Author: Kalantarian Kevo

BARONS OF SARKOZY’S PARTY AGAINST LEGAL BAN ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

news.am
Nov 10 2011
Armenia

PARIS. – President of France Nicolas Sarkozy defended criminalization
of the denial of Armenian Genocide during the latest breakfast of
parliamentary majority, reports French Marianne2.

The law for Recognition of the Genocide was adopted in 2001. The draft
banning the denial of it was brought to the Senate by the Socialists
and awaits a discussion session.

According to French newspaper, the Government has always been against
adoption of this draft, considering the existing legislative arsenal
quite sufficient. The Barons the Union for a Popular Movement invited
by Sarkozy mentioned that this initiative could harm relations with
Turkey, which is a large market for French companies, and even with
Germany, who has a dense Turkish community.

The leaders of the majority believe that any attempts to seduce
Armenians in France will prove useless, since this electorate mostly
favors Sarkozy’s opponent Francois Hollande.

MOLDOVA TO COMPLETE ARMS DEAL WITH ARMENIA

Vestnik Kavkaza

Nov 10 2011
Russia

Despite the string of scandals, the leadership of the Republic of
Moldova intends to transfer to the Armenia the remaining part of the
ammunition and weapons under an arms deal. This was announced after the
hearings of the parliamentary commission on national security, defense
and public order by Defense Minister Vitaly Marinuta, writes Moldnews.

He noted that during the meeting of the parliamentary committee he
urged the deputies to be look at he facts and legal documents and not
the messages of the media. However, he expressed confidence that the
deal to sell the Moldovan arms will be brought to the end, because
“there is no legal instrument that would prohibit it.”

“I hope that as soon as possible the execution of the contract will be
continued. This contract does not have suspicious points and I think we
should bring it to the end”, Vitaly Marinuta said to the journalists.

The unfolding scandal has provoked big discussions in Moldovan
political circles, because of the fear that the scandal could become
an obstacle to the Moldovan cooperation with Azerbaijan within the
framework of GUAM.

REP. SHELLEY BERKLEY OPPOSES ARMS SALE TO TURKEY
By Karoun Demirjian

Las Vegas Sun

Nov 9 2011
NV

She’s done it before, with Saudi Arabia. This time, Rep. Shelley
Berkley doesn’t want another Israel-antagonist, Turkey, to be allowed
to buy U.S. military materiel.

Berkley is co-sponsoring a resolution to block the proposed sale
of $111 million of U.S. attack helicopters to the NATO ally,
and to require that the president consult Congress whenever the
administration is planning to sell more than $50 million in military
equipment to Turkey.

In the “Dear Colleague” letter she and Rep. Eliot Engel have been
circulating this week, Berkley lists several objections to Turkey’s
political positions, including its “belligerence against Cyprus”
that is “intensifying,” being “late to distance itself from the
nightmare in Syria,” “undermin[ing] international efforts to impose
strong sanctions on Iran,” and continued “refus[al] to apologize for
the Armenian genocide.”

But the key complaint Berkley has with Turkey is its increasingly
icy relationship with Israel.

Turkey’s humanitarian support for Palestinians in Gaza had already
begun to vex Israel before May 2010, when things exploded into a
full-fledged diplomatic crisis over an incident on the Turkish ship,
the Mavi Marmara, which was part of an anti-occupation movement’s
“Freedom Flotilla” to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Israeli
commandos boarded the approaching ships at sea, and in the skirmishes
that followed on board, killed nine Turkish nationals. Israel has
not apologized for the incident, claiming it was self-defense.

In the months since, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel, expelled
the Israeli ambassador to Turkey, and refused Israel’s offer of aid
after a devastating earthquake that hit Turkey’s eastern region around
Lake Van.

“This is the time for the United States to be raising our very
serious concerns about Turkey, rather than selling arms to them,”
Berkley and Engel wrote.

