Author: Kalantarian Kevo

AlArabiya.net, UAE
February 28, 2013 Thursday

Israel, Turkey row over Zionism deepens rift between ex-allies

Israel’s prime minister accused his Turkish counterpart on Thursday of
making a “dark and false” statement by calling Zionism a crime against
humanity- a comment likely to hit efforts to repair ties between the
two former allies.

The Turkish premier’s statement, made at a U.N. meeting in Vienna a
day earlier, was also condemned by the head of Europe’s main
rabbinical group who called it a “hateful attack” on Jews.

“Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become
impossible not to see Islamophobia as a crime against humanity,”
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said at the U.N. Alliance of
Civilizations forum, according to Turkish media reports. Ties between
Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when nine
Turks were killed by Israeli commandos who stormed their ship carrying
aid to Palestinians in Gaza, under a naval blockade.

In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and
Israeli press about efforts to repair relations, including a senior
diplomatic meeting earlier this month in Rome and military equipment
transfers.

The reports have not been confirmed by either government. No one was
immediately available from Turkey’s foreign ministry to comment on the
new criticism from the rabbis or from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.

A statement from the Israeli premier’s office said he “strongly
condemns (Erdogan’s) statement about Zionism and its comparison to
Nazism.”

The Zionist movement was the main force behind the establishment of
the state of Israel.

“This is a dark and false pronouncement the likes of which we thought
had passed into history,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and the head of the
Conference of European Rabbis, said Erdogan’s criticism of Zionism
amounted to anti-Semitism.

“This is an ignorant and hateful attack on the Jewish people and
against a movement with peace at its core, which relegates Prime
Minster Erdogan to the level of (Iranian President)Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
and, to Soviet leaders who used anti-Zionism as a euphemism for
anti-Semitism,” Goldschmidt said in an emailed statement.

“The irony of these comments will not be lost on the families of those
slaughtered during the Armenian genocide, a crime still not recognized
by the Turkish government,” he added.

Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of committing an orchestrated campaign
of massacres against Christian Armenians during World War One.

Turkey, which was established as a republic after the Ottoman Empire
collapsed, denies those killings were genocide and says both sides
lost lives in internecine fighting during the chaos of war.

Arto Tunçboyacıyan introduces two CDs full of freshness and novelty

16:44, 2 March, 2013

YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. The presentation of two new CD-s of
Armenian Navy Band Avant-garde folk-jazz band was held in `Yans’ music
club on March 2. As `Armenpress’ reports, in the press conference the
band founder Arto Tunçboyacıyan mentioned that his creative attempts
of different years were summed up in the CDs.

“Music is like an apple, to some – it may seem new and to some others
– not so new,” Arto Tunçboyacıyan mentioned drawing parallels. He says
that the band creates Avant-garde folk style music, which allows “to
spice up” modern music with folk elements.

Among other things Arto Tunçboyacıyan noted: “Avant-garde folk, like
jazz, is not only one direction. We live a single life and the
presence of freshness, novelty and hope is of a certain importance.
All this is manifested in the Avant-garde folk style.”

Arto Tunçboyacıyan was born on August 4, 1957. As a famous avant-garde
folk artist (singer, multi-instrumentalist), he appeared on more than
200 records in Europe before arriving in the United States, where he
went to work with numerous jazz legends including Chet Baker, Al Di
Meola, and Joe Zawinul as well as a semi-regular stint with Paul
Winter and the Earth Band. Arto fronts his own group called the
Armenian Navy Band. His brother Onno Tunç was also a musician.

– See more at:

Armenia’s song to be presented at Eurovision 2013 contest to be decided today

TERT.AM
15:18 – 02.03.13

Armenia’s Eurovision 2013 international contest’s song will be
selected today at 9.30 pm on Armenian Public TV.

Speaking to Tert.am, responsible for the Eurovision project in Armenia
Gohar Gasparyan said, Armenia’s representative in the contest Gor
Sujyan and Dorians band will perform four songs of which the jury and
the audience, with 50/50 principle, will select one.

The audience will make its choice by sending sms. The songs are –
Lying, Lonely Planet, No time, Toy Planet.
`The authors of the songs are not revealed this time for some not to
be constrained in their selection. The winner song’s author will be
declared afterwards,’ Gasparyan said. The names of the members of jury
will not be revealed either.

Armenia is participating in the song contest since 2006. The first
Armenia’s singer to perform at the contest was Andre. This year the
song contest is being held in Sweden.

25 Years Later: Many Seniors are On Their Own

11:43, March 2, 2013

There are scores of families left homeless by the 1988 earthquake in
Armenia who have been living in makeshift housing for the past 25
years.

These are people who, for a number of reasons, never got their names
registered on the official waiting list for replacement housing.

Many are senior citizens, never filed the proper paperwork by the
November 1, 2008 deadline.

Today, Shirak Center staff members finally located one such elderly
woman living by herself in a small hut amidst the ruins of the former
Electrotechnic Factory.

The hut has no utilities whatsoever.

We had heard about her plight in early February and had been tracking
her down ever since.

Russia sells over $2.5bn worth of weapons in Jan-Feb

March 2, 2013 – 10:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – In the first two months of 2013, Russia sold over
$2.5 billion worth of weapons to other countries, the head of the
Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said Friday,
March 1, RIA Novosti reported.
`In the first month of this year, we sold arms worth $1 billion. In
January-February, total weapon sales exceeded $2.5 billion,’ Alexander
Fomin told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Fomin said Russia’s portfolio of foreign orders for arms now totals
some $46 billion, with `80 percent of this portfolio accounting for
orders for the next three to four years.’
He also said that last year, Russia sold to other countries arms worth
over $15 billion, which was 12 percent more than originally planned
and $2 billion more than in 2011.
Speaking about Russia and Iraq, Fomin said the countries have not
signed contracts for the delivery of armaments and military hardware
to the Middle East country.
Earlier Russian and Iraqi media reported that the two countries have
military contracts worth $4.2 billion.
`No deal has been struck. We will announce when there is one,’ Fomin said.
The head of the military-technical cooperation service also said
Russia lost hundreds of millions of dollars in fines because it
suspended its deal to deliver S-300 air defense missile systems to
Iran.
He added that Iran is suing Russia for $4 billion over that contract,
which Russia suspended in 2010 to implement a UN Security Council
resolution against the Islamic Republic, which the West, led by the
United States, accuses of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program –
a charge Iran denies.
`The client [Iran] is absolutely right,’ Fomin said.
He said the S-300 systems designed to be sold to Iran are custom-made
products whose components are chosen by the client, and that is why it
is hard to sell them to other buyers.

– See more at:

In memory of 1 March, Armenia faces post-electoral homework

On the side of the authorities, there should now be thorough
investigations into who violated the electoral code and with that
produced a burdenfor their own candidate, SerzhSargsyan.

On 1 March, five years after the tragedy of post-electoral unrests in
Yerevan with 10 casualties, it is worth noting that Armenia today is
no longer comparable to Armenia in 2008. Today, all political forces
are represented in the parliament, there is freedom of assembly,
freedom of the media, the electoral law has been improved following
the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, the
technical organisation of the elections has improved, and most
importantly, there is no violence on the streets.
March 2, 2013
PanARMENIAN.Net – All of these developments are vital for Armenia’s
relations with Europe, and the European Commission, which last year
included Armenia in the small group of countries benefitting from the
`more aid for more reforms’ principle, now seeks to conclude a Deep
and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement before the Eastern Partnership
Summit in Vilnius this coming November. The trouble of the
presidential elections of 18 February is that some problems of
manipulation still persisted and that the oppositional part of the
society now believes that these remaining problems have changed the
outcome of the elections, challenging the 58.6% official first round
victory of the incumbent President SerzhSargsyan.

In all democratic countries, some of these `cases of…’, as the
observers reported, can still be found. The key question is not so
much WHAT they find, but the scale. The international observer
missions denied that the outcome of the elections was changed. For
this, more than 125.000 votes would have had to be changed and while
the change of even just a few thousand votes is a scandal, none of the
highly qualified observer missions was able to detect a massive
organised manipulation on the scale of 125.000 votes. From the
perspective of a critical or oppositional citizen, however, you will
remember many manipulated elections in Armenia, and you will naturally
be alarmed and in disbelieve to hear about hundreds of cases of
violating Armenia’s electoral laws also this time. You will also find
it difficult to believe the international observers in that the
documented misuse of administrative resources and the cases of voter
intimidation were not significant enough to change the outcome of the
elections. Using these sentiments, Raffi Hovhannisyan on 19 February
claimed to have received 80%, meaning 635.000 more votes than his
official result. To be fair, the Armenian authorities would possess
supernatural powers if they managed to organise a manipulation (before
and on Election Day) of nearly every second vote in the country while
hiding all this from hundreds of experienced European observers.
Besides, the latest TNS poll before the election, the one with the
strongest foreign supervision, quality control and transparency, was
not influenced by any cases of vote-buying, voter intimidation, ballot
stuffing or miscounting, but the results were very similar to the
official election results.

What now?

I believe Raffi Hovhannisyan when he says that he does not want to see
any violence or revolution. His style of campaigning was also healthy
for Armenia’s democracy and his on-going post-electoral tour is
another sign of this style, which reaches out to the society. It is
good and noteworthy that today, people even in the countryside feel
that they can join such public rallies without fear. However, I am
currently a bit lost as to what his strategy is, because he knows
Armenian politics long enough to know that nobody can simply
`convince’ the authorities to hand over the presidency, and that the
chances of this happening are close to zero when the results of the
observations and of the elections are as clear as they are. Besides,
his public announcements are so far very vague, like a mobilisation
without a visible goal or path. There is a danger that his current
struggle will among the disappointed part of the society only raise
hope for something which he cannot deliver. Meanwhile, it increases
public distrust and discontent even further, leads to even more
emigration and weakens the country on the inside and outside. From our
meetings I know that this would actually be the opposite of what he
wants for Armenia and of what he believes in. So we will need to see
how things will develop in the coming weeks: maybe all this is just a
normal political stand-off to pressure the government for more reforms
while saving his face and avoiding looking like a loser. By the way, I
think he is absolutely no loser, because he managed to build up a
united oppositional support which most experts would have thought
impossible only three months ago. One realistic strategy would now be
to transform this into a lasting political movement which soon enough
can really win elections. The time between New Year and Election Day
was naturally not enough to build up such a movement.

On the side of the authorities, there should now be thorough
investigations into who violated the electoral code and with that
produced a burdenfor their own candidate, SerzhSargsyan. One
motivation for genuine investigations and prosecutions may be that
they could in some cases find perpetrators who had the political
intention to damage the incumbent. In any case, the President needs to
clean up his own camp to some extent, if he wants that camp to be
strong in the long run. Apart from that, the President declared that
he will now focus on internal economic and institutional reforms and
the more he manages to show successes of these reforms, the more will
he be able to gain respect of not only his own voters but of all
Armenians. With that, the coming five years can make Armenia move
further away from the low-point of 1 March 2008, and the changes can
be so fundamental that they will be irreversible and visible for all.

Secretary General of European Friends of Armenia Dr Michael Kambeck
– See more at:

Diaspora-Armenian entrepreneurs establish ecotourism belt in Armenian village

March 02, 2013 | 03:08

YEREVAN. – Diaspora-Armenian entrepreneurial couple, Caroline and
Arthur Zakarian, established, in Geghadir village of Armenia’s Kotayk
Region – and nearby the Yerevan-Garni motorway – a unique recreation area
for ecotourism.

The area is called Hyelandz Eco Village Resort, and it has a special
stand at the 12th International Annual Tourism Fair CTS (Caucasus
Travel Show) 2013, which kicked off Friday in capital city Yerevan.

The Zakarian couple came from the US – but they are originally from
Lebanon – , and permanently moved to Armenia more than ten years ago.
They established the aforesaid recreation area in September 2012 and
already have had great success.

The distinctiveness of Hyelandz Eco Village Resort is that the food
for its patrons is prepared exclusively by its own, and ecologically
pure, products.

– See more at:

Khojaly issue one of interior political levers in Azerbaijan – Samvel
Martirosyan

TERT.AM
13:25 – 02.03.13

The end of February is the most tensed period in Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict reflected particularly in the cyber-territory agreed with the
Azerbaijani number one propaganda issue – Khojaly cases, information
security expert Samvel Martirosyan said.

`For already second year Azerbaijanis are active in the Khojaly issue
as it is their number one target. Huge money has been invested on a
state level, as it is particularly important for Aliyevs’ family,’ the
expert told the reporters on Saturday.
Samvel Martirosyan noted that the Azerbaijani lobby has fixed posters
about Khojaly in London metro stations, buses.

`It is spoken about huge sums. Look on the cyber field. In February
the Azerbaijani hackers are becoming active attacking websites and
posting Khojaly photos. Tens of websites have been broken, they have
stated about hundreds but of course it is not so, no state website has
been broken,’ he said, noting that the Armenian side likes sometimes
to bite and as an anti-step broke two state websites – justice and
social ministries’ websites.

Martirosyan said it will be strange to order and place posters saying
that we did not commit Khojaly. `Instead a film has been shot `Between
Hunger and Fire’ which shows what has really happened. It is clearly
being said that the Armenians gave a corridor, they are telling on
their own that it was decided not to evacuate the peaceful population.
The film was translated into English and was quickly spread. Only in
the first ten days 300,000 views were registered. The majority of them
being Azerbaijanis,’ he said, stressing that the film is a targeted
one and hailed their interest in it.

Referring to Azerbaijani `Khoja’ film Martirosyan said it is more
addressed to the Azerbaijani interior audience.

`They are facing interior propaganda issue. In general, Khojaly topic
is one of the inner political levers in Azerbaijan,’ the expert said.

Martirosyan said `Khoja’ film was an unsuccessful attempt that was not
accepted even by the Azerbaijani audience.

IRAN
L’Iran demande au président pakistanais de faire avancer le gazoduc

Le Guide suprême iranien, l’ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a reçu mercredi à
Téhéran le président pakistanais Asif Ali Zardari et lui a demandé de
faire avancer malgré les hostilités le projet de gazoduc qui doit
acheminer du gaz iranien vers le Pakistan, a annoncé son bureau.

Le gazoduc Iran-Pakistan est un exemple important de la coopération
entre Téhéran et Islamabad, et malgré les hostilités face au
raffermissement de ces liens, nous devons dépasser les oppositions de
manière décisive, a déclaré M. Khamenei selon le site leader.ir.

Ce gazoduc de 1.800 km, d’un coût global estimé à 7,5 milliards de
dollars, devait permettre à l’Iran de livrer 21 millions de M3 de gaz
par jour au Pakistan à partir de décembre 2014.

Mais depuis son lancement en 2010, le projet a rencontré des
difficultés en 2010 en raison de problèmes de financement du côté
pakistanais et de pressions des Etats-Unis qui cherchent à isoler
l’Iran pour pousser Téhéran à renoncer à ses activités nucléaires
controversées, selon la presse pakistanaise.

L’Iran a quasiment achevé les travaux sur son territoire, mais le
Pakistan n’a pas encore commencé la construction du gazoduc sur des
780 kilomètres prévus de son côté. Pour débloquer le projet, Téhéran a
finalement accepté de financer le tiers des 1,5 milliard de dollars
nécessaires pour la pose du gazoduc côté pakistanais, qui sera confiée
à une entreprise iranienne.

Nous sommes profondément partisans d’un renforcement des liens
bilatéraux. Les acteurs internationaux et régionaux ont essayé en vain
d’empêcher les liens Iran-Pakistan de s’étendre mais les peuples ont
compris comment réagir face aux ennemis de l’islam, a déclaré M.
Zardari, selon leader.ir.

Le président pakistanais, en visite en Iran pour 24 heures, a
également rencontré son homologue iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, et les
deux hommes ont insisté sur le fait qu’il était dans l’intérêt des
deux pays de faire aboutir le projet de gazoduc.

L’Iran développe rapidement sa production gazière et a un besoin vital
de l’exporter, alors que le pays est étranglé par l’embargo pétrolier
occidental qui a divisé par deux ses exportations de brut depuis le
début 2012. Le Pakistan a de son côté un besoin aigu d’énergie, et
compte produire 20% de son électricité grce au gaz iranien.

L’Iran possède les deuxièmes réserves mondiales de gaz mais n’en
produit actuellement que quelque 600 millions de M3/jour, qui
alimentent en quasi-totalité son marché intérieur fautes de moyens de
l’exporter. Son seul client est actuellement la Turquie qui achète
quelque 30 millions de M3/jour.

Téhéran a également le projet de vendre son gaz à l’Irak et à la
Syrie, et les trois pays ont décidé en 2011 de construire un gazoduc
dont les travaux ont commencé du côté iranien.

L’Iran avait aussi le projet de liquéfier son gaz pour l’exporter par
bateau, un moyen de transport plus flexible et mieux adapté à
l’isolement international de Téhéran. Mais il a dû abandonner en 2010
les projets lancés avec Shell et Total, après le retrait de ces deux
compagnies d’Iran consécutif aux sanctions occidentales contre
Téhéran.

samedi 2 mars 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARMENIE-ECONOMIE
Très forte hausse de l’exportation du vin et de la bière d’Arménie
vers la Russie en 2012

L’exportation du vin et de la bière d’Arménie en direction de la
Russie a connu en 2012 une très forte croissante en 2012. Par rapport
à 2011 les exportations vers la Russie de vin arménien ont enregistré
une croissance de 68% et la bière de 74%. En 2012 l’Arménie a ainsi
exporté vers la Russie 962 600 litres de vin et 2,620 millions de
litres de bière pour un montant total d’un peu plus de 5 millions de
dollars. Au cours de ces dernières années, les experts ont enregistré
une augmentation importante de la qualité du vin d’Arménie, ainsi que
de la bière.

En 2012 le montant des exportations de l’Arménie a représenté 1,428
milliard de dollars dont 280 millions vers la Russie.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 2 mars 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com