Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARIF UNUS TELLS ABOUT TERRORISTS FROM AZERBAJIAN FIGHTING IN SYRIA, AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

11:51 12/07/2013
SOCIETY

More than 300 Islamites from Azerbaijan fight in Syria, Afghanistan
and Pakistan, a well-known specialist in the sphere of conflictology
Arif Unus told the Azerbaijan’s portal “Factheber”.

Talking about the fighting Salafis from Azerbajian in Syria,
Afghanistan and Pakistan he stressed: “There is no doubt that
this tendency is very dangerous. Up to now, we rarely met with the
representatives of Salafi movement in the country. The results of
our research showed that in about 200-250 young Azerbaijanis joined
the terrorist groups of Afghanistan and Pakistan”. And 3 of them were
women. Furthermore, in Syria 100 Azerbaijanis fight on the side of the
terrorists. 40 of them have their own special gang and fight in the
same cities. They even have their own website that is updated daily.”

Arif Unus mentioned that every year in Azerbajan Muslim believers are
arrested. For instance, as of May 1st, 256 believers, of which 70%
were salafits, were in jail. From those salafits jailed about 33%
were involved in war activities abroad. The Azerbaijan’s law, treats
this as severe crime, the expert said.

“After the soviet atheism a kind of vacuum was created in the faith
of people. The life of a man is impossible without faith. After the
collapse of communism, both Christians and Muslims started to soar
towards their religions. In that period in Azerbaijan real islamization
started. Despite the interest towards Islam of Soviet people from the
USSR they did not know about the nature of this religion. And now most
of the interested in Islam are Muslims. If we look at the mosques,
we will see that the larger part of people attending it are young,”
mentioned Unus.

According to the expert, the islamization of the Azerbaijani society
will only get more rapid. “On this background of islamization,
atheism will become weaker. If in the 90-s 1.2% of the population
were believers, currently they make up about 20%. According to
official data, 96% of the population is Muslim. However, about 20%
out of this 96% follow the rules of Islam, the rest are Muslims by
birth. Slowly though they are replaced by believing Muslims though
it is a long process.

Furthermore, the conflictologist said that he does not agree with the
term “radical” addressed to Islamists by the Azerbaijani authorities.

“With my research I wanted to show that there is an awkward policy
towards the Islamists both inside the country and outside of it. It is
not right to look into this issue through only one blade.” Unus said.

He noted that Azerbaijani society receives information about Islamists
directly from the official people or Ministry of National Security of
the republic. “For example, it is claimed that a terrorist attack has
been prevented and the organizers were arrested. At the same time,
the court proceedings were being held behind the closed doors. The
society has only that information. In reality, the true reasons of
their detention were not revealed. The detainees are presented to the
society as agents of Iran or Al-Qaeda. Nobody is in fact interested
to know that the person talking in front of the MNS cameras could
have been tortured to give such statements.

In the end, A. Unus stated that from the 20% Muslims only 2% are
radicals. In his words, the survey results revealed that 48% of
Azerbaijan’s population is for adopting sharia law in the country.

Recently the Media informed about a series of deaths of Azerbaijani
terrorists in Syria. In early April Turkish sites informed that about
30 terrorists from Azerbaijan had already died in Syria.

Overall, the ties between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan
have their roots since early 1990s. Then the Azerbaijani army, being
defeated in the aggression against Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) was
retreating suffering significant losses. Trying to save the situation,
the Azerbaijani authorities, headed by Heydar Aliev, attracted in the
war against the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians international terrorists
and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (Hulbendin Hekmatiara
groups), Turkey (Grey wolves, etc..), Chechnya (groups of Basaev,
Raduev and others) and several other regions.

Regardless the existence of thousands of foreign mercenaries and
terrorists in the Azerbaijani army, Azerbaijan’s aggression against
Nagorno Kharabakh Republic failed and the Baku authorities were forced
to sign a peace agreement with the representatives of NKR and Armenia.

However, the international terrorists had already acquired the ties
they needed in Azerbaijan and used them later too. Recruitment was
on-going amongst the Azerbaijanis, who were later sent to Afghanistan
and North Caucasus, where they were involved in the fights against
international coalition forces and Russian structures.

In recent years, citizens of Azerbaijan are actively involved in
terrorist and extremist activities in Russia, Afghanistan and Syria.

In Azerbaijan, the citizens of this Republic are put on trial for being
involved in forming “illegal paramilitary grouping” in Afghanistan,
are convicted only for limited terms.

Source: Panorama.am

TURKISH PM IS BEING INSINCERE – ARMENIAN TURKOLOGIST

July 12, 2013 | 01:45

YEREVAN. – Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call against the military
coup in Egypt was in defense of the Muslim Brothers, since the
presence of radical Islamists in the Egyptian government strengthens
official Ankara’s influence on official Cairo.

Turkologist Artak Shakaryan told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In the analyst’s words, Erdogan was very popular during the revolution
at Tahrir Square in Downtown Cairo.

As per the turkologist, military coups have left a great trace on
Turkey’s modern history. In recent years, however, Erdogan is making
efforts to weaken the position of the Turkish army, to avoid a
military coup in the country.

“All of Turkey’s military coups were carried out against the
Islamists, and therefore the military coup in Egypt has left a deep
psychological trace on Turkey’s leadership, since the army overthrew
the Islamists,” Shakaryan said.

10 PERCENT OF ARMENIA’S POPULATION SUFFERS FROM ALLERGIC RHINITIS

July 12, 2013 | 12:42

YEREVAN. – The most widespread seasonal allergy is allergic
rhinitis, and 10 percent of Armenia’s population suffers from it,
allergologist-immunologist Armine Hakobyan said during a press
conference on Friday.

>From the seasonal allergies, the physician also set aside bronchial
asthma, which gets worse in summer.

“For the most part, allergies are caused by pollen and some mildew
fungi. These may also cause bronchial asthma to grow worse,” Hakobyan
added.

She also pointed to the acute allergic reactions caused by insect
bites.

“Primarily the bee and wasp stings cause allergic reactions, but the
bee stings are more dangerous,” the allergologist-immunologist stated.

Armine Hakobyan also informed that five to seven people die in Armenia
each year because of insect bites.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Analyst: Azerbaijan’s acquisition of arms endangers security of not only Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, but also the whole region

by Marianna Lazarian

ARMINFO
Friday, July 12, 11:36

Azerbaijan’s acquisition of arms worth about 1 bln USD endangers
the security of not only Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, but also the
whole region, Richard Giragosian, Head of the Regional Studies Center,
said in Yerevan on Thursday.

He said that Armenia is in a very dangerous situation and such steps
of Azerbaijan should not be left without response. Unfortunately,
in the current situation Armenia has to take part in the arms race
to ensure its own security, the expert said.

Giragosian believes that Azerbaijan spends the major part of its income
on acquisition of arms and equipment from both Pakistan and Russia. In
the meantime, the analyst stressed that under conditions of undeclared
war Armenia manages to gain progress and it gives high priority to
quality, not quantity. He said that Armenia is the only country in
the region that does not endanger the security of other countries.

To recall, on June 15 the mass media reported about the sale of
Russian military hardware to Azerbaijan. The total value of the
systems delivered under contracts ranges from 700 mln to 1 bln USD. In
2010-2011 Russia supplied Azerbaijan with military hardware worth
almost 3 bln USD.

Head Of The Union Of Local Manufacturers Of Armenia: Armenia Should Shift To A New Policy Of Economic Mobilization

by Samvel Sarksyan

Friday, July 12, 12:44

Armenia should shift to a new policy of economic mobilization, Vazgen
Safaryan, Head of the Union of Local Manufacturers of Armenia, told
media, Thursday.

He said that to shift to the given policy it is necessary to establish
a new investment and development bank, separate tourism and industry
from the Economy Ministry and create relevant ministries, as well as
give these ministries and the ministries of agriculture, energy and
natural resources a status of economic- functional departments instead
of the current status of functional departments. Safaryan believes
that such change of the status will allow better managing the given
sectors through cooperation of the government and the private sector.

Safaryan thinks that another element of the new economic policy of
Armenia should be improvement of the copper processing line. At
present, Armenia exports copper concentrate with 26%-28% copper
content, in the meanwhile, downstream processing allows recovering
blister copper and refined copper with a 99.9% copper content. In
addition, he said, in cooperation with the private sector it is
necessary to build a copper mill and a chemical and metallurgical
combine in the Syunik region. These enterprises will operate on over
1.5 bln tons of waste accumulated in the tailing storage facilities.

According to Safaryan’s forecasts, in case of annual processing of 50
mln tons of waste, the profits will total $1.4 bln and the GDP will
be increased by $10 bln drams. It is possible to extract 106,000
tons of refined copper, 3.6 tons of gold, 142 tons of silver, 176
tons of tellurium, 70 tons of selenium, 220,000 tons of free sulphur,
and 5.6 mln tons of iron from the tailing storage facilities. Safaryan
thinks that downstream processing will allow developing the ferrous and
non-ferrous metal industry. Up to 1 mln tons of iron was used in the
Soviet Armenia. Processing of the tailing dumps will allow creating
15,000 jobs at the average monthly salary of $700 and improving the
environmental balance in the region.

He said that local production of leather and wool and the related
sectors also need a new approach. For instance, one of the local
carpet producer companies is ready to start processing of over 4,000
tons of wool accumulated in the country – up to 1,000 tons of wool
is accumulated in the country every year. Reactivation of the local
leather manufacturing enterprises will allow creating 3,000 jobs at
the shoe factories.

To raise funds from the citizens of Armenia, the Diaspora Armenians,
and foreign investors in such nation- wide projects, he said, it
is necessary to start issue of debt securities. In addition, the
government should take up the shares of the privatized enterprises with
foreign capital. The government should also participate in imports of
goods, which reached $4.2 bln drams in 2012. If the government’s share
in imports makes up 30%-40%, it will become possible to transform
that commercial capital into investment capital sufficient for
economic development.

“Our internal capital resources are sufficient to modernize economy
without raising foreign funds,” Safaryan said.

He believes that to achieve economic efficiency Armenia needs to reduce
the fiscal burden by 35%-40%. This will allow increasing the taxpayers
base. For conclusion, he said that the aforementioned measures should
pave the way for uneven development of economy, as the average annual
growth of GDP by 6.3% (400 bln drams) of the last several years is
insufficient for significant increase of salaries and pensions –
the spending capacity of the population.

In response to a question from ArmInfo as to whether it is possible to
conduct a mobilization economic policy in the current system of the
state governance, Safaryan said that to become a senior executive in
the Soviet period one was to progress up the career ladder, but now
‘a man in the street can be appointed a minister’ and this situation
should be corrected as well.

VICE SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT AND HIS BELARUSIAN COUNTERPART DISCUSS PROSPECTS FOR BELARUSIAN PARLIAMENT’S RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

ARMINFO
Friday, July 12, 11:40

Vice Speaker of Armenian Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov and his
Belarusian counterpart Viktor Guminsky discussed the prospects for
the Belarusian Parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide in
the Ottoman Empire.

Sharmazanov said that the year 2015 will mark the centenary of the
Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. “The non-recognition and denial
of the Armenian Genocide paved the way to nazism and fascism”, said
Sharmazanov. He expressed hope that the Parliament of Belarus will
touch on this issue.

During the meeting the sides also pointed out the need to promote the
Armenian-Byelorussian cooperation, as well as the interaction between
the two countries’ parliaments within both the CIS Inter-Parliamentary
Assembly and the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

ILLUSIONS OF ARMENIAN POLITICIANS

According to the Golos Armeniy, the U.S. Secretary of State Kerry
made a special statement on the 18th anniversary of the genocide
in Srebrenica.

“On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I join the
people of Bosnia and Herzegovina today in honoring the memory of
those lost in the horrific act of genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995,
which stole the lives of over 8,000 innocent people. As we know from
history, truth and reconciliation are essential to moving beyond the
past towards a better tomorrow.

We applaud those who continue to seek justice for the victims
and work to ensure that all citizens have the right to return and
to live peacefully in their pre-war homes. We reject efforts to
rewrite or manipulate history, deny the genocide, or negate Bosnia
and Herzegovina’s multi-ethnic character. We must always challenge
falsehood, we must combat it, and we must counter it with truth,
wisdom, and compassion.”

This statement sounds more than cynical since the United States
has refused to recognize the genocide of Armenians. No doubt their
“refusal” allowed ignoring the interests of Armenia by some other
states, including Russia.

All the state secretaries and other high-ranking U.S. government
officials have spoken up about genocides in different countries and
regions over the past two decades. In other words, genocides elsewhere
have been recognized except the genocide of Armenians in Turkey. At
the same time, the leadership and politicians of the countries that
underwent genocide officially put forth this issue in their foreign
affairs. For whatever reason, Armenia is an exception. At best,
it will thank for a relevant decision.

The primary and key issue that the Armenian government and official
representatives must put forth in negotiations and relations with the
United States is the issue of the genocide. This has never been done
before, at least publicly. The second issue should have been supply
of arms.

Why is it so? There can be only one explanation. The Armenian
politicians are still trying to exchange silence on genocide in
official talks with their personal image. This is so stupid and
meaningless that it is hard to believe that such motivation could
exist.

Similarly, for a long time the Armenian government preferred not
to raise the issue of military cooperation and supply of arms to
Azerbaijan with Russia (as well as the existence of the Armenian
issue in the talks between Russia and Turkey).

At present, a question occurs which the Armenian politicians and
commentators are not ready to answer. Would it be possible to avoid
currently obvious deterioration of Armenian-Russian relations? We
think that it would be possible to avoid deadlock, particularly by
way of consistent relations with Russia regarding supply of weapons
to Azerbaijan (at least).

These issues have been brought up by the Armenian government
immediately after Moscow found out that it can conduct its policy of
military trade. It was not too late even in 2010. However, the Armenian
government was highly vulnerable and could not afford avoiding risks
that, according to Armenian politicians, would occur in this case.

Real risks occurred now that Armenia has been unable to prevent supply
of modern Russian weapon to Azerbaijan. There were political resources
for that. Now there is only one thing – fast integration with the EU
and NATO and receiving necessary armaments from the countries of the
West. This decision was made in mid-2012, and it will be necessary to
develop these relations which will soon become more interesting. In
addition, the motives are obvious.

One would like to hope that in building relations with the
Euro-Atlantic community Armenia will use its experience of relations
with Russia. Despite Turkey’s efforts to lay claims on development of
relations between Armenia and NATO it will have no formal levers of
influence on NATO member states because the alliance cannot interfere
with export and import of armaments. The European Union has the right
to influence and control military supplies of member states but Turkey
is not an EU member.

Ostensibly, the issues of supply of arms to Armenia by the states of
the West have been worked out in a multifaceted way. However, there
may be problems as well therefore there is no need to be hypocritically
modest – this time the image of politicians will not improve.

Igor Muradyan 22:13 11/07/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

SURIK KHACHATRYAN IS BACK

Ex-governor of Syunik Marz Surik Khachatryan attended the ceremony
of introducing the next governor Vahe Hakobyan who is the son of the
director of Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine Maxim Hakobyan.

During the event Surik Khachatryan said that he had nominated Vahe
Hakobyan and urged the governor’s office to work properly. He also
said that he left his office on his own decision.

Surik Khachatryan is telling the truth indeed. No one could fire him.

In Armenia no one is sacked for such “trifles”.

He said the same things before though there were rumors on
controversies between the ex-governor and Maxim Hakobyan. These rumors
were aimed to show something was changing. Later everything cleared
up. Maxim and Liska were found out to be friends for 30 years, the
press reported about their financial and other deals.

The party after which the tragedy happened was organized by Maxim
Hakobyan. It is symbolic that his son now replaces Surik Khachatryan.

Surik Khachatryan who broke down after the tragedy in front of his
house is now “coming back”. The investigation follows his instructions,
and his “friends” continue supporting him. But the most important
thing was the ceremony at the governor’s office which was not aimed at
introducing the new governor as much as at reconfirming the role and
status of the ex-governor. Had it been stated that Surik Khachatryan
was fired, and the new governor was appointed without his consent,
Liska would “end”. This is the logic of the ruling regime.

It is hard to tell whether he was authorized to make the statements
he made but this is not important. The important thing is that nothing
will change for the “proud people” of Syunik.

11:11 12/07/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

ARMENIA IS ONE OF THE WORLD LEADERS IN THE SIZE OF THE HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT BY ABEL AGHANBEGYAN

Armenia is one of the leading countries in the world by the size of
hidden unemployment, according Aghanbegyan Abel, head of the department
of economic theory and policy at the Russian Academy of National
Economy and Public Administration.

“The unemployment rate in Armenia is extremely huge. Officially,
there are 265,000 people unemployed but in fact over 2.3 million
people of working age are employed only 1.1 million, the rest is
not considered unemployed. These figures can not be found in another
country, “he said.

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia, the number
of officially registered unemployed in February 2013 was 61,300 or 8.6%
less than in February 2012

Friday, July 12, 2013, Stephane © armenews.com

EU OFFICIAL URGES ARMENIAN EFFORTS TO AGREE ON PEACE OUTLINE

AzerNews. Azerbaijan
July 11 2013

11 July 2013, 14:40 (GMT+05:00)
By Nigar Orujova

The European Union is ready to continue facilitating a settlement
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, EU Commissioner
for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule said in Yerevan
July 10.

Fule arrived in Yerevan on July 9. According to the EU mission in
Azerbaijan, he will not visit the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

Fule’s meetings are planned with the Armenian leaders, including
President Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, as well
as the leaders of pro-government and opposition parties and civil
society representatives during the visit.

“We will continue to provide assistance to encourage progress in the
conflict settlement and to support related peace-building activities,”
he said.

Fule urged Armenia to step up efforts with Azerbaijan to reach an
agreement on the Madrid Principles, in accordance with the commitments
made by the presidents of the two countries within the Minsk Group.

“I know this is a painful and difficult subject, but it is one that the
European Union cannot hide from either in Baku or here, in Yerevan,”
Fule was quoted by Azerbaijan’s state news agency AzerTac as saying.

Recently, a European Parliament delegation paid an official visit to
Azerbaijan and met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

During the talks Mammadyarov expressed regret at the four relevant UN
Security Council resolutions’ being unenforced, and said the present
status quo in the conflict is unacceptable.

Azerbaijan also urged OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Leonid Kozhara to
intensify the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group at a meeting of the
Foreign Minister with the OSCE chief on July 8.

Kozhara in turn expressed concern over the problem of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and voiced support for the Minsk
Group’s activity, adding that “we also consider it necessary to step
up its activity.”

The Minsk Group, co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia,
has been mediating peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia since
the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in
1994 following a lengthy war.

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial
claims against Azerbaijan. Armenia occupied over 20 percent
of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial
claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy
war in the early 1990s. The UN Security Council has adopted four
resolutions on Armenia’s withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory,
but they have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of the peace outline dubbed
the Madrid Principles, also known as Basic Principles. The document
envisions a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh
to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of
Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the
right of all internally displaced persons to return home.