Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Exhibition of New Year Trees prepared from different materials (photos)

19:37 – 23.12.12

Contest of environmental New Year Trees was among the events held
within the framework of winter festival held from December 22 to
January 13 in Yerevan Freedom Square.

The participants have presented New Year Trees they have prepared from
different materials.

New Year Trees from cigarette boxes, garbage decorated by candies were
presented. Author of the New Year Tree prepared by cigarette boxes
Hovhannes told Tert.am that the initial idea was fighting against
smoking. `In this way we are trying to prove that smoking harms
people’s health. To make our call reach people we have used black
ribbons to symbolize death caused by smoking,’ he said.

Tatevik Avetisyan, public relations officer of DEEM communications
company, the organizer of the event, said their goal is to promote the
idea of preparation of New Year Trees from different materials. The
exhibition is part of the winter festival for already five years.

On December 27 the jury will decide the winner who will get an award.

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Dec 23 2012

Iran speaker congratulates Christians on Jesus Christ birth anniversary

Tehran, 23 December: Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani in a message
congratulated all world Christians and his Armenian countrymen on the
birth anniversary of Jesus Christ and the onset of the new Christian
year.

According to a report by Majlis’ News and Mass Media Bureau, he in the
message congratulated the Iranian nation and all Christians across the
world on the auspicious birth anniversary of the great prophet of
justice and spirituality.

Recalling that the world face great challenges concurrent with the
Christ’s birth anniversary, Larijani added that the challenges mainly
pertain to tyrannies of arrogate powers.

He also described sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation as another
example of the US and West’s adventurous behaviour.

The current global conditions reveal that today the world is more in
need of the Christ’s message of monotheism, spirituality and justice.
Unfortunately, the today’s materialistic world has distanced itself
from the message of the prophet.

He further noted that the birth anniversary serves as suitable
opportunity for revising the hostile attitudes in the international
scene.

The Majlis Speaker also wished the Iranian Armenians and all
Christians a happy and successful year.

What made the Turk cross the RA border?
Sat, 12/22/2012 – 21:49

A trial in the light of a state border-crossing in the Court of
General Jurisdiction of Armavir region is taking place under the
presidency of judge Artur Adamyan. The defendant is the citizen of
Turkey from the town of Aydın, Ramazan Ulama Kadir oglu, born in 1976.
He was brought in an indictment on the grounds of article 329 section
1 of the RA Criminal Code, arrest was chosen as a preventive measure
against him.

According to the accusation hypothesis, Ramazan Ulama Kadir oglu being
on the territory of Turkey on August 26, 2012 came to the town Igdir
on the border with the RA with the intention to illegally cross the
border. Afterwards he went to the bordering settlement on taxi, from
where crossed the river Araqs on foot and without proper documents and
permission crossed the state border of the RA around 18:20 the same
day by the administrative area of Arazap community of Armavir region,
along the 13th frontier outpost and entered the territory of the RA.
He was immediately revealed and arrested by the frontier outpost
soldiers.

Ramazan Ulama Kadir oglu is accused of crossing the RA state border
without proper documents and permission, which is a criminal action.

Author:
Factinfo

“No religion” third world group after Christians, Muslims

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:04pm EST

(Reuters) – People with no religious affiliation make up the third-largest
global group in a new study of the size of the world’s faiths, placing
after Christians and Muslims and just before Hindus.

The study, based on extensive data for the year 2010, also showed Islam and
Hinduism are the faiths mostly likely to expand in the future while Jews
have the weakest growth prospects.

It showed Christianity is the most evenly spread religion, present in all
regions of the world, while Hinduism is the least global with 94 percent of
its population in one country, India.

Overall, 84 percent of the world’s inhabitants, which it estimated at 6.9
billion, identify with a religion, according to the study entitled “The
Global Religious Landscape” issued by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public
Life on Tuesday.

The “unaffiliated” category covers all those who profess no religion, from
atheists and agnostics to people with spiritual beliefs but no link to any
established faith.

“Many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold religious or spiritual
beliefs,” the study stressed.

“Belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7 percent of unaffiliated
Chinese adults, 30 percent of unaffiliated French adults and 68 percent of
unaffiliated U.S. adults,” it said.

ISLAM EXPANDS

Exact numbers for religious populations are impossible to obtain and
estimates for the size of the larger faiths can vary by hundreds of
millions. This study by the Washington-based Pew Forum appears to be one of
the most extensive to date.

Pew Forum demographer Conrad Hackett said the 2,500 censuses, surveys
and population registers used to compile the report did not allow a
further breakdown to estimate the world population of atheists and
agnostics.

“It’s not the kind of data that’s available for every country,” he said. “A
census will typically ask what your religion is and you can identify a
number of particular affiliations or no religion.

An age breakdown showed Muslims had the lowest median age at 23 years,
compared to 28 for the whole world population. The median age highlights
the population bulge at the point where half the population is above and
half below that number.

“Muslims are going to grow as a share of the world’s population and an
important part of that is this young age structure,” Hackett said.

By contrast, Judaism, which has 14 million adherents or 0.2 percent of the
world population, has the highest median age at 36, meaning its growth
prospects are weakest.

Hackett noted that Israel,
which has 40.5 percent of the world Jewish population, had a younger age
structure than the United States, where 41.1 percent of the world’s Jews
live.

Global Christianity’s median age is 30 and Hinduism’s 26. With a median age
of 34, the growth prospects for religiously unaffiliated people are weak,
the study showed.

WORLDWIDE BREAKDOWN

The study estimated Christianity was the largest faith at 2.2 billion
adherents or 31.5 percent of the world’s population.

The Roman Catholic Church makes up 50 percent of that total, with
Protestants — including Anglicans and non-denominational churches — at 37
percent and Orthodox at 12 percent.

There are about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, or 23 percent of the
global population. “The overwhelming majority (87-90 percent) are Sunnis,
about 10-13 percent are Shia Muslims,” the study said.

Among the 1.1 billion unaffiliated people around the world, over 700
million, or 62 percent of them, live in
Chinaalone, where they make up
52.2 percent of the Chinese population.

Japan comes next with the second
largest unaffiliated population in the world with 72 million, or 57 percent
of the national population. After that comes the United States, 51 million
people — 16.4 percent of all Americans — said they have no link to an
established faith.

The world’s Hindu population is concentrated mostly in India, Nepal and
Bangladesh. Half of the world’s Buddhists live in
China,
followed far behind by Thailand at
13.2 percent of the world Buddhist population and
Japanwith 9.4
percent.

The study found that about 405 million people, or about 6 percent of the
world population, followed folk religions such as those found in Africa and
China or among Native American and Australian aboriginal peoples.

Another 58 million, or nearly 1 percent of the world population, belonged
to “other religions” including Baha’i, Taoism, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism,
Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism. Most were in the Asia-Pacific region.

The study said that 97 percent of the world’s Hindus, 87 percent of its
Christians and 73 percent of its Muslims lived in countries where they were
a large to overwhelming majority.

Christians make up the majority in 157 countries and Muslims in 49,
including 19 of the 20 states in the Middle East and North Africa, with the
exception of Israel .

By contrast, Hindus are in the majority only in India, Nepal and Mauritius.

(Reporting By Tom Heneghan, editing by Paul Casciato)

Ambassador Ian Kelly named US acting co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group

tert.am
17:26 – 23.12.12

US Ambassador Robert Bradtke has finished his term as the US OSCE
Minsk Group co-chair last week, the press-service of the US embassy in
Azerbaijan told Trend on Sunday.

Ambassador Ian Kelly was named as U.S.co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
on an interim basis on Dec. 21, pending the appointment of a new
permanent co-chair, the report says.

The US embassy said the Department of State is grateful to Ambassador
Bradtke for over three years of service as the US co-chair and wishes
him well in his future endeavors.

“The United States remains fully committed to its role as US co-chair
and to helping the sides to find a peaceful, negotiated solution to
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” the report noted.

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are Igor Popov (Russia) and Jacques Faure (France).

The Best Cultural Community of the Republic is Brajur

Saturday, 22 December 2012 14:39

`The Cultural Crossroads’ initiated by the NKR Ministry of Culture and
Youth Affairs is already in the past and the prize-winners became
known during the gala concert which took place at the culture palace
of Stepanakert on December 18.

It must be noted that on December 17 the communities of Nakhijevanik
and Noragyugh, Askeran region, Arajadzor, Martakert region, and Nor
Brajur, Qarvajar region, tried their cultural abilities in the final
round.

By the estimation of the jury the community of Nor Brajur won the
first place, Noragyugh took the second and Nakhijevanik the third
places and they were awarded respectively 500, 300 and 200 thousand
drams and diplomas by the Ministry.

The studios presented by Askeran and Shoushi were recognized the best.
It must be mentioned that apart from their performances the
communities should have presented their region with studios depicting
their villages. Besides the prize-winning places there were also
private prizes in such nominations as `Best acting technique’,
`Artsakh humour’, `Best declamation’ and so on. Apart from the
prizewinner communities the others were also awarded diplomas and
expensive presents.

STATE BUDGET OF AZERBAIJAN

Ara Marjanyan
Senior Expert, «Noravank» Foundation; UN National Expert on Energy and
Transport in Armenia, Ph.D, Senior Scientific Researcher
(Translated from Armenian)

1. What is it like?

Just as in case with the population size, there is no ready and simple
answer to `what is the Azerbaijani budget like?’ simple question [1,
2]. Here we need to compare several data sources because the official
estimations of the Azerbaijani Republic’s state budget differ markedly
from the estimations given by other sources.

Thus, according to the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of
Azerbaijan (SSCRA)1 and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of
Azerbaijan2 in 2011 Azerbaijan ran a surplus budget. That means that
revenues of the budget exceeded its expenditures at 305 million manats
($386 million)3 which was 0.6% of the GDP of the republic for that
year. This estimation is repeated by the CIS Statistic Committee4 and
partially repeated by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and
World Economic Forum.

Meanwhile, according to the estimation of the U.S. CIA5, for the same
2011 the AR did not have a surplus budget but quite the opposite it
had a deficit budget. And at the same time it ran a budget deficit of
no less than $11 billion, i.e. 18.7% of the GDP. The similar
estimations are brought by a number of organizations which follow the
`classical’ economic model and system of values (for example,
`economic freedom’ fact-books of the U.S. Heritage Foundation,
publications of the London School of Economics, etc). Such a
contraposition of the estimations is not only restricted to 2011.

2. Why is it like that?

It is known that the classical structure of the state budget supposes
the availability of two big parts ` revenues and expenditures. The
revenues are formed at the expense of various dues and taxes from
trade and economic, business and legal and proprietary activities.
This all forms the basis of the revenue of the state budget (`tax
base’) of a `normal’ country and is a generalized result of country’s
normal activity.

In case with the Azerbaijani revenue side of the state budget besides
common lines of `tax base’ (profit tax, excise tax, VAT, etc.) there
is one more budget line. In the publications of the state budget by
the Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijani Republic it is presented in a
generalized form as `non-tax revenues’, and in SSCRA publications
simply as `other payments’. It includes assignments of some of the
money supply formed at the expense of the income of the State Oil Fund
of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) to the revenue part of the state budget and is
the most characteristic element of the clannish and oligarchic
mono-economic system of Azerbaijan. Picture 1 presents the structure
of the revenue sides of the AR budget for 2005-2011 in compliance with
the tax base and SOFAZ contributions [3].

Sources:

It reveals remarkable details. First, in the period of 2005-2011
`other payments’ (`non-tax revenues’ as it was called in the AR
Ministry of Finance variant) gradually become the main source of the
formation of the revenue side of the state budget. Since 2008 the
share of `other payments’ in the revenues of the budget has
essentially grown thus becoming equal to the `tax base’ and in 2009 it
exceeded 50%. In 2011 `other payments’ constituted about 60% of the
revenues of the Azerbaijani budget.

In 2005-2011 the specific weight of the assignments from the SOFAZ in
the `other payments’ line essentially grew. Back in 2005, i.e. at the
end of the early oil production stage at Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil
field, the assignments by SOFAZ constituted a little more than a half
of the `other payments’ of the state budget (50.1%). Since 2006 when
the `main oil’ stage of the ACG was initiated and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline started operating, the SOFAZ assignments constituted more
than 70% of `other payments’ line. In the next three years they
constituted more than 95% of the `other payments’ and reached 99% in
2011 [4, 3].

Thus, under the precise of `other payments’ line penetration of the
elements of non-state but no less important SOFAZ oil budget into the
state budget of the country is taking place. But in accordance with
the classical approach and in case with the AR such payments cannot be
considered as real revenue of a state budget because being rather
tangible they are formed out of the state taxes field, they are only
under partial state fiscal control, regulated independently from the
legal environment of the AR by the provisions of the `Production
Sharing Agreement’ and are formed by the personal decisions of the
president of the Azerbaijani Republic.

In reality, the availability of `other payments’ line in the revenues
of the state budget reflects peculiarities of the authoritative and
social-economic system formed in the country and brings us to some
important conclusions. First, starting of the `main oil’ stage of the
ACG oil field (2006) laid the foundation of the realities where the
state budget of the AR turned into the `secondary’ one, thus becoming
only a supplement of the SOFAZ budget. And here we do not mean the
growing share of the assignments though it is also essential. The
so-called structural consequences of this process are of no less
importance either.

Indeed, due to the current system in the AR `parallel budget’ and
`parallel government’ were formed. Such a duality is one of the most
characteristic features of the economic system of the AR. It is not
only a distinctive feature of the top echelons of the power and
becomes apparent in the `Ministry of Finance of the AR-SOFAZ’
competitive tandem. It is inevitably extrapolated to lower, sectoral
administrative levels, thus being expressed in such polar tandems as
`Ministry of Energy and Natural Resource of the AR ` SOCAR Company’ or
`Ministry of Defense of the AR ` Ministry of Defense Industry of the
AR’. In fact it pierces through the whole state up to the public life,
thus conditioning the formation of the `gold 80 thousand’, who are
involved in the oil industry, in opposition to the rest of the
Azerbaijani society.

Besides, planning of the revenue and expenditure sides of the state
budget of the AR, in fact, is based on the oil price forecasts and
correspondingly depends on their adequacy and accuracy. Thereby, the
social and economic development of the AR becomes a hostage of the oil
price trend fluctuations. Under the current unstable global and
regional geopolitical situation and considerable speculations in oil
price formation adequate forecasts are impossible even in the course
of a year. These all result in multiple reconsiderations of the both
forecasts and main indicators of the state budget, thus loosening the
discipline and responsibility for its fulfillment in case of positive
or negative changes in the oil market.

Per se, the created financial and budget system alienates the revenues
from the hydrocarbon resources of the country from the revenue side of
the state budget. The item `non-tax revenues’ of the revenue side of
the state budget in fact confirms this alienation formally and in
reality it fairly presents the real nature of the clannish and
oligarchic social-economic system formed in Azerbaijan. Its essence
resides in:

1. appropriation of profits, gained from the production of natural
resources, and first of all hydrocarbons, and alienation of the
society from the mechanisms of the formation of this profits and
benefits;

2. isolating the gained profits within the narrow circle of clannish
and oligarchic segment of the society, which is in its turn
incorporated into the `President of the AR-SOFAZ-SOCAR’
governing-economic pyramid;

3.directing of the profits, which have been formed in the
non-transparent for the fiscal bodies environment and which are out of
the tax and legislative fields of the country, firstly to the survival
of the regime formed in Azerbaijan.

And amid the social and economic polarization of the Azerbaijani
society, which is rather strained in the forms of its will expression,
the goal of preserving of the current regime and consolidation of the
society is solved with the help of the AR propaganda machine and by
means of the `external enemy’ myth. Especially, taking into
consideration the fact that the Aliyevs’ clan came to power on the
basis of this myth,

And in reality transfers of a part of the profits from the oil
production to the state budget implemented within the `non-tax
revenues’ cause the deformation of the fiscal and tax system of the
country, weaken general discipline of preparation of the budget, lower
the transparency and control of the formation and spending of the
budgetary funds, erode the responsibility of the government for the
preparation of the budget, deepen the corruption on all the levels of
the state and government and business and administrative pyramid of
the AR.

3. What is it spent on?

In order to understand general orientation of the state financial and
economic policy of the Azerbaijani Republic, its logic and tendency,
it is first necessary to consider the share of separate items of
budget in comparison with the general revenue side of the budget for a
given year (%). After that it is necessary to follow the alternations
of that share over the entire period considered. The picture received
is rather eloquent (see Table 1).

Table 1
Structure of the revenue side of the AR budget by its items (% from
the general revenues) and changing of the indices in 2009 and 2011 as
compared with 2005

Sources:
and personal calculations

As compared with 2005, in 2009 only correlation of `Economic sphere’
budget item grew (twofold). As for other items, the decline from 1.1
(`Education’, `Legal and institutional framework’, `Public health’,
`Culture’, `Science’) to 28-fold (`Social security’) can be observed.
Decline can be observed even in the `other expenditure’ item, which,
with some reservations, presents military expenditure of the AR6. Only
correlation of `sport’ item of the budget, which was of a
propagandistic character, remained unchanged.

While comparing 2005 and 2011 budgets the situation even worsened.
Besides the `economic sphere’ only the growth of the military
expenditures was observed. As compared to 200, in 2011 the correlation
for the `social protection’, `public health’ and `sport’ also
diminished. The correlation of `education’, `science’ and `culture,
information, etc.’ budget items diminished at least twofold.
Correlation of expenditure of `Legislative, executive and state power’
diminished at least threefold. And correlation of `social security’
has diminished 37 times since 2005.

The represented data conspicuously describe the character and
orientation of the social and economic policy of official Baku while
implementing the BP/IOC three-stage programme on the development of
the ACG oil field [4] and do not need any special comments.

Sources:
, [5] and personal calculations

4. What is, after all, the budget of the AR?

In the light of all the aforementioned, we suppose it is not a
surprise that there are two directly opposite estimations of the state
budget of the AR depending on the system of values taken as a basis.
In Pic. 2 we summarize the data of the official Baku and the U.S. CIA
on surplus/deficit budget of the AR in 2005-2011 [6]. As we can see,
according to the CIA the AR has had the deficit budget since 2006.
Moreover, the deficit rises alongside with the growth of the SOFAZ
transfers to the revenue side of state budget. If in 2006, according
to the CIA, it was of less than $1 billion, in 2011 it was of about
$11 billion. The estimation of probable official (-$0.6) and real
(-$12.5 billion) deficit budget of the AR in 20127 is also brought.

Conclusions

1. In spite of Aliyev’s notorious slogan that `The oil of Azerbaijan
is the wealth of the Azerbaijani people!’, the hydrocarbon sphere is a
clannish and oligarchic system and the accumulated amenities are
alienated from the people of the AR. The arisen means are directed to
the preservation and reproduction of the current regime.

2. The financial and budget system formed in the country precisely
reflects this circumstance, aggravates corruption and polarization of
the society. At the expense of the welfare of the citizens and
prospects of the development of the country, the current regime in
Azerbaijan directs the wealth appropriated from the people to the
dreadful militarization of the country, creation and development of
the military and industrial complex.

3.The fiasco of the BP/IOC three-stage programme on the development of
the ACG, questionable results of the new stage of the ACG and clouded
prospects of the stage 2 of `Shah Deniz’ gas field development
together with unpredictable behavior of the international prices for
hydrocarbons, as well as the absence of `civilized’ mechanisms of
regime change will increase the internal tension in Azerbaijan and
aggravate the regional instability in 2013-2015.

1

2

3 Hereafter U.S. dollar/Azerbaijani manat exchange rate is brought at
the official annual average exchange rate of the Central Bank of the
AR for that year.

4

5

6 In reality they did not decline in 2009. For more detailed military
expenditures see [5].

7 At the moment when the article was writen in 2012 there were no
available estimations of the AR state budget by the U.S. CIA and
official Baku.

Sources and Literature

Õ?Õ¡ÖÕ»Õ¡Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô±., Ô±Õ¤ÖÕ¢Õ¥Õ»Õ¡Õ¶Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ ÕÕ¡Õ¶ÖÕ¡ÕºÕ¥Õ¿Õ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¸Ö?Õ¶. «Õ¾Õ«ÖÕ¿Õ¸Ö?Õ¡Õ¬»
ÕªÕ¸Õ²Õ¸Õ¾ÖÕ¤Õ¡Õ£ÖÕ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Õ¡Õ¼Õ¡Õ¶Õ±Õ¶Õ¡Õ°Õ¡Õ¿Õ¯Õ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¸Ö?Õ¶Õ¶Õ¥ÖÕ¨, ÔµÖÖ?Õ¡Õ¶, «Õ?Õ¸ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡Õ¶Ö?» Ô³Ô¿Õ, 2012,
Marjanyan book.pdf
Õ?Õ¡ÖÕ»Õ¡Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô±., ÕÕ¡ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡ÕµÕ«Õ¶ Ô¿Õ¸Õ¾Õ¯Õ¡Õ½Õ« ÕªÕ¸Õ²Õ¸Õ¾ÖÕ¤Õ¡Õ£ÖÕ¸Ö?Õ©ÕµÕ¸Ö?Õ¶Õ¨ XXI Õ¤Õ¡ÖÕ« Õ¾Õ¥ÖÕ»Õ«Õ¶,
«Õ?Õ¸ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡Õ¶Ö?» Ô³Ô¿Õ, «21-ÖÕ¤ Ô´Ô±Õ?», Õ©Õ«Õ¾ 4 (44), 2012Õ©., Õ§Õ» 20-44:
State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Annual Reports, 2001-11.
Õ?Õ¡ÖÕ»Õ¡Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô±., Ô±Õ¤ÖÕ¢Õ¥Õ»Õ¡Õ¶Õ« Õ¶Õ¡Õ¾Õ©Õ¡ÕµÕ«Õ¶ Õ¸Õ¬Õ¸ÖÕ¿Õ¨, «Õ?Õ¸ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡Õ¶Ö?» Ô³Ô¿Õ, Ô³Õ¬Õ¸Õ¢Õ¸Ö?Õ½, Õ©Õ«Õ¾
5 (26), 2012:
Õ?Õ¡ÖÕ»Õ¡Õ¶ÕµÕ¡Õ¶ Ô±., Ô±Õ¤ÖÕ¢Õ¥Õ»Õ¡Õ¶Õ« Õ¼Õ¡Õ¦Õ´Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ¶Õ¥ÖÕ¸Ö?ÕªÕ« Õ£Õ¶Õ¡Õ°Õ¡Õ¿Õ´Õ¡Õ¶ Õ·Õ¸Ö?ÖÕ», «Õ?Õ¸ÖÕ¡Õ¾Õ¡Õ¶Ö?»
Ô³Ô¿Õ, «Ô³Õ¬Õ¸Õ¢Õ¸Ö?Õ½» Õ¾Õ¥ÖÕ¬Õ¸Ö?Õ®Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Õ°Õ¡Õ¶Õ¤Õ¥Õ½, Õ©Õ«Õ¾ 10, (31) 2012,

US CIA. World FactBooks. 1992 – 2011.
`Globus’ analytical journal, #11, 2012

Return
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ARMENIE-CULTURE
Emission de l’encyclopédie « Hayastan » (Arménie), pour tout savoir
sur l’Arménie

Les éditions « Haygagan hanrakidaran hradaragtchoutioun » (Editions de
l’Encyclopédie arménienne) ont publié l’encyclopédie « Hayastan »
(Arménie) à Erévan. Le 21 décembre, le responsable de l’édition,
Hovhannés Aïvazian a présenté l’ouvrage à la presse. L’ouvrage
présente l’Etat arménien de ses origines jusqu’à aujourd’hui. «
L’Histoire de l’Arménie, la culture, les arts, les sciences,
l’éducation, la diaspora et divers sujets sont largement évoqués » dit
H. Aïvazian. La 3e République arménienne ainsi que le Haut Karabagh y
trouvent également une large place. L’encyclopédie « Hayastan »
dispose de 1 160 pages. Publié avec le soutien du ministère arménien
de la Culture, l’ouvrage n’est édité qu’à 1 200 exemplaires. La
version électronique de cette encyclopédie sera prochainement
disponible.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 23 décembre 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Star website, Turkey
Dec 20 2012

Iran and Missiles

Commentary by Sedat Laciner

[Translated from Turkish]

In Syria Al-Asad is acting like anyone stuck in a corner would -using
whatever he has to hand out of fear for his life. And what exactly
does he have to hand but missiles that can easily reach Turkey plus
chemical warheads for these missiles to carry. Worse, there are regime
actors other than Al-Asad who can also use these missiles and chemical
weapons. Indeed, news has been filtering in recently of missiles being
taken out of their depots and being made ready. In fact, there are
reports that Scuds have already been used in the north of Syria.

Given the uncertain and risk-filled environment, Turkey could not be
expected not to take measures. Even if the risk is just 1 per cent any
serious state has to take precautions. Besides, the possibility that
Syria might use chemical weapons and missiles is too high to be taken
lightly.

The most significant measure taken by Turkey against any possible
attack was to ask NATO to deploy Patriot missiles for defence.
Patriots are already deployed in Jordan, Greece, Israel, Saudi Arabia
and the UAE. In our region Russia has developed the S-300 [SA-10 or
SA-N-6 Grumble] series of missiles, which do the same job, for its own
defence. Among those regional states that own S-300s are Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Syria, Ukraine and Croatia. Furthermore,
Iran is also working hard to obtain these missiles from Russia. In
short, only Turkey does not have an anti-missile defence system.

In short, given this picture, it is a perfectly natural development
for Turkey to try and obtain an anti-missile system, even if it is
just on loan from NATO. However, both Iran and Russia have objected
strongly to this. Russia’s objection seems to have mellowed following
Putin’s visit. However, Iran’s objections are continuing and growing.

Iran’s Reaction

First of all Iran’s Defence Minister Ahmed Vahidi said they were
against Patriot being deployed to Turkey. Afterwards, Iran’s Chief of
the General Staff Gen Hasan Firuzabadi really upped the dosage of
criticism saying that deployment of Patriot to Turkey might spark a
world war. Meaning, even if Iran does not possess even one offensive
missile, even if Iran were not one of the active sides in the civil
war in Syria, you are still going to take Firuzabadi’s words
seriously. But this is not the case. Iran is the country in the Middle
East that is making the largest investments in missile systems.

Ankara is used to this kind of criticism now. Iran is not happy with
Turkey’s foreign policy. They do not use their Foreign Ministry to
express this displeasure though because neither are they inclined to
sever relations with Turkey completely. That is why some people stand
up and slam Turkey from time to time as if voicing their personal
opinion. But this method has now reached unacceptable proportions.
Indeed, after Iran’s Chief of the General Staff’s comments Prime
Minister Erdogan felt compelled to say: “This Chief of the General
Staff stands up and makes these kinds of statements from time to time
as you all know. When we ask the people in charge about this they say,
‘It is his personal opinion.’ What do you mean, his own personal
opinion? There is a way of doing things and it is not right for me as
prime minister to be addressed in this manner!”

In other words Turkey is telling Iran: “We are onto your game. Instead
of all this innuendo and beating about the bush, chose a more direct
form of communication.” But it not at all easy for Iran to do this.
There are two basic reasons why: First off, there is not one Iran but
several. Ahmadinezhad and Iran’s Foreign Ministry are more temperate
concerning Turkey. However, the structure we can call Iran’s “deep
state” takes a more ideological and sectarian look at matters. This in
turn takes the differences in opinion between both states to a
dangerous level. Another reason is that despite Iran’s opinion to the
contrary the country is actually growing more and more dependent on T
urkey as sanctions grow in number.

