Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ZHAMANAK: HAYRAPETYAN CALLS SARGSYAN’S APPOINTMENT AS AMBASSADOR ABSURDITY

Friday,
June
27

Paylak Hayrapetyan, the businessman who is on the brink of bankruptcy
because of the so-called offshore scandal, told ‘Zhamanak’ paper
that he was surprised to learn from media reports yesterday about
the appointment of ex-Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan as Armenian
ambassador to the U.S.

In his words, T. Sargsyan’s appointment as ambassador is a
deliberate act aimed at keeping him away at the current stage of
the investigation.

“They should have questioned him to find out if he is related to the
case or not. And then he might leave for the U.S. We would not stop
him. But when everyone says that he is involved in this case, and he
is appointed ambassador, it is absurdity,” Paylak Hayrapetyan said.

DINK FOUNDATION LAUNCHES FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Daily Sabah, Turkey
June 26 2014

AA

ISTANBUL – The Istanbul-based Hrant Dink Foundation is launching
a fellowship program in an attempt to normalize Turkish-Armenian
relations.

The program offers around 18 professionals from Turkey and Armenia
the chance to live and follow a special agenda in the host countries
for 4 to 8 months, according to a press release from the foundation.

At least 63 organizations from Turkey and 25 from Armenia are ready to
act as hosts in the two countries, the statement said. “Individuals
are also invited to propose their own project ideas, other than the
fellowship opportunities offered by the listed host organizations,”
said the statement.

The fellowships focus on crossborder learning opportunities in
academia, civil society, media, culture and arts, translation and
interpreting and language-learning, and law.

Citizens and legal residents of Turkey and Armenia can apply for
the fellowships.

The deadline is July 20. The program is financed by the EU.

The Hrant Dink Foundation was founded in 2007, the year of Dink’s
assassination, to realize his dream of normalizing relations between
the two countries. He was editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian
newspaper Agos and was considered one of Turkey’s most prominent
Armenian voices.

Relations between the two countries have been poor since the 1915
incident that took place during World War I.

The Armenian diaspora and government describe the 1915 events as
genocide and have asked for compensation.

Turkey says that, although Armenians died during deportations, many
Turks also died in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences in
April of this year for the Armenian deaths that occurred during the
incidents of 1915 – a first for a Turkish statesman.

CONSTANTINOPLE’S LITTLE-KNOWN RIFT WITH ITS REPS IN OTTOMAN PALESTINE

Ha’aretz, Israel
June 26 2014

Djemal Pasha, the governor of Syria, recommended that all Jewish
immigration be outlawed and that the Jews be expelled from Palestine.

By Nir Hasson

On October 1, 1917, a company of Turkish soldiers surrounded Zichron
Yaakov. The Ottoman government had just discovered the existence of
the Nili underground group, which was created to help the British take
over Ottoman Palestine. Some of the underground members, including
Sarah Aaronsohn, were captured, jailed and tortured, while some others
managed to escape. The most famous among those who got away was Yosef
Lishansky, one of the founders of the group. The soldiers surrounding
Zichron Yaakov were there in attempts to convince the townspeople to
give him up.

Numerous historical sources in Hebrew recall the speech made by the
Turkish governor. He threatened to do to the Jews what was done to
the Armenians (the Armenian genocide was at its zenith at the time.) A
telegraph recently uncovered in the Turkish prime ministerial archive
reinforces these accounts. Sent by the Turkish interior minister, Nazar
Talaat, to the governor of Beirut, who also oversaw Zichron Yaakov,
the telegraph read: “In the village of Zamrin (Zichron Yaakov,) in
the Haifa district, the Kamikam (governor) told the people that if
they do not hand over the spy Lishansky, their fate will be like the
Armenians, as I am involved in the deaths of the Armenians.”

Although Turkey has staunchly denied the Armenian genocide during the
decades that have passed, the telegram indicates that it was a known
secret and a legitimate threat throughout the empire at the time. In
the response, which like all telegrams back then was encoded, the
interior minister asked the governor to investigate claims that the
Nili members were tortured.

“Head of the village in question, Albert, and residents Nisan Rothman,
Fishel Aaronsohn, Hans and Fishel’s daughter Sarah, were brutally
beaten and tortured,” read the telegram. “The Aharonson girl committed
suicide after the beating. An investigation must be conducted as soon
as possible and results must be sent.|

The telegraph has been published as part of research conducted by Dr.

Yuval Ben-Bassat of Haifa University and an article about it will
be published in a special World War I centennial issue of Zmanim,
a journal published by Tel Aviv and Haifa universities.

Ben-Bassat has spent much of the past decade researching the hundreds
of thousands of Ottoman documents in the Turkish prime ministerial
archive, which has been largely untouched by historians. “Our history
has always been written from either the Zionist or the Arab-Palestinian
angle,” says Ben-Bassat. “Only a few historians have looked at the
Ottoman angle. We should remember there was an empire here.”

In an earlier study, Ben-Bassat uncovered petitions sent by Arabs
in Palestine to the Sultan, dealing mainly with their fears of the
Zionist yishuv. His latest study focuses on the telegraphs between
Constantinople (today Istanbul) and Palestine during World War I.

Among other things, the documents reveal significant disagreements
between the Turkish government in Palestine, and the government in
the imperial capital.

The leadership in Palestine, led by Ahmed Djemal Pasha, who was
governor in Syria, commander of the fleet and one three rulers of
the empre in its final years, dealt mostly with preparing to withhold
British invasion from the south and combating both real and imaginary
spy threats. Constantinople, on the other hand, saw the larger picture,
including the empire’s relations with the rest of the world.

The empire was rather sensitive to international criticism of human
rights violations in Palestine.

For example, one of the most important issues to come up was the
question of expelling Jews from Tel Aviv. The expulsion was meant
in theory to prevent harm from coming to civilians, but it actually
stemmed from fear of a “fifth column” that would assist the British.

The expulsion was a humanitarian nightmare for Tel Aviv residents. The
central government was worried about their fate and the public
relations damage that would ensue. “Please inform us as to where
they were sent, how they were housed and what kind of medical care
they were provided,” wrote the interior minister to the Jerusalem
district commander. In another telegraph, Djemal Pasha writes about
“evil rumors circulating in Europe,” regarding the fate of the Jews
expelled from Tel Aviv, and asked that the Spanish consul investigate
the affair in order to compile a neutral report.

“Differences in opinion and knowledge between Djemal Pasha and the
government in Istanbul were very substantial,” says Ben-Bassat. “They
approach him again and again to ask if those expelled could be
returned; they ask him about the damage done to the empire’s image. On
the other hand, it seems that Pasha did not see the big picture.”

The exchange of words sheds light on Djemal Pasha, who was a key
figure in Palestine at the time. Both the Zionists and the Arabs
remember him as a powerful and cruel leader, who violently put down
any anti-Turkish nationalism. In one document, he lists six steps
that the empire should take to thwart Zionism. “(The Zionists) are
a huge disaster for Palestine. They have built an independent court
in Jaffa, and are working to expand their autonomy,” wrote Pasha.

Pasha suggested completely outlawing Jewish immigration, even if the
immigrant were to take on Ottoman citizenship. He also recommended
preventing the Jewish yishuv from growing, prohibiting foreigners
(most likely representatives of Baron Rothschild) from involvement in
running the Jewish settlements and forbidding foreign citizens from
creating secret organizations. His last suggestion was, in effect,
to expel all the Jews from Palestine.

“Among the cursed Zionists, only 30-40 Russian Jews asked to receive
Ottoman citizenship. I believe that their request should be rejected
and they be expelled. With regards to the rest of the Jews, I believe
they should all be sent away. I’m asking for your permission, so as
not to act against the decisions of the central government.”

ISRAEL BELIEVES KURDISH INDEPENDENCE IS ‘FOREGONE CONCLUSION’

Thursday, June 26th, 2014

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman meets with U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry in Paris

TEL AVIV–Israel told the United States on Thursday that Kurdish
independence in northern Iraq was a “foregone conclusion” and Israeli
experts predicted the Jewish state would be quick to recognize a
Kurdish state, should it emerge.

Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business
ties with the Kurds since the 1960s, seeing in the minority ethnic
group a buffer against shared Arab adversaries.

The Kurds have seized on recent sectarian chaos in Iraq to expand
their autonomous northern territory to include Kirkuk, which sits on
vast oil deposits that could make the independent state many dream
of economically viable.

