Author: Kalantarian Kevo

WE DO NOT HAVE OIL, BUT WE DO HAVE MORE PRECIOUS RESOURCES – ARMENIAN PM

news.am
February 03, 2012 | 13:45

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s PM Tigran Sargsyan received Jonathan James Aves
and Catherine Jane Leach, Great Britain’s newly appointed ambassadors
to Armenia. They discussed Armenian-British relations.

Sargsyan noted that Armenia is interested in deepening relations with
Great Britain. “First and foremost, it is important for the British
diplomacy to secure a balanced approach in the region. We do not have
oil, but we do have more precious and important resources. Above all,
this is the human capital. That is why Information Technology is a
priority direction for us,” Armenia’s PM said, Governmental Press
Service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

He also noted that economic interests need to be discovered in Armenia
for British investors, and this would give new impetus to developing
bilateral relations.

In her turn, Ambassador Catherine Jane Leach expressed a conviction
that their activities would transfer the Armenian-British relations
to a new phase. The two ambassadors also noted that British companies
are interested in making investments in Armenia, specifically in the
mining industry and Information Technology.

The interlocutors also reflected on Armenia’s economic policy, as
well as bilateral cultural and Armenia-EU relations.

ILLEGAL TREE FELLING IN GARNI; 2.4 MILLION AMD IN DAMAGE

HETQ
12:50, February 3, 2012

On a tip from the Haynews.am news site regarding illegal tree felling
in the village of Garni, the Kotayk Regional Prosecutor directed
local police to investigate.

Cops discovered 77 cases of illegal felling and estimated the damage
to worth around 2.4 million AMD.

They have sent their findings to the Kotayk Investigative Unit
for review.

EU ACHIEVED LITTLE PROGRESS TOWARDS RESOLVING KARABAKH CONFLICT – REPORT

news.am
February 03, 2012 | 12:48

The European council on foreign relations issued European Foreign
Policy Scorecard assessing the EU’s performance on the global stage
across all 27 states.

The report says despite relatively unity, the EU has achieved little
progress towards resolving the Karabakh conflict.

“Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh continue to rise and there remains the risk of an
accidental war between them,” the report says.

“Compared to the conflicts in Transnistria or Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, the EU has even less leverage in discussions over the future
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. All member states support
peaceful resolution of the conflict, yet both they and the EU’s
institutions invest less time in this issue compared to the other
two protracted conflicts.

The EU as such is not present in the negotiating framework and is
represented by France in the OSCE’s Minsk Group, the key framework
for discussions about the conflict. France, which co-chairs the group
along with Russia and the US, is not willing to give up its seat for
a formal EU representative.

As a result, while EU member states agree in their assessments of
the conflict, they remain largely absent from the negotiations. In
2011, the Minsk Group met no less than six times. But it was Russia
that continued to play the principal role in negotiations about the
conflict settlement. The EU restricted itself to supporting Moscow’s
initiative to reach a breakthrough in negotiations via a separate
track outside the group.

However, although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met the leaders
of Armenia and Azerbaijan in February, March and June, the meetings
yielded no progress.

The agreement on the basic framework of the future political settlement
of the conflict – the so-called Madrid Principles – remains on paper
only. Both the EU and member states in general seem determined the
isolate the Nagorno-Karabakh issue from their relations with both
Armenia and Azerbaijan. For example, they did not make discussion
with the two countries on issues such as energy or trade conditional
on progress on Nagorno-Karabakh. The EU has also failed to engage
meaningfully with the other two key players, Turkey and Russia.”

SCHIFF, BERMAN DISCUSS JAVAKHK WITH SAAKASHVILI

asbarez
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Rep. Adam Schiff

Rep. Howard Berman
WASHINGTON-Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), lead sponsor of the Armenian
Genocide resolution, and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), ranking member
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Georgian president,
Mikheil Saakashvili, Thursday to discuss the bilateral relationship
between the United States and Georgia and to ask the president to
focus more attention on the Armenian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti,
which borders the Republic of Armenia.

Economic opportunity, education, and development in Samtskhe-Javakheti
have lagged behind that of predominantly Georgian areas of the country.

