Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ANCA-WR Helps Community Add Its Voice To California Redistricting Process

asbarez
Friday, June 3rd, 2011

The state’s redistricting effort logo

LOS ANGELES – The Armenian National Committee of America-Western
Region’s Elections Committee has been working with local ANCAs
throughout the state to help raise awareness of the redistricting
process and how it impacts the Armenian community in California. Over
the past two months, Armenian Americans have attended public hearings
to educate public officials regarding the dynamics of the community.

California is home to the largest Armenian community in the United
States. On June 10th, the Community Redistricting Commission, the
body responsible for drawing the new districts will release its first
draft of district maps based on feedback it received through public
hearings and written testimony.

`In addition to submitting proposed district maps and written
testimony to the CRC describing the Armenian community dynamics in
California, the ANCA-WR worked with individuals throughout the state
to help ensure that their voice was heard,’ said Garen Yegparian who
headed up the ANCA-WR Election Committee’s Redistricting Task Force.
`This is just the first round. The ANCA-WR will continue to work with
the community and the CRC as the districts boundaries are finalized.’

`The ties that bind our neighborhoods and communities are
multi-dimensional. Ensuring that a common district encompasses these
neighborhoods is important and helps address core quality of life
issues in our community,’ he added.

Every 10 years, the State of California redraws its federal and state
legislative district boundaries to more accurately reflect the state’s
residents’ demographics and overall dynamics.

This year, the process is being led by a 14-member commission, the
CRC, as established by the Voters FIRST Act which was voted into law
by Californians in 2008. Previously, the State Legislature was
responsible for redistricting.

The CRC is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats, and four not
affiliated with either of those two parties but registered with
another party or as decline-to-state. The CRC must draw the district
lines in conformity with strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create
districts of equal population that will provide fair representation
for all Californians.

The CRC must hold public hearings and accept public comment. After
hearing from the public and drawing the maps for the House of
Representatives districts, 40 Senate districts, 80 Assembly districts,
and four Board of Equalization districts, the CRC must vote on the new
maps to be used for the next decade.

To approve the new maps, the maps must receive nine `yes’ votes from
the Commission – three `yes’ votes from members registered with each of
the two largest parties, and three `yes’ votes from the other members.

`While this only happens once a decade, it is one of the most
important forms of regular civic participation in which communities
can participate,’ said Yegparian. `The decisions made today will
impact our community for years to come.’

For more information about the CRC, how its work impacts the Armenian
community or how someone can get involved in the process, individuals
can contact the ANCA-WR at [email protected].

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the
largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy
organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination
with a network of offices, locals, and supporters throughout the
Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country,
the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community
on a broad range of issues.

Goal.com
June 4 2011

Russia 3-1 Armenia: Roman Pavlyuchenko hits hat-trick as Russia
provisionally top Group B

The overmatched visitors simply could not keep up with the Tottenham
striker at the Luzhniki Stadium as the hosts move top of the Republic
of Ireland’s group

By Keeghann Sinanan

A Roman Pavlyuchenko hat-trick saw Russia take all three points from
Armenia in their Euro 2012 qualifier at the Luzhniki Stadium.

Pavlyuchenko scored two poacher’s efforts and a second-half penalty to
send Russia top of Group B, pending the results of Slovakia and
Ireland, who play later today.

The match began with the home fans in full song, but they were briefly
silenced in the 25th minute, as Marcos Pizzelli beat Igor Akinfeev
with a low shot from near the penalty spot.

However, they regained their collective voice barely a minute later,
as Pavlyuchenko volleyed home an inviting cross by Aleksandr Anyukov
from the right wing.

Russia started the second half brightly, and eventually took a
deserved lead on 59 minutes. A quick move following a throw-in
released Igor Semshov down the left. He crossed from the byeline
towards Pavlyuchenko, who was afforded the freedom of the Luzhniki
Stadium to smash home at the far post.

The goal seemed to spark Armenia into life, and Russia spent the next
10 minutes camped in their own half. But despite their endeavour,
Armenia could not muster enough quality to breach the Russian
rearguard.

They were made to pay on 73 minutes when Pavlyuchenko completed his
hat-trick from the penalty spot. Following a failed attack by Armenia,
Yuri Zhirkov broke clear down the left, only to be body-checked by
Sargis Hovsepyan in the box. There was only going to be one taker, and
Pavlyuchenko drove the ball into the right corner to wrap up his
personal treble. Despite some late nervy moments in defence, Russia
held on to claim all three points.

Russia now move provisionally on top of Group B with 13 points from
six games. Slovakia and Ireland are both tied for second spot with 10
points from five games, but both play later on Saturday against
Andorra and Macedonia respectively. Meanwhile, Armenia remain in 4th
place with eight points from six games.

news.am, Armenia
June 4 2011

Armenian armed forces capable of responding adequately to all
provocations of Azerbaijan-Armenia’s MOD

June 04, 2011 | 16:03

YEREVAN. – Armenian armed forces scrupulously maintain the ceasefire,
Spokesperson for Armenian defense ministry David Karapetyan stated,
commenting on misinformation disseminated by Azerbaijani mass media.

`As a matter of fact the Azerbaijani side daily increases the
frequency of the ceasefire violations and attributes it to the
Armenian side. The current policy of Azerbaijan is doomed as it is
quite difficult to explain to the international community the motives
or interest of the Armenian side to exacerbate the situation by
violating the ceasefire in the conflict zone. I believe the
Azerbaijani side tries to prepare the ground for its future
provocations by such daily disinformation. Armenian armed forces are
capable of responding adequately to all provocations of Azerbaijan,’
he said.

As reported earlier, Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire 5000 times on
the contact line between the NKR-Azerbaijani armed forces since the
beginning of 2011.

Over 7300 times by the Azerbaijani side were registered in 2010, 4600
times-in 2009, 3500 times-in 2008, 1400 times-in 2007 and 600 times-in
2006

news.am, Armenia
June 4 2011

Baku launches propaganda ahead of Kazan meeting – NKR defense ministry

June 04, 2011 | 15:34

STEPANAKERT.- The Azerbaijani armed forces violated ceasefire regime
230 times in the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from
May 29 to June 4.

The Azerbaijani side continues to be active in the line of contact
following the Deauville statement issued by presidents of co-chairing
states calling on the sides to peaceful resolution of the conflict,
NKR defense army press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Moreover, official Baku, as usual, launched propaganda on the
threshold of the presidents’ meeting in Kazan, accusing the Armenian
side of aggressive actions.

The Azerbaijani Trend agency reported a civilian, Elmar Piriyev, was
killed in an alleged ceasefire violation by the Armenian side on
Friday. However, the Azerbaijani defense ministry has not officially
commented on regular misinformation spread by local media.

NKR Defense Ministry has repeatedly stated and reconfirms the advanced
units of the NKR defense army are not firing at the civilians and
refrain from shooting at the servicemen unless their actions are too
arrogant.

As to the Azerbaijan’s mess over killing of civilian, it is regular
misinformation in an unsuccessful attempt to ascribe the incident in
the Azerbaijani army to the Armenian troops, spokesperson Senor
Hasratyan said.

He noted that ceasefire regime was violated 70 times from different
types of rifles on June 3.

Department of State, USA
Press Release
June 3 2011

Remarks With Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov Before Their Meeting

Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateWashington, DC

June 3, 2011

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good afternoon. It’s a real pleasure for me
to welcome my colleague here in Washington once again. The minister
and I have had the great opportunity of meeting on numerous occasions
in the last two-plus years of the Obama Administration, and I just
want to underscore the strategic importance of the relationship
between the United States and Azerbaijan and the range of issues that
we are working on together – bilateral issues, regional issues, even
global issues. We are very committed to broadening and deepening our
relationship and we are also committed to continuing to work through
the Minsk Group to try to resolve the longstanding conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh.

So we will have a lot to talk about this afternoon, but it is a
pleasure to see you once again.

FOREIGN MINISTER MAMMADYAROV: Thank you very much, Madam Secretary.
You said whole agenda – (laughter) – now I just want to add that I am
totally subscribed to it, and I believe that the relations between
Azerbaijan and the United States is developing quite well. I’ll just
mention that the nature of it is a strategic one. Of course, we need
to even more deepening and strengthening our cooperation. Thank you
very much for all the words of trying to bring more peace and
stability to the region, particularly the resolution of
Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh problem. There was a recent
statement by the presidents which I believe also helpful from the
point of view that this unresolved conflict is on the screen of the
international community.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Indeed.

FOREIGN MINISTER MAMMADYAROV: And we all together have to work more
harder to make a breakthrough.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you, Elmar.

FOREIGN MINISTER MAMMADYAROV: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much. Thank you all.

Irish Independent, Ireland
June 4 2011

Advocaat must be wary of tricky Armenians

By Ruaidhri O’Connor

Saturday June 04 2011

WITH Ireland on a must-win mission to Macedonia today, there are
similar jobs in hand for Russia and Slovakia in Group B.

The trio are tied on 10 points with Giovanni Trapattoni’s men sitting
pretty on top of the table and all eyes will be on St Petersburg at
4.0 as Russia are the first to take the field, welcoming the tricky
Armenians.

Any sort of slip by Dick Advocaat’s men will be fuel to the respective
dressing-rooms in Bratislava and Skopje.

The Armenians are just two points behind the chasing pack and will
fancy their chances after holding the Russians to a draw in March.

Zenit midfielder Roman Shirokov misses out for the hosts, while
Advocaat also has doubts over his clubmate Aleksandr Kerzhakov, who
has knee problems.

Everton winger Diniyar Bilyaletdinov has warned the home side to be on
their guard.

“Armenia are a very mobile and well-organised team, they move fast
from defence to attack and their counter-attacks are always
dangerous,” he said.

“They’re a technically-gifted team and not easy opponents. But we’re
playing at home, and we need three points.”

weakest

Slovakia should have no problems dispatching of the group’s weakest
link Andorra at home, with their clash kicking off more than an hour
before Ireland’s.

They struggled to break the pointless Andorrans down away from home in
March, but Vladimir Weiss’s men will be confident of boosting their
goal difference in Bratislava this evening.

They are without Slovakia Vladimir Weiss Jr and Marek Sapara through
injury, while Miroslav Stoch and ‘keeper Jan Mucha are suspended but
they still should have enough to beat the Andorrans.

Meanwhile, Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho has been ruled out of
this evening’s qualifier against Norway with a back injury, the
Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) said yesterday.

The FPF said in a statement that the former Chelsea defender picked up
the injury in training earlier this week.

Portugal have had a dismal start to the campaign, but can go top of
Group H if they beat leaders Norway at the Luz Stadium tonight.

Coach Paulo Bento has engineered a remarkable turnaround, improving
the side’s morale after replacing the sacked Carlos Queiroz in
September.

“It is a key opportunity to go first in the group,” Bento said.

“We are under pressure, but it is a much better kind of pressure than
what we had back in October.”

Iceland and Denmark face off in the group’s other encounter, kicking
off just over an hour before the Portuguese clash.

– Ruaidhri O’Connor

HayPost Director Gets Nod to Replace Bekor Papazyan

Levon Hayrapetyan

hetq
16:03, June 2, 2011

Bekor Papazyan, Executive Director of Armenia’s National
Competitiveness Foundation, who tendered his resignation effective
June 15, will be replaced by Arman Khachatryan, who now runs HayPost.

June 2 was supposed to be Khachatryan’s last day at the helm of
Armenia’s postal service. HayPost hasn’t said who will replace
Khachatryan as Managing Director.

The Corporacion America group of Eduardo Eurnekian, an Argentine
billionaire of Armenian descent, signed a long-term contract with the
Armenian government to manage HayPost. Its track record has been a
mixed bag.

The Armenian government has generally been disappointed with the way
HayPost has been run and one way to express its displeasure has been
the May 31decision to sack Converse Bank Board chairman: Armen
Ter-Tatshatyan and Board member Juan Pablo Gechidjian.

This decision will be ratified at the Board’s annual meeting on July
30. Converse Bank will then affirm the changes.

Surprisingly, when we asked the Converse Bank’s press office they said
that no pending changes to the Board were in the works.

The poor track record at HayPost is generally blamed not on the
Managing Director but on the fact that during the past 2.5 years no
investment had been made in the postal service.

During this period the licensed manager has taken $5 million from
HayPost; to pay salaries and other expenses.

Armenia belongs to the International Postal Union and one of its
conditions is that postal services operate transparently and publicly
publish their financial stats. HayPost publishes no such reports.

HayPost also is used to distribute pensions in Armenia. But since it
isn’t a bank and doesn’t hold on to cash, Converse Bank carries out
this function. The bank circulates money through the system – about
150 billion AMD per month.

HayPost receives no revenue for this service. On the other hand,
Converse Bank makes about $5 million per year from the deal.

By the way, Juan Pablo Gechidjian also serves as HayPost Managing
Board Chairman.

Hetq will have more to report on these and related matters.

We’ll also discuss what Eurnekian’s next move at HayPost might be.

On the Visit of the Iranian President

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 18:30:50 – 04/06/2011

The president of Iran Mahmud Ahmadinejad is arriving in Armenia on
June 6. The Golos Armeni Newspaper has asked Igor Muradyan, political
scientist, to comment on this visit in the context of the political
situation in the region.

Igor Muradyan says the visit of the Iranian President Ahmadinejad
takes place in a time of tensions in both countries, therefore the
analysts and observers tend to relate this visit with internal issues.
In reality, this visit has a specific geopolitical importance.

In the weakening activity of the United States in the South Caucasus,
Turkey and Russia are increasingly displaying intentions to establish
relations that resemble an alliance. At least, along with agreement on
a disclosed policy, Moscow and Ankara have reached some closed
agreements. This has become a special subject of professional
discussion among analysts of the United States and Europe along with
other aspects of the `Turkish subject’ which includes the Near East,
as well as the Caucasus and the Balkans.

Earlier Turkey had experienced a serious geopolitical defeat in
Central Asia and the Balkans and is not fighting for influence in the
Near East where the concept of neo-ottomanism focuses. However, Turkey
needs reliable backing in Eurasia, and it can be provided by Russia.
No doubt, Russia and Turkey have agreements on the Caucasus and the
Black Sea, and Turkey understands that only Russia can help `dismiss’
the Armenian cause. The Americans, both politicians and experts, claim
that the United States is committed to responding to the emergence of
real threat in the region, which is under doubt now. At the same time,
the `honeymoon’ of Turkey and Iran has failed because neither the West
nor Iran saw it as a strategic mediator between them. Tehran, one of
the three angles of the strategic triangle of Turkey, Russia and Iran,
has appeared in the worst situation. The United States is not rushing
to resist to Turkey’s expansion, hoping that it may lead to a clash
between Turkey and the leading countries of the region, therefore the
situation of Iran is not so very favorable. Besides, there are a
number of serious problems with the relations between Iran and Turkey
regarding the Near East, and these controversies are long-term and
strategic. It is the issue of Syria and Iraq, and the Sunni – Shia
opposition in some places. In this situation, as well as considering
the main external threat, the economic, technological and
communication blockade imposed on Iran by the coalition and its
regional partners, Iran cannot be indifferent to the events in the
neighboring region and the growing risks.

Tehran views Armenia as a natural and reliable partner. In addition,
Armenia interests it as a country which has large-scale cooperation
with the West and Russia. With unprecedented rapprochement of Turkey
and Russia, Armenian and Iranian interests ignored by Russia, military
cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iran tend to
face each other and to establish closer relations. As to internal
aspects, Iran is interested in the support of Putin’s team in Moscow
and is ready to help neutralize Medvedev. In this, Iran and Armenia
have common interests.

Now when it has become clear that the West, namely the United States
have not bet on Medvedev, and merely expressed their `preference’, the
interested states are more determined to support Putin to prevent
Russia from returning to the former hard times. Iran could have been
bolder in expanding the `new’ regional policy, namely the shaping of a
new geopolitical situation, had Armenia sent a signal of readiness for
cooperation. It should be understood that the last stage of the
US-Iranian opposition, and these two countries are doomed to
rapprochement, strange though it may seem.

In the result of this, there will be principal changes in the regional
geopolitics. The United States is aware that Iran is a state which
shapes the region but it is not aggressive and is in `defense in
depth’, meanwhile Turkey is gradually becoming problem number 1 for
the United States and other countries. A step by step policy also
looks good but it is time for serious geopolitical analysis as a basic
condition of external policy, Igor Muradyan said.

Expert: Azerbaijani armed forces were never victorious

June 4, 2011 – 11:00 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Head of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s press
office, Eldar Sabiroglu, who never participated in military operations
is not competent enough to assess the fighting efficiency of the
Azerbaijani army, an Armenian political analyst said.

Earlier, Sabiroglu described the Azerbaijani army as the strongest in
the South Caucasus.

`Theoretic assumptions which originate from defective knowledge sound
ridiculous,’ head of Voskanapat analytical center Levon
Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

`Azerbaijani armed forces were never victorious. During the years of
Karabakh war, the only `success’ of Azerbaijan was the seizure of
Shahumyan and Getashen, an operation that became possible only with
the help of the soviet divisions. As to the real `strength’ of the
Azeri army, it was clearly demonstrated after withdrawal of the soviet
troops,’ he said.

Azerbaijan ventures another provocation ahead of Kazan meeting

June 4, 2011 – 11:51 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – NKR Defense Army has already refuted Azeri media
reports about `killing of an Azerbaijani civilian as a result of
ceasefire violation,’ said a spokesman for Armenian Defense Minister.

`If Azerbaijan side has evidence to prove the killing, Baku can
produce it to international institutions for an investigation.
However, I am convinced that the canard is nothing but a regular
provocative act on the threshold of the presidential meeting in
Kazan,’ David Karapetyan told journalists in Yerevan.

On June Azerbaijani media circulated reports saying that `civilian
Elmar Piriyev was killed by Armenian forces.’

Presidents Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia, Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and
Dmitry Medvedev of Russia will meet in Kazan, Russia, on June 25.