Author: Kanayan Tamar

CHURCH WON’T BACK ANY ELECTORAL LIST IN ELECTIONS, SAYS EGYPT’S POPE

Al Ahram, Egypt
Nov 5 2014

Pope Tawadros II speaks upcoming parliamentary polls and why now is
the not the right time to talk about Maspero

Ahram Online , Wednesday 5 Nov 2014

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church won’t support a specific electoral
list in upcoming elections as all the lists include Christians,
said Pope Tawadros II, the country’s highest Coptic leader.

In an interview with Al-Hayat TV channel on Tuesday, Tawadros denounced
accusations that the church was mobilising Christian votes towards
specific candidates and parties, insisting that the church was only
encouraging Christians in Egypt to vote in the elections, scheduled
to take place by the end of the year.

Despite warning of a return to power from the Muslim Brotherhood,
from which ousted president Mohamed Morsi hailed, the pope said he
did not believe members of the National Democratic Party or toppled
autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s regime would return to parliament.

However, the pope added “We should not generalise and say that
all people were corrupt before the 25 January revolution because
generalisation is wrong.”

Regarding the Maspero clashes and criticism that the Coptic Church
is not following up on the case after three years, Tawadros II said
that it wasn’t wise to raise the matter now, and that the Church was
following the case’s legal progression.

On 9 October 2011, 27 Coptic protesters were killed when a peaceful
march against the destruction of a church in Aswan and the authorities’
subsequent inaction was confronted by the military near the state
radio and television building at Maspero in downtown Cairo.

“The current circumstances in Egypt don’t allow for this matter to be
raised, especially now that the army is wounded, the police are wounded
and the economy is weak,” he said, adding that the Maspero clashes
took place in different time with different government and officials.

“Nevertheless we do not accept the way our children died at Maspero
and we hold an annual memorial mass in our churches for them. At the
same time we should be wise so we don’t waste their rights,” he added.

Tawadros said that though the Armenian genocide took place in 1915 by
the Turkish Ottoman army, until this day Armenians are still demanding
the rights of victims.

“The case and the rights of the victims won’t be forgotten, but how
and when we raise these matters are important,” he said.

Two years ago Tawadros was chosen as the pope of the Egyptian Coptic
Church, succeeding the late Pope Shenouda III.

He said his “hardest moment” so far has been the April 2013 attack on
Abassiya’s Coptic Cathedral, the main Coptic church in the country,
during Morsi’s rule.

He also mentioned the attacks on churches and related buildings across
Egypt following the violent dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in
Cairo in August 2013.

The pope accused the west of remaining silent.

“The west and the United States used to publish statements if one
single church door in Egypt was torched and so many people think
churches are protected by the US, but this is untrue,” said the pope.

Tawadros also denounced claims from the Brotherhood that he is a “coup
supporter” for backing Morsi’s ouster, asking how the president’s
removal could be a coup if the process was started by the Egyptian
people with protests on 30 June 2013 – and not by the army.

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MIGRANTS MIGHT RETURN TO ARMENIA BECAUSE OF SANCTIONS AGAINST THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Nov 5 2014

5 November 2014 – 8:00pm

The sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia could lead
to the return of Armenian citizens working there.

“Today we notice a tendency towards a fall in the volume of private
money transfers being sent to Armenia, meaning that a return of labor
migrants to Armenia isn’t excluded,” the chairman of the Union of
Employers of Armenia Gagik Makaryan declared.

According to his estimates, the developing situation will raise the
unemployment rate and poverty in the country.

EUROPEAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEES CHIEF: ARMENIA WILL COMPETE AT 2015 EUROPEAN GAMES IN AZERBAIJAN

Greenfield Daily Reporter, Indiana
Nov 5 2014

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGKOK — The head of the European Olympic Committees says Armenia
will take part in the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan,
next year, despite the ongoing conflict between the neighboring
countries.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are in dispute over the sovereignty of the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.

EOC chief Patrick Hickey, along with IOC President Thomas Bach,
met Armenian President Serge Sarkisian last month.

Hickey said Wednesday “all the problems were solved” and “they have
agreed to participate in the games next year, and they will come to
our general assembly in Baku in two weeks’ time.”

Hickey, speaking at a meeting of the Association of National Olympic
Committees in Bangkok, also said Kosovo will compete as an independent
nation in Baku if granted full recognition by the IOC next month.