Washington wants Iraq’s crumbling unity restored. On June 24, U.S.

Secretary of State John Kerry visited Iraqi Kurdish leaders and urged
them to seek political integration with Baghdad.

Kerry discussed the Iraqi crisis with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman in Paris on June 26. “Iraq is breaking up before our eyes
and it would appear that the creation of an independent Kurdish
state is a foregone conclusion,” Lieberman’s spokesman quoted him as
telling Kerry.

A day earlier, Israeli President Shimon Peres had a similar message
for U.S. President Barack Obama, who hosted the dovish elder statesman
at the White House.

Briefing reporters, Peres said he had told Obama he did not
see unifying Iraq as possible without “massive” foreign military
intervention and that this underscored Kurdish separation from the
Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni Arab minority.

“The Kurds have, de facto, created their own state, which is
democratic. One of the signs of a democracy is the granting of equality
to women,” Peres said.

He added that neighboring Turkey appeared to accept the Kurds’ status
as it was helping them pump out oil for sale.

A history of silence Israel last week took its first delivery of the
disputed crude from Iraqi Kurdistan’s new pipeline. The United States
disapproves of such go-it-alone Kurdish exports.

There are some 30 million Kurds on a swathe of land running through
eastern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq and western Iran. They
have hesitated to declare independence in Iraq, mindful of opposition
from neighboring states with Kurdish populations.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said there were currently no formal
diplomatic relations with the Kurds. Israeli officials declined to
comment, however, on the more clandestine ties.

“Our silence – in public, at least – is best. Any unnecessary
utterance on our part can only harm them [Kurds],” senior Israeli
defense official Amos Gilad said on Tuesday.

Asked on Israel’s Army Radio whether Kurdish independence was
desirable, Gilad noted the strength of the Israeli-Kurdish partnership
in the past and said: “One can look at history and draw conclusions
about the future.”

Kurdish-inhabited areas in the Middle East

Israeli intelligence veterans say that cooperation took the form of
military training for Kurds in northern Iraq, in return for their
help in smuggling out Jews as well as in spying on Saddam Hussein’s
regime in Baghdad and, more recently, on Iran.

Eliezer Tsafrir, a former Mossad station chief in Kurdish northern Iraq
who is now retired from Israeli government service, said the secrecy
around the ties had been maintained at the request of the Kurds.

“We’d love it to be out in the open, to have an embassy there, to have
normal relations. But we keep it clandestine because that’s what they
want,” he told Reuters.

Ofra Bengio, an Iraq expert at Tel Aviv University and the author
of two books on the Kurds, said last week’s oil delivery and other
commercial ties between Israel and Kurdistan were “obviously” part
of wider statecraft.

“I certainly think that the moment [Kurdish President Masoud]
Barzani declares independence, these ties would be upgraded into open
relations,” she said. “It depends on the Kurds.”

The Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq has denied selling
oil to Israel, whether directly or indirectly. The Israeli government
declined to comment on Friday’s oil delivery.

BOOSTING ARMENIAN AGRICULTURE

Kansas City infoZine
June 25 2014

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 :: Staff infoZine

For the women and men living in Armenia’s rural communities,
agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihoods.

Washington DC – infoZine – The World Bank Board of Executive
Directors approved a US$ 32.67 million financing for the Second
Community Agricultural Resource Management and Competitiveness
(CARMAC) Project for Armenia. This Project is designed to improve
productivity and sustainability of pasture and livestock systems in
up to 100 communities in eight regions of Armenia with significant
pasture areas and increase the marketed production from selected
livestock and high value agri-food value chains.

For the women and men living in Armenia’s rural communities,
agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihoods.

Thus, developing farmers’ productivity, including through cooperatives
and associations, and strengthening the links between agricultural
producers and the food processing industry are critical. The project
will help address key constraints by improving market access,
supporting the commercialization process, and enhancing employment
opportunities while protecting the natural environment. The second
CARMAC expands the scope of the first project, notably its successful
pasture-based livestock activities, to include a new value chain
component linking livestock and other agriculture production with
markets.

Map of World Bank Armenian Projects “Enhancing productivity and
strengthening market access of farmers are key to reducing poverty
and boosting shared prosperity in rural areas” says Jean-Michel Happi,
World Bank Country Manager for Armenia.

“Project activities are devised in such a way as to mainly benefit
pasture users, farmer cooperatives, as well as food business
operators. At least 50,000 farmers are expected to participate in this
project through their membership in Pasture Users’ Cooperatives (PUC).”

The proposed project will further implement an efficient and
sustainable community managed pasture based livestock production
and include new communities exhibiting a strong interest, adding to
the already existing 86 communities covered by the on-going CARMAC
project. Pasture users cooperatives will be established in about 100
communities, which will be the key players in developing sustainable
pasture/livestock management plans and receiving grant resources
of about US$ 200,000 per PUC for their implementation. Funding may
include financing of infrastructure to access and use remote pastures,
milk collection points with cooling equipment, machinery to produce
and harvest fodder, and other activities of community importance.

“I would highlight the long-term benefits of value chain development
for the efficiency of agricultural output,” says Nicolas Ahouissoussi,
World Bank Task Team Leader of the project. “The project will support
agricultural producers and processors to improve the ability to meet
domestic demand and access international markets, building on the
competitive advantages of the Armenian market.”

Support programs for women and youth are planned to enhance their
participation in the PUCs along with their communal decision-making
process around pasture management. Along with other activities,
the project pays special attention and will contribute to increasing
the capacity of public sector institutions, such as regional-level
Veterinary Service Centers and State Service for Food Safety, to
facilitate business development and enable market access in the
selected value chains.

KVEMO KARTLI AND SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI TO COOPERATE WITH ARMENIA

Sarke Daily News
June 24, 2014 Tuesday

Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure declared
that Georgia-Armenia program of territorial cooperation will be
implemented.

As the Ministry said, this program is funded by EU within trans-border
cooperation of Eastern Neighborhood. Total budget makes up 1.35
million EUR.

>From Armenia, participants of the program will be Lori, Shirak
and Tavush regions, while from Georgia – Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti.

HRAPARAK: JERMUK HYATT TO BE RUN BY ITALIANS

11:43 25/06/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

A Hyatt hotel is under construction in the Armenian resort city
of Jermuk, in front of Ashot Arsenyan’s Armenia hotel. The new
Tamanyan-style hotel, Jermuk Hyatt, is owned by former Vayots Dzor
governor Samvel Sargsyan, who is also the owner of Ararat Hyatt hotel
in Moscow, Hraparak writes.

Reportedly, Jermuk Hyatt, which will open this year, will be run by
Italians, the newspaper notes.

Source: Panorama.am

EMPLOYMENT: JOBLESS RATE HIGHER THAN 2013 DESPITE NEW LAW

SOCIETY | 24.06.14 | 17:06

Artak Mangasaryan

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Despite a new law effective last January to decrease joblessness in
Armenia, new employment is down over the previous year. About 4,300
applicants got jobs in the past year, compared to nearly three times
that amount in the previous period.

The chief of Armenian State Labor Agency (ASLA) Artak Mangasaryan
told reporters today that such results were because various programs
set out by the new law have not begun yet.

According to the data of International Organization of Labor, in 2013
unemployment in Armenia was 18.6 percent, which is the highest index
among all post-Soviet countries. According to SLA indexes, the number
of people registered to find employment is up 3.7 percent over 2013.

According to the SLA chief, there are three times more unemployed
women than men. “Maybe, because of some stereotypes men avoid getting
registered in agencies.”

(Actual numbers of unemployed are far greater than the official count,
as in Armenia anyone who owns land is considered “employed”.

Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetyan told reporters in May that
there are 340,000 functioning farming households in Armenia, out of
450,000 land owners.)

According to SLA chief, there is high demand for jobs in Armenia,
and there are job supplies as well, which are not filled for various
reasons, such as low wages and no specialization.

“One of the reasons is wrong professional orientation, because 51
percent of high school graduates enter higher educational institutions
and only 25 percent to vocational schools, whilst there is more demand
for workers,” Mangasaryan mentioned.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH HAS NO MILITARY SETTLEMENT, JAMES WARLICK SAYS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 24 2014

24 June 2014 – 11:42am

The American co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick, hopes
that presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet in the near future,
if they agree to meet in Paris, as French President Francois Hollande
suggests.

