Author: Kajoyan Gevork

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

His Holiness Aram I honors Mr. and Mrs. Hagop Chiliguirian

Antelias – On Saturday March 1, 2014, in the evening, following the 40th
anniversary concert of the Shenorhali Choir, His Holiness Aram I decorated
Mr. and Mrs Hagop Chilinguirian with the St. Mesrob Mashdotz insignia.

In his message, Catholicos Aram I recognized Mr and Mrs Chilinguirian’s
service to the community through the many committees on which he had served
and their recent donation of two hundred thousand dollars, which goes to
support the Shenorhali Choir and upgrade the equipment of the communication
office.
##

SIYAVUSH NOVRUZOV: “ALL THE VIEWS ON AZERBAIJAN REFLECTED IN THE US DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORT ARE FALSE”

APA, Azerbaijan
March 4 2014

[ 04 March 2014 13:51 ]

Baku. Mubariz Aslanov – APA. The parliamentarian from Azerbaijan’s
ruling party has strongly objected to the views on the state of
human rights in Azerbaijan reflected in the report released by the
US Department of State, APA reports.

At today’s meeting of the Parliament, deputy executive secretary of
the New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), MP Siyavush Novruzov said the report
repeats what was written 10 years ago.

He said the report reflected biased views on the occupied Azerbaijani
territories.

“It is written that Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh region and 7
adjacent regions are still under occupation with the help of Armenian
separatists. It is not written that these territories are under
occupation due to the power of those patronizing the Armenian state.

On the other hand, false, slanderous information given by the persons
of Armenian origin engaged in the protection of human rights in
Azerbaijan has been published in the report. The elections in Armenia
can not be compared to the elections in Azerbaijan. The elections
in our country were free, fair and transparent. Terrorist attack was
committed against a presidential candidate in Armenia. The report says
that Ilgar Mammadov was a presidential candidate. Ilgar Mammadov was
in prison at that time. When did he put forward his candidacy?! There
exist certain statuses in order to be a presidential candidate. What
status does Ilgar Mammadov have? All the views reflected in the report
are false,” he said.

Speaker Ogtay Asadov said those bodies do not love Azerbaijan.

“They do not love us. What should we do? Though the problems are
solved, they will find another issue. But the issue raised by them
will be solved in itself. We can not solve these issues by force.

Everyone will see that these problems will be solved,” he said.

KEY PLAYERS IN UKRAINE CRISIS

ABC Premium News (Australia)
March 3, 2014 Monday 7:42 PM AEST

Viktor Yanukovych

Mr Yanukovych was elected as Ukraine president in 2010 elections,
however his decision to walk away from a trade agreement with
the European Union in favour of closer economic ties with Russia
last November sparked bloody protests that led to his ouster this
month. He appears to be gone from the capital, Kiev, however it
is unclear whether he plans to resign. RIA has cited Russian prime
minister Dimitry Medvedev as saying that under Ukraine’s constitution
Mr Yanukovych is the legitimate head of state, despite his authority
being practically non-existent.

Vitali Klitschko

Mr Klitschko (aka. Dr Ironfist) has been one of the main voices of
opposition to Mr Yanukovych. The 42-year-old former WBC heavyweight
boxing champion heads the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform
and has confirmed that he will nominate for the presidency at the
May 25 national election. However, despite his high profile he has
failed twice to be elected mayor of Kiev. In an interview with former
ABC Moscow correspondent Eric Campbell, he spoke of his political
motivations: “We’re fighting for the future, for our family, and for
our kids. We want to live in a democratic country.”

Yulia Tymoshenko

Ms Tymoshenko, who lost the 2010 presidential election to Mr
Yanukovych, looks set to be Mr Klitschko’s main rival in any
elections. The former prime minister was freed from prison on February
22 after serving two years of a seven-year sentence for abuse of
authority over a natural gas deal negotiated with Russia, a punishment
the US and Europe saw as politically motivated. The pro-EU politician
is a divisive figure in Ukraine, commanding devotion from some and
contempt from others who are disillusioned with a political class
widely seen as a corrupt and elitist. In an address to protesters
in Kiev’s Independence Square upon her release, she called those who
died in recent clashes “liberators”.

Oleksandr Turchynov

Mr Turchynov, the former parliamentary speaker named as Ukraine’s
acting president, was an important figure in the 2004 Orange Revolution
and considered the right-hand man of Ms Tymoshenko as first deputy
leader of her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party. Mr Turchynov was
said to have angered some protesters when, after Mr Yanukovych’s
apparent departure from Kiev, he told them that they had achieved
their goals and should go home. He has called for the formation of
a unity government as soon as possible and says priorities include
saving the economy and “returning to the path of European integration”.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Mr Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s new prime minister, has led the opposition
Fatherland party since December 2012. The 39-year-old former lawyer, a
prominent figure during the recent protests, held top posts in previous
governments, including foreign minister and governor of the central
bank. He stood in the first round of the 2010 presidential election
but won less than 7 per cent of the vote, despite an intercepted
phone call in which US envoy Victoria Nuland described him as the
“guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience”.

Arsen Avakov

Mr Avakov took over the powerful post of interior minister after
Ukraine MPs dismissed Vitaly Zakharchenko, an ally of Mr Yanukovych,
following two days of carnage in Kiev. An active Facebook user,
he has been posting Russian-language updates on the hunt for Mr
Yanukovych, often before official sources are told. He also posted
an update on what he called Russia’s “armed invasion and occupation”
by Russian forces of a military airport near the port of Sevastopol,
where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base. Another member of Ms
Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party, the ethnic Armenian former businessman
has also flagged an inquiry into the shootings of demonstrators in
Kiev between February 18 and 20.

Oleh Tyahnybok

Mr Tyahnybok has led the far-right opposition party Svoboda, or
Freedom – whose activists were prominent among the protesters – for
the past decade. The party, Ukraine’s fourth-largest, campaigns on
promoting traditional Ukrainian values and culture. Mr Tyahnybok, who
stood for president in 2010 but took just 1.4 per cent of the vote,
has appeared alongside Mr Klitschko and Mr Yatsenyuk onstage in the
Maidan. According to the Svoboda website, Mr Tyahnybok’s childhood home
was frequently searched by the Soviet security service, KGB, and he and
his family spent seven years in exile in Siberia after his grandfather,
Artemij Tsehelskyj, refused to join the Moscow-affiliated church.

Andriy Parubiy

Appointed secretary of the security and National Defence Committee,
which supervises the defence ministry and the armed forces, Mr Parubiy
is now Ukraine’s top security official. The Fatherland MP, who served
as the party’s parliamentary head and chief negotiator during the
protests and enjoys widespread support on the street, has emerged
as one of the most visible and influential leaders of the opposition
movement. A former lawyer and Ukrainian foreign minister, Mr Parubiy
shares the pro-EU stance of Mr Klitschko and Ms Tymoshenko. He has
also accused the Kremlin of commanding armed groups in Сrimea,
which has led Ukraine to put its armed forces on full combat alert.

Yuriy Lutsenko

Mr Lutsenko, the leader of the Third Ukrainian Republic opposition
movement, led protests against Mr Yanukovych but was hospitalised after
being beaten in clashes that erupted between pro-EU demonstrators and
club-wielding police. Mr Lutsenko – who served as Ms Tymoshenko’s
interior minister – had been imprisoned for abuse of office and
embezzlement, however his sentence was criticised as being politically
motivated, and after lobbying from the European Union he was released
and pardoned.

