Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARMENIA, GEORGIA TO EXPAND COMMODITY TURNOVER

YEREVAN, August 22. /ARKA/. Armenia and Georgia plan to further develop
positive trend of growing commodity turnover between the countries,
Georgia’s premier Irakli Garibashvili said.

The premier said the close cooperation between the countries should
be enhanced and his visit serves the purpose.

“We increased the trade turnover by 43% over the first six months of
this year, which proves economic relations between our countries are
developing, and we will continue our efforts”, Garibashvili said at
a joint press conference with his Armenian colleague Hovik Abrahamyan
on Thursday in Yerevan.

Armenia-Georgia foreign trade turnover amounted to $151.9mln in 2013,
a 26.9% increase against the year before. -0–

NAGORNO-KARABAKH READY TO HOST ABOUT 200 YEZIDI FAMILIES

12:06 * 21.08.14

The Yezidi Union of Armenia intends to settle about 200 Yezidi families
from northern Iraq, Chairman of the union Aziz Tamoyan told Tert.am.

“The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities agree to help the families. Yezidis
residing in Armenia’s rural areas are raising funds to organize the
resettlement. The government has allocated $50,000,” he said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

ARTSAKH DEFENSE ARMY COMMANDER: AZERBAIJAN BLACKMAILS OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS

Today – 12:27
20/8/14

After signing a cease-fire, Azerbaijan tries to solve Nagornp-Karabakh
issue by blackmailing the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries which
try to solve the issue peacefully for already 20 years. Commander of
Artsakh Defense Army Movses Hakobyan announced about this during the
meeting with the journalists, “Armenpress” news agency informs.

“Though we signed ceasefire 20 years ago, the tensions on the front
line are increasing”, he said.

The speaker also underlined that Artsakh Defense Army exists also after
the war and reminded that Azerbaijan asked for the ceasefire then. They
asked Russian Federation to mediate and establish a ceasefire.

As the commander underlined, now Artsakh Defense Army urges the rival
not to restart the war.

The speaker also underlined that every man in Artsakh Republic knows
how to act if the war restarts.

ZHOGHOVURD: BANKRUPT ARMAVIA’S OWNER IS IN ARMENIA

08:51 * 19.08.14

The paper says it has learned from sources that the owner of Armavia,
the national airline that closed down over bankruptcy last year,
is back to Armenia.

Mikhail Baghdasarov is claimed to be seeking to keep himself up to date
of the technical conditions of his own aircrafts which are now on sale.

Sources reportedly told the paper on Monday that the businessman has
promised the company’s former employees to pay off their entire salary
debts at the end of August.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Fresno Bee
Aug 17 2014

Holy Trinity’s Blessing of the Grapes

Father Vahan Gostanian, center, leans over to bless a table of grapes
with deacon Mark Shirin to the left during Holy Trinity Armenian
Apostolic Church’s 101st annual Blessing of the Grapes held at the
California Armenian Home Sunday, August 17, 2014 in Fresno, Calif.
Past Holy Trinity church board member Harry Buchaklian said 1,700
people were expected to attend the event, many traveling by 16
chartered buses, coming from as far away as Los Angeles. Buchaklian
added at least 75 crates of grapes were donated for the traditional
blessing which followed a mass. The grapes were separated and
distributed in clear bags after the blessing. Holy Trinity’s event,
which also included a picnic, followed last weekend’s St. Paul
Armenian Church Picnic and Grape Blessing which was also held at the
California Armenian Home. ERIC — THE FRESNO BEE Buy Photo

The Hindu, India
Aug 17 2014

Remembering George Town: Church chronicles

by ESTHER ELIAS

ESTHER ELIAS traces the history of European-built shrines in George Town

In the numerous churches of George Town lies the story of Madras’
tryst with many nations and a journey down five centuries.

Just across the High Court, extends the slender steeple of the
155-year-old Anderson’s church, named in memory of Madras’ first
Church of Scotland missionary, Rev. John Anderson. In the oil portrait
of Anderson, the handful of white-marble plaques that detail church
history and the two silver communion chalices gifted in 1844, unfold
the story of a man who first believed in education, and then faith.
Anderson is today remembered as the founder of a school on the
Esplanade in a former sailor’s house that grew to become Madras
Christian College’s first home. While Anderson lies buried with his
wife Margaret in graves at Thana Street, Purasaiwalkam, Rev. Jacqulin
Jothi says his warm spirit lives on in the church that’s a haven of
quiet for street children, beggars and weekday worshippers.

Wander further north-west through George Town, and follow your nose
for scents of pulses, spices and coffee along Thatha Muthiappan
Street, and you’ll stumble on a cluster of churches, all nearing or
beyond their bi-centenaries. Tucker Church, founded by the Church
Missionary Society in 1820, and named after its second missionary and
minister Rev. John Tucker, was built on land bought from a
‘Mussalman’. Its wooden shutter-windows have long given way to local
stained-glass but its 150-year-old, London-made pipe organ still rings
loud at Tamil service every Sunday, observes Henry Thomas, whose wife
is a sixth-generation member of the church. For the most part,
Tucker’s looks just as it did in the detailed pencil drawings that
Sarah, John’s sister, drew in the 1840s in letters to her ‘young
friend’ Lisa, now collected in the slim volume South Indian Sketches.

The church just across the road hasn’t been as lucky though. Last
year, the brick-red, 153-year-old Broadway Tamil Wesley Church, grew
cracks in its floor and filled with water from underground Metro Rail
tunnelling.

Its predecessor right opposite, the Black Town or Broadway Popham
Church, experienced something similar nearly two centuries ago.
Inaugurated on April 25, 1822, by Wesleyan missionary James Lynch, the
church succumbed to cracks in 1844, and the building that stands today
is its re-opened avatar.

Time has stilled, though, in the 207-year-old William Charles church
tucked away behind the bustle on Davidson Street. Its wooden rafters,
low-sloped roof and outward stone structure remain. Beside the altar
are chairs that Rev. John Selvaraj says belonged to Tamil scholar and
linguist, Bishop Robert Caldwell, who served at William Charles in the
1850s. The furniture now cushions some hefty cats.

Our story slips into the 18th Century with the CSI St. Mark’s church,
completed in 1800, which bookends George Town at its north-eastern end
on Pedariyar Koil Street. The grave of its first reverend Richard Hall
Kerr graces the floor before the altar and a plaque was erected at his
death at 40 in 1808. Graves abound within and without the St. Mary’s
Co-Cathedral that rises beside the closed door of the 1712 Armenian
Church. St Mary’s, first built in 1658, and rebuilt in 1775, springs
to life every Tuesday as rows of the sick, aged and dying from various
faiths wait for alms and miracles at the feet of the St. Antony’s
statue. Among graves of dead priests, prominent men and women of the
community and numerous Irish nuns, are the remains of the Armenian
Moorat family with memorial plaques and sculptures, that helped build
the Cathedral, points out Fr. Bellarmine Fernando SDB. Samuel
McCartish Moorat, his wife Anna Raphael and son Edward, known for
squandering his father’s fortunes, lie enclosed in the Cathedral’s
confession room, their cracked tombstones still bearing the sculptor’s
name, P. Turnerelli.

Far from the celebrated areas of George Town, close to where it segues
into the street-maze of Broadway, stands a lone church behind garbage
dumps that has its origins in 1640. The Catholic church, ‘Our Lady of
Assumption’, has its roots in a church built within Fort St. George by
Fr. Andrew of the Capuchins in 1640. The story goes that over a
century later, after the French invasion of the Fort, the Portuguese
and their church were evicted by the British for supposedly plotting
with the French. In 1749, the church was rebuilt in the Portuguese
neighbourhood on today’s Portuguese Church Street, with a tablet at
its roof that read 1640. The Tamils around though, remember it as
‘Mathura Nayagi’, a moniker for Mary, says Fr. John Andrew. It stood
its ground until 1993, when it was razed to be replaced with the
present swanky structure. As Chennai turns 375 this week, this little
church celebrates it 375th birthday too.

The Hindu, India
Aug 17 2014

Madras miscellany: The Arbuthnot connection

by S. MUTHIAH

One thing I’ve found in all the years I’ve been writing this column is
that the leads for an item turn up in the most unexpected of places.
As in this instance.

A former colleague, now settled in Australia and who knew my one-time
habit of taking my lunch break to coincide with the closing for the
day of Royal Primary School in Colombo, so that I could drive home two
godsons of mine in a ‘sing for my lunch’ routine, sent me an article
the other day on the history of Thurstan Road where the School had
then been. The road is still one of the more heritage-rich roads in
Colombo, many a mansion of long lineage still maintained so well that
I keep wondering why can’t we be doing the same thing. One of these
grand houses, incidentally, is the home of the Indian High
Commissioner in Sri Lanka — and, if I remember right, Gopalkrishna
Gandhi wrote a picture-rich history of it when he was HC there.

The history I recently received tells me that Thurstan Road was once
the eastern boundary of a garden house known as the Bagatelle Estate
and was later renamed as Alfred House, a stately home that still
shines bright midst all the building that has come up around it. And
therein lies my story for today, the lead being that Bagatelle Estate
was owned in the 1840s by Arbuthnot and Co, who were the agents for
the Government of Ceylon in India and who were the sole exporters of
cinnamon from Ceylon, this ‘brown gold’ being a government monopoly at
the time and the reason this area where it grew is still called
Cinnamon Gardens.

As many a reader will recall, Arbuthnot’s was the A in the APB of
South Indian commerce. Parry’s and Binny’s might have been many years
older, but Arbuthnot’s overtook them to become the biggest business
house in South India and one of the biggest in the country till it
crashed in 1906.

Arbuthnot’s had its beginnings when George Arbuthnot, a Scot, arrived
in Madras in 1800 and joined Francis Latour & Co that had been founded
c.1780. When Latour decided to step down in 1810, John de Monte, who
could justifiably have been called the ‘Laird of (undeveloped) Adyar’,
teamed with Arbuthnot to establish Arbuthnot, de Monte & Co. When de
Monte died in 1821 without an heir to succeed him, Arbuthnot found
himself with a business on his hands and Arbuthnot & Co was born,
going on to become the leading business house in South India. It
pioneered some of the earliest industry in India, like the Madras
Portland Cement Works, the Bangalore Bricks & Tiles Works, the
Reliance Engineering Works, the Chittalvasal Jute Mills and several
other manufacturing units.

Besides setting up these establishments, Arbuthnot’s played a
significant role in the founding of Gillanders, Arbuthnot & Co in
Calcutta, Ewart, Latham & Co in Bombay, Arbuthnot, Latham & Co of
London (the Alfred Latham of these companies being Governor of the
Bank of England!), Ogilvy, Gillanders & Co and Arbuthnot, Ewart & Co
of Liverpool, and Gladstone, Latham & Co of Manchester (in the last
three companies named, several members of the Gladstone family were
partners). With that kind of spread and influential links, Arbuthnot’s
was big. No wonder its crash shocked everyone in the Indian financial
world of the early 20th Century (Miscellany, December 23 and 30,
2013).

*****

The Penang connection

A heartening feature of this year’s Madras Week is the participation
of several overseas players. The Australians are commemorating the
Emden-Sydney finale that brought to an end a legend that gifted Tamil
a new word on September 22, 1914. The Germans are hosting a discussion
on how the Great War had an impact on Literature and the Arts in
Madras. The French are having readings from literature of the same
period while the British have a blogging contest about Madras and the
Great War underway. Meanwhile, two Armenian scholars living in Paris
have put together a week-long programme in the Armenian Church in
Madras on Armenian Street, the highlight of which is a splendid
exhibition commemorating the Armenian contribution to Madras and to
their homeland as well, the first Armenian Constitution having been
drafted here and the first Armenian printing press and newspaper being
established here.

But to me at the top of this heap is the celebration of Madras Day in
Penang, Malaysia, with an exhibition of Madras photographs. Perhaps
this will set an example for ‘Madrasis’/’Chennaivasis’ in other cities
round the world to get together and organise events to remember where
they came from. But, that Penang will be first off the mark is not
surprising, considering the nearly 230-year connection the island has
with Madras.

It was a Capt. Francis Light, a trader associated with the firm of
Jourdain, Sullivan and de Souza, in Madras, who in 1785-86 negotiated
with the Sultan of Kedah to grant the East India Company the island in
exchange for protection against Siamese and Burmese intrusions. Light
later arrived in Penang on August 11, 1786 to take possession of the
grant and at the place where he landed Fort Cornwallis was
subsequently raised. He also renamed what was to be the nucleus of
Britain’s East Asian empire as Prince of Wales Island, but the name
never stuck; Penang or Pulau Pinang it has remained. It was to this
island that the first Indian traders and workers went from Negapatam,
mainly Tamils, and in time became an integral part of the island’s
cosmopolitan population.