Warlick notes that the Nagorno-Karabakh has no military settlement. He
addressed both sides of the conflict to abandon activities which
are able to lead to escalation of the situation and damage the peace
process.

PRESS RELEASE
June 24, 2014

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
Contact: Taniel Koushakjian
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 393-3434
Web:

HOUSE & SENATE APPROPRIATORS ADOPT U.S. FUNDING MEASURES TO ARMENIA &
THE REGION

Aid to Nagorno Karabakh Highlighted, Section 907 Maintained

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the House Appropriations Committee approved its
Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
(SFOPS) Appropriations Bill, which covers U.S. economic, humanitarian, and
military assistance to the South Caucasus, reported the Armenian Assembly
of America (Assembly). Specific funding levels to Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Nagorno Karabakh were not delineated in the bill.

The House bill was similar to the Senate version, which was approved last
week. Both bills maintained Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act,
restating the six customary exemptions for humanitarian and other
assistance to Azerbaijan. Section 907 was enacted in 1992 and requires the
Government of Azerbaijan to take “demonstrable steps to cease all blockades
and other offensive uses of force” against Armenia and Artsakh.

However, the Senate report language, unlike the House, specifically
highlighted funding to Nagorno Karabakh as follows: `The Committee
recommends assistance for victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in
amounts consistent with prior years, and for ongoing needs related to the
conflict.”

Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), who serves on the Senate Appropriations
Committee, told the Assembly that “continued assistance for the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh remains an important priority.” Commenting on the House
bill, Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), who sits on the House Appropriations
Committee, stated, “I am disappointed that we could not reach agreement on
language underscoring the need for humanitarian assistance in Nagorno
Karabakh. We must continue to fight for this assistance as the bill moves
through the legislative process to ensure the best possible outcome for our
allies Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Given the bellicose language and
attacks coming from Azerbaijan on a daily basis, this aid is absolutely
critical for the freedom, prosperity and self-determination of those in the
region,” Schiff told the Assembly.

The House and Senate FY 2015 SFOPS bills each totaled approximately $48
billion, which is some $700 million below the enacted FY 2014 level, and
roughly $280 million less than the President’s FY 2015 request.

The Administration’s budget calls for $1.7 million in Foreign Military
Financing (FMF) and $600,000 in International Military Education Training
(IMET) for Armenia and Azerbaijan. This amounts to a reduction of $1
million for FMF from last year’s budget request, however IMET funding is
consistent with past years and military parity is maintained between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In addition to FMF and IMET assistance, the Administration’s FY 2015 budget
also recommended that Armenia receive $20.7 million in Economic Support
Funds (compared to the FY 2014 request of $24.7 million), and $1.7 million
in International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (compared to the FY
2014 request of $2.8 million). The Administration’s budget also zeroed out
global health funding for Armenia. In total, the FY 2015 budget provides
$24.7 million in U.S. assistance to Armenia, which is a $6.143 million
reduction when compared to the Administration’s FY 2014 request of $30.843
million.

Earlier this year, the Assembly submitted testimony to the House
Appropriations Committee, stressing the importance of U.S. assistance to
Artsakh as well as Armenia, and the much needed humanitarian assistance for
Armenians in, and those fleeing, Syria. Additionally, the Assembly’s
testimony highlighted the inexplicable pardon of a convicted Azeri officer
who brutally murdered an Armenian officer at a NATO partnership for peace
training exercise and urged that the Subcommittee cease military assistance
to Azerbaijan.

`Given Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Armenia and the
escalating security threats from Azerbaijan, coupled with the
unconscionable pardon by Azerbaijan of a convicted axe murderer, as well as
other regional developments, the Assembly urges Congress to ensure robust
aid to Armenia and Artsakh,’ stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan
Ardouny. “Moreover, with the latest developments in Syria and Iraq, the
Assembly urges Congress to take immediate action to provide urgent
humanitarian relief to the Christian Armenian community there,” Ardouny
stated.

After both measures pass their respective chambers, the next step in the
legislative process involves the creation of an Appropriations conference
committee, whose members will work out the differences between the House
and Senate versions of the bill before sending it to the President for him
to sign into law.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and
awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
membership organization.

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NR: # 2014-036
Available online: