Author: Kajoyan Gevork

APA, Azerbaijan
May 22 2013

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry investigates reports that Montserrat
Caballé will give concert in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories

[ 22 May 2013 12:07 ]

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva – APA. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs is investigating the reports issued by the Armenian media that
famous Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballé will give a concert in
the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Foreign Ministry spokesman
Elman Abdullayev told APA.

Armenian media reported that Montserrat Caballé will give a concert in
Yerevan and Khankendi, the occupied town of Azerbaijan, together with
the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia. She will give a concert in
Khankendi on June 4 and in Yerevan on June 9. The tickets have already
been put up for sale.

Bernama, Malaysia
May 22 2013

Azerbaijan, Spain Discuss Military Cooperation

BAKU (Azerbaijan), May 22 (Bernama) — Azerbaijan and Spain discussed
military cooperation as Defence Minister Safar Abiyev met his Spanish
counterpart, Pedro de Morenes y Alvarez de Eulate, here, Azerbaijan’s
Azertac reported.

Abiyev provided an insight into the development of Azerbaijani armed
forces since the country regained its independence, highlighting
Azerbaijan’s achievements as a result of expansion of relations with
the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), particularly
modernisation of the army.

He briefed the Spanish minister on military and political situation in
the region, as well as the causes of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Minister noted that the Azerbaijani lands have been under
occupation for 20 years, adding Armenia doesn’t want to quit its
policy of aggression.

“Azerbaijan must strengthen its Armed Forces by all means. The four
resolutions of the United Nations have not been fulfilled yet. The
activity of Minsk Group has not produced any results,” he stressed.

The Spanish minister said that the fact that four UN Security Council
resolutions on the conflict have not been fulfilled could lead to
serious consequences.

The minister said he supported the implementation of the resolutions
and reiterated that the UN resolutions, aimed at establishing peace,
must be fulfilled.

The two ministers also stressed the importance of signing an agreement
on military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Spain.

— BERNAMA

Xinhua General News Service, China
May 21, 2013 Tuesday 9:25 AM EST

Gas prices set to rise in Armenia

YEREVAN May 21

A Russian-controlled company providing natural gas to Armenia had
applied to raise prices, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said Monday.

ArmRusgasprom CJSC has asked the Public Services Regulatory Commission
to reset the gas price to 221,000 AMD (530 U.S. dollars) from 132,000
AMD (316 dollars) per thousand cubic meters, Sargsyan told a
parliamentary session.

Russia sells gas to Armenia at 189 dollars per thousand cubic meters,
the same price it charges Belarus, which is considered to be the
cheapest in the international market, he said.

However, Sargsyan said, an additional 30-percent export tax is added
to gas provided to Armenia because it is not a member of the Customs
Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The Armenian government has announced it will subsidize 30 percent of
the gas price for vulnerable social groups.

The Commission has made no decision on the final price of gas. The
commission is an independent state body that regulates prices in the
sectors of water, electricity and gas supplies.

Interfax, Russia
May 21 2013

Compromise based on sides’ lawful interests to solve Karabakh problem – Lavrov

MOSCOW. May 21

The cochairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group for the Karabakh conflict
settlement will visit the region shortly, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said.

“The next regional trip of the cochairman will take place already
tomorrow. The work goes on,” he told a press conference after
negotiations with Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

“No one is going to give up; we will be doing the utmost to help
create conditions for resolution of this problem although, obviously,
it can be resolved only by the concerned parties and we will help them
do that. There must be no hasty opinions that nothing will work out
because of stagnation. I am confident everything is possible if we
search for a compromise based on the account of lawful interests of
the sides,” the minister stressed.

He said he had agreed with Mammadyarov that every meeting of the
Armenian and Azeri presidents held with the participation of the OSCE
Minsk Group representatives (Russia, the United States and France) was
rather useful for “clearing up details, in which the devil is.”

“The basic principles affirmed by statements of the presidents of
Russia, the United States and France in 2009 and 2011 are not disputed
by anyone; the task is to put them into practice,” the Russian
minister said.
Te mk

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 21, 2013 Tuesday 01:50 AM GMT+4

Armenia negotiates gas prices with Gazprom

YEREVAN May 20

– The aim of the negotiations Armenia now conducts with Russia’s
Gazprom is to make decisions to result in lower gas prices,” Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan told Armenian parliament on Monday.

