Author: Kalantarian Kevo

CRISIS OF TRUST OR WHY ARBITRAGE DOES NOT WORK IN ARMENIA
Lusine Vasilyan

“Radiolur”
03.04.2012 17:18

The Arbitration Court of Armenia, which has been functioning since 2007
adjunct to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry has considered only
eleven cases during five years. This is a figure, which, according to
specialists, does not speak in favor of development of this institute
in Armenia.

What prevents the development of the system? Why do businessmen
avoid applying to the Arbitration Court to solve trade disputes? What
should be done for the system to develop in practice? The issues were
discussed during a conference at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
featuring local and foreign experts.

There are several explanations as to why the arbitrage fails to
develop in Armenia. Deputy Minister of Justice Aram Orbelyan sees at
least two reasons.

“The services of the Arbitration Court are rather expensive. However,
the sum is not that big, if we take into consideration that the
dispute will be solved quickly during one sitting, and there is no
need to wait for a year or two,” he said.

The arbitrage is actually an alternative to the court system, and
at first glance it has privileges over the court. Here consideration
of the issue takes a very short time, the parties to the dispute can
pose certain conditions, e.g. decide when and where the issue will be
considered and choose the arbiter, who will solve the dispute. Trust
is the most important, when choosing the arbiter.

Despite all these privileges the system does not seem to show signs
of development in our country. According to the President of the
Chamber of Commerce and IndustryMartin Sargsyan, slow development is
connected with insufficient level of awareness.

“The greatest problem is the lack of information, not the lack of
trust. This is a new culture, a new institute, and businessmen need
time to understand the good and bad sides of the structure,” he said.

Today’s conference aims to fill that gap.

ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT GETTING READY FOR STRESS-TEST

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 3, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS. The successful stress-test of the 2d
energy unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will allow its further
operation. Besides, the EU will provide relevant technical assistance
for the increase of security level.

Speaking to Armenpress, director general of the plant Gagik Markosyan
said currently the staff is getting ready for the answers-analyses
to the stress-test questions forwarded by the EU.

The EU has agreed to provide to the Armenian side corresponding
assistance in preparation of the document. Armenian specialists will
participate in the stress-test discussions. The final document will
be presented for the discussion to the government-affiliated State
Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee and in the second quarter of 2012
for the discussion of EU specialists.

On the basis of the remarks and suggestions of the EU a plan-timeframe
will be worked out to be approved by the Energy and Natural Resources
Ministry and State Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee.

IRANIAN MP URGES FOREIGN MINISTRY TO BE CAREFUL WITH TURKEY

Panorama.am
03/04/2012

Iran’s Foreign Ministry is encouraged to be more careful with the
relationship with Turkey, Iranian news agency MEHR quotes MP Mostafa
Koakabian as stating.

The Iranian MP has criticized Turkish Government as following Erdogan’s
visit to Tehran Ankara has cut in 20% Iranian oil import.

Iranian senior official Mohsen Rezai has deeply condemned Ankara’s
policy claiming Turkey is not committed to its duties.

Read also: Turkey cuts oil import from Iran

AZERBAIJAN ACCUSES DELEGATION OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT IN MAKING A CHAOS IN II SESSION OF EURONEST PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

Azerbaijan Business Center
April 3 2012

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The Armenian Parliament delegation’s demarche
at the II session of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Baku has
been rebuffed by the host country.

At the session MP Fuad Muradov has stated that unfortunately the
Armenian side continues to make a chaos in work of Euronest.

“We, as the Azerbaijani delegation, have already expressed our opinion
to the Armenian delegation at the time of work of the committees and
other meetings held in the capitals of the world. We have already
stated our positions, which we continue to adhere to. We appeal to
the European representatives not to go on this way,” Mammadov said.

In turn, Armenian delegation’s representative Naira Zohrabyan said
that today’s speech by President Ilham Aliyev at the opening session
of Euronest creates a new line of isolating in the process of work,
sows distrust among the Euronest participating countries, and also
calls into question the future of Euronest.

Azerbaijani MP Malahat Ibragimgizi urged members of the Armenian
parliament to hold emotions and appeal to the documents of
international organizations for more detailed information.

SWISS PROSECUTORS DROP CHARGES AGAINST TURKISH MINISTER IN GENOCIDE PROBE

Today’s Zaman
April 3 2012
Turkey

Swiss prosecutors will drop a criminal probe against Turkey’s EU
affairs minister, instigated after he made remarks rejecting Armenian
claims of genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire nearly
100 years ago, because he is protected by diplomatic immunity.

Zurich prosecutors began investigating Egemen BagıÅ~_ after comments
he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, and also at
a concert in Zurich. Turkey summoned the Swiss ambassador in Ankara
to complain after the investigation was launched.

“After consulting with the Swiss foreign ministry, the prosecutor
has concluded that criminal charges against Egemen BagıÅ~_ cannot be
pursued because, as a Turkish EU minister, he enjoyed immunity during
his entire stay in Switzerland,” the prosecutor said in a statement
on Monday.

Commenting on a French Parliament move to criminalize denial of
the alleged genocide, BagıÅ~_ said in Zurich: “This [French] bill
is null and void for us. We believe that there are more people with
common sense than those without it in France. Switzerland is another
country where it is a crime to deny the so-called genocide. Here I
am in Switzerland today, and I’m saying the 1915 incidents did not
amount to genocide. Let them come arrest me.”

Armenians claim that the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians as
the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first genocide,
and several European countries have recognized the massacres as such.

Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying genocide.

But Turkey asserts that there was no systematic campaign to
kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic
disintegration of the empire. It also argues that the death toll
is inflated.

Switzerland has a penal code article that punishes acts of racism,
including public denial of genocides, established against a backdrop
of right-wing attacks targeting asylum seekers in the country two
decades ago.

Swiss authorities have taken legal action against several people who
have denied the Armenian genocide claims. The most prominent case
is the conviction of Turkish politician Dogu Perincek, who was fined
3,000 Swiss francs in 2007.

In January, the French Senate approved similar legislation, prompting
an angry response from Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan termed the legislation “discriminatory and racist.”

The bill, however, was later annulled by France’s Constitutional
Council, which said it was contradictory to the principles of freedom
of expression enshrined in France’s founding documents.

‘MURON’ OLIVE OIL 1,700 YEARS IN THE MAKING
By Tara Vassiliou

Olive Oil Times

April 3 2012

When God spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai, he said: “Take the finest spices
of liquid myrrh …and of sweet-smelling cinnamon … and of aromatic
cane … and of cassia … and of olive oil … and you shall make
of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfumer … this
shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations.” (Exodus
30:22-33).

And thus commanded, every seven years since AD 301 Armenian priests
from all over the world descend upon one of the oldest cathedrals in
existence – the ancient Cathedral of Etchmiadzin in Armenia. It was
here, that St. Gregory, patron saint of the Armenians blended the first
sample of Muron ‘as a unifying religious symbol of forgiveness and
peace, and as a medicine for healing’ and it is here that the priests’
fulfill their mission: to return to their respective dioceses with
their precious cargo of freshly concocted Muron – the sweet-scented
holy oil.

The recipe is prepared in a massive, ornately-engraved, silver caldron;
and is created from more than 40 different ingredients: herbs,
flower extracts, spices, wine and the main component – pure virgin
olive oil. To protect the sweet perfume, the lid of the cauldron is
sealed with uncooked dough, and the entire assemblage steamed for
three days and three nights. The Bishops use three holy relics to
sanctify the oil: the Geghart – the lance that pierced the side of
Christ; a piece of wood believed to be from the original Cross upon
which Christ gave his life; and the holy right hand of St. Gregory the
Illuminator.

Accompanied by readings of sacred scripts and the ringing of bells
to symbolize the descent of the Holy Spirit, the caldron is unsealed
and the Holy Chrism from the previous ceremony is added – old to new –
mixed with the original batch from the Armenian Church’s founding 1,711
years ago. It represents the continuation of an unbroken chain from
the time of St. Gregory – and an extraordinary link between millennia.

Over the next seven years, the Muron will be used sparingly in Armenian
churches, scattered like their people over the globe. Church leaders
note, that throughout the centuries ‘Muron has helped sustain a people
decimated and dispersed by war, conquest and genocide.’

LAVROV: IAEA NEVER TRACED BREACHING TO NPT IN IRAN

Al-Manar

April 3 2012
Lebanon

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that IAEA inspectors
have never traced any breaching of nuclear NPT agreement in their
intensive and ceaseless inspections in Iranian nuclear sites.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his host Armenian counterpart
Edward Nalbandian at Armenia Republic’s capital city, Yerevan, Lavrov
added, “Even right now the International Atomic Energy Agency’s
Inspectors are stationed at Iran’s entire nuclear centers monitoring
the Iranians’ entire activities round the clock.”

The Russian top diplomat meanwhile asked the UN nuclear watchdog to
dispatch yet more of its inspectors to Iran to further scrutinize
the matter painstakingly, according to IRNA news agency.

Lavrov said, “Maintaining the presence of that international atomic
body’s inspectors in Iran and further strengthening their presence
there is of fundamental importance today.”

The Russian foreign minister announced his affiliated country’s strong
opposition against any type of so called preemptive attack against
Iran, reiterating, “Such attacks are in direct contrast against the
UN Charter.” He added, “There is no military solution for Iran’s
nuclear issue.”

Pointing out that all options about Iran would be surveyed, he said,
“Yet, only those options that are in accordance with the international
laws and the UN Charter would be acceptable.” The Russian Foreign
Minister meanwhile announced his country’s opposition against the
unilaterally sanctions by US and the EU against Iran emphatically.

SWITZERLAND WILL NOT OPEN CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST TURKISH MINISTER

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 3 2012
Russia

Switzerland has announced that it will not open a criminal case
against Turkish Minister for European Union Affairs Egemen Bagis,
who rejected the Armenian Genocide in Zurich, Trend reports.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed a protest against a criminal
case on Bagis for his statement. The Turkish minister made the
statement when the French Senate passed the bill on criminalization
of denial of the Armenian Genocide. A similar law is in force in
Switzerland.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SURVIVORS TO JOIN SHOAH FOUNDATION

Annenberg TV News

April 3 2012
CA

Shoah Foundation will archive testimonies from Armenian Genocide
survivors.

In 1939, Adolf Hitler asked, “Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?”

That question will be answered Tuesday as the voices of Armenians
who survived Hitler’s genocide will join the testimonies of those
who survived the Holocaust, as part of the collaboration between the
Shoah Foundation Institute and the USC Institute of Armenian Studies
Leadership Council.

“These testimonies exist because [the survivors] wanted the world to
know that this happened,” said Stephen Smith, executive director for
the Shoah Foundation Institute at USC.

The Shoah Foundation Institute was founded in 1994 by Steven
Spielberg. The Foundation focuses on digitizing the 52,00 testimonies
of Holocaust survivors for the public to see first-hand.

The Shoah Foundation is continuing this legacy by adding 400 films
made by Armenian filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, who was forced to
hide in a well after Turkish soldiers raided his village as a small
boy. He then migrated from Armenia to the United States to create
films recording the experiences of Genocide survivors.

Carla Garapedian, a filmmaker leading the Armenian Film Foundation’s
efforts to digitize the Genocide victims’ testimonies, called the
availability of the accounts significant. “This is the first time
that the Armenian Genocide interviews will be made available on such
a wide network, so that universities around the world will be able
to access them,” Garapedian said. “This is an important movement
in terms of educating the public, from the point of view survivors
and witnesses…In understanding genocide in that comparative way,
we may be able to prevent it.”

According to the Genocide survivors, the killings involved the
systematic cleansing of Christians, which included Assyrians and
Pontic Greeks, however both the United States and Turkey refused to
call it a genocide due to the political nature of the word.

Still, the Shoah Foundation will hold a gala and fundraiser on April
15th with the USC Institute of Armenian Studies’ Leadership Council
to honor Hagopian and his films. “I’m delighted that the Armenian
community trusts us with their personal community legacy,” said Smith.

“Trust is the first step. When you don’t trust, that’s the breeding
ground for bigotry, prejudice, and intolerance.”

IRANIAN CLERGYMAN: ALIYEV SELLS MINISTERIAL OFFICES

Panorama.am
03/04/2012

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev is selling ministerial offices,
Iranian news site “arannews.ir” quotes senior clergyman Seyyed Hasan
Ameli as saying.

Remarking on the ban of hijab in Azerbaijan and the wave of social
complaints in this respect, the Iranian senior monk said: “The official
banning young ladies to wear hijab cannot be a president.”

Seyyed Hasan Ameli has also underscored that Azerbaijan has emerged
deep in corruption. “Azerbaijan’s President sells the ministerial
seats, and the minister who has already bought his office continues
the corruption chain through his subordinates.”