Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Armenian opposition declare voting on pension law invalid

June 21, 2014 | 14:45

YEREVAN. – The vote on amendments to the pension law is invalid,
secretary of Prosperous Armenia group Naira Zohrabyan said.

The four non-ruling factions (Armenian National Congress (ANC),
Prosperous Armenia (PAP), ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage) held a
press conference after the parliament passed the pension aw in the
first reading.

“We declare debates and vote invalid. We will continue our struggle
for full implementation of the Constitutional Court judgment,” she
said.

Once the parliament adopted the bill in the first reading, the
opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun and ANC parliamentary factions accused
the ruling party deputies of voting on the bill in lieu of their
absent colleagues. Nonetheless, NA Speaker Galust Sahakyan did not
cancel the voting results.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Conference on Denial Brings Together Natural and Social Scientists

By Admin on June 19, 2014

WORCESTER, Mass.–Four academic centers and institutions have teamed up
to organize a conference on “Manufacturing Denial and the Assault on
Scholarship and Truth,” to be held on Friday and Saturday, October
24-25, 2014, at Worcester State University and Clark University in
Worcester.

The academic conference will bring together, for the first time,
social scientists and natural scientists to discuss the analogous and
interrelated, though not always identical, phenomena of genocide
denial and the denial of scientific truth–from evolution to climate
change.

The conference is co-sponsored and organized by the Strassler Center
for Holocaust and Genocide Studies; the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in
Modern Armenian History and Genocide Studies, Clark University;
Worcester State University; the Armenian Genocide Program, CGHR,
Rutgers University-Newark; and the National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR).

The conference will open at Worcester State University on Oct. 24 with
a keynote address by Prof. Brendan J. Nyhan and a response by Prof.
Henry Theriault.

Professor Nyhan is assistant professor in the Department of Government
at Dartmouth College and a former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan. His
research focuses on political scandal and misperceptions about
politics and health care. His work has been published in several
prestigious journals and he has served as contributor to the New York
Times politics/policy website The Upshot, and media critic for
Columbia Journalism Review. Nyhan is co-author of All the President’s
Spin, a New York Times bestseller.

Prof. Theriault is chair of the Philosophy Department at Worcester
State University. His research focuses on philosophical approaches to
genocide issues, especially genocide denial, long-term justice, and
the role of violence against women in genocide.

The following day, sessions held at Clark University will explore
“Modern Strategies and Rhetoric of Denial,” “Political Uses of
Denial,” and “Countering Denial: How and When?” The conference will
conclude with a summing up and open discussion session. Further
information about the participants and schedule will be released at a
later date.

Since the 1980s, genocide denial, particularly of the Holocaust and
the Armenian Genocide, has generated a substantial body of literature
analyzing and documenting the methods and rhetoric of those who seek
to negate or obscure documented cases of mass violence. More recently,
an impressive amount of literature has explored the ways in which
various industries and political operatives have used the strategy of
“manufacturing doubt” to undermine the scientific consensus on
smoking, pollution, evolution, and global warming. Nonetheless, the
corruption and co-opting of scholarship for the purposes of fomenting
denial continues.

Although these efforts stretch from governments to corporations to
grass roots organizations, the focus of this conference will be on the
ways in which the corruption and co-opting of scholarship and the
academy function as part of a struggle that resonates far beyond
academia.

For more information, please contact Sarah Cushman, Strassler Center
Academic Program Liaison Officer, at 508-793-7764 or
[email protected].

French TV airs report on Syrian Armenians who returned to historical homeland

June 21, 2014 | 00:09

The France-24 television ofFrance has broadcast a report on the Syrian
Armenians who have returned to their historical homeland, Armenia.

The report indicates that despite great difficulties, they receive
assistance from the Armenian Church and government. In particular, the
aforesaid Syrian Armenians are given Armenian citizenship, and free
elementary school education and medical services.

But, as per the report, some of these Syrian Armenians leave Armenia
to try their luck in Europe and North America.

