Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Small Fish Show

JAMES HAKOBYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:15:35 – 26/08/2011

One of them will inevitably destroy

The deputy chief of Sevan garrison of the Military Police has been
detained. Here is another regular step to fight corruption, which is
commendable indeed. But, again, a so-called small fish has been
arrested while the `sharks’, as the press calls them, are swimming at
large.

It would be absurd to say that there are no `sharks’ and those engaged
in corruption are small fishes. It would be absurd to say that the law
enforcement bodies are unable to get the `sharks’. The problem is that
they do not want to or do not have a political order to prosecute
them. Another problem is that the Armenian law-enforcement bodies are
the den of most `sharks’, and consequently they cannot be ahead of
other corruption fighters.

In this sense, everything eventually arrives at the will of the
government. The government itself distorts notions in addressing to
similar evaluations. Whenever the press echoes `sharks’, the
government notes that the press is thereby trying to clear small fish
of responsibility.

It’s not true, of course. No one says the behavior of medium and
lower-ranking government officials should be ignored while
higher-ranking corruption should be revealed. The problem is that in
the past three years the government has revealed over thirty medium
and minor cases of corruption without prosecution of at least on big
case. The feeling is that the government itself is trying to cover up
major cases.

The press regularly brings up the issue of higher-ranking corruption,
comparing it to fish which starts rotting from the head. Of course, it
is possible to dream of an impeccable top government of crystal purity
in a country where the medium and lower-ranking officials are bogged
in corruption.

Therefore, lack of prosecution and punishment of higher-ranking
corruption is evidence that either the government is unable to carry
out effective fight on corruption, or it just has no desire and
prefers imitation and propaganda.

Prosecution of higher-ranking corruption is not an end in itself.
Moreover, it could be helpful to propaganda and political tricks. In
this sense, a consistent and principled approach is necessary. Can the
government display such qualities? Maybe, in technical terms, it can,
but in fact, the government of Armenia is based on corruption, and
fight on corruption means destruction of the system itself. If one is
not ready for this step, one cannot be ready to eliminate corruption
in the country, no matter how many cases are revealed at the
lower-ranking and medium levels.

And if the system is not destroyed, the state is. It’s been a long
time Armenia faced this dilemma.

Two Armenian chess players to participate in world championship

13:06 – 27.08.11

Armenian chess players Sergei Movsisyan and Arman Pashikyan are taking
part in the World Chess Championship 2011 that will kick off in the
Russian city of Chanty Mansijsk on Sunday.

According to the Armenian sports news website Armsport.am, in the
first stage Sergey Movsisyan will compete with women’s world champion
Hou Yifan from China.

Arman Pashikyan will compete with Radoslav Wojtaszek from Poland.

Armenian grand master Vladimir Hakobyan had also secured his
participation in this championship, but he has not departed for Chanty
Mansijsk because of a broken leg.

The World Chess Championship 2011 is conducted under the so-called
knock-out rules when each participant leaves the competition after the
first defeat.

Tert.am

Georgia launches new ABC book for ethnic minorities

13:19 – 27.08.11

The Georgian authorities are pushing ahead with their efforts to teach
the Georgian language to ethnic minorities.

They have proposed launching a special ABC book (Deda Ena) for the
Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities in the country, the Azerbaijani
news agency Aze.az reported.

Georgian Education Minister Dmitry Shashkin told a cabinet meeting on
August 26 that the first ever ABC books in the Armenian and
Azerbaijani languages will be published on Monday.

Both Georgian and foreign experts have been involved in the project.
The textbook has audio and video materials to facilitate the learning
process.

Tert.am

Oppositionist says they aim to take all unresolved cases to European court

12:40 – 27.08.11

The coordinator of the opposition alliance Armenian National Congress
has said they have a coded strategy in their fight for justice in
Armenia.

Speaking at a TV program, Levon Zurabyan said that: “In fact we have
started a coded operation called ‘Strangling with lawsuits’ since a
long time,” said he, adding that the essence of the operation is to
lodge complaints against all acts of unlawfulness and pass through all
the court instances in Armenia and reach the European Court of Human
Rights.

“This is our strategy, and we have already lodged numerous, I can say,
hundreds of cases and are pushing them forward,” said he.
According to him, most of those lawsuits have been satisfied and been
part of their achievements.

“By the way, one of the achievements is that the police, fours days
before the incident [scuffle between young opposition activists and
police] had to apology Tigran Arakelyan [one of arrested activists]
based on a court ruling,” said Zurabyan.

The same Tigran Arakelyan, Zurabyan said, is now presented in a police
video footage as a criminal, but he was “acquitted in the court as the
police could not prove anything.”