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA: AZERBAIJANI DISTORTION OF THE EVENTS IN KHOJALY

PR Newswire
March 3, 2014 Monday 10:05 AM EST

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2014

Azerbaijani diplomacy and propaganda continues to mislead the
international community and Azerbaijani people by falsifying
the essence and the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and
the facts about the Khojaly events in particular. By distorting
the Khojaly events, Azerbaijani regime attempts to escape the
responsibility for the Armenian massacres in Sumgait (February,
1988), Kirovabad (November, 1988), Baku (January, 1990), Maragha
(April 1992) and against its own population in Khojaly. Azerbaijan
strives to portray itself as a victim, thus trying to prepare a moral
ground both domestically and internationally to unleash another war
against Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan continues to reject international appeals, including
by the European Court of Human Rights, to openly debate about the
events in Khojaly. In that regard one can only ask why all who have
expressed points of views differing from Azerbaijani official version
of the events have been either killed, like journalist Mustafaev,
or imprisoned like journalist Fatullayev, or politically persecuted
like Ayaz Mutalibov, the first president of Azerbaijan?

In reality Khojaly village was one of the Azerbaijani strongholds in
the heart of Nagorno-Karabakh which for many months as Human Rights
Watch put it “pounded the capital of Nagorno Karabakh, Stepanakert,
and other Armenian towns and villages with shells and grenades. The
indiscriminate shelling and sniper shooting killed or maimed hundreds
of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals and other objects that are
not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian
population”.[1] Therefore, suppressing the Azerbaijani fire had become
a matter of survival for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

As Azerbaijani journalist Eynulla Fatullayev stated “And even several
days prior to the attack, the Armenians had been continuously warning
the population about the planned operation through loudspeakers
and suggesting that the civilians abandon the town and escape from
the encirclement through a humanitarian corridor. According to the
Khojaly refugees’ own words, they had used this corridor and, indeed,
the Armenian soldiers positioned behind the corridor had not opened
fire on them”[2].

However, goes on Fatullayev “… part of the Khojaly inhabitants
had been fired upon by our own [Azerbaijani troops]… Whether it
was done intentionally or not is to be determined by investigators
… [They were killed] not by [some] mysterious [shooters], but by
provocateurs from the NFA[3] battalions … [The corpses] had been
mutilated by our own …”[4].

Ayaz Mutalibov, then the president of Azerbaijan blamed his political
opponents for killings in Khojaly. He stated in an interview that
“…the corridor, by which people could escape, had nonetheless been
left by the Armenians. So, why did they have to open fire? Especially
in the area around Aghdam, where there was sufficient force at
that time to get help to the people. As the Khojali inhabitants,
who narrowly escaped, say, it was all organized in order to have
grounds for my resignation. Some forces functioned for the effort to
discredit the president”[5].

The fact that Khojaly inhabitants felt victim of fierce domestic
political strife for power in Azerbaijan was confirmed also by then
Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Supreme Council Karayev and his successor
Mamedov, Azerbaijani Human Rights Activist Yunusov and others.

Heydar Aliyev, then a presidential hopeful in Azerbaijan stated that
“…the bloodshed will profit us. We should not interfere in the
course of events”[6].

Mr. Fatullayev, the Chief Editor of the Azerbaijani newspaper “Realny
Azerbaijan” spent many years in prison for alleged defamation of
inhabitants of Khojaly. He appealed to the European court of Human
Rights, which ruled that the Azerbaijani government shall immediately
release Fatullayev. He was eventually released in 2011 and shortly
after confirmed to Radio Liberty that he has not changed his views
on Khojaly events and held “Azerbaijani fighters, not Armenians,
responsible for the 1992 killings” of Khojaly inhabitants[7].

The Azerbaijani aggressive rhetoric and distortion of history, backed
by the billions worth acquisition of offensive weaponry[8], bares
serious threat to the security and stability for the whole region
and thus should be adequately countered by the international community.

Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America

[1]

[2]
{“fulltext”:[“fatullayev”],”itemid”:[“001-98401”]}

[3] National Front of Azerbaijan. In 1992 an opposition militarized
party, which came to power after the Khojaly events.

[4] ‘Case of Fatullayev v Azerbaijan’ (Application
no. 40984/07) European Court of Human Rights
{“fulltext”:[“fatullayev”],”itemid”:[“001-98401”]}

[5] ‘Nezavisimaya Gazetta’, 2 April 1992 (Russia)

[6] ‘Bilik-Dunyasi Agency’, April 1992 (Azerbaijan)

[7]

[8] Azerbaijan made the largest real percentage increase (89 per cent)
in military spending in the world. “Background paper on SIPRI military
expenditure data, 2011”

SOURCE Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States
of America

ARMENIANS IN UKRAINE – MORE THAN 100 THOUSAND ARMENIANS LIVE IN UKRAINE

March 3, 2014

Armenians in Ukraine are ethnic Armenians who live in Ukraine. They
number 99,894 according to the 2001 Ukrainian census. However, the
country is also host to a number of Armenian guest workers which
has yet to be ascertained. The Armenian population in Ukraine has
nearly doubled since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989,
largely due to instability in the Caucasus. Today, Ukraine is home
to the 11th largest Armenian community in the world.

EARLY HISTORY

Armenians first appeared in Ukraine during the times of Kievan Rus’.

During the 10th century individual Armenian merchants, mercenaries and
craftsmen served at the courts of various Ruthenian rulers. A larger
wave of Armenians settled in southeastern Ukraine after the fall of the
Armenian capital of Ani to Seljuks in the 11th century. They arrived
mainly at the Crimean peninsula and established colonies in Kaffa
(Feodosiya), Sudak and Solcati (Staryi Krym). Their numbers were
further strengthened throughout the 12th-15th century by Armenians
fleeing from a Mongol invasion. This gave the peninsula the name
Armenia Maritima in medieval chronicles. Smaller Armenian communities
were established in central Ukraine, including Kiev, and the western
regions of Podolia and Halychyna, concentrating around Lviv which in
1267 became the center of an Armenian eparchy.

At the end of the thirteenth century, when members of the Armenian
diaspora moved from the Crimean peninsula to the Polish-Ukrainian
borderland, they brought Armeno-Kipchak, a Turkic language with them.

Armeno-Kipchak of the Kipchak people was still current in the 16th
and 17th centuries among the Armenian communities settling in the
Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi area of what is now Ukraine.

After Crimea fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1475 many Crimean Armenians
moved further to the north west to the already flourishing Armenian
communities which gradually integrated into the local Polish population
while maintaining their distinct identity through the Armenian Catholic
Church. In the 18th century Crimea fell under influence of the Russian
Empire, which encouraged Crimean Armenians to settle in Russia and a
large group of them came to the town of Rostov on Don in 1778, twenty
years later Russia having conquered the peninsula called to colonize
it and many Armenians arrived from Turkey, establishing new Armenian
colonies. During World War II in 1944 Armenians were deported en masse
along with Greeks, Bulgarians and Tatars as a “antisoviet element”
and allowed to return only in the 1960s. During Soviet rule Armenians
came together with people from other Soviet ruled nations to Ukraine to
work in the heavy industry located in the eastern parts of the country.

THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY TODAY

Today, the Donetsk Oblast holds the greatest number of Armenians
in Ukraine (~16 000, 0.33% of the population). Armenian communities
can also be found in Dnipropetrovsk,Kharkiv, Kherson, Kiev, Luhansk,
Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Odessa where the late Ukrainian-Armenian
artist Sarkis Ordyan spent most of his life.

The Armenians continue to have a historic presence in Crimea, which is
today an autonomous republic of Ukraine. The 9 000 Armenians make up
0.43% of the population in the area and are numerous in major urban
centers such as Sevastopol where they comprise 0.3% of the city’s
population. Hovhannes Aivazovsky, the world-renowned Armenian painter
lived and worked his entire life in the Crimean city of Feodosiya.

Many Armenians living in Ukraine have been Russified with about half
speaking Armenian as their mother tongue but over 43% speaking Russian
and only 6% Ukrainian.

photo: The Armenian church in Lviv

Armenians in Ukraine by oblasts according to 2001 Ukrainian Census

RankRegionNumber of Armenians 1 Donetsk 15,700 2 Kharkiv 11,100 3
Dnipropetrovsk 10,600 4 Autonomous Republic of Crimea8,700 5 Odessa
7,400 6 Luhansk 6,600 7 Zaporizhia 6,400 8 City of Kiev4,900 9 Kherson
4,500 10 Mykolaiv 4,300 11 Poltava 2,600 12 Kiev 2,300 13 Cherkasy
Oblast1,700 14 Sevastopol (city council)1,300 15 Sumy Oblast1,200
16 Vinnytsia Oblast1,100 17 Zhytomyr Oblast800 18 Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblast300 19 Rivne 300

OROGEN GOLD DISCOVERS NEW SHALLOW GOLD ZONE AT MUTSK IN ARMENIA

London South East
March 3 2014

Mon, 3rd Mar 2014 12:22
By Tom McIvor

LONDON (Alliance News) – Orogen Gold PLC Monday said drilling has
discovered a wide gold zone at the Mutsk site in Armenia and the
company is planning further drilling in spring.

The gold mining company, with operations in the Eastern Europe, said
first step out drilling at the site has discovered a shallow depth
wide gold zone of 59.5 metres at 0.42 grams per tonne of gold and a
42 metre space at 0.78 grams per tonne of gold.

The company said the discovery has opened the potential for larger
gold deposits at Mutsk as the limits of the high grade zones at the
site are currently undefined.

Orogen Gold said that it has identified several gold and multi-element
soil anomalies, and it is planning geophysics and further drilling
at during the Spring months of 2014.

The company also signed a comprehensive joint venture agreement
with its Armenian partner Georaid CJSC, covering the Mutsk property,
which details terms for all work on the property, up to and including
Feasibility Study, if warranted.

Orogen Gold shares were down 1.2% to 0.257 pence Monday.

ARMENIA TO INTRODUCE NEW VACCINE FOR CHILDREN

03.03.2014 16:38 epress.am

Armenia’s Ministry of Healthcare plans to introduce a pneumococcal
vaccine for children. The issue was discussed at a board meeting of
the ministry today.

“We definitely have to implement this program. The arguments brought
forth are quite convincing. As a result of [administering] the vaccine,
we will have a decrease in pneumonia and meningitis among children
under 5, thereby preventing infant mortality,” said RA Minister of
Healthcare Derenik Dumanyan, according to a statement on the ministry’s
website [AM].

Head of the ministry’s national immunization program Gayane Sahakyan
said that, according to the World Health Organization, in 2008,
of the 8.8 million deaths in the world among children under five,
476,000 were caused by pneumococcal infections. The mortality rate
for children under one from pneumococcal septicemia goes up to 20%;
in the case of meningitis, up to 50%.

Board members today unanimously approved the program.

GEORGIAN EXPERT: DESPITE THE FOREIGN POLITICAL CHOICE, UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA, GEORGIA HOPES FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT

by David Stepanyan

Monday, March 3, 15:12

Despite the foreign political choice of our countries, understanding
the importance of relations with Armenia, Georgia hopes for their
development, an expert of the Centre for Strategical Studies (Tbilisi),
Georgi Gvimradze, told ArmInfo correspondent when commenting on the
results of Georgian president’s visit to Armenia.

“The new government of Georgia came to the power at the period
when a rather important foreign political issue was on the agenda
of both Georgia and Armenia. I mean initialing of the Association
Agreement with the EU. At present we have been waiting for signing the
Association Agreement and DCFTA, while Armenia is joining the Customs
Union. So, I think the key task of Tbilisi and Yerevan in the short
term prospect is to draw out the ways and machinery which would make
it possible to combine these arrangements without creation of obstacles
to our partnership in the economic direction, first of all”, – he said.

The expert also added that in Georgia they understand the importance of
partnership with Armenia and, despite foreign political preferences
of the two states, hope for their development. At the same time,
he emphasized that establishment of relations with Russia is also a
sensitive topic of the Georgian policy.

ANKARA OFFERED SMALL CHANCE TO EU CHAPTER

15:04 â~@¢ 03.03.14

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan with European Parliament President
Schulz, European Union Council President van Rompuy ( and European
Commission President Barroso in Brussels (Reuters photo)

Reluctant to open new chapters with Turkey, the EU Commission instead
offered to hold a working group meeting with Ankara on Chapter 23,
which covers the judiciary and fundamental rights, the Hurriyet Daily
News has learned.

The proposal, which was conveyed to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
and EU Minister Mevlut Cavushoglu on Feb. 11 during the Turkey-EU
Political Dialogue meeting, is interpreted as an indication of
hesitation from the EU to open new membership negotiation chapters
due to recent political developments in Turkey.

The EU has been repeatedly expressing concern over a series of recently
passed laws by the Turkish government, following the revelation of
corruption in graft probes that have shaken the government since
December.

Brussels has publicly urged the government several times to take
every necessary measure to ensure the allegations of wrongdoing are
addressed without discrimination or preference, and in a transparent
and impartial manner.

Turkey wants to open Chapter 17, on economic and monetary union,
Chapter 24, on justice, freedom and security, in 2014, as well as
Chapter 23. However, no work has been accomplished to allow Turkey to
meet the opening benchmarks on these chapters, according to officials
familiar with the negotiations.

Turkey had pinned its hopes on French President Francois Hollande,
whose country still holds a block on four negotiation chapters.

Although Hollande said France was in favor of the continuation of
technical talks, he did not mention opening Chapter 17 during his
visit to Ankara in January, a Turkish official said. Chapter 17 has
no opening benchmarks.

For the opening of Chapters 23 and 24, countries such as France and
Germany are expected to persuade Greek Cyprus to remove its blockade,
but Ankara has not received any signals in this direction. Therefore,
establishing a working group on Chapter 23 is interpreted as signifying
the EU Commission’s willingness to continue working with Turkey to
move forward to help it meet its opening benchmarks.

The same methodology has been used for Chapter 22, on regional
policy, whose opening was delayed due to a number of EU countries’
objections to the Turkish government’s brutal crackdown on the Gezi
Park protests last summer. The Commission offered to hold a working
group including civic society groups such as the Taksim Solidarity
Platform, as third parties, but Ankara rejected the idea at the time,
the Daily News learned.

Armenian News – Tert.am

L’EDITION ANGLAISE DE > A ETE PUBLIE PAR L’INSTITUT ZORYAN

ARMENIE

L’Institut Zoryan ( Toronto ) , a publie l’edition anglaise de > . Le livre comprend des centaines de
telegrammes , lettres et rapports des fonctionnaires consulaires
allemands dans l’Empire ottoman a destination de l’Office des
Affaires etrangères a Berlin . Les documents fournissent la preuve
sans equivoque de l’intention genocidaire des Jeunes-Turcs et la
complicite du gouvernement allemand .

L’importance exceptionnelle de ces documents est soulignee par
le fait que seuls les diplomates allemands et les fonctionnaires
militaires ont pu envoyer des rapports non censures de la Turquie
lors de la Première Guerre mondiale. Outre les Americains , qui sont
restes neutres dans la guerre jusqu’au 6 Avril 1917 les diplomates
allemands et leurs informateurs dans les missions ou les employes
du chemin de fer de Bagdad ont ete les plus importants temoins non –
americains du genocide .

Ces documents , destines a un usage strictement interne et jamais
destines a la publication , sont remarquables par leurs revelations
franches. Meme en tant qu’allies de l’Empire ottoman , les autorites
allemandes s’estimaient encore obliges pour des raisons morales et
politiques de signaler et se plaindre des atrocites commises contre
les Armeniens par leur allie ottoman .

Journaliste allemand , historien et traducteur Wolfgang Gust, qui a
compile et edite le livre , a dit qu’il a ete choque quand il a su que
l’Allemagne a garde le silence , tandis que les massacres ont eu lieu
dans une part de l’Europe . Gust a declare :