Author: Kajoyan Gevork

LE MINISTRE ARMENIEN DES AE, EN VISITE AU MEXIQUE, A EXPRIME SA PERPLEXITE QUANT A L’ADOPTION, PAR L’ANCIEN PARLEMENT, DE RESOLUTIONS SUR LES EVENEMENTS DE KODJALOU
Stephane

armenews.com
mercredi 31 octobre 2012

Lors d’une rencontre avec son homologue mexicain, Patricia Espinosa,
le chef de la diplomatie armenienne a fait part de sa deception et
de celle de son pays, quant a l’adoption par le Parlement mexicain de
resolutions, reconnaissant les evenements de Kodjalou de fevrier 1992
comme un acte de ” nettoyage ethnique ” contre les civils azeris. Le
Ministre a note que ces resolutions sont en grave contradiction avec
la position de la communaute internationale et portent atteinte au
processus de règlement du conflit du HK, a la securite regionale, ainsi
qu’aux relations entre l’Armenie et le Mexique. Edouard Nalbandian a
dit partager l’avis des defenseurs mexicains des droits de l’Homme
selon lesquels l’erection a Mexico d’une statue consacree aux
evenements de Kodjalou est un affront a la memoire des victimes des
genocides. Le Ministre armenien a en outre dit partager la reaction
negative des Mexicains qu’a suscitee l’installation de la statue de
Heydar Aliev a Mexico.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 24 octobre 2012

ARMENIAN CAVE TO HELP PUZZLE OUT MYSTERY OF HOMO SAPIENS’ MIGRATION

arminfo
Tuesday, October 30, 20:22

The Armenian cave Aghitu-1 in Sisian will help puzzle out the mystery
of migration of the Homo sapiens.

Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National
Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Pavel Avetisyan, told ArmInfo that
some layers dating back to the Stone Age (the Upper Paleolithic)
have been preserved in this area. The samples taken for analysis
demonstrate that there were people here 25-27 thsd years ago. But
the cave also has more ancient layers, which are still to be studied.

Thus, Aghitu-1 can give important information about the version that
the Homo sapiens migrated from Africa 50 thsd years earlier that
it was considered. Experts think that the first camps of the Homo
sapiens, who migrated from Africa, were in the southern part of Arab
Peninsula. Aghitu-1 will help understand whether the migration of
ancient people to Asian Near East was via territory of modern Iran
or not.

The excavation in Aghitu-1 cave is carried out under an Armenian-German
project.

YEREVAN AND VIENNA TO IMPLEMENT JOINT PROJECTS

news.am
October 30, 2012 | 16:48

YEREVAN. – Mayor of Armenia’s capital city Taron Margaryan met on
Tuesday with Austria’s Ambassador to Armenia (residence in Vienna)
Alois Kraut.

Taron Margaryan pointed out high level of relations between Armenia
and Austria. He spoke about prospects for capital city’s development
and for expanding ties between Yerevan and Vienna.

The mayor presented Yerevan-Vienna cooperation memorandum drafted by
the Yerevan city hall.

“We are confident that relations between Yerevan and Austrian
cities will be reinforced with your assistance and we will be able
to establish mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields of
city economy,” Margaryan said.

He assured that Yerevan city hall is ready for implementation of
joint projects.

Alois Kraut thanked Yerevan Mayor for warm reception expressing
readiness to provide his assistance to deepening ties. Ambassador
noted that programs on experience exchange will be mutually beneficial.

NO ONE IS ABLE TO SOLVE THE KARABAKH CONFLICT EXCEPT ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

armradio.am
18:17 30.10.2012

There should be no doubt that French President Francoide Holland will
fulfill his campaign pledge to introduce a resolution criminalizing
the denial of the Armenian Genocide, French Ambassador to Armenia
Henri Reynaud said at the Yerevan State University.

The Ambassador reminded about the corresponding statement of Francoise
Holland after the elections. “There should not be any doubts that if
the President of the republic has promised something, he will keep
his promise,” he underlined.

Speaking about the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Ambassador
Reynaud said “no one except Armenia and Azerbaijan is able to solve the
conflict and establish peace. He noted that there is no alternative
to the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the OSCE
Minsk Group makes efforts in that direction. According to him, the
parties should arrive at a solution through the mediation of the OSCE
Minsk Group.

NKR MANUFACTURES KAMAZ VEHICLES FIRST TIME

/ARKA/
30 October, 2012
STEPANAKERT

STEPANAKERT, October 29. /ARKA/. It is the first time, the specialized
vehicles of KAMAZ brand have been manufactured in Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic, Public TV of Artsakh (Armenian name for Karabakh) reported
Monday.

NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan visited AKA 27-18 Karabakh
enterprise operating in car manufacturing and got introduced with
the mechanical engineering process.

Artur Baburyan, the director of the enterprise, said car manufacturing
had been launched in NKR since May 2012 after the enterprise had
received financial aid from the government.

“Spare parts for cars are imported from Russia, and are manufactured
in NKR. By this we are able to save significant funds. If this car
costs nearly $80,000 in Russia, the same car manufactured in NKR
costs just $55,000,” Baburyan said.

He said KAMAZ snow removal vehicle is already ready for operation.

“About ten days later, a garbage collection vehicle will be also
commissioned. After that the enterprise will manufacture another two
snow removal vehicles, which will operate on Stepanakert-Berdzor and
impassible roads of the capital. We have also got orders to manufacture
five garbage collection vehicles,” Baburyan said.

PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN PARTICIPATED AT THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MODERN ONCOLOGICAL CENTER AND OPENING OF A NEWLY CREATED PARK IN AJAPNIAK COMMUNITY

30.10.2012

Today, at the Ajapniak community of Yerevan, President Serzh Sargsyan
participated at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Armenian Cancer
Center of Excellence which will be situated next to the A. Alikhanian
National Scientific Laboratory.

The program of the creation of the Center will be implemented through
the state-private sector cooperation. Taking into consideration the
fact that malignant tumor diseases and related mortality is growing
annually all over the world and fight against cancer is a serious
medical, biological as well as social and economic problem for any
country in the world, Armenia’s National Fund for Competitiveness
together with the RA Ministries of Economy and Health developed a
long-term program for the construction of the Armenian Cancer Center
of Excellence.

During the visit to the construction site, President Serzh Sargsyan
was informed that the Armenian Cancer Center of Excellence will be
providing radioisotope, radionuclide, radiology and lab diagnosis,
radioisotope and radiotherapy, oncological inpatient and outpatient
surgical services and high class services in the chemotherapy
treatment.

The Center’s priority will be to satisfy demand for the diagnosis
and treatment in Armenia of the cancer diseases in line with the
international standards, creating the infrastructure which will allow
to turn the institution into a regional medical center. The program
is to be implemented in three stages: a short-term, a mid-term (up
to 3 years) and a long-term (up to 5 years). During the short-term
phase, it is envisaged to establish the production of radioisotopes, a
laboratory for nuclear pharmacology, as well as a ultramodern molecular
and radio diagnosis center. During the mid-term phase created will be
the laboratory for the outpatient diagnosis, radio and chemotherapy
and non-surgical services, and during the long-term phase there will be
constructed the inpatient surgical center for up to 200 beds where the
patients will be able to continue their chemo and radiotherapy. It is
planned that later the treatment will also include the protonotherapy.

The Armenian Cancer Center of Excellence will provide ultramodern
and precise diagnosis of cancer as well as various services related
to the treatment and monitoring. At the same time, the Center will
become an establishment for scientific research, professional training,
innovations, and business. It will be based on Armenia’s traditional
capabilities in the area of nuclear physics, contributing also to
the training and retraining of the new generation of medical and
technical personnel.

After the groundbreaking ceremony for the ultramodern medical center
in Ajapniak, President Serzh Sargsyan in the same administrative
community participated at the opening of over 1.7 hectare large
newly created park located next to the intersection of Halabian and
Margarian streets. The President walked down the areas of general
use, observed the completed construction and beautification works,
conditions on the sporting arena and other facilities created in the
park, conversed with the citizens spending their leisure time here.

The leisure area has been created in accordance with the 2012 community
development program of the Yerevan City Hall which put into use the
pool which was inoperative for years and developed the adjacent once
neglected area.

THE PRESIDENT INVITED A MEETING ON THE ISSUES RELATED TO THE PRETRIAL INVESTIGATION OF CRIMINAL CASES

29.10.2012

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan invited a meeting at the RA
Prosecutor’s Office with the participation of the representatives of
the law enforcement bodies. The meeting was dedicated to the issues
related to the pretrial investigation of criminal cases.

Underscoring at the beginning of the meeting that successful resolution
of the pretrial investigation issues is conditioned mainly by the
proper implementation of the exceptional functions of the procurator’s
supervision, the President of Armenia along with mentioning observable
positive changes in the activities of the public prosecutor’s office
related to the fight against certain crimes, harshly criticized
still existing negative occurrences which are taking place because
of negligence or actions with underlying evil intentions by some of
the prosecutors.

“Overall, the prosecutor’s office remains among those state structures
which are able to demonstrate in their activities small but still
certain positive results. It is proved, in particular, by progress
noted by the international structures in our fight against money
laundering and trafficking. Success has also been registered
in the cooperation with other law enforcement bodies aimed at
the strengthening of the legal structure. Works of the Military
Prosecutor’s Office has also shown definite improvement.

Examples like these prove once again that diligent and honest
prosecutors, who present a considerable number in this structure,
realize the mission assumed before the society and the state and
carry out that mission conscientiously.

However I should also note that negligence or evil intentions of some
prosecutors still remain a problem and, unfortunately, do not meet a
proper judgment. I would like to remind that during the last December
meeting while discussing issues related to the quality of pretrial
investigation and efficiency of the procurator’s supervision, this
problem was particularly emphasized and it was proposed to undertake
effective measures to fight it. Although some steps have been taken on
this direction including persecution of those guilty, the extent of
the negative occurrences has not subsided. One special conclusion is
that some individuals simply didn’t draw lessons from all this. They
didn’t draw lessons because inside the prosecutor’s office I don’t
see resolute struggle against these happenings.

It is obvious that during the pretrial investigation, the prosecutor
has a serious role to play; the representatives of the pretrial
bodies are here and you all understand quite well that in this process
everyone has a share of responsibility.

In this short period of time, after going through the complaints and
appeals received from the citizens, the Presidential Staff conducted
an inspection and revealed in the pretrial practices facts which
are simply inconsistent with sound logic. As if it’s not enough that
instead of revealing facts related to the criminal case, the officials
in charge have been changing the circumstances of the crime by passing
off certain facts, they also have been patronizing the criminalize
and covering up the crimes. Furthermore, in some instances unrelated
persons have been charged for crimes. I cannot imagine a fouler or a
more wicked deed on behalf of a person who works in a law enforcement
establishment. Today, we will hear of these facts.

Only a two- or three-months long investigation of your activities
has revealed that, for instance,

with the connivance of a prosecutor, a number of persons incriminated
in a crime have become witnesses; and sometimes not with just
connivance but through his direct participation,

~U instead of fighting crimes, a prosecutor himself conducts crimes and
becomes a wanted person. And it looks like nobody is held responsible
for that – neither his immediate boss, nor other officials at the
prosecutor’s office who ex officio have the responsibility to conduct
supervision of the prosecutor’s activities,

~U next, instead of supervising the execution of justice, they engage
in a squabble with a representative of another law enforcement body
in an unacceptably insolent manner, even though I assume a “squabble”
is not the proper word in this case. The police employee has been
invited through his boss’s order to the office and was slapped,
i.e. beaten up. And I have to personally interfere to make sure that
that particular person is not only charged with criminal offence but
also is fired from the prosecutor’s office. If a prosecutor assumes
that he can conduct a lynching, what can a prosecutor demand from
others?

~U next, appearing in a situation inconsistent with the prosecutor’s
position, he enjoys impunity, i.e. if a prosecutor engages in a street
fight, understandably after the fact a criminal case is filed and later
with the engagement of a non-existent witness through all thinkable
and unthinkable means everything is done to try another person.

There is a criminal, wicked trend while working on criminal case
all of a sudden to claim a necessity to unearth the circumstances
of a 15-year old case. The tax bodies are instructed to examine the
activities for the last fifteen years. Hundreds of individuals must be
cross-examined when it is absolutely immaterial for that particular
case. And this is justified by the need to conduct a comprehensive,
inclusive investigation. What’s in it? Go, solve the crime.

And these are only some of the registered cases. Can anyone explain to
me how can such atmosphere exist in a law enforcement body? It simply
means that some have become too haughty. If a prosecutor’s deputy in a
marz believes that he can get away with it, I cannot think otherwise,”
the President of Armenia said.

The participants of the meeting were familiarized with the findings
of the RA Presidential Staff regarding the practical issues in the
pretrial investigation of criminal cases. Presented objective data
and their comprehensive examination allowed to conclude that:

~U those officials responsible for the pretrial investigation of
criminal cases do not execute in a proper fashion or do not execute
at all their judicial powers,

~U in the course of investigating grave or the gravest crimes, the
requirement of a comprehensive, inclusive and objective investigation
is being infringed,

~U as a result, problems outlined by the RA Criminal Trial Code
are solved insufficiently – persons charged for crimes do not carry
criminal responsibility, innocent persons are being charged guilty and
unnecessarily are being subjected to the restriction of their rights,

~U those officials, who allow violations in the course of
their professional activities, are not subjected to appropriate
responsibility and may stay unpunished,

~U those directly engaged in the law enforcement activities do not
demonstrate initiatives related to the development of the measures
aimed at the improvement of their performance and enhancement of
their efficiency.

Considering the nature of the registered problems and associated
consequences, the President of Armenia gave specific instructions to
the concrete officials aimed at the addressing the situation.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Serzh Sargsyan underscored that he
expects considerate attitude on behalf of the RA Prosecutor General,
his Deputies, those responsible for investigations. “I demand
principled stance from you all. Each one must be responsible and it
must be registered.

Based on the results demonstrated in the first three months of 2012,
we will speak again about the quality of investigations and concrete
facts,” President Serzh Sargsyan underscored.

‘ISRAEL SEES AZERBAIJAN AS STRATEGIC PARTNER’

TODAY.AZ

30 October 2012

Israel considers Azerbaijan as a strategic partner in the South
Caucasus and will always stick to this position, deputy director of
the Department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Central Asia and
the Caucasus Alex Goldman-Shayman said on Monday at a meeting with
Azerbaijani journalists.

“Political relations between the two countries have always been good,
and economic relations have reached a high level on their background,”
the spokesman of the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

He noted that the energy cooperation plays an important role in the
economic relations.

“The positions of the two countries agree on many key issues, which
are of interest to the policy of Azerbaijan and Israel,” he said.

“Israel, as the conflict-affected country, understands the pain of
Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and always supported
the efforts for a peaceful resolution of this problem,” director of
the department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Eurasia Oded Joseph
said in an interview with Azerbaijani journalists.

Israeli Foreign Ministry is also against illegal visits to the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan.

“The ministry warned its citizens of it and encouraged to abandon
such visits,” Joseph said.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Israel have increased considerably
since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries.

The two countries are cooperating in many areas.

SAFAROV WAS ACTING UNDER AZERI LEADER’S ORDERS, EXPERT SAYS

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 30, 2012 – 16:15 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Axe-killer Ramil Safarov was a mere puppet in
Azerbaijan’s leader’s hands, acting under Ilham Aliyev’s orders,
a political analyst believes.

As Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a news conference, Safarov case is
being misrepresented, when in reality, the criminal merely got his
payment for executing presidential order 8,5 years ago.

“Safarov was Azeri way of suggesting no Armenian can be at rest until
Baku gains control of Karabakh,” the expert said.

Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani army officer who was serving a life
sentence in Hungary for axing to death Armenian Lt. Gurgen Margaryan,
was extradited to Azerbaijan and pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.

Official Yerevan reacted by suspending diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Hungary, however, states that it had sent Safarov back to Azerbaijan
after receiving assurances from the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that
Safarov’s sentence, which included the possibility of parole after
25 years, would be enforced.

According to some reports, Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan in
exchange for Azeri purchase of Hungarian securities worth Euro 2-3
billion, an information official Budapest denies.

HOVHANNES IGITYAN: ONE CANNOT EXPECT “AN ARMENIAN IVANISHVILI” TO APPEAR IN INDIFFERENT ARMENIAN SOCIETY
by David Stepanyan

arminfo
Tuesday, October 30, 14:31

ArmInfo’s interview with Hovhannes Igityan, member of the Board of the
Armenian Pan National Movement, former head of the Armenian National
Assembly Committee for Foreign Affairs (1995-1999).

Would you forecast the outcome of the presidential elections in
Armenia in Feb 2013?

Given the nature of elections in Armenia, especially since 2008,
it is clear that no civilized elections will be held in the republic
in 2013 if nothing is changed in Armenia. The upcoming presidential
elections will be almost the same as in 2008, but without any blood.

They will be like the past parliamentary elections, the results of
which pleased many European observers, by the way. That is to say,
the visual aspect of the upcoming presidential elections will be quite
good for the European observers. On the other hand, Armenia will
undergo a process, which cannot even be called elections: people
will go to the polls and drop the ballots into the ballot boxes for
money or under administrative pressure. That’s it.

First of all political forces are considered to be the election
participants in today’s Armenia, and people forget that the key
participant is the public, which is now more indifferent than ever.

It is easy to handle the indifferent society’s votes by means of money
and administrative resources. Against this background, the appearance
of an Armenian Ivanishvili is impossible.

That is, money will not work in Armenia without the administrative
resource, because the owner of the money will immediately go to jail.

Thus, if this shameful situation fails to change in Armenia, the
authorities will retain the power in Feb 2013.

There are enough factors in Armenia to stir up the society: beating
of soldiers, murders in the army, the crime in Harsnakar Restaurant,
the impudence of politicians who appoint their children to state
posts, total lawlessness, etc. The authorities have gone all the
possible lines. All this should have stirred up our society long ago,
but there is no such a thing. As a result, during the forthcoming
presidential elections the authorities will draw the number of votes
they like. They even can organize the second round of elections to
demonstrate that Armenia has an alternative candidate and democracy.

At the parliamentary elections in 2007 Robert Kocharyan had both
money and administrative resources, but Prosperous Armenia did not
gain majority in the parliament yielding to the Republicans…

Kocharyan did not pursue a goal of making PAP the major party
in the parliament. He had another goal. The changes made through
Constitutional reform in 2005 connected the government with the
parliamentary majority. The point was to form the prime minister in
the person of Serzh Sargsyan, who then joined RPA accompanied by his
supporters, and created majority in the ratio to the backbone of the
Republicans headed by Andranik Margaryan. That goal of Kocharyan was
achieved. I do not rule out that at a certain moment Kocharyan lost
control of PAP, as he set too insignificant goals to return to power
as a prime minister on the Russian scenario.

Will RPA and PAP achieve any agreement before the presidential
election or they will sit at the negotiating table after the voting
outcome?

In Armenia we have a distorted political system, where some forces
act as a parliamentary majority, while the others as a minority. In a
country where people do not decide anything everything turns into an
absurd theater, where people having nothing to do with politics and
the Republican Party of Armenia are admitted into that party and are
appointed as ministers just because they ‘belong’ to it. The same is
for the parliament, where the selfsame RPA has a majority. It would
not have it if the parliament were elected by the people. The only
thing the regime is afraid of is mass protest, but since there is no
force that can lead people, the regime has nothing to worry about.

Yes, but in case of relevant incentives, Gagik Tsarukyan may go
to street and declare that he does not recognize the presidential
election outcome. Isn’t it a danger? 

They in the Prosperous Armenia Party may say: “the presidential
elections were a fraud” but they will still attend the new president’s
inauguration and will shake hands with Serzh Sargsyan.

That is, everything will be according to the known scenario…

Yes, everything will be according to the same scenario as the only
alternative to RPA is people who love Armenia but can change nothing.

What about ‘Oskanian case’?

Everybody in Armenia and mass media, look first of all at the
political part of Oskanian’s case. I offer to look at its judicial
part thanks to which our authorities have been trying to demonstrate
their explanation of the money laundering.

I look at Oskanian’s case through the prism of the actions
taken earlier by the Russian authorities against non-governmental
organizations which got foreign grants. Any foundation in Armenia,
which is taking part in formation of civil society in this or that
way, is extremely dangerous for the authorities of Armenia if it is
financed from abroad, even if an Armenian finances another Armenian.

Except the Civilitas, there is no such big foundation in Armenia. And
what is incriminated to Vartan Oskanian is not linked with an idea
of money laundering. I think that Oskanian could be accused by this
article if like a politician he would be financed with the money
got from drug traffic in Armenia. It is not the National Security
Service that should investigate the case, as at present it watches
the opposition not like a danger for the pro-power candidate but like
a danger to national security. For this reason, NSS investigates all
the cases linked with election 2008, Vartan Oskanian’s case, etc.

Few people know that there is drug traffic in Armenia, in a big
scale. And all the sums gained from this trade enter in the official
field just through laundering. I do not agree to the viewpoint
according to which this process creates a political capital for
Oskanian. I am sure that in such a way it is impossible to create an
image of a persecuted politician in Armenia, as the Armenian society
is indifferent.

Did they want to punish Oskanian or PAP as well?

Anyway, I think that they really wanted to punish Oskanian in such
a way, for the others not to want make similar statements. They also
wanted to punish Prosperous Armenia Party, as Oskanian would not be
punished if not being a member of the PAP. Nevertheless, Oskanian
has a right to run for president, but the majority of the society
will hardly support him if he says about the election fraud”.

What is the share of external forces in the domestic political
disturbances in Armenia?

Some people in Armenia think that one can easily overthrow the local
regime if supported from abroad, but this is not the case with Armenia,
nor is it with the United States, Europe or Russia. On the contrary,
the organizers of color revolutions have realized that it is much
easier to influence an elected person than to make a revolution. But
in case of Serzh Sargsyan they don’t need to support him during the
elections in order to make a puppet of him. A small country cannot
help being influenced by super powers, but such things must be done
in a civilized manner and not as Russia does when it sets its own
price for an enterprise it likes in Armenia or as the United States
does when it wants the country to take part in a NATO mission.

At the same time I don’t think that there is no alternative to Serzh
Sargsyan for foreign forces. Simply, the situation Armenia has found
itself in is very vulnerable as the authorities do their best to
retain power only within their personal interests. Sometimes, in
some countries the same people remain on the post of the president
but in different quality and with different team and are reluctant
to do quite different thinks.