Author: Kalantarian Kevo

JEAN MEYENDORFF EN ARMENIEN

Avec la benediction de sa Saintete Karekine II, Patriarche supreme
et Catholicos de tous les Armeniens, les editions du Catholicossat
d’Etchmiadzine viennent de publier la traduction en armenien de
l’ouvrage intitule ” Introduction a la theologie patristique ” du
protopresbyte Jean Meyendorff (1926-1992), l’une des grandes figures
de la theologie orthodoxe du 20ème siècle.

Le livre est base sur les prises de notes de ses etudiants dans
le cadre de l’enseignement de patristique dispense par le père
Meyendorff. Les periodes couvertes vont de celle des Pères apostoliques
jusqu’a Nicolas Cavasila (4ème siècle). D’une lecture très aisee,
l’ouvrage est destine aux etudiants des academies de Theologie, de
la faculte de Theologie de l’Universite d’Etat d’Erevan et pour un
plus large lectorat.

Le livre du père Meyendorff a ete traduit par Th. Khatchdryan et K.

Kurkdjian. Sa publication a ete parrainee par M. Gabriel Tchemperdjian.

Centre d’Information du diocèse de France de l’Eglise armenienne.

jeudi 20 juin 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

KCHOYAN’S GODCHILD IN NATIONAL SECURITY ORBIT

Navasard Kchoyan’s godchild Ashot Sukiasyan who is wanted relating to
the offshore scandal, has sent a letter to the prosecutor’s office
informing that he registered the offshore company co-owned by Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan and Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan. Sukiasyan
said that Kchoyan and Sargsyan are unaware of it because he registered
their names without their knowledge.

Apparently, the prosecutor general’s office and the government which
has been thinking on how to cover up the offshore scandal instead
of refuting rumors are staging a comedy show. Let everyone laugh and
forget about it.

So, Ashot Sukiasyan’s letter was invented. They thought the story
would be so funny that no one would care about believing or not
believing Sukiasyan.

Here, there is nothing to believe. It is not important whether
Sukiasyan is right or wrong. Sukiasyan’s letter is not a refutation.

The godchild could go on to state that Kchoyan did not know that he
gave him a Bentley car. Perhaps, the godchild would have said so if
Kchoyan had not already admitted receiving the gift.

As to the offshore company, legally it is almost impossible to prove
that Tigran Sargsyan and Kchoyan were unaware of owning assets in the
offshore. The society will have to believe their word. But in Armenia
believing the government and their godchildren is a sign of stupidity.

A recent example of sincerity of the Armenian officials is the
statement of the minister of energy Armen Movsisyan who is known
for playing computer games during the meeting of parliament that he
does not know anything about the negotiations with Gazprom. Later
it was found out that he is discussing with ARG the transfer of the
government’s shares to Gazprom. The minister stated that he does not
remember the date of the agreement on gas price increase.

After such things it is difficult to believe the sincerity of Armenian
officials.

If Tigran Sargsyan is a victim, he must at least prove it because
if Kchoyan’s godchild is able to involve them in such deals without
their knowledge, he is presumably capable of lying too saying that
the premier and Kchoyan did not know.

So, either he provides clear evidence and reveals the mechanism how
the godchild could register people without their knowledge or they
should apologize to the society and tell the truth. Perhaps, Tigran
Sargsyan had a very strong reason to get involved in the economic
affairs of the godchild that the society will thank him for his
sacrifice for the sake of an Armenian citizen.

Besides, Armenia seems to have established such a system of financial
control which has viable barriers to money laundering and other
machinations. At least the government of Armenia claims that it has.

By the way, Tigran Sargsyan’s role as the head of the Central Bank and
now the government is huge in the establishment of this mechanism. So,
in this context it is so strange that the offshore company was
established, then it did some business in Armenia, made some transfers
but was never detected by the system aimed to fight machinations.

Here is an issue of national security. By and large, it is not
important whether the prime minister was aware or not. The important
thing is that the national security was unaware, perhaps because
godchild Sukiasyan was not a friend of dissidents but the Apostolic
Church. The national security is careful to only dissidents.

