Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARTAK SHABOYAN DID NOT CONVINCE KHACHATUR KOKOBELYAN (VIDEO)

14:00 | March 25,2015 | Politics

The National Assembly is discussing today the 2015 program of the
State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC).

Addressing SCPEC Chairman Artak Shaboyan, Armenian lawmaker Khachatur
Kokobelyan said the agency Shaboyan heads is responsible for ensuring
competition and detecting anti- competitive agreements and deals.

“Have you ever been able to identify such a deal and, if so, what
methods did you apply? For example, everyone knows that the Electric
Networks of Armenia CJSC enjoys monopoly in the sector and we see its
deplorable condition. Have you ever studied the railroad transport
industry?” said Khachatur Kokobelyan.

In reply, Mr Shaboyan said they had detected numerous cases of
anti-competitive agreements, particularly in the social sector. “In
the result of such agreements, economic entities participated in
government tenders announced for orphanages and nursing homes, and
won them. We have subjected them to strict liability and taken them
to court,” he said.

At least 100 cases have been identified in medical institutions.

“Companies make anti-competitive agreements. Now we are studying the
construction industry and we shall present the results as soon as they
are ready. There is monopoly in the railway sector and the Electric
Networks of Armenia CJSC enjoys a government-granted monopoly and the
sphere is regulated by the Public Services Regulatory Commission. Last
year a group of citizens complained of the CJSC saying the latter
abused its monopolistic position and showed a discriminatory treatment
to them, violating the rights of consumers. We imposed a fine on them
in the amount of 20 mln drams,” said Artak Shaboyan.

Displeased with the answer, Mr Kobobelyan announced that the SCPEC
Chairman did not provide convincing arguments to prove that the SCPEC
works efficiently.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN ON MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT AND HERITAGE MEMBERS

16:39 25/03/2015 >> POLITICS

Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian says the March 12 meeting of
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan with Heritage Party representatives
Ruben Hakobyan and Armen Martirosyan as part of the constitutional
reform process was an “informal intra-party consultation” between the
Republican Party of Armenia chairman and two of Heritage board members.

At a meeting with reporters, Mr Hovannisian said that he himself would
not participate in such a meeting. He noted that he did not receive
an invitation from President Sargsyan and this proves that this was an
“informal intra-party meeting.”

Hovannisian added that Heritage is against the constitutional reform
and it presented its position earlier.

Source: Panorama.am

A L’APPROCHE DU 24 AVRIL, L’AZERBAIDJAN INTENSIFIERA SES OPERATIONS DE PROVOCATION SELON KOMMANDOS

ARMEEE ARMENIENNE

Arkady Der-Tatevosian appele Kommandos, le heros de la guerre
de liberation du Haut Karabagh a lors d’une conference de presse
mardi 24 mars a Erevan, affirme que l’Azerbaïdjan intensifierait ses
provocations a la frontière armeno-azerie. Selon A. Der-Tatevosian,
le commandement militaire de l’armee armenienne sait qu’en cette annee
de commemoration du 100ème anniversaire du genocide des Armeniens
l’ennemi va redoubler ses operations de sabotages.

ARMENIAN CONDEMNS THE GENOCIDE OF ASSYRIANS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

13:03, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Armenian National Assembly unanimously adopted a statement on
Condemning the Genocide against Greeks and Assyrians in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915-1923.

The Armenian MPs may refer to another genocide in the near future.

After yesterday’s debates at the National Assembly, representatives
of the Yezidi community have applied to lawmakers with a request to
condemn the genocide against Yezidis in the same Ottoman Empire.

The Prosperous Armenia Party is going to initiate a discussion on
this, head of the PAP faction Naira Zohrabyan said. Speaker of the
National Assembly does not mind.

ICH BIN EIN ARMENIER

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

Selon l’hebdomadaire l’Express Edgar Hilsenrath sera present a Paris
a l’occasion du centenaire du genocide des Armeniens. “Il a 88 ans
mais il fera le deplacement a Paris a l’occasion de la commemoration
du centenaire du genocide armenien prevue le 24 avril. L’allemand
Edgar Hilsenrath, rescape de la Shoah, est en effet celebre par la
communaute armenienne pour avoir ecrit en 1989 le Conte de la dernière
pensee, hommage puissant aux victimes du genocide de 1915, aujourd’hui
reedite par la Tripode. Une grande exposition, une soiree a la Maison
de la poesie (Paris III ème)et diverses lectures ponctueront le sejour
parisien du 20 au 25 avril de l’auteur du Nazi et le Barbier”

mardi 24 mars 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

HOW WILL PUTIN RESPOND TO SERZH SARGSYAN

March 24 2015

Serge Sargsyan’s statement regarding the sale of weapons to
Azerbaijan by Russia hours before leaving for Brussels to the
European People’s Party Summit was described as sensational. While,
the issue of selling weapons to Azerbaijan by Russia was raised by the
government authorities last year at different levels, and, basically,
Serzh Sargsyan’s statement is not new, this is already the fourth
statements of such kind by the government authorities of Armenia. So,
at the international media forum called “At the Foot of Mount Ararat”,
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, in response to the question of
a journalist from Moscow regarding the selling of weapons by Russia
to Armenia’s EaEU membership and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicting
parties, noted, “Since the establishment of the Armed Forces of the
Republic od Armenia, we are grateful and thankful to our ally for
assistance. Of course, in these relations, we are concerned about
Russia’s selling weapons to Azerbaijan out of different reasons and
rationale, and the problem here is not the quality of armament. The
problem is that an Armenian fellow standing on our border or on the
line of contact realizes that they try to destroy him with Russian
weapons. This is the hardest thing, and this is what might have a
negative influence on our relations. For a long time, during 250
years, the Armenians and Russians have been living side by side,
had common enemies, foes, and have not fired at each other from
guns produced in their country. This is an issue, a problem, and
this problem must be resolved.” A few days ago, Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian, in his interview to Slovenian
daily, addressing the Karabakh settlement issue, said, “We would
prefer that Russia not to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. We’re not
asking our friendly countries, partner countries to do something for
Armenia against somebody else. What we are expecting concretely on
Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not to support one side against the other,
just to be in line with the position of the international community,
expressed by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. And Russia is
one of the three Co-Chairs.” First, it is not clear here why we do
not ask or suggest our friend, partner, moreover ally countries to do
something for Armenia something against somebody else, for example,
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan conducts consistent work against Armenia at all
international structures and with many countries and often achieves
success. Recall assassin Safarov’s extradition, now Azerbaijan has
joined the extradition of Azerbaijanis Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz
Guliyev convicted imprisonment in Nagorno-Karabakh, and one gets the
impression that official Baku is working with the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs countries in this direction. Let’s go back, however, to
the Armenian-Russian relations. The TA government authorities cannot
revise their decision and raise the issue of termination of Armenia’s
membership to the EaEU. This is simple. Or, at least at this stage
it is not realistic to expect. The RA government authorities perhaps
yet have considered that they had made a right decision, moreover, it
is clear that it was a political decision rather than an imperative
dictated by economic convenience and expediency. If this structure
is established, yet only after then we can create bases to study the
possibilities of Armenia’s integration development under the Eurasian
framework. Armenia, however, can revise the situation in the co-
relationships with Russia by running a more sensitive policy for the
benefit of Armenia. This does not require constant public speeches
and remarks. On the contrary, Armenian government has a lot to do in
the diplomatic arena, which should not always be visible to the public.

The outcome of the work completed is preferable to be visible. Given
the fact that since last year Armenian government authorities are
publicly voicing the fact of selling weapons to Azerbaijan by Russia
and are expressing their concern, one can conclude that they do not
raise this issue to the Russian side behind the scenes and prefer to
be limited with only public messages. This can even be considered an
alarm by the RA government authorities, which hardly be welcomed in
Moscow. In his interview with Clarin newspaper in Buenos Aires, last
summer, Serzh Sargsyan for the first time publicly complained about
Russia’s selling arms to Azerbaijan. “It is a very painful subject
and our people are worried that our strategic ally sells weapons
to Azerbaijan.” While, in the last fall, referring to Russia’s arms
sales to Azerbaijan, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said,
“Supplying the enemy with ammunition is always at the core of our
attention, and we express our concerns in all instances.” The subject
of supplying Azerbaijan with ammunition has always been raised
in different instances and when working with the international
organizations, however, the level of Armenian-Russian “strategic”
relations suggests a more specific solution to this issue. Russia
is an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country with the United States and
France, it implements a mission aimed at achieving peace through
Karabakh talks and reconciliation of the parties. But Russia does
exactly the opposite. Selling weapons to Azerbaijan, Russia pushes a
military solution, or at least its propaganda. Indeed, it is clear
to everyone that if Russia does not sell weapons to Azerbaijan,
Aliyev would purchase it from other countries to show his country
citizens how “patriotic” he is and where the money goes. But aren’t the
Armenian-Russian “strategic” relations worthy for Russia not to sell
weapons to Aliyev, like the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing United States
and France do not do it. Armenia joined the EaEU perhaps taking the
security guarantees given by Russia as a base and refused signing the
EU Association Agreement. Armenia’s and Nagorno-Karabakh’s security
has not been improved, but also our opponent country has become
more uncontrolled and cynical. Official Moscow has not responded
to Serzh Sargsyan’s already two, RA Defense Minister’s months ago,
as well as RA Foreign Minister’s quite transparent and unambiguous
statements of Russia’s selling weapons to Azerbaijan. As they say,
the ball is with the Russian side.

