Author: Kalantarian Kevo

PROBLEM ON EXPEDIENCY OF FOREST DEVASTATION BECAUSE OF TEKHUT DEPOSIT IS UP IN THE AIR

ARMINFO
Tuesday, March 13, 17:38

The problem on expediency of forest devastation because of the Tekhut
deposit is still up in the air.

“We are not concerned about the tree-planting process, but its results
which will be clear in 7-8 years”, – director of CJSC “Hayantar”
(Armforest), Ruben Petrosyan, said at today’s press-conference when
replying to Arminfo correspondent’s question if it is right to develop
industry at the expense of green zones.

“According to the Tekhut project, 357 ha of forest should be devastated
and forests should be restored at the territory of 714 ha.

At present the company planted trees at 220 ha in Lernahovit, Odzun
and Archut. However, we are not concerned about the process of the
new trees planting, we are concerned about the results, which will
become clear in 7-8 years”, – he said.

The programme on exploitation of the Tekhut copper and molybdenum
deposit was approved by the government of Armenia in November 2007. As
ecologists said many times, the ecological risks of the project were
reduced for several times.

Exhibition Review
The Key to Armenia’s Survival

Correr Museum, Venice
An Armenian merchant portrayed by Giovanni Grevembroch in the 18th century.
By RODERICK CONWAY MORRIS
Published: February 23, 2012

VENICE – Armenian civilization is one of the most ancient of those
surviving in the Middle East, but for large parts of its history
Armenia has been a nation without a country. This has given the spoken
and written word, the primary means through which Armenian identity
has been preserved, enormous prominence in its people’s culture.

Library of the Mekhitarist Fathers, San Lazzaro
A gospel dating from 1331 with an illumination of St. Matthew with
the artist himself, Sargiz Pitzak, kneeling at the feet of the
evangelist.

Zvartnots Cathedral Museum, Echmiadzin
A 7th-century sundial with Armenian numbers from Zvartnots Cathedral
in Echmiadzin, Armenia.

