Author: Kanayan Tamar

AZERBAIJANI JOURNALIST BRUTALLY BEATEN

Panorama.am
18/04/2012

Azerbaijani award-winning investigative journalist of Zerkalo daily
Idrak Abasov has been brutally beaten, Turan news agency report says.

Idrak Abbasov was beaten up as he was filming a confrontation that
erupted while employees of state company SOCAR were demolishing houses
in the village of Sulutapa on the outskirts of the capital Baku.

“When SOCAR security service people noticed that Idrak was filming,
they assaulted him. They seized his camera, knocked him down and
started beating him up,” his brother Roman Abbasov said.

The journalist was soon hospitalized, his condition is serious.

ALIYEV BLAMES ‘ARMENIAN LOBBY’ FOR INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM

17.04.2012

Azerbaijan – President Ilham Aliyev chairs a cabinet meeting in Baku,
16 Apr 2012.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has described the worldwide
“Armenian lobby” as his nation’s number one enemy and seemingly blamed
it for international criticism of Baku’s human rights record.

“The Armenian lobby is the driving force of negative information about
us,” he said during a cabinet meeting held on Monday and reported by
Azerbaijani news agencies the following day.

“An information war is waged against us … The Armenian lobby is
especially active in that information war. Attempts to badmouth
Azerbaijan, to deny Azerbaijan’s realities, to present Azerbaijan to
the outside world as a backward and undemocratic country primarily
result from dirty deeds of the Armenian lobby,” Aliyev said in remarks
cited by the official Azertag news agency.

“The scope of their influence is quite broad. They [Armenians] are
represented in the leading print media outlets of various countries.

Sometimes they go under different names and hide their ethnic origin,”
added Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani government’s human rights record is under growing
international scrutiny ahead of the Eurovision song contest that will
he held in Baku next month. In recent reports cited by Western media,
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch strongly criticized
the government for breaking up opposition protests, jailing their
participants and suppressing broader dissent. There have even been
calls in the European Parliament and from human rights activists and
Azerbaijani bloggers for an international boycott of the contest.

Armenia withdrew from the annual show last month. It attributed the
boycott to Aliyev’s March 1 remark that “Armenians of the world”
are Azerbaijan’s main enemy.

The Azerbaijani leader made a similar, albeit more carefully worded,
statement on Monday. “For us, the number one enemy is the Armenian
lobby,” he said. “We must be prepared to fight against it.”

ARMENIAN PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO UN RESPONDS TO BAKU

news.am
April 17, 2012 | 19:00

Talking about the propaganda letters which Azerbaijan continues to
spread in the UN, Armenia’s Permanent Representative to UN Garen
Nazarian stated that by publishing senseless documents Baku is driven
by a miserable principle, that is ‘If enough lies are told and repeated
frequently then people will believe them at the end’.

“We are not surprised by aggressive style of Azerbaijan’s announcements
and its president’s statements who calls all Armenians of the world
fascists and enemies. Such chauvinism and anti-Armenian rhetoric are
attempts by Azerbaijan to escape responsibility for the military
conflict it caused concerning Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” Garen
Nazarian stated.

According to him the Armenian side will publish a letter as an answer
to the one sent to the UN Secretary General and Member States by
Azerbaijan.

IAEA DELEGATION TO VISIT ARMENIA

tert.am
17.04.12

A delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headed
by Director General Yukiya Amano is to arrive in Armenia on April 18.

The IAEA director general is to hold meetings with Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen
Movsissyan.

The IAEA delegation is also to visit the Armenian nuclear-power plant.

ITALY-BASED ARMENIAN WINEMAKER WILL NOT OFFER BRIBES

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 17:22:36 – 17/04/2012

Vahe Keushgueryan, Italy-based Armenian winemaker, president of Semina
Consulting Company which supports Armenian winemaking companies, tried
to import winery equipment from Italy but encountered obstacles of
the customs. The equipment has been in the customs office for already
over 6 months, while the businessman cannot get a proper clarification.

He told Lragir.am that the driver had forgot a document for which the
equipment is still in the customs office. According to Keushgueryan,
the customs service staff cannot tell him what the destiny of the
equipment will be. He says the Customs office has not provided any
information on the equipment for six months, and they do not know in
what condition the equipment is. “Perhaps, they want me to go there
and solve the issue otherwise but I’m not going,” said the businessman.

Vahe Keushgueryan says the government is not helpful to businesses,
it only creates obstacles for their activities.

Winemakers encounter obstacles also when they want to export wine
samples abroad. Keushgueryan says they ask to submit all kinds of
documents at every step. While in other countries sending a wine
sample requires a few hours, in Armenia it takes more than a week.

According to Vahe Keushgueryan, the quality of wine produced in
Armenia is not improving since there is no state control. “In Armenia
some wines are produced of grapes which are not grown here. It is
a European sort of grapes for white wine, while the one sold in
Armenia is red. It is a shame,” he says adding that the market will
not develop unless quality is controlled.

The Armenian-Italian winemaker calls on the authorities to control
this sector and not to create obstacles for the businessmen. According
to him, the main problem of Armenia is poor and selective enforcement
of the law.

TEGHOUT RESIDENTS UNBLOCK ROAD AFTER VISIT BY REGIONAL GOVERNOR
Larisa Paremuzyan

hetq
14:03, April 17, 2012

Teghout village residents have lifted their blockade of the main road
going into town as reported earlier today in Hetq.

Residents blocked the road in force after an incident took place
yesterday in which security staff of the Armenian Copper Programme’s
subsidiary Teghout Ltd. had beat up several villagers.

Residents demanded that Lori Regional Governor Artur Nalbandyan come
to Teghout and hear their complaints. They wanted those responsible
to be fired from their jobs.

Toumanyan Police Chief Artur Haroutyunyan told Hetq that those
responsible had been detained for questioning and that charges would
be filed.

ARMENIA TO LIKEWISE MARK INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR MONUMENTS AND SITES

news.am
April 17, 2012 | 16:31

YEREVAN. – The International Day for Monuments and Sites and the 40th
anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage will be jointly observed on Wednesday.

The event will be marked under the name “World Heritage.”

And on this occasion, Armenia’s Culture Ministry will organize
educational and cultural events aimed at the preservation and
popularization of monuments.

ARMENIA’S MILITARY PREFERENCES ARE CONNECTED WITH CSTO, PM RECONFIRMS

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 16, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS: The presence of Russian military
bases in the territory of Armenia already speaks about our country’s
military preferences, Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said
in an interview given to Russian “Nezavisimaja Gazeta”.

“We stand up for establishment of good relations with NATO, but we
do not pursue deep and long-range purposes. Armenia prefers CSTO,”
said the PM, Armenpress reports.

He also stressed that Armenia-NATO and Armenia-CSTO relations are in
different levels of integration.

Referring to the international strained situation created over Iran,
Tigran Sargsyan noted that the possible military activities can pose
a serious threat to Armenia’s economy.

In response to the question whether it is intended to strengthen
Russia’s presence in Armenia this or that way, Tigran Sargsyan said the
deployment of Russian military bases in our country by the agreement
signed between Armenia and Russia in 2010 has been prolonged to 2044,
no more steps are intended.

PM also referred to the reforms implemented in Armenia in military
sphere. “Armenia’s budget is 1 trillion Drams, 14% of which is the
military budget. The first round of the reforms of the army suggests
change of infrastructures and regulation of some organizational issues,
which almost do not require any financial means,” said Tigran Sargsyan.

He added that the next round intends replenishment of the army with
new professionals and contractual workers. As a result, the salary
of the servicemen will increase, the social state will improve,”
stressed the PM.

Referring to development of the military industry, Tigran Sargsyan
noted there are already distinct military as well as industrial
enterprises and scientific and research institutes, which get a
state order for creating weapons. He stressed that Armenia intends
to release and put into operation its own unmanned aerial vehicle.

ICELANDIC MPS PROPOSE GENOCIDE RECOGNITION INITIATIVE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 16, 2012 – 22:01 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Icelandic parliamentarians submitted a proposal
urging the country’s government for official recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. According to Iceland’s media, the initiative was
proposed by MargrÊt TryggvadÕttir, a member of The Movement party.

The initiative was supported by two members of The Movement – aÕr Saari
and Birgitta JÕnsdÕttir as well as Lilja MÕsesdÕttir and GuÒmundur
SteingrÎmsson, chairs of Solidarity and Bright Future parties.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the
Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged imposing a 45,000 euro fine and
a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against
humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Later, the French Constitutional Council ruled that a bill adopted
by the French Senate making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide
was anti-constitutional.

In a statement the Council said the bill adopted by parliament on
January 23 represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice
of freedom of expression and communication.”

Turkey reacted furiously when the Senate approved the law. Ankara
halted political and military cooperation with France and was
threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties if the law took
effect.

Immediately after French Constitutional Council ruling, President
Nicolas Sarkozy instructed the government to submit a new draft law
punishing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

CRIMINAL CASE LAUNCHED BASED ON GAYANE ARUSTAMYAN’S REPORT

hetq
16:19, April 16, 2012

A criminal case was launched in the Police Malatia Division based on
the report made by the candidate Gayane Arustamyan.

In particular, according to G. Arustamyan’s report, on 15 April,
2012 at about 06:40 p.m. a group of unknown young man beat her and ANC
proportional list candidate Babken Garoyan in the entrance of Svatsyan
44 building. B. Garoyan got injuries on the nose and different parts
of the body.

The criminal case was initiated according to the Article 117 of the
Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The preliminary investigation
is underway.

Prosecutor General’s Office of RoA