The reporter also stressed that some Syrian Armenians try to forget
their problems and start life anew in a country that is new to them.

“This is a huge blow to them. All of these people were forced to leave
Turkey nearly one-hundred years ago. It’s difficult for them because
all those recollections float before their eyes. This is especially
true for the elderly; they see how history repeats,” the reporter
said.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

GEORGIAN FM: DIRECT FLIGHTS BETWEEN TBILISI AND YEREVAN MUST BE RESUMED

by Tatevik Shahunyan

Friday, June 20, 13:02

Foreign Minister of Georgia Maya Panjikidze believes that direct
flights Tbilisi-Yerevan must be resumed. The minister made such
statement at the Thursday meeting with her Armenian opposite number
Edward Nalbandian in Tbilisi.

“There were direct Tbilisi-Yerevan flights before. Both the countries
seek to resume those flights,” Panjikidze said after signing an
agreement of cooperation in the field of tourism and an agreement of
exchange and protection of secret information with the Armenian party.

“In 2013, 1.3 million Armenian tourists visited Georgia, consequently
this sector of economy is very promising,” she said.

The former national air carrier of Armenia, Armavia Company, made
direct Tbilisi-Yerevan flights before. The airline stopped the flight
along with many other flights declaring bankruptcy in 2013. Armenia’s
delegation of high-ranking officials led by President Serzh Sargsyan
was on a two-day official visit to Georgia on 18-19 June. The Armenian
delegation had meetings with the top leadership of Georgia.

KAZIMIROV: NON-FULFILLMENT OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL’S RESOLUTIONS IS A VERY VOLATILE TOPIC, FIRST OF ALL, FOR BAKU

by Ashot Safaryan

Friday, June 20, 13:06

Official Baku has been recalling the 4 resolutions of the UN Security
Council on the Karabakh conflict very often in the recent years. Baku
keeps demanding Armenia to fulfill these resolutions. Meanwhile,
this is a very volatile topic for Azerbaijan, first of all.

“The UN adopted the first resolution initiated by Azerbaijan after
the Armenian forces took Kelbajar. Afterwards, Russia, USA, Turkey
and Italy chairing the Minsk conference officially asked the parties
if they were ready to fulfill the resolution. Yerevan and Stepanakert
affirmed their readiness, while Baku has not responded by present. The
same happened with all the 4 resolutions,” Kazimirov said.

According to him, resolution of the Karabakh conflict implies stable
truce, which seems rather difficult amid Azerbaijani president’s
constant sabre-rattling.

“Aliyev junior acts contrary to his father’s will. Once Heydar Aliyev
exactly said in a document that the Karabakh conflict must be resolved
by peaceful methods only,” the diplomat recalled.

BAKU: GOOGLE MAPS COMMITS PROVOCATION AGAINST AZERBAIJAN

APA, Azerbaijan
June 19 2014

[ 19 Juny 2014 10:49 ]

Nagorno Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan are
featured as the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the Armenian language

Baku – APA. International search system Google maps has committed
another provocation against Azerbaijan.

The Republic Seismological Service Center under Azerbaijan National
Academy of Sciences (ANAS) told APA that the map has featured Nagorno
Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan as the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic in the Armenian language since June 18. The Republic
Seismological Service Center informed that it uses the Google maps on
its official website like other countries’ seismological organizations:
“We are concerned about such provocations against Azerbaijan and its
territories by the international search system and the RSSC strongly
condemns such provocative changes against our country on the map.

It was also noted that this is not the first provocation committed
by Google: “Such cases took place earlier as well and featuring of
Azerbaijani territories in the Armenian language was removed from
the map after our persistent appeals.

We regretfully express that Google periodically commits such
provocations.

PACE ASKED FOR FAIR HEARING ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH AS SUPPORT FOR MOTION GROWS

Virtual Press Office
June 18 2014

BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ —

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has
been challenged to give a fair hearing to a motion that calls for
Armenia to be suspended from the institution over its occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh – just as Russia has over its recent role in Crimea.

