Author: Kajoyan Gevork

BBC PUBLISHES RECORDING OF PROGRAM WITH MARGARET THATCHER AFTER ARMENIA EARTHQUAKE

April 10, 2013 | 02:14

BBC has published recording of the BBC Radio 4’s the Today program
when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher phoned in to comment on Mikhail
Gorbachev’s decision to cancel his visit to Britain.

Iron Lady contacted BBC Radio following the reports that Armenia
earthquake (1988 earthquake in Spitak) prompted Gorbachev to cancel
his visit.

Thatcher said they understand Gorbachev’s decision to go home amid
the tragedy in Armenia.

“Mr.Gorbachev had to go home. Anything else would be unthinkable,”
she said.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Yerevan Liberty Square getting prepared for Raffi Hovannisian’s
inauguration (photos)

10:45 – 09.04.13

Yerevan Liberty Square is getting prepared for inauguration of leader
of Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian. The organizers, associates of the
party leader are engaged in the works.

Speaking at the recent rally Raffi Hovannisian promised that samples
of Armenia’s Constitution would be distributed in the Liberty Square.

The activists who walked two days from Gyumri to Yerevan to attend the
event reached the square at 10.30.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 8 2013

Ambassador: France recognises Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 8 / Trend M. Aliyev /

France recognises Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity
and does not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state. It
identifies it as part of Azerbaijan, the French Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Pascal Monnier told media today.

He was expressing his attitude to the information on the establishment
of a friendship group with the illegal “Nagorno-Karabakh parliament”
at the French Parliament.

“This is not an official friendship group, but a personal initiative
of several MPs,” he said. “These individuals have taken this action
themselves.”

The ambassador stressed that such an organisation does not officially exist.

“France respects freedom of speech,” he said. “Everyone has the right
to freely express thoughts. Despite that, I am familiar with those who
have put forward the proposal about the friendship group and respect
them, but this does not mean that they represent France’s official
position. This is wrong.”

Azerbaijan and France have a broad, active friendship group, he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. are
currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

Eurasia Review
April 8 2013

Rosneft President Igor Sechin Visits Armenia

By Eurasia Review — (April 8, 2013)

Rosneft President and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin
went to Yerevan with a working visit to discuss the prospects of
strategic cooperation in the energy sector with Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan.

The Armenian leader expressed confidence that Rosneft’s entering the
Armenian market would create incentives for a further expansion of the
economic cooperation between the two nations.

During his visit Igor Sechin also held talks with Armenia’s Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan, in whose presence he and his counterpart of
the Armenian Oil Techno, Arthur Alaverdyan, signed a cooperation
agreement seeking to set up a joint venture in marketing and
distribution.

Igor Sechin also visited one of Armenia’s oldest petrochemical
companies Nairit, where he held talks with country’s Minister of
Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan during a tour of the
factory.

Inauguration Day: Tsarukyan, three opposition parties opt out of
Sargsyan’s swearing-in ceremony
VOTE 2013 | 08.04.13 | 22:37

Photolure

By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan has effectively opted
out of attending the inauguration of Serzh Sargsyan for a second term
as president of Armenia. Among those not taking part in the National
Assembly’s special session held on the occasion will also be the
factions of at least three opposition parties – Heritage, the Armenian
National Congress and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

A spokesperson for Tsarukyan said the PAP leader left Armenia on
Sunday. She did not specify his whereabouts, but said his visit abroad
was a private one.

By choosing a trip abroad over attending Sargsyan’s inauguration
Tsarukyan fueled more speculation about mounting rivalry between the
two former allies ahead of the Yerevan elections. Other members of the
PAP faction did not specify whether they would take part in the
ceremony planned in the Karen Demirchyan Sport and Concert Hall on
Tuesday or not.

The PAP, which quit the coalition with Sargsyan’s majority Republican
Party of Armenia (RPA) after last May’s parliamentary elections, has
made no secret of its plans to gain control in Yerevan as a result of
the May 5 elections. It started an active campaign on Sunday as did
the RPA, whose representatives are sure of another electoral success
of their team now headed by incumbent mayor Taron Margaryan.

Attendance or non-attendance of the Presidential Inauguration has
thus, in many ways, turned into a kind of indicator for future trends
in domestic politics.

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian, who has
been disputing Sargsyan’s reelection, plans to gather his supporters
in Yerevan’s Liberty Square at about noon on April 9 for what he has
described as an inauguration of a `new Armenia’. A protest march will
be organized later in the evening. But the Yerevan authorities have
prohibited a march through Baghramyan Avenue where the Presidential
Palace is situated. Hovannisian supporters disagree with the kind of
prohibition, but it is yet unclear whether they will obey or defy it.

In a related development the police issued a warning to oppositionists
that they must remain peaceful and follow the permitted route for
their procession. Otherwise, it said, police officers would be at
liberty to enforce the law.

Meanwhile, military authorities have confirmed a number of media
reports that army units currently not involved in combat duty have
been brought to a state of high alert. Defense Ministry spokesman
Artsrun Hovhannisyan, however, said it was a standard procedure during
all holidays when there is a particular `external danger’ for the
country and a presidential inauguration was no exception in this
sense.

Opposition leader Hovannisian has repeatedly assured the authorities
of the non-violent methods of his Barevolution campaign, which he
hopes will bring about a power change peacefully. He has also warned
the authorities against using the military in internal political
disputes.

Prime minister receives Romania’s minister of economy Voskanian

Monday,
April 08

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received today Romania’s
Minister of Economy Varujan Voskanian who is of Armenian descent.

“We should use our friendly ties for the deepening and extension of
cooperation between the two countries, first of all our economic ties.
Romania’s Armenian community enjoys great authority and may become a
platform for further development of Armenian-Romanian relations,” the
prime minister stated.

Tigran Sargsyan reaffirmed the invitation to Romanian Prime Minister
Victor Ponta to visit Armenia, noting that the visit will give renewed
impetus to bilateral economic cooperation.

The interlocutors underlined the importance of holding meetings of the
Armenian-Romanian intergovernmental commission in Yerevan and
Bucharest this year.

Varujan Voskanian proposed organizing an economic forum with the
participation of businessmen of the two countries, to which Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan reacted positively.

The sides discussed issues related to bilateral cooperation in
high-tech industry, tourism, agriculture and other spheres.
At the end of the meeting, Varujan Voskanian handed Tiran Sargsyan his
novel “The Book of Whispers” about the Armenian Genocide and the
deportation of Armenians. It was released in Romania in 2009 and named
the best literary work of the year.

TODAY, 20:32

Aysor.am

WikiLeaks releases 1.7m US diplomatic and intelligence reports
covering every country in the world

10:44 – 08.04.13

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks today published more than 1.7million
U.S. records covering diplomatic or intelligence reports on every
country in the world.

The data released today includes more than 1.7million U.S. diplomatic
records from 1973 to 1976 – covering a traffic of cables, intelligence
reports and congressional correspondence, The Daily Mail reports.

WikiLeaks described the Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD) as the
world’s largest searchable collection of U.S. confidential, or
formerly confidential, diplomatic communications.

The Ecuadorian Government has granted Mr Assange political asylum and
has repeatedly offered Swedish prosecutors the chance to interview him
at the embassy in Knightsbridge, central London.
Mr Assange said the information showed the `vast range and scope’ of
U.S. diplomatic and intelligence activity around the world.

Henry Kissinger was U.S. Secretary of State and National Security
Adviser during the period covered by the collection, and many of the
reports were written by him or sent to him.

Thousands of the documents are marked NODIS (no distribution) or Eyes
Only, as well as cables originally classed as secret or confidential.

Mr Assange said WikiLeaks had undertaken a detailed analysis of the
communications, adding that the information eclipsed Cablegate, a set
of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks from
November 2010 and over the following year.

These documents were released after being anonymously leaked,
detailing U.S. foreign policy over the last decade.
The collection published today has not been leaked, but Mr Assange
said WikiLeaks had been working for the past year to analyse and
assess a vast amount of data held at the U.S. national archives before
releasing it in a searchable form.

Mr Assange said WikiLeaks had developed sophisticated technical
systems to deal with `complex and voluminous’ data.
Top secret documents were not available, while some others were lost
or irreversibly corrupted for periods including December 1975 and
March and June 1976, said Mr Assange.

He added that his mother, who lives in Australia, had told him he was
being kept at the embassy `with nothing to do but work on WikiLeaks
material’.

Armenian News – Tert.am

The story of Armenia Avenue in Tampa, Florida
by George Kamajian

Published: Monday April 08, 2013

Armenia Avenue runs through downtown Tampa.

