Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARFD PINS HOPES ON RULING REGIME’S UNDERSTANDING

NEWS.AM
February 25, 2013 | 15:38

YEREVAN.- The National Assembly cannot stand aside from the ongoing
internal political processes in Armenia, head of ARF Dashnaktsutyun
faction said, welcoming Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan’s decision to discuss
the initiative with the opposition.

Armen Rustamyan said they had suggested the format of an extraordinary
session to discuss existing political situation.

“We need to hold these discussions for the parliament to have position
on the issue. Of course, all have different approaches to the election
results, but all recognize that there is serious discontent. We will
make proposals to reduce tensions and discontent in the country,”
he told reporters on Monday.

Rustamyan deems that a possible extraordinary session of parliament
should end by a decision or statement that might be the start of
joint efforts to lead the country out of current situation.

“This will be a good precedent, if the political majority displays
understanding.”

ARFD member explained that debates will not replace but supplement
public movement. “If you do not solve the problem now, then it will
lead to explosive processes. We want the state and the people to
become winners.”

Comparing existing situation with the 2008 post-election process,
Rustamyan stressed that Hovannisian is ready to discuss the situation
and find a joint way out of the current situation.

OPPOSITIONIST: IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT FOR SERZH SARGSYAN TO CONDUCT FOREIGN POLICY DESPITE SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF PROTESTERS

ARMINFO
Monday, February 25, 14:33

It will be very difficult for President Serzh Sargsyan to conduct
foreign policy and govern despite significant number of protesters.

Hovhanness Igityan, ex-head of the Armenian National Assembly for
Foreign Affairs, a member of the Armenian Pan-National Movement Party
Board (renamed into Armenian National Congress on February 23- ed.)
made such statement to ArmInfo.

As regards the protest action led by Raffi Hovannisian, Leader of
Hertiage Party, against the Feb 18 presidential election result,
Igityan said that the Armenian public no longer wants to live as it
lived before and today this unwillingness is demonstrated more openly
and bravely.

“Social media has an important role in these processes, indeed. There
was information vacuum before due to total control of the authorities
over television, while now the situation has fundamentally changed,”
Igityan said.

He said that irrespective of Hovannisian’s future steps, it will be
hard for the authorities to neutralize the wave of public discontent.

What we see in the Liberty Square is a public movement and not Raffi
Hovannisian’s movement.

“Serzh Sargsyan has faced a challenge. I wonder how he is going to
govern the country for another five years in such situation and conduct
foreign policy despite significant number of protesters,” he said.

Hovannisian, who got the second place at the Feb 18 presidential
election, has been rallying in Yerevan and in the regions against
the election outcome since February 20.

To recall, Raffi Hovannisian received 36.75% of votes and lost the Feb
18 presidential election to the incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan,
who received 58.64% of votes.

LA ARMENIANS HOLD A MARCH OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST ELECTION FRAUD IN ARMENIA

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 26, 16:46

A march for solidarity with the Armenian people’s struggle for Justice
was held in Glendale on Feb 24 with a view to make the Armenian
communities of Los Angeles aware of the massive election fraud carried
out during the Feb 18 presidential election in Armenia.

About 100 Armenians, holding Armenian flags and placards and chanting
“Armenia,” “Victory” and “Raffi President,” marched from the Armenian
Apostolic Church to the Consulate General of Armenia.

In front of the Consulate, they read out the following statement:

“Armenians of Southern California Demand Punishment of Voter
Fraudsters and Fair Recount of Armenia’s Presidential Ballots. The
recent presidential election in Armenia has once again demonstrated
the true face of the current Armenian regime. There is overwhelming
evidence of massive election fraud, which was carried out during
the Armenian Presidential Election on February 18, 2013, to skew the
overall election outcome in favor of incumbent Serzh Sargsyan.

We, Armenians born and raised in and outside of Armenia’s boundaries
and residing in Southern California, urge that until the consequences
of election fraud are eliminated and the numbers published by the
Central Electoral Commission in Armenia inspire confidence, everyone
should refuse to recognize Serzh Sargsyan as President-elect. We also
demand that Armenian citizens’ constitutional right to vote outside
Armenia is restored.”

ARMENIA SHOULD FORMALLY RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS IN AZERBAIJAN – ASSEMBLY OF AZERBAIJAN ARMENIANS

NEWS.AM
February 26, 2013 | 15:10

YEREVAN. – The Azerbaijanis are telling tales about the events that
occurred in Khojaly, Azerbaijan, on February 25-26, 1992. These
tales were invented to cover up the crimes they had committed against
the Armenians in Sumgait and Baku, Chairman Grigori Ayvazyan of the
Assembly of Azerbaijan Armenians stated during a press conference
on Tuesday.

According to him, the Armenians themselves should confess that the
Armenian pogroms in the City of Sumgait were genocide, too.

“Armenia should formally recognize the genocide of the Armenians in
Azerbaijan,” Ayvazyan added.

In his view, the primary shortfall of the Armenian policy in the past
25 yeas is that the pogroms in Sumgait were discussed by numerous
people, but no one asked the Azerbaijan Armenians’ respective
viewpoint.

“This is [the case] at a time when the Karabakh conflict solutions
that are advantageous for the Armenian party are in our hands. It is us
[Azerbaijan Armenians] who are well aware of Azerbaijan’s weaknesses,”
chairman of the Assembly of Azerbaijan Armenians concluded.

To note, large-scale pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait were carried
out from February 27 to 29, 1988 and, as a result, thirty people were
brutally killed and hundreds were injured.

ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN MASSACRES IN SUMGAIT COMMEMORATED IN GERMANY

16:24 26/02/2013 ” SOCIETY

The European Centre of Artsakh and the Association of European and
Armenian experts called the Association Working Group Recognition –
Against Genocide (AGA) together with two of Armenian communities
of Berlin, held a number of events on Sunday for commemorating the
victims of the massacre committed in Sumgait. The events were titled
“This should never happen again”, the statement on AGA website said.

“Pogroms, that were organized at the end of February in 1988, in the
Azerbaijani city of Sumgait, marked the beginning of organized mass
violence against the Armenian minority in Azerbaijan. Soviet central
government did not use the law enforcement agencies to protect the
persecuted Armenians. Those responsible for Sumgait events remained
unpunished which encouraged them to commit new pogroms in Baku, Gianja
(Kirovabad) and in many other cities and towns,” the site says.

In the framework of events a procession was held in Berlin and liturgy
was served in the church led by Archbishop Karekin Bekdzhyanom.

Armenian Ambassador to Germany Armen Martirosyan, Harutyun Grigoryan,
the representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Germany,
Tessa Hoffman Chairman of AGA made speeches.

On 26-29 February 1988 in terms of actual complicity of local
authorities and inaction of the USSR government mass pogroms
of civilians were organized in Sumgait city of Azerbaijani SSR,
accompanied with unprecedented brutal murders, violence and pillaging
against the Armenian population of the city. Armenian pogroms in
Sumgait were carefully organized. At the meetings, which began on
February 26 in the central square, city leaders openly called for
violence against the Armenians.

On February 27 protests which were attended by hundreds of rioters
turned into violence. Armed with axes, knives, specially sharpened
rebar, rocks and cans of gasoline and with the pre-compiled lists of
apartments where Armenians lived the rioters broke into the houses,
turning everything upside down there and killing the owners. In
the same time, people were often taken out to the streets or to the
courtyard for jeering at them publicly. After painful humiliations
and torture the victims were doused with gasoline and burnt alive.

On February 29 army troops entered Sumgait but without an order to
intervene. Only in the evening, when the mad crowd began to attack
the soldiers the military units took up decisive steps.

The exact number of victims of Sumgait pogroms is still unknown.

According to official data, 32 people were killed; however there
is ample evidence that several hundred Armenians have been killed
in the city in three days. There is also evidence that the riots
were coordinated by KGB in Azerbaijan. Executioners of Sumgait were
subsequently declared as national heroes of Azerbaijan.

Documentary “Ordinary Genocide: Sumgait 1988”

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN BELGIUM CALLS TO COMMEMORATE THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF SUMGAIT POGROMS

14:22 26.02.2013

The Armenian Embassy in the Kingdom of Belgium calls on all interested
parties to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Armenian Pogroms in
Sumgait and do whatever it takes to prevent such ethic hate crimes in
the future. “As we remember the victims of these senseless atrocities,
let us never forget our responsibility to one another as members
of the human race and the importance of standing up to abuse or
discrimination wherever it occurs,” the Embassy said in a statement.

“Today the Armenians all over the world mark the 25th anniversary of
Armenian pogroms in Sumgait, Azerbaijan. For three days in February,
1988, the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait became the arena of pogroms
against the Armenians of the city. Dozens of Armenian were killed,
majority of whom were set afire alive after being beaten and tortured.

Hundreds of innocent people received injuries and became physically
impaired. Women, among them minors, were raped. Thousands of people
became refugees.

The Sumgait tragedy was a brutal, organized attempt to block
a political solution to the peaceful demands of the Armenians of
Nagorno Karabagh for self-determination. These events marked the
beginning of a premeditated plan to depopulate Azerbaijan of Armenians.

This crime was not given its adequate political and legal evaluation.

Not only its organizers and primary executors were set free, but also
until today their names remained unknown to the world. Despite the
fact that everything possible was done to conceal the circumstances
of the crime committed in Sumgait and to distort its nature, there
are enough documents, witness accounts and other facts that lead to
one and only conclusion: the pogroms were organized and executed on
high governmental level,” the statement reads.

MR. MUKUCHYAN, READ RA CONSTITUTION. GYUMRI JOINED THE STRIKE

2013-02-26 15:26:41

At the moment, students on strike have reached the Medical University
and encourage students to join them.

As the corrspondent of Lurer.com reports, activists say that the
final data of the presidential elections presented by CEC are rigged,
and that they are against the rigged elections, the students will go
on strike until justice wins.

“Mr. Mukuchyan (CEC chairman), read the second article of RA
Constitution, which says that the power belongs to people”, one of
the students declared.

During the meeting it was announced that Gyumri university students
also joined the strike.

MASIS CITIZENS EXPRESSED THEIR DISCONTENT TO RAFFI HOVANNISIAN

2013-02-26 15:45:28

The leader of “Heritage” party reached his “hello” to Masis. Raffi
Hovannisian met here with citizens to hear their concerns and
congratulated them on the victory of the presidential elections on
February 18.

In the central square of Masis citizens gathered around Raffi
Hovannisian expressed their discontent with the control system of
the country, high rates of poverty and emigration.

One of the citizens expressed his displeasure, saying that he meets
with the President without journalists, and regional meetings are
held in conjunction with the press. Citizen expressed the view that
it was necessary to hold a meeting with the President, surrounded
by journalists. He also noted that the question of Serzh Sargsyan,
“Are you sad, Raffi?” he was to give a concrete answer, “Yes, I’m
sad because Sargsyan rigged elections”, in response to that Raffi
Hovannisian said that he is competent in his response .

NEW INDIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA HANDS CREDENTIALS TO PRESIDENT SARGSYAN

NEWS.AM
February 26, 2013 | 14:49

YEREVAN. – India’s newly appointed Ambassador to Armenia, Suresh Babu,
presented his credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan on Tuesday.

Sargsyan congratulated the Ambassador, in connection with commencing
his diplomatic mission in Armenia, and expressed a hope that
Armenian-Indian relations will strengthen further during Ambassador
Babu’s term in office.

The interlocutors stressed that the bilateral cooperation between the
two countries has developed over the course of the past twenty years,
that is, ever since the establishment of diplomatic ties between
Armenia and India.

Separately, the President of Armenia assured that his country is
determined to continue and deepen this cooperation.

ARMENIAN MINISTRY: YEREVAN NOT HOLDING TALKS WITH ANKARA

Trend, Azerbaijan
Feb 25 2013

The Armenian Foreign Ministry denied any negotiations with Turkey,
Armenian Report said today.

“Armenia is not conducting negotiations with Turkey in any format,”
spokesman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran Balayan said.

He was commenting on the information in the Turkish Hurriyet Daily
News after the Armenian News correspondent’s request.

According to the information, Ankara made an offer to Yerevan to
take part in a regional project in the case of progress in the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue, as well as voiced this proposal at the OSCE
Minsk Group.

While referring to diplomatic sources, the newspaper reported that
Ankara is trying to attract the OSCE Minsk Group.

“We presented a comprehensive project of establishing corridors
to the OSCE Minsk Group in November 2012,” Hurriyet Daily News
reported earlier. “This project must be implemented in peacetime
and in particular, after Armenia makes a move to liberate the seven
occupied regions bordering with Nagorno-Karabakh. We then propose
to fully normalise relations between Turkey and Armenia and Armenia
and Azerbaijan.”

According to the information the proposed project consisted of two
phases: the establishment of relations between Turkey, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Russia by restoring unused railways and the building
of new ones.

‘The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project must be completed by the end
of this year and the Turkey-Armenia railway can then be re-opened
after some restoration work’, the information said.

The second phase of the project envisages the establishment of
relations between the regional countries with Europe and Asia, the
edition reported. A transportation line between London and Beijing
will soon be possible after Marmaray and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railway projects are completed. However the normalisation of the
political situation in the region will allow Armenia to join this
growing strategic situation, sources close to the project said,
the edition reported.

According to the Turkish edition’s sources, Turkey informed Baku
about the content of the proposed project. ‘We made it clear that
the project can be implemented only after Armenia advances towards
a peace settlement’, Azerbaijani sources said, the newspaper reported.

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 four U.N. Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.