Over the centuries this emphasis has fostered a particular regard for
books and the means of producing them. Scribes added notes on the
proper care and conservation of books and advice on hiding them during
dangerous times, even on `ransoming’ them should they fall into the
wrong hands. A late 19th-century English traveler observed that the
Armenians prized the printing press with the same `affection and
reverence as the Persian highlanders value a rifle or sporting gun.’
In 1511 to 1512 (the exact date is uncertain), the first Armenian book
was printed in Venice. The event was especially significant for this
scattered nation, which did not acquire a modern homeland until 1918
and then only in a small part of its ancestral lands.
The anniversary is the occasion for `Armenia: Imprints of a
Civilization,’ an impressive exhibition organized by Gabriella
Ulluhogian, Boghos Levon Zekiyan and Vartan Karapetian of more than
200 works spanning more than 1,000 years of Armenian written
culture. These range from inscriptions and illuminated manuscripts to
printed and illustrated books, including many unique and rare pieces
from collections in Armenia and Europe.
The show opens with the atmospheric painting of 1889 by the Armenian
artist Ivan Aivazovski, `The Descent of Noah From Mount Ararat,’
from the National Gallery in Yerevan. It shows the Old Testament
patriarch leading his family and a procession of animals across the
plain, still watery from the subsiding Flood, to re-people the earth.
The extraordinary grip that this mountain has had on the Armenian
imagination is tellingly demonstrated by subsequent sections on
sculpture, the Armenian Church and the Ark – the conical domes of
Armenian churches seeming eternally to replicate this geographical
feature that symbolizes the salvation of the human race.
Christianity reached Armenia as early as the first or early second
century. And Armenia lays claim to having been the first nation that
adopted the faith as a state religion, sometime between 293 and 314, a
date traditionally recorded by the Armenian Church as 301.
There followed, in around 404 or 405, an initiative that has been one
of the cornerstones of the endurance of the Armenian ethnos: the
invention of a distinctive alphabet capable of rendering the
language’s complex phonetic system. This made possible the translation
of the Bible – the majestic 10th-century Gospel of Trebizond is on
show here – and the foundation of Armenian literature in all its
manifestations, sacred and secular.
The desire to illustrate the gospels and other Christian texts was the
primary impetus for the development of Armenian art, which drew on an
unusually wide range of sources thanks to the country’s position at
the crossroads of several civilizations.
As Dickran Kouymjian writes in his essay in the exhibition’s
substantial and wide-ranging catalog, which is available in English,
French and Italian: `Armenian artists were remarkably open to artistic
trends in Byzantium, the Latin West, the Islamic Near East and even
Central Asia and China.’
A sumptuous display of these illuminated books brings together some of
the finest surviving examples from the ninth to the 15th centuries,
and it is curious to discover that even after the advent of printing,
the tradition of illumination continued in Armenian monasteries for a
further two and a half centuries.
The acme of the Armenian miniature was reached in the 13th century,
during the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, which ruled over a substantial
part of Asia Minor (1198-1375), until it was overthrown by the Mamluks
of Egypt.
Armenian contacts with Venice date to the period when the nascent
lagoon republic was a remote western outpost of Byzantium, where
Armenians held senior positions in the administration and the
military. In the sixth century the Armenian governor Narses is
credited with introducing the cult of Theodore, or Todoro, Venice’s
first patron saint and Isaac the Armenian is recorded as the founder
of the ancient Santa Maria Assunta basilica on the island of Torcello.
Contacts became frequent during the Kingdom of Cilicia as Venetian
merchants expanded their activities in the Levant and their Armenian
counterparts sought opportunities in Europe.
In 1235 the Venetian nobleman Marco Ziani left a house to the Armenian
community at San Zulian near Piazza San Marco, which came to be called
the Casa Armena and provided a focal point for Venice’s ever more
numerous Armenian residents and visitors.
The testament drawn up in 1354 by the governess of this house, `Maria
the Armenian,’ indicates that by that time there was not only a
thriving community of merchants, but also clerics and an archbishop,
to whom she left three of her six peacocks. Later the church of Santa
Croce was founded on the same site, still today an Armenian place of
worship. Both Marco Ziani and Maria’s wills are on show.
A precious copy of the first Armenian book printed in 1511-1512, a
religious work titled the Book of Friday, is also on display. The
innovation led to the setting up of a host of Armenian presses all
over the world. The fruits of these – from locations as far-flung as
Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and St. Petersburg to Istanbul, Isfahan,
Madras and Singapore – form the absorbing last section of the
exhibition.
Venice was given a further boost as the global center of Armenian
culture by the arrival in the lagoon of Abbot Mekhitar and his monks
in 1715. This visionary was born in Sivas (ancient Sebastia) in
Anatolia, and had spent time in Echmiadzin and Istanbul. Later he took
the community he had created to Methoni in the Peloponnese, which had
been conquered by the Venetians in the 1680s. But the prospect of the
town’s recapture by the Ottomans led to Mekhitar’s decision to take
refuge in Venice. In 1717 he and his followers were granted a lease on
the island of San Lazzaro, which has been their headquarters ever
since.
Under Mekhitar, San Lazzaro became the epicenter of a worldwide
Armenian cultural revival. The community created a study center and
library, was responsible for printing scores of books in Venice and
elsewhere, and established an international network of schools, where
a high proportion of Armenia’s religious and secular elite received an
education into modern times.
The Armenian Academy of San Lazzaro has published Bazmavep, a
literary, historical and scientific journal since 1843, one of the
oldest continuous periodicals of its kind. And the first Armenian
newspaper-magazine was Azdara (The Monitor), founded in Madras in
1794.
San Lazzaro’s most famous foreign student was Lord Byron, who learned
Armenian there with the scholar Harutiun Avgerian, with whom he
collaborated on the production of an Armenian and English grammar,
containing translations by the poet. Armenia: Imprints of a
Civilization. Correr Museum, Venice. Through April 10.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 24, 2012, in
The International Herald Tribune.

RUSSIA DOESN’T PLAN S-300 MISSILE SYSTEMS SALE TO IRAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 13, 2012 – 15:28 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Russia has no plans to resume the sale of S-300
air defense systems to Iran, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly
Antonov said on Tuesday, March 13, RIA Novosti reported.

“All restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council will be observed,”
the deputy minister said. “I assure you that [the restrictions]
are strictly observed and Russia is not acting in breach of sanctions.”

The $800-million contract to supply Iran with the missile system
was signed at the end of 2007. Russia was to supply five S-300PMU-1
battalions to Tehran.

However, on September 22, 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
signed a decree cancelling the contract in line with UN Security
Council Resolution 1929, which bans supply to Iran of conventional
weapons including missiles and missile systems, tanks, attack
helicopters, warplanes and ships.

GREEN COURT: YEREVAN PARK ACTIVISTS ISSUE ULTIMATUM ON CITY HALL
By Lilit Arakelyan

ArmeniaNow
14.03.12 | 11:51

Authorities in Yerevan have until Friday to dismantle the kiosks in
a public garden or see environmentalists take the matter into their
own hands, according to a verdict passed by a green “public court”
in Mashtots Park Tuesday.

Enlarge Photo

With real courts reluctant to accept lawsuits against the decision by
the Yerevan municipality to allow the owners of kiosks that had been
dismantled from the Abovyan Street sidewalk to install their property
in what is listed as the city’s green area, dozens of activists of
the environmental movement decided to stage “legal proceedings” of
their own, declaring it to be the first in a series of “public trials”
to defend public property.

Environmentalists threatened that in the absence of an appropriate
decision by the municipality within the next few days they will take
it upon themselves to dismantle the kiosks. They did not elaborate.

Following the event, some members of the movement began a sit-in
action in the venue despite attempts by police to prevent.

Mashtots Park has seen recurrent standoffs between young activists
of the movement and police since early February. In particular, on
several occasions protesters managed to break through police cordons
and enter construction sites to stop construction. None of the action
has turned violent yet.

Activist Artur Grigoryan told ArmeniaNow on Tuesday that holding such
a symbolic ‘civil trial’ was a means of self-expression in favor of
defending public property and having an improved park space.

“Our experience shows that when we turn to courts with such suits, they
do not accept them, arguing that we have no right to make court claims
on public property protection. We are not provided with an opportunity
to defend our rights in the legal domain,” explained Grigoryan.

During the Mashtots Park “court hearing” several members of the
environmental movement on the “plaintiff’s” side presented their
demands to the municipality for the kiosks to be dismantled, invoking
some provisions of the Armenian Constitution, the Land Code, the laws
related to urban development and environmental protection, as well
as the Aarhus Convention, a U.N. document on access to information,
public participation in decision-making and access to justice in
environmental matters that Armenia is also a signatory to. They
claimed that the actions of the city authorities related to Mashtots
Park violated those statutes.

Sona Ayvazyan, the chair of Transparency International’s
Anti-corruption Center, said that under Armenia’s legislation,
construction activities in an area occupying more than 1,500 square
meters need to go through environmental assessment first, something
that hasn’t been done in the case of Mashtots Park.

“In accordance with the rules of urban development no construction is
allowed to be carried out closer than five meters from a growing tree,
but in this case we see that such a distance is less than a meter,”
she added.

Meanwhile, Yerevan mayor Taron Margaryan stressed on various occasions
that no tree would be cut in the park and that allowing kiosk owners
to install their property there was a forced and temporary measure. He
assured the public that the kiosks would be dismantled in a few years’
time when a larger conservation project for the area, called Old
Yerevan, was due to start.

Still, at the “court” proceedings members of the environmental
initiative group presented a document, dated December 30, 2011,
regarding mayor Margaryan’s decision under which a private company,
Eastern Oasis LLC, was granted the right to carry out construction
in an area of 247 square meters at 22/1 Mashtots Blvd. (the territory
of the park) and dispose of it until 2028.

“How can we believe the mayor’s assurances that these kiosks are
going to be there for only a couple of years then?” said Grigoryan.

At the same time, green activists said that lately there had also been
some good news that could also further the cause. In particular, they
said they hailed the decision by the Armenian president not to enact
the amendments to the law on environmental impact assessment that
were passed by the National Assembly last month. Environmentalists
argue that the legislation that has now been sent to parliament for
elaboration contains a number of potential risks, including the risk
that the civil society will be kept largely out of the decision-making
process pertaining to environmental issues.

YERKIR: RPA, ARF, RULE OF LAW AND HERITAGE TO PRESENT THEIR PROPORTIONAL LISTS BY THE END OF THE WEEK

ARMENPRESS
10:31, 14 March, 2012

The paper says thought the deadline for publicizing proportional lists
is March 22, the Republican Party of Armenia, Rule of Law, ARF and
Heritage will present their lists by the end of this week. The paper
says the RPA will publish its list on Thursday after the sitting of
the executive body of the party. By the way, according to the sources
of the daily many are alarmed connected with the lists, some could
not even hide their confused faces even on the day of the congress
of the party. The paper says junior brother of the RPA the Rule of
Law, respecting the elder brother, will publicize its list either
on Friday or Saturday. By the end of the week ARF will too present
its list. The paper says the “Heritage” will publicize the list on
Sunday. According to the paper, though the congress of the Prosperous
Armenia Party is scheduled for March 17, the party will not present
its list on Saturday.

ELINA DANIELIAN QUALIFIED FOR WORLD CUP

Panorama.am
14/03/2012

Armenian GM Elina Danielian has been qualified for the World Cup
due to her results recorded in European Women’s Championship held
in Gaziantep, Turkey. In the last round our chess player drew with
Marie Sebag and having scored 7,5 ranked the 8th.

