Author: Kajoyan Gevork

CANADIAN-ARMENIAN оRGANIZATIONS LAUNCH “FREE ZARAKOLU” CAMPAIGN

armradio.am
05.03.2012 11:14

The Armenian Youth Federation of Canada and Armen Karo Student
Association have launched a joint campaign to call for the release
of Turkish journalist, publisher, writer and human rights advocate
Ragıp Zarakolu.

Several months ago, 40 intellectuals were arrested in Turkey on
trumped-up charges of terrorism. Among them was Ragıp Zarakolu who
runs of one of the few publishing houses in the country which prints
books on the Armenian Genocide and other topics deemed taboo.

Zarakolu is also a recipient of the National Library Award of the
Republic of Armenia and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

The “Free Zarakolu” letter-writing campaign kicks off March 8, 2012,
at the Armenian Community Centre in Toronto.

Putin Romps to Victory in Kremlin Vote

Presidential elections in Russia (2012)

© RIA Novosti. Alexei Nikolskiy
22:17 04/03/2012
MOSCOW, March 4 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti)

Vladimir Putin secured a third term in the Kremlin on Sunday after
recording a resounding victory at Russia’s presidential elections.

Exit polls gave Putin almost 60 percent of the vote. His nearest
rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, took 17.7 percent,
state pollster VTsIOM said.

`I can not recognize these elections as fair, honest and worthy,’
Zyuganov said. “I see no reason to congratulate anyone.”

No other candidate gained more than 10 percent. Turnout was just over
56 percent, election officials said.

Some 110,000 Putin supporters celebrated near Red Square as the
results of exit polls were released, police said.

“He’s an ideal president!” a young woman said at the celebration,
which was shown live on state television.

The first preliminary official results are expected by midnight Sunday
(20:00 GMT) or in the early hours Monday.

New President

Putin, 59, will be inaugurated as new president in May and will serve
for six years, not four as previously. Putin was Russia’s president
between 2000 and 2008, but was forced to step down by the
Constitution, when he handed over to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry
Medvedev.

© RIA Novosti.
Russian presidential elections

The elections took place to the backdrop of mass demonstrations that
were triggered by allegations of vote fraud in favor of Putin’s United
Russia party at December’s parliamentary polls.

None of the candidates opposing Putin represented the burgeoning
protest movement, although all have – to some extent – expressed
sympathy with its demands, which include a rerun of last year’s vote.

There was a heavy police presence in downtown Moscow, with trucks full
of riot police parked near major metro stations. Major protests
against Putin’s re-election are expected for Monday evening.

Zyuganov urged earlier protesters “to show restraint and comply with the law.”

VOTING
Putin voted earlier on Sunday with his wife, Lyudmila, at a polling
station at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“I had a good sleep, did some exercise, and then came here,” he said.
“I’m hoping for a good turnout, of course.”

Shortly after Putin left, topless activists with the words “I steal
for Putin” painted on their breasts burst into the polling station
shouting anti-government slogans. The women – who said they were from
the Ukrainian Femen protest group – were detained by police.

Election officials said no major violations have taken place at the vote.

But Russia’s largest independent election watchdog, Golos, listed on
its website almost 3,000 violations. These could not be independently
verified.

Putin had ordered web cameras installed at 91,000 of Russia’s 96,000
polling stations in an attempt to prevent the elections being marred
by more vote fraud allegations.

Almost 700 international observers are in Russia to monitor the
elections, including from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States
Council’s International Assembly, and the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe.

‘Gorbachev should be deprived of Nobel Peace Prize’

03 March 2012 [13:24] – TODAY.AZ

Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament Etibar Huseynov has appealed to
the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland,
chairman of the parliament of Norway, Dag Terje Andersen, King of
Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf and King of Norway Harold V in connection with
the deprivation of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev of Nobel Peace
Prize.

According to the MP’s appeal, on January 20, 1990 by the order of the
USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev heavy military equipment was brought
into Baku without warning and a ruthless act of terrorism was carried
out against citizens who held a peaceful rally demanding independence
and democracy. Some 131 civilians were killed, 744 – wounded, 328 –
disabled, 841 -illegally arrested.

Huseynov said that Gorbachev as head of state and commander in chief
is responsible for crimes committed by Soviet troops. Gorbachev gave
order to shoot civilians on December 17-18, 1986 in the Kazakh
capital; April 9, 1989 in the Georgian capital; January 20, 1990 in
the Azerbaijani capital; January, 1990 in the Tajik capital; January
13, 1991 in the Lithuanian capital; January 20, 1991 in the Latvian
capital and committed crimes against humanity, violating thus such
universal value that is the symbol of the Nobel Prize, as
peacefulness.

“Unfortunately, neither Gorbachev nor other perpetrators of mass
murders has been prosecuted. Moreover, they didn’t apologize to these
people, but instead brazenly attempted to justify their actions. Is it
possible to consider such person a public figure, leader, man, sharing
values of the Nobel Prize? Isn’t this disrespectful to the memory of
the great social activist Alfred Nobel?,” the appeal said.

Envoy explains to Iran about Azerbaijan-Israel arms deal
Political Desk

On Line: 29 February 2012 17:08
In Print: Thursday 01 March 2012

TEHRAN – In a meeting held on Wednesday at the invitation of Iranian
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, Azerbaijani Ambassador to
Tehran Javanshir Akhundov explained about the arms deal between the
Zionist regime and Azerbaian.

The meeting was held in response to reports that Azerbaijan had signed
a $1.6 billion deal with Israel for the purchase of drones and
anti-aircraft and missile systems, Press TV reported.

Ambassador Akhundov explained that the weapons were being purchased to
liberate the `occupied’ lands of Azerbaijan.

Iran warns Azerbaijan not to allow Israel to use the country’s
territory as a launchpad to stage terrorist activities against the
Islamic Republic, Araqchi said during the meeting.

Akhundov emphasized that Baku would not allow the weapons to be used
against any country, particularly Iran.

Meanwhile, Israeli media outlets have reported that Angolan Finance
Minister Carlos Alberto Lopes traveled to Israel last week to sign a
military agreement. Reports say the Israeli-Angolan deal is worth
about one billion dollars.

And on February 16, Israeli officials said Tel Aviv had reached a
`one-billion-dollar preliminary’ agreement with Italy to buy 30
Italian military training jets.

February 22, 2012, 8:45 AM

EU Loses Clout Over Caspian Gas

By Jan Hromadko and Alessandro Torello

After years of competitionamong pipeline projects that want to carry
gas from the Caspian region to consumers in Europe, therace for
access to the region’s huge natural gas reserves is finally under way.
But it isn’t necessarily moving in the direction the European Union
would desire.

Getting Caspian gas has been a top priority of the European Union’s
energy strategy, because it would mean diversifying supplies away from
Russia,the bloc’s single largest supplier.

A pipeline connection with Central Asia could open a `corridor’ for
gas imports from one of the world’s most energy affluent regions with
potent producers like Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, and, in the
long-term, possibly Iran.

But the most recent developments suggest the EU-which has spent the
best part of the past decade in support of opening the Caspian gas
market-is losing control over events. In consequence, Europe could be
left without control of the pipeline infrastructure that ships the gas
to European customers. Its supply security would instead depend on the
companies selling the gas.

A few recent developments are shaping the picture.

First, the Nabucco gas pipeline-long considered the EU’s preferred
project-has been shrunk considerably. The European Commission-the EU
executive body-has put great effort in promoting Nabucco. This project
was initially supposed to be almost 4,000 kilometers long, stretching
from Turkey’s eastern borders with Georgia and Iraq to Austria.
Nabucco would cost more than8 billion, and have a capacity of 31
billion cubic meters of gas-roughlytwice as much as competitors.

The commission supported Nabucco precisely because of its size, which
became its curse.

The idea was that Nabucco would be the only project able to
accommodate more gas than any of its competitor projects. However,
export-bound gas from the Caspian region and the Middle East remains
scarce for now.

The giant Shah Deniz 2 gas field is the expected initial supplier of
gas from the region. But the field will make available only 10 BCM per
year for export to Europe, while other potential exporters like
Turkmenistan and Iraq are not yet ready to provide any gas for Europe.

The lack of available gas prompted the Nabucco consortium, which
includes Germany’s RWE AG and Austria’s OMV AG, to propose a downsized
project: the new version would only finish in Bulgaria and would have
half of the original capacity.

Then, Azerbaijan’s gas and oil company SOCAR andBotas of Turkey
proposed in late December their own pipeline to carry the gas across
Turkey, dubbed TANAP.

For the EU, this development could be more than just a blow to years
of political lobbying for Nabucco, because it also-more subtly-mean
that the EU would lose control over the import route. With the TANAP
proposal on the table, control of gas transit could shift from EU gas
buyers to sellers from non-EU countries.

With TANAP, SOCAR and Botas would also hold control of future supplies
to the EU from the other countries in the region, like Iraq for
example.

Thirdly, BP, the U.K. energy giant, said Monday that the Shah Deniz 2
consortium-in which it has a major role-decided to enter exclusive
negotiations with a project called Trans Adriatic Pipeline to
potentially bring its gas to Italy, excluding a competing pipeline
plan called Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy.

TAP and ITGI-as the projects are known-are very similar, but there is
one major difference: ITGI is backed by Edison SpA and DEPA, an
Italian and a Greek company, both likely EU buyers of gas, while TAP
is backed two non-EU companies: Norwegian giant Statoil ASA and
Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft Laufenburg AG, a Swiss energy-trading
company. Germany’s E.ON AG only holds a relatively small stake in TAP.
Statoil is also the other big partner in Shah Deniz 2, so the
construction of TAP would mean yet again that control over the
infrastructure would remain in the hands of (non-EU) gas sellers.

Emirates 24/7
March 4 2012

Two Azerbaijani soldiers killed near Karabakh

By AFP Published Sunday, March 04, 2012

Armenian forces have killed two Azerbaijani soldiers on the frontline
near the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, local officials said on
Saturday.

The local authorities in the Gazakh region said the two Azerbaijani
servicemen were shot when Armenian troops violated the ceasefire.

Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 people dead, and despite
years of negotiations since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have not
yet signed a final peace deal.

There are frequent exchanges of gunfire along the ceasefire line,
where 22 soldiers were reportedly killed last year.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to use force to win back Karabakh
if internationally mediated peace talks fail to yield satisfactory
results, but Yerevan has warned of large-scale retaliation if Baku
launches any military action.

REVUE DE PRESSE
Turquie РUn pays r̩gi par de dangereuses absurdit̩s РAhmet Altan

Les guerres intestines se multiplient au sommet de l’Etat turc : entre
la justice et la police d’une part, le gouvernement et les services
secrets de l’autre, le tout sur fond de question kurde. Cette
situation grotesque met en danger la séparation des pouvoirs, estime
l’écrivain Ahmet Altan.

20.02.2012?|?Ahmet Altan?|?Taraf

Au moment où j’écris ces lignes, le Parlement turc étudie un projet de
loi selon lequel un membre des services de renseignements (MIT) ayant
commis un délit dans le cadre d’une mission ordonnée par le Premier
ministre ne pourra être jugé que si le chef du gouvernement donne son
accord. Le Premier ministre interviendra donc dans des affaires
criminelles concernant la justice, et ce en contradiction avec le
concept de séparation des pouvoirs. Pourquoi une loi paraissant aussi
aberrante est-elle en train d’être adoptée ?

Et bien tout simplement pour corriger une autre aberration. En effet,
le Premier ministre Erdogan a donné l’ordre aux services de
renseignements de nouer des contacts avec le Parti des travailleurs du
Kurdistan [PKK, séparatiste], afin de créer les fondements d’un
processus de paix. Sauf qu’un procureur a considéré qu’il s’agissait
là d’un délit. Il a donc convoqué les membres du MIT qui ont noué ces
contacts afin de les soumettre à un interrogatoire, et il n’est pas
exclu que cette interpellation débouche sur des arrestations. On se
trouve donc dans une situation où l’initiative politique courageuse et
décisive d’un gouvernement élu est bloquée par la justice.

Le pouvoir judiciaire essaie ainsi de mettre l’exécutif sous tutelle
au mépris du principe de séparation des pouvoirs. En réaction,
l’exécutif prépare une loi qui réduit la marge de manÅ`uvre du
judiciaire, et le corps législatif participe à ce mouvement. Pas de
doute, nous sommes bien en Turquie où l’on tente d’empêcher une
absurdité en en inventant une autre. Les trois pouvoirs sortent ainsi
de ce qui devrait normalement être le cadre de leur action. Pourtant,
corriger des anomalies par d’autres anomalies n’est pas une bonne
idée.

C’est précisément là que réside l’erreur, ou alors la roublardise, du
Parti de la justice et du développement [PKK, islamiste modéré, au
pouvoir]. En effet, le parti au pouvoir ne semble aucunement vouloir
en finir avec ce système politique hérité du coup d’Etat de 1980. [La
Constitution de 1982, adoptée alors sous la pression des militaires,
est, malgré des amendements, toujours en vigueur, malgré les promesses
de l’AKP d’en rédiger une nouvelle.] Le pouvoir en place entend ainsi
exploiter, autant que faire se peut, les prérogatives importantes que
ce régime issu du coup d’Etat accorde aux dirigeants de ce pays.

Le gouvernement n’a toujours pas rendu de comptes au sujet du massacre
d’Uludere [35 civils kurdes ont été tués, le 28 décembre 2011, par un
bombardement aérien à la frontière entre la Turquie et l’Irak]. Le
meurtre de Hrant Dink [journaliste turc d’origine arménienne assassiné
en janvier 2007] n’a toujours pas été élucidé. Et voilà que certains
affirment que le KCK [structure faisant le lien entre le PKK et ses
relais civils en Turquie, concurrençant l’Etat turc dans les régions Ã
majorité kurde et dont l’existence a justifié de très nombreuses
arrestations depuis 2009] serait en fait sous la houlette des services
secrets [la justice turque accuse en effet des agents du MIT d’avoir
été plus loin que la simple infiltration du KCK].

Le coprésident du Parti pour la paix et la démocratie [BDP, prokurde
et jugé relativement proche du PKK] s’est interrogé – une rumeur
circule à ce propos – sur l’implication du MIT dans un attentat
meurtrier commis à Istanbul et dont la responsabilité avait été
attribuée au PKK. Où va-t-on si même le dirigeant du BDP n’arrive plus
à distinguer entre les militants du PKK et les agents des services
secrets ?! Tant qu’une vraie solution n’est pas apportée à un problème
kurde qui accompagne la République depuis sa création [1923], on se
retrouvera face à ce genre de situation où la police arrête des
membres des services secrets parce qu’ils appartiendraient à une
structure comme le KCK.

Mais regardez donc la situation dans laquelle nous sommes : l’ancien
chef d’état-major de l’armée est en prison pour propagande
antigouvernementale, la police est sur le point d’arrêter des membres
des services des renseignements, une loi accordant au Premier ministre
la liberté de commettre des délits est en préparation, le gouvernement
est persuadé qu’il est victime d’attaques orchestrées par les
procureurs et la police, le patron d’un des plus grands clubs de
football du pays [Fenerbahçe] vient d’être condamné pour `avoir dirigé
un gang`, des responsables de l’institution en charge des appels
d’offres pour la fonction publique ont été arrêtés pour corruption, il
y a presque plus de généraux en prison qu’en liberté, des milliers
d’activistes politiques kurdes ont été emprisonnés, etc.

Ces quelques lignes ne suffisent-elles pas à montrer que nous vivons
décidément dans un système tout à fait anormal ? Pourquoi le parti au
pouvoir s’accommode-t-il à ce point d’un régime issu d’un coup d’Etat
? D’où vient cet attachement à une conception de la justice inspirée
par des putschistes ? Si l’AKP persiste à maintenir ce système, la
Turquie risque d’être citée dans le livre des records comme celui qui
aligne le plus grand nombre de `dangereuses absurdités` !

dimanche 4 mars 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

PEOPLE
Kim et Khloe Kardashian poursuivies pour publicité mensongère

Kim Kardashian et sa s`ur Khloe pourraient avoir affaire avec la
justice américaine. Selon le site eonline.com quatre femmes qui
avaient acheté les cachets QuickTrim vantés par les s`urs Kim et Khloe
Kardashian pour leurs vertus amaigrissants, poursuivent ces dernières
pour « publicité mensongère » et demande au passage 5 millions de
dollars au titre du préjudice. La Federal Drug and Alimentation (FDA),
l’organisme américain chargé du contrôle de la qualité des biens de
consommation a établi que la caféine représentait la base du
QuickTrim. Donc rien de miraculeux…Les s`urs Kardashian vantaient à
la télévision les qualités du produit amaigrissant. Les bénéfices de
QuickTrim depuis 2009 sont estimés à 45 millions de dollars.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 4 mars 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

HAUT KARABAGH
Deux soldats Azéris tués hier matin près de la frontière arménienne

Jeudi 23 février, Albert Adibekian, un soldat arménien gé de 20 ans
avait été tué par un sniper azéri dans la région de Tavouche, à la
frontière arméno-azérie. L’armée arménienne avait alors promis de
répondre « de façon approprié » à ces attaques azéries. Le site azéri
SalamNews informe que deux soldats Azéris viennent d’être tués par des
tirs provenant des positions arméniennes. Les faits se seraient
déroulés la nuit du 2 au 3 mars. Les militaires Azéris tués sont deux
appelés, Diriblov Vakour Bahtiayroglu (19 ans) et Chedali Seydali
Chihislamoglu (20 ans). A noter que les déclarations guerrières du
président azéri Ilham Aliev sont devenues plus rares ces derniers
mois, surtout depuis la démonstration de l’armée arménienne le 21
septembre dernier et le les armements dont disposait l’Arménie. Mais
Bakou continue de temps à autre à procéder à des tirs sur les
positions arméniennes avec la réplique légitime des Arméniens.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 4 mars 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

The Guban Crisis in Azerbaijan
By Elmar Chakhtakhtinski
March 3, 2012

The events of March 1 in northern Azerbaijani town of Guba seem to
have caught everyone by surprise. The protests were sparked by a
YouTube video showing the provincial governor issuing insulting
remarks about the locals during a public meeting
[].
But the rather unexpectedly strong reaction apparently reflects a deep
simmering popular discontent with the ruling Aliyev regime. It also
reveals the disastrous results of government policy towards the
country’s regions. Finally, it has serious implications both for
Azerbaijan and the international community’s approach to that country.

Azerbaijan’s regions (`rayons’) are run very much like feudal fiefdoms
by the local administrative governors (called `head of executive
power’) – unelected officials appointed directly by president Ilham
Aliyev, who can also remove them at his will. Thus, these individuals
serve and show personal loyalty only to the ruling regime, with no
accountability to local people whom they govern. Unquestioned
obedience, huge portraits and statues of the president and his late
father, the regime’s founder Heydar Aliyev, at every major highway and
city center, opening and ending all public speeches with prayer-like
standard praises towards the ruling family – are the hallmarks of this
system. In return, the governors get to single-handedly rule the
regions, plunder the riches, collect bribes from the population,
appropriate public funds and assets, as long as they share the loot
with the heads of the regime in Baku.

Some of the powerful minister-oligarchs, themselves under Iham
Aliyev’s tight control, are assigned to a `patronage’ over certain
regions, with the president appointing their close associates to the
governorship. This mafia-like setup is further strengthened by the
fact that almost all of the regions are ruled by individuals from
other parts of the country, to estrange them from local population and
keep their allegiances exclusive to the regime. One notable exception
is the remote Nakhchivan region, but there the local native despot
Vasif Talibov has already passed the Aliyev `loyalty test’ by
implementing policies so repressive, brutal and bizarre that
Nakhchivan has been dubbed `Azerbaijan’s North Korea’ by international
observers [].

The object of protesters’ fury, Guba governor Rauf Habibov, is a close
associate of the minister of transportation Ziya Mammadov, who was
named in Wikileaks reports as one of the most powerful corrupt
oligarchs and the head of the third richest family clan in Azerbaijan.
His family’s name was also made known by the media reports about the
adventures of his son Anar Mammadov, cited for paying one million
dollars to grill and eat a bear from a zoo in one of the local
restaurants and for being kicked out of Dubai for debauchery. As a
side note, in a bizarre twist, lately Anar Mammadov has become
involved with lobbying activities in the US and heads a
Washington-based NGO Azerbaijani-American Alliance
[].

While Habibov’s houses in Guba have been torched by protesters, Ziya
Mammadov still owns large properties in that region. Perhaps
attempting to avoid a further escalation of anger from the locals and
the ensuing threat to his own holdings, he was seen on a YouTube video
personally apologizing for any insults that his protégé Habibov might
have uttered.

However, neither Habibov’s own apologies nor the ones offered by
Mammadov satisfied the residents of Guba. Not only protesters in this
provincial town came out in thousands, in numbers greater than any
public protest held since 2005 even in capital Baku where over three
million people live, but they also stood up to the attacks by security
forces against peaceful demonstrators, with some groups within the
crowds responding to police violence by burning down houses belonging
to Habibov and forcing him to flee and resign from office.

Some videos posted online show the furious residents destroying
household items and setting the buildings on fire
[]. Nobody
is seen attempting to rob the place – only an angry act of destruction
inflicted to the possessions of the regime’s regional head. The scale
and depth of resentment seem to go way beyond a mere reaction to the
insulting remarks, but rather present a boiling point for the people
long fed up with the current state of affairs.

As a confirmation that the regime comprehends and tries to hide the
broader causes for Guba protests, another YouTube video clearly shows
that persons inside the police forces have been holding portraits of
the president Aliyev, while no such pictures can be seen among the
crowds of local protesters. This might indicate a desperate (and
poorly implemented) attempt by the authorities to display the events
in Guba as a limited discontent with a `bad local vassal’, while
people are still `admiring the benevolent leader’ of the regime.

Guba events dispel the claims about the perpetual stability and
content of Azerbaijani population with the current political system –
the line that the regime, its apologists and some analysts have long
propagated. Regardless of what happens next in Guba, Ilham Aliyev’s
angry assurance that `you will not see it [Egypt events repeating in
Azerbaijan] regardless of your desires’ in response to a question
posed to him at the World Security Conference in Munich in February,
might now seem further from being guaranteed.

These developments demand proper attention from the international
community, particularly from the Western powers. As Arab spring
showed, even seemingly the most stable regimes can quickly crumble,
causing considerable bloodshed and uncertainty for the regional and
global stability. The calls for restraint, threats of diplomatic
repercussions, followed by sanctions and isolation seemed to have been
coming one step too late to be able to stop further escalation. In
Egypt this led to hundreds of deaths, in Libya – to a full scale civil
war with foreign military intervention, and in Syria, with thousands
killed and demonstrations turned into an armed conflict, the world
powers are debating how to respond.

Therefore, in case of Azerbaijan, to make sure that words and
diplomacy reach any desired preventative effects, perhaps it would be
wise for the US and the European governments to come out early on with
very strong statements and appropriate pressure on Azerbaijani
government indicating zero-tolerance for any violence against the
protesters in Guba or elsewhere in the country.

* Elmar Chakhtakhtinski is the chairman of the Azerbaijani Americans
for Democracy