Author: Kajoyan Gevork

APA, Azerbaijan
April 26 2013

Bayram Safarov: `Dialogue is the only way-out for the Armenians’

[ 26 April 2013 10:23 ]

Baku. Ramil Mammadli – APA. `Joining of the Armenian community of
Nagorno Karabakh the negotiations as a separate side is an absurd
idea. The separatist regime is recognized neither by foreign
countries, nor Armenia,’ said chairman of `Azerbaijani Community of
Nagorno Karabakh’ Public Union and head of Shusha Region Executive
Authority Bayram Safarov, APA reports.

Safarov said that dialogue is the only way-out for the Armenians and
the international organizations also understand it: `Azerbaijan and
the Azerbaijanis are the fair party in the conflict. But for external
influences, the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh can not go beyond
the desire of Azerbaijan.’

Safarov expressed his confidence that the Azerbaijanis would return to
their native lands and Azerbaijani flag would be hoisted in Khankandi
and Shusha: `Fight against separatists, terrorists and other criminals
is the internal affair of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has opportunities for
it on all criteria.’

The News International, Pakistan
April 26 2013

Nagorny Karabakh conflict

Saturday, April 27, 2013

PARIS: The international community must take Azerbaijan’s threats of
regaining the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh seriously and
condemn Baku’s ongoing arms-buying spree, the breakaway territory’s
leader said on Friday.

Seized by ethnic Armenian separatists in a war in the early 1990s that
left more than 30,000 dead, Karabakh is at the heart of long-simmering
tensions between ex-Soviet neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Violence continues to flare on its borders, with a least six soldiers
killed so far this year, and a new conflict would threaten to draw in
regional powers like Armenia’s ally Russia, Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey
and Iran.

Baku has vowed to retake control of the small mountainous region,
whose self-declared independence has not been recognised by any state,
including Armenia. In France for a three-day visit, the region’s
president Bako Sahakian told AFP he saw no signs of a breakthrough in
peace talks and warned that Azerbaijan was stoking tensions with
enormous arms purchases.

`We can only be worried by the policy of militarisation and
over-arming undertaken by Azerbaijan, because there are also clear and
explicit threats against our country,’ he said. `The international
community must react to this situation,’ he said.

Fuelled by the oil-rich country’s energy exports, Azerbaijan’s defence
spending has skyrocketed in recent years, with this year’s military
budget at $1.9 billion (1.4 billion euros) – almost 15 percent of the
entire state budget.

Officials from Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan have met
repeatedly for peace talks since a ceasefire was signed in 1994, with
negotiations mediated by the Minsk Group chaired by France, Russia and
the United States. Sahakian, a former soldier and security service
chief who was elected to a second term last year, said that while
talks have failed to result in a peace deal, they have at least been
useful in preventing another war.

But he said the negotiations should be expanded to include
representatives of the authorities in Karabakh, which is home to about
150,000 people. `To have real and serious progress in the negotiating
process the format must be re-established to have participants from
Nagorny Karabakh,’ Sahakian said. He said he believed a negotiated
solution was possible and insisted authorities in Karabakh would not
be the ones to start a new war.

`It is a complex conflict, you cannot expect a solution from one day
to the next. But there is no alternative to peace and dialogue,’
Sahakian said. Experts have warned that a fresh conflict would be even
more devastating than the 1992-1994 Karabakh war – one of the
bloodiest of the many regional conflicts that followed the collapse of
the Soviet Union.

Karabakh survives thanks largely to financial and military backing
from Armenia and supporters in the widespread Armenian diaspora,
including in France. Sahakian said he was hoping to drum up investment
in France in the hopes of boosting the region’s small economy, which
relies mainly on agriculture, manufacturing and some mining. He said
he also expected progress soon on one of the region’s key efforts –
resuming commercial flights into a revamped airport in the capital,
Stepanakert.

Karabakh is deeply isolated, accessible only by an eight-hour drive
from the Armenian capital Yerevan along a winding mountain road that
is often unusable in winter. Sahakian said Karabakh was `not very far’
from being prepared to restore flights into the region and that he
hoped they could resume this year.

