GEORGIAN TV – OKRUASHVILI HOLDS SECRET TALKS IN MOSCOW
arminfo
Friday, May 20, 13:15
Tbilisi. Co-chairman of the Georgian party, ex-defense minister of
Georgia Irakli Okruashvili is visiting Moscow, Georgian TV company
“Rustavi-2” reports on Thursday.
As the TV company informs, in Moscow Okruashvili holds “secret
talks”. But the Georgian party (Okruashvili is one of the leaders of
it) does not confirm information on his visit to Moscow.
TURKEY: EARTHQUAKE IN KUTAHYA PROVINCE LEAVES TWO DEAD
ARMENPRESS
MAY 20, 2011
YEREVAN
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 has struck north-west Turkey,
killing at least two people and injuring 79.
The tremor struck just before midnight local time and centred on the
town of Simav, in Kutahya province, some 310km (190 miles) west of
the capital Ankara.
Terrified residents ran into the streets, and many spent the night
in cars after being warned not to go back to their homes.
One person died after jumping from a window in panic, officials said.
Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu put the death toll at two, and
said that of the 79 injured only one was in a serious condition.
Kutahya Governor Kenan Ciftci said three people had died.
State media reported that at least one derelict building collapsed
and the windows in some buildings were shattered by the quake, which
struck at 2315 (2015 GMT).
“It was so strong that we could not even move in the first few
seconds,” lawmaker Idris Bal told NTV television. “People are waiting
in their cars now.”
The quake was followed by around 50 aftershocks, the Kandilli
observatory in Istanbul reported.
Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on
major geological fault lines.
At least 51 people were killed in a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in
eastern Turkey in March 2010.
Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost
20,000 people in densely populated parts of the north-west of the
country.
VIC DARCHINYAN: IT WAS DONAIRE WHO REFUSED CLASH PLANNED FOR 2010
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2011 – 17:05 AMT
IBO bantamweight champion Vic Darchinyan commented on WBC and WBO
bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s accusations.
“It was Donaire who refused a clash planned for 2010. He stalled for
time, during contract negotiations which lasted for almost 6 weeks. I
will ask my manager to discuss the situation with Donaire’s manager,”
Darchinyan said in a conversation with a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.
Earlier, WBC and WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire reacted
to Vic Darchinyan’s calls for a rematch. According to Darchinyan,
Donaire has been refusing him a revanche match for 4 years.
“Last year, August 21 was the scheduled date for us. Three months
before that he pulled out, saying I signed the contract too long, but
it was three more months before the fight. And the first fight we had,
I signed the day of the weigh-ins. He just didn’t want to face me.
They said that he didn’t want to fight me right now,” Donaire told
BoxingScene.com.
“He called me out after his fight against Perez and you know what?
He’s actually growing a little more balls to call me out and really
mean it. But I’m not here to talk. I’m here to fight. I’m not here to
call out anybody. Well, I’ll call out anybody when I have to, like
when I did with Montiel, because I really wanted that fight. But
I’m here to fight anybody. So, whoever they have in front of me,
I’m more willing to exchange with them leather you know?” he said.
PRESIDENT SARGSYAN MEETS SUPER FLY WORLD CHAMPION VIC DARCHINYAN
armradio.am
20.05.2011 16:11
President Serzh Sargsyan received today IBO super fly world champion
Vic Darchinyan
President Sargsyan congratulated the sportsman on his recent victory
against Yony Peres and on winning the title of the IBPO World Champion.
The President wished him new victories, underling that people
in Armenia are closely following his fights and are proud of his
victories and the victories of all our compatriots.
Vic Darchinyan said it was symbolic that his fight took place on
April 24, the day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
UNE NOUVELLE EGLISE ARMENIENNE A ROSTOV (RUSSIE)
Krikor Amirzayan
armenews.com
samedi 21 mai 2011
A Proletarski (ex-Nor Nakhitchevan), quartier de Rostov sur le Don
(Russie), le 29 mai sera inaugure une nouvelle eglise armenienne.
Selon les informations communiquees par le journal armenien de Russie
” Yergramas “, l’eglise portera le nom de Sourp Krikor Loussavoritch
(Sant Gregoire l’Illuminateur). L’edifice est finance par Vladimir
Ghazarian un homme d’affaires armenien. Le catholicos Karekine II
assistera a l’inauguration.
LE PRESIDENT DU PARLEMENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE DE HONGRIE A VISITE LE COMPLEXE COMMEMORATIF DE TSITSERNAKABERD
Stephane
armenews.com
vendredi 20 mai 2011
Le president du Parlement de la Republique de Hongrie Laszlo Kover
qui est en visite officielle de deux jours en Armenie, a visite le
Complexe commemoratif de Tsitsernakaberd et a depose une couronne au
memorial des victimes du Genocide armenien. Le president du Parlement
de la Republique de Hongrie a visite le Musee du Genocide armenien
où il a beneficie d’une visite guidee du musee et a laisse une note
dans le Livre de la Commemoration.
Ensuite Laszlo Kover a plante un sapin dans le parc de la memoire du
Complexe de Tsitsernakaberd.
PARLIAMENT TO RECOGNIZE ‘CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE’
Civil Georgia
Georgian parliamentary committees endorsed on May 19 a draft resolution
recognizing 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians by
the Tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as “genocide”.
The move means that the one-page draft resolution is formally prepared
for a voting in the Parliament.
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs the parliamentary
committee for diaspora and Caucasus issues, said he would request the
parliamentary speaker Davit Bakradze to include the draft resolution
in the agenda of the May 20 parliamentary session.
On May 19 the draft was discussed at a joint hearing of four
parliamentary committees – on diaspora issues; legal affairs; cultural
issues and human rights.
The draft resolution reads that “pre-planned” mass killings of
the Circassians, the Tsarist Russia in second half of 19th century,
accompanied by “deliberate famine and epidemics”, should be recognized
as “genocide” and those deported during those events from thier
homeland, should be recognized as “refugees.”
During the May 19 hearings lawmakers from the ruling party said
that the resolution would be of significant importance in terms of
“restoration of historic justice.”
“Georgia, which tries to get away – and does it successfully in
recent years – from the Soviet and Russian propagandistic space,
wants to promote the history as it actually was and not the falsified
history, which was imposed on us,” ruling party MP Giorgi Gabashvili,
who chairs parliamentary committee on culture and education, said.
He also said that Georgia would not have hurried with adoption of this
resolution if Russia itself had acknowledged its crimes of the past.
MP Gia Tortladze said that the Georgian Parliament should even go
further and recognize “Chechen genocide.”
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, told Civil.ge last week that
“the Chechen issue is also on the agenda.”
“I can not say now a timeframe, but this issue will not be removed
from our agenda,” he said.
There were only few dissent opinions voiced during the hearings on May
29. MP Jondi Bagaturia, leader of a small opposition party Georgian
Troupe, said passing of “Circassian genocide” resolution would be
“a right decision from the moral point of view”
“But I think we should be more pragmatic and think what the
consequences of such decision might by. It will be difficult for me
to support it,” he said.
MP Bagaturia also recalled multiple appeals made to the Georgian
Parliament by Georgia’s Armenian community requesting recognition
of the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as genocide. Such
appeals, made by the Armenian community almost every year in April,
remain unheeded by the Georgian lawmakers.
TURKISH JUDGE GETS ASYLUM IN THE NETHERLANDS
Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Published on 19 May 2011 – 10:54pm
The Dutch authorities have decided to offer former Turkish judge
Cagatay Cetin asylum.
He arrived in the Netherlands in January 2010 and claimed asylum. The
judge has been prosecuted in Turkey for his statements about the 1915
Armenian genocide and the treatment of Turkey’s Kurdish population.
A Turkish court sentenced him to 17 years’ imprisonment in absentia
in February. He was found guilty on charges of falsifying documents,
insulting a prosecutor and defamation. The Dutch Immigration and
Naturalisation Department have declined to give the reasons for
granting him asylum, saying that comments are not made on individual
cases.
ISRAELI PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE ON THE ISSUE OF RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Hovik Afyan
AZG DAILY
20-05-2011
The ARF press service reports that the parliament of Israel discussed
the proposal of Meretz Party to discuss the issue of recognition
of the Armenian genocide within the committee of education. The
parliamentarians and government members present at the session
unanimously decided to transfer the question to the committee of
education. Earlier the committee of defense and external relations of
the Israeli parliament discussed the “Armenian issue” which holds its
sessions behind closed doors. There were concerns that the commission
might express a negative opinion on the recognition of the genocide.
For this reason, ANC Jerusalem member Hagop Sevan appreciated as a
“positive development” the transfer of the issue of the Genocide to
the committee of education now. During the debates on the Knesset
floor, everybody, who made a speech, including the country’s Religion
Minister that expressed the country’s foreign ministry’s position,
the representatives of the Prime minister’s “Liqud” party, supported
the proposal. They have mentioned that “Israel’s relations with Turkey
should interfere with Israel recognizing a historic fact.” Moreover,
the country’s Religion Minister expressing his own point of view
stated that “It is time to make clear decision on this question
(Armenian Genocide), and for this reason it is necessary to transfer
the issue to the committee of education”.
“The issue” is now in subjection to the committee of education. It
is up to Israel now to make “firm decision” taking into account only
historical facts.
RUSSIA DANGLES A $3 BILLION LOAN AT BELARUS, INSISTS ON “CERTAIN PRIVATIZATION” IN RETURN
Associated Press
Thursday, May 19, 8:38 PM
( Sergei Grits / Associated Press ) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin, center, Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, left,
and Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan walk to pose for press
photographs prior to a meeting of the EurAsEC Interstate Council at
the level of heads of government in Minsk, Belarus.
MINSK, Belarus – Russia’s finance minister is dangling a $3 billion
loan in front of Belarus, saying Thursday that the cash hinges on
the crisis-hit neighbor selling off certain national assets.
Belarus is facing a severe downturn, with hard currency reserves
plunging 20 percent in the first five months of the year to less
than $4 billion, and staple foodstuffs vanishing from stores. Trading
restrictions were lifted on Belarusian ruble last month, leading to
a 300 percent devaluation against the U.S. dollar.
At a meeting of government of former Soviet nations in the Belarusian
capital on Thursday, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said his
country will decide early next month whether to approve the loan of
$3 billion over three years.
“We have a condition,” Kudrin said. “In the next three years a certain
privatization should be carried out.”
Russia is thought to be seeking to capitalize on Belarus’ vulnerability
by acquiring major stakes in energy assets such as Beltransgas,
the state-owned gas pipeline network that supplies domestic homes
and forwards the gas to Europe.
Kudrin said talks on Beltransgaz were imminent, and shot a veiled
warning that Belarus is in no position to turn Russia down. Kudrin
said if Belarus isn’t able to raise up to $9 billion via selloffs,
it would be forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund, which
has loan conditions that Belarus is ill-equipped to meet.
Independent analysts say to save its economy, Belarus is in urgent
need of at least $8 billion.
“The authorities need to admit that the politics of recent years were
flawed,” said Stanislav Bogdanovich, former head of the country’s
central bank.
Last month, the authorities gave permission to banks to buy and sell
the ruble at a rate determined in open trading.
Banks initially responded by raising the U.S. dollar exchange rate for
retail transactions by 30 percent, from some 3,000 Belarusian rubles
to 4,000 rubles against the dollar. It has since risen to 8,000 rubles
to the dollar, giving rise to miles-long lines at currency exchange
booths as desperate locals try to squeeze the rapidly diminishing
value out of their rubles.
Belarus uses different exchange rates, depending on whether it is
banks, private individuals or state companies that are buying the
foreign currency. At times the difference between those rates can be
up to 30 percent.
For most of his 17 years in power, President Alexander Lukashenko
has relied on Russia – Belarus’ main sponsor and ally – to maintain
a quasi-Soviet economy complete with a social safety net that helped
maintain his popularity.
But the Russian subsidies have dwindled recently as Moscow pushes
for control over Belarus’ most prized economic assets, such as oil
refineries and chemical plants, in exchange for more loans.