What Madras has been to modern India, Penang has been to modern
Malaysia, recording a heap of ‘firsts’. One of them is St. George’s
Church, work on which was completed in 1816. It is the oldest Anglican
church in Southeast Asia and is the only building in Penang to be
declared one of the fifty National Treasures by the Government of
Malaysia. Not unlike St. George’s Cathedral in Madras in appearance,
it is no surprise to learn that it was built by Capt. Robert Smith of
the Madras Engineers. It was formally consecrated in May 1819 by the
Bishop of Calcutta, the Rt. Rev. Thomas F. Middleton. Three years
earlier, Middleton, the first Anglican Bishop of India, had
consecrated St. George’s in Madras which became a Cathedral church in
1835. In front of the church in Penang, gracing its immaculate lawn is
the ‘cupola-ed’ memorial to Francis Light. The first recorded service
in the Church was for the marriage of Light’s widow, Martina Rosella,
to John Timmer. The Church was restored over a period of a year
between 2010 and 2011. Our own St. George’s meanwhile, awaits its
promised restoration. But a Government heritage grant made things
easier in Penang.

Unlike Francis Day, Andrew Cogan and Beri Thimmappa in Madras, Francis
Light is well remembered in George Town, Penang, with several sites
still bearing his name.

ARMENIE
La compagnie des Chemins de fer du Caucase du Sud signe un accord avec
la société du chemin de fer géorgien

La compagnie des Chemins de fer du Caucase du Sud a signé un accord
avec la compagnie des chemins de fer de Ggéorgie sur un large éventail
de questions de coopération sur le trafic international entre
l’Arménie et la Géorgie.

La signature de l’accord a eu lieu dans le cadre de la 60e réunion du
conseil du transport ferroviaire de la CEI à Astana.

Les deux parties ont convenu des modalités de transfert des wagons,
des cargaisons et des conteneurs dans les stations de transfert, la
coordination des modalités et des calendriers, etc…

L’accord met un accent particulier sur les dispositions en cas
d’accident, les pannes et les situations d’urgence. Les deux parties
ont convenu de fournir une assistance mutuelle, c’est-à-dire une
réparation des trains, des grues, des moyens de lutte contre
l’incendie, des équipes spéciales de réparation et le personnel
médical.

Une commission conjointe sera mise en place pour régler les questions
relatives à la mise en oeuvre de l’accord. La commission sera dirigée
par des directeurs généraux adjoints des deux côtés.

dimanche 17 août 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

AZERBAIDJAN
Azerbaïdjan : un opposant arrêté pour trafic

Un opposant a été arrêté en Azerbaïdjan pour recel de drogue présumé,
a annoncé aujourd’hui à l’AFP son frère, Natik Adilov, journaliste
d’opposition. “Des policiers sont venus lundi dans la maison de mon
père à Sabirabad et ont arrêté mon frère Mourad Adilov”, un militant
du parti du Front populaire, en affirmant avoir saisi de la drogue lui
appartenant, a indiqué Natik Adilov, qui dirige le service de presse
du même parti. “Je n’exclus pas que ça soit une vengeance des
autorités pour mes propos critiques” dans le journal d’opposition
Azadlyg et dans l’émission d’opposition télévisée Azerbaican saati
(“Heure d’Azerbaïdjan”), a souligné le journaliste. Mourad Adilov, 31
ans, “a également pu être puni de cette manière pour son travail actif
en tant que militant du parti du Front populaire”, a-t-il ajouté.

Après son arrestation, Mourad Adilov a subi des tortures visant à lui
faire admettre sa culpabilité, a affirmé son frère. Les poursuites
visant des opposants et des défenseurs des droits de l’Homme se sont
multipliées ces derniers temps en Azerbaïdjan. Ainsi, Leyla Yunus,
directrice de l’Institut pour la paix et la démocratie, qui milite
depuis plusieurs années en faveur de la réconciliation entre l’Arménie
et l’Azerbaïdjan sur le statut du Nagorny-Karabakh, a été arrêtée fin
juillet à Bakou et inculpée de “trahison et de fraude fiscale”.

Son mari, Arif, un analyste politique réputé détenu peu après, est
visé par des accusations similaires. Un autre défenseur des droits de
l’Homme azerbaïdjanais, Rasul Jafarov, a été arrêté début août et
inculpé d’évasion fiscale. Toute contestation publique du régime du
président azerbaïdjanais Ilham Aliev, 52 ans, provoque aussitôt, selon
les ONG, une réaction sévère des autorités dans cette ancienne
république soviétique riche en pétrole.

dimanche 17 août 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

AZERBAIJAN DETAINS ACTIVISTS AMID KARABAKH TENSIONS

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #748
Aug 15 2014

Baku accused of exploiting rising violence to charge dissidents
with treason.

By Shahla Sultanova – Caucasus

Human rights defenders believe Azerbaijan’s government is using
heightened tensions around Nagorny Karabakh as an excuse to clamp
down on civil society activists, using accusations of treason to turn
ordinary people against them.