The Armenians have been under diplomatic pressure to move carefully on
restoring flights, after Azerbaijan warned it will not tolerate planes
bound for Karabakh violating its airspace. `This initiative must not
be linked with resolving the conflict or be seen in this context,’
Sahakian said.

`Civil flights that will be established between Yerevan and
Stepanakert are aimed simply at helping us emerge from the isolation
that has been imposed on us.’

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #685
April 26 2013

Armenia: After Landmine Deaths, Questions About Russian Army Base

Firing range where two boys stepped on a landmine was used as common
grazing by local villagers.

By Lilit Arakelyan – Caucasus

The deaths of two children on a Russian army firing range in northwest
Armenia have angered residents of nearby villages.

Mushegh Gevorgyan, 15, and Artur Lazarian, 12, from the village of
Vahramaberd in the Shirak region, were killed by a landmine on April
7. They had been grazing livestock on the military firing range.

Armenia and Russia are close allies, and Moscow maintains a military
airfield in the capital Yerevan as well as an army base in Gyumri,
Shirak’s main town, to which the firing range belongs. In 2010, the
two countries agreed to extend the Russian presence at Gyumri until
2044. (See Moscow Extends Lease on Armenian Base on that deal.)

Aghvan Martirosyan, the village head in Vahramaberd, said local people
regularly took their animals onto the Russian army range under a
longstanding arrangement. On days when live firing was scheduled, they
were warned in advance and stayed away.

`Everyone knows it’s dangerous there and that you must not touch bits
of weapons or shells. Everyone has been warned about it,’ he told
IWPR. `But these were children – they saw pieces of aluminium around
the mine, and they were gathering it up for scrap. The mine exploded
as soon as they disturbed it.’

According to Martirosyan, security is lax around the firing range.

`It’s a territory of more than ten square kilometres. The land
belonging to our village has a 2.3 kilometre boundary with the army
base, but there are no fences or barriers, just has two signs saying
the territory is dangerous and access is forbidden,’ he said.

A spokesman for Russian forces in Armenia, Kirill Kiselev, insisted
that security measures were adequate.

`This is a prohibited zone. They had no right to go there. Everyone is
very well you can’t do that. There are signs in Russian and Armenian
at the entrances points saying no entry, but they ignored that that,’
he said.

After meeting Russian commanders from the base, Armenian defence
minister Seyran Ohanyan called for tighter regulation.

`It’s very important that all the safety precautions are enforced on
every firing range in Armenia,’ he said.

The defence ministry said it would assist the two boys’ families, and
help the Russians secure the firing range.

`The exclusion zone needs to be clearly demarcated,’ ministry
spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

Opposition politicians went further, with Aram Manukyan, a member of
parliament from the Armenian National Congress, questioning the
responsibilities of the Russian military and their hosts.

`If the firing range belongs to the Russian military base, then who is
responsible for fencing it off? Who is supposed to ensure security and
erect warning signs?’ he asked. `If they’re allowing people to pasture
their animals there, then every time they hold military exercises,
they must demine the area. This incident occurred because of
indifference to these issues.’

Defence experts in Armenia said the Russians should act to ensure the
tragedy was never repeated.

`There shouldn’t be mines there at all, said David Jamalyan, a member
of the Yerevan State University’s strategic studies centre. `This area
now needs to be fenced off so that civilians can’t stray in
accidentally.’

Village head Martirosyan, however, opposed the idea of placing fences
around the range, since that would leave the village short of
pastureland.

The Shirak Centre, a local non-government group, backed him up.

`It’s completely wrong for this firing range to exist alongside
impoverished villages who are deprived of their land. If they now
decide to tighten up security and not to let farmers graze their
livestock there, it won’t resolve the problem,’ the centre’s head
Vahan Tumasyan said.

+972 Magazine – Independent commentary from Israel and the Palestinian
territories
April 25 2013

Israel, Armenians and the question of genocide

by By Dahlia Scheindlin

When Israel remembers the Holocaust, why does it think only of Jews?