Florida, our nation’s third largest state, has long been
underrepresented when it comes to organized Armenians. Sure, there has
been Hye’s basking in the sunshine state for years. The traditional 95
corridor from Boston to Miami sprouted numerous colonies of Armenians
from Jacksonville to Ft Lauderdale.

Churches soon followed in Miami and Boca with a smattering of a few
mission parishes when the Armenian populations were deemed too small
to support a church. Although Armenians have made their presence known
in Florida business and sports (think Garo Yepremian from the
undefeated Miami Dolphins) for years, their numbers are still anemic
when compared to Philly, Boston or Detroit.

When the Western part of the state opened up with Interstate 75 a
funny thing happened. There was an Armenian imprint in Tampa that went
beyond anything their brothers and sisters could brag about up north.

There, in the middle of downtown Tampa was the landmark Armenia Avenue
with a sign as big as any on Interstate 75. A familiar name welcomed
weary tourist from up north. How? Who was this powerful, rich or
politically connected Armenian that made this happen?

Unfortunately, according to the local historical society Armenia has
nothing to do with the name of a road in Tampa.

“Armenia Avenue was actually originally called Armina Avenue,” said
Rodney Kite-Powell, the curator of history at the Tampa Bay History
Center. Kite-Powell says cigar factories used to line this avenue.
There are a lot of streets named after the cigar factories that they
were near,” Kite-Powell explained. “And so, the Armina cigar factory
was right along Armenia — or Armina — Avenue.”

So how’d we get from A-r-m-i-n-a to A-r-m-e-n-i-a?

“Somewhere along the line, either a sign painter messed up, or
somebody just kept consistently messing up the pronunciation, and
Armina became Armenia,” Kite-Powell said.

Now for the good news….it’s going to stay Armenia avenue forever.

Editor’s note: For a video report on the topic go to

Government must share responsibility for Armavia’s bankruptcy – official

16:10 – 08.04.13

The government has its share of responsibility for the bankruptcy of
Armenia’s national air carrier, Isabella Muradyan, Vice-Chair of the
Air Communication Subcommittee, Public Council of Armenia, told
journalists on Monday.

The government’s guilt is that it allows the privatization of
strategic facilities. `Armenia made a blunder by selling its national
airlines to a private person, which is hardly practiced in the world,’
she said.

Ms Muradyan noted that the government is not property regulating the sector.

She also proposes creation of a fund to compensate passengers for
their losses, with Armavia to pay off its debts later.

Armenian News – Tert.am

End of Criminal Era 3

Dmitry Medvedev described what happened in Cyprus where 70% of
deposits were levied as `stealing of the theft’. It was not just a
slip of the tongue but a lawyer’s explanation why Russian and other
businessmen who have been robbed did not apply to court and dispute
this act. If those assets are stolen, nobody will apply to court for
them, preferring loss of the money to involvement in a corruption
scandal.

In the post-Soviet states most wealth has been stolen. At the
beginning of `wild’ privatization the wiliest ones took national
property and made millions. They did not do it legally, of course.
Later the nabobs came to government, seized political levers,
safeguarded their property and became oligarchs.

The same thing happened in all the post-Soviet states, including
Armenia. The capital is mostly illegitimate. Therefore, nobody can
state for sure how much assets the oligarchs have, how they obtained
them and whether they are legal. Hardly any of the oligarchs has
inherited anything from their parents. Their wealth is based on either
the fruits of `wild’ privatization or monopoly gained illegally.

The world is going through `stealing of the theft’. It means that the
post-Soviet wild criminal world is close to its end. This process is
still weak in Armenia. Nevertheless, there is already awareness that
if something stolen is seized from a thief, the thief will not dare
defend it. A few years ago the law enforcement agencies, public
administration and armed bodyguards of oligarchs were used for that.
Now time has changed.

A few days ago the owners of demolished houses on Buzand Street
announced that over ten apartments in the building built in their
place belong to the head of the Control Service of the President and
his relatives. The President’s Administration dismissed these
allegations after which the evicted citizens published the list of
owners of apartments, among them the head of the Control Service and
his numerous relatives.

At some point the deceived citizens will decide to take what they have
been deprived of illegally. The one who deprived them will hardly
protect their property obtained illegally. It is not only apartments
but factories, subsoil and other national wealth.

In that case one will be able to state the end of the criminal era.

Naira Hayrumyan
11:46 08/04/2013
Story from Lragir.am News: