Author: Kajoyan Gevork

IRATE RIDERS TO PRESIDENT: “DON’T BREAK OUR BACKS”

hetq
13:45, October 3, 2012

In Armenia, it’s par for the course for citizens to take their
complaints, large and small, directly to the president. It’s as if
the rest of the government exists in name only.

True to form, riders of the Number 487 public taxi in Ararat Province
has written to President Sargsyan, asking him to increase the number
of vehicles that ply this rural route.

They claim that the route services a number of villagers and that
local residents have to wait a long time for a taxi that is already
full of passengers.

Irate riders say they have to push their way in like sardines and
contort their bodies to fit into te cramped taxis.

They say they need more mini-buses rather than the smoke-guzzling
minivans.

TURKEY EXHUMES EX-PRESIDENT FOR TOXICOLOGY TESTING

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 2, 2012 – 14:07 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Work started early on Tuesday, Oct 2 to open late
President Turgut Ozal’s grave, as part of a belated investigation into
the cause of the 1993 death of the president, Today’s Zaman reports.

A criminal investigation team, a bomb disposal team, police officers
and officials from the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) are standing
ready at the gravesite. Heavy machinery was deployed to the area
early in the morning to carry out the work at the site, which has
been surrounded by steel walls so that it cannot be seen from outside.

The case was opened earlier this year after a number of witnesses spoke
of unusual circumstances on the day of the death of the then-president,
who was reported to have suffered from a heart attack.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office recently issued a warrant
to exhume the remains of the president for toxicology testing.

The prosecutor’s office is also investigating a number of unusual
circumstances that came to light following Ozal’s supposed heart
attack. Certain facts – such as that on the day of his death his
in-house doctor and nurse were both out, that staff were not able to
start the ambulance due to a mechanical problem, the lack of first aid
equipment at the presidential residence and other similar issues —
have led to suspicions surrounding the death of the former president.

In addition, the office is focused on inconsistencies between the
statements of Ozal’s doctor and his family members regarding the
lack of an autopsy. Ozal’s doctor, Cengiz Aslan, claimed that the
family of the former president did not request an autopsy, but the
Ozal family has denied this claim.

Ozal, the eighth president of the Turkish Republic, died of heart
failure in April 1993 in an Ankara hospital at the age of 65 and
while in office.

ARMENIAN BUSINESSMAN KILLED IN MOSCOW (VIDEO)

October 02, 2012 | 13:02

Unidentified criminals fired shots at a Toyota Land Cruiser, in the
early morning hours of Tuesday in Moscow, killing the man inside,
a law enforcement source informed.

It was found out that the victim was Armenian businessman Sergey
Beglaryan.

The incident occurred at around 1am local time, the man in the vehicle
died on the spot, and the criminals managed to escape from the scene
of the crime.

According to the aforesaid source, the perpetrators were two people
and they are declared wanted.

THE TRANSFER OF AXE-MURDERER SAFAROV TO AZERBAIJAN WAS A “CORRECT AND RIGHT” DECISION, HUNGARY’S PM SAYS

armradio.am
17:02 02.10.2012

The transfer of axe-murderer Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan was a “correct
and right” decision, enabling Hungary to get out of the Azeri-Armenian
conflict, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Parliament on Monday.

The premier responded to critical remarks by Socialist MP Laszlo
Kovacs, former Socialist foreign minister, politics.hu reports.

Kovacs noted that both the foreign and the justice ministries had
opposed the move, arguing that the murderer was celebrated as a
national hero in his homeland and would be immediately released upon
his repatriation.

Kovacs asked why the government was satisfied with the Azerbaijani
pledge of not to change Safarov’s sentence and failed to ask about
the chance of a presidential pardon.

Orban said the government had made a correct and right decision
that complied with the rules of international law and Hungary’s
legal practice.

“We would have done the same if an Armenian had killed an Azerbaijani.

Hungary should follow its own interests rather than those of Armenia
or Azerbaijan,” he said.

Orban said that the decision had not been motivated by the promise
of any short-term benefits. In the long term, however, it will have
a benefit, the premier said. The Azeri-Armenian conflict, he said,
is expected to last for a while but “Hungary has got out of it by
transferring the Azeri convict. As long as he was here, he caused
plenty of conflicts and difficulties and the situation would not have
changed in the future either,” he said.

The Hungarian authorities repatriated Azerbaijani national Safarov
on August 31 on the understanding that he would continue to serve the
life sentence he received in February 2004 for murdering an Armenian
in Hungary.On returning to Azerbaijan, Safarov was pardoned by his
country’s president Ilham Aliyev.

LEVON ARONIAN TO PARTICIPATE IN NORWAY CHESS 2013

PanARMENIAN.Net
October 2, 2012 – 17:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Stavanger will host Norway Chess 2013, with
number-one ranked Magnus Carlsen to assist in the selection of the
participants.

In addition to Magnus Carlsen , the following four players have been
confirmed:Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Vishy
Anand (India) and Wang Hao (Kina), chess-news.ru reported.

The tournament budget totals about euro 650 thous.

THINK AGAIN: U.S. MISSTEPS HURT CREDIBILITY ABROAD

Glendale News Press
Oct 1 2012
CA

With the recent celebration of the 21st anniversary of Armenia’s
independence, we should note that Americans of Armenian descent have
helped, participated or, in many instances, just watched from the
sidelines as the country has tried to stabilize itself in a tough
neighborhood where it is surrounded by hostile neighbors like Turkey
and Azerbaijan.

The country is far from perfect, and like most of the former Soviet
countries, is predominantly run by oligarchs who control most of the
business and government infrastructure.

Building a democracy is a long-term proposition. You have to educate
a new generation on grassroots activism that forces change and,
gradually, separation between government institutions and business
interests — creating accountable government that looks after the
interests of its people, not just the elite.

You only have to look at our own country to conclude that democracy
building has to be an on-going effort. The cynicism about whether
an individual can make a difference is one of the biggest hurdles in
developing countries and is really no different here in the U.S.

The underlying reasons for such cynicism may be somewhat different,
but the scary thing is that it still exists in our country despite
all the opportunities here in our democracy compared to countries
run by oligarchs and dictators.

The movement toward participatory democracy has begun to take hold in
Armenia, where ordinary people are starting to challenge the oligarchs
and hold them accountable, especially in the court of public opinion.

This is a good trend and must be supported.

The U.S. has one of the largest embassies in the region located in
Armenia, which can be viewed as a vote of confidence that Armenia has
good prospects of blossoming into a true democracy. Through the U.S.

Embassy in Yerevan and the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), there are many organizations in Armenia working on
participatory democracy and institution building programs. Many
American-Armenians have moved to Armenia from Glendale and other
neighboring areas to work in these organizations.

Recently, however, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia and the State Department
did something dumb, which has hurt the U.S government’s credibility. In
recent weeks, as anti-American violence was spreading across Islamic
countries due to the amateur anti-Islam film, the U.S.

Embassy in Armenia was one of the first to issue a security warning
for U.S. citizens in Armenia (a Christian country) while other Islamic
countries like Azerbaijan and many others had nothing of the sort.

This baffled both American Armenians and those in Armenia because
there have never been any anti-American protests there or even such
sentiment.

Armenia has been one of the most hospitable countries for Americans
and the U.S., much of it due to the close connection between American
Armenians and their connections back to Armenia.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan has yet to produce a justifiable reason
for this warning. The State Department claims that they told all
missions across the world to be extra vigilant, but the U.S. Embassy
in Yerevan chose to issue an alert.

So either the staff in Yerevan are ignorant about the country they
are sitting in and they can’t distinguish between Armenia and other
Islamic countries, or they have a hidden political agenda.

In either case, whether its moves like the security alert — or
more fundamental policy flaws like the State Department refusing
to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide or refusing to hold
Azerbaijan accountable on anything on the Nagorno Karabagh issue —
it seriously compromises the U.S’ position in these countries.

The citizens of these fledgling democracies need a role model to point
to if they are to instigate change in their own countries. When the
U.S. chooses political expediency over being aligned with American
democratic and human rights principles, it undermines our ability to
have a credible voice in these countries. And all because bureaucrats
and the elite in Washington, D.C. are pursuing short-sighted agendas.

ZANKU ARMENIAN is a Glendale resident and a corporate communications
professional. He can be reached at [email protected].

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VARTAN OSKANIAN: SITUATION OVER CIVILITAS FOUNDATION REMINDS ME OF THE TIMES OF STALIN REPRESSIONS

arminfo
Monday, October 1, 17:22

The situation over the Civilitas Foundation reminds me of the times
of the Stalin repressions, the founder of Civilitas, former foreign
minister, MP Vartan Oskanyan said in the parliament on Monday.

He said that the charges against him are politically motivated –
for having failed in all of its undertakings the regime is trying to
repress those pointing to its mistakes. “This all reminds me of 1937,
when they would say: if there is a person, we can find a charge against
him. And now, having neglected all the problems of their country, they
are trying to find a charge against an innocent man,” Oskanian said.

He is sure that the regime’s attempt to deprive him of his deputy
immunity and to prosecute him is aimed at pressuring the Prosperous
Armenia party, its key rival in the forthcoming presidential race.

To recall, on September 27 Prosecutor General Hovsepyan appealed
to the Parliament for a permission to involve Vardan Oskanyan as
an accused party in the money laundering case against Civilitas
Foundation. The appeal implies deprivation of deputy immunity, but
not arrest. Oskanyan has already made a statement saying that Aghvan
Hovsepyan’s appeal was a political order. On June 12 the National
Security Service of the Republic of Armenia submitted details of the
criminal case against Civilitas Foundation initiated on May 25 (article
190.3 of the Criminal Code of the RA money laundering). The criminal
case against the Civilitas Foundation concerns the $2mln transaction
for the sale of Huntsman Building Products, an Armenia-based company
owned by US-based Polymer Materials and Huntsman International.

ARMENIAN INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATED IN OSLO FOR THE FIRST TIME

ARMENPRESS
1 October, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, ARMENPRESS: A festive reception on the 21st
anniversary of Armenian Independence took place in “Riksscenen”
concert complex in Oslo on September 26. The reception was organized
by Armenian Embassy to Dania and Norway, as well as respectable Consul
Mads Langaard Lundi. As Armenpress was informed from Armenian MFA
press, informational and public relations department, officials of
Norwegian MFA and other authorities and representatives of Armenian
community partook at the event.

Greeting the guests Armenian Ambassador to Norway Hrachya Aghajanian
declared that it was the first time Armenian Independence Day was
celebrated in Oslo. Ambassador highlighted Armenian-Norwegian relations
which went far to Fridtjof Nansen and Bodil Byorn. The guests were
invited to the concert of “SANS” organized by “Riksscenen” concert
hall. Tigran Aleksanian, Armenian duduk player, was playing during
the concert.

PACE PRESIDENT HOLDS MEETING WITH THE HEADS OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN DELEGATIONS

APA
Oct 1 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Fuad Gulubayli-APA. Heads of Azerbaijani and Armenian delegations
met within frame of the PACE’s session on October 1.

Jean-Claude Mignon, President of the PACE also joined the meeting,
APA correspondent at the PACE reports.

Head of Azerbaijani delegation Samad Seyidov, head of the Armenian
delegation David Arutunyan and chairman of the Subcommittee on Nagorno
Karabakh, Spanish MP Jordi Chukla attended the meeting.

The sides didn’t informed Mass Media on details of the meeting.

The meeting was conducted on head of PACE Jean-Claude Minyon’s
initiative after Samad Seyidov’s proposal to hold discussions on
Nagorno Karbaakah conflict.

PACE PRESIDENT SHOCKED BY PARDONING OF RAMIL SAFAROV

ARMENPRESS
1 October, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 1, ARMENPRESS: The President of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Jean-Claude Mignon was
shocked by the pardoning of the Azerbaijani assassin Ramil Safarov, who
axe-murdered the Armenian officer. As reported by Armenpress, the PACE
President announced about it at the press conference in Strasbourg.

“We do not want to pour oil on the fire. On the contrary, our aim
is to establish normal relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
objective of the inclusion of the Safarov Case into the PACE agenda
is the discussion of the situation”, – stated Jean-Claude Mignon.

The President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
emphasized once more that he was against the establishment of a
subcommittee on the Nagorno Karabakh issue in the framework of PACE
and stated that he would assist all the efforts of the OSCE Minsk
Group in the conflict regulation issue.

“On the other hand we support the establishment of negotiations between
the delegations of the two countries in the framework of the European
Union. I will meet the delegations of Armenia and Azerbaijan and I
would like to hold normal negotiations”, – said the President of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon.

PACE Bureau decided to include the Safarov Case, raised by the Armenian
deputies, as urgent and actual into the autumn session agenda of the
Parliamentary Assembly and discuss it during the Plenary Session on
October 4.

On February 19 2004 in Budapest Azerbaijani assassin Ramil Safarov,
who axe-murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan while sleeping,
when they were participating in NATO English Language Courses in the
capital of Hungary, was sentenced to life imprisonment without right
to be pardoned for 30 years. On August 31 2012 Safarov was extradited
from Hungary to Azerbaijan and was pardoned by the President Ilham
Aliyev. The murderer was advanced to mayor, provided with a passport,
an apartment and given national hero. Armenia suspended diplomatic
relations with Hungary.

Different international and local organizations, political authorities
and figures made announcements condemning the Hungarian-Azerbaijani
criminal deal. Hungary has already announced about its readiness to
renew the diplomatic relations with Armenia.