Valentina Gunina, Tatiana Kosintseva and Anna Muzichuk scored 8,5
and ranked the 1st-3rd respectively.

Anna Hayrapetyan defeated Bursa Arig and ranked the 71st, Lilit
Galoyan ranked the 55th, Lilit Mkrtchian and Maria Kursova ranked
the 35th and 38th.

Interfax, Russia
March 10 2012

Denial of Armenian Genocide in fact continues this process – Armenian
president

YEREVAN. March 10

The denial of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in fact
continues this process, says Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

“We have a clear message to all countries of the world: the denial of
the Armenian Genocide is the continuation of this crime dating back to
the beginning of the last century. Due to Armenia’s and the diaspora’s
efforts, the process of international recognition of the Armenian
Genocide is continuing,” Sargsyan said at the 13th session of the
ruling Republican Party, which he leads.

Speaking about Armenian-Turkish relations, Sargsyan said the border
between the two countries is still closed.

“The developments have shown that the world can see that the only
obstacle to the establishment of relations between Armenia and Turkey
is in Ankara and in one more capital [apparently Azerbaijan]
interfering where it should not, but not in Yerevan,” he said.

Armenia’s foreign policy remains unchanged, Sargsyan said. “We will
continue to meticulously comply with our allied and international
obligations and use any opportunity to promote our national
interests,” he said.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
March 10, 2012 Saturday 08:31 PM GMT+4

Armenian president re-elected as Republican Party leader

YEREVAN March 10

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan was re-elected as the leader of the
Republican Party at its congress on Saturday, March 9.

“We are a national conservative party that advocates the exercise of
rights of each of us and the fulfilment of our aspirations. We believe
that our society should develop in conditions of free competition,”
Sargsyan said.

“But under no circumstances can free competition mean the advantage of
large capital and the possibility to use it for strangling and taking
over small competitors,” he said.

The president stressed that the main fortress that guarantees the
existence of the country is the family, “our traditional and
conservative family where the young respect and listen to the elders
and where the woman and mother is the pillar”.

Sargsyan said that Armenia’s policy is based on logical consistency,
clarity and initiative. “We have always been a responsible and
predictable member of the international community that fulfils its
international obligations with pride and diligence,” he said.

“But we also understand clearly that the world around us is not
static, that is it changing. It is necessary to show initiative all
the time in our complex region in order not to be forced to react [to
events] but in order to be a full member and contribute to the
development of the agenda for the region and the world,” the president
said.

As an example, he cited Armenia’s initiative aimed at normalising
relations with Turkey.

LOI DE PENALISATION-PRESSE
« Le boomerang arménien » « Marianne » du 3 au 9 mars 2012 (n° 776)

Dans son numéro 776 (du 3 au 9 mars), l’hebdomadaire « Marianne »
revient sur le rejet par le Conseil constitutionnel de la loi de
pénalisation du négationnisme du génocide arménien. Sous le titre « le
boomerang arménien » signé par Eric Conan, le journal écrit qu’après
ce rejet « la loi Gayssot de 1990 pénalisant la négation de
l’extermination des juifs n’est plus à l’abri d’une censure au nom de
la « liberté d’expression » ». Mais « Marianne » fait mine de ne pas
comprendre l’objet même de la Loi de pénalisation en écrivant que
cette dernière devait sanctionner « toute discussion sur le génocide
des Arméniens » ! Comme si cette loi devait interdire la liberté de
parole. Car la discussion sur le génocide des Arméniens était bien
évidemment permise par cette loi, mais la minimisation ou le rejet du
caractère génocidaire du génocide arménien qui devait être sanctionné.

Ci-dessous l’intégralité de l’article.

