Author: Kalantarian Kevo

OPPOSITION PARTY BLASTS TSARUKIAN, QUITS ANTI-FRAUD STRUCTURE

13.04.2012

Armenia – Zharangutyun party leader Raffi Hovannisian addresses voters
in Nor Hachn, 12 Apr 2012.

Sargis Harutyunyan, Naira Bulghadarian, Irina Hovhannisyan

The opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party of Raffi Hovannisian on
Friday effectively withdrew from an ad hoc structure that was set up
by Armenia’s leading opposition forces and second largest governing
party to fight against electoral fraud.

Zharangutyun attributed the move to the rejection by the Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK), a junior partner in the governing coalition,
of its conditions relating to the work of the Inter-Party Center for
Public Oversight of the Elections.

Zharangutyun set those conditions shortly after one of its senior
members announced the center’s creation on April 4 in a joint
statement with representatives of the BHK, the opposition Armenian
National Congress (HAK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun). It demanded that the top leaders of the four
political forces also sign the statement and explicitly renounce
vote buying.

“As both suggestions were rejected, we can only state our serious doubt
in the efficacy of these [anti-fraud] proposals,” read a statement
issued by the election campaign headquarters of Hovannisian’s party

“We also express our frustration with political forces which sign
documents … supporting free and fair elections, while they continue
to commit illegal violations against the most basic standards of free
and fair elections,” it charged in a clear reference to the BHK.

Hovannisian has also demanded separately that the BHK pull out of
the ruling coalition to prove its leader Gagik Tsarukian’s stated
commitment to free elections. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am) on the campaign trail on Friday, Hovannisian pointed
to an “unconstitutional” power-sharing declaration that was issued
by Tsarukian and President Serzh Sarkisian last year.

“Why do we need personal responsibility here? Because there have been
cases of a representative of one or another party saying something
about the task force or a political strategy but the chairman of
that party saying that that is only a personal view,” said the
Zharangutyun leader.

Armenia – Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik Tsarukian is
greeted by supporters during a campaign rally in Armavir province,
13Apr2012.xArmenia – Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) leader Gagik
Tsarukian is greeted by supporters during a campaign rally in Armavir
province, 13Apr2012.

â~@~Kâ~@~KTsarukian dismissed the Zharangutyun demands as he campaigned
in the southern Armavir region. “I respect [Hovannisian] a lot, he
is a true patriot, but I can’t understand his thoughts and ideas,”
he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “The coalition will
cease to exist on May 6 anyway. There are only 20 days left.”

Tsarukian also reiterated that former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian,
who is second the BHK list of election candidates, was authorized by
him to sign the statement on the anti-fraud task force.

“I want to contest fair and transparent elections,” he said. “I will
take care of the people’s votes and won’t let anyone steal them.”

Zharangutyun’s stance has also been criticized by the opposition HAK
and Dashnaktsutyun. Levon Zurabian, the HAK coordinator, insisted on
Friday that Tsarukian is now interested in a clean vote because of
his political ambitions and an uneasy rapport with President Sarkisian.

“I don’t know where that unfolding cooperation through the joint task
force will take us, but the start is very promising,” Zurabian said
in a video interview with RFE/RL broadcast through the Internet. “We
believe that the forces making up the task force are really interested
in legitimate elections. The best proof of that is the panic and fear
demonstrated by the authorities today.”

“Prosperous Armenia has become an independent political factor … They
are visibly ready to take steps on their own, and failing to take
advantage of that is a luxury which we can’t afford,” said Zurabian.

RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN TURKEY

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 13, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2012 annual report
recommended designating Turkey as a “country of particular concern
(CPC)” for its “systematic and egregious limitations on the freedom of
religion.” Turkey was on the commission’s “Watch List” from 2009-11,
reports Armenpress citing The Armenian Weekly.

The commission found that restrictions on the rights of religious
minorities–from owning, maintaining, and transferring communal
and individual property, to training clergy and holding religious
classes–have led to the “critical shrinkage” and even disappearance of
non-Muslim communities. One senior Christian religious leader grieved,
“We are an endangered species here in Turkey.”

USCIRF charges the Turkish government of interfering in the
religious matters of minorities, and highlights the presence of
“societal discrimination,” occasional violence, restrictions on
religious attire, anti-Semitism in the society and the media, and
the infringement on the property rights of religious minorities. It
notes that religious minorities are targeted within Turkish society
“partly because most are both religious and ethnic minorities and,
therefore, are viewed with suspicion by some ethnic Turks.”

USCIRF relied on the State Department’s estimates on the number of
religious minorities in Turkey, which total about 0.1 percent of the
population. According to those figures, the largest non-Muslim group
is the Armenian Orthodox community numbering at 65,000, followed by
23,000 Jews; 15,000 Syriac Christians; 10,000 Baha’is; 5,000 Yezidis;
3,300 Jehovah’s Witnesses; 3,000 Protestant Christians; 1,700 Greek
Orthodox Christians; and small communities of Georgian and Bulgarian
Orthodox Christians, Maronites, Chaldeans, Nestorians, Assyrians,
and Roman Catholics.

Religious minorities fall into two categories in Turkey, according
to the report: 1) The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish
communities (which are protected under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty),
alongside the Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean, and Roman Catholic communities
(which are not covered by the treaty; referred to as the “Lausanne
Treaty plus three|| minorities”); and 2) religious minorities that
are not bound by ethnicity, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants,
and Baha’is. Those in the former category have certain limited legal
rights. Furthermore, only the religious minorities covered by the
Lausanne Treaty can call their religious institutions churches or
synagogues; the other groups must refer to their houses of worship
as cultural or community centers.

ARMENIA, CHINA DEVELOP MILITARY COOPERATION

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 13, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, 13 APRIL, ARMENPRESS: Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general
staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), met with Levon
Ayvazyan, the visiting chief of the Department of Defence Policy of
the Armenian Defense Ministry, on the morning of April 10, 2012 in
Beijing, reports Armenpress citing Defpro.news. Ma Xiaotian pointed
out that there is profound traditional friendship between China and
Armenia and between the two peoples. Since the beginning of the new
century, the relations between the two countries have achieved new
development. The Chinese side highly commends the Armenian side for
its solid support on the Taiwan and Tibet issues, etc. In recent years,
the relations between the two militaries have been well developed. The
Chinese military attaches importance to the development of friendly
relations with the Armenian military and it hopes to make joint
efforts with the Armenian side to promote the pragmatic exchanges
and cooperation between the two militaries.

Evajan said that the Armenian side is satisfied with the achievements
made in the development of the relations between the two militaries in
recent years, thanks the Chinese side for its support and help in the
building of the Armenian armed forces and is willing to constantly
deepen and push forward further pragmatic cooperation between the
two militaries in various fields.

KOCHARYAN OR SARGSYAN: WORLD DOESN’T CARE
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 17:19:09 – 13/04/2012

In an article published by Regnum entitled “Russia Is Squeezed Out
Of Armenia” Artashes Geghamyan who has appeared on the Republican
Ticket states desperately that the first and second presidents Levon
Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan got an order from the West and
money from Turkey to squeeze Russia out of Armenia.

Artashes Geghamyan apparently calls on Russia to interfere and prevent
hostile West from defeating Serzh Sargsyan and Armenia.

The despair heard in this article is self-evident. Geghamyan felt
danger and is not confident about his future in parliament even though
he is number 7 on the list. However, the problem is not Geghamyan
himself. Apparently the only argument Sargsyan has in the political
scramble is referral to foreign forces.

The world actors are certainly interested in a certain outcome of the
Armenian election. The West wishes to see persons who would ignore
the taboo on the review of the relationship with Russia. Certainly
the West needs forces facing to Europe.

In the Armenian parliament Russia needs forces which will vote for
the Eurasian Union and bar the appearance of NATO forces in Armenia.

Besides, forces are needed which will not dare voice too much
dependence of Armenia on Russia.

Does the West or Russia see any difference between Robert Kocharyan
and Serzh Sargsyan in this context? Hardly so because both follow the
same line (two steps more or less). They are not desirable people for
the West but both are problems for Russia. Therefore, when choosing
between them the West and Russia will most probably refrain from
intervention, leaving them alone to settle their accounts with each
other. They do not care much who will eventually come to power.

They may intervene if other forces appear who can change status quo in
Armenia by their ideology and potential. There are no such forces in
Armenia yet or they lack sufficient resource. In any case, they could
not oppose to the bloc of Sargsyan and Kocharyan. On the contrary,
everything is done to unfold the battle between these two.

In this meaning, even though they try to impart the political battle
with geopolitical tones, it remains a banal race between two former or
(or present) allies and friends. The external forces have understood
this who are therefore passive, as well as the Armenian society has
understood which brushes aside the election campaign like flies. Only
politicians of other parties failed to understand whose tactics aimed
at weakening the Republicans automatically boosted the Prosperous
Armenia Party.

Meanwhile, Artashes Geghamyan understood everything who will not be
fine as soon as Kocharyan appears.

MEETING TO COMMEMORATE MARAGHA POGROM HELD IN YEREVAN

Tert.am
13.04.12

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Armenian massacres of
Maragha, the Azerbaijani SSR Refugee Assembly held today a meeting
to commemorate the innocent victims of the tragic events.

The discussion, entitled From Maragha to New Maragha, From Baku to
Bagaran, aimed to awaken the public memories of the true eevnts in
the Azerbaijani village.

Addressing the meeting, a representative of the Assembly, Susan
Melikyan, brought up details of the tragic killings, noting that
the Azerbaijanis perpetrated the violence in an attempt to commit
ethnic cleansings.

“But the Armenians did not retreat; they created a new Maragha,
resettling there those people who’d taken a narrow escape from the
killings,” he said, adding that the events in Maraga resulted in the
Karabakh war that caused regional instability and the tragedy of the
two nations.

“It is time for the Armenian political and ruling circles to
drastically revise the existing stereotypes of settling the regional
conflict and refuse to return any territory to Azerbaijan. And because
the refugees cannot return to Baku, they can go back to Bagaran.”

A lawmaker of the opposition Heritage party, Larisa Alaverdyan,
who was a chief expert of the Armenian Supreme Council’s (former
parliament) special committee dealing with Nagorno-Karabakh affairs,
said Maragha differed with its bigger territory and was the only
village in Karabakh that was situated on a plateau.

“But a bigger pogrom in the village was committed on April 24. We do
not keep silent about the events. We do have facts about them. It is
worth to mention that Maragha was a rare village,” she said, adding
that only non-governmental organizations addressed the tragic killings
until 2009.

Alaverdyan regretted to note that well-read people knowing about the
Khojalu events often turn out to be unaware of Maragha.

“We must inform the public of the events. We must be able to take
legal action as speaking and screening [films] are not enough to
prevent Azerbaijan’s racist policies,” she said.

The participants later watched a documentary featuring the village’s
former residents who recalled Azerbaijani’s killing people in Maragha
twenty years ago on these days.

The Azerbaijani troops perpetrated the Maraga Massacre on April 10,
1992. They set the villahge on fire, massacring its inhabitants,
and taking some away with them as captives. Those who could narrowly
escape found refuge in forests and spread all over the world.

Maragha is still under Azerbaijani control.

About 80-100 were assaulted, 40 wounded and 63 taken captive on
this day in Maragha. Seven of the captives were repatriated later,
17 were exchanged, one captive was bought back and one succeeded
breaking captivity and fleeing.

There has been news that 8 of the captives were killed, while the
fate of rest 29 is still unknown. One of the captives was killed
during the exchange, while another one was killed while fleeing.

FESTIVAL FALLOUT: VANYAN ORGANIZERS SHOW OF AZERI FILMS AT RESTAURANT OUTSIDE GYUMRI
Georgi Vanyan

13.04.12 | 15:40

A controversial festival of Azeri films was held at a private
restaurant outside Gyumri after some angry residents of Armenia’s
second largest city prevented its holding at a local media club by
staging a protest that also reportedly included an assault on the
festival’s organizer Georgi Vanyan.

A festival of Azerbaijani films called “Stop” was to have been held
in Gyumri on April 12, but it failed after dozens of protesters
blocked the entrance to the Asparez club, where the films were to be
demonstrated. The protesters demanded the organizer of the festival
should vacate the building and the city and pelted him with eggs.

Protests in Gyumri and Yerevan were organized against the festival
being organized by Vanyan, the director of the Caucasian Center of
Peaceful Initiative, who had received grants from the United States and
British Embassies for the project. Groups on social networking websites
have been set up to call for “forbidding this shameful initiative.”

In Gyumri, Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan slammed the authors of the initiative
saying “they have not descended from the Armenian nation” and “have
nothing to do in Gyumri.”

In Yerevan a group of protestors held posters saying “No to grant-taker
Vanyan and the anti-Armenian activity”. They handed in an open letter
to the Ministry of Culture which, in particular, said: “Armenia has
neither diplomatic nor cultural ties with Azerbaijan; therefore,
the organization of such festivals should be banned in Armenia once
and for all.”

According to Vanyan, the festival was meant to introduce to the
Armenian audience to the best samples of the contemporary Azerbaijani
film industry.

To avoid further incident, Vanyan and his colleagues were taken from
the city by a police vehicle accompanied by another police car.

In the evening the Asparez club issued a statement, condemning the
violence against Vanyan and calling the action “unbecoming of a
Gyumri resident”.

According to the journalistic club, the show of the films took place
at a restaurant on the Gyumri-Yerevan highway for people who went to
Gyumri from Yerevan and met Vanyan there.

OLIGARCHS’ MESSAGE TO THE SOCIETY
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 10:59:20 – 13/04/2012

Samvel Alexanyan and Ruben Hayrapetyan, more famous with their
nicknames, Lfik Samo and Nemets Rubo, are the interesting axis of
the parliamentary election campaign.

As we know, they are Members of Parliament and they are likely to be
re-elected from Constituencies 7 and 1.

These odious oligarchs have entered into an interesting play with each
other. Perhaps, it is their involvement in football – Hayrapetyan is
the president of the Football Federation and non-official sponsor of
Pyunik Football Club and Alexanyan is the official owner of Pyunik.

So, they were inspired by football spirit to start to play a beautiful
match.

They seem to be trying to trick the society. In reality, they are
doing a favor to the society. And it is not irony.

As we know, Hayrapetyan had decided not to run, then he stated that
only Samvel Alexanyan could persuade him and he did so after which
Alexanyan stated that he is vulnerable socially and can afford the
campaign so he launched fund-raising. Ruben Hayrapetyan handed him
50,000 drams, saying that he does not have more. They made a number
of odious statements such as Nikol Pashinyan is his “brother” so he
is ready to help him with election spending. The other stated that he
will not accept the offer for debate with Gayane Arustamyan because
he is polite enough to defeat a woman.

Samvel Alexanyan and Ruben Hayrapetyan are the salt of the Armenian
campaign headquarters.

Though most citizens say their behavior is cynical their behavior is,
nevertheless, a serious service to the society because they show who
the real masters of the situation inside the government are and what
the real meaning of the Republican slogan Believe to Change” is.

On the other hand, there is also the other side of the phenomenon.

Perhaps, they are more honest than those oligarchs who speak on behalf
of the people pretending to the role of the “father of democracy”.

They are what they are and with their behavior they remind the
society what can be changed and those who were born to be changed
cannot change.

BOOK ALLEY TO OPEN IN ISAHAKYAN LIBRARY

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 13, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of “Yerevan World
Capital of Book” program Avetik Isahakyan central library will come
up with surprises for book loving people. On April 20 “Isahakyan”
bookstore will open in the library. On the same day Book Alley and
the Yerevan Book club will be established. Speaking to Armenpress
director of the library Hasmik Karapetyan said all the programs to
be conducted within the framework of the project will be aimed at
guiding the young people to book and library.

“Isahakyan” book store will not differ from the rest ones: the
only difference is that it will sell books needed by students both
belletristic literature and educational.

The Yerevan book club will serve as a special bridge for cultural
figures, creative individuals. “Meetings with young writers, film
presentations, quizzes will be conducted,” Karapetyan said.

The Book Alley will afford an opportunity to the diplomatic
representatives accredited in Armenia and other well-known people to
plant trees in the library’s garden.

April 20 will be declared “Day of Library’s Friends”.

New book stores are intended to open in three branches of the library.

ON THRESHOLD OF ELECTIONS GYUMRI MORE SMACKS OF SICILY

arminfo
Friday, April 13, 13:20

Karen Yesyan, the 27-year-old fiance of Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan’s
daughter was killed overnight. Haykakan Zhamanak Daily writes that
Yesayan returned from the USA quite lately and his engagement with
Ghukasyan’s daughter was planned for April 13.

A resident of Gyumri found Yesayan dead of gunshot wounds in Mercedes
Benz near Memorial “Mother Armenia” in Sev Berd quarter and called
the Police.

Head of the Shirak Regional Department of the Armenian Police Karen
Babakekhyan and the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department
and the Department for the Fight Against Organized Crime of the
Armenian Police arrived at the spot. As of 11:30pm on April 12 the
regional police was holding closed discussions. The paper writes that
certain information emerged in the web later saying that the son of
the former head of the Ani district police is complicit in the murder.

He was allegedly seen on the scene of the crime. However, the given
information has not been confirmed officially.

U.S. ARCHAEOLOGISTS TO RESEARCH ANCIENT SITE IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 13, 2012 – 12:55 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA)
is launching a fundraising effort to help support the ongoing research
into 4th-2ndmillennium B.C. history and culture at the Shengavit
archaeological site in Yerevan.

According to the Armenian Weekly, archaeologist Dr. Mitchell S.
Rothman, head of the department of anthropology at Widener University
in Pennsylvania, plans on returning to Armenia with a group of American
archaeologists and students this summer.

There, at the Shengavit Historical and Archaeological Culture Preserve
in Yerevan’s Shengavit district, his team, with Armenian colleagues,
will continue the work begun last summer. Namely, they will work to
uncover the story of the ancient society that was present at the
site from the 4th millennium B.C. This was before the formation
of Armenia and other nations in the region, although it is widely
believed the society living there at the time must have played a part
in the genesis of the Armenian people.

The site was initially excavated in 1936 by Armenian archaeologists.

This was the first site that exhibited what is often called “Shengavit
culture” or “Kura-Arax” culture. This culture had contacts throughout
much of the Middle East, as far as Mesopotamia and Palestine, and as
far west as Malatia in western Armenia (Anatolia). But there are still
many questions that archaeologists and historians seek to answer:
The U.S. archaeologists want to establish a more precise chronology
for the site using advanced dating techniques and to evaluate the
evolution of Shengavit’s social structure. They then hope to publish
a full history of Shengavit.