Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Radio Arménie
Alec Yénikomishian : La Diaspora doit s’engager pour sauver l’Arménie

Ce matin, samedi 21 septembre, à 11h, à l’occasion du 22ème
anniversaire de la prise d’indépendance de la République d’Arménie,
Movsès Nissanian recevra sur Radio Arménie l’un des héros de la guerre
du Karabagh, Alec Yénikomishian, dans son émission hebdomadaire Entrez
sans frapper .

Écouter le direct ICI

samedi 21 septembre 2013,
Jean Eckian ©armenews.com
`281

Interfax, Russia
September 20, 2013 Friday 10:42 AM MSK

EBRD welcomes Armenia’s decision to join Russia-led Customs Union

YEREVAN. Sept 20

Armenia could genuinely benefit from joining the Customs Union of
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, including because of a possible
reduction in prices for Russian natural gas, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development’s regional director for the South
Caucasus, Moldova and Belarus, Bruno Balvanero said at a press
conference on Thursday.

He said Customs Union countries have the same tariff on natural gas,
and this is one of the privileges of membership in this organization.
This will have a positive impact on the Armenian economy and help curb
inflation, Balvanero said.

However, it is still early to talk about the specific economic
benefits of joining, since the country has just made the decision and
only begun negotiations, he added.

The price of Russian gas in Armenia rose to $270 per 1,000 cubic
meters on April 1, 2013 from $180 earlier.

Balvanero also said that the new head of the EBRD’s Yerevan office
will be Mark Davis, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs from
2010 to 2012 and Morgan Stanley from 2007 to 2010.

Davis told reporters that the EBRD’s priorities in Armenia will remain
infrastructure projects, agriculture, stimulating exports, energy,
industry, as well as the banking sector, where there is a lot of work
to do.

The EBRD has provided more than 656 million euros in financing for 120
projects in Armenia. In 2012, the bank signed agreements for another
15 programs totalling 94 million euros.

Vp ak

Xinhua General News Service
September 20, 2013 Friday 1:25 AM EST

Interview: Armenia’s economic development depends on regional
stability, says expert

YEREVAN Armenia, Sept. 19

Armenia’s economic development will remain under question without a
peaceful settlement of the military conflicts in the region, said an
Armenian expert in a recent interview with Xinhua.

For the last couple of years, Armenia has had the vision of
transforming the resort town of Dilijan into a financial center of the
South Caucasus region, but lacks necessary conditions such as
stability in the region and good-neighborly relations, said Vahagn
Khachaturyan, vice president of Political Legal Economic Research and
Forecast Center (PLERF).

Armenia and its neighbor Azerbaijan are locked in a decades-long feud
over the region of Nagorny-Karabakh. The two sides have not yet signed
a deal on the disputed enclave.

A peaceful settlement of the Nagorny-Karabakh conflict and the
situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia are crucial to the economic
development of the region, otherwise communications will not be
exploited to their full strength, said Khachaturyan.

The expert also stressed the importance of the railroad connecting
landlocked Armenia with Iran, saying that “without an exit to the
east, it will be quite difficult for Armenia to be involved in
large-scale economic projects.”

Currently, Armenia is in isolation because of the Karabakh conflict.
The pipeline Baku-Jeyhan and the railroad Baku-Tbilisi-Kars went past
Armenia even though it would be much cheaper to go through the
country, Khachaturyan said regretfully.

To expand its transaction space, Armenia has concluded negotiations on
a free trade deal with the European Union (EU), bringing it within
reach of formalizing closer ties with the bloc at a summit in
November.

In addition, Armenia is getting ready to join a customs union grouping
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Regarding these two deals, Khachaturyan has his own opinions.

He believes that the best option for Armenia would be the possibility
of benefiting both from the Customs Union and the Deep and
Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), an economic and trade document
with the EU, without necessarily joining one or the other structure.

But for such a possibility, Armenia had to express its will in that
regard openly, he added.

President Xi Jinping: China and Armenia have always assisted and had
respect toward one another

September 21, 2013 | 17:10

President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China congratulated
President Serzh Sargsyan and the people of Armenia, on the occasion of
the 22nd anniversary of Armenia’s independence.

`China is glad that, under your leadership, the Armenian people have
achieved great success in nation-building. We wish to the people of
your country greater successes on the road of development of the
state.

`Over the course of the 21 years since the establishment of diplomatic
relations, China and Armenia have always assisted and had respect
toward one another, jointly surmounted the difficulties, and earnestly
cooperated.

`The political interaction between the sides is constantly
strengthening, [and] the cooperation has achieved great results.

`I give a lot of attention to the development of Armenian-Chinese
relations. I stand ready with you to exert all efforts to raise
Armenian-Chinese relations to a new level, [and] for the benefit of
the two countries and peoples,’ the Chinese president’s congratulatory
message specifically states.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN SLIPPED OFF

The Hraparak Daily reminds that Tigran Virabyan, head of agricultural
department of Ararat’s governor’s office, was arrested for breaches
of diesel fuel subsidy program. And since he gave subsidized fuel to
Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan’s relatives, the high-ranking beneficiaries
were expected to help Virabyan, especially that he threatened to
mention a lot of people in his testimony. Later Virabyan was remanded
in custody, and his term was prolonged. It seemed that the ex-official
would be judged.

According to the message of the Special Investigative Service, Virabyan
was charged with embezzlement of 2012-2013 government assistance to
subsidize the price of diesel fuel for farmers.

The head of the information service of the SIS Michael Aharonyan
informed that Virabyan did not utter any high-ranking official’s name,
pleaded guilty and even regretted for his actions. “We have also
learned that Virabyan has return the greater part of about 14 million
drams of damage. Hence, Virabyan is loyal to the government and he may
be acquitted or sentence to a light punishment,” the newspaper wrote.

11:59 21/09/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

JONATHAN AVES: UK WILL CONTINUE TO WORK WITH ARMENIA

11:34 21/09/2013 ” POLITICS

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has congratulated the people of Armenia
on the 22nd anniversary of independence, according to the Facebook
page of the UK Embassy in Armenia.

Ambassador Jonathan Aves commented, “This is a proud day for the
people of Armenia. The establishment of an independent, sovereign
Armenian Republic is a great achievement. The UK will continue to
work with Armenia as it seeks a secure and prosperous future.”

Source: Panorama.am

NETHERLANDS RETURNS FOUR STOLEN ICONS 18 YEARS AFTER DISCOVERY

Cyprus Mail
September 19, 2013 Thursday

By Peter Stevenson

THE Dutch government handed over four icons looted from a monastery
in northern Cyprus to the island’s ambassador to the Netherlands,
Kyriacos Kouros, in a ceremony yesterday in The Hague.

The 16th-century icons portraying the four apostles, valued at about
EUR150,000, were taken from the medieval Antiphonitis monastery in
1975. Legal efforts by the Church of Cyprus to recover the icons failed
in 2002 after a seven-year legal battle but a change in Dutch law in
2007 allowed the government to finally lay claim to the artworks.

“We have heard that the icons will be delivered to Cypriot authorities
within 48 hours,” Tasoula Hadjitofi, the founder of Walk of Truth,
an organisation that campaigns to preserve cultural heritage told
delegates at a September 16 conference in The Hague. “The Netherlands
should be congratulated for this.”

The Cypriot government says that as many as 100 Greek Orthodox and
Armenian churches in northern Cyprus were looted or vandalised after
the 1974 Turkish invasion. It estimates that more than 15,000 icons
are missing. Some objects have been recovered in Western Europe and
the United States.

The four looted icons of the saints were reportedly purchased by
an elderly Dutch couple from an Armenian dealer who visited their
Rotterdam home. When the couple tried to auction the icons in the
1990s, employees of Christie’s International warned that they may be
stolen. A court case to recover them began in 1995.