Emma GABRIELYAN

Read more at:

NAGORNO KARABAJ, UNA REPUBLICA RECONOCIDA EN EL CAUCASO

Diario Jornada
23 marzo 2015, Argentina

A mas de 20 años de la tregua que puso fin a la guerra de Armenia y
Azerbaiyan por Nagorno Karabaj, este territorio del pelea para ser
reconocido como un país independiente .

A mas de 20 años de la tregua que puso fin a la guerra de Armenia y
Azerbaiyan por Nagorno Karabaj, este territorio del Caucaso equivalente
a la mitad de Tucuman, pero con apenas un decimo de su poblacion,
pelea para ser reconocido como un país independiente pese a que se
define como parte de la nacion armenia, habla armenio, usa la moneda
armenia y se financia en gran parte por las arcas vecinas de Erevan.

Las coincidencias no terminan allí. La declarada República de Nagorno
Karabaj tiene la misma bandera que Armenia, excepto por una pequeña
guarda blanca que la divide en el costado derecho.

Según explican en el gobierno, el quiebre representa la division
entre Armenia y Nagorno Karabaj y el color blanco permite “soñar”
que esa brecha podra algún día ser superada.

Este pequeño territorio del Caucaso, la region que se encuentra entre
el suroeste de Rusia, el noreste de Turquía y el noroeste de Iran,
tiene unos paisajes y una herencia cultural cristiana cautivantes, pero
no es rico en recursos naturales ni clave para la geopolítica mundial.

Sin embargo, desde finales de los años ochenta se convirtio en una
zona de tension y violencia, que desemboco en una guerra que provoco
alrededor de 30.000 muertos, alrededor de un millon de refugiados y
desplazados, la mayoría de ellos azeríes, y un debil cese del fuego,
que hasta el día de hoy sigue siendo violado.

El origen contemporaneo del conflicto se ubica en el año 1988, cuando
en Armenia y Nagorno Karabaj surge un movimiento político que reclama
la “reunificacion” de estos dos territorios.

Por entonces, toda esa region era parte de la Union Sovietica. Armenia
era una República de la URSS, mientras que Nagorno Karabaj era un
oblast -una suerte de provincia- en la vecina República sovietica
de Azerbaiyan.

En 1921, Joseph Stalin decidio que Nagorno Karabaj debía estar
dentro de Azerbaiyan y no de Armenia, pese a que la mayoría de la
poblacion eran armenios, y por eso cuando se acercaba el fin de la
URSS y los países satelites comenzaron a reclamar su independencia,
el sentimiento nacionalista pan armenio revivio.

Desde 1991, cuando Armenia y Nagorno Kabaraj declararon sus
independencias hasta la firma del cese del fuego en 1994, la guerra
devasto a este territorio que toma su nombre del ruso, el turco y
el persa.

Nagorno significa montañoso en ruso, Kara es negro en turco y baj,
jardín en persa.

Los armenios solo utilizan este nombre a veces cuando hablan con
extranjeros. Para ellos, esa “tierra santa”, como la define el propio
gobierno de Nagorno Karabagh, se llama Artsaj, como la decima provincia
del antiguo reino de Armenia durante la Edad Media.

Baku, en cambio, sostiene que la URSS incluyo a Nagorno Karabaj en su
República socialista porque esas eran tierras historicas musulmanes
azeríes y que los cristianos armenios recien se volvieron una mayoría
en los últimos tres siglos.

Dentro de Azerbaiyan, la fuerza del reclamo tambien se centra en
recordar que en el momento de su independencia el país perdio cerca
del 20% de su territorio y que mas de 800.000 azeríes tuvieron que
abandonar sus hogares y aún viven como refugiados o desplazados.

La herida nacionalista aún sigue bien patente en toda la sociedad.

Tras el cese al fuego de 1994y pese a los reclamos de la ONU, Armenia
ocupo militarmente parte del territorio que pertenecía a Azerbaiyan y
se garantizo una contiguidad territorial con Nagorno Karabaj, que con
la ayuda financiera y militar de Erevan empezo a construir un Estado.

Ningún país, excepto Armenia, lo ha reconocido hasta ahora.

PARLIAMENT OF CYPRUS HAS DRAFTED A BILL CRIMINALIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

21:10, 23 March, 2015

YEREVAN, 23 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The political parties of the Republic
of Cyprus have drafted a bill criminalizing non-recognition or denial
of the Armenian Genocide.

As “Armenpress” reports, citing the Turkish Hurriyet, the bill jointly
submitted by all the political parties represented in the Parliament
of Cyprus envisages penalties for those who fail to recognize genocide,
war crimes and the crimes against humanity.

It is mentioned that it is proposed to pass the bill on the occasion
of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The Republic of Cyprus has
recognized the Armenian Genocide. It is assumed that the Parliament
of Cyprus will include the bill in the agenda this week.

Currently, 22 countries and several international organizations have
recognized the Armenian Genocide.

However, as in the past, Turkey denies the mass killings of the
Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during WWI (nearly 2 million
Armenians were living in the Ottoman Empire prior to WWI, nearly 1.5
million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923, the remaining
500,000 Armenians became dispersed across the globe).

The Parliaments of Greece, Switzerland and Slovakia have passed bills
criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

ARMECONOMBANK RAISES ITS REGULATORY CAPITAL BY 1.2 BILLION DRAMS

23.03.2015 17:22

YEREVAN, March 23. / ARKA /. Armenian Armeconombank said today it has
channeled part of its long-term subordinated loan into replenishing
its regulatory capital by 1.2 billion drams. The main shareholder of
Armeconombank, Eduard Sukiasyan, replenished the regulatory capital
on March 20.

The bank said it will use the replenished capital for lending to
local companies and individual borrowers.

Armeconombank was registered in 1991. Its shareholders are EBRD -20%,
Saribek Sukiasyan – 22.6%, Khachatur Sukiasyan – 19.5% and Robert
Sukiasyan – 15.3%.

The bank’s assets at the end of 2014 stood at 91.9 billion drams, a
24% rise from the beginning of the year. Its liabilities surged by 28%
to 80.8 billion drams; the capital increased by 0.7% to 11.1 billion
drams and its net profits grew by 23.6% to 886 million drams. ($ 1 –
478.36 drams).

CHICAGO ARTIST MARKS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WITH GUERNICA-SIZE WORK

09:45, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

One hundred years after the mass killing of Armenians, a Chicago
artist has created a monumental painting to honor the victims and
celebrate a culture that nearly vanished, Reuters reports.

The 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman troops left up to an
estimated 1.5 million people dead and forced the exile of millions
more, threatening a 3,000-year-old culture rich in architecture,
literature, music and dance. It is widely seen as the 20th century’s
first genocide.

Seeking to promote awareness of the culture and the tragedy,
Chicago-based artist Jackie Kazarian embarked on a painting of
enormous scale, called Project 1915, to be displayed for the first
time in Chicago’s Mana Contemporary from April 17 to May 29.

Project 1915 is a semi-abstract landscape splashed with bold images
and text from ancient Armenian maps and church architecture, united
by a pattern of needle lace by Kazarian’s Armenian-born grandmother
and with colors and symbols from illuminated manuscripts.

Kazarian, who has Armenian roots, drew on Pablo Picasso’s epic painting
Guernica, which depicts the horror of a northern Spanish village’s
bombing during Spain’s civil war, for her painting.

It is the exact same size as Guernica at 11.5 feet by 26 feet.

“No one would have known what happened in Guernica if it wasn’t for
that painting,” Kazarian said.

The nature and scale of the killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces
during World War One remain highly contentious.

While a number of countries define the massacres as genocide and
while Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting,
the Turkish government denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and
that this was an act of genocide.

Last year Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan made unprecedented
condolences to the grandchildren of Armenians killed at the time, but
the legacy remains an obstacle to reviving frozen relations between
Turkey and neighboring Armenia, a small former Soviet territory.

In Kazarian’s paintings, two open hands span the bottom corners,
as if holding up the work and an entire culture. It is a gesture
Kazarian said she remembers her grandmother often using.

“This is a very visceral, emotional project. But like any art that
references a painful past, it is about remembering, healing and
educating ourselves to make a better world,” Kazarian said.

After its Chicago exhibition the non-profit painting will travel to
universities and galleries across the United States and the world
before it is donated to a cultural institution for a permanent home.