Author: Kajoyan Gevork

IN AZERBAIJAN NEWSPAPERS ARE HANDED TO POLITICAL PRISONERS WITH ARTICLES ABOUT THEM CUT OUT

12:32 12/03/2015 >> SOCIETY

The Azerbaijani political prisoner Anar Mammadli and other political
prisoners in the penal colony get the newspapers with 3-4 days’
delay, and the articles about the political prisoners are cut out,
as Azerbaijani information agency Turan reports, the Committee of
the protection of the rights of Anar Mammadli, the chairman of the
Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre in Azerbaijan,
said citing the family of the convicted activist.

According to the article, Mammadli’s family visited him on 11 March.

He maintains good spirits. Despite serious problems with health,
Mammadli goes on getting his treatment for his aggravated allergies.

Earlier Mammadli complained of the poor conditions of his detention.

However, he was transferred into another barrack after appealing to
the colony administration.

PACE co-rapporteurs Pedro Agramunt and Tadeusz Iwinski visited him last
week, and earlier Stavros Lambiridis, the EU special representative for
human rights and Malena Mard, the head of EU delegation to Baku, had
gone to see him. Problems of the political prisoners, the conditions
of their cells, their detention condition, and upcoming parliamentary
elections in autumn were discussed during the visits, Turan reports.

The information agency reminds that Mammadli was arrested on 16
December, 2013 and subsequently sentenced to 5.5 years in prison on
charges of committing economical crimes. Human rights organization
Amnesty International considers Mammadli a “prisoner of conscience.”

He is a Vaclav Havel Award for Human Rights winner.

The Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre carried out a
monitoring of the presidential elections on 9 November, 2013 as an
NGO and pointed out numerous violations of law. A number of human
rights defenders declared that it was the reason why Anar Mammadli
was arrested.

GEORGE CLOONEY’S ACTIVISM, PLUS ‘JOSEPHINE AND I’

Wall Street Journal
March11 2015

The 100 Lives initiative and Opening Night at Joe’s Pub

By Marshall Heyman

It pains us to say it, but if there was an event that could have
benefited from the presence of a few Kardashian sisters, it was the
launch of the 100 Lives initiative on Tuesday.

ENLARGE Amal and George Clooney at the 100 Lives launch. Photo:
Getty Images for 100 LIVES

100 Lives was founded by Ruben Vardanyan, the former chief executive
of the Russian investment bank Troika Dialog; Noubar Afeyan, the
founder of Flagship Ventures; and Vartan Gregorian, the president
of the Carnegie Corporation. The idea is to bring attention to the
Armenian Genocide, which was 100 years ago.

Messrs. Vardanyan, Gregorian and Afeyan have established the Aurora
Prize for Awakening Humanity, which will involve an annual grant of
$1 million. The first will be awarded by George Clooney in Armenia
in April of 2016.

Mr. Clooney, who is currently filming a movie in New York, and his
wife, Amal, were present at the Harold Pratt House on the Upper East
Side for the 100 Lives launch Tuesday, so it is even more painful to
admit the sore lacking in Kardashians at this very earnest event.

Perhaps we are using the term “Kardashians” here as a substitute for
“sizzle,” but please recall that the Kardashians are, without a doubt,
the most famous Armenians at the moment anywhere in the world. Though
there were references on Tuesday to Charles Aznavour, Cher and Andre
Agassi, there was nary a mention of Kim, Khloe, Kendall, Kris or
even Kanye.

Instead, there was a nearly two-hour long program that included various
speakers, short films, a performance by an Armenian opera singer and
even a panel involving a serious discussion between Messrs.

Clooney and Vardanyan. Mr. Clooney is involved because of the
dovetailing goals of his humanitarian organization, Not On Our Watch.

“We’re looking at prevention,” said Mr. Clooney, who was often drowned
out by an extremely loud translator at the back of Peter G. Peterson
Hall. “We don’t want to do triage at the end.”

He noted that a major problem with celebrities and philanthropic
causes is “apathy,” that it’s a challenge to keep discussion and
interest alive.

It was impossible to feel any apathy–let alone think about the
Kardashians–down at the Public Theater, where the actress Cush Jumbo,
who recently starred opposite Hugh Jackman on Broadway in “The River,”
celebrated the opening of her electrifying one-woman show “Josephine
and I” about the actress and dancer Josephine Baker.

It originated at London’s Bush Theatre in the summer of 2013 and
plays at Joe’s Pub through early April.

During her time, Ms. Baker, like Mr. Clooney, was an activist,
particularly when it came to civil rights. Phyllida Lloyd, the director
of “Josephine and I,” said some Brits told her and Ms. Jumbo to “tread
carefully” when approaching American audiences. But, in particular,
Tracey Ullman and Meryl Streep (who won an Oscar for “The Iron Lady,”
directed by Ms. Lloyd), urged the duo to bring the show to New York.

“Meryl said, ‘What’s the problem? Get the hell over there!’ ” recalled
Ms. Lloyd.

Ms. Streep was just one of the opening night attendees and Ms. Jumbo
blamed her and Anne Hathaway for how long it took her to move from
her dressing room to the afterparty.

In the Library restaurant, guests like Janet McTeer, Fiona Shaw, Andrea
Glimcher, producer Arielle Tepper Madover, the Public’s Oskar Eustis,
Susan Fales-Hill, Ms. Jumbo’s parents and Ms. Hathaway’s husband Adam
Schulman gathered to toast the 29-year-old British actress.

Ms. Jumbo wrote “Josephine and I” four years ago in her parent’s
attic–in part, she said, “because the work I was doing was so crap
and it was hurting my heart.” The show chronicles Ms. Baker’s rise
to fame, then fall, then rise again.

It also involves the use of dolls, specifically to represent Ms.

Baker’s many adopted children. “We didn’t have the budget for real
children,” said Ms. Lloyd.

Interspersed are elements of Ms. Jumbo’s own life as an actress.

“About 85% of the girl’s stories are true, and the other stories are
from other actresses that I know,” said Ms. Jumbo.

She explained that the experience of acting, singing and dancing for
90 minutes straight was exhausting, “but I don’t get tired of it. I
love doing it. It’s a part of my life and a part of my lifestyle.”

On the day of a performance, “I don’t do much except not talk,”
said Ms. Jumbo. And usually after, “I go home and sleep.”

“I haven’t had a drink in six weeks,” she said. “But I will definitely
have a drink tonight.”

HOW TO FIX TURKEY’S FALL FROM INTERNATIONAL FAVOR

Huffington Post
March 12 2015

Michael Shank, Ph.D. , Adjunct faculty, George Mason University’s
School for Conflict

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent attack on the West for
“hate speech” and misattributing terrorism during the Paris attacks is
ironic. Erdogan is erroneously doing both already: labeling the Gulen
movement a terrorist organization and using hate speech to characterize
it. In fact, Erdogan is cracking down on religious groups more heavily
than ever before.

While the Turkish government is allowing the construction of a
Christian church, the first in 90 years, no one is under the illusion
that Erdogan’s regime is now suddenly supportive of religious freedom
and rights. If anything, it’s quite the opposite. Failure to allow
the reopening of Halki Orthodox seminary and the defamatory references
to Armenians are examples of how Christians continue to suffer under
Erdogan regime.

Indiscriminate persecution of the Islam-inspired Hizmet movement –
and the recently jailed journalists, police chiefs and teachers who
support the movement and its leader Fethullah Gulen – shows that
the President’s penchant for the protection of rights is clearly
not a priority in his administration. The recent crackdown on a
major newspaper and television station based in Istanbul – the Zaman
newspaper and Samanyolu Broadcasting Group, respectively – garnered
Erdogan few friends in the international community.

Most likely, this church building is a last-ditch attempt to send
a political olive leaf to Christians in the West, and any allies in
Europe, who haven’t already dismissed Erdogan’s Administration for
endangering its democracy.

It’s a shame that it has come to this. Prior to the crackdowns that
escalated with the Erdogan corruption scandal and Gezi Park protests
of 2013, Turkey had witnessed over a decade of economic growth and
democratic reform under Erdogan’s leadership. As one of the world’s
most powerful economies, Turkey was positioned to be one of the
world’s biggest trading partners and one of the West’s key allies
and negotiators in the Middle East. Those hopes are now all but gone.

Erdogan has thrown much, if not all, of this goodwill away. And as
Erdogan chairs the G20 this year, the irony of Erdogan overseeing the
G20’s Anti-Corruption Action Plan isn’t lost on anyone – especially
as Turkey’s Corruption Perceptions Index rankings have slipped
precipitously, falling more than any other country in last month’s
index findings.

What’s most confounding, however, from a geopolitical perspective,
is Erdogan’s deep political insecurity. The president’s efforts to
undermine or eradicate any opposition party ranks as one of the most
imprudent political power grabs of the 21st century. By alienating the
Hizmet movement – which has built its civic base on an Islam-inspired
commitment to tolerance, nonviolence, education, and science – Erdogan
simultaneously alienated other allies throughout the international
community.

Aggressively jailing without warrant, closing schools without just
cause, and erroneously and irresponsibly slapping the “terrorist”
label on critics of the administration, Erdogan is slowly but surely
associating himself with the more infamous autocrats that have angered
America, and other rich countries in the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, in the past. Turkey must remain in the
moderate Islamic middle so as to not be associated with the likes
of ex-presidents Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Pervez Musharraf in
Pakistan, autocrats who preferred emergency rule as a way of tamping
down public protest.

The way forward, then, if Erdogan wants to slow his country’s free
fall from international favor, is to recognize that the power of his
presidency, and his recent reelection, rests in his ability to curry
favor among the many, not the few. And no amount of cozying up to the
Kurdistan Workers Party (also known as the PKK and labeled by the U.S.

as a terrorist organization), as a way of garnering Kurdish votes,
will make up for the violations of basic human rights and freedoms
of the Hizmet movement and beyond, all of which has been documented
by international media.

The world wants Turkey to be back on the international trade and
regional diplomacy track but that’s only possible if corruption and
crackdowns discontinue. These are scandals that no international ally
wants plaguing their internal politics via external association with
Erdogan’s administration. And while a course correction for Ankara
is possible in 2015, it must come quickly and unequivocally. The
biggest obstacle, at this point, to a lasting and successful Erdogan
presidency is Erdogan himself.

Michael Shank, PhD, is adjunct faculty at George Mason University’s
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution and senior fellow at the
Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

HOW THE US FUNDS DISSENT AGAINST LATIN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

Could this also be happening in Armenia?

12 marzo 2015 – 06:36 AM

Analysis

Comentarios

“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

NED Latin America Director Miriam Kornblith was recently in Venezuela
meeting with opposition groups.

NED founding father, Allen Weinstein

The U.S. government and military have a long history of interfering in
the affairs of numerous countries in Latin American and the Caribbean.

By the end of the 19th century, there had been at least 10 U.S.

military interventions across the hemisphere including Argentina
(1890), Chile (1891), Haiti (1891), Panama (1895), Cuba (1898),
Puerto Rico (1898) and Nicaragua (1894, 1896, 1898 and 1899).

>From this time onward, successive U.S. administrations applied
different strategies and tactics for involvement in the region as a
means to secure and protect its geopolitical and economic interests.

However, only recently has there been wider acknowledgement about
the role that U.S. funding to nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs,
particularly from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), plays
in furthering U.S. foreign policy. For example, in 2012 governments
of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA)
collectively signed a resolution to expel USAID from each of the
signing countries. Those countries included Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador,
Dominica, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

Created by the administration of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan
in 1983, the NED operates as a foundation that provides grants for
“democracy promotion.” The foundation is structured
as an umbrella with an almost corporatist flavor, housing four
other organizations reflecting U.S. sectoral and party interest:
the U.S. labor affiliated American Center for International Labor
Solidarity (ACILS) and Chamber of Commerce linked Center for
International Private Enterprise (CIPE), along with the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
International Republican Institute (IRI), both of which reflect
Democrat and Republican affiliations, respectively.

