Author: Kanayan Tamar

BAKU SEES ANTI-AZERBAIJANI SENTIMENTS IN ISRAEL

Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijan
December 22, 2014 Monday

Baku/22.12.14/Turan: Presidential spokesman Azer Gasimov sharply
criticized the government of Israel. Reason for this was the critical
articles about Azerbaijan in newspapers “Jerusalem Post” and “Haaretz”.

These papers periodically publish hostile, absolutely unfounded slander
articles about Azerbaijanm, said Gasimov in an interview with state
agency “Azertaj.”

“Taking into account the relationship between the government and
the media in Israel, you come to the conclusion that all this is
not accidental. In particular, the absence of any response from the
formal structures of these materials gives reason to believe that it
is an official order,” said Gasimov.

In his opinion, the articles in “Haaretz” and “Jerusalem Post” are
far from journalistic ethics and are defamatory materials. “These
articles, undoubtedly, are funded by the leading anti-Azerbaijani
campaign, and are fully ordered,” said the spokesman.

The articles in the Israeli press described the facts of suppression
of human rights and harassment of journalists in Azerbaijan. In
particular, the fate of the arrested journalist Khadija Ismayilova and
human rights activist Leyla Yunus. “It would be nice if the authors
of these articles drew attention to the disruption of human rights,
freedom of speech and conscience, democratic principles in their
country,” said Gasimov. He further said that in Israel the situation
of journalists is “deplorable.”

As an evidence Gasimov refers to the reports of international
organizations, fixing violations of media freedom. But for some reason,
when these same organizations have documented similar violations in
Azerbaijan, Azer Gasimov and his chiefs vehemently deny them, and
call them political order and the machinations of the Armenian lobby.

In particular, Gasimov lists the facts stated in the reports of
“Reporters Without Borders”, Freedom House, Amnesty International and
other structures, pointing out that according to the World freedom
index, this year Israel dropped by 36 points.

In the higher echelons of the Israeli authorities ” are serious
cases of corruption”, and Israeli citizens are deprived of educational
opportunities, and so on. “I believe that the authors of these articles
and those who are behind these materials seriously undermine the
international image of Israel. The Government of Israel has always
said that it is trying to improve relations with Azerbaijan. Those
who have ordered these articles, no doubt, set a goal to undermine
the Israeli-Azerbaijani relations,” makes far-reaching conclusions
the spokesman. -02D-

ARMENIA SEES NO REASONS FOR SKIPPING EUROPEAN GAMES

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Dec 23 2014

23 December 2014 – 3:04pm

Secretary General of the Armenian National Olympic Committee
Grachya Rostamyan said that there were no reasons to skip the first
Summer European Games hosted by Baku in 2015. He clarified that all
professional and security problems had been settled, News Armenia
reports.

Armenia will give its final word on participation in the games before
February 2015.

THE YEAR THE CULTURE WARS WENT GLOBAL

Eesti elu, Estonian World Review
Dec 23 2014

Arvamus 23 Dec 2014

Turning geopolitics into a battlefield over values is a really
bad idea.

Frank Furedi, spiked 23 December 2014

A century after the outbreak of the First World War, it seems humanity
is confronted with new cultural disputes that have the potential to
mutate into violent conflicts.

The experience of the past century has demonstrated that the
politicisation of culture always ends badly. And little wonder:
cultural crusaders create a climate of intolerance towards the norms
and values of their cultural targets. They are often censorious and
seek to devalue their opponents. In its more extreme forms, cultural
politics leads to the mutual dehumanisation of the antagonists.

Such dehumanising sentiments were far too evident a century ago. The
Armenian genocide of 1915 represented the most extreme and destructive
manifestation of this lethal synthesis of culture and militarism.

Tragically, almost a century later, the spectre of culturally motivated
violence haunts that region once more. Until recently, the great
Armenian church in Deir el-Zour in Syria served as a memorial to the
mass killings that occurred during the Great War. Earlier this year,
however, in a savage act of vandalism, a group of Islamists blew the
church up. They destroyed its archives, and the bones of hundreds of
victims of the 1915 massacre were left strewn in the streets.

Today, the most extreme exponents of the politicisation of culture
are the jihadist zealots who regard the lives of those who do not
share their faith as unworthy of moral value. But the depravity and
barbarism of a movement such as the Islamic State can obscure the
disturbing reality: namely, that the politicisation of culture, and
its intolerant consequences, is gaining strength across the world. It
has certainly contributed to the hardening of the rivalry between
the West and Russia. And it is this, the emergence of a caricature
of the Cold War, that is arguably the most significant international
development of 2014.

It seems that disputes about lifestyle, family life, sexual orientation
and the nature of community life are no longer confined to the
domestic sphere. The Culture Wars have gone global. Muslim jihadists
are not just fighting with bombs; they are directly assaulting Western
liberal values and denouncing them as immoral. For his part, Russian
president Vladimir Putin has sought to present himself as fighting
for traditionalism and the Christian way of life.

In turn, Western diplomats have criticised Russia for its patriarchal
and sexist culture.

BARBERIAN FIGHTS OFF ATTACKER, POSTS VIDEO TO YOU TUBE

Toronto Star, Canada
Dec 23 2014

Well known Toronto restaurateur Arron Barberian posted a surveillance
video of himself repelling a street mugging outside Barberian’s
Steakhouse

By: Marco Chown Oved Staff Reporter

This mugger isn’t a Jays fan.

Otherwise he might have recognized the grey haired restaurant owner
and thought twice about trying to rob him as he walked down the street
with a full cash box Monday morning.

Arron Barberian, current proprietor of Barberian’s Steakhouse and
TLP near Yonge St. and Gerrard Ave, became something of an internet
sensation when he caught a bat that flew into the stands at the Blue
Jays’ 2013 home opener. With a wild look in his eye, he cocked the
bat threateningly, seemingly willing to take on the entire Cleveland
Indians bench all by himself.

This is not a man you would want to rob, especially unarmed.

“People react in different ways,” said Barberian. “I went berserk.”

Barberian’s altercation with the mugger was captured by his
restaurant’s two security cameras.

In the videos, a man jogs up behind Barberian and confronts him at
the restaurant’s door.

“He was kind of singing. He wasn’t a menacing guy … When he stopped
me and grabbed the till, I looked down and he had money in his hands
— no weapon. If he had had a gun, I would have thrown my hands up,”
he said. “Instead, I went Tie Domi on him.”

Barberian pulls the man’s hoodie up over his head and drags him out
onto the sidewalk. The two men grapple and swing around several times
before it becomes clear that the tides have turned and the attacker
is now trying to get away, while Barberian — aided by an employee
on his phone with the police — tries to keep him from fleeing.

“I didn’t want to punch him,” he said. “I just wanted to make him
sit down and wait for the cops to come.”

Barberian plays cat and mouse with the attacker, who eventually flees
into the nearby Ryerson parking garage before police can arrive.

The videos have now been posted to YouTube, titled “Smack Down” and
“Smack Down 2.” Barberians Steakhouse’s Twitter account advertised
the incident, writing “This is why you don’t mess with the Boss!!! El
Hefe Arron Barberian gave a wanna-be-robber the gears this morning.”

As the action moves down the block, the till is on the street and
money — $150 in cash plus coins — blows around in the wind. A woman
wearing a fur hat appears and starts picking up bills and another
woman, with red-soled shoes, grabs Barberian’s cellphone.

“The woman in the fur hat is a real good Samaritan. She collected the
money and gave it back to me. The other woman, she gets out of her SUV,
sees the phone, steals the phone and runs away. She’s the thief here,”
said Barberian. “The mugger probably has mental health and alcohol
issues … I hope he gets caught and charged — you can’t be mugging
people — but I hope he gets treatment.”

While he admits to being a little shaken up, Barberian says the videos
will add to his little bit of online celebrity.

“It’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve done in a long time, fighting
a guy for a couple hundred bucks. But it made for a funny video,”
he said. “It’s a bit of a man bites dog story — here’s a grey haired
50 year old beating up a young thug.”

Barberian, who says his friends call him “Killer B,” jokes: “Don’t
mess with a little Armenian when there’s money on the line.”

RUSSIA AND ARMENIA AGREE TO UNIT 2 LIFE EXTENSION

World Nuclear News
Dec 23 2014

23 December 2014

Russia and Armenia have signed an intergovernmental agreement on
cooperation in extending the operating life of unit 2 of Armenia’s
sole nuclear power plant.

The VVER-440 unit – which operates at Metsamor, 30 km from the capital
Yerevan – is due to be withdrawn from service in September 2016.

The agreement was signed on 20 December by Rosatom director general
Sergey Kirienko and Armenia’s energy minister Yervand Zakharyan,
Rosatom said yesterday. It will lead to the issuance of a licence to
extend the service life of the unit by ten years, until September 2026.

Rosatom specialists have conducted a preliminary examination of
the unit and will produce a comprehensive report before the end of
the first quarter of 2015, Rosatom said. Following that report, a
training program will ensue. An application for the life extension
licence will follow, in September 2016. Upgrade work at the unit is
expected to be completed by 2019.

The work is to be funded by a Russian state loan.

Two model V-230 reactors, each of 407 MWe gross (376 MWe net), were
built at Metsamor on solid basalt and supplied power from 1976 and
1980 respectively. The design life was 30 years. These were the first
Russian plants designed to be built in a region of high seismicity
and were modified accordingly to be designated V-270. Plans for units
3 and 4 at the site were abandoned after the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

In December 1988, a powerful earthquake, resulting in the deaths of at
least 25,000 people, occurred in northwestern Armenia. The Metsamor
nuclear power plant 75 km from the epicentre continued operating
normally with no damage, but both units were subsequently shut down
in 1989 due to safety concerns regarding seismic vulnerability.

Unit 1, after 13 years operation, is now being decommissioned. In 1993,
it was decided to restart the second unit due to the severe economic
crisis and this was achieved in 1995, after being shut down for more
than six years. Since then the International Atomic Energy Agency has
been participating in safety improvements at the plant. In September
2013 Russia announced an agreement to extend the life of the plant
by ten years, and in May 2014 Russia agreed to a $300 million loan
for upgrading the plant to enable life extension to 2026. To effect
this, the plant will be shut down for six months in 2017 to undertake
major works.

All fuel is supplied by Russia, but this incurred significant foreign
debt – some $40 million. As a result, the plant has been operated
by a subsidiary of RAO UES and Rosenergoatom since 2003, as part of
an arrangement to help pay off those debts to TVEL. This agreement,
now with Inter-RAO, was extended by five years in 2008.

In June 2014 the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia
extended the generating licence of the unit to mid-2019, though the
reactor operating licence only runs to 2016.

In December 2009, the government approved establishment of
Metzamorenergoatom, a 50-50 Russian-Armenian joint stock company set up
by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources with Atomstroyexport,
with shares offered to other investors. This is to build a 1060 MWe
AES-92 unit (with a VVER-1000 model V-392 reactor) with a service
life of 60 years at Metsamor. It would have two natural-draft cooling
towers. In March 2010 an agreement was signed with Rosatom to provide
the V-392 reactor equipment for it. In March 2011 the environmental
assessment report was presented to the Ministry of Nature Protection.

In August 2010, an intergovernmental agreement was signed to provide
that the Russian party will build at least one VVER-1000 reactor,
supply nuclear fuel for it and decommission it. Construction was to
commence in 2013 and was expected to cost $5 billion. The customer
and owner of new reactors, as well as electricity generated, will
be Metzamorenergoatom, and Atomstroyexport will be the principal
contractor.

Armenia undertakes to buy all electricity produced at commercial
rates, enabling investors’ return on capital, for 20 years. CJSC
Metzamorenergoatom is to fund not less than 40% of the construction,
and early in 2012 Russia agreed to finance 50%, though in late 2013
this was reported as 35%. In July 2014 the energy minister said that
Russia was expected to provide plant worth $4.5 billion out of the
total $5 billion.

In May 2014 the government approved construction of the new reactor,
starting 2018.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

VASOS LYSSARIDES WAS DECORATED WITH THE ‘MKHITAR GOSH’ MEDAL

Former Speaker Vassos Lyssarides was decorated Monday with the medal
“Mkhitar Gosh” by the President of the Armenian Republic.

The medal was awarded by the Armenian Minister of Diaspora Hranush
Hakobyan.

The ceremony was held in the office of the Speaker Yiannakis Omirou,
in the presence of Cypriot MPs, the Representative of the Armenian
Religious Group in the House Vartkes Mahdessian, Archbishop of
Armenians in Cyprus Varoujan Herkelian and the Ambassador of Armenia
in Cyprus, based in Athens, Gagik Ghalatchian.

FOR THE FIRST TIME ARMENIAN JOURNALISTS GET AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN FOURTH ANNUAL CONTEST OF ROSTELECOM OJSC

by Arthur Yernjakyan

Tuesday, December 23, 16:36

For the first time Armenian journalists have received an opportunity
to participate in the fourth annual contest of Rostelecom OJSC –
“Technologies for Life – Instantaneous Internet!” From now on, the
contest is receiving an international status, Rostelecom representative
Irina Zhabrova said at a press conference in Armenia on December 23.

She said that a winner from Armenia will be included in the Russian
delegation and visit the Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China, in
autumn 2015. Applications can be submitted at before
10 April 2015, and the contest results will be summed up in summer,
Zhabrova said. She pointed out that Rostelecom has held the specified
contest since 2011 and it annually collects about 500 information
pieces. “We are interested in high-quality and professional information
in the field of IT”, she said.

The contest is held among the mass media representatives covering the
IT sector. In May 2015, the jury will select one winner from Armenia,
who will visit China.

“I am sure this contest for the media will have a positive effect
on deep and compressive coverage of the IT sector in Armenia”, said
Hayk Faramazyan, Director General of GNC-ALFA CJSC (subsidiary of
Rostelecom), said at today’s press conference.

To note, OJSC Rostelecom () is one of the biggest
national telecommunications companies in Russia and Europe, with a
presence in every segment of the telecommunications services market
and coverage of more than 34 million households in Russia.

The Company holds a leading position on the Russian broadband and pay
TV markets, with over 11 million fixed-line broadband subscribers
and more than 7.8 million pay TV customers, of which more than 2.5
million use the unique nationwide “Interactive TV” product. The
Group’s consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2014 was RUB
75.5 billion and its OIBDA reached RUB 26.1 billion (34.6% of revenue),
with a net profit of RUB 24.5 billion.

Rostelecom is an absolute market leader in providing the
telecommunications services to Russian government departments and
corporate users at every level. It is also a recognized technological
leader in innovative solutions in the fields of E-government, cloud
computing, healthcare, education, security and housing & utility
services. Its stable financial status is confirmed by credit ratings
of BBB- from Fitch Ratings and BB+ from Standard & Poor’s.

NKR PRESIDENT RECEIVES DASHNAKTSOUTYUN, ARTSAKHATOUN PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS

19:50 * 23.12.14

On 22 and 23 December Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan
held meetings with the members of the NKR National Assembly’s
“Dashnaktsoutyun” (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) faction and the
“Artsakhatoun” parliamentarian group.

A range of issues related to the republic’s domestic and foreign
policy were discussed during the meetings.

The Head of the State called such discussions demanded noting that
they contribute greatly to raising the efficiency of the carried
out activities.

KARABAKH WAR VETERANS ‘TO TAKE UP ARMS’ FROM JANUARY 1

18:05 | December 23,2014 | Politics

Karabakh war veterans blame themselves for the anarchy in Armenia. The
Union of Freedom Fighters finds it their duty to participate in the
political processes in the country and fight against injustice.

“We have no moral right to remain silent,” says Karabakh war veteran
Razmik Petrosyan.

Rustam Gasparyan, a lawmaker from the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK),
says the spirits of their dead comrades-in-arms do not leave them
in peace.

“When we go to Yerablur, they talk to us and ask why their children go
hungry and without shoes. We understand that white genocide is hanging
over our heads but we are determined to fight till the end,” he said.

The freedom fighters realize that the only way to bring the country
out of this deplorable state is to unseat the authorities and say
that even attacks and beatings cannot force them to change their mind.

“The authorities intend to provoke a conflict between freedom
fighters,” said Gagik Melkonyan.

Starting January 1, the war veterans will again take up arms but this
time their weapon will be pen. The Union has launched a website to
convey their messages to public.

FINAL DECISION ON BUILDING DATA PROCESSING CENTER IN ARMENIA WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN 2015

YEREVAN, December 23. / ARKA /. The final decision on building a data
processing center (DPC) in Armenia will be announced in 2015, CEO of
GNC-ALFA company Hayk Faramazyan told a gathering in Tsakhkadzor.

GNC-ALFA is the Armenian subsidiary of Russian Rostelecom. He said
this project is being carefully examined now by Armenian and Russian
specialists.

“I think that the final decision on this project will be announced
in 2015. This is a large project depending greatly on the demand of
the private sector and the government, and we hope that it will be
implemented next year,” said Faramazyan.

Earlier the executive vice-president of Rostelecom Alexander Rogov
said the Russian company was considering the possibility of building
a data processing center in Armenia.

JSC GNC-ALFA began promotion and sale of broadband Internet, IP-TV
and a new generation of IP-telephony in Armenia under the brand of
Rostelecom from 2012 December.

The company’s fiber-optic network covers 80% of the territory of
Armenia, extending to more than 2,500 km. The network is connected
to the main regional backbones and major traffic exchange sites,
as well as international channels via Georgia and Iran. -0 –