Author: Kajoyan Gevork

TURQUIE
Turquie : 42 rebelles kurdes tués en trois jours de combats (sources locales)

Quarante-deux rebelles du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK)
ont été tués en trois jours de combats dans le sud-est de la Turquie,
ont affirmé vendredi des sources locales de sécurité.

Les affrontements ont eu lieu près de la localité de Semdinli, dans la
province de Hakkari, dans l’extrême sud-est du pays, à la frontière de
l’Irak et de l’Iran, ont affirmé ces sources.

La région de Semdinli est le thétre d’une intensification des combats
entre forces de sécurité turques et rebelles kurdes depuis juillet et
l’annonce par le PKK du lancement d’une stratégie de `maîtrise du
terrain` dans cette zone montagneuse et difficile d’accès.

Des sources locales avaient fait état jeudi d’un soldat et de 13
rebelles tués dans la journée.

Dimanche, une voiture piégée a explosé dans cette ville au passage
d’un véhicule de la police, causant la mort d’un enfant de onze ans et
blessant 18 personnes.

Le conflit kurde en Turquie a connu depuis 2011 un regain progressif
des tensions, avec une augmentation du nombre des accrochages, la
multiplication des arrestations de militants kurdes et le lancement en
septembre d’une grève de la faim dans les prisons à laquelle
paerticipent plus de 700 détenus kurdes.

La chaîne NTV a rapporté mercredi que des commandos turcs avaient
menés une opération ciblée contre des camps du PKK dans le nord de
l’Irak, pénétrant jusqu’à cinq kilomètres à l’intérieur du territoire
irakien.

L’état-major des armées n’a pas commenté cette information.

Le PKK utilise le nord de l’Irak comme base arrière à ses opérations
dans le sud-est de la Turquie, peuplé en majorité de Kurdes.

Le PKK est considéré comme une organisation terroriste par Ankara et
de nombreuses capitales.

Le conflit kurde en Turquie a fait plus de 45.000 morts depuis le
début de l’insurrection du PKK en 1984. Les rebelles ont d’abord
revendiqué l’indépendance du Sud-Est anatolien, avant d’évoluer vers
une demande d’autonomie régionale.

dimanche 11 novembre 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.co

ARMENIE-TRANSPORTS
Accident d’un autobus reliant l’Arménie à la Turquie, un mort et 36 blessés

Un autobus arménien effectuant le déplacement entre Gumri et la
Turquie, transportant plusieurs dizaines de passagers Arméniens est
sortie de route et s’est renversé hier sur la route entre Gumri et
Bavra dans la région de Chirag. Selon Marat Saribekian un responsable
des services de secours un citoyen arménien y a trouvé la mort et 36
autres furent blessés. Ces derniers furent transportés à l’hôpital de
Gumri. Les raisons de cette sortie de route sont pour l’heure
inconnues.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 11 novembre 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Crave Online
Nov 10 2012

Martirosyan motivated to prove doubters wrong against respected Lara

by Mike Coppinger
Nov 10th, 2012

Vanes Martirosyan has been criticized throughout his career for
talking a big game but never fighting anyone of note.

The decorated amateur is undefeated and fought on HBO in 2009, a
decisive win over fellow undefeated prospect Joe Greene at Yankee
Stadium, but the victory wasn’t a springboard and led to more fights
against sub-par opposition.

More than two years later, Martirosyan finally has his big fight – and
a chance to prove his doubters wrong – when he takes on top junior
middleweight Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 knockouts) in the main event
of HBO’s Boxing After Dark tonight at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas,
Nev. (9:45 p.m. ET).

`I’m fighting somebody now so we’ll see what they say after this,’
Martirosyan, 26, told RingTV.com. `I think Lara is a great fighter, he
comes from the Cuban [amateur] background and Saturday night I will
beat him. He’s good but I’m better. I hope it’s the start of Vanes.
It’s the start of big things to come.’

Martirosyan (32-0, 20 knockouts) has big plans, with the winner of
Saturday’s fight the mandatory to Saul `Canelo’Alvarez, but Lara, 29,
presents a stiff test. The 2005 World Amateur Champion at welterweight
is a crisp southpaw with good power and long arms. After drawing with
Carlos Molina in March 2011, he soundly outclassed Paul Williams in
his HBO debut, only to be robbed on the cards. Now, he has another
crack on the network to show his class.

`I can do many different things in the ring, but I’m going to set the
pace and impose my game plan on him,’ said Lara, who recently signed
with powerful advisor Al Haymon. `He’ll have to deal with my speed and
everything else I’m bringing. I don’t want to give up my game plan
but I’m coming out to establish my will on him.’

Friday’s weigh-in was heated with the fighters almost coming to blows
during the customary pre-fight stare-down. Both fighters made the
junior welterweight limit of 154 pounds (Martirosyan 153, Lara 153 ½)
and Lara was irritated by Martirosyan’s actions.

`He tried to get up in my face thinking I was going to back-up but I
crossed my arms and stood there piercing him with a look of
determination and pushed him off me when he started putting his finger
in my face,’ said Lara. `He’s going to see on fight night when I put a
beating on him that he’s not on my level.’

The 2004 Olympian has yet to lose a fight, with his biggest scare
coming against perhaps his toughest opposition to date – Kassim Ouma.
In the January 2010 fight, Ouma dropped the Armenian hard in the ninth
and lost a unanimous decision, though many thought he won. Many doubt
Martirosyan and he is a sizeable underdog heading into Saturday night,
but he says the detractors fuel him.

`It motivates me, because they didn’t think I could be a top guy in
the amateurs and I [proved them wrong],’ said Martirosyan. `That’s the
reason I got my name `The Nightmare’.

And while Martirosyan, THE RING’s No. 5-rated junior middleweight,
feels overlooked, Lara feels he has finally earned the respect of the
boxing public.

`I believe the fans know I’m the WBC No. 1-ranked contender for a
reason,’ said Lara, THE RING’s No. 4-rated junior middleweight. `I’ve
worked my way to this position by winning at the top level. On
Saturday night everyone will know I’m the best light middleweight in
the world. I’m going to unleash every weapon I have on him. Everyone
should tune into HBO to watch this fight.’

Aravot, Armenia
Nov 8 2012

Is Moscow behind the statement of Prosperous Armenia party?

by Emma Gabrielyan
[Translated from Armenian]

While [Armenian] politicians were waiting for the leader of the
Prosperous Armenia [PA] party, Gagik Tsarukyan, to make a decision to
run [in the coming 2013 presidential election] himself or to back
[Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan, the secretary of the PA faction,
Naira Zohrabyan, made a statement on 6 November, in which the PA
called on other factions to start political consultations on the
transition to the parliamentary system of governance and 100-per-cent
proportionate electoral system.

The transition to the parliamentary system of governance implies that
the president to be elected in 2013 will take the office for maximum
four years and that the president, together with other political
forces, will implement respective constitutional amendments and
introdce a new system.

When speaking on the aforementioned issue, Zohrabyan said in the air
of the “Urvagits” TV programme of Kentron TV on 6 November: “This is a
matter of establishing a common agenda. It is not dogmatic. Any force
may present its own vision of system-wide changes we can discuss”.

Zohrabyan continued: “We are not raising an issue of persons, but an
issue of system-wide changes, and we are open to discussion. This is a
major attempt to consolidate healthy political forces”.

Then Zohrabyan explained that the suggestion is addressed to all the
forces, including the [ruling] Republican Party of Armenia [RPA].

However, the PA’s statement was received quite coldly by political
forces on 7 November.

Moreover, members of the RPA, describing the suggestion as Zohrabyan’s
personal initiative, showed that they do not consider this a matter of
discussion, although they noted at the same time that they may assess
any suggestion.

Moreover, Armenian Parliament Deputy Speaker and RPA speaker Eduard
Sharmazanov made quite noteworthy comments.

“It would be at least political short-sightedness not to see people,
who do not have a chance to come to power independently, behind the
people, who make sudden suggestions of transition to parliamentary
system of governance. This is more than obvious,” Sharmazanov said.

“It is a simple step, and it is obvious, where it was programmed.
Further developments will unmask political forces and movements, and
their real faces will be unveiled, if one follows their steps
regarding this issue,” Sharmazanov continued.

The reaction of the RPA’s spokesman makes it possible to imply that
the RPA can see some other forces behind the PA’s statement and can
even suppose, where this statement was prepared.

Does the RPA imply [former Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan,
considering Kocharyan as having no opportunity to come to power, and
does the RPA imply Moscow as the place where the statement was
prepared? … Probably.

If this is the case, then Sharmazanov’s statement clarifies the
situation in Armenia’s political field.

This means that the RPA understands that the PA, together with forces
supporting it, and the published statement may set terms for Sargsyan
until the presidential election, demanding the position of prime
minister, which would possibly mean that Russia demands executive
power from Sargsyan.

On the other hand, the PA, considering itself to be an “alternative”
to the government, seems to follow Georgia’s example with its
statement, raising the problem of consolidation of political forces
and assuming responsibility for establishing political agenda three
months ahead of the presidential election with the aim of stressing
its leading role in the political field.

On the other hand, does the PA sincerely believe that Sargsyan will
initiate the process of transition to the parliamentary system? Or the
political “bargain” with Sargsyan under the veil of political
consolidation will end up with satisfying Kocharyan’s demands only…
Time will show this.

However one thing is obvious: Noteworthy developments are expected in
the camps of Sargsyan and Kocharyan.

[Ellipses as published throughout]

[Translated from Armenian]

Baltic News Service / – BNS
November 9, 2012 Friday 2:52 PM EET

Lithuania: Azeris protested against theater’s trip to Nagorno-Karabakh

KAUNAS, Lithuania , Nov 09, BNS – A group of Azeris protested against
the Kaunas Chamber Theater’s trip to Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday.

“The road to Nagorno-Karabakh goes via Azerbaijan, and we demand
respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The Kaunas Chamber Theater
does not respect Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and
Nagorno-Karabakh being a part of Azerbaijan recognized by the
international law,” the Azeris said.

The group handed in an English-language statement to the theater’s
director Egidijus Ramosiunas.

“You went to Armenia to a festival, but do you now that this territory
does not belong to Armenia but is part of Azerbaijan?” one of the
protesters asked Tamosiunas while handing in the statement.

“We know that it’s (the play – BNS) not politics but you, Lithuanians,
are our friend, and that territory was taken from us by Armenia,” the
protester added.

“The theater is an apolitical organization. We show our performance
and that’s it. We don’t resolve territorial issues,” the theater’s
director said.

“Festival Armonia” is an international festival with deep traditions.
It is held in Yerevan and other cities, as far as I know. We attend
the festival. If Azerbaijan invites us, we’ll go to Azerbaijan,”
Tamosiunas said.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it to BNS last week
it had received a diplomatic note from Azerbaijan’s Embassy in
Vilnius, saying that persons going to Nagorno-Karabakh, which is
internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, need Azerbaijan’s
permission as visiting Nagorno-Karabakh violates sovereignty of the
Republic of Azerbaijan and its territorial integrity as well as
international legal norms and principles.

HARUT’S SHOE REPAIR: ENRICHING EAGLE ROCK SINCE 1980

Patch.com
Nov 9 2012

Harut fixes broken heels and handbags and has a knack for sending
customers off “feeling like a million bucks.”

“I love Harut. He will patch your crappy old favorite shoes and re-heel
your boots and put new leather straps on your handbags and proudly
explain to you how he did it. He’ll show you pictures of his family
(including one of Mike Tyson holding his baby grandson), give you
lots of big warm bear hugs and sloppy old man kisses and send you on
your way feeling like a million bucks.”

That’s how one of the 15 reviews on Yelp for Harut’s Shoe Repair
starts out, vividly highlighting why this “old-fashioned service [is]
so rare these days.” Located roughly midway on the block of Eagle
Rock Boulevard immediately south of Swork, Harut’s Shoe Repair has
been an Eagle Rock favorite since it first opened in 1980.

Eagle Rock Patch stopped by on Thursday to ask the store’s owner,
referred to fondly as only Harut, about his 32 years fixing broken
heels and handbags while offering free psychological therapy to
customers, not all of whom are his admirers.

Harut recently returned from a month-long trip to his native
Armenia-his first since he emigrated to the United States nearly 35
years ago. Here’s what he told Patch:

“I was born in Israel in 1947 [while it was still Palestine] because
my grandfather went there after the Armenian Genocide. My father had
five brothers, and he moved to Armenia when I was four months old. But
all my uncles and cousins stayed in Israel. Later, some of them went
to Jordan, Lebanon, America-everywhere.

“When I came to America in January 1978, we didn’t take one penny-no
welfare, no nothing from the government. Even though for a month and
a half we only had bread and tea. Thanks to God, my children grew up
and I am proud of them. My son was born here. He got two Master’s
degrees and works for the City now. My daughter is a manager in a
doctor’s office.

“I turned 65 years old recently. Every nine months I go to the doctor
to get my heart checked because I have heart trouble. I also have
diabetes and back pain. The doctor said my heart is fine and that I
can travel. When I came home, my wife told me: ‘Your heart is okay,
then we have to go.’ I said, where? She said, to Armenia.

“I had been telling my wife for the past three or four years that I
want to see Armenia before I die. I didn’t expect that she was going
to do something like that, and at first, I didn’t believe it. I said,
are you kidding? I didn’t think we had enough money. But my wife put
it away (laughs). And she made me a surprise.

“I didn’t have any relatives in Armenia. But I had family friends-and
good memories-and that’s why I went back there after 35 years. I
went everywhere. I lived there 30 years and had not been to the areas
where I went now. I am very happy. My wife was very happy, too. I hope
we’re going to have more life and more chances to go see Armenia again.

“It’s a very small country but it has natural beauty. It’s just
unbelievable. The mountains have different colors from the mountains
here. I’m going to say to everybody in the world, if they have a
chance-go to see Armenia.”

About this column: This new column is dedicated to recording and
transcribing interviews with prominent Eagle Rockers so that their
memories about themselves, their families and events important to them
can be preserved. Related Topics: Small Business, Small Business Guide,
Small Business Guide 2012, and Small Business Saturday Have you been
a customer at Harut’s? What’s your experience there been like? Tell
us in the comments.

GROWTH IN ARMENIAN AGRICULTURE

ThePoultrySite.com
Nov 9 2012

ARMENIA – From January to September 2012, Armenia has seen an increase
in its aquaculture and argiculture production, according to data from
the National Statistical Service.

During the period, agricultural and aquaculture production volume
totaled AMD 620.7 billion, an increase of 10,7 per cent compared with
the same period last year, reports PanArmenian.

A 10.5 per cent increase was recorded for agricultural production
which grew to AMD 609.3 billion.

Crop production grew by 16.9 per cent to AMD 393.6 billion and
livestock rose by 3.1 per cent to AMD 215.6 billion.

Aquaculture also reported a huge growth of 23.8 per cent for the
January to September period compared with the same months in 2011.

TURKISH EXPERT: ANKARA-U.S. CONFLICT TO ESCALATE IN 2015 OVER GENOCIDE 100 ANIV.

November 8, 2012 – 17:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Experts expect exacerbation of a conflict between
the U.S. and Turkey in 2015, on 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, a Turkish political analyst said.

“Muslim world’s response to Obama’s reelection as U.S. president
was equivocal, with little change in the latter’s policy line to
be expected. However, some alterations will be in line, including
escalation of a conflict with Turkey.

In 2015, on 100th anniversary of the Genocide, U.S. won’t be able to
stand aside, instead trying to pressure Turkey into recognizing the
1915 massacres,” Tolma Tanis said.

“On the other hand, Turkey and U.S. are allies where Syria crisis
is concerned, despite Obama’s opposition to a military solution to
a conflict between Turkey and Syria, as well as a civil war in Syria.”

“As to other countries’ response to Obama’s reelection, Egypt was
the fist to congratulate him, expressing “hope fur further mutually
beneficial relations.”

“Palestine leader, as well as Israeli Prime Minister also hailed
further cooperation, as opposed to Iran’s understandable cold
response, with Ayatollah Sadiq Larijani noting that no new U.S.-Tehran
negotiations are to planned in near future,” Islamtoday quoted the
expert as saying, umma.org.ua reported.

3

ARF WAS ALWAYS INDEPENDENT POLITICAL POWER

11:54 – 08.11.2012

Secretary of NA ARF fraction Aghvan Vardanyan said today during the
press conference that ARF was always a self-dependant political party,
answering to a question asked about Robert Qocharyan’s support.

“We were both in the authority and opposition and have always kept
our principles. Robert Qocharyan was the president of our country
had had agreed with us in many question and disagreed too. Connecting
works of ARF with Qocharyan is a waste of time, ARF rules according
to its principles”.

Head of ARF fraction Armen Rustamyan noted that if Robert Qocharyan had
agreed with them during the years of his presidency then they would
make a Parliamentarian country and would adopt a 100% proportional
electoral system.

WHY IS A CRUCIAL CONFERENCE ON INTERNET FREEDOM TAKING PLACE IN A DICTATORSHIP?

4:18PM GMT 07 Nov 2012

IT’S OF DEEP CONCERN THAT A CONFERENCE ON INTERNET FREEDOM IS BEING
HELD IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST TAWDRY DICTATORSHIPS, WRITES MIKE
HARRIS

Ilham Aliyev The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and his wife
Mehriban, on a visit to London in 2009 Photo: REX

By Mike Harris, Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship

For Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev, the hosting of the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) in Baku is yet another propaganda coup in a year
marked by the Eurovision Song Contest and the launch of Azerbaijan’s
bid for Baku to host the 2020 Olympic Games. The regime is slick –
it spent an estimated $500 million on Eurovision alone, hires the
smoothest spin doctors, and takes British MPs on all expenses paid
trips to see “the real Azerbaijan” (as opposed to the Azerbaijan
where their Parliament contains not a single opposition MP).

Azerbaijan is also a country with a track record of persecuting
internet activists, such as bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada.

Elnur Majidli, a Strasbourg-based blogger and internet activist,
was threatened with a 12 year jail sentence for “inciting hatred”
after setting up Facebook groups that facilitated rare public protests
in Azerbaijan during 2011. Because of his online activism, police
officers turned up at his family home. His father was held for eight
hours by the police, then swiftly lost his job in the state shipping
firm Caspar, all because his son set up a Facebook group. Majidli
junior cannot return to Azerbaijan. State TV broadcasts programmes
that allege Facebook and Twitter cause criminality among Azerbaijan’s
young people. Just last year, the country’s chief psychiatrist warned
that social media caused mental disorders.

This is the country that will host the IGF (a United Nations
initiative) and help set the framework for the future of internet
freedom. While a bitter irony for brave people like Majidli, it’s
more worryingly symbolic. Russia and China have been particularly
vocal in their desire to grab control of the internet – and the IGF
is one important vehicle where they can build alliances to begin this
process. It isn’t just autocratic states that want state-led regulation
of the internet. Just last year, Brazil and South Africa called for
a global internet governance body. It’s a call that has delighted
the dictators who recognise that taming the internet is a large job
that cannot be dealt with solely at national level. It isn’t just
about the state censoring websites and ISPs, but also controlling
protocols, the export of technologies and the telecommunications
infrastructure. As Prof. Milton Mueller argues in the next issue of
Index on Censorship magazine:

“Internet technology – TCP/IP protocols – can be installed in
computers in North Korea, but it won’t make communications in
that country free. If a repressive government owns and operates the
telecommunications infrastructure, blocks trade in computer and telecom
equipment, does not allow a free market for access, devices or services
to develop … it’s [then] easy to contain and control the internet.”

If the future governance of the internet were in the hands of a
statutory international body there is no doubt that countries like
China and Russia would attempt to undermine the multiple underpinnings
that ensure internet freedom. They may start by undermining the
ability of private telecoms companies to negotiate directly and
freely with each other on how their networks operate and bring in
state oversight. Or they might turn telecoms companies, many of which
are still state-owned, into the gatekeepers of internet services to
fragment the internet. Current draconian proposals on cybersecurity
hark back to a time when state monopolies like BT ruled supreme and
had teams of spooks working internally to tap phones.

They expose the concern that the borderless internet is making the
Westphalian approach to national security increasingly redundant. As
Index points out in a recent policy paper, while pursuing a global
agenda, states continue to curtail net freedom at home. Last summer
Russia created a blacklist of websites that contain “extremist”
content (condemned by Russian NGOs and political activists who fear
they will be targeted). China defends the borders of its increasingly
national internet with its “Great Firewall” (also known tellingly
as the “Golden Shield Project”) and has an internal army of censors
including 20-50,000 internet police officers alongside a further
250,000 active party members who monitor and report online content.

To discuss internet governance with this darkening global outlook in
a place such as Azerbaijan should wake slumbering Western democrats.

The backdrop to a discussion can make a difference. The World
Summit on the Information Society, the IGF’s predecessor, was held
in pre-revolutionary Tunisia in 2005. Ronald Koven of the World
Press Freedom Committee saw first-hand what happens when you hold
an internet freedom conference in an autocracy. Speeches criticising
Tunisia’s human rights record were pulled, including a speech by Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, Tunisian delegates shouted down
views they disliked at the open forums, a Belgium cameraman had his
equipment seized by the security services. Worse still it is alleged
that the security services had intercepted emails between NGOs and
the German Embassy’s Goethe Institute as they turned up on mass to
prevent Tunisian dissidents from attending a meeting there.

Koven told me that prior to the meeting in Geneva, a group of
Tunisians approached him and said they were looking forward to seeing
him in Tunis as “Ca sera voter fete” (“It will be your holiday”) a
colloquialism meaning, “You’ll get a working over”. A similar pattern
has preceded the IGF. Internet activists have been rounded up and
NGOs and politicians have been warned their hotel rooms may be bugged.

As the Arab Spring has shown, the internet is helping to free people
across the world from the iron grip of autocracy. The leaking of cables
by Tunisian dissident website Nawaat exposed the corruption of former
President Ben Ali and helped topple his dictatorship. The internet
made it easier than ever before for activists from across the Middle
East to organise during the Arab Spring, hence the former Egyptian
government attempting to hold back the revolutionary tide by turning
it off. So it’s of deep concern that the Internet Governance Forum,
one the most important global conferences on internet freedom, is being
held in Azerbaijan – one of the world’s most tawdry dictatorships.