In many ways the NED resembles previous CIA efforts in the 1950s, 60s
and 70s to provide mostly public money for secret operations aimed to
bolster pro-U.S. governments and movements abroad. In South America
for example, between 1975 and 1978 the U.S. helped with the creation
and implementation of Operation Condor. The U.S. provided right-wing
dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay,
Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador with technical and
military support for the goal of hunting down and killing political
opponents. Some estimate that Operation Condor killed between 60,000
and 80,000 people.

In 1986, then president of the NED Carl Gershman explained to the New
York Times, “We should not have to do this kind of work covertly
… It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world
to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60s, and
that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability
of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”

U.S. citizens unknowingly fund the NED with public money. The U.S.

government allocates part the budget of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) under the U.S. State Department to
the NED – which is most of the NED’s funding source. Although
it receives practically all of its funding from the U.S. government,
the NED is itself an NGO headed by a Board of Directors. The current
board includes:

*

Political economist, author and free market universalist Francis
Fukuyama,

*

Elliott Abrams, former deputy assistant and deputy national security
adviser on Middle East policy in the administration of President
George W. Bush,

*

Moises Naim, Venezuelan Minister of Trade and Industry during the
turbulent early 1990s and former Executive Director of the World
Bank, and

*

Former Deputy Secretary of State under George W. Bush (2005 – 2006)
and Vice Chairmanship at Goldman Sachs Group, Robert B.

Zoellick.

The scope of activity of the NED is truly impressive. According to
the NED website, it supports more than 1,000 NGO projects in more
than 90 countries.

At its inception in the early 1980s, its funding allocation was set
at US$18 million and reached its peak in the late 1990s and early
2000s. Allocations for 2014 and 2015 have been approved for US$103.5
million, while over US$7 million was directed primarily to opposition
organizations in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba in 2013.

Within the U.S. State Department Justification of Request documents
which outline the reasons for funding requests, it is clear that
funding priorities in Latin America and the Caribbean reflect the
NED’s modern strategy of overtly carrying out old covert
objectives.

Michel Chossudovsky, a professor emeritus of economics at the
University of Ottawa in Canada, sees this funding as an element in
“manufacturing dissent” against governments that the
U.S. government dislikes. However, these funders do not work alone.

“The NED (and USAID) are entities linked with the U.S. state
department, but they operate in tandem with a whole of other
organizations,” said Chossudovsky.

In May 2010 the Foundation for International Relations and Foreign
Dialogue released their report Assessing Democracy Assistance in
Venezuela which revealed that in addition to NED and USAID funding,
a broad range of private and European based foundations funded
opposition-aligned NGOs in the country with between US$40-50 million
annually.

According to Dan Beeton, International Communications Director at the
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C.,
NED funds in Latin American have been directed at “a lot of
what are kind of the old guard political entities that are now kind of
discredited,” such as the Trade Union Confederation of Venezuela
(CTV), which was instrumental in the 2002 coup in Venezuela, as well
as older political parties that are now marginal forces in their
country’s political landscapes in spite of their considerable
outside funding.

The United States Agency for International Development

Created in 1961 as a foreign assistance program under President
John F. Kennedy, USAID commands a much larger budget and broader
scope than NED. While U.S. diplomats continue to stress that USAID
funding does not have a political basis, USAID documents nonetheless
acknowledge its role in “furthering America’s interests”
while carrying out “U.S. foreign policy by promoting broad-scale
human progress at the same time it expands stable, free societies,
creates markets and trade partners for the United States.”
But critics are skeptical of USAID’s missionary work, noting
how their strategy has changed over time.

“(USAID’s) mandate is to provide development aid
and historically it has provided development aid, tied into debt
negotiations and so on. Subsequently with the evolution of the
development aid program it has redirected its endeavours on funding
NGOs,” said Chossudovsky.

While the range of activities undertaken by NGOs can be broad and
some of these programs may not have political intentions, Beeton
nonetheless argues that this funding “ultimately can and often
does serve a political end when the U.S. wants these grantees to help
it fulfill its goals in these countries.”

The extent of U.S. political ambitions recently came into the
international spotlight with the revelation that USAID had secretly
spent US$1.6 million to fund a social messaging network in Cuba called
ZunZuneo, with the stated purpose of “renegotiat(ing) the balance of
power between the state and society.” The project was headed up by
Joe McSpedon of the USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI).

Other USAID officials accused of active political meddling in the
affairs of sovereign countries include regional head Mark Feierstein.

According to Venezuelan investigative journalist Eva Golinger, in 2013
Feierstein met Venezuelan opposition figures including right-wing
politicians Maria Corina Machado, Julio Borges and Ramon Guillermo
Avelado as well as political strategist Juan Jose Rendon to devise
a plan to undermine the Venezuelan government.

At the State Department budgetary hearing, Feierstein also confirmed
“a long-standing program in place to support those who are
advocating and fighting on behalf of democracy and human rights in
Venezuela … and we are prepared to continue those under any
scenario.”

State Department cables revealed by WikiLeaks also brought to
light previous activities by USAID/OTI in Venezuela, including the
development of a five point, anti-government strategy for U.S. embassy
activities, as well as the confirmation that grantees had been active
in promoting street demonstrations in 2009.

Machado, a former anti-Chavista National Assembly member, was among
the signatories of the Carmona decree following the Venezuelan coup in
2002, which abolished the legislative and judiciary powers, as well
as the constitution. She was also among the most prominent promoters
of last year’s opposition violence that claimed the lives of
43 people.

In Bolivia, local rural workers’ groups and the government
expelled the U.S.-based Chemonics International Inc. after their US$2.7
million USAID-funded “Strengthening Democracy” program was accused of
financing destabilization attempts against the government. Chemonics
operates in approximately 150 countries, offering various technical
services and “consulting.”

The Bolivian government publicly outlined what they argued was
proof of USAID-funded programs to mobilize the indigenous population
against the government, in particular an indigenous march protesting
the construction of a highway. USAID funded programs were active in
these areas, and had funded some of the leading organizations such as
the Eastern Bolivia Indigenous Peoples and Communities Confederation
(CIDOB).

“USAID refused to reveal who it was funding and the Bolivian
government had strong reasons to believe that it had ties and
coordination with opposition groups in the country which at the time
was involved in violence and destructive activities aimed at toppling
the Morales government,” said Beeton. “Now we know through
WikiLeaks that that’s what really was going on.”

President Evo Morales also revealed transcripts of phone calls between
the anti-highway march organizers and U.S. embassy officials. The
U.S. embassy confirmed the calls, but explained that they were merely
trying to familiarize themselves with the country’s political
and social situation.

Officials also denounced the lack of accountability to the Bolivian
government or to the recipient constituencies of USAID funds.

The head of the Eastern Bolivia Indigenous Peoples and Communities
Confederation (CIDOB), Lazaro Taco, confirmed that they had received
“external support for our workshops,” but would not identify
the source.

These and other USAID activities led Bolivian President Evo Morales
to claim that the agency was conspiring against his government. The
government expelled USAID from the country in May 2013, while USAID
denied any wrongdoing.

In June of 2012, an Ecuadorian daily revealed that 4 NGOs based in
Ecuador were recipients of over US$1.8 million for a project called
Active Citizens, whose political bend was critical of the Correa
government.

Shortly afterwards, the Technical Secretariat for International
Cooperation (Seteci) of Ecuador announced it would also investigate
the “Costas y Bosques” (Coasts and Forests) conservation
project, which received US$13.3 million in funding from USAID. The
project, based in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas and Manabí,
was also being undertaken by the Chemonics International Inc, the
same organization expelled from Bolivia.

Mireya Cardenas, National Secretary of Peoples, Social Movements and
Citizen Participation, said that “there is every reason to consider
USAID a factor of disturbance that threatens the sovereignty and
political stability (of Ecuador)”. While the U.S. Ambassador in Ecuador
Adam Namm tried to reassert that USAID did not fund political parties,
he did confirm that certain opposition groups such as Fundamedios
was funded “indirectly.”

In November 2013 the Ecuadorean government sent a letter to the U.S.

embassy in the country’s capital Quito, ordering that
“USAID must not execute any new activity” in Ecuador.

USAID canceled its aid shortly after.

For Beeton, “lack of transparency is probably the biggest problem
(with USAID) in that it really prevents the governments in the host
countries from finding something objectionable, or even coordinating
better”. This was in large part the principle concern from
the Ecuadorian Seteci, who questioned the extent of expenditures on
certain project and the lack of coordination.

In the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake, CEPR conducted
an extensive evaluation of USAID funding to Haiti, including the
history of funding, and found transparency and coordination with
local government to be a significant problem, especially when the
local government experienced tensions with U.S. foreign policy.

“The U.S. government has been perfectly happy to not coordinate
with governments, and that has a lot to do with politics…
it was under [former Haitian President] Aristide really saw a lot
of assistance bypass the Haitian government and go to NGO, including
violent opposition groups and so called democratic opposition groups
much like what you are seeing recently in Venezuela and Bolivia,”
said Beeton.

For 2013, the combined NED and USAID allocations for Cuba, Venezuela,
Ecuador and Bolivia alone totaled over US$60 million, with the bulk
of these funds destined to Cuba and Ecuador. For the government and
progressive social movements of these countries, there is a growing
concern that these funds could be used to undertake what Chossudovsky
qualified as a “consistent process of destabilizing government
as part of non-conventional warfare, meaning you don’t send
in the troops but you destabilize the government through so called
colored revolutions or infiltrations.”

atin-American-Governments-20150312-0006.html

DON’T DENY: ARMENIA REVEALS SONG FOR EUROVISION 2015 (VIDEO)

21:38, 12 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Today the sixth and final member of the band Genealogy has been
announced: It’s Inga Arshakyan, who had already represented her
country in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with her sister.

Armenia has also revealed the video of the song Don’t Deny.

The song Don’t Deny was composed by Armen Martirosyan and the author
of the lyrics is Inna Lazarian. It is about universal values and
its message is:

Happiness is born when people are united and live in harmony with
themselves, their families, love relationships and so on. Generations
are shifting with time but the genealogy remains, thus the values of
love and peace are stable.

The 6th member of the group is the famous and honored singer of the
Republic of Armenia Inga Arshakyan. She will be the one to replenish
the group of five singers symbolizing the five continents of the world
on Eurovision stage – Essai Altounian, Tamar Kaprelian, Vahe Tilbian,
Stephanie Topalian, and Mary-Jean O’Doherty Vasmatzian.

The powerful and inspiring voice of Inga has been the pearl of
many Armenian patriotic songs performed along with her sister Anush
Arshakyan. Being a bold representative of the Armenian folk music
and culture, Inga has already had the experience to perform in the
Eurovision stage in a duet as Inga & Anush Arshakyan in 2009.

The director of the music video is Aren Bayadyan. The concept of the
video is the idea of genealogy: the captured family is considered as
the symbol of humanity: the base is the shift of generations and the
phenomena that the new generation is always replacing the previous
one carrying out the traditions and values in them.

As a connecting dot the Armenian manuscript ornamentation embroidery
process was captured by the creative team. The bird, symbolizing peace,
freedom and good news carries a branch of the tree that blends with
the idea of spreading peace and art, unity of nations with idea of
fostering them in the world.

According to Aren Bayadyan, the creative team was inspired by the
name of the group and its logo, the family tree, which they tried to
extend and reflect in the video mystically and mysteriously. “Just
like the members of Genealogy are spread around the world, same is
with the branches of the tree that became walls between generations
during the time. However, neither the distance, nor the difficulties
could stand between people if they want to be together.”

The designer of the music video Armen Galyan tried to combine Armenian
and European fashion approaches finding modern solutions. “When you
say Genealogy you immediately see vintage and retro pictures and
a family tree. We created and used fashionable simple textile that
is highly popular today; larger sized, with highlighted shoulders,
sort of gothic but Armenian traditional clothes that were accompanied
with Armenian silver ornaments. We also used pins with pictures of
our participant’s grandparents and patterns of Armenian architecture
that are very modern today.”

According to the Head of Armenian Delegation in Eurovision Gohar
Gasparyan in the music video other famous actors and artists were
captured symbolizing the family. “It took us two long but productive
days to capture the music video, because the artists were in Armenia
for a short trip and the agenda was tough. We have been cooperating
with one of the best production teams in Armenia and the result
is very beautiful. We believe that this type of song video will be
innovative in Eurovision platform.”

OSCE MG CO-CHAIRMEN TO DISCUSS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT IN MINSK

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 12 2015

12 March 2015 – 2:11pm

The co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick (USA), Pierre
Andrieu (France) and Igor Popov (Russia) will hold consultations in
Minsk on a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict today,
US co-chairman James Warlick posted on his Twitter page.

“I am pleased to join the co-chairs today in Minsk for consultations on
a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Warlick wrote.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT STARTS MEETINGS WITH POLITICAL FORCES OVER CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS

20:18 * 12.03.15

As part of the process of constitutional reforms, Armenia’s President
Serzh Sargsyan held meetings on Thursday with members of the Free
Democrat party, United Labor party, Prosperous Armenia party, Armenian
National Movement (ANM) and Rule of Law party.

In an interview with Tert.am, ANM member Alexander Arzumanyan said that
they discussed the agenda they had repeatedly voiced their opinion of.

“We approved the agenda and raised problems of proportional
representation, supervisory functions for opposition political forces,
as well as other problems raised by other political parties,” he said.

The ANM is for parliamentary government.

Vigen Khachatryan, a member of the Political Council of the United
Labor Party, told Tert.am that at their meeting with Armenia’s
president the party members discussed the commencement of debates.

Asked if Armenia’s leader presented his opinion, he said:

“He said he would state his final position in the foreseeable future,
when the agenda is discussed, but he wants political forces to take
part in the debates and voice their ‘pros’ and ‘cons.”

As regards the party’s position on constitutional reforms, Mr
Khachatryan said that the party must at first discuss them.

Artsvik Minasyan, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), shared his opinion with Tert.am as well.

Lyudmila Sargsyan, an MP of the Armenian National Congress (ANC)
party, told Tert.am that the ANC had not received an invitation from
the president. The ANC’s position remains unchanged.

“The ANC parliamentary faction has its clear position on constitutional
reforms. The situation in the country is much more unstable and
unpredictable, and the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, which is
architect of the reforms, is pursuing one aim. Much later we’ll see
if it will succeed. I do not rule out that a referendum may fail,”
Ms Sargsyan said.

Secretary of the Democratic Party of Armenia Grigor Harutyunyan
explained the party’s position in an interview with Tert.am.

“Our approaches remain the same. And [party chairman] Stepan Demirchyan
has repeatedly stated it is not the Constitution that is the cause
of Armenia’s problems,” he said.

350-YEAR-OLD JEWISH BIBLE FINDS ITS ‘TWIN’ IN HAIFA

Jewish Business News
March 12 2015

How the volume made its way from a 17th-century Frankfurt printing
press to finding its twin in Haifa is a fascinating story.

By Anav Silverman

A rare copy of the Tanakh (Old Testament) that reached Israel in a
circuitous fashion and was donated to the University of Haifa by the
late film producer and well-known Israeli director Micha Shagrir, was
reunited with its “twin,” a copy of the same edition that was already
in the Rare Books Department of the University of Haifa’s library.

When Shagrir informed the staff of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian
Library that he wanted to donate a 350-year-old copy of the Tanakh,
the staffers welcomed the idea, pleased that they could add another
antique edition of the Book of Books to the library’s collection. But
they were quite surprised to discover that the volume, which had
been printed in Germany in 1677, was a near-duplicate of a Tanach
the library already had.

While the two volumes were very similar, they were not identical. The
copy the library owned was narrow with almost no margins, the new
copy had wide margins, in which there were numerous notes written
in Latin, in tiny handwriting, by no less than 10 different readers
in the 17th and 18thcenturies. The editor of the edition and source
of the commentary that accompanies the printed text was David Clodil
(1644-1684), a theologian and Hebraist – a Renaissance-era scientific
discipline in which Christian scholars studied the Hebrew sources of
Christianity in depth.

How the volume made its way from a 17th-century Frankfurt printing
press to finding its twin in Haifa is a fascinating story. As Shagrir
told it, a month after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Israel
in November 1977, Shagrir and a group of other Israelis made a
secret trip to Egypt. Towards the end of the visit, as he was walking
through the streets of Cairo, he found himself in a store that sold
antique books. It turned out that the proprietor was not Egyptian,
but Armenian, and he was a big fan of a film Shagrir had recently
released about the Armenian genocide.

When the shopkeeper discovered that he was speaking to the producer
of that film, he gave Shagrir a wrapped copy of a book, but made him
promise not to open it until he returned to Israel. When he returned
and opened the package, he was stunned to find the ancient volume. So
nearly 350 years after it was printed, and 37 years after it arrived
in Israel, the volume of the Tanach was reunited with the copy held
by the University. Shagrir passed away last month on February 4 at
the age of 77.

ACTITOUR DIRECTOR: WE AIM TO BREAK STEREOTYPE THAT THERE IS NO COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVE TO SEASIDE REST IN TURKEY

Summer rest on Crete Island of Greece is a real alternative to those
who do not want to rest in Turkey. Note that the packages which are
offered are competitive in terms of both price and quality.

Armenia’s leading ActiTour company, which has many years of experience
in tourism, which, in addition to other flights, is specialized in
organizing charter flights and rest in Crete Island of Greece, several
days ago organized courses that were attended by representatives of
more than 200 travel agencies of Yerevan. Irina Sorina, sales manager
of Le Grand Group of Companies – exclusive partner of ActiTour –
conducted the courses. Note that she arrived in Armenia specially
for this event.

One of the main aims of the courses was to present the advantages of
rest in Greece, in particular on Crete Island, as an alternative to
rest in Turkey in terms of both quality and price.

“We aim to break the stereotype that there is no competitive
alternative to seaside rest in Turkey,” ActiTour director Arthur
Gasparyan said during the courses.

“Today we have a significant experience, direct flights and such a
trustful and experienced partner in Crete as Le Grand. Together with
our partners, we have created all the conditions to ensure the quality
and safe rest of our compatriots on the Greek island rich in Christian
monuments. I would not call our offer as ‘anti-Turkish,’ yet we will
do everything to offer our clients a real alternative to their trips
to Turkey in summer, certainly at a reasonable price. I do not even
talk about the fact that it is difficult to underestimate the Greeks’
warm and positive attitude towards the Armenians,” Gasparyan said in
his remarks.

12.03.15, 12:45

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN LEADERS AGREE ON PLANS OF FUTURE MEETINGS

15:05 12/03/2015 >> POLITICS

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Thursday had a phone conversation
with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin discussed the key matters of
Armenian-Russian partnership and exchanged views on further development
of integration processes as part of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian
Economic Union, the Armenian President’s press service reported.

Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin discussed issues related
to peaceful nuclear energy and oil and gas industry.

They agreed on the plans of their future meetings as part of their
joint participation in the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide and the 70th anniversary of the Victory in
the Great Patriotic War.