Author: Kalantarian Kevo

LANCEMENT PREVU DE NOUVEAUX VOLS ARMENIE-TURQUIE

Une agence de voyage armenienne a annonce mardi le lancement imminent
de vols directs Erevan-Van, une destination aujourd’hui en Turquie
et qui etait autrefois essentiellement peuplee d’Armeniens.

Ashot Soghomonian, directeur de Narekavank Tour, a declare que son
entreprise privee et ses partenaires commerciaux en Turquie ont deja
obtenu toutes les autorisations necessaires auprès des autorites des
deux pays pour que le premier vol puisse avoir lieu le 3 avril.

Borajet, une compagnie aerienne privee turque, a ete engage pour
assurer ces vols deux fois par semaine, a-t-il indique.

Situe sur la rive est du lac eponyme, Van est une ville ancienne
peuplee de 500.000 personnes, pour l’essentiel des kurdes. La ville et
ses environs possedait une importante population armenienne, jusqu’au
massacre perpetre durant la Première Guerre par l’Empire ottoman.

Contrairement aux communautes armeniennes qui vivaient pratiquement
toutes les autres parties de l’empire, de nombreux Armeniens de Van
ont survecu a ce que les historiens considèrent comme le premier
genocide du 20e siècle, après avoir mis en place une resistance
armee aux troupes ottomanes et avoir ete evacuees par l’armee russe
en 1915-1918. Des centaines de milliers de leurs descendants vivent
dans l’Armenie actuelle.

Soghomonian a confirme que le service de vol visera principalement
a repondre aux Armeniens curieux de voir Van et d’autres sites
historiques dans cette Turquie orientale où on vecut pendant des
siècles, des royaumes et des principautes armeniennes.

L’agence de voyages Soghomonian est specialisee dans le tourisme par
voie terrestre sur la zone dans les zones que les Armeniens appellent
encore couramment ” Armenie occidentale “.

” Il y a beaucoup de gens prets a aller a Van et voir l’eglise sur
l’ile d’ Akhtamar ou Ani ou Kars ou Mush, mais n’y vont pas parce que
le voyage par voie terrestre est long, “, a declare le directeur du
Tour Narekavank.

L’Eglise Sainte-Croix est le monument armenien le plus celèbre et
mieux conserve de l’est de la Turquie. Le patriarcat d’Istanbul de
l’Eglise apostolique armenienne a ete autorise a tenir des services
religieux il y a un an après les travaux de renovation (1,5 million
de dollars)finances par le gouvernement turc et qui ont ete acheves
en 2007.

Selon Soghomonian, les organisateurs s’attendent egalement a voir de
nombreux Turcs et Kurdes a faire usage de ce service. “Nous pensons
qu’il y aura aussi un afflux de touristes assez important en Armenie
depuis l’autre côte de la frontière et ce sera très bien “, a-t-il
declare.

Les plans de vol Erevan-Van avaient deja ete annonces par une
association d’entreprises operant dans la ville turque il y a environ
deux ans. Le gouvernement turc aurait empeche leur lancement qui
etait prevu pour septembre 2011. Certains hommes d’affaires bases a
Van avaient ouvertement critique cette demarche.

Arsen Ghazarian, president de la plus grande association en faveur
du resserrement des liens commerciaux avec la Turquie, a declare
en novembre 2012 que les plans sont sur la bonne voie et devrait se
concretiser bientôt.

Les vols commerciaux turco-armeniens n’ont jusqu’a present ete realises
qu’entre Erevan et Istanbul.

mercredi 6 mars 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

ECHEC DES DISCUSSIONS ENTRE LA MAJORITE ET L’OPPOSITION

Les negociations entre la majorite pro-gouvernementale au Parlement
armenien et deux grands partis d’opposition sur les tensions
post-electorales dans le pays se sont soldees par un echec, le lundi.

Les delegues du Parti republicain d’Armenie (HHK) et de Zharangutyun
(Heritage) ainsi que de la FRA avaient commence jeudi les entretiens
pour tenter de s’entendre sur l’ordre du jour d’une session du
parlement consacree a l’election presidentielle du 18 fevrier.

Zharangutyun et le Dashnaktsutyun ont propose un programme en
3 points qui comprenait la mise en place de nouvelles elections
legislatives cette annee et de vastes reformes constitutionnelles
visant a transformer l’Armenie en une republique parlementaire. La
majorite du Parlement loyal au president Serge Sarkissian a rejete
categoriquement ce programme.

“La majorite est contre cet ordre du jour,” a declare Ruben Hakobian
de Zharangutyun a RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am). ” Nous n’avons pas eu de
contre-proposition. L’opposition va donc prendre ses responsabilites.

”

“Malheureusement, nos positions restent incompatibles”, a declare
Armen Rustamian, un leader du Dachnaktsoutioun. Rustamian a cependant
declare que les representants du HHK etaient ouverts a l’idee d’une
reforme constitutionnelle prevoyant le transfert de nombreux pouvoirs
du president de la Republique au Premier ministre. L’insistance
de Zharangutyun sur de nouvelles elections a empeche un accorde de
compromis, a-t-il laisse entendre.

Galust Sahakian, chef du groupe parlementaire du HHK, a confirme
que le camp presidentiel est pret a prendre en consideration les
changements constitutionnels demandes par les partis de l’opposition.

mercredi 6 mars 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

ARMAN MUSHEGYAN: “THIS IS NOT THE END. I’LL ALSO WALK IN A NEW ARMENIA.”

2013-03-05 19:24:43

Today, on March 5, rally, organized by the leader of “Heritage”
party Raffi Hovannisian, is going on at Liberty Square. An expert,
the head of the NGO “World without Barriers” Arman Musheghyan delivered
his speech.

“All of you can see that I’m moving with the wheelchair. When I opened
my eyes in the hospital, I just heard that I had no future and it
is not necessary to fight for him. However, I decided what I needed
and I realized that it is possible. First, I confronted fate. People,
everything is possible in life, and it’s not the end. I’ll also walk
in a new Armenia. ”

HOUSING LOANS ON PRIVILEGED TERMS ALLOCATED TO POLICE SERVANTS

Saturday, 02 March 2013 18:26

According to the NKR police servants’ financial assistance programme
of purchasing flats and dwelling houses on privileged terms the Artsakh
Investment Fund has also appropriated loans to the NKR Police servants,
chief executive of the Artsakh Investment Fund Artak Mirzoyan reported
during the recently convened press conference.

Within the framework of the above mentioned programme in 2012 5
families got an assistance of AMD 105.8 mln. According to this
programme housing loans at an annual interest rate of 1 % with an
18-year repayment term and an advanced payment of 5 % are allocated
to police servants.

Another week, another Guardian ‘biodiversity’ scare…

The Telegraph (UK)
March 4th, 2013

By James Delingpole

Hello everybody. This is a guest post courtesy of Bufo75. It’s a small
skirmish in the war against what is arguably the global environmental
movement’s biggest lie apart from CAGW – the great “species loss”
meme. (For the last word on this, read this masterly critique by the
great Willis Eschenbach of Watts Up With That?) Over to you, Bufo.

As my avatar Bufo may indicate one of my interests is
herpetology. When my boys were younger I took them on reptile- and
amphibian-hunting expeditions all over the world. So naturally
whenever I read a headline like the one by John Vidal in last’s week’s
Guardian `One in five reptile species faces extinction’ my gut
response is deep concern.

At least it would be if I hadn’t read this sort of claim many times
before.

Scarcely a week goes by without some environmental pressure group from
the WWF to the Zoological Society of London issuing dire warnings on
behalf of large animals at the top of the food chain, down to the no
less aggressive ‘butterfly lobby’ at the other end.

In essence the message is – ‘Critters are at risk, and it’s all your
fault’.

But I must confess, this emerging and vocal `lizard lobby’ is a new
one on me. It seems to involve an alliance between the Zoological
Society of London and the IUCN.

The ‘who’ ? You may ask. The ‘International Union for the Conservation
of Nature’ no less. Funded by the world’s governments, with an annual
turnover of around $100 million and over 1000 staff in 45 offices,
they are not anorganisation to be sneezed at.

They claim to be a ‘neutral forum’, but tell us that they ‘demonstrate
how biodiversity is fundamental to addressing some of the world’s
greatest challenges such as climate change, sustainable development
and food security’.

They also issue the ‘dreaded’ IUCN ‘Red List’ of species at risk,
which categorizes each one according to the perceived threat on
population size.

The list of Snakes and Lizards alone names 3755 species from
‘Ablepharus bivittatus’ – The 2 Streaked Snake-Eyed Skink of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, to ‘Zygastris nigra’ of Angola and Zambia.

Last week the Guardian’s Environment Editor John Vidal, cut and pasted
the report from IUCN under the headline ‘One in five reptile species
faces extinction’,even though the original report used the words ‘is
struggling to survive’.

Alarming stuff, you would say, but are we really about to lose 751 of
them?

Fortunately not. It’s all down to ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’.

Of those ‘Under threat’ – 47% are said to be ‘vulnerable’, 41% are
‘endangered’ and only 12% are ‘critically endangered’.

Only 90 of them then, out of 3755: it’s starting to look better
already!

But let’s look a little more closely at those 90 which are ‘critically
endangered’.

Many years ago, when I first visited the Canaries, there was one large
charcoal grey lizard which was found on all seven islands. Boys with
airguns used them for target practice and no-one seemed concerned.

Now we find that ‘Gallotia galloti’ (Gallot’s Lizard) is not one, but
eight different species, with four of them described as ‘critically
endangered’ and the others listed as being of ‘least concern’.

I will not here try to argue whether each IS a distinct sub species or
not, but suffice it to say that ‘Gallotia bravoana’, the one on La
Gomera, now has its Government and EU funded ‘Centro de Recuperation’
on the island.

As a herpetologist I applaud this or any other attempt to avoid the
loss of any species, but let’s not get too excited about ‘imminent
bio-diversity loss’, the IUCN can only find three out of the sample
they checked of the 3755 snakes and lizards which are already
‘extinct’, and even they might be found by the next search party,
unless their habitat has been totally destroyed.

This usually occurs when local people, having no electricity, tear
down the trees and other vegetation for cooking.

Sadly, for the Guardian, the IUCN and the Zoological Society of
London, the threat to the ‘critically endangered’ Canarian lizards
comes not from ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Habitat Destruction’ but from that
most-feared of all predators, ‘Felis catus’.

So if you want to help to save a ‘critically endangered’ lizard, hang
a large bell round your pussy’s neck.

Raffi Hovhannisyan isn’t going to meet with Abrahamyan

01.03.1313:06

`Heritage’ party leader, former presidential candidate Raffi
Hovhannisyan isn’t going to meet with the NA Chairman Hovik
Abrahamyan. According to him, his interlocutor is Serzh Sargsyan, not
Abrahamyan. `If Mr. Sargsyan has something to tell me, let him say’,
Raffi Hovhannisyan said during an open-air meeting with the
journalists.

Slaq.am – Information source

United Press International UPI
March 4 2013

Challenge issued to Armenian election
Published: March. 4, 2013 at 9:30 AM

YEREVAN, Armenia, March 4 (UPI) — The campaign for Armenia’s former
Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian said it filed an appeal in court
Monday challenging the results of last month’s election.

Final results in Armenia indicated incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan
took 58.6 percent of the vote while Hovannisian had 36.7 percent.

Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reports the former foreign
minister issued a challenge in Armenia’s constitutional court Monday
disputing the results.

Hovannisian was involved in demonstrations in Yerevan protesting the
outcome since preliminary results suggested a Sargsyan victory in late
February.

In 2008, opposition leaders in Armenia called for protests in Yerevan
citing irregularities in the presidential elections. An international
election observation mission expressed similar concerns over the
February vote, saying that while the election was calm and orderly,
there were signs of interference at the polls, primarily by supporters
of Sargsyan.

The European Union said it was concerned about the latest election,
citing “claims of misuse of administrative resources, unclear
interpretation of campaign financing provisions and cases of pressure
on voters.”

SwissInfo, Switzerland
March 4 2013

Armenian opposition asks court to rule that it won poll

By Hasmik Lazarian

YEREVAN (Reuters) – Armenia’s main opposition party said on Monday the
country’s president had rigged the result of a February poll and it
called on the Constitutional Court to rule that it had been the
winner.

Incumbent President Serzh Sarksyan was declared the victor with 58.6
percent of the vote, against 37 percent for opposition leader Raffi
Hovannisian.

“We demand to register the people’s victory and to declare Raffi
Hovannisian Armenia’s president,” Hovsep Khurshudyan, spokesman for
the Heritage Party, told reporters after submitting an appeal to the
court.

The court has 10 days to give its ruling. Armenia’s central election
commission said last month there were no legal violations during the
vote that could have influenced results.

International election monitors said the poll was an improvement from
previous ones but that it still lacked real competition after some of
Sarksyan’s adversaries decided not to run, fearing the results would
be skewed.

Since the February 18 poll, the opposition has organised a series of
peaceful rallies to protest against alleged vote rigging.

Investors worry over any signs of instability in the South Caucasus
state, where 10 people were killed in violence that followed
Sarksyan’s initial election in 2008.

Another candidate, Andrias Ghukasyan, who went on hunger strike at the
start of the campaign to protest against the organisation of the vote,
also submitted a complaint to the Constitutional Court.

Armenia’s central election commission said last month there were no
legal violations during the vote that could have impacted results.

Hovannisian, a U.S.-born former foreign minister of the landlocked
ex-Soviet republic, submitted 70 complaints to the electoral
commission, which said last week that the documents were based neither
on facts nor legal evidence.

Armenia, a country of 3.2 million people, hosts one of Russia’s few
foreign military bases and is part of a post-Soviet security alliance
dominated by Moscow. It borders Iran, Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.

(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Stephen Powell)

School for Syrian-Armenian Kids Forges Ahead in Yerevan

by Khatchig Mouradian

March 4, 2013

YEREVAN (A.W.) – More than 300 Syrian-Armenian children who fled Aleppo
in recent months are now studying at a school in Yerevan, and
following the Syrian curriculum.

Children getting ready for class after recess (Photo by Khatchig Mouradian)
Operating since 2012, the Giligian School (grades 1 to 9) is situated
in a wing of the Nar-Tos Number 14 School in Yerevan, and caters to
Syrian-Armenian students. While their parents struggle to secure the
basic needs of their family, the daily routine of the school provides
a sense of normalcy to the children.

Over the past few months, the number of students continued to grow as
more and more families arrived in Armenia. The influx slowed down
earlier this year, as flights between Aleppo and Yerevan were
discontinued.

The class schedule for second graders. (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)
Still, several new students enroll in the school every week, school
principal Nora Pilibbossian told Armenian Weekly editor Khatchig
Mouradian in an interview. Syrian-Armenian families are arriving in
Armenia by way of Lebanon. Others, however, are leaving, as families
move to Europe, the Emirates, or other countries after a few months’
stop in Armenia.

The average size of a class is around 30 students, with certain
classrooms holding many more; the 7-9th grades accommodate more than
40 students each. Most of the classes here are taught in Arabic,
except the Armenian-, English-, and French-language classes (the
latter for students in grades 7-9).

Considering the difficulty of acquiring textbooks from Syria in large
numbers, photocopies are often made and distributed to students.

Buses rented by the school pick them up in the morning from different
neighborhoods in and around Yerevan, and drop them back off in the
afternoon. The school bus system is uncommon in Armenia, where most
local children go to schools in their own neighborhoods or use public
transportation.

The U.S.-based Giligian Paresiragan Miutyun sponsors the school, which
also accepts donations from individuals and groups willing to help. In
turn, the Armenian Ministry of the Diaspora and the Ministry of
Science and Education provide moral and administrative support.

Interested donors can sponsor students or help defray transportation costs.

Challenges ahead

`Even the evening before the school opened its doors, there were some
who doubted this project would take off,’ said Pilibbossian. But take
off it did, and it continues to operate seamlessly.

The school’s report card (Photo: The Armenian Weekly)
Yet, the future of the school, as well as that of the hundreds of
Syrian-Armenian families who have fled their homes and found refuge in
Armenia, Lebanon, and beyond, remains fraught with challenges and
uncertainties.

Here in Yerevan, many families are still struggling to find proper
housing, jobs, and some semblance of normalcy. Yet, education remains
at the center of their attention. One parent told the Weekly how,
before the Giligian School opened, the children were staying at home
all day.

`We tried sending the kids to a local school, but they had
difficulties adapting to the curriculum,’ Raffi, a parent of three,
said. `We then tried home-schooling, but with everything else we have
to sort out, that didn’t really work out either.’

While many see the school as a blessing, they also realize that it is
only a temporary solution. `We will return to Syria the day after
hostilities cease, and we want our children to continue their
education there without experiencing difficulty,’ another parent said.

Others doubt that it will be possible to return soon – or at all – and
acknowledge that steps must be taken at the school to prepare the
students for integration into the local education system, where
Eastern Armenian – with considerable differences from the Western
Armenian dialect the children speak – and Russian are the main languages
of instruction.

It’s Not Black and White: A Diasporan Living in Armenia

17:49, March 4, 2013

By Vrej Haroutounian

Last year, I decided to make the move to Armenia. After finishing grad
school, the many summers I had spent working here culminated in my
decision to take this step. Although I had considered this option for
quite some time, it still caught members of my community with
surprise. My move to Armenia incited all types of emotions and
concerns about my motives. Some reminded me of the corruption that
exists in Armenia and relayed personal stories of theft and
lawlessness. Others were concerned that I was throwing away the best
years of my life. I was met with many confused faces as they were
simply puzzled with my decision. Some even thought of my move as
escapism. A dichotomy existed in each and every single person that I
encountered. On one hand, they were not supportive of my move based on
their primary or secondary sources of information. Conversely, they
did not hesitate to give mean envious look of uneasy support.

I got on a plane five days after defending my thesis. Once I landed in
Yerevan, I started working right away. Once again, the interrogations
started in Armenia, this time by the locals inquiring as to what I was
doing here. They spoke of the same things: the corruption,
unemployment, lack of education, and lack of opportunity. All of them
attested to the absence of hope. They deemed me a nice, smart guy and
encouraged me to go back, start a family, and live my life. Yet again,
I smiled and continued to move forward, as I had when the same
warnings were issued to me in Los Angeles. Over the next few months, I
started to feel like a guinea pig, constantly reporting my activities
back to my community in LA, amid having to face the local
interrogation of my trials and tribulations of living in Armenia.

So why did I come to Armenia? Essentially, I live in the city of
Yerevan, a city with great architecture. From the oval park that wraps
around the city, to the different buildings that line the streets,
from the Stalin-era tuff buildings, to the pre-fabricated structures
constructed in the late Soviet era, to the parks that are constantly
being fought over by activists and business ventures. The numerous
statues and museums that litter the city center are constant
motivations to excel. The scale of Yerevan adds to its convenience.
Being less than 2km across, the city center provides a very
pedestrian-friendly atmosphere. These two kilometers are host to a
multilayered experience of culture. Yerevan, even with its problems of
traffic congestion, café littered parks, and unorganized sidewalks
Yerevan still proves to be a great and walk-able city. This is a place
of constant cultural movements, hosting academic conferences,
internationally renowned musicians, art exhibitions, filmmaking, and
the flow of visitors. In a meter my meter comparison Yerevan offers a
living experience that contests with some of the best in the world.

Outside of Yerevan is a country filled with all types of beauty: from
the lush forests of Dilijian to the majestic mountains surrounding the
Datev monastery. I am living in an ecologically-rich environment; this
small country has seven eco-systems that are constantly in quarrel, as
a people try to make the best use of their resources. As a landscape
architect surveying my surrounding,, I see opportunity, a chance for
everyone to become a part of Armenia. I see the possibility of people
joining together, living here in unison, and designing sustainable
homes, parks, cities, and forest reserves. I realize the opportunity
for us to make collective decisions, to resolve our common issues,
whether we should utilize mines or develop ecological tourism instead.

To create and compile the data that supports one decision over the
other, the dualistic approach to Armenia is unfair to everyone. The
more we invest into Armenia, the less dualistic our narrative will be.
Our collective reality will become unitary if we invest in having more
shareholders in this country. In the last few weeks, I have seen
students protesting at universities and peaceful rallies all over the
city. These are people investing in their voice and in themselves, for
the advancement of their country.

Our society creates a spectrum that classifies all of our actions to a
specific designation, as either right or wrong, black or white, up or
down, us vs. them. We are forced to create and design with
limitations, which stem from our fears and worries. In taking our next
steps, we are taught to be careful to not toe the line between the two
extremes that we are confined to. Thus, when we make the decision to
untie ourselves, we are faced with criticism and speculation. Your
“right” and your “wrong” are given a status that becomes a lot bigger
than yourself and what you can do in your current context. It is not
always black or white. We do not always have to be right or wrong. Our
decisions are subjective, independent to the sources that may exalt or
maim them. We do things for ourselves and to achieve our motives,
regardless of preconditions. Attaching extremities to decisions, one
way or another, limits our views and deprives us of opportunities.

In 2009 I traveled around California with my classmates, visiting
major cities and natural preserves, an experience that made me truly
appreciate the state and its natural and man made landscapes.
California will always have a special place in my heart because I
invested the time to study her landscape and planted many trees all
over the LA region, contributing to her beauty and sustenance. Now,
I’m here in Armenia with the same motive, learning, working and
investing myself in this small country. As for all the fears, concerns
and negative narratives that are constantly created by speculators, I
pay no attention I am not a fedayee. I am not a martyr. I am not a
nationalist, and I am not here to save anyone or anything. I am just
another person, walking down the street in Yerevan and smiling at you
if we happen to cross paths.