Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Georgia Today, Georgia
June 14 2012

Violence erupts on Azeri-Armenian border

by By Zaza Jgharkava
14.06.2012

After almost two-years, bilateral shootings on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border have resumed. Clashes are becoming more
intensive. However, the number of dead increases daily. According to
unconfirmed information, the number of victims from both sides has
reached 29.

According to the Armenian side, out of the dead soldiers 25 are
Azerbaijani and only 4 are Armenian. However, the Defense Ministry of
Azerbaijan confirms the death of only 4 Azerbaijani soldiers.

Up until now it’s been hard to establish what is really happening on
the Armenian-Azerbaijani front line if we do not consider the fact
that the resumption of military actions coincided with the U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Caucasian tour.

Many experts say that this is the response of the Kremlin to the
Azerbaijani politics of the White House. But what has irritated
Russia? Is the Kremlin angry or is it truly connected to the visit of
the State Secretary? Hillary Clinton has not voiced any new
initiatives in Yerevan or Baku.

Azerbaijani military expert Azada Isazade thinks that Russia should
not let the United States take the role of negotiator in the issue of
resolving the Karabakh and other South Caucasian conflicts.

Hillary Clinton’s statement in support of Georgia’s membership in NATO
caused particular irritation to Russia. If the international community
does not halt the escalation process, large-scale war between
Azerbaijan and Armenia is inevitable, Azada Isazade says.

One of the messages Clinton delivered during her visit to Baku was
that these countries should not get involved in military
confrontations with each other. This seemingly innocent advice was
followed by the first sharp reaction: the administration of the
Armenian president spread the statement, according to which Yerevan is
ready to respond to any provocation. In turn, the foreign structure of
Azerbaijan stated that Azerbaijan can and is eligible by international
law to restore its territorial integrity.

Why the official Yerevan perceived the call for peace as a personal
weakness is hard to say. In the end, its armament includes the Es
300-type missiles given to them by the Kremlin last year and that says
a lot.

Another military expert from Azerbaijan, Uzeira Japarov, is certain
that Russia has doubts about the increased activeness of the United
States in the South Caucasus. The Kremlin has a big influence on the
Armenian military forces and can provoke military incidents at any
time. With the recent provocations, Armenia fulfilled the Russian
order and tried to prove to the U.S. State Secretary the destructive
role of Azerbaijan.

Unlike the official Yerevan, the Kremlin who is irritated by the
Caucasian politics of the White House, has expressed its emotions
prior to the visit of Hillary Clinton through General-Lieutenant
Vladimer Shamanov. The Head of the Russian air-landing troops stated
several weeks before the escalation of the situation that Russia is
ready to deploy a large contingent of troops to Armenia.

The general explained that this step aims at increasing mobility of
the Russian military bases in the Caucasus and also ensures successful
completion of the goals of the Russian government. `One of the
reasons, which dictate taking such a step is the international
obligation based on participation in the collective security agreement
organization,’ Shamanov added.

Why does Russia need additional troops in Armenia where it already has
a military base? One could think that by deploying the troops in
Armenia Russia is demonstrating that it can use military force against
the major ally of the United States in the region, Georgia.

No matter how logical such judgment looks, it is less likely that all
this is done to `ruin the Saakashvili reforms’. Despite the danger of
resuming military action in Karabakh, the main problem until now is
not the tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the probability of
worsening relations between Azerbaijan and Iran. And quick
rapprochement of Baku and Tel-Aviv contributes to this.

It can be said with full certainty that apart from the Caucasian peace
initiatives, Clinton brought some messages to Baku with regards to the
Iran crisis. It seems that the reason for the Kremlin’s irritation
should be searched for in the Tehran problem and not in Tbilisi and
Baku.

The sudden military storm should be discussed in this context as well.
Thus, no one doubts that by spurring the civil war in Syria, Russia is
facing two big dilemmas – which one to give up, Iran, Syria or both.

Interfax, Russia
June 13 2012

Ex-Armenian foreign minister says he is suspected of money laundering

YEREVAN. June 13

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian has claimed that the
National Security Service summoned him to give testimony on money
laundering charges.

The ex-minister said in a statement that the matter involves the
Civilitas foundation that he leads now.

“Since the start of the foundation’s activities in 2008, we have
received financing from and pursued a joint program with the
governments of the Netherlands, Poland, Norway and Germany, the U.S.
embassy to Armenia, and the Yerevan office of the OSCE. The relevant
Armenian institutions could not have failed to know this. It is
strange that my activities could be somehow associated with criminal
or illegal proceeds,” Oskanian said.

“The criminal case that has been opened is politically motivated,” he said.

Interfax could not immediately obtain comments on the matter from the
Armenian National Security Service.

Registan.net,
June 13 2012

The Decline and Fall of Matthew Bryza

by Joshua Foust on 6/13/2012 · 1 comment

While he was the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder advocated
constantly for the construction of Nord Stream, an undersea natural
gas pipeline that will travel from Russia, along the floor of the
Baltic Sea, and end in Germany. It seemed like a great deal for
Germany, to get a direct line to Russia’s vast energy wealth, even if
Russia was fond of using gas price hikes to force unwanted policies
out of consumer countries.

Of course, less than a month after retiring as Chancellor, Schroeder
was hired onto the Board of Directors of the Gazprom subsidiary in
charge of building the pipeline. He negotiated the deal, then retired
and took a corporate position with the firm building it. It stank to
high heaven, ethically: when American government officials played with
conflicts of interest that large, they get sent to prison. And while
Schroeder’s move has been roundly criticized as obviously unethical,
he hasn’t suffered any consequences for it.

Now, enter Matt Bryza. He’s long been a figure in Caspian circles,
going back at least a decade to President Bush’s National Security
Council then as Condoleeza Rice’s pointman on the Caucasus. However,
like many in the Bush administration, Bryza was close to Georgian
President Mikhail Saakashvili – and rumors are rampant that he helped
nudge the tiny country into war with Russia by hinting the U.S. would
support them. In fact, Moscow has been so open about those rumors that
they have made it very plain that Bryza would get a cool reception by
Russian diplomats. (Bryza has always denied the assertion.)

Still, he was a decent enough choice to be the ambassador to
Azerbaijan – even if his appointment was opposed by Armenians angry
over his stance on Nagorno-Karabakh and his wife’s Turkish heritage.
President Obama was never able to get him confirmed by the Senate, so
he eventually appointed Bryza as an interim. His appointment ran out
in January.

Yet now, according to Joshua Hersh, Bryza has found new work:

Matthew Bryza, who until last December was President Barack Obama’s
appointed ambassador to Azerbaijan, took the job on the board of
Turcas Petrol company, which is partly controlled by the State Oil
Company of Azerbaijan Republic, according to reports in regional
newspapers.

So Bryza served as ambassador, then retired to run an oil company
partly controlled by the country he served in. Much like Schroeder’s
move to Gazprom after retiring, it reeks of a conflict of interest.
Hersh mostly quotes Azeri opposition activists who are angry at the
move, but it goes deeper than that: Bryza is not the only ambassador
to leave his post for lucrative business dealings in the country where
he’s served.

Even so, Bryza’s move doesn’t look good. It doesn’t break any laws,
but it sure as hell seems fishy.

TWIST, FLAMENCO, TANGO: ARMENTEL LAUNCHES NEW POSTPAID MOBILE TARIFF PLANS

14.06.12 | 15:56

ArmenTel Company (Beeline trademark) launched new postpaid mobile
tariff plans for individuals – “Twist”, “Flamenco” and “Tango”.

The offer includes a large volume of talk time for outgoing calls
inside Beeline network and to numbers of other Armenian mobile
operators, as well as mobile Internet packages. Depending on the
tariff plan the volume of talk time inside Beeline network will range
from 800 to 5000 minutes, for calls to other networks from 80 to 5000
minutes and the volume of Internet will range from 150MB to 1500MB.The
monthly subscriber fee starts from AMD 3000.

By getting connected to any of new tariff plans, the customers will
be offered Samsung GT-C3222W, Samsung GT- S5610, Nokia C3 or Nokia
3000 mobile phones at preferential conditions.

IS ARMENIA’S CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER OSKANIAN WITH MERITS OR POLITICALLY MOTIVATED?
By Appo Jabarian

Executive Publisher/Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine

June 13, 2012

A debate is raging on throughout Armenia and the Diaspora on whether
this week’s criminal investigation of Republic of Armenia’s Former
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has any merits or it is politically
motivated.

Mr. Oskanian and his Civilitas Foundation are accused of failing to
report US$2 million donations received from the sale of 100% shares
of Huntsman Building Products, LLC JSC owned by the U.S.-based Polymer
Materials and Huntsman International corporations, and for misusing
important portions of the funds donated for charitable purposes. The
National Security Service (NSS)press service announced it launched
criminal proceedings for “money laundering based on Article 190 Para
3.1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia.”

The NSS also charged that US $1.135 million representing a sizable
chunk of the $2 million proceeds from the sale of Huntsman Building
Products, LLC JSC “was transferred to the bank accounts of Civilitas’
founder Vartan Oskanian and member of the board of trustees Tigran
Karapetyan. Besides, Civilitas Foundation, breaking its own statutes
and rules, has submitted no financial report in 2011 on the charity
money allotted by Polymer Materials and Huntsman International
corporations,” reported ArmTown.com news service. The NSS underlined
that it has ordered “tax inspections and is taking other measures to
ensure an objective and comprehensive investigation.”

In response to the criminal case initiated against him, Mr. Oskanian
stated Tuesday: “Today the National Security Service issued a statement
trying to prove that the criminal case they have initiated is not
politically motivated. I repeat that it is clearly politically
motivated and I want to say the following: ‘money laundering,’
‘Oskanian,’ ‘Huntsman’ are words that cannot be placed together in
one sentence. In order for there to be money laundering, there must
first be dirty money. In this case, the sources of the funds are
known, the buyer is known, and the transfer of the funds to me and
to Civilitas according to the donor’s wishes has been transparent
and electronic. The attorneys have said that no tax obligation
was created as a result of the transaction. And the donor’s funds
‘shall be considered as a donation and the Recipient has the right
to use in its discretion and for the implementation of its statutory
objectives.’ Only those with political motivations will attempt to
reduce a good man’s good work to political currency.”

Armenia’s Prime Minister Tigran Sagsyan was quoted by RFE/RL to have
told reporters that he ruled out political motivations in the case.

“Nobody has been charged. We are only talking about clearing up some
circumstances.”

“Unfortunately, when the state tries to carry out some actions to
clarify phenomena hidden behind one or another piece of information
people immediately allege a political subtext,” he said.

Since it’s too early to arrive at a conclusion, for now I would
like to limit the scope of this article to asking a set of $2
million-questions.

Was there a contract between Mr. Huntsman, Mr. Oskanian and The
Civilitas Foundation on the terms of the allocation of the donated
funds?

If there was a contract, what are the terms of the agreement? Mr.

Oskanian can help clarify matters by making a copy of the contract
public.

Did Mr. Oskanian misallocate any portions of the $2 million Huntsman
funds by earmarking them for personal use?

Did he use any portions of the $2 million Huntsman charitable
donation to finance his May 2012 political campaign?

On other financial issues, namely other funds raised during the
last three years, I wrote to Salpi H. Ghazarian, the Director of The
Civilitas Foundation asking to provide answers to couple questions:

– What are the sources of income itemizing the amounts of donations
received for the last three years?

– How were the received funds disbursed for the last three years?

I received no response from Ms. Ghazarian. After couple more emails
an assistant pointed to the last three years’ financial statements
posted on the website (civilitasfoundation.org). The statements failed
to provide answers to my questions.

I further continued my research and noticed that there are three
entities using the name “Civilitas.” The first one is The Civilitas
Foundation () headquartered in Yerevan,
Armenia; the second is The Civilitas Global ()
headquartered in Glendale, California, USA; and the third is The
Civilitas Foundation also headquartered in Glendale, California, USA.

I again wrote to Ms. Ghazarian asking for clarification whether
“these three organizations are affiliated with each other in any
way? If they are affiliated,” I further requested that she provide
USA Armenian Life Magazine with “the 2009, 2010 and 2011 annual tax
returns of all three of them.”

I also called the Glendale offices of The Civilitas Foundation and The
Civilitas Global in order to get some information. The first time,
the telephone was answered by a male voice. As soon as I introduced
myself he hung up. After about 30 minutes, I placed a second call. This
time a female voice answered. She hung up also.

Because of the fact that this case has already triggered dozens of
questions; it’s irrelevant whether the criminal case against Mr.

Oskanian is politically motivated. It is even more irrelevant because
of the clear fact that The Civilitas Foundation seems to have been
used as a political spring board by Mr. Oskanian during his forced
“retirement” from public office (2008-May 2012) by Pres. Serge
Sargsyan’s administration. So, wasn’t the creation of Civilitas
politically motivated?

As for Mr. Huntsman, he may be anxious to get to the bottom of this
more than anybody. Any mishandling of the funds or a portion thereof
may definitely become a source of embarrassment and may even cause
a tax audit by the Internal Revenue Service in the United States.

Besides Oskanian’s reputation, Mr. Huntsman’s good reputation stands to
be tarnished if the proper transfer and use of his donated funds have
been misused. Mr. Oskanian owes it to himself, his people in Armenia
and the Diaspora, and to Mr. Huntsman to clarify the disbursement
of the Huntsman funds by itemizing the expenditures made out of
these funds.

Finally, it is hopeful that PM Sargsyan realizes that if this
investigation is not allowed to run its course and it gets abruptly
derailed, The NSS, and in general, Armenia will suffer irreparable
damage to its reputation and international standing. No such case that
has criminal and national security ramifications should be abruptly
shelved just because some backroom deals may be made between various
factions in the government.

No amount of political bullying should interrupt proper investigations
of these accusations. Whether these accusations are politically
motivated or not the process should be completed. The National Security
Services of the Republic of Armenia should prove its independence
from all political parties in Armenia by going through the entire
process of investigating and if necessary litigating the case against
all wrongdoers, including Oskanian.

ARMENIA’S YOUTH GIVE BLOOD ON WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY

news.am
June 14, 2012 | 13:24

YEREVAN. – The World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14, and,
marking this event, the Youth Foundation of Armenia (YFA) and the
ruling Republican Party’s Youth Association organized a blood donation
campaign on Thursday.

University students and youth NGO members took part in the event.

YFA Health Project Manager Arusyak Poghosyan called upon everyone
to join this campaign, since helping is not a monopoly and it is
everyone’s duty to help.

And President of the Student Council of the State Agrarian University
of Armenia noted that blood donations are increasing every year in
the country. In the case when there were about 6,000-7,000 blood
donations in 2000-2001, this has reached close to 15,000 in 2011.

2012 DECLARED SAYAT-NOVA YEAR IN ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
14 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE14, ARMENPRESS: Pan Armenian festival of self-taught
artists dedicated to the 300 th anniversary of Sayat-Nova is scheduled
to declare its launch in Yerevan on June 10-30. The launch of the
festival will contribute to the revelation of self-taught talented
people. “There are many talented artists, unfortunately not each and
everybody has the opportunity to become known to the public” Thomas
Poghosyan, “Sayat-Nova” cultural Union head, Honored Artist of the
Republic of Armenia stated at the briefing with the journalists.

In the words of the interlocutor the festival comprises of two
stages. The participants from the provinces in the case being elected
will be enabled a chance to partake in the second stage, launched in
capital Yerevan.

Poghosyan noted 2012 was announced Sayat-Nova year. The head of the
Union told ” our task is not raising the disputable date of renowned
musician but spreading and publicizing of his art”.

As Armenpress reports, Ministry of culture of the Republic of Armenia
and Provinces’ Administrative Unions support the scheduled festival.

“Sayat-Nova” cultural Centre jointly with UNESCO are set to launch
international sub-regional festival , scientific session, concert tour
in Artsakh, Georgia and Russia on the occasion 300 th anniversary of
Sayat-Nova .

PROTEST MARCH TODAY IN DEFENSE OF YEREVAN’S THREATENED MONUMENTS

hetq
13:10, June 14, 2012

Citizens concerned with the preservation of Yerevan’s threatened
cultural monuments will march today to voice their alarm.

The march will kick off at 6:30pm at 11 Teryan Street (the site of
the Afrikyan House which represents a unique historical significance)
and will wind its way through the city, passing by the Pak Shouka
(Covered Market).

All are invited to participate in the public march.

EXPERT: AZERBAIJAN WILL NOT LET CREATION OF MACHINERY FOR INVESTIGATION OF INCIDENTS AT THE LINE OF CONTACT

arminfo
Thursday, June 14, 19:40

The Azerbaijani authorities will not let creation of machinery for
investigation of incidents at the line of contact between Armenian
and Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Deputy Director of National Archive of
Armenia, historian Edgar Hovannisyan, said at today’s press-conference.

“Even if we manage to reach arrangements at the Paris meeting of
foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and any machinery are
created, the official Baku will undoubtedly fail them”, – he said. He
also added that the world community trusts in the Armenian party more,
but it is high time to transfer from indistinct statements to harsh
criticizing of the non-constructive policy conducted by official Baku.

He also added that at present Azerbaijan has problems with all its
neighbours in the region, not only Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh. The
purchasing of a great number of weapon by Azerbaijan is directed not
only against Armenia and Karabakh but also Iran, Russia and Georgia.

STATE COMMISSION ON ECONOMIC COMPETITION TARGETS ARMENIA’S LARGE BUSINESS – CHAIRMAN

news.am
June 14, 2012 | 15:11

YEREVAN. – The Armenian State Commission for the Protection of Economic
Competition (ASCPEC) has targeted the large business by issuing huge
fines, ASCPEC Chairman Artak Shaboyan said Thursday speaking at a
conference entitled “Competition, Restrictions and Solutions.”

Shaboyan recalled that huge fines were issued in the recent months
against Armenia’s several large businesses.

“[But] Our fines have a preventive implication, so that we may prevent
the misuse of dominant position,” stated Shaboyan.

Also, he noted that they largely highlight the elimination of the
violation, in addition, they apply a number of legislative criteria,
and a special code is being developed with reference to the methodology
for setting the amount of the fines.