Author: Kanayan Tamar

IS THERE KHACHATUROV AT ALL?
HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:22:33 – 30/08/2011

The role of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces is as
important in terms of management of the army contingent as that of
the Defense Minister. The Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces
of Armenia is Yuri Khachaturov.

Has this official ever tried to make public remarks about the situation
in the army, tragic events and army reforms in general? Is there a
Chief of General Staff of the Army in Armenia or not? What is Yuri
Khachaturov doing?

No doubt, along with responsibility of the Defense Minister, the
issue of responsibility of the Chief of the General Staff should also
be raised.

Moreover, the organization and daily operation of the army is enabled
through the Chief of the General Staff, so he is directly responsible
for the organization of life in the army.

Hence, a public demand of resignation of the Chief of the General
Staff of the Armed Forces should be set forward given he fails to
give a convincing and grounded clarification on tragedies happening
in the army every now and then and fails to take steps to prevent
further tragedies.

Although, apparently, the time for explanations is over, and if the
Chief of General Staff had something to tell the society or could do
something to prevent crimes, he would have said and done it.

Consequently, it is obvious to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that
it is high time he considered replacement of the Chief of General
Staff of the Armed Forces.

Although, I wonder if it will be enough. This step should be the
beginning of replacement of generals of the Armenian army. The later it
happens, the more lives of Armenian young men will be under threaten.

RETURNING PROPERTY TO ARMENIANS BY TURKISH GOVERNMENT HAS PURPOSE TO CALL OFF ATTENTION OF WORLD COMMUNITY FROM ARMENIAN ISSUE

arminfo
Tuesday, August 30, 16:05

Turkey has not changed its harsh position regarding Armenia. It is just
trying to hide its aggressiveness via certain gestures of “kind will”,
political expert Levon Shirinyan said at today’s press-conference when
commenting on the decision of the Turkish authorities about property
returning to the Armenian and Jewish communities.

He also added that by such a step Ankara is trying to gain the
reputation of a civilized state as well as to call off the attention
of the world community from the Armenian issue. Actually, as he said,
the Turkish military and political elite did not depart from its
anti-Armenian stance. As for the property returning to the Armenians,
Shirinyan said it is a halfway measure, which does not allow to hope
for radical changing in the policy of Ankara.

To recall, on 28 August the Turkish government adopted a decision
to return the confiscated property to the Christian and Jewish
organizations.

ARMENIA EXPO 2011 SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER

news.am
Aug 29, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- The Armenian capital will host Armenia EXPO 2011 eleventh
regional universal trade-industrial exhibition on September 16-18.

This year’s exhibition is dedicated to 20th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence and presents country’s economic achievements.

Armenia EXPO will embrace almost all fields of economy and will bring
together over 180 local and foreign companies, including those from
Russia, Belarus, Iran, the UAE, Germany, Georgia, Turkey, China,
Poland and Italy.

The exhibition provides a great opportunity to present new
technologies, systems and new solutions in different fields.

ISRAELI DEPUTY FM: “WE NEVER DENIED THE ARMENIAN TRAGEDY, BUT WE DO NOT WISH TO BECOME PARTY TO THE CONFRONTATION”

Mediamax
Aug 29, 2011
Armenia

Photo: http://www.infosurhoy.comDanny Ayalon Exclusive interview of
the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to Mediamax

– What should Israel and Armenia do to take their relations to a new
level? There is an impression that none of the sides is willing to
make steps for a real rapprochement although both sides claim there
are no major political disagreements.

– First of all, I hope that the impression that both sides are not
interested in taking steps to bring themselves closer together is a
false one. Indeed, from our viewpoint there are no weighty problems
in our bilateral relations, but in order to give those ties solid
content we need to operate in a number of spheres:

– First, through mutual high-level visits; – Second, through cultural
and scientific exchanges; – Third, through the improvement of our
economic and commercial ties.

The order is not essential, but that we work as one; while we have
an ambassador (albeit, non-resident) in your country, Armenia has no
parallel representation in Israel. Clearly, an Armenian ambassador in
Israel could also do much on his part to create a closer relationship
between both countries.

– In a recent interview with us Israeli Ambassador to Armenia quite
frankly spoke about the absence of an Armenian Ambassador in Israel,
event non-resident Ambassador. Have you discussed this issue with
your Armenian counterparts and what is their response?

– In this context I have to mention a matter that was raised by
your side at the highest levels; apparently Armenia prefers to see
first and foremost the establishment of a permanent Israeli embassy
in Yerevan. As I see it, I would reverse the order, in other words
strengthening the relations between each other will lead to greater
interaction and will in turn create the need to establish a permanent
embassy. The joint work today of non-resident ambassadors from each
country would result in the need to establish permanent embassies in
both countries.

– Armenian President visited Israel with non-official visit in early
2000, but Israeli President or PM never came to Armenia. What is
the reason? And do you think that such top-level visit could become
possible in the near future?

– The visit of Armenia’s President in 2000 was carried out within
the framework of the visit of scores of leaders who came to the Holy
Land to mark the millennium. While we certainly do not belittle the
importance of that visit, it is different from a bilateral State
Visit. Furthermore, the visit of a high-level personage from Israel
is certainly reasonable and I see no impediment to it.

– Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide because of the
political reasons and “realpolitik” as your Ambassador told us.

However, don’t you think that if such an approach could be “acceptable”
in case of U.S., Britain and other states, Israel should stand over
them as it knows better then everyone what it means – to try to kill
a nation?

– It is no secret that the mass murder of the Armenian people during
the First World War is a most sensitive matter and as a people that
also suffered from persecution and murder we are especially sensitive
to that. However, since the subject, most regrettably, has become
political, it needs to be handled with great care. Israel has never
denied the Armenian tragedy, but we do not wish to become party to
the confrontation between Turkey and Armenian on this important issue.

– Please tell us about the current state of Turkish-Israeli relations.

Do you see any room for improving them soon?

– I do not consider it appropriate to refer within the framework
of an interview to the Armenian press to Israel’s relations with a
third country.

– The number of Armenian tourists visiting Israel is growing. Is it
possible to facilitate the visa regime for the Armenian citizens?

– The subject of the visas of Armenians who arrive in Israel is being
examined by us these very days, in keeping with the recommendations
brought by our ambassador following his last visit to your country. We
hope that a solution will soon be found.

– Maybe both sides could implement some joint cultural projects? For
instance, maybe some artists from Armenia can come and perform in the
Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem for all the people living in the city –
Jews, Arabs, Armenians, etc? Are you ready to consider such ideas if
there are made by the Armenian side?

– I have already replied to the idea that you are suggesting in the
first part of my answer to the first question: cultural exchanges are
an integral part of relations between countries and we, of course,
would be happy to host Armenians here in Jerusalem and everywhere
else in Israel. For our part we have already brought a number of
Israeli artists to Armenia, including within the framework of the
last reception we held in celebration of Israel’s Independence Day.

BLOCKADE OF ARMENIA HINDERS DEVELOPMENT OF BORDER AREAS IN TURKEY

news.am
Aug 29, 2011
Armenia

MOSCOW. – The blockade of Armenia, to some extent hinders the
development of border areas in Turkey, senior research fellow, center
for international security institute for international economics and
international relations Stanislav Ivanov told at the interview with
Voice of Russia.

He believes that Turkey still has supporters of the incumbent Turkish
PM Erdogan, which means that ratification of Zurich protocols may be
on the agenda of the next convocation of the parliament.

“Turkish government has the right to include those protocols into
the agenda of the new parliament, thus, they can be on the agenda in
October. Turkish business and government circles have supporters
to normalize relations with Armenia and to develop bilateral
trade-economic, transportation and other cooperation,” believes Ivanov.

Moreover, the blockade of Armenia by Turkey not only harms Armenia’s
economy, but to some extent hinders the development of border areas
in Turkey.

Currently the relations with Azerbaijan are more important for
Turkey. Ankara has not only close economic but also military-technical
ties with Baku. Besides, Baku reacted extremely negatively for
concluding the Zurich protocols. Thus, the Turkish side deliberately
postpones the solution of the issue.

USAID RENOVATES COMMUNITY IN ARMENIAN VILLAGE

news.am
Aug 29, 2011
Armenia

The USAID-funded Small Scale Infrastructure Program (SSIP), implemented
by the Cooperative Housing Foundation International (CHF) and its
partner Shen NGO, marked on Monday the renovation of the Shahumyan
Community Center in the Lori region of Armenia.

The Community Center occupies part of the ground floor of a five-story
residential building, constructed in 1978. The Center suffered
damages in the aftermath of the 1988 earthquake and was eventually
closed down. The Center, which had not been in use for over 20 years,
required a complete renovation. CHF replaced the doors, windows, and
flooring, plastered and painted the walls, and renovated the restrooms.

The total area renovated was 180 square meters. The community center
is now operational and will host a library, chess-room, computer-room,
recreation room and management office.

The USAID/Armenia Mission Director noted that apart from the Shahumyan
community center renovation project, USAID’s efforts in the Lori
region also include the renovation of a kindergarten in Haghpat,
a gas distribution system in Ayroum, and the implementation of water
distribution systems in Lernantsk, Artsni and Lori Berd.

On a country-wide scale, by November 2011 the program expects to
have completed 58 infrastructure projects and will have provided more
than 47,000 days of employment. In addition, 800 Armenians will have
obtained short-term employment, and over 140 persons will have gained
permanent employment at facilities rehabilitated by SSIP.

RUSSIAN CITIZEN PLEADS GUILTY TO KILLING 36-AGED ARMENIAN

news.am
Aug 29, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- Russian citizen suspected of murder in Yerevan pleaded
guilty saying he committed a crime for purposes of self-defense.

Georgy P., 25, came to police department on Saturday saying he had
shot dead 36-yer-old Hrant Matulyan for purposes of self-defense
after the latter attacked him with an axe.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, corpse of a 36-year-old
Hrant Matulyan with traces of blood was found on in Yerevan on Friday.

Police found out that he was shot in his apartment at 07.30 p.m. on
the same day by a 25-year-old citizen of Russia Georgy P. Searching
the apartment, police found the gun and the bullets. The weapon was
sent for the expertise.

BE WARY OF FALSE ARMENIAN WEBSITES OF AZERBAIJANI PRODUCTION, EXPERT SAYS
Artak Barseghyan

“Radiolur”
29.08.2011

It’s no secret that issues of information security are urgent in our
country. Specialists of the sphere say that the problems gradually
increase parallel to the implementation of technical innovations.

Great work is being done in our country to protect the electronic
databases from hacking attacks.

Speaking about the opportunities of cooperation between young
specialists from Armenia and Diaspora, information security expert
Samvel Martirosyan notes that there is certain difference with regard
to the priorities in the field of information and propaganda.

Thus, Armenia pays great attention to the international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and the Karabakh conflict settlement, while
the Diaspora does not pay due attention to the above-mentioned issues.

The expert is worried about the false Armenian websites of Azerbaijani
production. “Armenian media use their information without checking
its authenticity,” Samvel Martirosyan said, meaning, particularly
the two following websites: armenianreport.com and proarmenia.info.

According to the expert, misinformation easily penetrates into our
media and serious work should be done in this direction.

AMN: MOST OF GOVERNMENT, PARLIAMENT TO CHANGE IF DIALOGUE WITH ANC SUCCEEDS

PanARMENIAN.Net
August 29, 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net – Many officials are not interested in the dialogue
between the Armenian National Congress and authorities, a member of
the Armenian National Movement (AMN) said.

“Many know that they will lose their seats in case the dialogue is a
success. Moreover, I think that most of the government and parliament
will be changed,” Hovhannes Igityan told a press conference in Yerevan.

As to the dialogue, he said the authorities need it, as it is “the
only way to save the country.”

Representatives of the ruling coalition have held meetings since
July 18, the two main issues on the agenda being conduction of
extraordinary election (on ANC demand) and development of canons of
political competition (as suggested by the authorities).

Problems emerged when police detained 7 young ANC activists. According
to the ANC, on August 9 police officers used violence against ANC
activists Tigran Arakelyan and Artak Karapetyan. Upon arrival to the
site, activists Areg Gevorgyan, Sahak Muradyan, Vahagn Gevorgyan,
Sargis Gevorgyan and David Kirimajyan tried to settle the dispute but
were beaten as well, the ANC said. All above-mentioned were taken to
a police station.

Currently, Tigran Arakelyan is kept in custody. The others were
released.

On August 26, the Congress announced that it suspends the dialogue
and believes Arakelyan to be a political prisoner.

‘THIS IS ARMENIA’
JAMES HAKOBYAN

Lragir.am

29/08/2011

By a weird coincidence, along with the production of another colorful
and at the same time state-building video to the song “You are
Armenia”, WikiLeaks sent out another consignment of U.S. diplomatic
cables, including information on Armenia which was as colorful as
the video.

And while the author of the video says “You are Armenia”, WikiLeaks
as if says “this is Armenia”. While the video depicts Armenia in
optimistic colors, WikiLeaks presents Armenia in real color, which
prompts that optimistic colors will not be available outside the video
unless the problem of real color is coped with. Meanwhile, videos
can’t make a state. In Armenia the state is in videos whereas videos
must be in the state, as anything else. The state must be in citizens.

Certainly, it is not worthwhile to draw philosophical conclusions from
WikiLeaks. At best, there is space for political conclusions. The
Americans seem to have left blank space for such conclusions by the
opposition or oppositions, Mr. Robert Kocharyan, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan,
the Heritage Party, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, the oligarchs, even Mr.

Vano Siradeghyan, referring to him as a corrupt minister.

In fact, this time WikiLeaks remembered everyone in a package.

Meanwhile, it seemed that the Congress and Serzh Sargsyan have emerged
in the so-called actual political sphere of Armenia as two leading
forces, leaving others far behind by their dialogue. But apparently
having gone too far, these two forces set to think they can already
exchange “scores”, secretly exchange assurances and make arrangements.

Was this what the former U.S. ambassador, Ms. Marie Yovanovitch,
had made efforts for, as the nominee for next U.S. ambassador John
Heffern said a few weeks ago?

Yovanovitch or the United States hardly care about what Ter-Petrosyan
and Serzh Sargsyan will do. America perhaps expects specific outcome
oriented at genuine transformation in Armenia which would allow
building a state with a modern economic and political system to ensure
balance in the complex Caucasian region.

In this case, not only the citizens of Armenia but also the United
States which makes a big geopolitical bet on Armenia are sorry to see
that Republican Galust Sahakyan with his description of the process as
a childish game turns out to be right rather than the U.S. ambassador.

Perhaps, this is the reason for the interest in this dose of WikiLeaks
on Armenia which involves a large economic and political specter,
including personality overviews. Perhaps, the participants of the
dialogue are reminded that they should not lose their sense of reality
and think they are alone in Armenia and can do whatever they want.

Apparently, WikiLeaks reminds that Armenia should stop thinking the
Americans can be “had” unlike the Russians, getting money and support
and afterwards say “sorry but they lack will for dialogue”. The rule
of chess fits the best here, once you touch, you have to move.

There is a choice but time is up. “This is you with the whole caboodle,
go ahead, choose,” WikiLeaks seems to say, making the economic,
political, oligarchic system face early choice even before September
arrives. Go ahead, choose what to do, how to go on when everyone is
pictured almost naked, and in this situation it is actually impossible
to imagine any secret agreement, knowing that WikiLeaks can open up
just anything…

It is time the more or less important, meaningful and even meaningless
personalities of the political class of Armenia were a little more
serious and bold regarding politics, and afterwards go on to develop
surface seriousness into the visible depth of politics. Nobody is
going to make a decision for Armenia. Everyone can use the decisions
of Armenia, made or unmade, but decisions will be made in Armenia
anyway. However, they will be used outside or serve outside as long
as expectations or fear in making these decisions are from the outside.

Meanwhile, fear and expectation must be from the society, what the
society will say and do. Therefore, even if the society is indifferent
toward politics and state, every force which has a serious attitude
towards the state policy must set a goal to mobilize if not the
physical action, at least the attention of a possibly larger part of
the society.

Meanwhile, in Armenia, the opposite process is underway, and the
participants of the phenomenon called politics seem to be doing
everything to cause the society to grow disappointed with politics
and indifferent in processes, when a person cannot see anything
interesting in the current process, anything that is related to the
material and spiritual problems of his life.

The chain of WikiLeaks shows that this situation in Armenia occurred at
the beginning of independence, the whole movement led to the situation
and fossilized mindset. Nevertheless, the citizens of Armenian had
known everything before WikiLeaks. Simply it seems that the political
forces of Armenia are forgetting that the citizens know everything,
and the citizens have witnessed and experienced the entire movement
since independence.