Activists Leyla and Arif Yunus and journalist Rauf Mirqkadirov were
among the few civil activists involved in public diplomacy projects
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, mostly organised by foreign embassies
and international organisations.

They have all now been charged with spying for Armenia, and the
Yunuses are among 24 Azerbaijanis deemed prisoners of conscience by
Amnesty International. (See Activists Arrested In Azeri Crackdown.)

The spate of arrests has come amid the most serious escalation of
violence around Karabakh since the war ended in a ceasefire agreement
two decades ago.(Azeri-Armenian Conflict Fears as Death Toll Rises.)

In Azerbaijan, treason is defined as a deliberate action committed by
a citizen to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity,
or security of the country. This encompasses defection, espionage
and helping a foreign state or organisation to commit hostile acts
against the republic.

Fariz Namazli, an Azerbaijani lawyer, says this very broad definition
allows the government to press charges against almost anyone.

“The law is unreasonable,” he continued. “Based on this article, any
cooperation with foreign organisations can be labelled as treason. The
law should explain what kind of cooperation is betrayal of the state.”

Prosecutors said the Yunuses collected information on Azerbaijan’s
political, economic and military situation and spread “propaganda
of the need to recognise the independence of the ‘Nagorny Karabakh
regime’ in exchange for the liberation of the occupied territories”.

Jasur Sumerinli, head of the Baku-based military research centre
Doktrina, said the charges were ridiculous. Only defence ministry
employees could have access to confidential documents and maps,
he said.

“Unless someone from the ministry leaked them to Leyla Yunus, she
alone could not get militarily sensitive documents,” he said.

He thought the government was exploiting this summer’s heightened
tensions around Karabakh, where dozens of Armenian and Azerbaijani
soldiers have died in the worst upsurge of violence in 20 years,
in order to crack down on activists.

Leila Aliyeva, director of the Baku-based Centre for National and
International Studies, said that since Nagorny Karabakh is such a
sensitive issue for Azerbaijanis, it can be successfully used by the
government to smear opponents.

“It doesn’t take a lot of effort to sell this to people. That is why
most citizens accept it without question,” she said.

>From comments posted on social media, it would seem that many people
have taken the government’s accusation at face value. Messages posted
on the BBC Azerbaijani Service’s Facebook page accused Leyla Yunus
of betraying her homeland.

Kheyale Khalili, 25, a resident of Ganja, wrote that she hated the
“traitor”.

When interviewed by IWPR, Khalili said that she had not heard of
Leyla Yunus before her arrest was announced on television on July 31.

“I am an Azeri. Of course I will be angry about someone collaborating
with Armenians,” she said.

State-controlled television remains the dominant source of information
in Azerbaijan. According to a 2013 survey from the Caucasus Research
Resource Centre (CRRC), only 22 per cent of viewers thought the
television news was unreliable.

CRRC survey results also showed that, for the last six years,
most respondents have seen the fate of Nagorny Karabakh as the most
important issue facing the country and almost all of them see Armenia
as Azerbaijan’s main enemy.

Last year, only 17 per cent of respondents said it was important for
good citizens to be critical of the government. Trust in President
Ilham Aliyev remained high at 84 per cent.

“If Nagorny Karabakh remains the number one problem our society is
facing, then it is much harder to point to our failing health care, the
poor state of education or human rights abuses,” said Jale Sultanli,
a PhD student from Azerbaijan at the School for Conflict Analysis
and Resolution at George Mason University.

Aliyev met his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan in Sochi on
August 10 to discuss the conflict. Both presidents said they still
backed a negotiated resolution of the conflict. (See Putin Mediates
Azeri-Armenian Talks on the meeting.)

Sultanli is one of the few experts in the country who thinks ordinary
Azerbaijanis and Armenians should launch their own efforts to help
bring peace between the two countries. In 2010 she established Caucasus
Edition, an online scholarly journal focusing on the conflict.

“There is a group of people across the region who have been working
together for many years now. These individuals and organisations are
the bridges that exist between two societies. Only our presidents can
agree to a solution, but it cannot be implemented without society’s
participation and involvement,” she said. “There is already minimal
support for public diplomacy efforts and these arrests contribute to
the negative perceptions and create more mistrust about these projects,
and about the organisations and individuals involved in them. It also
creates fear and discourages more people from getting involved.”

Shahla Sultanova is a freelance journalist in Azerbaijan.