(One point of dispute with Berkley’s complaints: while Turkish Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan was late to support NATO action on Libya, his
harsh criticism of Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown against protesters in
Syria began only shortly after Hillary Clinton’s and before Barack
Obama joined the fray. Turkey is now harboring most of the Syrian
refugees, including military defectors who are helping coordinate
the uprisings. One thing noticeably missing from Berkley’s letter:
any mention of the Kurdish population of Turkey, currently being
subjected to the most humanitarian injustices at the hands of the
Turkish government.)

Berkley isn’t going so far, as she did with Saudi Arabia, as to claim
Turkey would use these weapons against Israel — just arguing that
Turkey should not be rewarded for its anti-Israel and anti-Cypriate
behavior.

But if Berkley is this upset about the sale of three attack
helicopters, it’s only bound to get worse: Turkey has also requested
to purchase Predator and Reaper drones from the United States, and
according to reports, the Pentagon isn’t opposed to the idea.

Turkey has lobbied the U.S. to become a base for a fleet of Predator
drones, most of which are operated from the Creech Air Force Base in
Nevada, once the United States leaves Iraq at the end of the year.

Turkey wants to use the drones to fight the P.K.K., the Kurdish
separatist group that is fighting for its own country on Turkish
territory.

The United States and Turkey have collaborated on the P.K.K. in the
past, with the United States sharing drone footage from northern Iraq,
where there is a strong Kurdish population and from where, Turkey says,
most of the group’s attacks are coordinated.

In the past, the U.S. has cited Turkey’s strategic military position
as a reason not to antagonize the country over some of the political
positions Berkley complains of in her letter, including its occupation
of part of Cyprus and its disavowal of the Armenian genocide.

DO DIPLOMAS IN ARMENIA GUARANTEE SKILLS TO OBTAIN JOBS?

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References

Armenia-Education Reforms Quality and Relevance (Karine Harutyunyan)
(ppt) Skills, Not Just Diplomas (Lars Sondergaard) (ppt)

The World Bank regional report on education titled “Skills, Not Just
Diplomas” addresses this question by discussing the bottlenecks of
the education systems in the countries of Europe and Central Asia
(ECA), all of which face skills gap as a result of declined education
quality and relevance over the past twenty years. To close this gap,
the report recommends, inter alia:

To focus more on measuring education outputs-whether students learn
and graduates find jobs, and use this information to improve teaching
and learning, rather than on measuring inputs into learning-such
as the number schools and teachers; To use incentives and grant
greater autonomy to institutions on curriculum and teaching methods
and increase accountability, instead of following detailed norms to
manage the education system; Increase efficiency in expenditures to
enhance learning outcomes.

The “Skills, Not Just Diplomas” report was launched in Yerevan on
October 21, 2011. The event was chaired by Sachiko Kataoka, World Bank
Education Economist. Over 60 participants from Armenia’s universities,
colleges, schools, government, donor community and NGOs attended. In
her keynote speech, Karine Harutyunyan, Deputy Minister of Education
and Science, spoke of Armenia’s reform achievements in the education
sector from independence to date, and the lingering challenges ahead.

Lars Sondergaard, World Bank Senior Economist and lead author of the
report presented the key findings. “One reason we know that the skill
gaps exist in Armenia is that firms report not being able to find
skilled workers. Specifically, when surveyed in 2008, 54% of Armenia’s
firms reported that “skills” is a constraint to their growth, and 23%
of the firms reported that it was a major or severe constraint,” said
Sondergaard speaking to journalists on the day of the report launch.

“This is based on the results of a 2008 survey conducted for more
than 10,000 firms in the countries in Eastern Europe and Central
Asia in which almost 400 firms in Armenia were surveyed about the
constraints they face.”

Like many countries in the region, Armenia faces the challenges of
shrinking workforce and student population due to demographic factors,
and firms increasingly complain about not finding workers with the
skills they need. With fewer workers, each worker needs better –
and different – skills and knowledge than what was needed in the past.

“Throughout the world, there has been an increase in the demand
for skilled labor for the global knowledge economy. The traditional
concept of “manpower” made a transition to “mind-power.” The world’s
economy has also moved from industrial to knowledge economy where
productivity gains are driven by innovation and information and
communication technology,” said Jean-Michel Happi, World Bank Armenia
Country Manager, in his opening remarks.

Questions and comments from the audience included the following: the
need to establish a sustainable and effective system of internship
and on-the-job training for beginner teachers at schools; how the
World Bank can help Armenia participate in the OECD’s Program for
International Students Assessment (PISA); whether emerging economies
need to perform and score as highly in international tests as
developed countries, given that the requirements of their job markets
and expectations of firms are different; and the acknowledgement of
the difficulty in addressing the efficiency dilemma of the country’s
small schools in remote areas.

Twenty years ago, countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union, including Armenia, prided themselves on providing high quality
and universal education. But most countries in the region have seen a
decline in quality ever since. International test results show that
many students – outside of a handful of countries – fail to acquire
more than the most basic literacy and numeracy skills. Evidence also
suggests that the rapid expansion in higher education has led to a
decline in the quality and relevance of education provided. Armenia
is one of the countries where visible quality improvement at the
general education level has been observed in recent years, but little
is known about Armenian students’ skills beyond the 8th grade.

The “Skills, Not Just Diplomas” report is ECA’s new beat on the
education system reforms in the region. It is the major regional
publication on education for the last several years, and gives us
insights about how to improve education based on the recent experience
of the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

To download the “Skills, Not Just Diplomas” report, please visit the
World Bank Armenia website at

CHESS: ARMENIA IN FINAL PUSH FOR EUROPEAN GOLD

10.11.11 | 23:13

Reigning world champions Armenia are close to adding the European
title to their collection of remarkable achievements in chess after
outstripping current holder and arch-foe Azerbaijan in the penultimate
round of championship play on Thursday.

FIDE’s current No. 3 player Levon Aronian and company need a victory
in the ninth and final round of the ending tournament in Greece to
finish first among 38 competing nations.

The Armenians scored a signal 3-1 victory against the Dutch team to
rise to 13 points in team standings, a point ahead of Azerbaijan that
inadvertently helped the Armenia cause by losing to Germany 1.5-2.5.

Germany are second despite 13 points, yielding to Armenia on overall
games statistics.

In the women’s section Armenia rose to 10 points and sixth place
after beating Serbia 2.5-1.5. Russia is leader with 15 points.

Friday fixtures beginning at 1:00 pm Greece time, or 3:00 pm Yerevan
time, are available for live online watching at the tournament’s
official website

CONFLICT ON ICE

Nagorno-Karabakh
A sore in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan still festers

Nov 12th 2011 | STEPANAKERT | from the print edition

It’s lovely in the summer .

“I AM almost full for next summer”, boasts Mike Aghjayan, an Armenian
from Lebanon who is managing a new hotel in the town Azeris call Shusha
and Armenians Shushi. Visitors, mostly diaspora Armenians, will come
from the United States, Canada, France, Russia, Lebanon and Iran.

In 1988 this was a pleasant hilltop town, home to 15,000. Today barely
4,000 live on amid the ruins of war. His guests, Mr Aghjayan explains,
“want to see the land people gave their blood for.”

Nagorno-Karabakh is often described as one of several post-Soviet
“frozen conflicts”. However, as the war in 2008 between Russia
and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia showed,
ice can melt quickly. In Soviet times Nagorno-Karabakh was a mostly
Armenian-populated autonomous enclave inside Azerbaijan, some 4,000
square kilometres (1,540 square miles) big. Conflict erupted in 1988
as the territory’s Armenians sought to secede from Azerbaijan. By the
time the war ended in 1994, the victorious Armenians had doubled the
enclave’s size and carved out a land corridor to Armenia proper.

Between 1988 and 1994 more than 1m Armenians and Azeris fled from
both countries and Nagorno-Karabakh. Azeri-populated towns in the
region were left devastated.

ReprintsOutsiders have worked on peace plans since 1995 but none
has stuck. Yet the outline of a deal seems clear. Nagorno-Karabakh,
which declared independence in 1991, will return to Azerbaijan much
of the land it won in the war. Then, after an “interim” period, the
people of the territory, including Azeri refugees living outside,
will vote on its final status.

Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh say there can be no deal without their
agreement. This is not bravado. The president of Armenia and his
predecessor are from the region. Ara Haratyunyan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s
prime minister, says he doubts Azerbaijan will ever accept his
territory’s independence. Still, he cheerfully points out, GDP has
doubled in the past four years (largely thanks to transfers from
Armenia and the diaspora).

In contrast to the war years, Azerbaijan is flush with cash from
oil and gas. This year 16.5% of its budget has been set aside
for military spending: this is roughly equivalent to the entire
budgets of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh combined. Yet officials in
Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, seem relaxed. Russia is
committed to Armenia’s defence. And a strategic pipeline pumping
oil to the West from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan passes just 12 miles
from Nagorno-Karabakh-controlled territory. Shelling could quickly
cripple it.

NO NEED TO BE AFRAID OF OLIGARCHS
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 14:12:15 – 10/11/2011

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan once said that they do not fight the
oligarchs but oligopolies. At the same time, he did not go into details
of what characterizes the oligopoly and what addressed measures are
taken up in the framework of the “fight” against the oligopolies.

In the meantime, there are several fundamental points which are well
visible even to a non-economist. The main platform of existence of
oligopolies is the fusion of the government and business, as well as
the lack of mechanisms of control and taxation of super profits.

Oligarchs become such because they have governmental privileges and
no one counts their profits. Say, in Armenia there is no “roof”
of profits, beyond which, profit is considered super profit. In
principle, even the Anti-monopoly Commission has no right to prohibit
the importing monopolists to impose a 200-interest margin on the
imported goods. That is, the importer decides how much profit he will
receive from the product and how many “commission charges” they can
add to its cost.

This is of course the law of the free trade economy, but in
normal countries, a law on super profits operates where the “roof
of commission charges” is defined. In some countries it is 13%, in
others up to 20-25% and if the importer sells their goods which is
above its cost + specific rate, then it qualifies as super profit
and subjects to huge taxes.

In Armenia, there is no similar law, and it is neither planned in the
proposed tax amendments. In the meantime, as the famous businesswoman
Silva Hambarzumyan stated, one ton of high-quality sugar is about
USD 480 on the world market, and its import to Armenia together with
the customs clearance costs should cost to the importer a maximum
of USD 100-120. So, they pay 600 dollars per ton, and with the most
basic mathematical calculation, it can be understood that a kilogram
of sugar of the highest quality should cost a maximum of USD 0.7 in
Armenia. Now third-grade sugar is sold in the country at USD 1.3,
she said, noting that there is actually a 100 percent markup.

Instead of directing all the efforts to the elimination of this
“manhole” with the help of which oligarchs manage to disproportionately
raise prices, not pay taxes and deepen the social polarization,
the government is going to set taxes on luxury. This tax, of course,
will help fill the state treasury, but the owners of expensive cars
will eventually find a way to avoid this tax. While, the introduction
of taxes on super profit can change the philosophy of the economic
policy, which is not based on the promotion of enrichment of a group
of oligarchs.

It is understandable that oligarchs who are not limited by laws can
endlessly raise the prices hence devouring all the income of the
population. This means that the population will not have free means
to invest in their own business. Since the government sates that it
is determined to form a middle class, then it is obliged to create
equal competition conditions. Without the law on super profits,
it makes no sense to dwell on such conditions.

Only two circumstances can hold the authorities back from making
this step: if it is an oligarch too and gets super profits, and if
it is afraid of “resistance to oligarchs”. No worth being afraid
of oligarchs. They understand that their time came and now they will
either have to find new rules of the same or wait for the restructuring
of property. For this, the fight of the government with itself comes
to the first plane. Is the power able to put itself in frames?

ARMENIAN STUDENTS PRESSED TURKISH AMBASSADOR

Aysor.am
Thursday,November 10

On November 9 at the US Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at
Taft’s University the Turkish Ambassador to Canada Rafet Akgunay read
a lecture. The latter was the general counselor in political issues
of the Turkish Prime Minister Rejep Tayyip Erdogan.

The lecture that he read was titled “Turkey and the Near East”,
but he also spoke about the present stage of the Armenian – Turkish
relations. In particular he told that the ratification of the Armenian
– Turkish protocols are suspended because the official Yerevan has
problems both inside the country and with the Diaspora and is unable
to perform political will to ratify the protocols.

The Armenian students that were present at the lecture reminded the
Turkish ambassador that the US State Secretary as well as other
representatives of international community have noticed for many
times that the ball was in Turkish field, and asked him not to mislead
the audience. The Armenian students have also touched upon the steps
that Turkey undertakes for denying the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish
ambassador could find no answer.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (also referred to as The
Fletcher School) at Tufts University is the oldest school in the
United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international
affairs. It is regarded as one of the world’s foremost schools of
international affairs.

CHINA: SANCTIONS CANNOT “FUNDAMENTALLY” RESOLVE IRAN NUCLEAR DISPUTE

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 10, 2011 – 12:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, November
10, that sanctions cannot “fundamentally” resolve the Iran nuclear
dispute, after Western leaders urged expanded sanctions against Iran
over a UN watchdog report that Tehran has worked to design atom bombs.

“We always believe that dialogue and cooperation is the right way
to solve the Iranian nuclear issue. Sanctions cannot fundamentally
solve the issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

“The pressing task now is all parties concerned step up diplomatic
efforts,” Hong added.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded in a report this
week that Iran appears to have worked on designing an atomic weapon.

“We hope the IAEA will be fair and objective, and actively committed
to clarifying the salient issues through cooperation with Iran,”
he said. “This is the pressing task at this stage.”

The Chinese spokesman’s remarks underscored the tough task facing
Western governments who hope to win Beijing’s backing for tougher
United Nations sanctions on Iran. But Hong’s words fell short of an
outright no.

Beijing has said sanctions are not a “fundamental” answer before, when
it ultimately voted for U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing
sanctions on Iran for its disputed nuclear activities. China, which
has kept close ties with Iran, has also backed past U.N. Security
Council resolutions criticizing Iran’s position on nuclear issues
and authorizing limited sanctions.

Iran is China’s third-largest crude oil supplier, shipping 20.3
million tons in the first nine months of the year, up by almost a
third on the same period last year, according to Chinese data.

China has repeatedly resisted Western proposals for sanctions that
could seriously curtail its energy and economic ties with Iran. As
one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, China holds
the power to veto any resolutions.

China has also denounced the United States and European Union for
imposing their own separate sanctions on Iran, and said they should
not take steps reaching beyond the U.N. resolutions.

Spokesman Hong warned on Wednesday against turmoil in the Middle East
from action over Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported.

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER PROMISES TO MEET ANY ATTACK WITH “IRON FISTS”

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 10, 2011 – 15:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Iran’s Supreme Leader warned the United States and
Israel on Thursday, November 10, not to launch any military action
against its nuclear sites, saying it would be met with “iron fists.”

“Our enemies, particularly the Zionist regime (Israel), America and
its allies, should know that any kind of threat and attack or even
thinking about any (military) action will be firmly responded to,”
the state television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

“The Revolutionary Guards and army and our nation … will answer
attacks with strong slaps and iron fists,” he said, Reuters reported.

Speculation about an imminent attack on Iran was fueled last week
when Israel test-launched a long-range missile near Tel Aviv and
by comments by some Israeli officials that Tehran’s nuclear program
posed a “direct and heavy” threat.

Tension rose on Tuesday when the International Atomic Energy Agency
reported that Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic
bomb and may still be conducting secret research.

Iran denounced the U.N inspectors’ report as “unbalanced” and
“politically motivated.”

Israel on Wednesday called on the world to stop Iran from developing
nuclear weapons while Western powers called for heavier sanctions
against the Islamic Republic.

The United States and European allies say Iran is trying to build
bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. The major oil
producer denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology to improve
its electricity supply for a rapidly growing population.