A district court ruled that the Dutch purchaser bought the icons in
good faith and was therefore the rightful owner. The Court of Appeals
found that the claim was time-barred under statutes of limitations
in 2002, according to Rob Polak, the Amsterdam-based lawyer who
represented the Church of Cyprus in the legal process.

Questions about the ruling were raised in the Dutch parliament, and
in 2007, the Cultural Property Originating From Occupied Territories
Act was passed.

The law bans the import and ownership of cultural property originating
from a territory that was occupied in an armed conflict after 1959,
and allows the Minister of Education, Culture and Science to seize any
such property. In cases where the owner is deemed to be a good-faith
buyer, he may receive compensation from the Dutch state, according
to Bloomberg.

“The Netherlands tested its laws, found they were at fault, and fixed
them,” said Hadjitofi, who devoted herself to recovering looted art
after a Dutch dealer approached her offering to sell stolen Cypriot
artefacts. “Maybe other countries such as Germany could learn from
this.”

Over 170 religious artefacts including icons, murals and mosaics from
the stolen collection of Turkish looter Aydin Dikmen were returned
to the Republic of Cyprus in a special ceremony in Munich in July.

“The artworks are no longer needed as evidence and now they can return
‘home’,” German Justice Minister Beate Merk said in a statement at
the time, adding “Cultural treasures are of immense importance for
every nation”.

ARARAT ARMENIAN BRANDY, OUR DRINK OF THE WEEK!

OC Weekly, CA
Sept 20 2013

By Dave Lieberman

Armenians have been making wine for so long that there’s serious
scholarly debate whether they were the first winemakers in the world.

Let’s put it this way: they were pressing and fermenting grapes while
my northern European ancestors were still figuring out that pointy
things kill animals and long before the great Mesoamerican empires
discovered the miracle of getting the nutrients out of corn.

It’s no surprise, then, that when the secrets of distillation swept
the globe, some of that Armenian wine turned into brandy, which,
given the technology of the time, was sealed up in wooden casks to
keep for later, lending it a dark color and a warm, rich, spicy taste
imparted by the wood.

There used to be many brandy makers; when Armenia was joined to the
Soviet Union, the Yerevan Brandy Company was given a monopoly, and its
Ararat brands were the only brands of Armenian brandy for many years.

There’s a (probably apocryphal) story that Josef Stalin gave Winston
Churchill a bottle of Armenian brandy that was so good that Churchill
ordered several cases. Regardless, the fact is that “cognac” is
the country’s most well-known export, and it’s only increased since
Yerevan Brandy Company was purchased by Pernod-Ricard in 1998.

Speaking of Pernod-Ricard, the French get a little nettled when they
see labels that say Cognac on bottles that don’t come from Cognac,
so in the interests of international harmony, the Armenian government
decided pretty much unilaterally that the Armenian product would be
called arbun, which is supposed to be a play on words for the Armenian
word for “drunk” (which I don’t buy–“drunk” in Armenian is harbats).

If you call it arbun, no Armenian will have the least clue what you
mean–they still call it kanyak, French hand-wringing nothwithstanding.

Drunk neat, Akhtamar (the 10-year brandy) has a softer edge than
Cognac, but a much more floral, rich, herbaceous taste. This is
something you can put in a snifter and serve to your guests after
dinner, then make them guess what they’re drinking.

If you’re going to mix it (in which case you may want to buy a younger
brandy), adjust the sweetness of your cocktail down a bit; for example,
don’t sugar the rim of a Sidecar made with Armenian brandy, and add
an extra dash or two of pungent bitters to your Old Fashioned.

This will account for the natural sweetness of the brandy. Don’t stop
there, though–with bitters on top of the meringue a la Pisco sour, it
makes a wonderful sour; add it to wine to make an outstanding sangria.

Brandy is one of the next big things, now that we’re at full saturation
on vodka, American whiskey, and tequila. As demand rises, there’ll be
a renaissance in Armenian brandies; get ahead of the curve and pick
up a bottle of this at Hi-Time Wine so you know what to compare the
newcomers to.

LECTURE SHEDS LIGHT ON AITNAB LEGACY

Friday, September 20th, 2013

Umit Kurt during his presentation

BY HASMIK PILIPOSYAN

Aintabtsi Hayer, miatsek! (Armenians of Aintab, Unite!)

The Ararat Eskijian Museum wore the image of Old Aintab on Sunday,
September 15 as fifty or more true Aintabtsis and supporters gathered
to hear a lecture by Umit Kurt, PhD candidate in the department of
History at Clark University. The lecture, titled The Emergence of the
New Wealthy Class Between 1915-1922: The Seizure of Armenian Property
by Local Elites in Aintab, focused on the importance of acquiring
Armenian wealth and material possessions to the local Kurds and Turks
in Aintab before and during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. To what
extent did the lust for Armenian property act as a motive for the
killings? Kurt described a “link between the role of stolen Armenian
assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which
makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process”. The fate
of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and
Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.

Material rewards were given for collaboration at the regional level.

In Kurt’s words, “the large distribution of Armenian property provided
a useful incentive that strongly reinforced Armenian hatred and
other political and personal issues.” Besides the local elites, many
other state companies were also involved in the seizure of Armenian
properties including auction houses, property assessors, trustees, and
transportation companies in support of Turkish anti-Armenian policies
in Aintab. The opportunities for success and growth facilitated the
removal of Armenians, whereas the effects of the loss of properties
to the victims were demoralizing and stigmatizing. Additionally,
the deportation of Armenians to the Syrian Desert proved effective in
separating them from their properties as they were made not to return.

A new local wealthy class emerged and prospered through the obtainment
of Armenian wealth and property.

After the lecture, Umit Kurt displayed a short film called My Father’s
Aintab and old and recent images of the Armenian quarter in Aintab.

The evening followed with a Q&A session where one of the audience
members asked Umit why he chose to research the destruction of Aintab’s
Armenians and their properties. As a native of Aintab, when Umit was
younger, he did not know about the presence of Armenians or about
the Armenian quarter in Aintab. When one of his friends invited him
to a unique coffee shop to meet, Umit’s life and interests changed
forever. When he reached the coffee shop, he first noticed the
intricately carved, monumental front door of the coffee shop and was
amazed at the internal beauty and homey design, which contained every
feature of an Armenian home. He asked the owner, who was Turkish,
to show him around the place and the upstairs section composed of
many rooms aesthetically extrinsic to Umit’s eyes. Umit noticed
the numbers “1894” (when the first Hamidian massacres took place)
on the wall and asked about the previous owner. The man replied,
“I don’t know, Armenians were here.” Later, he discovered that a man
named Nazaret Agha of the Kimia family owned the house, before it
became a coffee shop. It became the groundbreaking point in his life
where he sought out to research the history of the Aintab Armenians
and in the meanwhile, also write his own story.

Umit Kurt is of Kurdish descent maternally, but is not certain of his
father’s side. He is a PhD candidate at Clark University and student
of Taner Akcam, a prominent scholar on the Armenian Genocide. During
the Q&A session, Umit was asked if he received any objections or had
been tried for “insulting Turkishness”, in which he responded that
he has not yet encountered any objections from the Turkish government
regarding his research on the stolen Armenian properties. In the last
minutes, Umit Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He said,
“I don’t work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to reckon
their own historical wrongdoings.”

YEREVAN BUSINESS FAIR TO ASSIST SYRIAN-ARMENIANS

10:18, September 20, 2013

The “Countries Under the Same Roof” festival kicks off today at
Yerevan’s Northern Avenue.

Running until Sunday, aims to showcase Armenian manufactured goods
by bringing together import/export companies and local producers.

Also on hand will be diapora Armenian investors and representatives
from foreign embassies and consulates based in Armenia.

The bulk of the proceeds will be earmarked towards assisting
Syrian-Armenians.