During the meeting in the U.S. Capitol, President Saakashvili expressed
a willingness to work with Schiff and Berman to direct more resources
to Samtskhe-Javakheti and said that he would fully support additional
American assistance to the region.

“I was very pleased with the discussion we had with President
Saakashvili,” Schiff said. “He was unhesitating in expressing support
when we asked for additional efforts to aid Armenian-Georgians.”

“I will continue to fight for the fair treatment and equal rights
for the ethnic Armenian community in Georgia,” said Howard Berman,
the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a
longtime champion of Armenian causes.

President Saakashvili has been in Washington for several days meeting
with a variety of senior American officials, including President Obama,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and congressional leaders.

An ongoing dialogue between the Armenian National Committee
of America and the Georgian government-both in Tbilisi and via
Georgia’s Ambassador in Washington-is exploring ways to expand the
Georgian-Armenian partnership to include broader direct Georgian and
Armenian investments and also increased U.S. assistance to promote
job-creation in the Armenian-populated Samtskhe-Javakheti (Javakhk)
region of Georgia.

“The Embassy of Georgia, in support of our government’s material
commitment to economic development for our citizens in the
Samtskhe-Javakheti region and throughout all of our Republic,
looks forward to working with our friends in the U.S. Congress
and the Administration and with all American civil society
stakeholders – including, of course, with the Armenian American
community – in encouraging the targeting of U.S. assistance to meet
Samtskhe-Javakheti’s urgent job-creation, infrastructure, technical,
and humanitarian needs,” stated Georgia Ambassador to the U.S. Temuri
Yakobashvili.

“We look forward, in cooperation with Ambassador Yakobashvili and
Georgian government officials, to broadening the longstanding ties
that have existed between the Georgian and Armenian peoples through
greater Georgian government investment in the economic development of
Samtskhe-Javakheti and by collectively supporting a robust U.S. aid
package for Georgia that includes targeted assistance to this heavily
Armenian populated region,” stated ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.

ANCA has worked closely with members of Congress, USAID and others
in the administration to explore U.S. assistance opportunities in
Javakhk, including public-private partnerships, which would offer
material incentives for broader international investment in the region.

TAUX DE NATALITE EN BAISSE EN ARMENIE
Gari

armenews.com
vendredi 3 fevrier 2012

Le nombre des baisses a diminue de manière considerable en Armenie
en 2011 et ce en depit de l’augmentation du nombre des mariages,
selon le dernier rapport sur la situation demographique du pays rendu
public par le Service national des statistiques (NSS) le mercredi
1er fevrier. L’etude montre que le pays a enregistre quelque 43 447
naissances l’an dernier, soit une baisse de 3 % par rapport a 2010.

Mais cette annee la, le nombre des mariages avait diminue de 4%. Dans
le meme temps, indique Karine Kuyumjian, directrice du departement de
la demographie au NSS, le nombre de jeunes couples maries a augmente de
10 %, soit 20 000 mariages en 2011. La procreation hors mariage n’etant
pas encore entree dans les moeurs en Armenie, on peut s’attendre a
ce que le taux de natalite soit plus eleve en 2012. IL n’en reste
pas moins que le nombre des naissances est considerablement plus
limite que durant la periode sovietique. Il a chute depuis le debut
des annees 1990, en raison des difficultes economiques persistantes
qui n’encouragent guère les familles nombreuses et qui ont pousse
des centaines de milliers d’Armeniens a emigrer, accroissant ainsi
le deficit demographique. Les chiffres officiels publies indiquent
que les Armeniens restent tentes par l’emigration, le nombre total
des Armenians se rendant a l’etranger par la route ou par la voie
des airs etant plus important que celui des Armeniens entrant dans
le pays : on comptait ainsi en 2011 49 000 departs de plus que
d’arrivees. Pourtant, Mme Kuyumjian affirme que la population de
l’Armenie a augmente de quelque 12 000 habitants pour atteindre le
chiffre de 3,27 millions. “Le passage des frontières ne saurait servir
de paramètre pour evaluer le chiffre de la population residant de
manière permanente dans le pays “, a-t-elle declare aux journalistes.

Un optimisme qui n’est pas partage par l’opposition non plus que par
certains demographes selon lesquels les chiffres de la population
presentes par le gouvernement seraient deliberement reevalues a la
hausse. “Je note une tendance a interpreter les chiffres de sorte
qu’ils s’accordent le plus possible aux normes souhaitees par le
gouvernement”, a ainsi commente Hranush Kharatian, sociologue de renom.

TURQUIE : LA MORT D’UN SOLDAT TURC D’ORIGINE ARMENIENNE EST UN CRIME RACISTE
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 3 fevrier 2012

Un temoin oculaire clef a change son temoignage dans le procès sur
le decès de Sevag Sahin Balikci confirmant les soupcons sur la mort
du jeune conscrit d’origine armenienne tue le 24 avril dernier, jour
de commemoration du genocide. Cette mort, comme nous le pressentions,
pourrait etre davantage qu’un simple accident comme voulait le laisser
croire la hierarchie mililtaire turque.

Selon ce temoin denomme Halil Eksi, aujourd’hui libere de ses
obligations militaire, la scène s’est passee comme suit : ” Tandis
que nous tirions des fils de fer barbele le jour de l’incident, Kivanc
Agaoglu a charge son arme et l’a dirige sur Sevag et a appuye sur la
detente “. Ce temoignage, qui decrit un meurtre commis de sang froid
a ete apporte devant le Tribunal militaire du second Commandement de
l’Armee de l’air qui s’est recemment reuni. Et il pourrait relancer
cette affaire, que les autorites turques se sont evertuees a faire
passer pour un simple accident, le racisme anti-armenien en Turquie
etant comme on le sait une vue de l’esprit.

La famille du defunt va deposer une nouvelle plainte contre le tueur,
Kivanc Agaoglu et envisage egalement de saisir la cour europeenne
des droits de l’homme.

JERUSALEM’S ARMENIANS OUTRAGED AS CITY APPROVES JEWS-ONLY PARKING LOT IN OLD CITY
By Nir Hasson

Ha’aretz

Feb 3 2012
Israel

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter
residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian
neighbors.

Armenian residents of Jerusalem’s Old City are protesting a municipal
decision to designate a parking lot in the area solely for Jews,
although part of it stands on land belonging to the Armenian
Patriarchate.

Parking is a major problem in the Old City, and some residents of
the Jewish Quarter claim it is one reason secular families have been
moving out. One of the parking lots serving this quarter is adjacent
to the Armenian Quarter and is partially built on land owned by the
Patriarchate, though the land has been leased by the Jewish Quarter
Development Company since the 1970s.

For decades, the parking lot was open to all, though Jewish Quarter
residents paid far less for a parking sticker than their Armenian
neighbors. But around two years ago, Armenians were forbidden to
park there.

“One day I came home from work and the lot was closed,” said Mussa
Marizian, an Armenian Quarter resident whose windows overlook the
parking lot. “The quarter’s management decided we shouldn’t park
there; they just got rid of us. Jews who live in the Muslim Quarter
are allowed to park there, but I, who live right on top of the parking
lot, am not allowed.”

The development company subsequently asked the municipality for a
waiver to enable the lot to be permanently used for parking, even
though it is zoned as open public land under Jerusalem’s master plan
of 1978.

On Thursday, the city’s planning and building committee approved
the waiver, over the protests of both Armenian residents and the
Patriarchate’s representative, attorney Mazen Qupty, who argued that
most of the land was owned by the church.

“It was hard to hear the very inconsiderate arguments made by the
people of the Jewish Quarter about the needs of their Armenian
neighbors,” said Yosef “Pepe” Alalu, the Meretz deputy mayor, who
voted against the waiver. “How can it be that the parking lot used
to be open to all but now Armenians cannot enter?”

The Jerusalem Development Company said that less that 10 percent of
the parking lot’s land was leased from the Patriarchate, and that
the lease was for 99 years.

“The Armenians have a roomy parking lot 150 meters from that spot,”
the company said. “The request for exceptional use was a procedural
issue to renew the parking lot’s operating license and the objections
were legally rejected.”

SEVAG TOROSSIAN : LA PROPHETIE D’ARARAT : MON AVIS

France-Jeunes

2 fev 2012

Pour les fans de thrillers esoteriques, je viens de decouvrir un petit
bijou qui promet de faire un gros carton : “La prophetie d’Ararat”,
de Sevag Torossian, publie par un editeur que je ne connaissais pas
du tout (Papier Libre)…

Je suis tombe dessus vraiment par hasard : ils ont eu la bonne idee
de mettre un teaser sur Youtube, ce qui est encore rare en France
pour promouvoir les romans.

“Dieu a un plan que meme les religions ne connaissent pas”.

Ararat, l’ultime bataille. L’echiquier avait bien evolue depuis les
conquetes successives et le demantèlement des empires. Et voila qu’une
vieille histoire de l’humanite allait gifler le XXIème siècle sur les
restes d’une epave en bois retrouvee sur une montagne, qui faisait
desormais trembler rationalistes et conseillers d’Etat.

Que pouvais-je y faire ? Qu’un avocat ait un contrat sur la
tete n’etait pas une première. Vu la gueule de ma clientèle, mon
enterrement ne se ferait pas sans commerages du genre “Il l’a bien
cherche”. Mais personne ne saurait la verite. Que j’avais accepte de
rentrer dans une histoire delirante où militaires, hommes de pouvoirs
et fanatiques religieux jouaient une macabre partie d’echecs avec
l’humanite. Pourquoi voulaient-ils me tuer ?

Thriller esoterique, La prophetie d’Ararat retrace, sur fond de
tensions apocalyptiques, la quete de Marc Aram, sulfureux avocat
parisien, amene aux frontières de l’Armenie pour chapeauter une
transaction proprement loufoque : acheter Ararat, la mythique montagne
de Noe…

Mon avis sur La prophetie d’Ararat

D’abord : bien ecrit-bien foutu. Une histoire delirante, un bon
suspense accrocheur, avec une idee de depart inedite : acheter
une montagne… Et pas n’importe laquelle puisqu’Ararat, frontière
entre l’Occident et l’Orient, relève d’un enjeu a la fois biblique
et geopolitique. C’est a la fois un voyage physique (entre Paris
et Erevan) et un voyage interieur, une quete initiatique ecrite a
la première personne (j’adore), qui place le lecteur dans la tete
de cet avocat parisien, franchement fumeux, charge de chapeauter
la transaction.

Ensuite, j’ai appris plein de choses. En fait, a chaque page et
presque l’air de rien. Il y a des connaissances visibles et des
connaissances invisibles dans ce livre. Celles qu’on ne voit pas
de prime abord, et qui sont deja nees quelques pages auparavant,
“en loucede”. Le voyage en Armenie est très original – d’habitude,
on a droit aux eternels classiques comme New York, l’Amerique latine
ou, au mieux, les tresors caches de l’Egypte. Dans “La prophetie
d’Ararat”, on decouvre un visage inconnu de l’Armenie, terre de Noe,
du deluge et du jardin d’Eden, berceau de l’humanite. Il y a aussi une
approche rationnelle et comprehensible de l’apocalypse, qui contraste
avec les cliches de la fin du monde en 2012. Voila un bon thriller,
bien ficele, facile a lire et a relire plusieurs fois.

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : NOUVEAU TEXTE EN CAS DE CENSURE

Le Figaro

1 Fev 2012
France

Nicolas Sarkozy deposera “tout de suite” un nouveau texte si la loi
penalisant la negation du genocide armenien est censuree par les
Sages du Conseil constitutionnel.

Nicolas Sarkozy ne s’avoue pas vaincu. Le president francais deposera
“tout de suite” un nouveau texte si la loi penalisant la negation
du genocide armenien est censuree par le Conseil constitutionnel,
a-t-il affirme mercredi en Conseil des ministres, selon un membre
du gouvernement. Cent-quarante et un elus ont en effet saisi mardi
les Sages contre le texte definitivement adopte par le Parlement le
23 janvier.

D’après une autre personne presente, le chef de l’Etat a reproche
aux ministres recalcitrants vis-a-vis de cette loi de “ne pas voir
plus loin que le bout de leur nez”, soulignant le fait que certains
pourraient tirer profit de la censure des Sages pour presenter une
Question prioritaire de constitutionnalite afin de remettre en cause
la loi penalisant la negation de la Shoah, seul genocide dont la
negation est aujourd’hui punie par la loi francaise. Deux ministres ont
exprime des reserves sur la loi sur le genocide armenien: Alain Juppe,
qui la juge “inopportune” et craint qu’elle n’entrave les relations
franco-turques, et Bruno Le Maire, parce qu’il n’est “pas favorable
par principe aux lois memorielles”.

Le Conseil constitutionnel peut censurer une loi qu’il juge contraire
a la Constitution, s’il est saisi par 60 deputes, 60 senateurs, le
chef de l’Etat, le president de l’Assemblee nationale ou celui du
Senat. Il doit statuer dans un delai d’un mois. Mais deux deputes
UMP, Eric Straumann et Jean-Philippe Maurer, ont demande mardi au
gouvernement “la mise en oeuvre de la procedure acceleree” afin que
le Conseil puisse statuer dans un delai de sept jours.

Avant meme cette annonce, le premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip
Erdogan a denonce mercredi une montee de l’islamophobie et du racisme
en Europe, affirmant que le vote en France d’une telle loi constituait
la “manifestation grave d’un danger insidieux en Europe”. Il avait
salue la veille la saisine du Conseil constitutionnel.

Depuis le vote de la loi, de nombreuses voix s’elèvent contre elle.

Consideree comme electoraliste, decriee par les historiens, elle
a declenche une vague de boycott en Turquie, qui met a mal les
entreprises francaises presentes sur ce marche de 77 millions
d’habitants, a la croissance de 7,5% en 2011.

AZERBAIJANI AMBASSADOR: ARMENIANS TRY TO REPRESENT KARABAKH CONFLICT AS RELIGIOUS TO EUROPE

Trend
Feb 1 2012
Azerbaijan

Russia has recently proved that it wants the OSCE Minsk group to
promote the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict, the Azerbaijani ambassador to Italy Vagif Sadikhov said in
an interview with the Italian Limes newspaper.

“Russian presidents have organised over 10 meetings between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents over the years. Unfortunately,
the Minsk group has worked since 1994 but hasn’t achieved any tangible
results,” inosmi.ru website quotes Mr Sadikhov as saying.

It should be remembered that the Armenian army occupies 20 per cent
of the Azerbaijani territories, the ambassador said.

“As a result of the aggression, ethnic cleansing took place in
Armenia where 250,000 Azerbaijanis, who had lived there for centuries
were forcibly driven out. Thus, it is possible to consider Armenia
a monoethnic state. On the other hand about 30,000 Armenians and
many interethnic Azerbaijani-Armenian families live in Baku,” Mr
Sadikhov said.

“Ethnic cleansing and expatriation of Azerbaijanis living in the
Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia, became the
second stage. The matter is that 70,000 people are forcibly displaced
persons, ” he said.

Occupation of seven provinces around Nagorno Karabakh is the third
element of Armenian aggression.

“These people also became victims of aggression and deportation. Thus,
we have 250,000 people deported from Armenia, 70,000 from Nagorno
Karabakh and 700,000 from surrounding provinces. In total there are
about one million refugees and displaced persons,” the diplomat said.

Mr Sadikhov said the situation hasn’t changed since 1994 and this one
of the outrageous violations of human rights when there are four UNSC
resolutions on the issue.

“It is very important that all people should know about it because
our Armenian opponents try to represent this conflict in Europe and
in Italy in particular as one between small Christian Armenia and
large Muslim states, namely Azerbaijan and Turkey.

However among the victims killed by Armenians in Azerbaijan there
were not only Muslim Azerbaijanis but also Jews and Orthodox Russians.

Therefore, there has never been a religious component in the conflict.

Armenians try to represent the conflict in this way but in fact and
our position is very clear on this issue. The matter is a classic
conflict, based on the territorial claims of one state to other,”
the ambassador stressed.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France, and the U.S are
currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.