Author: Kalantarian Kevo

LOST ARMENIAN GOLD LOCATED BY TURKISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Hurriyet
June 22 2012
Turkey

The Turkish Historical Society has claimed that gold that was obtained
from the auctioning off of Armenian assets during the Ottoman era was
seized by Ally forces as war reparations in the aftermath of World
War I, daily Bugun has reported.

Around 5 million pieces of Ottoman gold reportedly belonging to
Armenians who left the empire were taken by Ally forces, possibly by
Britain, according to a recent two-year study by the society.

A group of Armenian-Canadians were paid compensation by a British
bank from the seized fund, which now equals 1.3 million pounds.

The money was initially transferred to a German bank and was then
divided between the Allies.

The U.S. government has been investigating the sources of the transfer
in the Allies’ budget as well, Bugun reported.

HEARING TURKEY’S ARMENIANS

International Relations and Security Network

June 22 2012
Switzerland

Armenian flags used during a protest in Yerevan, Armenia

The aim of this report is not only to introduce the problems that the
Armenian population has been living with, but also the opinions of
the different segments of Armenian society about the democratization
process in Turkey. The authors focus on the issues that are mostly
ignored by policy makers and society in Turkey such as access to
education and employment; assuring the freedom of faith and religious
practices; freedom of intellectual, cultural and artistic expression;
elections of the Patriarch and directors of community foundations,
and demands concerning confiscated property.

© 2012 Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)

Download:

English (PDF · 130 pages · 2.0 MB)

Author: Gunay Göksu Ozdogan, Ohannes Kılıcdagı

Editor: Mehmet Ekinci, Pınar Canga

ISBN/EAN: 978-605-5332-01-3

Series: TESEV Publications

Publisher: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV),
Istanbul, Turkey

CATTLE PRODUCTION NOT PROFITABLE IN ARMENIAN VILLAGES (PHOTO)

news.am
June 22, 2012 | 22:48

Armenian Lori region’s Lori Berd village has many problems. Amongst
the most urgent issues the village residents state water supply and
the lack of pastures.

Thus, the drinking water not always has the best quality. The residents
informed that quite recently several infections spread in the village
because of the drinking water.

CHATHAM HOUSE: LACK OF SOVEREIGNTY SHOULD BE ARMENIA’S NUMBER ONE CONCERN

arminfo
Friday, June 22, 20:26

Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia is in
decline but it keeps pushing against the tide, Chatham House says in
its report “The Long Goodbye: Waning Russian Influence in the South
Caucasus and Central Asia.”

“The South Caucasus, with its potential interstate conflict, presents
a complex arena for Russian soft power. The levers of Russian influence
here vary. They are economic and military in Armenia, scarcely present
in Azerbaijan, and essentially related to negative publicity as well
as economics with regard to Georgia,” the reports says, adding that
Russian influence in Armenia is so great that lack of sovereignty
should be Armenia’s number one concern. The governments in Azerbaijan
and especially Georgia, where there is less Russian soft power at work,
have more traditional security concerns about Russia.

Armenia does not share these concerns (at least openly).

Concerning Russia’s influence on Armenia’s energy market, the report
says: “In 2003, the CEO of United Energy Systems (UES), Anatoliy
Chubais, outlined plans to integrate the South Caucasus into a Russia-
led energy-supply network through ten former Soviet republics, as
well as plans to ensure electricity outflows from Armenia to Turkey
and Azerbaijan. Chubais denied that UES sought political gains but
he has been a leading proponent of the concept of a Eurasian ‘liberal
empire’ and his actions gave Russia almost total control of Armenia’s
energy market. It was Robert Kocharian, Armenia’s president from 1998
to 2008, who effectively sold off Armenia to Chubais and other Russian
commercial and political interests. Through Gazprom’s ownership of its
Armenian subsidiary, ArmRosGazprom, 80% of Armenia’s energy structure
is Russian-controlled, including the majority of the Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline, thus ensuring that Armenia cannot become an independent
transit country should Iranian gas ever reach European markets.

Russia has also bought up all but two of Armenia’s hydroelectric and
nuclear power stations, in exchange for writing off Armenian debt.”

Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the reports says: “Russia’s
support of Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute has been based
on several interests: limiting Turkish influence, countering a
Russophobic Azerbaijan in the early years of independence, and
long-standing cultural ties reflected in the large Armenian diaspora
in Russia. Russia’s positioning has given it a powerful lever of
influence over Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as external parties.

However, its backing of Armenia’s stance has changed in recent years:
during his presidency, Medvedev invested more effort in mediation than
his predecessors and the Azerbaijani first family has strong interests
in Russia. But there are forces deriving financial profit and political
leverage from continued tension and the status quo. Russia sees its
mediation over Nagorno-Karabakh in terms of its influence and may
not be genuinely interested in a resolution. This is shown by Russian
objections to an international peacekeeping force and to changes in the
make-up of the Minsk Group, which has been mediating on the conflict
since 1992. Russia has proposed deploying its own troops instead. This
would strengthen its position, but seems unlikely to be accepted by
Azerbaijan. It is an open question whether Russia would support Armenia
militarily should Azerbaijan decide to retake the territory by force.”

“It is conceivable, however, that this uncertainty is a factor in
Azerbaijan’s restraint so far. At the trilateral summit in Kazan in
June 2011 Azerbaijan expressed scepticism about the latest Russian-led
peace initiative. It still considers Russia to be a dishonest broker,
perhaps partly owing to the Armenian background of Russian foreign
minister and chief negotiator Sergei Lavrov, but probably mostly from
fear of a pax Russica in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan considers
to be its territory.”

“A full-blown renewal of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would jeopardize
Russia’s position in Azerbaijan and Turkey, particularly if the
Armenians required military assistance. Pipeline security would also
be affected, and Russia prioritizes energy security and financial
profit over conflict manipulation,” the reports concludes.

TURKEY: GETTING ITS GROOVE BACK
by Daniel Dombey

June 22, 2012 3:43 pm

Turkey getting it back internationally? The country has been through
a few squalls in the last 12 months – who hasn’t? – but its current
account deficit, widely seen as the economy’s weakest point, is
moving down.

And aside from the Moody’s upgrade, there are other signs that things
are getting back to normal.

First the political. This week Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s powerful
prime minister, had a brief but amiable meeting at the Rio+20 summit
with president Francois Hollande of France, the man who replaced
Ankara’s bete noire, former Elysee resident Nicolas Sarkozy.

Turkey slapped ‘sanctions’ on France – basically a freeze of bilateral
political and military ties – earlier this year in response to
Sarkozy’s support for a law that made it a crime to deny that the
Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor state, carried out a genocide
of Armenians almost 100 years ago. Ankara objects vehemently to such
descriptions of the mass killings that undoubtedly took place.

In the event, the law never took effect, because it was deemed
unconstitutional, but relations with Sarkozy remained icy cold. No
sooner had the Hollande-Erdogan meeting taken place, by contrast,
than Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, announced that the
sanctions were a thing of the past.

So ended – or at least halted – an affair that had at one time raised
questions about Turkey and France’s trade and investment ties.

Nor is that the end of it. In a move that many in Ankara associate
with the change of order in Paris, on Thursday, Turkey and the EU
made progress on an issue that is a huge bugbear for many Turks –
namely the cumbersome EU visa procedures that immensely irritate
Turkish executives and many of their fellow citizens.

At a meeting in Brussels, the two sides initiated a deal the EU
wants for Turkey to readmit unwelcome migrants to the bloc, a move
that allows negotiations on visa liberalisation to begin. Turkey-EU
relations are about to get a big jolt when Cyprus, Ankara’s old
adversary, takes over the bloc’s presidency for six months as of July
1, so the agreement came just in time.

There was also some substantial investment news on Friday, with
reports that Turkven, a Turkey-dedicated private equity group, was
taking a $500m stake in the retailer Koton. Turkven, which has no
Turkish investors, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

So is everything going swimmingly? No, of course not. In a sign of
continuing problems raising infrastructure finance, the sale of two
bridges over the Bosphorus was delayed for a third time. (Not to be
confused with the recent successful tender to build a third bridge
over the Bosphorus.)

In an uncertain world, Turkey’s soft landing from the go-go years
of 2010 and 2011, when growth topped 8 per cent, is still a work
in progress. But at a time when a lot worse is happening elsewhere,
it was none too shabby a week.

ODNOKLASSNIKI.RU REP. SAYS GENOCIDE RELATED PHOTOS BLOCKED BY NETWORK USERS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 22, 2012 – 19:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Genocide related photos posted by Armenian users
are blocked by Odnoklassniki.ru social network users rather than its
administration,” the website’s creative director said.

As Alexander Izryadnov told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the website
administration is searching for possible solutions to the problem,
given Armenian users’ discontent.

Genocide related photos are daily uploaded in social networks by
Armenian users, which are later blocked by Odnoklassniki.ru.

BLACK SEA TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT BANK HEAD ADMIRES ARMENIA’S ECONOMY

NEWS.AM
June 22, 2012 | 17:51

YEREVAN. – Armenia is the only state which managed to register
fiscal indicators during the election period, the Black Sea Trade
and Development Bank (BSTDB) Secretary General Orsalia Kalantzopoulos
said during business-forum organized in Yerevan on Friday.

“I admire Armenia’s economy,” she said adding the indicators are
capable of resisting the world challenges.

To note, the bank plans to invest â~B¬50 million in Armenia’s economy
in 2011-14 through programs of developing infrastructures, assistance
to small and medium-sized business, energy saving and stimulatiоn
of exports.

ARMENIANS OF SYRIA HAVE NO COMMON STANCE ON THE EVENTS IN THE COUNTRY, EXPERT SAYS
Nvard Davtyan

“Radiolur”
22.06.2012 18:07

Syria is on the threshold of civil war, expert of the Civilization
and Cultural Research Center Hayk Kocharyan told a press conference
in Yerevan today.

The expert rules out the reoccurrence of the Lebanese scenario in case
of Syria. According to him, the great powers have come to understand
that it is impossible to change the power in the country through
external interference.

Hayk Kocharyan recalled the Russian President’s statement made on
the sidelines of the G20 summit in Mexico that the people of Syria
must have an opportunity to determine their own future. The opinion
was shared by the US President.

The Yemen scenario co-authored by the United States and Great
Britain is now being discussed. According to it, the President of the
country and his family will be provided security guarantees against
surrendering of power. However, it’s hard to assess the vitality of
the program, the expert said, recalling the example of Egypt.

Hayk Kocharyan notes that the opposition Muslim Brothers won the
Egypt elections, but the military forces refuse to accept the results.

According to him, UN Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan was a
chance to avoid further development of events, but it didn’t work.

The Armenian community has no common stance on the events in Syria.

Some of them support the authorities, others defend the opposition.

According to Hayk Kocharyan, this brings about tension inside the
community. What should the Republic of Armenia do in this situation?

“It must show that the whole Armenian network will work and help them.

Armenians of Syria must feel this,” the expert said.

Hayk Kocharyan considers that the migration of Syrian Armenians
to Armenia must be organized only in case of extreme necessity, in
case their lives are endangered. However, today it’s necessary to do
everything not to reach that stage, since in that case we’ll lose our
presence in the Middle East. The Syrian community is the largest and
the most organized in the region, the expert said.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIED SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

ARMENPRESS
22 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS: During the out of turn sitting of
Armenia National Assembly several international treaties were
ratified. Armenpress reports that the Parliament ratified three
international agreements.

The framework convention of Council of Europe “Meaning of cultural
heritage for society” signed on October 27, 2005, agreement “On
cooperation in the sphere of culture and art between the Government of
the Republic of Armenia and Government of Kuwait” signed on November 3,
2009 in Kuwait were ratified.

The loan treaty signed between the Republic of Armenia and Asian
Development Bank signed on May 3, 2012 which has the aim to support the
reforms in the field of water supplying was also ratified. Besides the
abovementioned the Parliament approved several other bills including
the project of making changes in the law “About Sevan Lake”.

THE NAME OF THE COMPANY LAUNCHING ACTIVITY IN FREE ECONOMIC ZONE IN ARMENIA IS KNOWN

ARMENPRESS
22 June, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS: R&D Arts Canadian Company is scheduled to
launch activities in Yerevan Mathematical Machines Research Institute’s
free economic zone. Armenian Development Agency’s Director General
Robert Harutyunyan noted that at the beginning of the year the Agency
has been engaged in negotiations with IT best representatives: R&D
Arts was the first to accept the proposal of free economic zone.

The company’s vice-president Sergey Zotin informed that R&D Arts has
its headquarters in many countries. The company will establish its
Office in Armenia as well.

“When receiving the proposal we realized that it is quite interesting
to enter Armenian market, by the way Armenia is nearer to Europe than
to Canada” Zotin noted.

As Armenpress reports,the interlocutor added he had come to Armenia
on a mission to study the possibilities and estimate the situation.

The company has intentions to implement 2.2 US million dollar
investment and create about 25 jobs during the coming five years.

The free economic zone due to be created both in the area of ” RAO
MARS” and ” YMMRI” CJSC companies will have innovative technologies’
high production and export orientation in electronics, precision
engineering, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, information technology,
alternative energy, industrial design, and telecommunications sectors.