Tert.am

CHANSON ARMENIENNE
Le chanteur Marten Yorgantz en tournée en Arménie

Le chanteur Marten Yorgantz est en tournée en Arménie. Des
manifestations organisées par le ministère de la Diaspora à l’occasion
des festivités marquant le 20ème anniversaire de l’Indépendance de la
République d’Arménie. Marten Yorghantz chantera dans diverses régions
d’Arménie. Ainsi le 25 août il était en concert à Aghveran, le 27 il
est à Bert, le 28 il sera à Kavar, le 30 à Védi et le 31 à Hrazdan. Le
25 août à Erévan lors d’une conférence de presse Marten Yorghantz
affirmait « j’ai désiré me produire en dehors d’Erévan car la
population des régions est privée de concerts. Je suis très heureux de
chanter pour les enfants d’Arménie ». « Je ne chanterai qu’en arménien
en Arménie » a ajouté Marten Yrogantz et dit « je ne sais pas si ces
enfants aimeront mes chansons. Pour moi c’est une surprise ».

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 27 août 2011,
Krikor [email protected]

Daily Trojan Online, USC, CA
Aug 26 2011

Q&A with alumnus Jerry Papazian

By Kristy Pyke · Daily Trojan

Jerry Papazian graduated in 1977 with a bachelor of arts degree in
economics and went on to earn his master of business administration
and law degree from UCLA. Papazian served as a member of the Board of
Trustees from 1994-1999 and as president of the Alumni Association
from 1995-1996. Papazian is currently the vice president of corporate
finance at Bear, Stearns & Co, Inc.

Daily Trojan: During your time at USC, how important were
extracurricular activities for you?

Jerry Papazian: While I was in school I was involved in student
government. I was a student senator. I was also chairman of Songfest
my senior year. I was very involved in my fraternity as well. There
are so many more things you can get involved in now then there were
when I attended USC.

DT: What was the most influential thing you did or learned at USC to
get you where you are today?

Papazian: Joan Schaefer, affectionately know as Dean Joan, was dean of
women. Dean Joan had an advisory role and she probably impacted my
life and the lives of thousands of USC students over the years. She
was a person who encouraged you to go out there and take full
advantage of university life, and to get to know faculty. She is still
alive and turning 90 next month. She still comes to the campus one day
a week.

In the fraternity, I learned to work with 70-80 guys. That was a good
experience for the business world. In student government, I learned
about politics. With songfest, I learned about how powerful
communication could be. It all paid off in life later on.

DT: Would you encourage students to take that same path and get
involved with things outside of academics?

Papazian: Now is the chance to learn and experiment and see what your
passions are. So get involved with as many things as you can handle
and look around and look in places where you wouldn’t have looked
before. My favorite class ironically was an art history class I took
freshman year. Where did that come from, I have no idea? To this day,
it was my favorite course.

DT: I noticed you received your MBA from UCLA. How was that switch and
why did you decide to come back to USC since you are an alumnus of
both schools?

Papazian: People will tell you that your heart will always belong to
your undergraduate institution. That is true with me. I have been and
always will be a Trojan at heart.

DT: What has been your most fond memory of USC since graduating in 1977?

Papazian: Right after 1977, when I graduated, I never stopped. At age
40, I was selected to be president of the Alumni Association but then,
also as a result, I became a member of the Board of Trustees. That was
probably the most rewarding experience being able to give back to the
whole university like that as a trustee.

DT: What is one last piece of advice you would give to the current
students of USC?

Papazian: Go out there and get involved and learn about everything
that is out there while you are still young and have the opportunity.
You will start working and you will have less time to experience and
learn. I would trade it in a second to go back and be 20 years old
again and have all those opportunities.

DT: How are you currently involved in the school and what do you see
for your future?

Papazian: My primary role is on the Board of Counselors for the
College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. In that role I have been working
and continuing to work on scholarships for students. It is actually in
the name of Dean Joan Schaaffer. One big role is raising money for and
awarding scholarships to students in the college. I am also a member
of the leadership council for the Armenian Institute. In that I am
working with the Shoah Foundation to bring a collection of interviews
of survivors of the Armenian Genocide. The foundation was started by
Steven Spielberg. He founded it around 15 years ago and gave it to USC
to run recently. They have Holocaust survivors’ interviews. I’m
working on bringing the Armenian Genocide to that space.

Hurriyet, Turkey
Aug 26 2011

Court insists on phone records in Dink case

Friday, August 26, 2011
VERCÝHAN ZÝFLÝOÐLU
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

An Istanbul court hearing the Hrant Dink murder trial has again asked
for the records of all cell-phone conversations made in the area at
the time of the journalist’s assassination following the
Telecommunications Directorate, or TÝB’s, earlier refusal to grant the
request.

“All administrative corporations do whatever they can so that we can’t
obtain information – the TÝB is just a part of this process,” Hakan
Bakýrcý, one of the Dink family’s lawyers, recently told the Hürriyet
Daily News, adding that it was difficult to make headway in the case.
Despite the past problems, Bakýrcý praised the court for again
insisting on collecting more evidence.

TÝB refused the court’s first request on the grounds that issuing all
the phone records would be “a violation of the privacy of private
lives.”

The court is trying to determine whether two suspicious people
recorded by security cameras talking to each other at the murder scene
were connected to the journalist’s murder. Mobile phone base records
can show all phone activities of an area at a given time, and Dink
lawyers have officially demanded the records from the GSM operators.
One of the operating companies responded to the request saying there
were no mobile phone calls made during those hours, while another
answered that there was no base station in the area, even though the
murder occurred in one of the most populous districts of the city.

