Author: Kalantarian Kevo

REVUE DE PRESSE
Les trésors de la mémoire arménienne

L’association Aram, installée à Saint-Jérôme, à Marseille, vient de
mettre en ligne quelque 40 000 pages de documents uniques sur la
mémoire de la communauté arménienne patiemment compilées à partir de
plus de 300 fonds répertoriés issus de donations familiales et
individuelles, d’organisations et d’associations arméniennes.

Une dotation du ministère de la Culture va lui permettre de continuer
son travail avec 20 000 nouvelles pages. On trouve, accessible sur le
net, des pièces uniques comme le registre de tous les 5441 Arméniens
qui sont passés par le camp du boulevard Oddo, au nord de Marseille,
après être arrivé en bateau, fuyant le génocide.

Renseignements au 8 bis, place Péladon, à
Saint-Jérôme 13013 Marseille. Téléphone 04 91 06 57 36

dimanche 3 février 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARMENIAN CHURCH TO FORM ITS FIRST UTAH PARISH

09:32 01.02.2013

Armenia adopted Christianity as its national religion in A.D. 301,
but it has taken another 17 centuries for that national church to
come to the Beehive State.

This weekend, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, head of the Western Diocese
of the Armenian Apostolic Church of North America, will be in Utah
to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with the community, to help launch
its first parish here and to announce the appointment of a permanent
priest for the parish, the Salt Lakke Tribune reports.

“Once a church has a shepherd, it can become a family,” Derderian said
in a phone interview from his office in Southern California. “It can
become a place where their identity is well-maintained and where they
can become connected to their cultural roots and Christian faith.”

By tradition, St. Gregory, the country’s first Christian evangelist,
“saw Christ in a vision, who indicated to him where to build his
church, the first Armenian Church,” according to the church’s website.

But the country was surrounded by Muslim nations, which often attacked
it and persecuted its believers, the history says. Armenians were
massacred in the Ottoman Empire, the site adds, and also suffered
under the Russians starting in 1893 and later in the Soviet Union
until the 1980s.

The Armenian Apostolic Church came to American shores with immigrants
in 1898. About 2â~@~I½ decades later, it was split into Eastern
and Western branches, the latter encompassing everything west of
the Mississippi. Utah will become the newest parish in the Western
Diocese’s 50 established churches.

In 1996, Armenians in the state tried to create a parish, but “it
fizzled out,” says Miriam McFadden, who has been named the treasurer
of Utah’s newly created parish board. “Some people moved and others
had health problems.”

Now there are more than 2,000 Armenians living in Utah, and Derderian
is eager to establish the church here. The archbishop has visited
the community three times since an organizing meeting took place here
last March, attracting about 80 people.

Before this, Armenian Christians would have to pay to fly in a
priest for baptisms, weddings and funerals for family members so the
community would “piggyback” onto those services, McFadden says. Now,
with Derderian’s appointment of a permanent priest, the community
can begin to thrive.

“To us, the church is more about our identity than the religion,” she
says. “It has a lot of pomp and ceremony, absolutely beautiful music
[chanting of the Psalms] and lovely rituals. There’s a familiarity
to it for us.”

DENTISTS OF ARMENIA LAUNCH PROTEST ACTIONS

Several dozens of dentists went on a short-term protest action in
front of the Government building in January 31 demanding changes to
certain provisions of the Law On License Payments.

The amendments to the above law that came into effect on Jan 1
2013 oblige dental clinics to pay 80,000 drams license payments per
dental seat quarterly instead of the previous 12,000 drams (nearly
$30). At the January 26 extraordinary meeting of Armenian dentists,
over 1,300 delegates signed an appeal addressed to the president,
prime minister and parliament speaker suggesting reduction of the
license payment to 30,000 drams “for the first zone (Yerevan) with
application of relevant coefficient for the other zones (regions)”
impose a tax on the X-ray diagnostics, ball-bearing laboratories
operating in the clinics. As regards children’s dental seats, they
offer a 0.5 coefficient for license payment. The amendments to the
Law “On Licensing” applied also to realtors. Thus, the real estate
agencies of Yerevan are to pay 60 thsd AMD monthly for every employee,
and the agencies in the region – 10-50 thsd AMD.

Experts say that there are up to 12,000 dentists and 200 real estate
agencies in Armenia. They believe that the amendments to the tax
legislation will lead to price hikes in the spheres of dental and real
estate services and possible illegal business. Earlier, IMF announced
35% shadow economy in Armenia, while Bloomberg and Business Week
believe this indicator in Armenia has reached 51.7%. By data of the
National Statistical Service of Armenia, tax revenues of the state
budget totaled 725.5 bln drams with a 14.9% annual growth.

EUROPEAN COURT ORDERS TURKEY TO PAY DAMAGES TO NINE PUBLICATIONS

18:08, February 1, 2013

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Turkey to pay nine
newspapers and magazines a total of 13,500 Euros for suspending their
publication and distribution from 2008-2009.

The Court found Turkey guilty of violating Article 10 (Freedom of
expression) of the European Declaration of Human Rights.

The publications involved are Baðýmsýz Demokrasi Sosyalizm Ýcin
Yuruyuþ, Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Alternatifi Atýlým, Ozgur Mezopotamya,
Gunluk, Siyasi Alternatif, Ozgur Goruþ, Surec, Rojev and Demokratik
Acýlým.

ARMENIA’S DEFENCE MINISTER: THE ASSASSINATION ON HAYRIKYAN WAS ORGANIZED BY THE FORCES WHICH DO NOT LIKE THE SOCIETY AND ATMOSPHERE BEING FORMATED IN THE COUNTRY

ARMINFO
Friday, February 1, 16:31

The assassination on the candidate for president, the leader of the
National Self-Determination Union party, Paruyr Hayrikyan, was
organized by the forces which do not like the society and atmosphere
being formated in the country over the campaign – mutual respect,
trust and tolerance, Defence Minister, Seyran Ohanyan, told
journalists today. “We should regret that there are such forces among
us”, – he said.

To recall, the leader of National Self-Determination Union,
presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan was shot in the shoulder
Wednesday night and taken to hospital. The police are investigating
the case.

To note, 8 candidates will run for presidency on Feb 18: incumbent
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, former Prime Minister Hrant
Bagratyan, leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovhannisian, leader of
Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan, leader of National Accord
Party Aram Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh
Arman Melikyan, political expert Andreas Ghukasyan and folklore
specialist Vartan Sedrakyan.

BULLET FIRED AT PARUYR HAYRIKYAN WAS AIMED AGAINST INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION OF ARMENIA. DEMOCRATIC PARTY

18:15, 1 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS: Democratic Party of Armenia expressed
its anger over the assassination attempt of leader of union for
“National Self-Determination” Paruyr Hayrikyan. Armenpress reports, it
is mainly noted in the statement of the party “Only enemy of Armenian
nation and Armenian statehood is able to organize and commit such
insidious and provocative crime.

There is no doubt, this is one of those numerous acts in our
independent state which was aimed at destabilizing the internal
situation in the country and instigating disorder in order to undermine
natural process of presidential elections.

Highly evaluating contribution of our political colleague Paruyr
Hayrikyan in the development of state we consider bullet fired to be
aimed against international reputation of Armenia.

Condemning the crime we assure that Armenian authorities and law
enforcement bodies will spare no effort to investigate this case,
and punishing the committers.”

HEAD OF THE NA RA-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP GROUP MEETS THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FOREIGN MINISTRY OF JAPAN

01.02.2013

On February 1 Samvel Farmanyan, Head of Armenia-Japan Parliamentary
Friendship Group met with the Ambassador Takeshi Hikihara, Special
Representative of the Foreign Ministry of Japan for Caucasus and
GUAM, Deputy Director-General of Japan~Rs Foreign Ministry European
Affairs Bureau.

In the course of the meeting issues concerning the development
of the Armenian-Japanese economic, scientific-cultural relations,
activation of inter-parliamentary cooperation were discussed. Both
sides underlined that though during the past twenty years after
Armenia~Rs independence significant moves had been recorded in the
sphere inner-state relations, economic cooperation, mutual interests
had been more increased, but the two countries still have big potential
of cooperation, which should be called into life by the fulfillment
of realistic and mutually beneficial programmes.

In terms of the development of inter-parliamentary relations Samvel
Farmanyan highlighted the parliamentarians~R mutual visits and the
joint discussions and asked Takeshi Hikihara to convey his invitation
to the members of Japan-Armenia Friendship Group, which had been
newly formed after the parliamentary elections of Japan to visit
Armenia and convene a joint sitting of friendship groups.

During the meeting the issue of the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh problem was also discussed. Takeshi Hikihara assured that
Japan continued to defend the problem through peaceful negotiations,
the approach of the settlement within the Minsk Group framework.

Samvel Farmanyan thanked for the Japanese authorities~R balanced
stance.

The Head of Armenia-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Group also touched
upon the necessity of opening an Embassy of Japan in Armenia, which to
his assessment would more activate the bilateral relations. Agreeing
with the NA deputy~Rs observation the Special Representative of the
Foreign Ministry said that this problem was also of vital importance
and had still been at the stage of discussion.

In the meeting both sides referred to other issues of bilateral
interest.

SYRIAN ARMENIANS’ HOUSING RENTAL FEES TO BE REIMBURSED

NEWS.AM
February 01, 2013 | 16:20

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s Diaspora Ministry hosted a meeting between the
Syrian Armenians that live in Armenia’s regions and Felix Simonyan,
director of the Armenian Tourism Development Foundation.

In line with the preliminary agreement that was reached with
Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan, the parties examined the matter
of reimbursing, at the initiative of the aforesaid foundation, the
housing fees of the Syrian Armenians that live on rent in Armenia’s
regions, the Ministry press service informs.

Eleven Syrian-Armenian families, which reside in Armenia’s regions,
had applied to the Diaspora Ministry for assistance.

Simonyan noted that the amount of respective assistance provided by the
foundation is 5 million drams (approx. $12,280), and these families’
rental fees for the months of December, January and February will
be reimbursed.

He assured that the reimbursements will be made within the next four
or five days and the assistance by the foundation will continue.

Subsequently, the bank account numbers of these Syrian-Armenian
families were transferred to the Armenian Tourism Development
Foundation director.

PRIME MINISTER DOES NOT EXCLUDE ANY VERSION OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

16:33, 1 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESS. The Prime Minister of the Republic
of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan does not exclude any version regarding
assassination attempt. He stated this during his second visit to “St.

Gregory the Illuminator” Medical Centre. As reports “Armenpress” the
Prime Minister noted: “Time will show which version will turn out to
be more realistic.” In addition he mentioned that all the presidential
candidates have altered their schedules and postponed a number of
meetings on the occasion of the accident. Among other things the
Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan underscored:
“Consultations will be held, after which we must spare no effort to
provide competitive conditions for the whole presidential candidates.”

Notwithstanding he noted that the authorities will do everything to
provide security of the presidential candidates.

Presidential candidate, leader of union for “National
Self-Determination” Paruyr Hayrikyan has been shot around 11:30 PM
in Tpagrichner Street, Kentron district of Yerevan. Hayrikyan got a
gunshot wound to shoulders’ area and has already been operated on in
“St. Gregory the Illuminator” medical center.

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction works suspended in Georgia’s territory

TERT.AM
21:00 – 02.02.13

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway construction works have been suspended in
Georgia’s territory, Georgia Online reports, citing SalamNews.

Press department head of the Azerbaijani railway company Nadir
Azimamedov said the works have been suspended due to cold weather in
Georgia. The works will resume in spring.

Azimamedov said the construction is mainly funded by the Azerbaijani government.

`The works are carried out in two sectors. In the first 159 km long
railway is being reconstructed. In the second a tunnel is being built
on Georgia-Turkey road sector. The main part of the railway in
Turkey’s territory has been completed. After the projecting works of
the Georgian side the works will continue,’ he stressed.