Author: Kanayan Tamar

Armenia’s industry output stood at 693.6 million drams in January-July

YEREVAN, September 5. /ARKA/. Armenia’s industrial output in the first
seven months of this year amounted to 693.6 billion drams, an increase
of 1.5% compared to the same period of 2013, the National Statistical
Service said today.

According to the statistics, processing industry accounted for about
64.6% of the total output, an increase of 5.8%, from the same time
span of 2013, worth more than 448.7 billion drams. The mining sector
slashed by 9.7% to 110.4 billion drams.

Supply of electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air in January-July
this year amounted to 124 billion drams, a decrease of 4.1%.

Supply of water, water treatment, waste water treatment and recycling
stood at over 10.46 billion drams, having increased by5.3% compared to
the same period of the year before. ($ 1 – 410.15 drams). -0–

Serviceman wounded in mine explosion in serious but stable condition

12:32 05/09/2014 >> SOCIETY

A contract soldier of Armenian Armed Forces was wounded in a mine
blast in Tavush province of Armenia, near the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border, on Thursday.

A spokesman for Armenian Defense Ministry told Panorama.am that the
47-year-old lieutenant is in a hospital in the city of Berd.

“Vardan Avagyan is in serious but stable condition,” Artsrun
Hovhannisyan said, adding that his condition is changing for the
better.

Vardan Avagyan is a resident of Norashen village in Tavush province.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIE
Les jeunes chercheurs abandonnent les emplois publics en raison de la
réforme des pensions

Des dizaines de jeunes spécialistes démissionnent des universités
d’Etat d’Arménie et des instituts de recherche afin d’être en mesure
de se retirer d’un régime de retraite national controversé présenté
par le gouvernement. Le nouveau système exige que les travailleurs nés
après 1973 versent pour leurs futures pensions des sommes équivalentes
à 10 pour cent de leur salaire brut à des fonds de pension privés
jusqu’à leur retraite. La réforme, initialement introduite en Janvier,
a rencontré une résistance farouche de la part de nombreux Arméniens
touchés, la plupart d’entre eux travaillent dans des firmes privées,
et a effectivement été bloqués par la Cour constitutionnelle en Avril.

Le gouvernement a réagi en modifiant la réforme des retraites
obligatoires que pour 65 000 d’employés du secteur public. Un projet
de loi approuvé par le parlement en Juin a permis aux gens travaillant
pour des entités privées de n’être touchés par le nouveau système qu’à
partir de Juillet 2017.

La grande majorité des salariés du secteur privé sont soupçonnés
d’avoir opté pour un report de trois ans. Mais ceux d’entre eux qui
ont aussi des emplois à temps partiel dans le secteur public se voient
refuser un tel choix, avec des autorités fiscales qui font des
déductions considérables de leurs salaires versés par les employeurs
privés.

Parmi eux sont de jeunes universitaires et scientifiques. Plusieurs
dizaines d’entre eux ont décidé de quitter les universités publiques
et les centres de recherche qui font partie de l’Académie nationale
des Sciences d’Arménie. Quatre de ces spécialistes avaient jusqu’à
présent enseigné au département de la microélectronique de
l’Université d’État d’ingénierie d’Arménie (SEUA), tout en ayant des
emplois bien rémunérés dans le secteur en plein essor des technologies
de l’information dans le pays. Le chef du département, Vahe Buniatian,
a admis lundi qu’il aura du mal à les remplacer par d’autres
enseignants qualifiés. Ara Simonian, le recteur de l’Université d’État
d’Erevan (UEE), a déclaré lundi qu’une douzaine de ses jeunes
professeurs également employées dans le secteur privé ont également
présenté leur démission. Il a dit que beaucoup d’autres sont prêts à
suivre le mouvement si les autorités ne parviennent pas à faire une
réforme pour eux avant la fin de cette année.

>.

Le recteur de l’UEE ne pouvait pas dire, cependant, quelle solution
concrète pourrait être proposée par le gouvernement.

> a
déclaré Tigran Grigorian, un jeune scientifique qui a quitté
l’Académie nationale des sciences. >.

vendredi 5 septembre 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Chorrord Ishkhanutyun: French University urges staff to join party?

11:26 * 05.09.14

The paper says it has learned from sources that the French University
in Armenia forces all its employees to join the Rule of Law party with
absolutely no regard to the citizenship requirement enshrined in the
Law on Political Parties.

The move is said to be an attempt to make up for the flow from the
political force whose members’ numbers began decreasing sharply after
its leader, Arthur Baghdasaryan, resigned as the secretary of
Armenia’s National Security Council.

The paper cites Article 3 of the law, which says that a union allowing
membership of foreign citizens cannot be a political party. Hence, the
paper concludes, that Rule of Law has ceased to be a political party
after non-citizens of Armenia began to be registered as its
representatives.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 3 2014

Protraction of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict inadmissible, German MP says

3 September 2014, 20:44 (GMT+05:00)

By Sabina Ahmadova – Trend:

Protraction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
inadmissible, member of the German Bundestag (parliament), the head of
the Germany-South Caucasus parliamentary group, Karin Shtrents told
Trend.

She stressed that Germany supports the peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the international law.

Shtrents added that another three members of the Bundestag will visit
Azerbaijan in coming days to discuss the prospects for cooperation, as
well as exchange views on the issues of mutual interest.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result
of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent
of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven
surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Sept 3 2014

Washington says pro-Armenian resolution personal affair of California State

By Aynur Jafarova

The U.S. Department of State announced that pro-Armenian resolution
adopted by the California State Senate is a personal affair of the
State.

“I am not going to have any comment on a resolution on
Nagorno-Karabakh adopted by the California State Senate,” U.S.
Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “It is a state
issue.”

California Senate passed a resolution, which is of anti-Azerbaijani
nature, on August 27. The racist anti-Azerbaijani resolution AJR 32 on
Nagorno-Karabakh has been on the agenda of the California State Senate
for some time. The resolution, calling to recognize a separatist
regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan was introduced by
Assemblyman Mike Gatto at the behest of the Armenian lobby.

Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles has condemned the
adoption of an anti-Azerbaijani resolution. The Azerbaijani community
of California also got mobilized and through various means harshly
protested against the resolution.

Baku also announced that voting for this resolution, the Californian
senators actually called for supporting the occupation of Azerbaijani
lands, which contradicts international norms and principles.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said the
resolution is declarative in nature and has no legal force, adding
that it happened due to the Armenian lobby’s financial support.

“This fact calls into question the honesty of the senators who voted
for passing this document. This was possible thanks to the financial
support of the Armenian lobby in the U.S.,” Abdullayev stressed.

This resolution is not the first resolution adopted by the California
Legislature regarding Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which erupted back in
1988 over Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

The three similar resolutions had been adopted by the Legislature at
the behest of the Armenian lobby in 1993, 1997 and 1999. However
neither those resolutions, nor AJR 32 have any legal or political
significance.

The U.S. embassy in Azerbaijan earlier also announced that the
resolution passed by the California State Senate regarding
Nagorno-Karabakh is an expression of opinion by a state legislative
body and does not change U.S. foreign policy on the matter.

“The U.S. foreign policy is determined by the federal government,” the
embassy said. “The States are free to express their opinions but those
opinions do not represent national foreign policy.”

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus
neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.

Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been
largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000
Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost
100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been
enforced to this day.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 3 2014

President ErdoÄ?an boosts bilateral ties during visit to Azerbaijan

Turkey’s newly elected President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an has stated in
his first official visit to Azerbaijan that it is time for the
implementation of promises given to Turkey’s close ally, pointing out
that his delegation will ask for those promises to be implemented
during his visit to the NATO summit to be held in Wales on Sept. 4-5.

`There were promises given to Azerbaijan both at NATO summits and in
other related meetings. We will bring these promises to the agenda
there [at the NATO summit] and ask for them to be implemented by the
countries concerned. It should be done the way the promises are
fulfilled for other countries, step by step,’ ErdoÄ?an said in a joint
press conference with Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev in Baku on
Wednesday.

ErdoÄ?an is paying his first official visit to Azerbaijan, a country
with which Turkey enjoys a close relationship, after being elected as
the 12th president of Turkey. His first official trip abroad was paid
to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) on Monday.

ErdoÄ?an’s plane landed in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, late on
Tuesday. The Turkish president and his wife Emine ErdoÄ?an were
welcomed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport by Azerbaijani Deputy
Prime Minister Yaqub Eyyubov. Having been greeted by high-ranking
officials, ErdoÄ?an and his wife walked past a guard of honor.

An official welcoming ceremony was staged for President ErdoÄ?an by
Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev in front of the presidential palace
in Baku on Wednesday. During the ceremony, ErdoÄ?an was accompanied by
Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Mevlüt ÇavuÃ…?oÄ?lu, Defense Minister Ä°smet
Yılmaz and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız.

After a meeting with President Aliyev, ErdoÄ?an later chaired the
Turkish delegation in talks with their Azerbaijani counterparts which
ended with a joint press conference by both leaders.

During the talks, ErdoÄ?an touched on topics such as the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP)
project, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the Shah Deniz II project
as well as the current state of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad
project.

Noting that both sides discussed bilateral ties in various fields
including culture, education, foreign affairs and energy issues,
ErdoÄ?an said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict — which is locked in
deadlock after more than 20 years of Armenian occupation of
Azerbaijani territory — was the main topic of conversation for both
leaders.

`It is obvious that Nagorno-Karabakh is the most important topic
between our two countries,’ ErdoÄ?an said. Reiterating his views on the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ErdoÄ?an told journalists
that the conflict should be resolved by respecting the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh — an Azerbaijani territory predominantly populated
by ethnic Armenians — was the subject of a bitter conflict in the
early 1990s when Armenian armed forces occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven Azerbaijani-populated adjacent provinces. Although a cease-fire
was agreed upon, there has been no lasting peace agreement and
diplomatic efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict under
the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group have so far failed. 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territory is still under Armenian control, despite four UN
resolutions demanding the withdrawal of Armenian forces. After the
start of the conflict, Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993
in solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev spoke after ErdoÄ?an at the same press
conference, emphasizing the strength of Turkish-Azerbaijani ethnic,
linguistic and historical ties and mentioned his gratitude to ErdoÄ?an
for his efforts “to support Azerbaijan’s just position for a solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

“Turkey has always supported Azerbaijan [over the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict] on all international platforms and so stands by justice and
impartiality,” Aliyev said.

During his visit, ErdoÄ?an is scheduled to visit the grave of the late
Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev and the Baku Turkish Martyrs’
Memorial.

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Sept 3 2014

TURKISH PRESIDENT TO HOLD BILATERAL TALKS WITH NATO LEADERS

Daily Sabah

ISTANBUL ‘ The two-day 2014 NATO summit taking place in
Newport/Cardiff, Wales, commenced today with international leaders
expected to evaluate recent developments and provide strategic
direction for the 28-member alliance at the gathering. While
developments in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria are expected to dominate the
talks, it is anticipated that the alliance will have its most crucial
meeting since the end of the Cold War.

At the summit, President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an will represent Turkey
and, on the sidelines of the summit, ErdoÄ?an is expected to meet with
leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama, U.K. Prime Minister
David Cameron, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and NATO
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. President ErdoÄ?an is also
expected to meet with Prince Charles during his the first NATO summit
as president.

During his meeting with Obama, the two leaders are expected to
evaluate the latest developments in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and the
Palestinian issue. White House sources have recently stated that
President Barack Obama is expected to piece together an international
coalition to address the ISIS threat. British Prime Minister David
Cameron also announced last week that the U.K. has raised its terror
threat level to “severe” in response to ISIS advances and fear of
attacks by returning ISIS fighters.

It is anticipated that Turkey’s contribution to addressing the ISIS
threat will be one of the major issues during ErdoÄ?an’s bilateral
meetings with President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron. The German,
U.S. and U.K.’s intelligence agencies allegation of surveillance on
Turkey to gather information on classified issues will also be
discussed by President ErdoÄ?an. “The NATO summit and the U.N.

General Assembly will be held in the upcoming weeks. We will talk
[about] these issue as leaders.” ErdoÄ?an recently said.President
ErdoÄ?an will also meet with Greek Prime Minister Samaras and both
leaders are expected to evaluate the current state of Cyprus peace
talks.

During his visit to Turkish Northern Cyprus, ErdoÄ?an suggested a
twostate solution on the divided island. “It is not possible for us to
reach any agreement that is not based on a two-state solution, Greece
and the Greek Cypriots should demonstrate the same goodwill,” ErdoÄ?an
said.

The Nagorno-Karabakh issue, which is the subject of an intense,
longstanding political dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, will
also be on the agenda for ErdoÄ?an during his meeting in the NATO
submit. President ErdoÄ?an is also expected to meet with the President
of the European Council, Herman Von Rompuy, and it is anticipated that
the Turkey-EU negotiation and EU Commission’s Progress Report are also
to be discussed. NATO sources stated that the summit has five main
priorities including: the Crisis in Ukraine and NATO’s relationship
with Russia, the instability in Syria and Iraq as well as
Afghanistan’s future, tackling new threats including the threat posed
by extremists, regional conflicts or cyber attacks, strengthening
support for NATO armed forces and strengthening partnerships.

Metro News
Sept 3 2014

The Captive’s Bruce Greenwood and Atom Egoyan make a dynamic movie duo

By Richard Crouse

Bruce Greenwood first met director Atom Egoyan in a singles bar. “Atom
was alone in the corner and I felt sorry for him,” says Greenwood. “We
were introduced by a mutual friend.”

That was in the early 1990s, when Egoyan was on the brink of
international acclaim as a director and Greenwood was a film and
television star with a handful of movies and recurring roles on St.
Elsewhere and Knots Landing under his belt. That chance meeting led to
their first film together, Exotica, a study of loneliness and desire
in a lap-dancing club that Roger Ebert called “a deep, painful film”
in his four-star review. “We became good friends during that process,”
said Greenwood, “and in the ensuing years.”

Three years later the pair collaborated on The Sweet Hereafter, an
adaptation of the novel of the same name by Russell Banks about the
effects of a tragic bus accident on the population of a small town.
Greenwood earned a Genie Award nomination playing a grieving father
and in 2002 readers of Playback voted it the greatest Canadian film
ever made.

Next was a small role in Ararat, Egoyan’s story of a young man whose
life is changed during the making of a film about the Armenian
genocide, and then, in 2013, a cameo in Devil’s Knot. Greenwood played
a judge in Egoyan’s retelling of the events leading up to the West
Memphis Three murders and the “Satanic panic” that fuelled the
hysteria surrounding the subsequent trial of teenagers Jessie
Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin.

These days Greenwood is best known for his work as Capt. Christopher
Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film and its sequel, Star Trek Into
Darkness, but he’s not too busy in Hollywood — the Quebec-born actor
has lived in Los Angeles since the late 1980s — to reteam with his
Canadian cohort. In Egoyan’s new psychological thriller, The Captive,
Greenwood joins stars Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson
and Mireille Enos in a story of a child kidnapping. Egoyan says he and
Greenwood share a shorthand that makes for easy work on set. As for
Greenwood, he says he trusts the director, “more than anyone I’ve ever
worked with. He can ask me to do anything and if my initial instinct
is ‘Oh no,’ it ends up being the right idea. He’s a tremendous guy.”

Bryan-College Station Eagle, Texas
Sept 3 2014

Greece to toughen penalties on hate speech

Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Lawmakers in Greece on Tuesday began debating
draft legislation to outlaw Holocaust denial and expand prosecution
powers against the incitement of racial violence, following scores of
violent attacks against immigrants and a surge in popular support for
the extreme right Golden Dawn party.

The draft legislation to be voted on later this week would allow the
prosecution of racial abuse without requiring victims to take any
legal action, with convictions for incitement to violence carrying a
penalty of up to three years in prison.

“We have anti-racism laws already, but the reason they were not
applied was that immigrants, for example, were afraid to report the
crimes because they did not hold proper travel documents, lived here
illegally, and feared deportation,” Justice Minister Haralambos
Athanasiou told parliament.

Greece’s Ombudsman said it received complaints of 281 suspected racist
and homophobic attacks in the 16 months before May 2013, resulting in
four deaths and 135 injuries.

The bill is likely to pass after receiving backing from two left-wing
opposition parties, which successfully petitioned for the inclusion of
homophobic violence in the bill.

But the conservative-led government is facing dissent from some of its
legislators and opposition from prominent intellectuals over the
plans, which also include outlawing the denial of the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the legislation but said it still fails to
encourage the reporting of crimes by immigrants living in the country
illegally, and risked “interference with freedom of expression and
association.”

“No one should risk prosecution simply for membership in a legal
political party,” the U.S.-based watchdog said, referring to Golden
Dawn, a far-right party of Neo-Nazi origin whose members have often
used racist rhetoric but deny frequent claims of involvement in street
attacks against immigrants.

Golden Dawn lawmaker Antonis Gregos described the bill as a “Satanic plot.”