« Nicolas Sarkozy et François Hollande ne polémiqueront pas à propos
de la censure par le Conseil constitutionnel de la loi pénalisant
toute discussion sur le génocide des Arméniens, votée le 23 janvier.
C’est un camouflet pour les deux : ils avaient soutenu ce texte,
cédant à un clientélisme communautaire dénoncé dans leurs propres
camps. On peut s’inquiéter de cet aveuglement commun tant
l’inconstitutionnalité du texte était annoncée comme certaine par les
juristes, dont Robert Badinter, ancien président du Conseil
constitutionnel. Les juges ont auditionné les motifs d’annulation d’un
texte violant grossièrement, selon eux « le principe d’égalité », « le
principe de séparation des pouvoirs », « la liberté de recherche », «
la liberté d’expression et de communication » ainsi que « la portée
normative » de la loi. Anticonstitutionnelle, cette loi était inutile
et dangereuse. Aujourd’hui, elle dessert la cause qu’elle entendait
servir, son annulation renforçant l’Etat turc, qui l’exploite avec un
cynisme prévisible pour minimiser la tragédie arménienne. Et elle
relance la concurrence des mémoires. Plus question pour ceux qui n’ont
pas obtenu leur texte dédié d’y songer à l’avenir, cette décision
mettant un coup d’arrêt aux législations antérieurs, ka question reste
ouverte. La loi Gayssot de 1990 pénalisant la négation de
l’extermination des juifs n’est plus à l’abri d’une censure au nom de
la « liberté d’expression ». Coïncidence, le grand rabbin de France,
Gilles Bernheim, publie cette semaine un livre (N’oublions pas de
penser la France, Stock) dans lequel il dit ce qu’il pense de la loi
Gayssot : « Les conséquences de l’intervention du législateur sont
plus préjudiciables qu’utiles ».

Krikor Amirzayan

Marianne (n° 776) Le boomerang arméniendimanche 11 mars 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Cyprus News Agency
March 8 2012

Christofias: Cyprus Belongs to the Cypriots and to No One Else

Nicosia, Mar 8 (CNA) -Cyprus belongs to the Cypriots and to no one
else, President Demetris [Dimitrios] Christofias stressed Thursday
commenting on statements by Turkish Minister of EU Affairs and Chief
Negotiator Egemen Bagis statements about the possibility of
integrating Cyprus’ Turkish occupied areas to Turkey.

Addressing an event, organized in Nicosia on the occasion of the
International Women’s Day, Christofias underlined that the Greek
Cypriot side has shown good will for a settlement the soonest
possible, adding that this does not however mean that we will grant to
anyone the right to impose a settlement.

He said that a solution will be accepted only if is functional and
viable the settlement and it reunites the country, its people, the
institutions and the economy, and it must be based on the
international and the European law and must secure the human rights
and the fundamental freedoms of Cypriot citizens.

“It must be a settlement that will provide for a bizonal, bicommunal
federation with political equality as defined by the relevant UN
Security Council resolutions, with a single state, a single and
undivided sovereignty, a single personality and a single citizenship,”
he noted.

Christofias expressed regret and disappointment over the fact that
Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu have distanced
themselves from the fundamental principles of the Cyprus problem.

“They are also moving away from the convergences in various chapters
achieved in the framework of the current process of direct
negotiations. And not only this but also recently both Turkey and
Eroglu have been launching threats against us,” Christofias noted.

“It is unacceptable and conflicting to attend the negotiations,
discuss, and at the same time listen to Eroglu making threatening
statements which constitute a major provocation not only for our side
but also for the UN and the EU as well,” he stressed.

Christofias said the Turkish side most often refers to B plans for the
Cyprus problem, which consolidate division and the pseudo-state and
referred to Bagis’ statements about the possibility of integrating
Cyprus’ Turkish areas to Turkey.

He said these statements humiliate first of all the Turkish Cypriots
and sent the message to Bagis and all the Turkish leadership that
“Cyprus belongs to the Cypriots -Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots,
Armenians, Maronites and Latins and to no one else.”

Christofias said that with its arrogance Turkey is even threatening
the EU. “We firmly believe that the UN cannot follow this behaviour
with apathy. The Turkish behaviour constitutes a provocation and an
insult for the UN,” he noted.

Christofias also made clear once again, that the Greek Cypriot side
will not accept any time table and the convening of an international
conference on Cyprus if the preconditions set out by the UN in its
2002 UN resolution are not met.

He also noted that such a conference must be attended by the UN
Security Council permanent members, the guarantor powers, the European
Union, the Republic of Cyprus and the two communities to look into the
international aspects of the Cyprus problem.

Referring to the economy, Christofias said that the government has
taken since the beginning of the crisis measures aiming at boosting
the most important sectors of the economy as well as measures to
support the most vulnerable groups of the population.

The Cypriot President also expressed his conviction that the
forthcoming EU Cypriot Presidency will be successful noting that “we
will keep having our hand extended towards the Turkish Cypriot side,
despite the fact that there is no response so far.”

Referring to the International Women’s Day, Christofias expressed his
respect for all the women of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots,
Maronites, Armenians and Latins and noted that the promotion of
equality among men and women constitutes an indispensable part of the
effort for greater social cohesion, for a society in which every
citizen will enjoy his or her rights.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied
its northern third. The leaders of the two communities in Cyprus are
currently engaged in UN-led negotiations with an aim to reunify the
island.