TÝB subsequently entered the discussion and said handing over the
records would be a violation of private lives.

Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was the chief editor
for weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He
was shot in front of his Istanbul office in January 2007; his
self-confessed murderer Ogün Samast was sentenced to 22 years last
month.

Official policy of denial

Dink’s friend and an editor in Agos, Pakrad Öztukyan, said he believed
TÝB resisted handing over the records because of the risk of much
deeper connections being disclosed.
The Dink case will never end, Öztukyan said. “This case has such a
dark background that it might as well be connected to the Ergenekon
case.”

Another close friend of Dink, Zakaria Mildanoðlu, said: “This is an
open example of the denial policy of the state and the government in
Turkey that comes from the past. Naturally, TÝB is an extension of all
these policies. The governor who called Hrant to his office and
threatened him was promoted instead of being punished. So was the
Istanbul Security Chief. If the prime minister genuinely wanted the
case to be justly solved, he wouldn’t have promoted [these people].”

An Istanbul court hearing the Hrant Dink murder trial has again asked
for the records of all cell-phone conversations made in the area at
the time of the journalist’s assassination following the
Telecommunications Directorate, or TÝB’s, earlier refusal to grant the
request.

“All administrative corporations do whatever they can so that we can’t
obtain information – the TÝB is just a part of this process,” Hakan
Bakýrcý, one of the Dink family’s lawyers, recently told the Hürriyet
Daily News, adding that it was difficult to make headway in the case.
Despite the past problems, Bakýrcý praised the court for again
insisting on collecting more evidence.

TÝB refused the court’s first request on the grounds that issuing all
the phone records would be “a violation of the privacy of private
lives.”

The court is trying to determine whether two suspicious people
recorded by security cameras talking to each other at the murder scene
were connected to the journalist’s murder. Mobile phone base records
can show all phone activities of an area at a given time, and Dink
lawyers have officially demanded the records from the GSM operators.
One of the operating companies responded to the request saying there
were no mobile phone calls made during those hours, while another
answered that there was no base station in the area, even though the
murder occurred in one of the most populous districts of the city.

TÝB subsequently entered the discussion and said handing over the
records would be a violation of private lives.

Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, was the chief editor
for weekly Agos, a paper published in both Turkish and Armenian. He
was shot in front of his Istanbul office in January 2007; his
self-confessed murderer Ogün Samast was sentenced to 22 years last
month.

Official policy of denial

Dink’s friend and an editor in Agos, Pakrad Öztukyan, said he believed
TÝB resisted handing over the records because of the risk of much
deeper connections being disclosed.

The Dink case will never end, Öztukyan said. “This case has such a
dark background that it might as well be connected to the Ergenekon
case.”

Another close friend of Dink, Zakaria Mildanoðlu, said: “This is an
open example of the denial policy of the state and the government in
Turkey that comes from the past. Naturally, TÝB is an extension of all
these policies. The governor who called Hrant to his office and
threatened him was promoted instead of being punished. So was the
Istanbul Security Chief. If the prime minister genuinely wanted the
case to be justly solved, he wouldn’t have promoted [these people].”

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT SETS UP TENDER COMMISSION TO HANDLE UPGRADING OF CUSTOMS HOUSES ON ARMENIAN-GEORGIA BORDER

/ ARKA /
Aygust 25, 2011
YEREVAN

The Armenian government has set up today a tender commission to handle
the construction of modern customs houses at border check points on
Armenian-Georgia border. The tender commission will be chaired by head
of the State Revenue Committee Gagik Khachatrian. The check points
are in Bagratashen, Gogavan-Privolnoye and Bavra. Prime minister
Tigran Sarkisian said the work should be done as quickly as possible.

“We will build modern customs houses which will provide all public
services. We should be able to provide quality services by one-window
principle and it is extremely important that our projects are in line
with best international standards, ” Sarkisian said.

He instructed relevant bodies to prepare the tender procedure
and technical proposals as soon as possible. The prime minister
also thanked colleagues from the EU for granting funds to develop
construction projects for upgrading the border crossings.

Tigran Sarkisian said the border crossing with Iran in southern
Armenian town of Meghri will be also upgraded soon to have a modern
customs house.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGES NATIONAL CHESS TEAMS

Tert.am
25.08.11

The Armenian national team won the 8th World Team Championship took
place in Ningbo, China, July 17 to 26, 2011. All the team members,
six players and one coach, will get AMD 7.5 million each.

At its Aug. 25 sitting the Armenian government made a relevant
decision.

The Chess Federation of Armenia plans to allocate a total of AMD
45 million to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs for the money
prizes. The funds will be allocated from the Armenian government’s
reserve fund.

ARMENIAN FM DISCUSSED PARTICIPATION IN RIO+20

news.am
Aug 24, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenian FM held the first session of national committee
coordinating preparatory works on Armenia’s participation in world
forum of stable development and ecology of Rio+20.

The forum will be held in Rio de Janeiro. The session was headed
by the Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian and the Minister of Natural
Protection Aram Harutyunyan.

The two ministers touched upon issues on development within the
frameworks of Rio+20 and Armenia’s tasks in that context, MFA press
service informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.