Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ALI HASANOV: “IF AZERBAIJAN BEGINS TO LIBERATE ITS LANDS, IT WE’LL BE ABLE TO LIBERATE THE LANDS OCCUPIED LONG BEFORE, NOT ONLY IN THE 1990S”

APA, Azerbaijan
May 15 2014

[ 16 May 2014 12:56 ]

Baku. Ramiz Mikayiloglu – APA. Deputy PM and Chairman of the State
Committee for Work with Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov has commented
on the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ visit to Kalbajar and Lachin.

Ali Hasanov told journalists that the OSCE Minsk Group fact-finding
mission paid visits to the occupied regions in 2005 and 2010,
APA reports.

He said they detected the facts of illegal settlement process that
runs contrary to the international conventions during both visits:
“In 2010, the fact-finding mission reported that 14,000 Armenians
were settled in the occupied regions. Later on, this number was
recorded 18,000. However, Azerbaijani sources say up to 25,000
people were illegally settled in the occupied territories. Four years
have passed since the OSCE fact-finding mission published the last
report. It is questionable what the next visit of the mission is aimed
at. What results have the previous visits yielded so far? All these
new proposals, principles, visits are aimed at protraction of the
resolution of the conflict. The Azerbaijani President is acting in
the direction of forming a powerful army and economy. Perhaps, the
enemy would then realize that if Azerbaijan begins to liberate its
lands, it we’ll be able to liberate the lands occupied long before,
not only in the 1990s”.

HAIL AND FAREWELL TO THE CHIEF: TORIGIAN WILL OVERSEE OPP, OTHER AGENCIES, AS DEPUTY MINISTER OF COMMUNITY SAFETY

Waterloo Region Record, Ont. Canada
May 15, 2014 Thursday

by: Liz Monteiro, Record staff

Every morning when Police Chief Matt Torigian sat at his desk, he
would look at a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

He holds the leader in high regard because the 16th president of
the United States persevered and showed leadership throughout his
country’s Civil War.

Lincoln had vision and was steadfast in his convictions – two
attributes that Torigian tried to bring to the job each day as chief
of the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

“Whether you are the leader of your family, a community or an
organization, your decisions as a leader have an impact,” he said.

“(The portrait) is a reminder that you can’t get down and you continue
to strive for what you believe in,” he said.

Next month, Torigian, 53, leaves his job of almost seven years to
become Ontario’s deputy minister of community safety.

He admits it’s a decision he struggled with. He had always planned
to retire from the police service.

“It’s been an emotional tug-of-war to leave a place you absolutely
love,” he said.

But after the former deputy minister retired in December, Torigian
began hearing rumours that his name was being bandied about for
the job.

“I went home to Jill and said you’ll never believe what I heard today,”
Torigian said referring to his wife of 21 years.

So when the phone call came in mid-April, he wasn’t completely
surprised by the offer.

It’s a bureaucratic job that will move him behind the scenes, but also
a position of considerable influence. Torigian will help oversee the
Ontario Provincial Police, the Chief Coroner’s Office, the Ontario
Police College, Emergency Management Ontario and the Office of the
Fire Marshal.

During his tenure as local chief, the force has grown from a budget
of $96.4 million in 2007 to $141 million approved earlier this year,
while the numbers of officers went up from 700 to 770.

Torigian oversaw the restructuring of front-line deployment by
redesigning patrol zones and has placed a strong emphasis on gathering
data to measure the performance of the service.

But he prefers to let others speak of his legacy.

Childhood and family friend Mike Hoogasian said he isn’t surprised
that Torigian doesn’t want to talk about his successes.

“He appreciates what he has. He’s humble and doesn’t flaunt his
success,” said Hoogasian, who lives in St. Catharines.

Both men grew up on the same street and their parents, all of Armenian
background, were close. Torigian was the best man at Hoogasian’s
wedding and a godfather to one of his three children.

Both came to Waterloo to attend university – Torigian at Wilfrid
Laurier, Hoogasian at Waterloo.

“He is the funniest guy I know. He is a zest-for-life kind of guy,”
said Hoogasian.

Torigian was born and raised in Ontario’s fruit farm country. As a
teen, along with being part of the Canadian rowing team throughout
high school, he worked on his uncle Hygy’s farm in St. Catharines,
picking apricots, grapes, cherries and raspberries.

It’s this same uncle who introduced him to political ideas, giving
him Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Communist Manifesto.

“He had a thirst for knowledge and philosophical thoughts,” Torigian
said. “He allowed me to push the envelope on my thinking.”

Torigian enjoyed political theory so much that he went on to study
political science at Laurier. He also received a master’s in public
administration from Western University.

Torigian’s parents were born in Canada but his paternal grandparents
escaped the Armenian Genocide in 1915, when 1.5 million people were
murdered by the Ottoman Empire.

His grandfather was about 12 when he hid in a tree and watched as
his parents were murdered. He lay in a field pretending to be dead
to avoid detection.

He would later come to Canada and settled in Brantford, where many
other Armenians lived. Torigian’s father was born in Brantford and
would study aeronautical engineering in Detroit.

He went into teaching and retired as a principal. Torigian’s sister
followed in her father’s footsteps and is also a high school principal,
while his brother is a family doctor.

Torigian admits his first interest was to pursue a career in law but
after graduating university, he applied to be an auxiliary officer
with Niagara Regional Police.

At 25, he was hired by Waterloo Regional Police. His first assignment
was in Cambridge and he would work in various areas including patrol,
drugs, and the emergency response unit in which he was a sniper.

On his own time, he dabbled in local community theatre in Elmira and
it was there he met Jill. She did his makeup and the pair were soon
an item. They now have two children, Tali, 18, and Nick, 20.

In 1999, Torigian became the police service’s media relations officer.

That job came a year after his media work during a crisis at
Cambridge’s Parkhill Dam, where Const. Dave Nicholson drowned during
efforts to recover the body of 12-year-old Mark Gage from the Grand
River.

Torigian later saw promotions to inspector and superintendent. He
became deputy chief in 2005.

Torigian attributes his attachment to policing and working with people
to his upbringing, where being part of the community was paramount.

“The feeling you get when you help a total stranger who is relying
on you and he or she says thank you. That feeling comes naturally
and it’s an experience that makes it all worthwhile,” he said.

Torigian said he often remembers his uncle saying to him, ‘always
believe someone is smarter than you.’

As police chief, those words reminded him it was important to have
a competent team. “You don’t need all the answers,” Torigian said.

Torigian said he will remember that sound advice as he goes to Toronto
to work with the heads of the OPP, fire chiefs’ association and the
coroner’s office. He’s been reading briefing reports the last couple
of weeks to get up to speed with the organizations he will represent.

“It’s a huge learning curve. I would be lying if I didn’t say there
is some apprehension. But it’s the same feeling I had when I became
chief or any new job I had,” he said.

Torigian said he and Jill plan to rent a place in Toronto for now. But
he hopes to return to Waterloo Region and retire here.

“We don’t want to lose our roots here. We love it here,” he said. “I
want to come back and give back to the community and serve the
community in some way.”

SOVIET-ERA GHOSTS REVISIT ARMENIA

EDITORIAL | MAY 16, 2014 4:17 PM
________________________________

By Edmond Y. Azadian

As if there was a shortage of problems in Armenia, recently a new
topic was introduced into the national discourse. On April 30, the
Yerevan Council of Elders approved the initiative to erect a monument
dedicated to Anastas Mikoyan, spearheaded by the ruling Republican
Party (with council member Hayk Demoyan, director of the Genocide
Institute Museum dissenting), followed by Prosperous Armenian party.

The opposition Barev Yerevan Party voted against the measure.

The initiative seems to be the consequence of the resurgence of Soviet
era values in Russia, with its fallout in Armenia.

President Vladimir Putin’s domestic and foreign policy initiatives
require a psychological environment where Russia’s glorious past is
revived and emulated.

In a recent TV interview, while comparing value systems in Russia and
the West, Mr. Putin referred to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and commented that had the Soviet Union acquired the atomic
bomb before the end of World War II, most probably Stalin would not
have used it against Japan, which by then was already defeated.

This Soviet-era hero worship has also permeated Armenia’s political
culture, where some politicians are trying to restore luster to
Stalin’s associates, this time around Anastas Mikoyan, certainly,
a great statesman who was instrumental in the development of the
Soviet Empire, yet whose contributions to Armenia and Armenians remains
questionable. That is why the decision has triggered an intense debate
in the media.

A young and talented journalist, Hovik Afyan, commenting in Azg weekly,
wrote sarcastically that we have yet to see a monument dedicated to
the soldiers who delivered Karabagh to us while we are proposing
to erect a monument to a statesman who delivered Karabagh to the
Azeris. This treasonous charge has been corroborated by scholarly
research, unfortunately.

Mikoyan stands accused in history as Stalin’s henchman and executioner,
even to his people, upholding the interests of the Soviet regime
above those of his people.

Anthropologist Hranoush Kharatian has unearthed documents which reveal
the role played by Mikoyan during the critical years of the First
Republic of 1918-1920, in advocating the annexation of the Armenian
regions of Karabagh and Zangezour to Azerbaijan.

Indeed, during those years, the Karabagh Assembly had held seven
convocations voting for independence. With the intervention of the
British government, the Assembly had consented to accept temporarily
Azerbaijan’s tutelage, waiting for the Treaty of Sevres (August 10,
1920) which would determine the destiny of that territory. Documents
have proven that at that period, Mikoyan intervened with the Central
Committee in Moscow and said that Armenians voluntarily choose to
join Azerbaijan.

Another scathing document refers to the 1937 purges throughout the
Soviet Union. In a Kafkaesque perversion, Stalin and his henchman
would assign quotas for each constituent republic for potential
“enemies of the people.”

First the punishment was determined, then the number of the punishable
individuals was decided and after that, the “guilty” parties were
arbitrarily discovered and executed.

In the fall of 1937, Stalin had commissioned Mikoyan, Malenkov and
Beria to travel to Armenia to find the “enemies of the people” and
execute them. To ingratiate himself to Stalin, Mikoyan proposed to
increase the assigned quota in Armenia by 700 people. A document
signed by Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovitch, Chubar and Loginov states
that 2,000 people in Armenia had been executed, among them prominent
writer Axel Bakunts.

Despite the revelation of those documents, there are still people
who believe that it would be appropriate to dedicate a monument to
Mikoyan. Among them is the information security expert and prolific
blogger Tigran Kocharyan, who says that he does not understand why
some people are “opposed to the project.”

“One should not be afraid of a monument,” Kocharyan told ArmeniaNow.

“The best solution would be erecting a monument to both Mikoyan
brothers.” (Anastas Mikoyan’s brother, Artem, was a prominent warplane
designer responsible for many of the famous MIG military aircraft.)

He continued, “Mikoyan was a controversial character, but he was a
statesman of global significance. He was the president of the USSR
Supreme Council, the founder of light industry and he stopped the third
world war from taking place during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.”

His contributions were very significant to the Soviet Union, but one
would be hard-pressed to find any contributions to Armenia.

Many commentators argue that it would have been futile to stand up
against Stalin’s policies; anyone could dared oppose Stalin did so
at his own risk, meeting certain death.

But Afyan asked caustically, “Then where was [Mikoyan’s] world-saving
diplomatic skills which had averted the third world war?”

One can compare Heydar Aliyev, who was a Politbureau member during the
Soviet era and how he was able to depopulate the Nakhichevan Autonomous
Republic, which was 60-percent Armenian in the 1920s. He was able to
devise repressive measures to make life unbearable in Nakhichevan
and any outburst of discontent was discounted as an expression of
Armenian nationalism, punishable under Soviet law. The same policy
was applied also to people in Karabagh, but Aliyev could not achieve
his dream in that territory before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The majority of the Armenian population lives below the subsistence
level, and would not like to see any public funds diverted toward
monuments, regardless of pro or con sentiments in this case.

When Lenin’s monument was removed from the central square in
Yerevan, historians and writers believed that only General Andranik’s
monument deserved to replace it on that ornate marble pedestal. But
the beautiful pedestal was dynamited imprudently when Hampartzoum
Galstyan was mayor. Today, a huge screen has replaced the monument,
where news and commercials flash by 24 hours a day. Perhaps that
appropriately defines the current national ideology of the regime
more than any other monument.

Shahan Shahnour has stated that four symbols mark the four peaks of the
veneration of the Armenians: the Church, Ararat, Komitas and Andranik.

Andranik’s ashes were transferred with great fanfare from Pere Lachaise
Cemetery in Paris to Yerablur in Yerevan, to rest for eternity with
the heroes of Karabagh. A respectable move, yet still an indignity
in Shahnour’s estimation, a move he did not live to witness.

Andranik is a pan-Armenian hero. His birth in Western Armenia, however,
has denied him that status in Armenia. And the Soviet system entrapped
Armenia’s population in its parochial values. Therefore, it is not
surprising when the debate rages about Mikoyan’s memory and statue,
while Andranik does not inspire any such spirited debate.

Incidentally, history has also recorded cases of Byzantine emperors of
Armenian extraction, who, if anything helped bring down the kingdoms of
Armenia, the last one to fall being the Cilician Kingdom to Mamelukes,
after being undermined by Byzantine policies.

When the ghosts of Soviet era disappear from the horizon, we can see
the future clearer. Great symbols define great national ideologies.

When we are emancipated from our parochialism, perhaps we can find
the genuine truth and install Andranik’s memory and statue on its
rightful pedestal.

– See more at:

SHIRVAN LIBERATION FRONT HAS SENT MESSAGE TO PARTICIPANTS OF FIRST SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE ON TAT STUDIES HELD IN YEREVAN

17:32 16/05/2014 ” Society

Today the first international conference on Tat studies took place
in Yerevan State University attended by 40 scientists from Armenia,
Iran, Russia, Georgia, France, Germany, Poland etc.

The Chair of Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University (YSU) Garnik
Asatryan during the opening ceremony referring to the so far organized
conferences on Talysh studies, the operation of “Voice of Talishstan”
radio station, also highlighted the significance of Tat conference. He
noted that it will play an important role for studying the national
identity, language and culture of Muslim Tats and Caucasian Persians,
indigenous people of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Note that the Tats mainly inhabit in the Caspian regions of
Transcaucasus, from Absheron Peninsula to Mountainous Shirvan.

Significant amount of Muslim Tats starting from the late 19th century,
mainly due to the political circumstances, were subject to ethnic
assimilation or Turkification, a process that is on-going even today.

At the end of the conference’s opening ceremony, the members of
the organizing committee declared that Shirvan Liberation Front
organization unexpectedly has sent a message in Azerbaijani language
to the participants of the conference.

Vice-Dean of YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies, member of the organizing
committee of the conference Voskanyan in his speech referring to
the above mentioned organization noted that it declared about its
activities two months ago. The main goal of Shirvan Liberation
Movement is the establishment of Shirvan Persian Republic in the
present territory of the Azerbaijani Republic.

100 MUSEUMS IN ARMENIA, NAGORNO-KARABAKH TO JOIN PAN-EUROPEAN MUSEUM NIGHT

15:12 â~@¢ 16.05.14

Museums Unite Us is the slogan of the European Night of Museums 2014
event which this year attracts around 100 museums in Armenia and the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

At a news conference on Friday, Director of the Alexander Spendiaryan
House-Museum Marine Otaryan said the event has established its unuique
place in the museums’ life, helping them build stronger bridges with
the society.

“People often come to the museum on that day not in order to get
familiarized with the exhibits but to take part in interesting events.

If you ask the visitors, ‘do you remember anything?’, they will find
it difficult to answer. We will start the events at 19:00 in the yard,
and the museum will be open from 22:00,” she said.

Hasmik Melkonyan, the Avetik Isahakyan House-Museum’s director also
attending the news conference, said they were among the first to join
the initiative, adding that she feels very happy to see the people’s
flow on that day.

“We just want to be remembered not just on that single day,
because one day is not enough for getting familiarized with the
museum materials. I call upon parents to bring up their children
with museums from an early age. Our museums are really interesting,
and there is definitely a lot to learn,” she added.

Melkonyan said the museum will start the events at 6:00 pm local time
with the readings of the great writer’s poem Abu La La Mahari.

Isahakyan’s literary pieces in the poet’s voice and the songs composed
based on his writings will be played during the event.

“The museum will also feature expositions kept in the stocks. And
after 23:00, documentaries dedicated to Isahakyan will be presented,”
Melkonyan added.

Armenian News – Tert.am

MASS DEATH OF FISH IN ARMENIA’S SHAHVARD RIVER

Friday,
May
16

About 20 kilograms of fish were found dead in over 100 meters of
the Shahvard River in Armeni ‘s Aragatsotn province. A task group of
the regional rescue unit was sent to the scene near the village of
Voskevaz. Samples of water from the river were sent for analysis.

TODAY, 18:12

Aysor.am

ARMENIA IMPORTS APRICOTS FROM TURKEY: PRESS

05.16.2014 16:15 epress.am

The spring frost in Armenia damaged around 9,185 hectares — apricot
orchards were particularly severely affected, reports local daily
Zhoghovurd. In place of the Armenian apricot in the market, the output
of which will be small this year, will be imports. State Service for
Food Safety spokesperson Armine Sukiasyan, in conversation with the
paper, said, “In January and February 2014, 35 kg of apricots were
imported from South Africa; from New Zealand, 36 kg. While in April
and May, 454 kg of apricots were imported to Armenia from Turkey.”

The newspaper reports that 1 kg of the imported apricots cost about
2,500 AMD (about $6 USD), and the small amounts are due to test checks
on the market.

LE PRESIDENT ARMENIEN A PRESENTE SES CONDOLEANCES A LA TURQUIE

ARMENIE

Le président arménien Serge Sarkissian a envoyé mercredi un
télégramme de condoléances au président turc Abdullah Gul après un
accident dans une mine de charbon en Turquie qui a fait des centaines
de personnes de tuées.

Selon le site officiel du chef de l’Etat arménien, dans son
télégramme Serge Sarkissian a exprimé ses sincères condoléances
au Président Gul et au peuple de la Turquie et a envoyé des paroles
de consolation pour les familles des victimes et a souhaité un prompt
rétablissement aux personnes blessées dans l’accident.

Au moins 232 personnes ont été tuées dans l’explosion qui s’est
produite a une mine de charbon dans la ville turque de Soma, le 13
mai. 100 autres personnes sont restées piégées dans la mine.

vendredi 16 mai 2014, Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARF MEMBER: EU SHOULD REVISE ITS ATTITUDE TOWARDS ARMENIA

May 15, 2014 | 20:59

YEREVAN. – The EU should revise its attitude towards Armenia, ARF
Dashnaktsutyun member Giro Manoyan believes.

The European leaders made a mistake by saying Armenia’s accession to
Customs Union is incompatible with development of political relations
with EU, Manoyan said during a press conference on Thursday. Thus,
Brussels refused to ratify political part of the Association Agreement
with Yerevan.

“The West has much to think about,” Manoyan said, noting that Europe
made miscalculation on Ukraine. ARF member noted that now Europe does
not admit they are also to blame for what is going on, and are wrong
on Armenia, too.

In this context, the visit of President Francois Hollande to
Yerevan can be considered as a positive move for normalization of
Armenia-Europe relations.

“Hollande seems to have assumed responsibility of finding new format
of cooperation between Armenia and EU, and if he managed to do so,
this would have positive impact on the both parties,” Manoyan said.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

PRIME MINISTER SAYS JULY 1 IS THE DEADLINE FOR BUSINESSES TO EXIT FROM SHADOW

YEREVAN, May 15. / ARKA /. Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan
told a Cabinet session today that he had given the country’s 100
largest entrepreneurs six weeks to ‘exit out of shadow.’ On Wednesday
he had met with some 100 business people to discuss economic policies
of his new government.

According to the government’s press office, they spoke about a
“wide range of issues related to the current economic situation and
development prospects.” Abrahamyan was also quoted as saying that
he is open to their “frank evaluations and proposals” about how to
improve the investment climate in the country.

“We have agreed that the government will ensure level playing field
for everyone. In return the businesses must to get out of the shadow.

This is our condition. We have set July 1 as the deadline,” the prime
minister said today.

Abrahamyan said he had already given appropriate instructions to the
minister of finance and other government agencies.

“I hope they will try to keep the rules of the game, otherwise we
will use our leverages to resolve our tasks,” Abrahamyan said.

According to a report by Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, some 40
percent of the economy is in shadow. -0-

– See more at: