TURKISH TROOPS LAUNCH NEW ATTACK AGAINST PKK
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
05.06.2009 16:05 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish troops launched a new attack against PKK
rebels the southeast of Turkey, at the border with Iraq, in Sirnak
and Hakkari provinces. Helicopters struck the caves were Kurdish
rebels are reported to hide.
As result of overland operation, one Turkish soldier was killed and
three wounded.
Caches with ammunition and food were found in Hakkari, where the
rebels managed to escape.
S.O.S. SEVAN INITIATIVE GROUP TO PLAN AUTUMN MOVE
Panorama.am
18:12 04/06/2009
S.O.S. Sevan initiative group plans to hold autumn action, Inga
Zarafyan, the president of "Ecolur" environmental NGO told in a
press conference. The action is going to have different directions,
Zarafyan said.
First, a monitoring of "GeoProMining" company activities will be
conducted regarding the implementation of environmental duties. "We
are intended to make investigation of international experience of
such companies, to inform public about the activities conducted in
Sotq mining," she said.
In 2008 S.O.S. Sevan initiative found support from international
ecological and public groups like IPEN, WECF, Forum NGO on ADB are,
the expert says.
In this respect the initiative group sent letters to Armenian high
ranking officials with requests to stop the processes on constructing
gold reprocessing factory in Sotq mining.
ARFD DOES NOT INTEND TO SIGN FINAL PROTOCOL OF CEC UPON RESULTS OF ELECTION OF YEREVAN COUNCIL OF ELDERS
ArmInfo
2009-06-02 12:53:00
ARF ‘Dashnaktsutyun’ party does not intend to sigh a final protocol
of the Central Election Committee of Armenia upon the results of
the election of the Council of Elders of Yerevan, yesterday’s ARFD
statement says.
‘We have considered the election of the Council of Elders as an
opportunity to establish a political system, form a new model of the
capital administration, overcome the atmosphere of confrontation and
enmity, which developed after the presidential election in 2008, as
well as consolidate the society’, the document says. However, according
to the statement, the situation at the current election turned out
to be like before: the community and oligarchic authorities, bribes
and use of administrative levers played their role at the election.
The document also emphasizes that creation of problems in a
legal aspect in view of the election is useful and inexpedient,
and ‘Dashnaktsutyun’ party will never resign itself to this
situation. ‘ARFD representative to CEC will not sign a final protocol
upon the election results without indication of the specific violations
during the election’, the statement says.
ARMENIAN CEC RECEIVES 770 MLN DRAMS FROM STATE BUDGET FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN 2008
ArmInfo
2009-06-01 13:09:00
ArmInfo. The state budget funds spent by the Central Election Committee
of Armenia in 2008, made up 1,9 bln drams, deputy Finance Minister of
Armenia, Chief Treasurer Atom Janjughazyan said during the hearings in
the Parliament on fulfillment of the state budget – 2008. According to
him, about 770 mln drams were envisaged for the presidential election
in 2008, 98,1% of which has been spent. 820,5 mln drams were directed
to the election for the local authorities, and this amount was spent
in full. 61 mln drams were allocated for training of CEC personnel,
and 36% was spent. 143,1 mln drams were allocated for maintenance of
the machinery. The Central Election Committee received 36 mln drams
from the Armenian government’s reserve fund.
LEVON ZURABYAN: VICTORY OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS IS PREDETERMINED
ArmInfo
2009-05-29 20:11:00
ArmInfo. The victory of Armenian National Congress at the Yerevan
mayor election is predetermined, coordinator of Armenian National
Congress Levon Zurabyan said at today’s rally of the opposition. He
also added that the fact that the RPA election headquarters in some
districts of Yerevan were closed for several days already is evidence
of it, says that the authorities have refused an idea of winning
the elections in a normal way. at the same time he said this says
of nothing as the authorities are going to rig the results of the
elections. He mentioned all possible scenarios of falsification and
called everybody to go to the election to rule out falsification.
THE MAN WHO THREATENED "AGOS" EDITORIAL STAFF WAS SENTENCED TO 3 YEARS IN PRISON
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
29.05.2009 18:03 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On May 28, the S,is,li Criminal Court of First
Instance (Istanbul) sentenced Muhammet Karay to imprisonment for the
term of 3 years and 3 months. Six days after the murder of Hrant Dink,
Editor-in-Chief of Armenian-Turkish "Agos" periodical, Karay sent an
e-mail containing threats against "Agos" editorial staff.
The lawyers representing the editorial office expressed satisfaction
with the court’s decision since the law envisages a minimum term of
2 years’ imprisonment for such kind of crimes. The Turkish court
has considered 5 cases of threat against "Agos" staff members
MOST CITIZENS WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE VOTE
A1+
11:53 am | May 27, 2009 | Politics
The election of Yerevan’s Elders Council is due in four days.
A1+ conducted a survey to find out our citizens’ opinions about the
election campaign.
Many of our respondents are going to participate in the vote.
Still, there are some who say an election is an imitation and
their vote is of no value as everything is predetermined. They mean
Republican Gagik Beglarian’s appointment as Yerevan’s mayor on the
eve of election.
"The election will not be free and fair as the mayor’s post is already
filled. Mr. Beglarian will hold the position for four years," said
Yerevan citizen Lianna Baghdasarian.
Most citizens turned out to be unaware of the candidates’ pre-election
pregrammes.
"Why should I read their programmes? They will not be realized,
anyway," said Armen Sargsian.
TURKEY SUPPORTS AZERBAIJAN
Panorama.am
16:41 27/05/2009
It is an undisputable truth that the Azeri party expresses
its discontent over the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ activities
repeatedly. They condemn the co-chairs’ activities accusing them of
their inefficient and unproductive activities. And these accusations
are made starting from the president of the country.
But recently Turkey started to support its "junior brother"
Azerbaijan. On the eve of leaving for Baku, the Foreign Minister
of Turkey Ahmed Davutoglu emphasized their contribution saying:
"We can not disagree with Azerbaijan’s President Ilhaam Aliev who
has been recently condemning the Minsk Group activities. The history
shows that that group has been working unproductively and it’s high
time to overview that process, which, by the way, Turkey is doing."
Of course, both the Azeri and Turkish wish to change the group’s
format and to include Turkey as a mediator party. But they both
understand that without Armenia’s agreement their dream will not come
true. Official Yerevan has been announcing for many times that the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved in the frames of the OSCE
Minsk Group, especially when Turkey has partial disposition.
In this respect the statement made by Sabina Freizer, the manager
of European projects of the International crisis group was a perfect
cold shower for the brother countries: "Turkey is interested in the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by the OSCE Minsk Group
support, but it can not be a neutral participant of the action because
it has obvious contribution towards one part. This Turkey should
explain Azerbaijan instead of calling "One nation-two countries"
slogan."
NRO’S KRIKORIAN ON PRONUNCIATION OF SOTOMAYOR’S NAME: "IT STICKS IN MY CRAW"
May 27, 2009 12:08 pm ET by Media Matters staff
Media Matters for America
May 27 2009
>From Mark Krikorian’s May 27 post on the National Review Online’s
The Corner:
It Sticks in My Craw [Mark Krikorian]
Most e-mailers were with me on the post on the pronunciation of Judge
Sotomayor’s name (and a couple griped about the whole Latina/Latino
thing – English dropped gender in nouns, what, 1,000 years ago?). But
a couple said we should just pronounce it the way the bearer of the
name prefers, including one who pronounces her name "freed" even
though it’s spelled "fried," like fried rice. (I think Cathy Seipp of
blessed memory did the reverse – "sipe" instead of "seep.") Deferring
to people’s own pronunciation of their names should obviously be
our first inclination, but there ought to be limits. Putting the
emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English
(which is why the president stopped doing it after the first time at
his press conference), unlike my correspondent’s simple preference
for a monophthong over a diphthong, and insisting on an unnatural
pronunciation is something we shouldn’t be giving in to.
For instance, in Armenian, the emphasis is on the second syllable in my
surname, just as in English, but it has three syllables, not four (the
"ian" is one syllable) – but that’s not how you’d say it in English
(the "ian" means the same thing as in English – think Washingtonian or
Jeffersonian). Likewise in Russian, you put the emphasis in my name on
the final syllable and turn the "o" into a schwa, and they’re free to
do so because that’s the way it works in their language. And should we
put Asian surnames first in English just because that’s the way they
do it in Asia? When speaking of people in Asia, okay, but not people of
Asian origin here, where Mao Tse-tung would properly have been changed
to Tse-tung Mao. Likewise with the Mexican practice of including your
mother’s maiden name as your last name, after your father’s surname.
This may seem like carping, but it’s not. Part of our success in
assimilation has been to leave whole areas of culture up to the
individual, so that newcomers have whatever cuisine or religion or so
on they want, limiting the demand for conformity to a smaller field
than most other places would. But one of the areas where conformity is
appropriate is how your new countrymen say your name, since that’s not
something the rest of us can just ignore, unlike what church you go
to or what you eat for lunch. And there are basically two options —
the newcomer adapts to us, or we adapt to him. And multiculturalism
means there’s a lot more of the latter going on than there should be.
EBRD MULLS EUR 5M LOAN TO YEREVAN METRO
Cbonds. Info
May 26 2009
The EBRD is considering a project to cover emergency investments in
the Yerevan Metro, covering immediate rehabilitation needs including
safety upgrades. The investment is part of the plan to improve and
reform public transport services in the capital of Armenia. The
operation would primarily benefit lower-income groups, who rely on
the poorly maintained metro system.
The EBRD loan will be provided to Yerevan Metropolitan Karen Demirchyan
CJSC (Yerevan Metro Company), under a sovereign guarantee. The
Company is managed by the Yerevan Municipality and by the Board of
Directors. The Company’s ultimate shareholder is the Government of
the Republic of Armenia, represented by the Yerevan Municipality.