Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Latin American Herald Tribune
Aug 2 2014

Russia Expresses Concern over Armenian-Azerbaijani Clashes in Disputed Region

MOSCOW – Russia on Saturday expressed concerns about clashes between
the Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh that have left 13 dead on the Azerbaijani side in
recent days.

“We’re expressing our concern over the sharp deterioration of the
situation in the conflict zone,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, told local news agencies.

She said “a major escalation is unacceptable” and denounced the
fighting as “a serious violation of cease-fire accords and the
declared intentions of solving the dispute by political means.”

“We urge all involved in the conflict to show restraint, renounce the
use of force and take urgent measures to stabilize the situation,”
Zakharova added.

In 2010, Russia signed an agreement with Armenia that extends its
lease on a military base in that country until 2044, while also
pledging to safeguard Armenia – which is located between Turkey and
Iran – from external threats.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused one another in recent days of
carrying out attacks and making incursions into Nagorno-Karabakh,
which lies within Azerbaijan but is populated mainly by ethnic
Armenians.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said four of the country’s soldiers were
killed Saturday in border clashes with Armenia, raising the number of
Azerbaijani troops who have died over the past 48 hours to 13.

The eight soldiers killed on Thursday represent the biggest single-day
death toll for Azerbaijani troops since a cease-fire was declared in
May 1994, military expert Dzhasura Sumerinli told Efe.

The Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe has been
supervising that truce since then.

For its part, Armenia threatened Saturday to carry out punitive
measures against Azerbaijan’s military forces if the neighboring
country does not cease its incursions into the separatist enclave.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh goes back to the collapse of the
Soviet Union, when the region’s Armenian population sought unification
with Armenia, leading to a 1991-1994 war that left more than 25,000
people dead.

Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian troops occupy the entire enclave and
seven adjacent districts and have created a “security buffer” that
represents a third of Azerbaijani territory.

ANCA urges OSCE MG to ‘break habit of artificial even-handedness’

August 2, 2014 – 10:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued a statement regarding
Azerbaijan’s most recent attacks against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

“The Azerbaijani government’s July 31 and Aug 1 cross-border attacks
against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh are the latest examples of its
reckless military aggression in the face of international efforts to
stabilize the region and set the groundwork for a fair and enduring
peace,”Hamparian said.

“The OSCE Minsk Group’s unwillingness to clearly condemn Azerbaijani
military strikes has fostered a dangerous atmosphere of impunity that
has clearly contributed to this recent escalation of violence. It is
time for peace negotiators to break their bad habit of answering
Aliyev’s every assault with artificial even-handedness and diplomatic
double-talk. Only by unequivocally denouncing Azerbaijan’s attacks can
they hope to constrain Aliyev’s march toward a renewed Caucasus war.
An important first step would be an OSCE-led international campaign
demanding that Baku lift its opposition to the withdrawal of all
snipers, a life-saving proposal that Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have
supported for over 3 years,” he said.

On July 31 and Aug 1, Azerbaijani attacks on the lines of contact with
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have resulted in over 10 deaths. U.S.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf issued a statement on
August 1st expressing United States “concern about the escalation of
violence,” but stopped short of clearly condemning Azerbaijani
aggression. The statement went on to call on “the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan to meet at the earliest opportunity to resume
dialogue on key issues.”

Earlier in the day, Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chair, Ambassador James Warlick tweeted
“We are seriously concerned about the recent upsurge in violence along
the Line Of Contact. The ceasefire needs to be respected. #NKpeace”

1500 ceasefire violations by Azeri armed forces reported July 27-Aug 2

August 2, 2014 – 17:52 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – 1500 ceasefire violations by Azeri armed forces were
reported at the line of contact between Nagorno Karabakh and
Azerbaijan from July 27-Aug 2.

Azerbaijan fired over 16,500 shots from various caliber weapons
towards Karabakh positions. Besides, numerous attempts to penetrate
into the territory of Nagorno Karabakh were undertaken by the Azeri
armed forces.

Davit Tonoyan informs military attaché about Armenian party’s possible response

Friday 1 August 2014 18:59
Photo: Ministry of Defense of Armenia

Yerevan, August 1. /Mediamax/. First Deputy Defense Minister of
Armenia Davit Tonoyan received military attaché of foreign states
accredited in Yerevan and informed them about the dramatic increase of
tension on the contact line.

Davit Tonoyan presented the military diplomats information on
Azerbaijan’s subversive and sniper actions and Armenia party’s
response, the press-service of Armenian Defense Army reports.

The First Deputy Defense Minister shared with the military attaché his
assumptions concerning the goals the Azerbaijani party pursues and
informed them about the possible response of the Armenian party.

Davit Tonoyan recommended the military attaché to take relevant
measures through official channels to reduce tension and make
Azerbaijan refrain from new and provocative actions.

For demonstrated courage and dedication Norayr Camalian receives Medal
of Bravery

17:06 02/08/2014 >> POLITICS

Soldier Norayr Miqayel Camalian has been awarded a Bravery Medal by
the decree of the RA President Serzh Sargsyan, informs the press
service of the president of Armenia.

The president’s decree reads:

“Regarding the 16th paragraph of the 55th article of the Constitution
of the Armenian Republic and the law of the RA Republic on state
awards and titles,” I decided: to award the soldier Mikayel Camalyan
for his personal courage demonstrated during the defense of the
borders of the country and for serving his duty and endangering his
life.”

Azerbaijan ‘makes mockery of democratic aspirations’ in civil society
crackdown, says OSCE PA human rights chair

Saturday, August 2, 15:44

Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), the Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian
Questions, today deplored the intensifying crackdown on civil society
in Azerbaijan and called on authorities to quickly reverse the trend.

“With this latest round of attacks on the country’s civil society,
Azerbaijan is making a mockery of its stated aspirations to become a
modern, democratic state. I am shocked by developments that have
occurred in the last several days alone — namely, the barring of
human rights activist Rasul Jafarov from leaving the country and the
clearly politicized charges against Leyla Yunus and her husband,”
Santos said.

“The fact that these and other disturbing developments have come less
than a month after Baku hosted the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s
Annual Session makes them all the more shameful. I call on
Azerbaijan’s authorities to take their OSCE human rights commitments
seriously and immediately reverse this downward spiral,” Santos added.

The PA’s human rights chair also referred to a clause in the Baku
Declaration, the final document approved by Parliamentarians from
across the OSCE area at the conclusion of the recent Annual Session,
that “expresses concern at the misuse of administrative procedures and
legislation to detain, imprison, intimidate or otherwise silence human
rights defenders and critics in numerous OSCE participating States,
including Azerbaijan:”

Activist Rasul Jafarov, the chair of the Legal Protection and
Awareness Society, has worked to bring human rights violations in
Azerbaijan to the attention of the international community. His ban on
traveling abroad was revealed this week when he attempted to cross
into Georgia. His bank account has also been frozen and he has been
subject to official harassment. Jafarov was one of several leading
activists who assisted Santos in organizing a side event on
fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan at the OSCE PA Annual Session. The
event was attended by prominent Azerbaijani MPs, who actively engaged
in discussion on the topics raised.
Leyla Yunus, the director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy in
Azerbaijan, and her husband, Arif Yunus, were arrested on 30 July on
charges of treason, tax evasion and other financial crimes. The NGO
defends political prisoners, exposes corruption and promotes
people-to-people exchanges between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The OSCE PA’s human rights chair also expressed concern over the
sentencing last month of Azerbaijani education activist and NGO leader
Hasan Huseynli to six years in prison on trumped up charges.

Santos also noted with regret the announcement that independent
Azerbaijani newspaper “Azadliq” has been forced to suspend publishing
due to financial problems. The newspaper has faced official pressure
apparently in connection to its reporting on corruption. She described
the development as “another blow to the already state-dominated media
landscape.”

Santos further reiterated her intention to visit jailed Azerbaijani
rights defender Anar Mammadli, the Chairman of the Election Monitoring
and Democracy Studies Centre. In early June, she formally requested
permission to visit Mammadli during the OSCE PA Annual Session in
Baku, but has yet to receive a response from the authorities.

Aravot: Azerbaijan exercises great economic influence on Georgia

11:01 * 02.08.14

The paper has talked to Arsen Kharatyan, an Armenian civic activist
who moved to Georgia for a five-year residence earlier this year.

Below is an excerpt from the report in which the activist shared his
views on the Georgia-Azerbaijan relations and Azerbaijan’s economic
influence on the country.

As an especially important issue, Arsen Kharatyan emphasized Georgia’s
unproportionate economic dependence on Turkey and Azerbaijan, a
situation which the expert said would make any tension or increased
tension in the Armenia-Georgia relations more than improvident and
disadvantageous for both the Georgian-Armenians and the Republic of
Armenia. “This is my opinion. I just want to bring one example: when
the re-opening of the Abkhazian railway was under discussion – and
Ivanishvili addressed the issue in Yerevan – several [branches of the
oil company] Sokar began closing down here. Azerbaijan later imposed
an import tax on cars produced before 2004, whereas cars sold to
Azerbaijan account for 25 percent of Georgia’s Gross Domestic Product…
I don’t know to what extent all those things are interconnected, but
one thing is definitely obvious: Azerbaijan’s economic influence on
Georgia reaches such large scales that the country maintains economic
levers over Georgia.

“From that point of view, I think, the right thing for the
Georgian-Armenian relations would be to rely on the traditionally
established warm ties, instead of succumbing to the tensions or
deepening them. Yes, there are scores of problems which nobody denies,
but why not remember and concentrate on the positive?” the paper
quotes the activist as saying.

PHILATELIE ARMENIENNE
L’historien et homme politique John Kirakossian honoré par HayPost

La Poste arménienne HayPost vient d’émettre le 29 juillet un
timbre-poste dédié à l’homme politique et historien du génocide John
Kirakossian (1929-1985). D’une valeur de 330 drams, le timbre
représente le profil de John Kirakossian ainsi que la couverture de
l’un de ses plus célèbres ouvrages consacrés aux Jeunes-Turcs et le
génocide arménien. L’émission d’un tirage de 40 000 exemplaires a été
réalisée par l’imprimerie Lowe Martin Group (Canada).

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 2 août 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

Minister Of Education And Science – Artsakh

Mon, Jul 28th, 2014

Education System Meets EU Standards

Slavik Asryan, Minister of Education and Science

Education has always been a top priority in Armenian culture and in
Nagorno Karabakh Republic, where public educational institutions are
free and open to all students. Slavik Asryan, Minister of Education
and Science, discusses his ministry’s current projects and goals.

European Times: Can you describe Nagorno Karabakh’s educational system?

Slavik Asryan: Our system includes pre-schools, primary and secondary
schools, professional schools and both state and private universities,
including Artsakh State University, which offers 31 degree programmes
and has established ties to other universities around the world.
Accredited branches of Armenian and Russian universities also offer
educational services in Nagorno Karabakh. This year we have 6,500
students enrolled in our university system, of which 3,000 are
enrolled at Artsakh State University. Education is a priority for the
government.

European Times: What are some of your current projects?

Slavik Asryan: We are working with international institutions to
continue to upgrade our education system and to make sure it conforms
to EU standards. We work particularly closely with Armenian
institutions. Although as an unrecognized state we cannot officially
take part in the Bologna programme, we have made all the reforms and
met all the standards required in the Bologna system. A recent
conference in Stepanakert focused on education rights for unrecognised
states, including recognition of the diplomas we award our students.
Our current projects include investing in upgrading our educational
facilities, which we are financing with the help of Armenia and of the
Armenian Diaspora. We are also upgrading technologies employed in
education. We welcome the assistance of international financial and
educational institutions as we continue to improve our education
system.

European Times: How important is the education sector in Nagorno
Karabakh’s economic development?

Slavik Asryan: Education is a top priority for our country. Nagorno
Karabakh is a liberal, peaceful, free country which has worked very
hard to develop and improve every aspect of its economy, including the
educational system. We have now implemented the same EU educational
standards and regulations as Armenia has, but we need for our
students’ diplomas to be recognised abroad. One of this ministry’s
main goals is to ensure international recognition for diplomas awarded
by Nagorno Karabakh’s universities.

European Times: What is your personal message to our readers?

Slavik Asryan: The Ministry of Education and Science welcomes
partnerships of all kinds with international educational institutions
worldwide. Nagorno Karabakh’s education sector has implemented EU
standards and both it and our students have great potential.

Thomson Reuters Foundation
July 30 2014

Helping to settle a Syrian family in Armenia

Source: World Food Programme – Wed, 30 Jul 2014 01:22 GMT

It is seven months since I first met Maral Gahvesjian, waiting
patiently in a long queue of Syrians of Armenian descent, for their
WFP food rations at Charents 20, a residential area of the capital,
Yerevan. Maral, her husband and their three sons, fled their home
in Aleppo, Syria nearly two years ago – as she put it,
“leaving the dark days behind.”  

Life hasn’t been easy in Yerevan for Maral, 50. The family managed to
rent cheap accommodation on the outskirts of the city, without heating
during the cold winter – but she was happy that they were all together
in Armenia, safe and sound. She told me WFP food assistance was a
crucial safety net: “The wheat flour, vegetable oil, rice, pulses and
pasta helped us a lot as my eldest son was the only one with a job in
the family.”

These basic commodities are provided – thanks to Russia’s contribution
– through WFP’s six-month emergency food assistance programme to some
5,000 people in Armenia. Maral told me the family ration meant that
the little money they had could go towards other household essentials.
“Every day,” she said, “I bake Syrian bread using the WFP flour. I
sprinkle it with a few drops of water and draw a cross in the air
while wishing peace and better days to come for Syria.”

Seven months after my first encounter with Maral, we met again in a
small bistro, where she is now working, in a residential area of
Yerevan. She told me she feels more secure and settled – though I
spotted the Syrian flag displayed in the restaurant. Maral says she is
thinking of continuing her life in Armenia, a safe haven, rather than
returning to Aleppo when the war ends, as her family had initially
planned.

Behind the scenes: how WFP packaged food for Maral’s family – and many others.

The Armenian government made an unexpected request to WFP – to provide
individually boxed monthly food rations for ethnic Armenians who had
fled the war in Syria.

While it might sound simple, my colleagues were not used to anything
but bulk distribution. However, Yessai Nikoyan, head of logistics, had
previously worked for a private company specializing in packing and
moving – so he coordinated our small team to get things rolling.

The first step was to design the packaging and find a supplier to
provide good quality (and tough) corrugated boxes and paper bags. Then
we needed to hire skilled workers to sort the commodities and pack the
boxes, checking and weighing the contents. Yessai formed an assembly
line, assigning one person per commodity, with a team leader at the
end, to ensure that each of the five commodities were well-packed and
sealed. Five layers of corrugated cardboard reinforced the boxes to
withstand handling.

WFP’s Armenia office has completed three packing and distribution
cycles so far, with new box designs required each time there’s a
change in type of food distributed – just to keep things interesting!

Russia has been exceptionally flexible in allowing WFP Armenia to
re-programme some of its contribution for the existing school feeding
operation to cover the needs of displaced Syrians of Armenian origin
that have settled in Armenia after fleeing Syria. The six-month
emergency food assistance reaches some 5,000 displaced Syrian
Armenians out of a total of 16,000 who have arrived in Armenia since
the beginning of the Syria crisis.