends in EURONEST. We urge, therefore, our colleagues not allow
this sad episode to endanger all our work so far in the framework of
the EURONEST PA,” the letter says.

The Azerbaijani Delegation to the EURONEST PA calls on the Armenian
Delegation which presumably regrets at not having been able to hinder
the Baku session of this institution, to put an end to any kind of
biased, partial and provocative statements as well as anti-Azerbaijan
propaganda and invites them to respect the resolutions of all
international organizations which reflect the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. “We furthermore urge them to continue cooperation towards
reaching even more of the results of the EURONEST PA,” the letter says.

ARMENIA TO HOST AZERBAIJANI FILM FESTIVAL

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 9 2012
Russia

The Journalist Club in Armenia’s Gyumri will host an Azerbaijani Film
Festival on April 12, Georgia Online reports.

4 short films made in Azerbaijan in 2007-2008 (1 documentary and
three feature films will be demonstrated).

One of the films will be awarded with a premium for Audience’s
Sympathy.

Special bus transport Yerevan-Gyumri-Yerevan was organized for everyone
willing to attend. The festival is organized within the framework of
the Caucasus World Center and the British and US embassies in Armenia.

ARMENIA NOT ABLE TO SOLVE ALL PROBLEMS OF YOUTH FAST – PRESIDENT

news.am
April 09, 2012 | 21:09

TSAKHKADZOR. – The republic currently cannot solve the problems of the
youth in a short time, Armenian President and leader of Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) Serzh Sargsyan announced at a meeting with
students in Tsakhkadzor on Monday.

During the meeting the president also recalled all the social programs
the country has organized for the youth and the initiatives of the
Yerevan State University.

According to the president, the aim of the programs is to include the
youth in the reforms and to reach essential and visible changes with
their help.

The president also pointed out that with its current resources Armenia
is not able to solve all the problems of the youth but the government
has started a certain policy towards the youth and that policy will
be continuous.

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) is a ruling conservative party
in Armenia founded on 2 April, 1990, and registered on 14 May, 1991,
being the first officially registered socio-political organization
in the independent Republic of Armenia.

The founder of the party was Ashot Navasardyan. After his death the
party was headed by former Armenian prime minister, very influential
political figure, Vazgen Sargsyan, who was killed in 1999 terrorist
attack in the parliament. He was replaced by another Armenian Premier
Andranik Margaryan. After Margaryan’s death, the incumbent Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan took the office of the chairman of RPA board.

Since 2003, the Republican Party is a core member of the ruling
coalition along with the Prosperous Armenia and Orinats Yerkir
parties. RPA has majority of seats in the Armenian parliament since
2003.

The Republican Party of Armenia will run in the parliamentary
elections under its new slogan: “Let us believe to change!” The
Party’s proportional list includes 253 names.

RPA has also nominated MP candidates with the majority election system
in 33 electoral districts.

‘STRATEGIC CONFUSION’ IN US POLICY ON SOUTH CAUCASUS

News.Az
Mon 09 April 2012 10:23 GMT | 11:23 Local Time

News.Az interviews Glen E. Howard, president of the Jamestown
Foundation.

You mentioned a problem between Azerbaijan and the US. How does this
problem affect bilateral ties?

I don’t think they’re affected. It’s created the impression that
Azerbaijan is not very important to the United States and its policies
in the region. So the delay in putting an ambassador here is a problem,
because Azerbaijan doesn’t view it very positively.

Azerbaijan hopes that it’s resolved very quickly. It certainly signals
that the United States has some strategic confusion in its views on
the region.

How does the Jamestown Foundation view the Karabakh problem? Does
its position differ from official Washington’s?

No, our position is that we have to talk about frozen conflicts and
the diplomatic activity, or lack of it, and that Russia has been
given the primary position of being the country that arms Armenia but
at the same time is the key negotiator with Azerbaijan. That doesn’t
make sense. Our role is to keep reminding the West and policy makers
that you really need to have a balance in the negotiating process
and strong role for US leadership, that you just don’t give it to
Russia and let Russia try to resolve the problem. There have been
six or seven meetings with Medvedev and there’s been no result. So
the conflict is at an impasse. At the same time Russia is providing
weapons to Armenia and also to Azerbaijan. They are the negotiator
but also at the same time the key arms provider. That doesn’t create
a very stable situation.

What do you think about the article in Foreign Policy journal about
Israeli strikes on Iran through Azerbaijan?

Well, there’s a lot of rumours. That’s why I said in my talk today
there’s a rumour of war. Moscow is using this to position itself in the
South Caucasus. Right now this is just rumour. The United States has
encouraged Israel not to attack Iran. I believe that there is a lot
of pressure that this will not happen. When they start talking about
Israel and its role with Azerbaijan you have to say, komu vygodno,
to whose advantage is this statement? Which country to the north is
talking about the threat of an attack and moving forces to the south
through Georgia and Armenia? That’s a question we have to ask, komu
vygodno these rumours.