James Hakobyan 12:32 19/06/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

ARMENIAN SPEAKER HOPES FOR STRONGER STRATEGIC RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

June 18, 2013 – 18:12 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamyan met
Tuesday, June 18 with Russian ambassador Ivan Volynkin, who pledged to
promote development of bilateral relations during his term in office.

Congratulating the envoy on the appointment and wishing him
every success at the post, speaker Abrahamyan voiced hope that
Armenian-Russian strategic ties will strengthen in the future.

As to interparliamentary relations, he noted that their high level
is ensured by the work of the joint interparliamentary commission.

The two men also dwelled on a number of regional issues.

HOMEMADE JAMS, GATA, AND SUDZHUK ATTRACT TOURISTS IN ARMENIA

11:08, 19 June, 2013

YEREVAN, JUNE 19, ARMENPRESS. The tourists visiting Armenia pay special
attention to the homemade Armenian jams sold in the pavilions situated
next to the historical and cultural sites. Within the framework of the
Armenian-Russian academic touristic expedition held under the slogan
“Learn about the Motherland and Tell about It”, the “Armenpress”
reporter made an attempt to find out what the tourists buy most of
all by revealing some of their preferences.

When I approached the pavilion by grandiose Ohanavank, the saleswoman
became very excited, learning that I am a reporter. I asked her about
the preferences of the representatives of various nations visiting
the temple. Mrs. Zoya stated: “The Germans usually buy walnut jam. The
Italians buy only rose jam and sometimes they also take sudzhuk.” Among
other things she said that the Belgians are not fond of shopping
unlike the Frenchmen and Canadians, who buy relatively more.

The 2nd Armenian-Russian academic touristic expedition held under the
title “Learn about the Motherland and Tell about It” launched on June
8. The participants started the trip to learn about the picturesque
site of Armenia from “Sasuntsi David” station.

The participants finished their trip with an entertaining bicycle
race. The aforesaid 62 km long race launched in Jermuk and ended in
the Yeghegis Canyon. Burning sun did not hinder the successful course
of the bicycle run, which heralded the end of this significant event
aimed at raising Armenia’s popularity.

Hakob Vardanyan found out preferences of the tourists

JAVAKHK-ARMENIAN BUSINESSMAN MAKES CALLS FOR UNITY

12:07 ~U 19.06.13

Sos Sahakyan, a businessman from Georgia’s Armenian-populated region
Javakhk, has plans to organize an Armenian-Georgian business conference
later this summer to bring together ethnic Armenian businessmen from
the two neighboring countries, as well as abroad to discuss development
plans for the region.

The businessman had earlier set up the foundation Damala to assist
his native village and other Armenian towns and villages in the region.

The initiative is expected to set a good precedent for other similar
projects to improve the socio-economic situation in Javakhk.

Sahakyan calls upon all the Javakhk Armenian public and cultural
figures and businessmen to join their efforts around the common goals.

Tert.am has talked to the businessman to know his plans on this and
other initiatives.

“The Damala day was celebrated a couple of days ago, for the sixth
time, as we know. What laid the foundations of the tradition to mark
the day?”

“In 2007, a group of individuals initiated the re-opening of Damala’s
Holy Cross Church. And the goal was the following: to involve maximum
possible Damala people from around the world in the project to make
them more attached to their native village. And I am pleased to note
that we had active responses. On May 1, 2008, the church opened after
re-consecration. The enthusiasm gave us the idea of making May 1 the
beginning of Damala’s holiday. So the day has been celebrated for
six years, enjoying a large popularity.”

“Nonetheless, the village’s day was celebrated on June 2 this year.

What was reason of the delay?”

“The celebration was a little bit postponed this year because we wished
to give it a new coloring. In particular, the Damala foundation opened
this time to set more serious tasks and broaden the frameworks of the
contributors. It is a pleasure for me to note that this year we saw an
unprecedented presence of an official Armenian official delegation,
including seven parliament members headed by the National Assembly’s
deputy speaker, Eduard Sharmazanov, the Shirak [region’s] governor,
Felix Tsolakyan, as well as the Matenadaran’s [ancient manuscripts’
museum] executive director, Hrachyan Ramrazyan. There were also
attendees’ from the Georgia’s parliament, headed by the deputy speaker,
Zviad Dzidziguri, as well as representative from Samtskhe Javakhkh’s
regional authorities.”

“What problems will the foundation solve and what are the
expectations?”

“Around 500 families live in Damala today, so the village has gained
a new spirit after the big exodus it saw from 1991 until 1995. The
exodus was, of course, throughout Javakhk, and why not Armenia; it had
a negative impact on the region’s demography. But on the other hand,
there is a good proverb which says, ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’;
so the Javakhk [-Armenians] who moved to Russia, found themselves
immediately. We made sure, as a result of many meeting, that some
of those working abroad are willing to make their contribution to
the socio-economic development of their villages and region, and why
not, Armenia.”

“So the foundation’s activities will go beyond the borders of Damala?”

“Let me first of all say how we came up with the idea. Following the
re-opening of the Damala church, churches in around 20 villages were
re-consecrated and re-opened. I made sure it is necessary to change
the format of livening life in villages and time to give attention to
many socio-economic, as well as educational and cultural issues. I
am more than sure that we will soon see more foundations open in
different towns and villages of Javakhk. The [Dalama] foundation will,
for the time being, direct its activities to solving domestic problems
in the village.”

“What will be the long- and short-term objectives, and what projects
will be proposed to achieve them?”

“The foundation’s long-term objective will be the implementation of
investment programs. We have a preliminary agreement with the Georgian
Ministry of Economy to organize a business forum in Tbilisi in late
June or early July. We expect attendance by businessmen from not only
Georgia and Armenia, but also abroad. After realizing the Georgian
authorities approaches after the forum, we can boost the business
cooperation, to realize the potentials.”

“CHOIR OF INNOCENT ANGELS”

June 18 2013

The head of ANC faction Levon Zurabyan describes the Deputies of the
fifth convocation as such. – Though the 2012 report of the Control
Chamber has been in the center of interests and analysis by media for
several months, and the passions around it seemed to have settled
down, but recently the passions of the said report again inflamed at
the Parliament. It was interesting that it especially become the
target of the Republican Party. Why or with what the said report was
not liked by the political majority. – For years, the Control Chamber
has submitted much stricter documents, but no one had talked about
them. I would like to remind you that for the first time there were
references made to the scandalous findings of the Control Chamber,
when in 2011during the dialogue with the authorities, the Armenian
National Congress prepared a well-grounded document, including the
findings of the Control Chamber regarding the budget misspend.

Moreover, the ANC, our faction often uses the CC’s findings and
justifications. No matter you want to consider it immodest, but the
attention of the CC report started from the time when we entered the
parliament and began to criticize looting, theft, wastes of budget of
the country intensively using the CC reports. In other words,
something that was made silent, now they can not make it silent,
because on every occasion we are reminding about these findings. And a
strange situation started. First, no matter how they tried to make it
silent, the public realized that simply looting of the state budget is
going on. In 2009, the report clearly states that randomly chosen four
per cent of budget expenditures were checked and a theft and waste of
eight billion Armenian drams was discovered. This means that if we
take all the stats, and do extrapolation, it will turn out that during
one year, in 2008, a half-billion dollars was stolen, which was proved
by CC auditing. In fact, the report of 2012, in this respect, was much
weaker: there are facts of the cable and bio-toilets, that were
flagrant facts, because it was proved that ten times more money was
spent than was necessary. But no matter how shameful examples are
brought, one can always counter that they are simply episodes or
individual cases. The strong point in the report of 2009 was that not
a few cases were brought but inspections by statistical sampling were
performed. Only after when we mentioned it in our report of 2011, they
did not refer to it anymore. The CC, unfortunately, stopped giving
general assessments of how much is wastes from the budget. But at
least they gave an assessment to which everyone referred. That is, 701
billion Armenian drams misspent from the budget was estimated by CC
President as money available in the field of severe corruption risk.

If we translate it in a human language, it means that the main part of
the budget is simply robbed, misspent, and stolen. Everyone understood
it. Now the Republican Party is trying to get out from it. It seems
that there are two opinions about their viewpoints as to how it can be
done. One wing has decided that the best way to self-justification is
to shout ahead of the opposition – catch the thief, like all thieves
are going. It’s a known step. The other side, however, is trying to
follow the way of denial and lessen the effect of these findings. It
is obvious that this is a war going on between the two parties. But
I’m pleased with it. Both tactics are beneficial to us: one the one
hand, they are trying to conceal the truth, on the other hand, however
they take it on themselves, the issue gets a great public response. –
And who is to blame, especially when Gagik Jhangiryan said in his
speech that during the discussion with the ANC faction the CC
President has told that during the last two years he is not sending
the results of CC studies to the RA Prosecutor’s Office, because he is
disappointed from the said body. The CC President said that for
criminal responsibility the law places restrictions on their part. The
Deputies recommended that the government introduce legislative
changes, and the Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan said that it
would be better if MPs do it. So, why are these findings for? – In
general, the current parliament looks like a choir of innocent angels,
where everyone speaks about the fat and lucky bureaucrats, about
robbers. They have fully adopted the vocabulary of the opposition, the
ANC. As one of the Deputies said very correctly that they no longer
consider such statements as correct, they are already using such
expressions. But they give no names. And they want us, the naives, or
our people, naive society think that, let’s say, this multi-billion
dollar plunder is taking place during the management of Serzh
Sargsyan, and the general authorities and leaders of this country as
Serzh Sargsyan, Tigran Sargsyan, Hovik Abrahamyan and others, are not
aware of it. Here, there are two options. Option number one – I really
do not know. Although in that case, I am sorry, we deal with insanity
loafers who are absolutely no competent and generally do not know the
ways to govern this country. This option, of course, is very difficult
to believe because the statements publicized by them prove that along
with the plunder of the state budget, they are gradually accumulating
millions. Well, let’s synthesize, this proven looting of the budget
and simultaneous enrichment of the country’s general authorities. I do
not think there will be someone who will convince the option that
these people do not understand anything, do not know the situation,
and this looting proceeds by itself, and for some reason, they become
wealthy. What conclusion we arrive at: we deal with, as Levon
Ter-Petrosyan says, corrupt from top to bottom, with the systematic
looting. Using the state authoritative system, they plunder the nation
in a systematic and comprehensive manner, and, by the way, the law
enforcement bodies who were supposed to stop looting also serve for
this purpose. What are we supposed to do with such a regime? Is there
another way left to do rather than to stand up side-by-side with
people and send these thieves to the landfill of history? – And when
is ANC going for active operations, rallies, protests, etc., as you
said to send the thieves to the landfill of history? – If there is a
political force, who can be blamed at least for being passive or not
organizing rallies is ANC. For five years we are engaged in
unprecedented activity of organizing mass rallies in Armenia. We had
cycles of several breaks, but in the same 2011, we held more than 20
rallies, including 24-hours rallies. This is normal in policy. If you
constantly deal with rallies, you can outwear the political wave.

That’s why we always calculate and hold rallies along with political
processes. Now, yes, we are in the period of pause that is conditioned
by a few facts, and one of them is that people are simply tired of
constant rallies and elections. Although the ANC has held several
meetings during summer, because the political processes had been hot,
but now this is not the situation that we must ignore the fact of
summer. And, indeed, it turns out that deterioration of the social
situation, very often, as they say, must reach the bone, so that the
people will stand up. We keep our hands on the pulse and from the
moment when we see that we can start the effective political process,
do not think that we will straight away enter into fight. – People
will really feel the wave of increase of price from July on their
skins. Do you think that a social riot, however, will take place in
Armenia, in the fall, because the history showed that social riots can
not happen in our country? – I agree with you that, for some reason,
such a dogma is brought to the head of people that social riots can
not happen in Armenia. Social riots were restrained in Armenia with
the consciousness of people and with prudence of the opposition
because we all understand that there is an issue of Karabakh. Armenia
can not afford that the state machine, the army, the police, etc., are
dissolved for months, as it happened in Egypt or Tunisia. Now these
springs are available in Armenia, they operate, but it seems that the
authorities do not learn lessons from it. They do not realize that
they can bring the process of oppression to such a degree that even
these springs may no longer function. Now they are bringing our
country closer to that border, when a collapse of the state and
financial system may happen. But in this case the opposition will not
be able to stop anyone. The role of the opposition in this case would
be trying to transfer all these to a civilized and organized channel,
and trying to build a political process where the transfer of power is
made smoother and without shock. Conversation held by Nelly
GRIGORYAN “Aravot” Daily

Read more at:

© 1998 – 2013 Aravot – News from Armenia

TURQUIE : LE GOUVERNEMENT MENACE D’UTILISER L’ARMEE CONTRE LES MANIFESTANTS

Istanbul – Le gouvernement turc a menace lundi de recourir a l’armee
pour eteindre la contestation antigouvernementale qui agite le pays
depuis plus de deux semaines, alors que deux puissants syndicats ont
appele a la grève generale pour soutenir les manifestants.

Au lendemain de la demonstration de force du Premier ministre Recep
Tayyip Erdogan devant plus de 100.000 partisans, son vice-Premier
ministre Bulent Arinc a durci le ton en envisageant de mobiliser les
forces armees pour ramener le calme dans la rue.

La police “usera de tous les moyens qui lui sont conferes par la
loi”, a declare M. Arinc dans un entretien accorde a la chaîne de
television A Haber. “Si cela ne suffit pas, meme les forces armees
turques peuvent etre utilisees dans les villes sous l’autorite des
gouverneurs” de regions, a-t-il averti.

Gardienne autoproclamee de la Turquie laïque, l’armee turque est
longtemps intervenue dans la vie politique, notamment par des coups
d’Etat. M. Erdogan est parvenue a la mettre au pas a coups de purges
et de procès qui ont decime sa hierarchie.

La mise en garde du gouvernement est tombee alors que la Confederation
syndicale des ouvriers revolutionnaires (DISK) et de la Confederation
syndicale des salaries du secteur public (KESK) ont decide de monter
dans le train de la contestation, en difficulte depuis la chute de
son bastion du parc Gezi d’Istanbul samedi.

Comme elles l’ont deja fait le 5 juin dernier, ces deux organisations
classees a gauche ont lance un appel a la grève et prevu de faire
descendre lundi leurs militants dans les rues. En debut d’après-midi,
plusieurs milliers de personnes se rassemblaient en deux cohortes
distinctes de part et d’autre de la place Taksim avec l’intention de
la rejoindre.

Vide de ses occupants par une intervention musclee de la police samedi
soir, cette place emblematique est bouclee par les forces de l’ordre.

Tout au long de la journee de dimanche, la police a repousse les
manifestants qui tentaient de s’en approcher a grand renforts de gaz
lacrymogènes et de canons a eau.

Presse d’en finir avec la pire fronde qu’il essuie depuis son arrivee
au pouvoir en 2002, le gouvernement turc a menace de reprimer les
defiles syndicaux de lundi.

“Il y a une volonte de faire descendre les gens dans la rue par des
actions illegales comme un arret de travail et une grève”, a mis
en garde le ministre de l’Interieur Muammer Guler, “cela ne sera
pas autorise”.

Vague d’interpellations

Après le coup de force de la police contre les irreductibles du parc
Gezi, M. Erdogan a enfonce le clou en etalant sa force dimanche lors
d’un meeting geant a Istanbul.

Pendant près de deux heures, le chef du gouvernement a parade sans
retenue devant ses troupes. “J’ai dit que nous etions arrives a la
fin. Que c’etait devenu insupportable. Hier, l’operation a ete menee
et (la place Taksim et le parc Gezi) ont ete nettoyes”, a-t-il lance
sous les vivats de la foule.

Très virulent, le Premier ministre a egalement promis de poursuivre
tous les “responsables” de la contestation, meme les medecins qui
ont soignes les manifestants blesses ou les hôtels de luxe qui les
ont accueillis. “Nous connaissons très bien ceux qui ont protege ceux
qui ont coopere avec des terroristes”, a-t-il prevenu.

Signe de la fermete des autorites, près de 600 manifestants ont
ete arretes dimanche a Istanbul et Ankara, selon les barreaux des
deux villes.

Comme celle qui a lance la contestation dans toute la Turquie le
31 mai, l’intervention de la police dans le parc Gezi samedi soir a
fait descendre des dizaines de milliers de personnes dans les rues
d’Istanbul, d’Ankara et Izmir (ouest).

Dans les deux premières villes, des affrontements ont oppose
jusque tard dans la nuit de dimanche a lundi des groupes de jeunes
manifestants a la police.

Le collectif Solidarite Taksim, principale coordination de la
contestation, a evoque des “centaines” de blesses après l’evacuation
musclee du parc Gezi, le gouverneur d’Istanbul Huseyin Avni Mutlu a
fait etat de moins d’une cinquantaine.

Selon le dernier bilan du syndicat des medecins turcs publie la
semaine dernière, 4 personnes sont mortes et près de 7.500 autres
ont ete blessees depuis le 31 mai.

Les brutalites policières et l’intransigeance de M. Erdogan lui
ont valu de nombreuses critiques et terni son image a l’etranger,
notamment aux Etats-Unis et en Europe.

Lundi la chancelière allemande Angela Merkel a juge “beaucoup trop
dure” la repression des manifestations turques. “Ce qui se passe
actuellement en Turquie ne correspond pas, selon moi, a notre
conception de la liberte de manifestation et d’expression des
opinions”, a-t-elle juge.

mercredi 19 juin 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

LE GOUVERNEMENT ARMENIEN POURRAIT REVOQUER UN CONTRAT AVEC UNE SOCIETE ESPAGNOLE

Le vice-ministre du Transport et de la Communication Hrant Beglaryan a
declare que le gouvernement pourrait revoquer l’accord avec la societe
espagnole Corsan Corvian Construccion qui a avait gagne un appel
d’offres lance par le gouvernement armenien d’un montant de 250
millions de dollars pour la construction d’un couloir de transport
Nord-Sud qui est cense etre une autoroute a quatre voies en Armenie
qui s’etend sur 550 km – de la frontière avec l’Iran vers la frontière
georgienne.

En mai, la Chambre parlementaire d’audit d’Armenie a declare dans un
rapport qu’elle avait revele une longue serie de violations du
contrat. En particulier, elle a declare que la construction de la
route n’a pas respecte les normes requises et a ete faite en beton
d’une qualite extremement faible.

” En ce moment nous n’allons pas revoquer l’accord, mais nous avons
mis en avant des revendications et si l’entreprise ne se conforme pas
avec elles, nous allons resilier le contrat ” a declare le
vice-ministre.

mercredi 19 juin 2013,
Stephane ©armenews.com

LA QUESTION DU HAUT-KARABAGH AU COEUR DU DEBAT AU SOMMET DU G8

Les presidents des Etats-Unis, de la France et de la Russie ont
critique mardi 18 juin 2013 l’Armenie et l’Azerbaïdjan qui n’ont
pas reussi a trouver un terrain d’entente au sujet du conflit du
Haut-Karabagh. Selon eux, le statu quo est inacceptable.

” Nous exprimons notre profond regret. Plutôt que d’essayer de trouver
une solution basee sur des interets mutuels, les parties ont continue a
rechercher un avantage unilateral lors du processus de negociation “,
ont declare les presidents Barack Obama, Vladimir Poutine et Francois
Hollande lors du sommet du G8 en Irlande du Nord. ” Nous exhortons
les dirigeants de l’Azerbaïdjan et de l’Armenie a se concentrer sur
les questions qui restent en suspens “, ont-ils averti.

Les trois dirigeants ont reitere leur conviction que le conflit peut
etre resolu par des moyens pacifiques. ” Une reprise des hostilites
serait catastrophique pour la population de la region, entraînant
la perte de vies, des degâts materiels et aurait d’enormes coûts
financiers “, disaient-ils.

Obama, Poutine et Hollande ont egalement precise que les puissances
mediatrices sont un element cle des accords de paix qui ont ete
proposees pour les parties en conflit au cours des dernières annees.

Les Etats-Unis, la Russie et la France ont fait des declarations
conjointes similaires sur le Karabagh a plusieurs reprises dans le
passe. Dans leur declaration precedente publiee en juin dernier,
ils ont exprime leurs ” regrets ” sur l’impasse du processus de paix
au Karabagh et ont declare que les parties ne devraient pas retarder
davantage un règlement pacifique. Aucun progrès dans les pourparlers
de paix armeno-azerbaïdjanais n’ont eu lieu depuis.

Les diplomates americains, francais et russe du Groupe de Minsk tentent
actuellement d’organiser une nouvelle reunion du president de l’Armenie
et de l’Azerbaïdjan dans l’espoir de mettre fin a l’impasse.

Le ministre des Affaires etrangères azeri Elmar Mammadyarov a suggere
le mois dernier que le processus de negociation prendra un nouvel
elan après l’election presidentielle azerbaïdjanaise qui aura lieu
en octobre prochain.

L’Armenie n’a pas tarde a reagir a la dernière declaration faite par
Obama, Poutine et Hollande. Le ministre des Affaires Etrangères Edouard
Nalbandian a declare que Erevan est d’accord avec ces principaux
points. Dans une declaration ecrite, Nalbandian a blâme Bakou pour
son manque de communication. Il n’y a pas eu de reaction immediate
de la part de l’Azerbaïdjan.

mercredi 19 juin 2013, Laetitia ©armenews.com

NAGORNO-KARABAKH AND THE EU: TIME TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 18 2013

AMANDA PAUL
[email protected]

Of all the international players involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the EU has good reason to
be concerned over the threat the conflict represents for regional
stability and security, which is not in the least related to the
energy and transport corridors the EU is heavily invested in.

Therefore, one would expect that the EU would be playing a proactive
role in efforts toward a solution. Yet this is not the case. To say
the EU has had a cautious approach towards the Karabakh conflict,
would be an understatement.

Still, through a number of regional policies, including the European
Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, the EU has slowly
increased its focus on conflict resolution in the South Caucasus. This
was further accelerated following the 2008 Georgia-Russia War, which
served as an example that the international community should not
take it for granted that frozen conflicts will remain frozen. The EU
became the key actor in negotiating the cease-fire between Moscow and
Tbilisi, which led to the EU taking up a much greater role than it
had had hitherto, including taking on a security presence and being
a key player in the Geneva peace talks.

Today Nagorno-Karabakh remains the biggest threat to the security of
the South Caucasus. While a cease-fire may have been in place since
1993, the conflict remains active with numerous violations of the
cease-fire taking place and both sides actively engaged in spending
massive amounts of money on arms. After some 20 years of efforts,
under the auspices of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to resolve the conflict today we
find ourselves at a very low point. The negotiations on a set of
“basic principles” are in deadlock, with the two presidents having
not met since January 2012.

The EU remains on the sidelines. Its approach is as follows: supporting
the efforts of the Minsk Group co-chairs, financing a number of
confidence-building measures and peace-building initiatives and
shuttling diplomacy of the EU Special Representative for the region.

Earlier this week, the think tank where I work in Brussels, the
European Policy Centre (EPC), presented two policy papers on the
role of the EU in Karabakh. The Azerbaijani perspective came from
well-known analyst and fellow Today’s Zaman columnist, Zaur Shiriyev,
while the Armenian view came from Richard Giragosian, who heads
a think tank in Yerevan. What was interesting was that there were
more convergences than divergences, with both experts calling for
an increase in the role of the EU. Interesting recommendations and
ideas were put forward including: The EU should use conditionality
to a greater extent, including making the association agreements that
are presently being negotiated with both countries subject not only to
improving democratic standards, but also progress on the peace-talks.

There is a precedent for this as the EU successfully used the
conditionality principle to gain results in the conflict between
Macedonia security forces and the ethnic Albania National Liberation
Army. Implementation of the Orchid Agreement was used as a precondition
for Macedonia’s EU membership aspirations. The role of the European
Union Special Representatives (EUSR) should be enhanced and expanded,
including having greater cooperation between the French OSCE Minsk
Group co-chair and the EUSR; giving the EUSR observer status in
meetings of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs; initiating a more inclusive form
of track two diplomacy that would have a multi-stakeholder approach and
include both Nagorno-Karabakh communities; carrying out great levels
of conflict analysis, including identifying new trends and emerging
actors in the conflict, both external and internal; and enhancing
cooperation with other regional actors, most particularly with Russia.

Of course the EU is an organization with a lot of legs and tails.

Decision-making is more often than not drawn out and complicated and,
for some member states, Nagorno-Karabakh is not important — even
more so when the EU has so much internal conflict to deal with. But
I believe this to be short sighted. Rather, the EU should be wise
enough to adopt a more proactive and engaged policy towards Karabakh
because, as was the case with Georgia, what we choose to ignore today,
can come back and bite us very hard tomorrow.