The motion, proposed ahead of the summer session in Strasbourg
next week, has been signed by 58 PACE members, making it eligible
for consideration by the Political Affairs Committee or even the
Monitoring Committee for the appointment of a rapporteur.

Citing Russia’s suspension of voting rights by PACE on April 10,
2014, the motion calls on the Assembly to apply “one single standard
and adopt exactly similar sanctions against the Armenian delegation
by suspending its voting rights and excluding it from Assembly’s
leading bodies, until the end of the illegal occupation of Azerbaijani
territories.”

Azerbaijani MP and PACE delegate Elkhan Suleymanov, who is behind the
motion, expressed hope that PACE Secretary General Wojciech Sawicki
“will not demonstrate discrimination” and allow the issue to be
discussed.

He has since written an open letter to PACE which states: “I hope
that PACE leadership will demonstrate an objective position regarding
the submitted motion for resolution co-signed by 58 PACE members
representing 14 countries, taking into consideration the fact of the
occupation of Azerbaijani territories for 22 years… as well as the
application of sanctions against the Russian delegation citing Crimea.”

The letter, also addressed to PACE President Anne Brasseur and Council
of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, further pointed out
that in 2005 PACE passed Resolution 1416 which states “the occupation
of foreign territory by a member state constitutes a grave violation
of that state’s obligations as a member of the Council of Europe.”

In his letter, Suleymanov remained positive about the chances of his
motion being given time.

“I believe that PACE leadership and Secretary General Mr. Sawicki
will realize that it is important to discuss this document co-signed
by 58 MPs during the meetings of Presidential Committee and Bureau,
and bring the implementation of existing procedures to the attention
of PACE,” he said.

PACE has passed resolutions calling for the withdrawal of Armenian
troops from Nagorno-Karabakh as has the UN Security Council (UNSC 822,
853, 874 and 887/1993), the European Parliament and the OSCE.

SOURCE Azerbaijan Monitor

ARMENIA: IT BOOM BOLSTERS ECONOMIC PROSPECTS

EurasiaNet.org
June 19 2014

June 19, 2014 – 1:51pm, by Emil Danielyan

Photo: A man examines some software at Digitec 2007, an Information
Technology exhibition in Yerevan. Armenia’s IT sector grew by an
average of 22 percent annually from 2008 to 2013, much faster than
any other industry in the unemployment-plagued country. (Photo:
Anahit Hayrapetyan.)

After almost two decades of rapid expansion, Armenia’s
information-technology industry is becoming a rare economic success
story for this small, blockaded South-Caucasus country.

Oriented toward exports, the information-technology (IT) sector grew
by an average of 22 percent annually from 2008-2013, much faster
than any other economic sphere, according to government data. With
a combined output of almost $380 million, the nearly 400 IT firms
operating in Armenia accounted for 3.8 percent of last year’s Gross
Domestic Product of almost $10 billion. The sector currently employs
over 10,000 computer programmers and software engineers — a figure
comparable to the total workforce of the Armenian mining industry,
the single largest source of export revenue.

Yet, according to the Ministry of Economy, more than half of these
tech firms have come into existence since 2007. “This is the only
area where Armenia is successfully competing on a global, not even
regional, scale,” said Yeva Hyusian, the director of the Microsoft
Innovation Center Armenia (MICA).

A dozen relatively large firms, most of them subsidiaries of American
hi-tech heavyweights, dominate the sector. The Armenian subsidiary
of Synopsys Inc., one of the world’s largest microchip designers,
now employs more than 500 engineers, making it the sector’s largest
enterprise. Other US software giants with an Armenian presence include
National Instruments, Mentor Graphics and VM Ware.

Armenia also has been making its mark on the global IT scene through
home-grown talents like Artavazd Mehrabian, the 40-year-old developer
of PicsArt, one of the world’s most popular mobile photo-editing
applications. Another Armenian startup supported by an American partner
is expected to release soon a vocal-presentation platform, Voiceboard,
intended as an alternative to the ubiquitous Powerpoint software.

Meanwhile, a US-Armenian joint venture plans to start manufacturing
Armenian-designed tablet computers later this year.

So far, Armenia’s longstanding problems with corruption, a lack of
competition and closed borders with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey
have had little bearing on the sector’s rapid growth. That leads some
experts to conclude that the knowledge-based industry represents the
best economic hope for the future.

Part of the reason could lie in the past.

During the Soviet era, Armenia was home to dozens of enterprises that
produced about a third of the microelectronic equipment used by the
Soviet defense industry. The now defunct Yerevan Research Institute
of Mathematical Machines, which designed one of the first Soviet
computer systems in 1959, alone had about 10,000 employees as late
as in the 1980s.

The Soviet collapse spelled the end of this state industry, but its
specialists’ strong skills and modest wage demands offered fertile
ground for a new hi-tech sector that emerged after Armenia regained
independence. A dozen or so US software companies mostly owned by
diaspora Armenians largely drove the trend.

One such firm, Vienna, Virginia-based Synergy International Systems,
set up shop in Yerevan in 1999. “We started out with only four people
working in a Yerevan apartment,” said Ashot Hovanesian, Synergy’s
Armenia-born founder and president. With clients in 55 countries,
Hovanesian’s company now has 160 employees and plans to double their
number over the next few years.

The rapid emergence of such startups has prompted the Armenian
government to expand efforts to support the industry. Over the past few
years, the government has teamed up with foreign donor agencies and
corporations, including Microsoft and Nokia, to open nine centers in
Yerevan providing logistical, technical and even financial assistance
to IT entrepreneurs. A government-backed “technopark” serving the
same purpose began operating in Armenia’s second largest city,
Gyumri, early this year. The sector gained a further boost when
the government recently launched, together with private investors,
a $6-million venture capital fund for startups.

Tax breaks are in the works too. Parliament is expected to pass later
this month a government bill that would give new IT outfits with up
to 15 workers a three-year exemption from 20-percent corporate income
taxes. It would also grant a heavily discounted 10-percent income tax
rate for their employees. The government predicts that between 40 and
60 IT startups will emerge each year as a result. Hi-tech firms are
already able to move into Armenia’s first-ever tax haven that began
functioning last year on the Russian-owned premises in Yerevan.

“Opening a new IT business in Armenia is now very easy,” commented
MICA’s Hyusian. “We didn’t have this infrastructure and [such]
opportunities four years ago.”

Newer and better training facilities are still needed: the Armenian IT
sector’s number one problem at the moment is the inadequate quality
of instruction at Armenia’s underfunded universities. Few graduates
from Armenian universities and institutes are qualified enough to join
established firms without undergoing additional training, industry
executives say. The lack of qualified graduates has translated into
an estimated 2,000 job vacancies in the IT sector, a highly unusual
phenomenon for a country beset by unemployment unofficially estimated
to run well into the double-digits.

Industry executives warn that, without improvement, education standards
could affect the sector’s growth in the longer term. The government has
repeatedly pledged to address the issue. As a step in that direction,
in 2013 it inaugurated a $6.2-million state-of-the-art IT laboratory,
mostly financed by the US Agency for International Development and
the US firm National Instruments, at the State Engineering University
of Armenia.

The private sector is also taking measures. Synopsys, using its own
curriculum and technical facilities, sponsors a computer science
chair at the State Engineering University of Armenia. Synergy hires
new staff from among university students taking its shorter IT courses.

Despite the shortcomings, officials are optimistic. The sector’s
average annual growth rate of 22 percent should “at least remain the
same in the coming years,” predicted Naira Nikoghosian, head of a
Ministry of Economy department dealing with IT.

US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA SPEAKS ON VOROTAN HYDRO CASCADE DEAL – NEWSPAPER

June 19, 2014 | 07:38

YEREVAN. – In response to Zhamanak daily’s remarks that Armenia’s
opposition considers the Vorotan Hydro Cascade’s sale to be unlawful
and non-transparent, US Ambassador John Heffern once again confirmed
that the US defends and supports the business deal, the daily reported.

‘”The deal was signed in January, and we hope that it will be
completed. This deal will benefit the diversification of Armenia’s
power supply, and it is important in economic and investment terms.

‘”The International Finance Corporation and the Foreign Investment
Promotion Commission also are involved in the funding,’ the ambassador
said yet again expressing the hope that the deal will be implemented
in accordance with what is signed, and that it will be a good incentive
for the two countries,” Zhamanak wrote.

The Vorotan Hydro Cascade comprises three electric power plants. The
Government of Armenia is the 100-percent shareholder of the Vorotan
Hydroelectric Power Plant. On November 27, 2013, the Public Services
Regulatory Commission of Armenia had confirmed the deal to sell the
Vorotan Hydro Cascade to the American ContourGlobal company, and for
$180 million.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

VAKHTANG KIKABIDZE: GEORGIANS AND ARMENIANS SEEK TO JOIN NATO OUT OF BARE NECESSITIES OF LIFE

by David Stepanyan

Wednesday, June 18, 21:22

Unfortunately, it is very difficult today to answer the question where
European integration will bring Georgia to, first of all because a
very strong country’s government does not want us to go to the West,
Soviet and Georgian pop singer, actor, scriptwriter Vakhtang Kikabidze
says in his interview with ArmInfo.

“Unfortunately, everything depends on the will of that government,
which will decide itself whether to shoot or to pat on the back. It
is necessary, therefore, to be big diplomats. Georgians seek to join
NATO out of bare necessities of life. I was at the scene and saw
everything with my own eyes. People are afraid; they just want to
have a peaceful sleep. They think that NATO will ensure their peace
and security”, he says.

In the meantime, Kikabidze thinks that instead of playing down the
fears, Russia increases these fears by exerting pressure on Ukraine and
forcing it to give up the movement towards the West. “Armenians also
seek to join NATO. I know. But you have no way out, your geopolitical
location is far from being good, you have got stuck between two
countries”, he says. Therefore, he thinks that the solution should
be diplomatic and delicate. “We are given birth only once. It was
not our fault that we were born in the Soviet Union. For many years
in youth my major thought was where to get sausages and cheese. It’s
enough! I’m sick and tired”, says Kikabidze.

The actor thinks that Georgians have a good attitude to Armenia and
Azerbaijan. “The relations with these neighbors of Georgia meet my
idea of peaceful co-existence of nations. Whatever appearances, we are
Caucasians, and it is a separate house. We have a different mentality.

We are fond of receiving guests. Based on my experience, I should say
that there are nations who do not like guests. There are nations who
like guests but cannot receive guests. It is very important.

Therefore, they shouldn’t speak to us the way they are doing now”,
he says.

“Nobody can shoot at me. I don’t like shooting, nor do I like when
somebody shoots at me. There is not much of me, as a matter of fact,
and I don’t like when a strong man pressures a weak one, when a big
nation speaks like this with a small one. Armenia and Georgia are
ancient cultures, so, our being few is more a plus than a minus. Now
it seems that Vladimir Putin is trying to restore the Soviet Union.

But this is not our way. I don’t know perhaps he has something
different in mind but if he actually wants to unite our nations under
old principles and rules, this will have a very sad end for us all.

This will ruin everything – for there will be no more sausage costing
2.20 rubles. Those times have gone for ever.”

“The current events in Ukraine have shown that this is not yet possible
as there is somebody skillfully orchestrating this process.

None of us can say who exactly is controlling it but there is no doubt
that it is being controlled. By the way, I am also People’s Artist
of Ukraine. Today before coming here, I watched TV and was aggrieved
to see what is going on in that country, what a hostility is being
enforced between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Unfortunately,
this is what the man is – once you allow him to do something, you can
no longer stop him. There are people who prefer standing aloof. But
there are also people who you can easily control. Unfortunately,
there are such people,” Kikabidze said.