“The government uses every lever so that gas should be supplied to
Armenia at a lower price,” Sargsyan said. “We do all for this purpose
– from discussions with the neighbor Iran to negotiations with our
traditional strategic partner (Russia – Itar-Tass editor).” “The
negotiations go on at the highest political. They are aimed to arrive
at the decisions to cut gas prices,” the premier said.

Gazprom offers gas to Armenia at 189 dollars per cubic meter, the
premier said. “However, as a result of the 30-percent export tax, the
gas price reaches 270 dollars at the Armenian border.” “The theme of
the negotiations at present is what mechanism should be used to avoid
applying the 30-percent export tax to gas supplies to Armenia,”
Sargsyan said.

The tariffs on Russian gas were in the focus of attention in Armenia
these days. The ArmRosgazprom gas transportation company referred to
the Public Services Regulation Commission in Armenia the application
to increase the gas price by 67 percent at once. This applies to gas
deliveries equally to citizens consuming up to 10,000 cubic meters of
gas per month and to entrepreneurs using over 10,000 cubic meters of
gas per month.

The premier recalled that in his letter to the Public Servicer
Regulation Commission he reported that the government would subsidize
gas tariffs to 30 percent. Besides, poor families will be given relief
so that heavier gas prices should not cut into their budgets.

“Thanks to the efforts of the Armenian government, the gas price
remained unchanged over five years and the talks with Russian
colleagues were about gas supplies at the lowest price,” Sargsyan
noted.

Experts predict that the gas price hike will inevitably result in
higher prices of bread and other products, as well as of goods and
services.

Source: Man killed by FBI agent ‘directly involved’ in murders, knew Tsarnaevs

By Michael Martinez. Tom Watkins and Susan Candiotti, CNN

May 22, 2013 — Updated 2010 GMT (0410 HKT)

NEW: Ibragim Todashev is “directly involved” in a triple murder in
Massachusetts, a source says
He knew deceased Boston bombing suspect through martial arts
Todashev had Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s phone number in his cell phone, source says
Boxer-turned-jihadist William Plotnikov was part of Web forum joined by Todashev

(CNN) — Ibragim Todashev, shot dead early Wednesday by the FBI in
Florida, was “directly involved” in a 2011 triple homicide in Waltham,
Massachusetts, a law enforcement official told CNN Wednesday.

Todashev was fatally shot by an FBI agent during questioning about
those homicides and whether he played a role in last month’s Boston
Marathon bombings.

“During questioning, it became clear that he was involved in the
murders,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

There was a confrontation between him and police during the
questioning, according to a second law enforcement official, which led
to the shooting and Todashev’s death.

The unsolved triple murder received renewed interest after it was
learned that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a deceased suspect in the Boston
Marathon attacks, had been a good friend of one of the victims, all of
whom were found with their throats slit.

Todashev also had ties with Tsarnaev and had been acquainted with him
at a mixed martial arts center near Boston, said a source who was
briefed on the bombing investigation.

Todashev had Tsarnaev’s phone number in his cell phone, the source said.

Both were members of the mixed martial arts forum Sherdog.com, along
with Russian-Canadian boxer-turned-jihadist William Plotnikov, the
source said.

Last month, CNN reported that Plotnikov and six others died in a July
2012 firefight with Russian forces in the southwestern republic of
Dagestan, while Tsarnaev was visiting the region, according to a
source briefed on the investigation.

Photos: Suspects tied to Boston bombings
Police: Man linked to Tsarnaev shot

An FBI agent fatally shot Todashev in Orlando as authorities
investigated whether Todashev was connected to the Boston Marathon
bombings, a U.S. law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the
Boston case told CNN.

Todashev, 27, also knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is also a suspect in
the April 15 bombings, the official said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, injured
and captured after a manhunt, is being held by authorities. Tamerlan
Tsarnaev, his older brother, was killed in a shootout with police
shortly after the bombings.

The agent shot in self-defense in the incident, which occurred at
Todashev’s house, the law enforcement source said.

Todashev was from the Chechnya region, as were the Tsarnaev brothers,
the source said.

Todashev was granted political asylum in 2008 but that he came to the
US some time before that, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
Todashev has living in the US as a legal resident because of that
asylum claim, the official said.

While the man was being questioned by an FBI agent, two Massachusetts
State Police troopers and other law enforcement personnel, “a violent
confrontation was initiated by the individual,” FBI spokesman Jason
Pack said.

Todashev was killed and “the agent sustained non-life-threatening
injuries,” Pack said.

Agents were led to Todashev, who had once lived in Boston, “through
investigative leads,” the official said.

In the 2011 Massachusetts triple homicide, the Middlesex County
district attorney’s office said at the time that the victims and two
unknown perpetrators appeared to know each other and that it was not a
random crime. No suspects were named then. The three victims were
killed by “sharp force injuries of the neck,” District Attorney Gerry
Leone said.

Suspect: Bombing was payback for hits on Muslims

Todashev had been living in the United States as a legal resident
since approximately 2008, the source said.

The source added that the FBI had been investigating Todashev for about a month.

The FBI had followed Todashev for days, his friend told CNN affiliate
Florida News 13.

Khasuen Taramov told the TV station that Todashev was living in Boston
a couple of years ago when he became acquainted with Tamerlan
Tsarnaev; after the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, the FBI began
questioning and following Todashev and Taramov.

Todashev “wasn’t like real close friends (with Tsarnaev), but he just
happened to know him,” Taramov said. “But he had no idea that they
were up to something like that, like bombings and everything, you know
what I mean?”

He told CNN affiliate WESH that Todashev and Tsarnaev had spoken by
telephone about a month before the bombings.

“It was a complete shock to him,” Taramov said.

The two met in Boston, where Todashev had lived and where there is a
small, closely knit community of Chechens, said Taramov.

Their telephone conversation before the bombings contained nothing but
routine pleasantries, he said. “It was ‘How are you doing, how’s your
family?’ That’s all.”

Taramov said he himself was questioned by the FBI for three hours
Tuesday night. Asked what he was asked, Taramov said, “Different kind
of questions like ‘what do you think about bombings,’ ‘do you know
these guys,’ blah blah blah, what is my views on certain stuff.”

He said Todashev was not a radical. “He was just a Muslim. That was
his mistake, I guess.”

Taramov said his friend had told him he had a bad feeling about the
direction the investigation was heading. “He felt like there’s going
to be a setup … bad setup against him. Because he told me, ‘They are
making up such crazy stuff, I don’t know … why they doing it. OK,
I’m answering the questions, but they are still making up some, like,
connections, some crazy stuff. I don’t know why they are doing it.’ ”

Before meeting with the FBI for a 7:30 p.m. interview Tuesday, Taramov
said, his friend asked him to take his parents’ telephone numbers. “He
just told me, ‘Take the numbers, in case something happens, if I get
locked up, or whatever, call them.’ You know what I mean?

“We were expecting to get him locked up, but not getting him killed. I
can’t believe it.”

Todashev was unemployed and had been living on insurance money after
surgery for an accident. “He used to be a fighter, MMA fighter,”
Taramov said, in a reference to mixed martial arts.

Todashev was arrested this month on a charge of aggravated battery
after getting into a fight over a parking spot with a man and his son
outside an Orlando mall.

The son was taken to a hospital with head injuries, a split upper lip
and several teeth knocked out of place, the Orange County Sheriff’s
Office said in a report.

“Todashev said he was only fighting to protect his knee because he had
surgery in March,” the report said. He told the police that he was a
former mixed martial arts fighter, it said.

Todashev, described as 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, was released on $3,500 bond.

Asked about the incident, Taramov downplayed it. “He had a fight in
the parking lot, the two guys jumped on him … pretty much he just
defended himself against two,” he told WESH. “The only mistake: he did
kick their ass and left.”

Todashev had recently gotten his green card and had been planning to
visit his parents in Chechnya, and then return to the United States,
but canceled the plans, Taramov said.

Now, he added, he was planning to call his friend’s parents.

An FBI shooting-incident review team was expected to arrive within 24
hours in Orlando, said Special Agent Dave Couvertier, an FBI
spokesman. Such reviews are standard when an agent is involved in a
shooting.

ANC-Illinois Hosts International Conference on Ottoman Genocides

May 22, 2013

SKOKIE, Ill. – The largest academic conference ever held focusing on the
Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides concluded on Sat., May 11,
after two days of presentations by more than a dozen scholars from
Armenia, Australia, England, and across North America.

The event, titled `The Ottoman Turkish Genocides of Anatolian
Christians: A Common Case Study,’ was organized by the Armenian
National Committee (ANC) of Illinois, the Assyrian Center for Genocide
Studies, and the Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, and
was held at the prestigious Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational
Center in Skokie on May 10-11. With more than 120 participants each
day, the conference was filled to capacity with an enthusiastic
audience.

`There was a great deal of new and interesting research presented
during the conference,’ said ANC of Illinois activist Greg Bedian.
`This conference clearly demonstrated the many shared aspects of the
Greek, Assyrian, and Armenian Genocides and helped to drive home the
concept that these three tragic events were conceived by the Turkish
government to destroy the native Christian population and all traces
of their existence from Anatolia.’

Prof. Hannibal Travis
The conference was opened by master of ceremonies John Davis, an Emmy
award winner and long-time reporter and anchorman for CBS affiliate
WBBM-TV in Chicago. In his introductory remarks, Davis thanked the
many sponsors, volunteers, scholars, and participants for their
contributions and for making the conference a reality. He then
introduced Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen, who spoke about the
significance of the conference being held at the Holocaust Museum.
Mayor Van Dusen was followed by Greek Consul General Ionna
Efthymiadou, who congratulated the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek
communities for coming together to organize the conference, and
encouraged the scholars to continue their research into the Ottoman
Genocides.

Davis then introduced conference moderator George Shirinian, the
executive director of the Zoryan Institute of Toronto. Shirinian’s
introductory remarks focused on the importance of these types of
conferences in the advancement of genocide research, and provided an
outline of how the conference would proceed. He then opened the first
session of the conference by introducing Dr. Paul Bartrop, the
director of the Center of Judaic, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies at
Florida Gulf Coast University. Bartrop presented the topic
`Considering Genocide Testimony: Three Case Studies,’ and discussed
the importance of survivor memoirs as a historical resource,
presenting examples from an Armenian, an Assyrian, and a Greek
survivor. He noted that while historians sometimes view survivor
accounts as unreliable due to trauma and bias, they often contain
valuable details about massacres, and sometimes are the only accounts
available of particular events.

Following Bartrop was Stavros Stavridis, a Ph.D. candidate and
historical researcher at the Australian Institute of Macedonian
Studies, who joined the conference via Skype.

Dr. Steven Leonard Jacobs responds to a question from the audience, as
noted author Thea Halo looks on.
Stavridis’s presentation was titled, `The Assyrian Issue 1914-1935:
Australian Documents and Press.’ He reviewed how the Assyrian Genocide
was reported on in the Australian press, as well as how the thoughts
and actions of various government and private individuals impacted
policy, based on documentation he had researched in the National
Archives of Australia and the collections at the Australian War
Memorial in Canberra.

The final speaker of the opening session was Dr. Anahit Khosroeva, a
senior researcher at the Institute of History at the Armenian National
Academy of Sciences, who spoke on `The Assyrian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire,’ discussing the massacres of Assyrians, and Christians
in general, as a continuum from the time of Abdul Hamid to the Young
Turks and into the Republican period.

The Friday afternoon session was opened by Dr. Hannibal Travis,
associate professor of law at Florida International University College
of Law. During his presentation, titled `Cultural and Symbolic
Reparations of the Ottoman Christian Genocide: From Memorials to
Restitution of Historic and Sacred Sites,’ Travis discussed the
destruction of the culture of the victim group that accompanied the
physical killing inherent in the Ottoman Genocides. As part of his
discussion of restitution of cultural monuments, Travis contrasted the
approaches and outcomes of the renovations of the Holy Cross Church in
Aghtamar and the St. Giragos Church in Diyarbakir.

The next speaker was Dr. Robert Shenk, professor of English at the
University of New Orleans. Speaking on the topic `American Women,
Massacres, and the Admiral: Deep in Anatolia during the Turkish
Nationalist Revolution,’ Shenk described the devastating role American
Admiral Mark Bristol played in the post-war period as America’s chief
diplomat in the area, and how despite pleas from numerous female
American missionaries and even his own officers, he placed the
interests of American commerce ahead of protecting the remnants of the
Christian populations in Anatolia from ongoing destruction, censoring
reports of massacres from information relayed back to Washington.
Shenk praised the women missionaries for their bravery, working in a
foreign and often savage land, with no guarantees for their physical
safety.

Moderator George Shirinian and Dr. Paul Bartrop.
Thea Halo, author of the book Not Even My Name, then spoke on the
topic `The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks 1913-1923: Myths and Facts.’
Halo challenged some common assumptions often used to discount the
brutal treatment of the Greeks during the period of the Great
Catastrophe and offered valuable alternative views regarding Greek
irredentism based on the Megali Idea and the role of King Constantine
I in protecting Greeks under Ottoman rule. Prof. Ellene Phufas then
closed out the first day of the conference by sharing an excerpt from
her translation, along with Aris Tsilfidis, of These Are the Turks:
First-Hand Accounts from the Slaughter of Nicomedia, the first book of
Greek Genocide survivor accounts that was collected by journalist
Kostas Faltaits and published in Greek in 1921.

The second and final day of the conference began with Davis opening
the program with welcoming remarks, after which he invited Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA) National Board Chairman Ken
Hachikian to address the conference. In his comments, Hachikian
emphasized that the ANCA has been able to make important strides in
its lobbying activities because `we have the truth on our side.’ He
added that the research like that being presented at the conference
played an important role in helping to make that truth better
understood. Following Hachikian’s comments, Davis asked Shirinian to
take the podium and open the third session of the program.

After brief comments Shirinian introduced Georgia Kouta, a Ph.D.
candidate at King’s College in London, England, to present her paper
titled, `Redeeming the Unredeemed: The Anglo-Hellenic League’s
Campaign for the Greeks in Asia Minor.’ Kouta discussed the role of
the Anglo-Hellenic League in London in shaping Western public opinion
and British policy on the Ottoman government’s treatment of its Greek
minority. She described how the League, which was comprised of both
Greek and British members, collected valuable documentation on the
atrocities through Greek and non-Greek eye-witness reports, church and
newspaper accounts, and published pamphlets to raise awareness of the
atrocities.

Kouta was followed by Steven L. Jacobs, associate professor and Aaron
Aronov Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama.
Jacobs gave an interesting presentation about the writings of Raphael
Lemkin, the author of the word `genocide’ and the father of the UN
Genocide Convention. He described Lemkin’s incomplete and unpublished
three-volume history of genocide, and described Lemkin’s treatment of
the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Genocides.

Greek Consul General Ionna Efthymiadou
The Saturday morning session was concluded with a presentation by Dr.
Tehmine Martoyan on `The International Legal Qualification and
Liability of Smyrna’s September Tragedy.’ In her presentation,
Martoyan examined the possibilities of applying the legal term
`genocide’ to the destruction of Smyrna in September 1922. She
reviewed evidence of the premeditated nature and implementation of the
extermination of the Armenian and Greek populations of Smyrna, as well
as the destruction of their homes and businesses that aimed to prevent
the survivors’ return.

The fourth and final session of the conference opened with Dr. Gevorg
Vardanyan of the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute in Yerevan,
Armenia, presenting his topic, `The Ottoman Genocide of the Armenians
and Greeks: The Similarities and Structural Peculiarities.’ Vardanyan
pointed out that there were many common elements to the genocides of
the Greeks and Armenians, including the methods used for organizing
the massacres and the organizers themselves. Pointing out some of the
major differences in the two genocides, Vardanyan noted that because
of geography and demographics, the Kurds, who had played a significant
role in the Armenian Genocide, were generally not involved in the
Greek Genocide. He also noted that because of their proximity to
Greece, many of the Greeks in Eastern Thrace were deported or escaped
to Greece as opposed to being killed outright, like their Pontian and
Armenian counterparts.

Professor Dikran Kaligian of Worcester State University spoke on the
‘Security and Insecurity in the Ottoman Armenian and Greek
Communities, 1908-1914.’

Participants during a presentation by Dr. Dikran Kaligian.
Kaligian described how the restoration of the Ottoman Constitution had
provided a brief period of hope and an improvement in the personal
security for the Armenians and Greeks living in the empire. He then
traced various events that began to endanger those reforms, including
the impact of the counter-revolutionary uprisings, the Balkan Wars,
and the evolution of the Young Turk movement from its liberal
Ottomanist orientation toward a chauvinistic pan-Turanist direction.

Dr. Gevorg Vardanyan of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute
The final presentation of the conference was provided by Dr. Suren
Manukyan, a Fulbright Scholar on Sociology of the Armenian Genocide at
Rutgers University and deputy director of the Armenian Genocide Museum
and Institute in Yerevan. Manukyan’s topic was `Cultural Preconditions
and Process of Social Indoctrination: Socio-Psychological Dimension of
the Ottoman Genocides.’ Noting that the ability to participate in mass
murder is not an inherent human characteristic, he described how the
state conditioned the Ottoman-Muslim population to be able to murder
the Christians through propaganda via the mosques, by altering the
legal system, and other methods. He contrasted the Armenian Genocide
with the Holocaust, pointing out that many Armenians met violent
deaths, sometimes at the hands of their neighbors, rather than in the
more industrialized concentration camps.

The conference proceedings will be published in the near future.

Whitefish reserves in Armenian lake Sevan hit just 6.5 tons : expert

YEREVAN, May 22./ARKA/. Some 6.5 tons of the whitefish remains in
Armenia’s Lake Sevan, and this figure is dwindling year over year,
said Bardukh Gabrielyan, director of Zoology and Hydro ecology
Research Center of the National Academy of Sciences.

`In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the lake’s whitefish reserve
reached nearly 30,000 tons. In 2011 there were 8.5 tons, last year the
reserve dwindled to minimum of nearly 6.5 tons. We are not already
counting in thousands but just tons… If this trend goes on, in the
near future we can lose all the reserves of this fish,’ he said at a
news conference responding to Novosti-Armenia.

Gabrielyan clarified such a dramatic tumble of the reserves of
whitefish and other endemic fish spices, including the trout, in Sevan
is first of all caused by the often poaching cases.

`The whitefish matures when it is almost 2 years old. Meanwhile, the
poachers usually catch the small fishes which haven’t reached the age
of 1.5 yet, haven’t manage to spawn yet and fulfill their reproductive
function,’ he noted.

Gabrielyan also informed besides poachers, the whitefish was
negatively impacted by new species of fish released to the lake,
specifically the Amur chabachok and Armenian Alburnoides bipunctatus.
These species feed on the same as the whitefish, thus creating severe
competition.

Another cause is poor measures to ensure purity of the lake, according to him.

In reference to that, Gabrielyan added in order to increase the
whitefish reserves in Sevan, it is necessary to take all the complex
measures in order to improve socio-economic conditions for the
region’s residents, so as to reduce poaching and release higher number
of whitefish whitebait into the lake.

Lake Sevan, one of the largest alpine lakes in Europe and Asia, is
located in the heart of the Armenian plateau, at an altitude of 1914
meters. The lake stretches over 70 kilometers from northwest to
southeast. Its water surface area is nearly 1500 square kilometers.
The lake is the main source of drinking water in the region. By 2030,
the lake’s level will be raised to 1903.5 meters. -0-

Mirror of Generals

Every tragedy in the army or backlash of the society leads to thoughts
that army is the reflection of the society and mirrors the values,
mentality and relations that dominate the society. Meanwhile, everyone
in Armenia knows that these values, mentality and relations are not
encouraged in Armenia. Criminal mores, instincts, fears and complexes
etc which often acquire ugly expressions in public life.

But is the statement `army is the mirror of the society’ pertinent?
Yes if everything is left unattended. If left unattended, nothing will
change either in the society, or in the army.

How does the society change? It is interesting also in the context of
declaration of the revolution of mind by Prime Minister Sargsyan. The
society will not change automatically. It will automatically go wild
because as a rule instincts and complexes are faster and wilder than
consciousness.

The society is changed by means of specific tools which the elite of
the society uses. In the case of Armenia, the word `elite’ is used in
inverted commas. There is no elite in Armenia, there is a group that
has usurped public wealth.

The army is the mirror of the society.

The army could and should be one of the tools which elite uses to
change the society. Therefore, the country needs political and
military elite which lives with other mores and thinking and fights
against the `pop culture’ transferred to the army, forms a new
thinking which the demobilized soldier will transfer onto the society.

The Armenian army lacks everything. It is dominated by criminal mores
where young people take an exam of those mores before further life.
The majority of officers do not bother themselves, they prefer
formation of a self-governed hierarchy the head of which will report
to the officer. Very often there is no reporting at all, and officers
obey the hierarchy.

The army generals care for their own businesses. The command cares for
pathetic speeches which is never translated to a political process and
followed by substantial steps towards forming new military elite which
will be tasked to change the culture in the army, turning army to a
tool of change of the society.

At first sight, it may seem strange because army is conservative by
nature while modernization of the society is a process that requires
broad freedoms. However, in Armenia everything is upside down so it
is not the right time to follow the rules.

Hakob Badalyan
13:07 22/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Tax burden on small businesses increased – Armenian MP

May 22, 2013 | 12:42

YEREVAN. – Representatives of small business complain that the tax
burden has increased from June 2013, MP Edmon Marukyan said in the
parliament.

The increase occurred after the turnover tax was introduced. Edmond
Marukyan said he took part in the debates on introducing turnover tax
and initially had the impression that it is useful.

`But now they either do not give a receipt of cash machines, or work
at a loss. I am asking to review 3.5% tax as it is a burden for small
business,’ he said, addressing Armenian Premier.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am