GEORGIA, ARMENIA TO BUILD NEW POWER LINE

Global Post
Nov 5 2014

YEREVAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — Armenia and Georgia will build a new
400-kw power line between the two countries in 2015, said the Armenian
Ministry of Energy on Tuesday.

At a regular discussion on the draft national budget for 2015 in
Armenia’s National Assembly, Deputy Minister of Energy Ara Simonyan
said the cost of the pilot project is estimated at 330 million euros
(412 million U.S. dollars), including 300 million euros (375 million
U.S. dollars) for Armenia and 30 million euros (37.5 million U.S.

dollars) for Georgia.

During the first phase of the project, an intermediate line will be
built to serve as a link between the new line and two existing power
lines connecting Armenia and Georgia, said the official.

Simonyan also mentioned the preparation of a program to construct
the third Armenia-Iran power line with a capacity of 400 kw.

‘REVOLUTION OF VALUES’: SUPPORTERS TO STAGE PROTEST ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF SHANT HARUTYUNYAN’S IMPRISONMENT

HUMAN RIGHTS | 05.11.14 | 13:46

Photolure

Alina Nikoghosyan
ArmeniaNow intern

This day a year ago a ‘Revolution of Values’ was attempted in Armenia
as radical opposition Tseghakron party leader Shant Harutyunyan, his
friends and supporters and simply ordinary citizens rallied around
the idea staging a protest in central Yerevan.

After clashes between the protesters and riot police dozens of
activists were detained, some of them were later arrested and tried.

Last month a court in Yerevan convicted Harutyunyan and 11 of his
supporters to jail terms.

Harutyunyan was sentenced to six-year imprisonment, Avetis Avetisyan,
Liparit Petrosyan, Vardan Vardanyan – to five years, Albert Margaryan
– to six years, Alek Poghosyan and Mkrtich Hovhannisyan – to four
years, Armen Hovhannisyan – to two years, Hayk Harutyunyan – four
years and six months, Sevak Mnatsakanyan – one year and six months,
Tigran Petrosyan – one year, Vahe Lazarian – seven years.

It is noteworthy that Harutyunyan’s underage son, Shahen Harutyunyan
was among them; the court gave him a four-year suspended prison
sentence. There were monetary fines as well. Many opposition groups
and human rights activists in Armenia describe Harutyunyan and his
supporters as political prisoners.

There will be a rally of the Anonymous today and that way the
rally participants say they want to express their discontent, Shant
Harutyunyan’s ex-wife said.

“Our next step will be the Court of Appeal, there will also be a rally
of the Anonymous today, and we will express our discontent that way.

The event took place at a similar rally last year and that rally is
the reason our guys are in prison today,” she said.

The guilty Avetis Avetisyan’s mother added that they are also going
to apply to the Court of Appeal.

“Avetis has no defense attorney, he has to fill out an application
and the state must provide one for him. I do not see this as a trial
procedure, this is a show, there was nothing just, they had to imprison
the guys, so they did,” she added.

Lawyers of the jailed activists are going to appeal the court’s
verdicts and sentences at a higher judicial instance.

A GUIDE THROUGH TURKEY FOR THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Nov 4 2014

Markar Esayan 04 November 2014, Tuesday

Etyen Mahcupyan, an esteemed intellectual who Daily Sabah readers
are acquainted with, has been appointed chief advisor to Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu upon Davutoglu’s proposal last week. Some
reactions to the appointment were reflected on social media and by
anti-government media outlets. The main objection was based on the
claim that appointing Mahcupyan as chief advisor was the government’s
move to lean into a more functional strategy with regard to the
government’s denial policies at the 100th anniversary of the 1915
Armenian genocide. The objectors argued that Mahcupyan was manipulated
as part of this strategy and he displayed an ethical weakness by
accepting it in return for the position.

Our Armenian fellows in the diaspora community might not know the
dynamics in Turkey’s domestic politics and the power struggle in
the country as they are exposed to 100 years of denial and isolation
policies. We are constantly implored that Turks must sympathize with
the anger they feel and should not categorically classify the diaspora
as “hostile to Turks and Turkey.” I can gladly say that as the dynamo
of the democratization process over the last 12 years in Turkey,
the religious strata of society and their political representative,
the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), are displaying a quite
good-willed effort on this matter.

With rising Islamophobia, especially following Sept. 11, it might be
possible for some Armenians in the diaspora to feel more close to the
“secular totalitarians” who ruled Turkey for 80 years in the midst
of the sovereignty struggle in Turkey. Because they still comprise
the elite stratum of Turkey and still control 70 percent of media
outlets in the country. So, the channels depicting Turkey abroad
are under the control of this stratum. Moreover, the Gulen Movement,
which somewhat balanced this power inequality to a certain extent,
completely took the opposite side as a result of the power struggle
it had with the government.