Perhaps the most important risk for the future of the region is growth
in the differences between Turkey and Iran and these differences
taking on different dimensions. Such a polarization could have fatal
consequences for both countries and the region.

The Washington Times
December 20, 2012 Thursday

Book Review: When death stalked Emerald Isle

By Aram Bakshian Jr. SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Book: THE GRAVES ARE WALKING: THE GREAT FAMINE AND THE SAGA OF THE IRISH PEOPLE
Author: John Kelly
Henry Holt & Co., $32, 397 pages

The English have always had trouble deciding just how far the human
race extends beyond their own borders. Thus, after a terrorist bomb
took the lives of a pair of foreign visitors, Margaret Thatcher
angrily declared, “The IRA are indiscriminately killing men, women and
children and now they have killed two Australians.” A similar attitude
was embraced by early Victorian Englishmen when the great potato
famine struck John Bull’s other island, Ireland, beginning in 1845:
Something bad was happening on a piece of imperial real estate to
distinctly un-English “others.”

By the time the miserable cycle of blight, starvation, disease and
mass emigration was over, Ireland’s population had shrunk by a third.
In the words of Sir William Wilde, a prominent Irish physician and
humanitarian whose own son, Oscar, left Ireland to pursue literary
opportunities in England, what remained was a population
disproportionately “poor, weak, old, lame, sick, dumb, imbecile and
insane.” Thereafter, for generations to come, as the modern Irish
historian, R.F. Foster, has pointed out, the “hemorrhage of emigration
settled … to a steady flow, sustained by complex mechanisms.”

The great famine began as an all-too-perfect storm that no human
agency could have prevented. The same potato blight that already had
inflicted hunger and suffering on the European Continent and elsewhere
descended on a uniquely vulnerable island population, one-third of
which depended on the potato alone for its basic food. Thus, a crop
blight that had been painful in other countries with more diverse
agriculture at both the commercial and subsistence levels was fatal to
the mass of poor Irish peasantry dependent on small potato patches for
their daily survival.

If nature dealt Ireland this deadly hand, it was a stiff-necked,
self-righteous clique of English politicians and bureaucrats, rigidly
adhering to the politically correct economic and social views of their
time and place, who botched the relief effort and worsened a trauma so
deep that even today, many historians divide modern Irish history into
pre-famine and post-famine epochs. The full story of the famine, the
conditions leading up to it and its tragic consequences was told by
Cecil Woodham-Smith in her masterful 1962 history, “The Great Hunger.”
It remains the definitive work for the general reader, but enough time
has passed since its publication to justify a retelling of this
gripping historical event.

John Kelly, the American author of the best-selling “The Great
Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death,” a scourge that
devastated medieval Europe, is admirably suited to the task, telling
the tale of a disaster that, while confined to a much smaller part of
the world, was all the more devastating to those experiencing it.
English relief policies, he argues, were “parsimonious, shortsighted,
grotesquely twisted by religion and ideology,” and produced “tens of
thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of needless deaths. The
intent of those policies may not have been genocidal, but the effects
were.”

Here one may quibble with Mr. Kelly’s choice of words while agreeing
with his overall indictment. Just as later politicians would talk
about taking advantage of the “opportunity” that the Great Recession
offered the Obama administration to “reform” health care, the dominant
faction in Westminister and Whitehall at the time of the Great Famine
saw it as an opportunity to “reform” a backward, ruinous Irish
agricultural system, largely by thinning the ranks of the rural poor
by allowing nature to take its course and coercing emigration. The
results were abominably inhumane, but they fell short of genocide, the
“deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or
cultural group,” as defined by Merriam Webster.

What happened in Ireland was not quite the same thing as the organized
wholesale massacres, death marches and internments that characterized
the Nazi-driven Holocaust or the systematic Armenian genocide carried
out by the Ottoman Empire in the next century. Nevertheless, it was
bad enough as it was, and Mr. Kelly’s moving, powerfully narrated
account of the tragedy and its aftermath brings it alive in all its
horror.

Aram Bakshian Jr. served as an aide to Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan.