Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ROMANIAN SENATE DEFENDED SENATOR VARUJAN VOSGANIAN

17:37, 12 February, 2015

BUCHAREST, 12 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Romania’s Senate has refused to
proceed with the instigation of a criminal case based on allegations
against Varujan Vosganian and is defending the Armenian senator’s
parliamentary immunity. As “Armenpress”‘s correspondent reports from
Bucharest, the Senate took the decision on February 12.

This is the second time that the Romanian Senate is defending President
of the Union of Armenians of Romania, Senator Varujan Vosganian from
the same allegation charged by the Directorate for Investigating
Organized Crime and Terrorism. The DIOCT had charged Varujan Vosganian
with causing serious harm to Romania’s economy by adopting several
decisions while serving as Romania’s Minister of Economy between the
years of 2006 and 2008. In particular, by the mentioned decisions,
natural gas was supplied to Interagro SA via RomGas with discounts,
as a result of which Interagro became the preferential supplier.

As in the past, Varujan Vosganian sharply denied once again the
allegations against him and mentioned that the discount prices for
that company were also approved by the government and that those
prices are for companies across Europe that need additional support
from the government.

CENTRAL BANK FORCED TO TAKE STEP THAT’LL MAKE THINGS WORSE

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Business – 12 February 2015, 13:01

The Central Bank has set a refinancing rate at 10.5%, which will make
the situation in the Armenian economy worse, the economist Vardan
Bostanjyan told Lragir.am, commenting on the Central Bank’s decision.

On February 10 the Central Bank increased the rate of refinancing by
1%, setting the rate at 10.5%. The reason for such a decision was the
inflation rate in January which exceeded the rate target. According
to the clarification of the Central Bank, in January 2015 inflation
was at 2.5%, 12-month inflation by the end of January was 4.3%,
being very close to the rate target.

The Central Bank finds that over the next months the 12-month inflation
will rise a little.

“A 10.5% refinancing rate is an obviously negative indicator but the
monetary authorities are not doing it for their pleasure. The bad
scenario of current inflation in the country, as well as instability
in the financial market supposes and requires increase of the interest
rate. The monetary authorities have no alternative to this step but
this is a very negative phenomenon for the economy,” Bostanjyan says.

A raised rate of refinancing means that banks will increase interest
rate on loans.

Vardan Bostanjyan notes that the Armenian economy is facing lack of
investments, SMEs are paralyzed, about 10,000 SMEs have closed.

“At the moment, statistics indicates that inflation is higher than
the projected rate. In reality, it is a bigger number than official
statistics states. In this situation the monetary authorities were
forced to increase the refinancing rate,” he noted.

The economist thinks the efforts of the organizations in charge of
the financial sector are not enough, a coordinated economic policy
must be conducted.

“Without coordination we should simply expect the negative consequences
what we are seeing now,” Vardan Bostanjyan said.

Note that according to the NSS, in January 2015 inflation reported
in the consumer market was at 2.5% compared with December 2014 due
to a 4.5% increase of food prices. In January prices of almost all
kinds of food increased compared with January 2014. Mostly the prices
of necessity goods increased. Prices of bread increased by 10.4%
compared with last January.

LIBRARY TO BE NAMED AFTER WILLIAM SAROYAN IN TURKEY

17:24, 12 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. A library in Bitlis will be named
after the prominent Armenian-American author William Saroyan.

Journalist and writer Ahmet Tuglar is the author of the project. As
reports “Armenpress”, the Istanbul-based Armenian periodical Agos
stated about this.

Among other things, Tuglar noted that the idea of opening a library
first came to his mind, when a decision was made in December of
the previous year to name one of the streets in Bitlis after the
Armenian-American author.

William Saroyan was an American – Armenian author. The setting of many
of his stories and plays was Fresno, California (sometimes under a
fictional name), the center of Armenian-American life in California
and where he grew up.

Saroyan was born in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants from
Bitlis, Turkey. At the age of three, after his father’s death, Saroyan
was placed in the orphanage in Oakland, California, together with his
brother and sister, an experience he later described in his writing.

Five years later, the family reunited in Fresno, where his mother,
Takoohi, secured work at a cannery. He continued his education on
his own, supporting himself by taking odd jobs, such as working as
an office manager for the San Francisco Telegraph Company.

Saroyan decided to become a writer after his mother showed him some
of his father’s writings. A few of his early short articles were
published in Overland Monthly. His first stories appeared in the
1930s. Among these was “The Broken Wheel”, written under the name
Sirak Goryan and published in the Armenian journal Hairenik in 1933.

Many of Saroyan’s stories were based on his childhood experiences
among the Armenian-American fruit growers of the San Joaquin Valley,
or dealt with the rootlessness of the immigrant. The short story
collection My Name is Aram (1940), an international bestseller, was
about a young boy and the colorful characters of his immigrant family.

It has been translated into many languages.

NOTHING NEW: ARF MEMBER SAYS TER-PETROSYAN REMAINS TRUE TO FAILED POLICY ON TURKEY

Genocide | 12.02.15 | 10:39

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

related news

Ter-Petrosyan: ‘Genocide Centennial Declaration’ to affect
Armenian-Turkish normalization

A chief foreign-policy spokesman for the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) sees nothing new in the criticism of Armenia’s
first president regarding the Pan-Armenian Declaration on the 100th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. According to Giro Manoyan,
Turkey’s president would readily sign under many of the thoughts
voiced by Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

Ter-Petrosyan, who led Armenia as its first president in 1991-1998
and today heads the opposition Armenian National Congress party,
voiced criticism regarding some points and aspects of the Declaration
in an article published by the Ilur.am news website and the Chorrord
Ishkhanutyun newspaper on Wednesday.

His main criticism concerned the paragraph of the 12-point Declaration
that “expresses the united will of Armenia and the Armenian people
to achieve worldwide recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the
elimination of the consequences of the Genocide, preparing to this
end a file of legal claims as a point of departure in the process of
restoring individual, communal and pan-Armenian rights and legitimate
interests.”

Ter-Petrosyan suggested that the policy of claims will “extremely
complicate and, for a long time, suspend Armenian-Turkish
normalization, a process that is very necessary for Armenia’s future.”

Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of the ARF
Bureau in Yerevan, says that although Ter-Petrosyan’s policy in the
matter of relations with Turkey had failed to produce the expected
result, he still remains committed to his stance and continues to
insist that Armenia should continue that way.

“He says that no one can speak on behalf of all Armenians. It means
that we can never have a pan-Armenian view and present anything as
a pan-Armenian view. This is also his [Ter-Petrosyan’s] approach to
seeing Armenians as separate parts,” Manoyan told ArmeniaNow.

To Manoyan it is also unclear why Ter-Petrosyan thinks that by
supporting representatives of Turkish society who recognize the
Armenian Genocide the Declaration puts them in danger.

“In other words, according to Ter-Petrosyan, we have nothing to do,
everything is up to Turkey to decide. It is Turkish nationalists who
should be deciding, and we have to follow obediently,” he commented.

“There is nothing new in what he [Ter-Petrosyan] said, just as there
is nothing new in the Declaration. When Ter-Petrosyan says that it is
a “fruitless” document, if it is really so, it is regretful that he
wasted his time for writing an article about it. But, nonetheless,
he expressed his view, a view that has proved wrong based on his
own experience.”

Vartan Oskanian, who served as Armenia’s foreign minister in
1998-2008, also made a comment following Ter-Petrosyan’s article. He,
in particular, pointed out contradictions between the Declaration
and the Turkish-Armenian protocols that were signed in 2009 and are
now still on the “big agenda” of the Armenian parliament.

“The contradictions between the two documents, to put it mildly,
weaken the affirmation in the Declaration of the issues related to
the Armenian Genocide recognition and legal claims regardless of what
we think about the expedience of raising them in the Declaration,”
Oskanian wrote on his Facebook account.

Ara Papyan, a lawyer, historian and diplomat who heads a Yerevan-based
think tank, Modus Vivendi, also considers the Declaration to be
realistic only if the Armenian parliament revokes the Zurich protocols.

LATIN AMERICAN COCAINE SMUGGLERS BUSTED IN YEREVAN: DRUGS WERE HEADED TO TURKEY

15:25, February 12, 2015

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) says it has uncovered a Latin
American drug ring attempting to smuggle cocaine to Turkey via Armenia.

The NSS says that the drugs were hidden in cargo flights from Latin
America to Armenia and then picked up by Bulgarian and Lebanese agents
who would then send the drugs, via air and land, across the border
into Turkey.

The NSS claims it intercepted 2.7 kilos of cocaine on January 27 on
a cargo flight from San Paolo to Yerevan, via Abu Dhabi and 2.6 kilos
on February 9 on the same flight.

Today, the NSS says it intercepted a cache of 4.8 kilos of cocaine in
the possession of two Bulgarian citizens of Arab descent at Yerevan’s
Zvartnots Airport. The two were passengers on a flight to Istanbul.

TURKISH STATE AFRAID OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BECAUSE OF DAY OF RECKONING

09:49, 11 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Turkey’s decision to declare the
day of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide as the day of
commemoration of the Battle of Gallipoli, which aims to change the
topic of international discussion, is nothing else, but a tool of
denialist policy. Turkish young historian Mehmet Polatel stated this
in a conversation with “Armenpress”. Also, the young historian noted
that this policy of the Turkish government is “unacceptable for him
and other Turkish intellectuals”.

The Turkish scientist arrived in Armenia to deliver a lecture titled
“The Confiscation of the Armenians’ Property during the Genocide and
after It”.

Among other things, Mehmet Polatel underscored: “One of the reasons
of the Genocide denial is the issue of returning the confiscated
properties. It’s characteristic not only for the state thinking, but
the common people, who possess the Armenians’ properties, also think
that if the state recognizes the Armenian Genocide, the Armenians
will come and take their belongings away. That’s why the Turkish
society is also against the recognition.”

ZHIRAYR SEFILYAN: GENERALS WERE FLATTERING SERZH SARGSYAN AND ARTHUR AGHABEKYAN WAS PRAISING SASHIK

15:01 | February 11,2015 | Politics

Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan has confessed that they have been
dreaming to join the Eurasian Economic Union for many years, Karabakh
war veteran Zhirayr Sefilyan told reporters in Yerevan on February 11.

“We were saddened to hear the words from a person who heads the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and for whom many people have shed their
blood. They were troubled that Armenia was able to accede to EEU
while Karabakh could not, and now they are looking for ways to fulfill
their dream,” said Zhirayr Sefilyan.

Before last month’s incident in Berdzor when scores of activists
representing the Founding Parliament opposition group were confronted
by NKR police as well as a group of plainclothes men during an
automobile march to Artsakh, Zhirayr Sefilyan met with senior officials
in Stepanakert. He says he was deeply disappointed with the meeting
which was attended by the Prosecutor General, Head of the National
Security Service and Deputy Minister of Artsakh.

During the meeting, Zhirayr Sefilyan and Emil Abrahamyan, another
member of the Founding Parliament, became convinced that they ‘are
dealing with a government that does not demonstrate an appropriate
position.’

“The generals sitting in front of us were flattering Serzh Sargsyan.

Deputy Prime Minister of NKR Arthur Aghabekyan was overtly praising
Sashik [Serzh Sargsyan’s brother],” said Mr Sefilyan.

He says the people in Artsakh have no connection with the January
31 violence.

“Many will try to use this incident and drive a wedge between Armenia
and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic but I would advise everyone to
avoid such attempts,” he said.

On January 31, scores of activists representing the Founding Parliament
opposition movement, a successor of the Pre-parliament pressure group,
organized an automobile march to Nagorno-Karabakh as part of their
campaign seeking a regime change in Armenia. Near Berdzor, they were
stopped by local police and a group of plainclothes men who forcefully
blocked their access to the territory of Karabakh.

A number of activists, including Jirayr Sefilyan, a Karabakh war
veteran and a former commander of the Shushi special detachment, were
beaten up during the incident. Also, some vehicles of the automobile
march were damaged.

LIVERPOOL REPORTEDLY OPEN TALKS FOR HENRIKH MKHITARYAN

12:42, 11 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Liverpool FC have opened talks with Borussia Dortmund as they look
to sign midfielder Henrik Mkhitaryan,according to reports.

The Armenian attacking midfielder was a summer transfer target for
Brendan Rodgers back in 2013, but with Dortmund one of Europe’s most
exciting clubs at that time the then Shakhtar Donesk man chose to
move to Germany.

Jurgen Klopp’s men find themselves embroiled in a relegation battle
this season and Rodgers is said to be ready to take advantage as he
looks for a replacement for the departing Steven Gerrard.

Mkhitaryan’s agent Mino Raiola has previously hinted that he expects
the midfielder to leave at the end of the season.

ARMENIA USES NOT ALL OPPORTUNITIES IN COOPERATION WITH IRAN

YEREVAN, February 11. /ARKA/. Armenia doesn’t use all the opportunities
of economic cooperation with Iran, Armen Martirosyan, an MP from
Heritage opposition party, said Wednesday at a news conference.

He thinks the Armenian authorities don’t use economic capacity to its
full extent – they are only negotiating over construction of Meghri
Hydro Power Plant and Iran-Armenia railway, but both projects are
unlikely to be put into reality.

Martirosyan said.

He pointed out struggle against terrorism as another ground for
cooperation.

The opposition lawmaker also finds it important to develop relations
with Iraqi Kurdistan.

he said.

Relations between the two countries are quite friendly. Yerevan and
Tehran intend to build two hydro power plants on Arax River. Each of
these power plants is planned to generate 793 million kilowatt/hour
electric power every year.

Armenian and Iranian authorities were considering ways for construction
of a joint oil pipeline and a refinery, but the negotiations over
the matter were suspended.

The countries are also discussing an idea of construction of
North-South (Iran-Armenia) railway, which will be an alternative
transportation link for Armenia opening anot

QUEEN ELISABETH TO VISIT TURKEY ON APRIL 24, REPORTS SAY

15:25, 11 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Queen Elisabeth II will visit Turkey on April 24 to participate in
the events marking the 100th anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli,
ermenihaber.am reports, quoting dunya.com. Seven destroyer warships
will ensure her security.

The source notes that about 14,000 tourists from New Zealand and
Australia will visit Turkey to commemorate the Australian soldiers
killed in the battle.

Only 13,000 spectators will be allowed to participate in the official
ceremonies on April 24 and 25. Most Turkish citizens will be deprived
of the opportunity to attend the events.