Author: Kajoyan Gevork

EU-ARMENIA COOPERATION IN 2015 TO FOCUS ON REFORMS

YEREVAN, December 16. / ARKA /. Traian Hristea, head of the European
Union’s Delegation to Armenia, said today Armenia-EU cooperation in
2015 will focus on such areas as good governance, human rights,
judicial and legal systems, mobility, visa facilitation and
readmission.

Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Hristea said the EU is ready to
continue talks with Armenia on building a new legal framework that
will determine the future of their relations by taking into account
Yerevan’s commitments to the Eurasian Economic Union.

“We will encourage our Armenian partners to participate in the Eastern
Partnership program,” said Hristea.

Mr. Hristea cited the latest numbers released by Armenia’s National
Statistical Service saying that the EU is the largest trade partner
of Armenia accounting for 27 percent of Armenia’s foreign trade. He
added that the EU is also the largest investor in Armenia accounting
for 52% of the total investments made in Armenia.

According to the National Statistical Service, Armenia’s foreign
trade turnover with the EU countries in January-October 2014 was
worth $1.319.2 billion, a decline of 2.4% from the year earlier, while
Armenia’s trade with former Soviet republics making the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) constituted 28.1% or $1.372.8 billion,
an increase of 3.8%.

According to official statistics, the leader in terms of total foreign
investment in the real sector of Armenia in January-September this
year was Russia (about 271 billion drams). It was followed by Cyprus
(about 95.9 billion drams) and Germany (about 84 billion drams).

Mr. Hristea recalled today that in November this year, the EU and
Armenia signed a Memorandum of Understanding, outlining their strategic
goals for the period of 2014-2017.

Also on November 3 the European Commission and Armenia signed
a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the Single
Support Framework, which envisages an aide to Armenia from 140 million
to 170 million euros in 2014-2017. These funds will be used to support
Armenia’s private sector and reforms in public institutions, civil
society and justice.-0-

PROPHETIC NAME? SYUNIK GOVERNOR’S “TATEV ANAPAT” COMPANY BUILDING TWO LOCAL MINI HYDRO-PLANTS

Kristine Aghalaryan

12:39, December 16, 2014

Sourik Khachatryan, governor of Armenia’s southern Syunik Province,
owns 50% in Tatevi Anapat LLC which is building two mini hydro-plants
in the communities of Tatev and Tandzatap.

One questions such a name for the company since “anapat”, in Armenian,
can be translated as the noun “desert” or “wasteland”, or the
adjectival equivalent “barren”. Perhaps they had in mind “wilderness”.

If so, what will remain of the area’s wilderness after the plants
are constructed is a concern for many, especially local residents.

Anapat-1 is the hydro-plant that will begin on the Vorotan River
tributaries of Karahounts and Aghandzou.

While the blueprint for the project claims that construction will
not harm the local environment and that there is no endangered flora
and fauna in the area, Tandzatap residents sent letters to Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan and then prime minister Tigran Sargsyan
and environment minister Aram Haroutyunyan in 2013, warning them
that the hydro-plant would decimate river fish and deprive three
affected communities of irrigation water, thus forcing them to leave
their homes.

Tatev Anapat has already begun some construction and has presented
a modified blueprint to the environment ministry for preliminary
evaluation.

On December 12, a public hearing was scheduled to take place in
Tanadzatap regarding the company’s preliminary evaluation petition
regarding the environmental impact of the Anapat-1 plant.

According to Tandzatap Mayor Robert Mousheghyan, young people are for
the plant while older residents are worried about the plant’s impact
on irrigation water.

“The builder came and assured us that no such problem would arise,”
Mousheghyan told Hetq.

The mayor said that most at the public hearing were in favor of the
plant on the condition that its operation is restricted during the
summer and that it not obstructs villagers from irrigating.

Mousheghyan told Hetq that company representatives promised to permit
water flows to the village during June, July and August during the
daytime hours.

“I don’t foresee any problems if the company sticks to the agreement
to allow us irrigation water in the summer and that it hires at least
six people from the community to work at the upper hydro plant,”
the mayor said.

The hydro-plant is scheduled to begin operation next spring.

The remaining 50% of Tatev Anapat is equally shared by Tatev native
Spartak Santrosyan (a person known to local residents) and Arsen
Sargsyan.

PASSENGERS TO BE EXEMPTED FROM “AIR TAX” AT SHIRAK AIRPORT IN GIUMRY

YEREVAN, December 16. /ARKA/. Armenia’s parliament passed, in the
first reading, the bill about state dues that exempts passengers
flying from Shirak airport in Giumry from so called “air tax”.

The decision was made having in mind the recent substantial reduction
in passenger traffic at Shirak airport, the deputy minister of economy
Sergey Avetisyan said in presenting the bill.

Negotiations are currently being held with a number of state-supported
airlines, as well as with the airport, to reduce tariffs for certain
services for increasing the number of flights and the passenger
traffic through the airport, he said.

According to Avetisyan, the bill will open up additional opportunities
for increasing the passenger traffic and for developing indirect
services in the region. This, in turn, will ensure higher budget
income compared to the “air tax”, he said.

Armenia’s chief aviation department says a total of 1 million
931,554 passengers traveled through Zvartnots and Shirak airports in
January-November 2014, 332,376 people more than in the same period
of 2013, which is a 20.8% increase.

Zvartnots and Shirak airports are run by Armenia-International
Airports, a company owned by an Argentine citizen of Armenian descent
Eduardo Eurnekian. In 2001 the company signed a concessional agreement
with the government to manage the airports for 30 years. -0-

KARABAGH : UN SOLDAT ARMENIEN TUE DECORE A TITRE POSTHUME

KARABAGH

Le president du Haut-Karabagh Bako Sahakian a signe aujourd’hui un
decret accordant a titre posthume au soldat Garik Ispiryan la medaille
“Pour service en bataille”.

Selon le site officiel du president de la NKR le soldat de 19 ans,
qui a ete tue, a ete recompense pour “bravoure montre lors de la
defense de la frontière d’Etat du Haut Karabagh >>.

Pendant ce temps, le Departement des enquetes militaires de la
Republique de l’Armenie a ouvert une procedure penale sur le meurtre
du militaire armenien considerant la haine ethnique, la haine raciale
ou religieuse comme le motif.

mardi 16 decembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

LE CONSEIL MUNICIPAL DE VALENCE (DREME) VOTE A L’UNANIMITE LE >

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Lors du Conseil municipal de Valence (Drôme) lundi 15 decembre,
la deliberation >
presentee par la conseillère communautaire Koulaksezian-Romy fut
votee a l’unanimite.

Ci-dessous la deliberation :

Le Maire de Valence expose :

Considerant que 2015 sera une annee d’une particulière importance
s’agissant de la memoire des genocides qui ont marque le XXème siècle ;

Considerant que le 24 avril 1915 debutait le genocide qui allait
conduire a l’assassinat methodiquement organise d’un million
cinq-cent-mille Armeniens ; Considerant que la ville de Valence a
accueilli, dès 1915 de très nombreux rescapes du genocide, et qu’elle
comporte encore aujourd’hui une forte presence issue de la diaspora
armenienne estimee a environ 10 % de la population communale ;

Considerant que, par la loi du 29 janvier 2001 la France a publiquement
reconnu le genocide de 1915 ; Considerant que la Ville de Valence est
fortement engagee dans le travail de memoire des genocides en abritant
notamment sur son territoire le Centre du Patrimoine Armenien ;

Considerant qu’en depit des evidences historiques, la negation
du genocide des Armeniens, le premier du XXème siècle, continue
de prosperer et que la persistance de cette negation constitue une
insulte a la memoire des victimes et a la dignite de leurs descendants
; Considerant que la communaute armenienne de Valence a contribue au
developpement a la culture et au rayonnement de notre ville ;

Considerant que la Ville de Valence est jumelee depuis 1996 avec
la ville armenienne d’Idjevan, jumelage qui devrait etre renforce
au cours de l’annee 2015 par une charte d’amitie avec Stepanakert,
capitale de la Republique du Haut-Karabagh ;

En consequence le Conseil Municipal emet le voeu que : La Ville de
Valence, en lien avec la Republique d’Armenie, la Mission 2015 du
Conseil de Coordination des organisations Armeniennes de France (CCAF)
et les organisations armeniennes de Valence, commemore le centenaire
du genocide des Armeniens, par des projets visant a diffuser, a faire
connaître et faire comprendre la realite du genocide et a combattre
sa negation ; la delegation aux affaires patriotiques sera ainsi
associee a ces commemorations.

Un travail pedagogique soit engage, en lien avec l’Education nationale,
dans les etablissements scolaires valentinois afin de favoriser la
connaissance du genocide des Armeniens et sensibiliser a l’histoire
de la communaute armenienne rescapee du genocide, qui est partie
integrante de l’histoire de Valence.

Krikor Amirzayan

mardi 16 decembre 2014, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

APRES L’INCIDENT D’EREVAN, HASAN CEMAL L’AUTEUR DE > ANNULE SES RENCONTRES AVEC LA DIASPORA ARMENIENNE

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Après l’incident de la semaine dernière a Erevan lors de la
presentation de son livre traduit en armenien >, le petit-fils du dirigeant Jeune-Turc Cemal (Djemal)
Pacha, Hasan Cemal a annonce par la voix d’un de ses proches qu’il
renoncait desormais a des rencontres avec les Armeniens de la diaspora.

Rappelons que la semaine dernière lors de la rencontre a l’Universite
d’Etat a Erevan, alors qu’il presentait son livre, le traducteur du
turc en armenien, Roupen Melkonian a rompu la seance pour accuser
Hasan Cemal de propos anti-armeniens notamment sur >. Ces elements contenus dans le livre d’origine de
Hasan Cemal avaient ete retires de sa traduction en armenien a la
demande de l’editeur la Fondation Hrant Dink.

Hasan Cemal qui reconnait le genocide armenien -crime dont son
grand-père etait avec Talaat et Enver l’un des principaux executeurs-
s’est rendu il y a quelques annees au memorial du genocide armenien
a Erevan. Hasan Cemal qui est l’un des plus celèbres journalistes
de Turquie -et qui a ete ecarte des redactions pour son geste de
reconnaissance du genocide armenien- est aujourd’hui accuse de porter
une partie des “thèses turques” a propos de la lutte de liberation
des Armeniens tant en diaspora -avec l’ASALA- ou en Armenie et au
Haut Karabagh.

Krikor Amirzayan

mardi 16 decembre 2014, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

BBC RADIO 4 TRACES THE HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA

16:11, 15 Dec 2014

In a program to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from December 29 to
January 2 writer and historian Charles Emmerson traces the history
of the Armenian diaspora through Europe’s Armenian communities today,
according to the BBC’s Media Center.

>From Manchester, home to Britain’s oldest Armenian community, Charles
travels to Paris, the largest and most dynamic Armenian diaspora
community in Europe, still living in the shadow of the memory of the
massacres and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

In Venice he meets the monks charged with the safe-keeping of Armenian
traditions of literature and song on the monastery-island of San
Lazzaro. In Istanbul he hears the more recent stories of the city’s
Armenian community, subtle architects building a new relationship
between Turks and Armenians from the foundations up.

Finally, at the foot of Mount Ararat, in Yerevan, underground jazz
music and Syrian refugees tell a new story, of a new focus for Armenian
identity, and fresh challenges to its survival.

Armenians have long struggled to keep their common identity alive in
communities dispersed around the world – in Cyprus, Iran and Venice.

They became leading figures in Ottoman Istanbul. In the 19th
century some moved to the dirt and damp of the booming textile city
of Manchester, establishing themselves in the city’s middle-class
suburbs and building the first Armenian church in northwest Europe.

Over tea and cake in warm family homes, Charles hears the stories
of a tiny but close-knit community, now concerned about how to keep
alive its identity, language and religion for a new generation of
Mancunian Armenians. The church holds services just once a month,
when a priest comes up from London. Some ask whether there will be
an Armenian community in Manchester at all in 50 years’ time.

KARABAKH: ARMENIAN ANALYSTS SEE USE OF MORTARS BY AZERBAIJAN AS FAILURE OF ITS “SNIPER WAR”

Karabakh | 15.12.14 | 15:31

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Last week near the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Karabakh armed
forces some unprecedented violations of the ceasefire regime were
reported; the opponent started using even mortars, which, according
to a political analyst, makes it obvious that this way Azerbaijan
tried to increase the tension.

The Nagorno-Karabakh defense army’s press service said that from 7 to
13 of December near the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Karabakh
armed forces the opponent violated the ceasefire regime for about
1,600 times, firing more than 18,000 shots in the direction of the
Armenian positions from firearms of different caliber.

“Specifically, in the eastern section of the line of contact
unprecedented violations were recorded. In the mentioned direction the
opponent made more than three dozen shots from 60- and 82-mm mortars.

During the week the opponent used also grenade cup dischargers, small
and large caliber snipers and machine-gun weapons,” the statement
said, adding that frontline army units of the Defense Army (DA),
when necessary, gave an adequate response to the opponent keeping
the operational-tactical situation under constant control.”

Political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said that this means that
currently all opportunities of a peaceful resolution have expired,
which means that turning-point relations are necessary, otherwise
there is a very high danger of resumption of a full-blown war.

“We saw that during 2014 Azerbaijan turned to at least three such
large threatening actions, and all those actions together were a cause
for 2014 to be considered a loss in terms of negotiations and peaceful
settlement, and now we are entering a stage where the priority is still
preserving or re-affirming the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. This
is a new way of conflict, a very slow and quite a dangerous conflict
from the military point of view, which, apparently, has created a
new situation in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and forces building
the policy based on that new situation,” the political analyst said.

Political analyst Tigran Abrahamyan said that the use of artillery
weapons is getting more active, which is very dangerous and is not
the first such case.

“Azerbaijan has become skeptical about the ‘Snipers’ war’, more
specifically, about its efficiency (in terms of inflicting losses),
which does not yet mean that snipers will get more passive or will
leave the ‘battlefield’. Most possibly, in the near future the opponent
will try to act ‘within the logics of some smaller scale artillery
weapons’ simultaneously using the services of the snipers.

The objective is to cause as much damage as possible,” the political
analyst said, adding that even though it is clear that the frontline
army units of the Defense Army will come up with respective actions to
keep the situation under control at most, however, one should reckon
that the situation remains risky in the frontline, and Azerbaijan
has no intentions of taking a break.

ARMENIAN POLITICIAN CALLS FOR SERIOUS DIALOGUE OVER COUNTRY’S FUTURE

14:44 * 15.12.14

An Armenian politician on Monday called for active efforts towards
mobilizing the country’s political potential for resolving future
challenges.

Ashot Manucharyan particularly stressed the importance of targeting
attention to three major issues. “The political forces, the
authorities, the parliamentary factions and the extra-parliamentary
forces must sit around a table to decide the country’s priorities
and make redistribution in political matters,” he said.

“The nation today is split into two groups, one striding towards the
West and the other – towards the East. But we need a foreign political
diversification now. So it is important to decide which circle is to
serve who,” the politician said, ruling out any conflict of interests
in what he described as a common fight for the protection of national
interests.

As a second major step, Manucharyan emphasized the need of creating
a commission of law enforcement professionals and journalists for
conducting an independent investigation.

He further called for strong efforts by the authorities to rule out
any internal confrontations.

Asked whether he expects unity between the political forces of Armenia,
Manucharyan said he thinks that consolidation would be inevitable in
case of a war breaks or an attempt by the Islamic to reach Armenia
via Turkey.

“We turn out to be cheating one another, pretending that everything
is good and it is still possible to amass fortune. But once people
realize the stress of moment, everything will change. All citizens
today have to be trained as home-guards, with everyone having a
function of his or her own. Once you are in a situation that sees
the threats decreasing, the country which is to launch attacks takes
precautions. And that has to apply to all areas of life,” he added.

BEELINE EXPANDS CONVERGE OF MOBILE NETWORKS IN YEREVAN AND BEYOND

YEREVAN, December 12. / ARKA /.ArmenTel telecom (trading as Beeline)
said today in a press release that it has expanded significantly the
coverage of GSM and 3G networks in the capital city Yerevan and the
regions of Armenia. In particular, new 3G base stations were installed
in Aragatsotn, Ararat, Vayotsdzor, Gegharkunik, Lori and Tavush regions
to have improved the coverage of Beeline mobile networks, also thanks
to the installation of new GSM stations in Yerevan and the Ararat
region. “Working under the motto” Simple and convenient for you,
“we realize that the ease of using our services can not be achieved
without good communication and good mobile network coverage.

We are constantly working to improve the network, especially given
the ever-increasing number of our customers,” ArmenTel CEO, Andrei
Pyatakhin is quoted as saying. In November Beeline also improved the
coverage of the second and third generation networks at Zvartnots
international airport. ArmenTel is a 100 percent subsidiary of Russian
VimpelCom. It provides fixed and mobile telephony as well as high-speed
Internet services.-0-