History has proven time and again that the Jews are not unique for
having suffered genocidal policies. The many debates about preventing
such tragedies have so far not helped populations that suffered mass
killings and expulsions, with intent to destroy them for their
national, religious or ethnic identity – even in recent decades.
Therefore the politicization of the Armenian genocide in Israel in the
context of Israel-Turkey relations, described with great eloquence by
Akiva Eldar in al-Monitor, is not only wrong; it calls into question
whether Israel is truly committed to `never again’ when it comes to
people who are not Jews.

In fact, Jews need not look outside their own community to understand
the categorical need to universalize the awful lessons of the
Holocaust. Eldar points out that one of the greatest advocates of this
position was himself a victim:

The man who coined the term genocide and fought for adoption of the
treaty [1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide – ds] was the Jewish-Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, whose
entire family was annihilated in the Holocaust. He himself managed to
flee to the United States. Lemkin referred specifically to the
Armenian annihilation as an act of genocide. This position was never
adopted by Israeli governments. The official Israeli position was
summed up in 2001 in an interview by then-Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres with the Turkish Daily News: `The Armenians suffered a tragedy,’
he said, `but not genocide.’
Tragically, Eldar’s description of the feeling many Knesset members
hold towards this question mirrors what I feel in Israeli society:

For them, any attempt to hint that other peoples were also persecuted
and massacred for racist reasons is considered `disrespect for the
Holocaust’ (they themselves, on the other hand, often use the term
`Holocaust,’ especially to scare the Israeli public with the Iranian
threat). They do not define the Armenian genocide as a
human-Jewish-ethical issue.

To the argument that recognition of the Armenian experience threatens
very immediate political needs related to Turkey, I hope that Turkish
leaders and people see it differently. Remembering horrors suffered by
others would say more about Israel’s values than it does about Turkey.
Anyone can commit terrible crimes against innocents, Jews included. I
wish for a country that rises above its own trauma to recall, support
and help victims anywhere.

I can scarcely believe this needs to be said, but apparently it bears
repeating: we must acknowledge that all human beings are at risk of
falling victims to genocidal acts, or of perpetrating such acts
themselves. The same people can be in both positions. To deny this
seems to me as awful and dangerous as Holocaust denial itself.

Serge Avedikian presents Armen Tigranyan’s Anoush in Yerevan

ARMINFO
Thursday, April 25, 17:22

French-Armenian actor and film director Serge Avedikian will present
Armen Tigranyan’s Anoush in Yerevan on Apr 26.

According to Avedikian, this is a new original version of the well-
known Armenian opera. There will be just 37 people on the stage,
including musicians, who will play folk instruments.

In Yerevan the opera will be shown in Sundukyan Drama Theater on Apr
26-27 and May 3-4 and then will be taken to France to be presented to
in Theatre Nanterre-Amandiers on May 22, 23, 25 and 265.

Conductor is the artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra of Armenia
Vahan Martirosyan, choreographer and stage and costume designer
Nicolas Musin. Starring are Sofia Sayadyan (Anoush), Liparit Avetisyan
(Saro), Gurgen Baveyan (Mosi), Kristine Sahakyan (mother of Anoush)
and Lilit Soghomonyan (mother of Saro).

The project has been supported by the French and Armenian culture
ministries and sponsored by VivaCell-MTS.

Armenian President condoles with Vladimir Putin

News from Armenia – NEWS.am
April 27, 2013 | 15:54

YEREVAN. – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan addressed a message of
condolence to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and in
connection with the tragic deaths of dozens of innocent people as a
result of a fire that swept through a psychiatric hospital in a
capital city Moscow suburb.

In his message, President Sargsyan asked his Russian counterpart to
convey his sincere sympathies and words of support to the relatives
and friends of the victims.

To note, a fire had broken out in a Moscow suburb mental hospital in
the early hours of Friday, killing 38 people and there were only three
survivors.

Valerie Boyer: Time to recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh
14:51 27.04.2013

Lusine Avanesyan
`Radiolur’
Stepanakert

`It’s time for us – as friends of democracy – to recognize this
country,’ French MP Valerie Boyer stated at the National Assembly of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

A group of Members of the European Parliament paid a one-day visit to
Artsakh accompanied by Armenian MP Artak Zakaryan.

Members of the EU-Armenia Friendship Group of the European Parliament
visited Gandzasar and Shushi, held meetings at the Artsakh State
University and the National Assembly.

Also, the delegation visited the Children’s Hospital of Stepanakert,
where head of the delegation Dr Eleni Theocharous, a doctor by
profession, performed operations during the cruel days of the Artsakh
war.

`The war for the victory of your self-determination was also a
struggle for maintaining the European Christian culture,’ she said.

Speaking at the meeting with EU parliamentarians, Speaker of the
National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan said `it’s high time of the
international community to take steps towards de jure recognition of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.’

`It’s our duty to recognize this country,’ French MP Valerie Boyer said.

`I will continue to visit Karabakh until I see that this people, which
raised its voice for self-determination years ago, has fulfilled its
dream,’ Dr Eleni Theocharous stated.

Armenian woman killed in armed attack on currency exchange office in Moscow

12:27 – 27.04.13

An Armenian woman cashier was killed at an armed attack on currency
exchange office in downtown Moscow on Saturday, kp.ru reports, citing
Russian police press service.

The incident took place early in the morning today. The body of the
Armenian citizen was found in the scene. Some 4.5 million Russian
rubles disappeared from fire-resistant safe.

A criminal case has been filed.

Such incident occurred in Moscow in August 2012 as well which luckily
ended without victims. The cashier received a concussion. The woman
was closing the office when three people ran toward her, beat her and
stole 1.8 million rubles.

Armenian News – Tert.am

ARMENIE
Le chômage principal problème des jeunes en Arménie

Le taux de chômage est le principal problème de la jeunesse d’Arménie
a déclaré le président de la fédération des clubs de jeunes et chef du
département projets pan-arménien au ministère de la Diaspora Atom
Mkhitaryan.

« Les hommes d’ge mur sont plus souvent employés en Arménie que les
jeunes. Et ce n’est pas seulement le problème d’Arménie, mais de
nombreux autres pays » a-t-il dit.

Le logement est un autre problème auquel les jeunes sont confrontés en
Arménie, selon Atom Mkhitaryan. En conséquence, les jeunes se marient,
en moyenne, 1,5 ans plus tard aujourd’hui qu’auparavant, a-t-il dit.

« Si avant les filles mariaient à 22 ans et les gars à 26 ans,
maintenant l’ge moyen du mariage est de 23,5 et 27,5 ans
respectivement », a déclaré Atom Mkhitaryan. Cette tendance, selon
Atom Mkhitaryan, peut constituer une réelle menace démographique pour
un si petit pays comme l’Arménie.

Parmi les autres problèmes l’expert a mentionné le manque d’éducation
de qualité.

samedi 27 avril 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
April 25 2013

Turkey regrets Obama’s statement on alleged “Armenian genocide”

25 April 2013, 12:28 (GMT+05:00)

Turkey considers U.S. President Barack Obama’s statement on the
so-called “Armenian genocide” regrettable and distortion of historical
facts, Turkish Foreign Ministry’s statement posted on its website
says.

“Obama’s statement is a support to the Armenian side’s point of view
in the issue, which is painful for both Turkey and Armenia,” the
statement says.

It is also noted that such statements from Washington are an obstacle
to clarify the 1915 events.

On Wednesday, Barack Obama once again did not pronounce the word
“genocide” in the traditional statement in connection with the 1915
events in the Ottoman Empire, but called it a great tragedy.

“Our duty is to preserve the memory of the victims and prevent
repeating of these dark pages of history,” Obama said.

Every year Armenia marks the anniversary of the so called “Armenian
genocide” on April 24.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey’s predecessor, the
Ottoman Empire, committed genocide in 1915 against Armenians living in
Anadolu. Their efforts have achieved the recognition of the ‘Armenian
Genocide’ by the parliaments of several countries.