Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Eagle-Tribune, MA
Oct 16 2012

Armenian Church hosts fall fair

NORTH ANDOVER – St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church of the Merrimack
Valley will hold its annual fall fair Saturday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m.
to 7 p.m. in Jaffarian Hall, 158 Main St.

A full menu will be served all day featuring Armenian pastries and
foods. There will be food for sale to take home as well as Armenian
gifts, homemade crafts and jewelry.

There will be games of chance and raffles. Children accompanied by an
adult and wearing a Halloween costume will receive a prize. For more
information call 978-685-5038.

New web certificate course at NECC

LAWRENCE – Two of the courses needed to complete the new web design
certificate offered through Northern Essex Community College’s
noncredit Business Skills and Professional Development program, will
be available beginning this fall at NECC Riverwalk, 360 Merrimack St.

Participants must complete five courses: Basics of Web Site Design
Using HTML and CSS, Dreamweaver Basics, Advanced Dreamweaver, Flash
Animation, and Photoshop Techniques for the Web.

Dreamweaver Basics and Advanced Dreamweaver, both three-week courses,
will be offered on Thursday evenings. The first will begin Oct. 30 and
the second will begin Nov. 27. Additional courses in the certificate
program will be offered in the spring semester.

For more information on the web design certificate visit
necc.mass.edu/academics/courses-programs/non-credit/comp-training/web-design.

NECC schedules transfer college days in Haverhill, Lawrence

Students interested in transferring are invited to attend Transfer
College Days on Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill and
Lawrence campuses this month.

Free and open to the public, the events will be held on Wednesday,
Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the David Hartleb Technology Center,
100 Elliott St., Haverhill, and on Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 10 a.m. to
1 p.m. in the atrium of the Dimitry Building, 45 Franklin St.,
Lawrence.

While designed for Northern Essex students who plan to transfer after
graduating from Northern Essex with an associate degree, Transfer
College Days are open to any community members who are interested in
talking with representatives from public and private colleges from
across New England. The representatives will provide information on
program offerings, transfer requirements, financial aid, scholarships
and other issues.

Participating schools include state universities from Massachusetts,
New Hampshire and Maine as well as many private institutions such as
Simmons College, Brandeis University, Bentley University, Johnson &
Wales University, Merrimack College and Boston University. Transfer
College Days will highlight transfer opportunities for both full-time
and part-time students.

For more information, call 978-556-3440 or email [email protected].

NILP’s annual meeting Oct. 24

LAWRENCE – Northeast Independent living Program Inc., of Lawrence,
will hold its annual meeting Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 4 to 7 p.m. at
the NILP office on 20 Ballard Road in Lawrence.

NILP describes itself as providing advocacy and independent living
services to people with disabilities living in the greater Merrimack
Valley area, so they can live and work independently.

The public is invited to join with staff members from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
for an open house with light refreshments, and to visit the different
NILP programs and meet with staff about programs and activities.

There will be a business meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

During this annual meeting, NILP will present awards including:

Annual Community Partnership Award, given to a member of the community
for their commitment to independent living and many years of
supporting the mission of NILP and improving the lives of people with
disabilities;

110% Award, given to an NILP staff member for going above and beyond
their responsibilities.; and

ADA Champion Award, given to an individual, group, organization, city
or town that has demonstrated exemplary ADA compliance.

Wall Street Journal
Oct 16 2012

The World’s Oddest Air Routes

By JACK NICAS And SUSAN CAREY

For years, Armenian airline Armavia focused on ferrying Armenians
across Europe and Asia. Now it is tapping a new market: Flying Sikhs
between the U.K. and India.

In July, Armavia started flying from Birmingham, England, where there
is a large Sikh population, to Sikhism’s spiritual center in Amritsar,
India – via a stopover in Armenia. With just nine planes, Armavia must
think creatively to compete, said Artur Zakaryan, the carrier’s U.S.
representative. And “there is a market, so why not?”

Network planning in the airline business – determining which of a
carrier’s planes will fly where – is more than just fitting together a
maze of well-traveled routes. Airlines must be shrewd observers of
global economic and migration trends to spot profitable opportunities.

The pressure has increased in recent years, as more saturated
skies – nearly every high-traffic corridor is already served – have pushed
airlines to look for niche routes with less pressure on profit
margins. Over the past decade, airlines have added 10,000 new routes – a
37% increase – serving more than 37,000 city pairs this month, according
to Innovata LLC, which analyzes airline schedule data.

Often route planners are connecting cities that, at first glance,
don’t seem to fit. Take Baku, Azerbaijan, and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Azerbaijan Airlines began flying between the two cities this summer
because Baku has emerged as a major oil-producing hub and Aberdeen is
Europe’s petroleum capital.

Or consider Paris and Cincinnati. While Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL
-1.19% has slashed its international flights from Cincinnati over the
past decade, it has spared the daily Paris flight partly because of
the route’s lucrative cargo: 4.2 million pounds of jet-engine parts
ferried each year between factories near the two cities.

Meanwhile, new diasporas are growing out of the widening web of trade
links created by globalization – and in some cases by conflict and
economic hardship.

Boston has nonstop flights to Cape Verde, an island nation off the
coast of Senegal, and to the Azores, nine volcanic islands in the
middle of the Atlantic, because clusters of emigrants from both live
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Before the Cape Verde flight began as a year-round option in 2003,
Cape Verdeans in the U.S. sometimes reached the island via Portugal,
said Raquel Dias, who immigrated to Massachusetts 25 years ago from
Cape Verde. “It was complicated and expensive,” she said. Now, she
says she visits friends and family in Cape Verde nearly every year.

For two decades after its launch in 1986, German budget carrier
Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH focused on building a conventional route
map that blanketed its home country and stretched to a few vacation
hot spots, such as the Canary Islands.

But in 2010, a tour operator in Iraqi Kurdistan alerted executives of
Germania to the large Kurdish population in Germany and helped the
airline enter the war-torn country. By the end of this year, Germania
will be flying to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq eight times a
week – from twice weekly in 2010 – from Munich, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.
The Iraq flights are 90% full, Germania said, compared with the
airline’s average of 83%.

“Now we are looking out for other communities with Kurdish people in
Europe,” said Karsten Balke, a Germania attorney. “Just doing the same
job every day, every week doesn’t help you because always you have
competition… So we have to think ahead.”

Brian Znotins, managing director of international planning for United
Continental Holdings Inc., UAL -0.25% said the world’s largest airline
evaluates potential routes using a trove of public and purchased data
on issues such as air traffic and immigration trends.

It also talks to its corporate customers. Last November, United
started flying nonstop flights five times a week from Houston to
Lagos, Nigeria, in response to requests from oil companies that
contract with the airline, Mr. Znotins said.

Chris Wilmot, chief executive of Houston engineering and construction
firm WCW International Inc., said he lobbied for the Lagos flight
since 1999. “I travel once a month to Lagos or Ghana” to support his
firm’s work on telecommunications and other projects, he said. The
nonstop “saves at least 10 hours. Otherwise, you have to go through
Europe.”

In November, United and Delta begin flying to Williston, N.D., a town
of about 24,000 that happens to be at the center of an oil boom. The
city’s airport, not built to accommodate so many passengers, is
planning to use a mobile home to fit an extra waiting area.

Cargo can also support mainstream flights. Delta flies 22 tons of
asparagus on many of its flights from Lima, Peru, to Atlanta. Alaska
Airlines, a unit of Alaska Air Group Inc., ALK +0.97% moves 3,000
pounds of basil from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to the U.S. daily.

Or cargo can make even the smallest routes more attractive. The
American Red Cross said its workers have taken flights in Tanzania
that stop for honey, and if there was none on a given day, the
passengers would have to spend the night and hope that the sweet cargo
would appear.

Airlines keep trying new combinations. In May, Icelandair
GroupICEAIR.RK -1.27% is launching a twice-weekly, seven-hour flight
to Anchorage, Alaska, “opening up a new market for Icelandic tourism,”
the airline said.

But not all the experiments work out. Air Greenland tried to stimulate
tourist demand with a weekly flight between Baltimore and
Kangerlussuaq in the summer of 2007, but only about 800 tickets were
sold. The airline canceled the route months later.

– Jon Ostrower contributed to this article.

Yerevan Chronicle: `We should thank the Turks for the Genocide…’
Hrant Gadarigian
18:54, October 16, 2012

The following is a true story…unfortunately.

I had just finished a day’s work translating for Hetq. Around 4:30, I
decided to take a walk outside. It looked like another great day in
Yerevan; warm and sunny.

Making my way down Abovyan Street, I stepped into the Noyan Tapan bookstore
off Republic Square. I headed towards the Armenian history and literature
section towards the back.

Seated were some of the sales staff – two women, probably in their late
twenties, and a middle-aged one. Not surprisingly they were complaining
about the state of affairs in Armenia.

`They say a nation gets the government it deserves,’ commented one.

`That’s right. Armenians like to boast about their ancient civilization and
all, but can you call what we’re living today civilized?’ her colleague
replied.

`It’s so sad,’ said the first. `But at least we Armenians are a clever
bunch. We make do with the measly wages we make.’

`You know,’ the middle-aged sales clerk chimed in, `We should send a
letter
thanking the Turks for committing the genocide. As a result, Armenians were
scattered around the world and now they can send us money here in Armenia.’

I almost dropped the book I was leafing through. I couldn’t believe what
I
had just overheard.

`It’s the truth,’ said the middle-aged clerk. `It may sound a bit crude but
that’s what I think.’

The younger clerks began to giggle. I felt an intense impulse to go over
and choke the woman.

I weighed my options. What would be the proper response to such an ignorant
and uncompassionate comment?

I slowly turned to the woman and in the most polite voice I could muster
said, `Perhaps you should pick up one of the many books on the Genocide you
sell here. Take a look at some of the photos of the death marches and the
starving orphans left parentless. Maybe you’ll think before uttered such
crap.’

The woman’s jaw dropped and she started to babble some lame apology.

`It’s was just a harmless joke. Don’t take it so seriously.’

`A joke you say? That’s some perverted sense of humour you have,’ I shot
back and walked out.

Now, I am confident that this woman is in the minority when it comes to
such thoughts. But I am equally sure that there are many who think like her
here in Armenia. You just have to scratch the surface.

Do all citizens of Armenia regard `outside’ Armenians, many descendants of
Genocide survivors, as convenient money faucets? Is that how many regard
me? an `outsider and descendant of Genocide survivors.’

It makes your skin crawl…at least that’s how I felt at that moment.

Even more unreal was the fact that right down the street, representatives
of the AGBU were staying at the Marriott Hotel. There was even a big AGBU
sign outside on the sidewalk announcing the fact.

The cafe tables outside the hotel were full of what I assumed were AGBU
members sipping their drinks and conversing in Western Armenian. A lone
local resident was pacing back and forth on the sidewalk selling nuts from
a plastic bag.

An eerie combination indeed…but one that kind of sums up our present
reality in a crazy sort of way. Perhaps the sales clerk was right. Who am I
to judge?

The AGBU – one of the biggest Armenian money faucets around. I’m sure the
bookstore sales clerk would have been overjoyed that her wish was coming
true.

One thing for sure, the AGBU and other outside donor sources should demand
a greater degree of accountability from the Armenian government to see that
the money reaches its intended targets.

Maybe that ignorant sales clerk thought I was one of those rich AGBU types
and she wanted to crack what she thought was a clever joke at my expense.
If so, she’s doubly an asshole.

It’s just another sad commentary on the gulf that divides the realities of
present-day Armenia and the global Diaspora.

Both sides have yet reached a point of mutual recognition.

Now the sales clerk in question evidently was aware of the 1915 Genocide,
but for here it was just another tragic page in the history of the Armenian
people. That’s to say it’s not an integral part of her personal identity,
of who she is and where she comes from. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have used
it as a reference for jokes.

I just wonder how many others think like her when they walk up the hill to
the Tzitzernakapert Genocide Memorial and Eternal Flame every April 24th.

Please tell me I’m paranoid. Please tell me that we, as a nation, can
overcome the stereotypes on both sides of the divide and reach some common
understanding as to how we can cooperate and build a better Armenia for us
all.

Armenian National Congress to catch election riggers `red-handed’

tert.am
18:38 – 16.10.12

Since election process is like `playing poker with cardsharpers’ now,
the Armenian National Congress (ANC) parliamentary group has proposed
a means of catching election riggers `red-handed.’

At his meeting with journalists on Tuesday, Levon Zurabyan, an ANC
group member, noted that the group has submitted draft amendments to
Armenia’s election law to parliament.

`Most people are disappointed by lawlessness and rigged elections.
Therefore, the election system needs comprehensive reforms, which, in
turn, will reform people’s confidence in elections,’ Zurabyan said.

The draft amendments envisage a switchover to proportional
representation (PR) and video recording of the entire voting process.

According to the draft, voters are to dip a finger in invisible ink,
the lists of voters must be separated from the population register and
the number of ballot papers is to be unlimited.

`There must be no control over ballot papers. On the other hand,
strict control over envelopes is expected. This measure is supposed to
put an end to what is known as `carousel’,’ Zurabyan said.

If the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) does not want to
`disgrace itself’ once more in the international community’s eyes, it
should be the first to vote for the draft, Zurabyan said.

`If they reject the draft, it means they do not want fair elections,’ he added.

Abuse in state procurement system in children’s homes and homes for
elderly people

ARMINFO
Monday, October 15, 16:17

Today the head of the State Commission on Protection of Economic
Competition (SCPEC), Artak Shaboyan, presented the results of
investigation held by the SCPEC in 2011 in the state procurement
system in children’s homes and homes for elderly people.

He said that investigation was held 8 children’s homes and 3 homes for
elderly people and it became clear that prices for food products for
these homes purchased for the budgetary funds exceeded the market
prices twofold. For instance, potato was bought for 500 drams for
kilogram and beetroot – 300 drams.

He also added that 5 suppliers also abused in the state procurement
system, as a result, they seriously damaged the state budget. However,
he did not mention the size of the damage and the names of these five
suppliers which broke the law.

European Journal of International Law, Issue 23 (3): 2012
Volume 23, Issue 3
p.p.: 797-820.

State Identity, Continuity, and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire,
the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide

By Vahagn Avedian
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Lund University

Abstract

By studying the continuity between the Ottoman Empire and its succeeding
Turkish Republic, this article aims to address one crucial aspect of the
denial of the Armenian genocide by the Turkish state, namely the issue of
state responsibility.

There are psychological barriers in Turkey which have largely suppressed
the memories of possible wrongdoings during World War I and the ensuing
`Independence War’. However, the barrier that is created by the issue of
state responsibility is identified here as the fundamental obstacle for
genocide recognition by the Turkish state. This article aims to apply some
of the existing legal principles and theories of international law in
order to test their applicability to the two Turkish states and the issue
of internationally wrongful acts committed during World War I and the
ensuing years.

In addition to the Turkish Republic bearing the identity of the Ottoman
Empire, this article suggests that the Republic not only failed to stop
doing the wrongful acts of its predecessor, but it also continued the very
internationally wrongful acts committed by the Young Turk government.

Thus, the insurgent National Movement, which later became the Republic,
made itself responsible for not only its own wrongful acts but also those
of its predecessor, including the act of genocide committed in 1915-1916.
The issue of possible liability has ever since the creation of the
Republic formed the denialist policy which is Turkey’s to this day.

Please note the copyright rules stated at

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Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 16 2012

Turkish PM: Armenian plane was grounded due to certain violations

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that an
Armenian plane made a “technical landing” in eastern province of
Erzurum today “due to certain violations”, Anadolu Agency reported.

Speaking to reporters at Ankara’s Esenboga International Airport
before departing for Baku, Erdogan stressed that “the Armenian plane
landed in Erzurum due to certain violations.

However, after a search in the plane, Turkish officials did not find
anything that would have caused a problem and the plane was permitted
for take off.”

Touching on a Syrian passenger plane that was forced to land in Ankara
last week, Erdogan stated that the equipment found in the cargo
department of the plane were “definitely equipment used in war”.

“The Syrian plane was carrying radar equipment that can be used in
war,” Erdogan also said.
Prime Minister Erdogan is on his way to Baku to attend the Economic
Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit on Tuesday.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 15 2012

Armenian plane en route to Aleppo searched in Turkey

15 October 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH REUTERS, Ä°STANBUL

Turkey grounded an Armenian plane flying to the Syrian city of Aleppo
and searched its cargo on Monday, in the latest move to prevent its
airspace from being used to supply the Syrian military.

The plane was allowed to continue on its way after the search in the
eastern Turkish city of Erzurum confirmed it was carrying humanitarian
aid as stated by Armenian officials, a Turkish deputy prime minister
said.

Last Wednesday Turkey forced a Syrian airliner to land that had come
from Moscow and officials reported finding Russian munitions on board
destined for Syria’s armed forces.

NATO member Turkey has become increasingly assertive in challenging
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the face of growing tensions along
the border and banned all Syrian aircraft from its airspace in the
wake of that incident.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said the plane was given
the all clear and allowed to continue on its journey.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Turkey has the sovereign right under
the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation to require
planes crossing its airspace to make a “technical landing” but did not
say whether this right would be exercised again in the future.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu said later in the day that
according to preliminary inspections, the plane was not carrying any
cargo except humanitarian aid supplies.

DavutoÄ?lu, who is attending the 20th Meeting of the Council of
Ministers (COM) of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in
Azerbaijan, told journalists that on Oct. 10, Armenia requested the
use of Turkish airspace to take humanitarian aid to Aleppo. He said
Turkey had granted permission only on the condition that the plane
would make a “technical landing” in Erzurum, a request in keeping with
international aviation law.

Armenia confirmed it had known the plane would be searched.

“The landing of the airplane in Turkey was planned and it was carried
out according to a previously reached agreement. The airplane is
delivering humanitarian aid to Syria,” Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Tigran Balayan said.

Last week’s decision to force down and search the Syrian plane
traveling from Russia infuriated Moscow and Damascus.

Russia has said there were no weapons on the plane and that it was
carrying a legal cargo of radar equipment. But Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov later said the incident would not hurt the country’s “solid”
relations with Turkey.

“I assure you, nobody should worry about the state of Russian-Turkish
relations,” state-run Russian news agency RIA quoted Sergei Lavrov as
saying in Luxembourg on Sunday. “They are developing on a stable and
solid foundation,” he said.

DavutoÄ?lu said over the weekend that Turkish airspace had been closed
to Syrian planes. Syria has also banned Turkish planes from flying
over its territory.

The confrontation between Turkey and Syria has escalated in the last
two weeks because of cross-border shelling, with Ankara retaliating
after five Turkish civilians were killed when a Syrian shell hit a
Turkish border town.

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 16 2012

Gül offers ErdoÄ?an a second chance?

The new source of tension in the Turkish Parliament is not about
Syria; that reached its climax last week with the parliamentary
grilling of Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu, after Turkish jets
forced a Syrian plane en route to Damascus from Moscow to land and
seized part of its cargo, which was suspected to be military material.

This week, the Syria crisis has become routine. When an Armenian plane
landed in the eastern city of Erzurum for a cargo inspection on
Monday, for example, only a handful of reporters were excited about
the possibility of a new crisis. But in a short time it was understood
from statements from both Turkish and Armenian government sources that
it was not a crisis. It did however show that Turkey’s neighbors, even
Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic relations, acknowledge
that it is no longer a good idea to try to transport military material
to Syria via Turkish airspace. With backing from the U.S. and EU on
the grounding of the Syrian airliner, the Turkish government has
brought its tone down as well. There were reports that Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov got a hard time over Syria and Turkey from his
colleagues at the EU, as their own stances on both Syria and Iran are
toughening.

But there is never a dull moment in the Turkish capital, and since the
weekend Parliament has been busy with its new source of tension.
Because the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) failed to
secure an amendment to move local elections planned for March 30, 2014
to Oct. 27, 2013 with the support of the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP), the possibility of a referendum on the issue emerged on the
political agenda. It is now up to President Abdullah Gül’s to decide
whether to approve the motion and let the country hold a referendum
amid the Syria crisis, the simmering Kurdish issue and economic
difficulties, or to give his long-time comrade Prime Minister Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an a second chance to try it again without a referendum.

If Gül uses the full 15 days the Constitution grants him to decide, it
will be too late for ErdoÄ?an, because according to the Constitution,
any change in election procedure cannot be implemented for a year
after it is passed, so the deadline for this amendment is Oct. 27. And
the MHP, with its inner opposition against a municipal law in favor of
the AK Parti, has already started to say that perhaps it is better to
hold the local elections as scheduled.

Ahmet Sever, the president’s spokesman, told daily Milliyet on Monday
that the president is likely to send the amendment back to Parliament
for a revision. That would probably make ErdoÄ?an happy, as it would
mean a second chance for him if it can come up again before the Muslim
religious holiday the Eid al-Adha begins on Oct. 25.

Everyone of course knows that this is actually about who will be the
next president in 2014, and it seems Parliament is just beginning to
struggle with it.
October/16/2012

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 15 2012

Armenia’s airport move is not friendly, says Turkish FM

BAKU – Anatolia News Agency

Armenia’s move to resume flights to Khojaly Airport in the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region will damage the solution process with
Azerbaijan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu said today at a
press conference in Baku.

`If the airport is opened, this will damage the solution process,’
DavutoÄ?lu said, adding that everyone should focus on a solution to the
issue.

Armenia’s step was not friendly, DavutoÄ?lu said, adding that Turkey
had been in solidarity with Azerbaijan on the question of the airport
as well as other issues.

Turkey was ready to do everything to establish peace and stability in
the south Caucasus, the foreign minister said.

`Everyone should respect all countries’ borders to maintain peace,’
DavutoÄ?lu was quoted as saying.

Turkey wants the problem of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity to be
solved, DavutoÄ?lu said.

October/15/2012