The authoritarian Kemalist regime has been sustaining a defeat for the
last 12 years in Turkey thanks to the AK Party’s democratic reforms,
elections, and non-military methods excluding violence. The anomalies
experienced in the country have remarkably risen within the last two
years. The beginning of these anomalies coincided with the date when
the reconciliation process was initiated by the government to resolve
the Kurdish issue in the country since the clash between the state and
PKK was the most crucial factor that concealed the military domination
in the country and blocked the ways to civilian politics. But more
importantly, three successive elections were going to be held –
local elections on March 30, 2014; presidential election on Aug. 10,
2014 and general elections in 2015.

So, the Gezi Park crisis was manipulated for provocation. Also on Dec.

17 and Dec. 25, 2013, an illegal group in law enforcement and the
judiciary attempted a judicial coup under the guise of corruption
investigations. They attempted to overthrow the government with a
civil war or a coup that was disguised as a legal procedure since
it did not seem possible to topple the government in political and
democratic ways. And now another coup was attempted through the Kobani
crisis. The Oct. 6-7 pogrom was a provocation motivated by that. The
incidents took place at a phase when a law on the reconciliation
process passed in Parliament, the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah
Ocalan said the process was healthy and progressing and the bloodshed
completely stopped in the region, which led to the assumptions that
the PKK’s leadership in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq was persuaded
to side with the coup attempts.

The only way to politically redesign Turkey is the PKK taking up its
weapons again and influencing the 2015 elections with the chaos it
creates. The Armenian issue is regarded as a tool in this sovereignty
struggle. In reality, no one is interested in the pain of Armenians.

Be sure that these groups will readopt their denial policies after they
realize their aims since they are the up-to-date wing of the unionists.

Currently, secularism and modernity in Turkey are actually represented
by religious factions. They also regard the Armenian issue as a moral
and conscientious duty that is needed to be faced. They are aware
of the fact that the people now know they weren’t taught history
objectively. They also know that not facing the Armenian issue would
constitute an impediment to the democratization process.

It would be naive to say that the government thinks this issue could
be resolved with condolences for the 1915 events and the recent
appointments since the Armenian issue is not an immediate matter for
Turkey. It was also possible to suspend this issue for years by the
government basing its policies on denial rhetoric and geopolitical
importance. We are living in the same world with the Bashar Assad
regime, which killed 300,000 people in Syria but is still protected.

Also, to correctly evaluate the process of facing history that has
started in Turkey, it is important for the Armenian diaspora to
sympathize with the situation in Turkey and abstain from those who
want to instrumentalize their pain.

AKP’S WAR AGAINST ‘INTERNAL ENEMIES’

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 4 2014

by ORHAN KEMAL CENGÝZ

November 04, 2014, Tuesday

When I was supporting the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government, I was hoping that we would send the phrase “internal
enemies” into the dustbin of history in this country once and for all.

The concept of “internal enemies” and frequent reference to it was
one of the trademarks of the military rule in Turkey.

As Abraham Maslow once said, “If all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail.”

Soldiers have guns and the biggest problems they have to fight against
are the enemies. They have a difficult and noble job. However, if
they start to rule a country, the country inevitably turns into a
battlefield. We know how all these mechanisms worked in practice
in Turkey.

We very much used to hear the same cliches over and over again from our
generals. Our country was in a very big danger. We were challenging
the biggest danger we had ever seen in that particular moment when
the generals were talking to us. We were surrounded by enemies from
every angle and Turkey was full of enemies.

Leftists, Kurds, devout Muslims, our ethnic and religious minorities
were all turned into “internal enemies” one after another, but we
never had a shortage of these internal enemies.

There is of course a huge difference between being a suspect of an
alleged crime and being seen as an enemy. In the former situation
you have certain rights; you would give an account of your actions
before the court. In the latter situation, however, you are someone
against whom the state is in a kind of war.

And we have very tragic memories of the consequences of being labeled
an “enemy” by the military circles, such as in the case of Christian
missionaries. Starting in the early 2000s the National Security Council
(MGK) –which consisted of civilians and military personnel, but was,
in practice, an organ soldiers used to tell civilians what needed to
be done — included “missionaries” on the list of groups that posed
a threat to national security. Missionaries were included in the
so-called “Red Book” which lists the enemies of Turkish state.

When they were cited as an enemy, certain groups read it as a sign and
Christians came under fire from every circle. In 2006, Catholic priest
Father Santoro was killed in Trabzon. In January 2007, Hrant Dink, a
Turkish Armenian journalist was killed and in April of the same year,
three Christians were killed when their throats were slit in Malatya.

When this government was gaining strength, the military guardianship
and the role of the MGK were weakened. And I was very happy for a while
that we had put aside this “internal enemies” nonsense and instead
we started to talk about crimes, suspects and their rights, and so on.

These days, however, we are unfortunately witnessing the resurrection
of this ghost of “internal enemies” once again and the ghost is being
called up by this government. The last MGK meeting took more then 10
hours, and the civilians and military personnel discussed whether or
not the Gulen movement should be included in the “Red Book,” which
we have not heard about for a long time.

The AKP does not want to get rid of “internal enemies” but rather
it wants to monopolize the power to declare any group an internal
enemy against whom a war may be declared using of all the powers of
the state.

Where do billionaires go to university?

16:42, 30 Oct 2014

Are the super-rich more likely to be better educated? Or have they
spurned scholarship and dedicated themselves to the serious business
of being seriously rich?

According to a global census of dollar billionaires, almost two-thirds
have a university degree. That means that even for countries with a
high level of graduates, billionaires are disproportionately likely to
have gone to university, Sean Coughlan writes in an article published
by the BBC.

In the UK, more than four out of five billionaires were in higher
education – not so much rags to riches as rag week to riches.

The educational insights are from an annual profile of the uber-rich,
the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census, produced by the Swiss banking
group and a Singapore-based financial intelligence firm.

It examines the wealth and background of more than 2,300 billionaires
– and the findings undermine the image of the wealthy as being
self-taught self-starters trained on the market stall.

As well as being much more likely to be graduates, a quarter have
postgraduate degrees and more than one in 10 has a doctorate.

The University of Pennsylvania has produced more than any other
institution, followed by Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern
California, Princeton, Cornell and Stanford.

And the most likely way of making money is by dealing in money, with
billionaires mostly making their fortunes through finance, banking and
investment.

But there are also some indications that the geography of the super
rich is changing. Reflecting India’s growing economy, the University
of Mumbai is in ninth place in the league table.

The only UK university in this wealth list is the London School of
Economics, in 10th place, with no place for Oxford or Cambridge.

The rise of Russia’s wealthy is reflected in the 11th place for
Lomonosov Moscow State University.

But the dominance of the US universities is not simply about the US
producing more billionaires. More than a quarter of the billionaires
who attended US universities to take undergraduate degrees were from
other countries.

This was even more the case for postgraduate courses in the US, where
39% came from overseas.

Most billionaire graduates:

University of Pennsylvania
Harvard University
Yale University
University of Southern California
Princeton University
Cornell University
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of Mumbai
London School of Economics
Lomonosov Moscow State University
University of Texas
Dartmouth College
University of Michigan
New York University
Duke University
Columbia University
Brown University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ETH Zurich

“Nikolai Ryzhkov tries to bring unsuccessful arguments”

November 1 2014

The Head of the Armenian Institute for International and Security
Affairs, Styopa Safaryan, considers the Crimea-NKR comparisons made by
Nikolai Ryzhkov, Co-Chair of the Armenian-Russian Inter-Parliamentary
Commission, inequitable. Note that Ryzhkov did not want to compare the
NKR and Crimea, claiming that there is a significant difference.
“Crimea is historically a Russian territory, we were one territory for
centuries and whether it is our fault that Khrushchev gave it to
Ukraine in drunk. Crimean residents at their own will decided by
referendum to join the composition of Russia, so what we were supposed
to do, to tell them, no, do not enter into your native territory?” “He
had brought obviously inequitable and baseless argument. Much longer,
if not a few hundred years, like it is with Crimea, then a few
thousand years ago, Karabakh was inhabited by Armenians and was a part
of the Armenian kingdom. Ryzhkov would be better to be acquainted with
the maps of the ancient Armenia to see where Armenia’s sources end.
Until the times when there was no Russia, Russian Empire and even the
Crimea. If it comes to handing over the Crimea to Ukraine by
Khrushchev in drunk, then it is worth saying that Stalin being
extremely sober and with extremely far-sighted calculations, to
receive the Muslim world support for his world-wide revolution and in
exchange for the award to Azerbaijan for its Sovietization,
surrendered to Azerbaijan, accordingly, Mr. Ryzhkov either is not
obviously familiar with historical events, or tries to bring
unsuccessful arguments. Perhaps, we can agree on one issue with
Ryzhkov that the Crimea and the Nagorno-Karabakh are different in the
sense that Karabakh’s self-determination is an exemplary precedent
after the Cold War, whereas Crimea is its theatrical performances,
indeed, a Russian invasion,” said Mr. Safaryan. He specifies Ryzhkov’s
viewpoint by the chaos created under the Eurasian Economic Union.
“Because if the question arises on positioning of customs checkpoint
between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, then the same approach should be
implied to Russia, on the border with Crimea. Therefore, this
viewpoint is associated with growing great debate, which was not put
by Armenia prior to accession to the EaEU, but there is a risk for it
to blow-up in the future, if someone, let’s say Kazakhstan, raises
such an issue.”

Arpine SIMONYAN
Read more at:

Khachatur Almazian:

Emir Kusturica master of all trades

October 23, 2014

PanARMENIAN.Net – Almazian Symphony ensemble directed by Armenian
violinist Khachatur Almazian and Serbian cellist Tamara Savic recorded
an OST to Emir Kusturica’s “On The Milky Road” starring the Serbian
helmer and Italy’s sweetheart Monica Bellucci. Almazian Symphony
released its first album in 2013 in France, in cooperation with Sony
Music Entertainment and France TV National. In a conversation with
PanARMENIAN.Net, Khachatur Almazian shared details of his cooperation
with Kusturica.

“On The Milky Road” tells a story that stretches across war in former
Yugoslavia , blossoming love of a woman (Bellucci) for a soldier
(Kusturica) who chooses life as a recluse. The director plans to
complete production in late 2014, to be featured at Cannes Film
Festival.

Khachatur Almazian and Monica Bellucci

On working with Kusturica

My friendly and business relations with Kustirica date back a while
ago. It was Almazian Symphony that opened the first Kustendorf Film
and Music Festival. In 2010 we were already collaborating with Emir
and his composer son Stribor. We recorded music to a movie “Cool
Water” co-produced by Johnny Depp. Later, the movie production was
postponed; however, the recording was to Kusturica’s liking, which
determined his further choice of an ensemble.

As opposed to the majority of directors who work on music in the
post-production stage, Emir focuses on music during production. I
direct the orchestra and play violin solos.

Work on music starts from Stribor’s sending the score, followed by
rehearsal and interpretation in the studio. I love working on
Stribor’s music, it’s simply wonderful. I cannot define the exact
style but it is certainly beautiful and vibrant.

Almazian with composer Stribor Kusturica (center) and producer
Philippe Avril (right)

With Stribor, we’re really on the same wave. We never watch the time
when working together: at times, we start early in the morning and go
on far into the night. The finalized material is then shown to Emir.

About Kustiruca

Kusturica takes his time to work on every detail – that’s one of his
specifics. In this day and age, many directors depend on producers who
set time limits, determine the cast, etc. Emir told me once how he
spent 1,5 months on a wedding scene in “Underground” though he
initially planned to finish it in 5 days. I’m always in awe of his
phenomenal energy, working capacity – it’s hard to imagine how one
person can be capable of making films, performing concerts, hosting
festivals, writing books, building cities. I keep thinking of a Sergey
Dovlatov quote: “Clearly, a genius should have friends. But who will
ever believe that one’s friend is a genius?”

Emir Kusturica and Khachatur Almazian

On Yerevan premiere of the film

I’d like to organize a Yerevan premiere for “On the Milky Road”. In
2010, I invited Emir and his The No Smoking Orchestra to perform in
Yerevan. The concert was a huge success; I later arranged Kusturica’s
meeting with young artists, with a full house of people gathering.
Afterwards, Emir confessed to have been surprised by the intellect of
Armenian youth. I’d like for a similar meeting to be held after the
film’s Cannes premiere, with the whole Kusturica family present. The
Kusturica family is a unique phenomena in the world of cinema – Emir’s
wife, Maja, co-produced the “Milky Road,” daughter Dunja co-wrote the
script, son Stribor composed the score.

Screenshot, poster for “On the Milky Road”

And of course, I’d like to invite the leading lady, Monica Bellucci to
the premiere. A star of the first magnitude, Monica astonishes with
her dazzling beauty and sharp intelligence. I’m sure, Yerevan audience
will be glad to meet her.

Mane Yepremyan/ PanARMENIAN.Net; Photos: Khachatur Almazian achives, PAN Photo