Author: Kanayan Tamar

“If the pressure from the West is strong, “Vorotan” HHP complex will
be sold, but if Russia’s pressure is strong, it won’t be sold.”

July 31 2014

To the question of Aravot.am whether it does not mean that the selling
of “Vorotan” will be cancelled if the Prime Minister, Hovik
Abrahamyan, is already openly talking about cancellation of the deal
on selling “Vorotan” HHP complex, the economic topics-related writer
and journalist, Hayk Gevorgyan, said, “We have information that the
government is too close to declaring the deal on selling “Vorotan” HHP
cancelled. The question here is which of the two sides exerting
pressure would be strong. The deal depends on it. If the pressure from
the West is strong, the HHP would be sold, if the Russian pressure
would be stronger than that of the Western, it would not be sold and
the deal would not take place.” Note that after assuming the office of
the Prime Minister, Hovik Abrahamyan, on various occasions, was making
hints on declaring the selling of “Vorotan” HHP complex cancelled. But
last Friday, during his working visit to Dilijan, the Prime Minister,
Hovik Abrahamyan, referring to the sale of “Vorotan” HHP, stated “the
sale of Vorotan HHP should be for the benefit of our state.” The Prime
Minister assured that they have no intention to sell Vorotan HHP,
however, if the American “Global Contour” company, whom HHP complex
was sold, does not agree with the recommendations of newly appointed
Cabinet, and does not amend the clauses unacceptable for the
government, also the drawbacks found in the terms of the deal, then
the deal on selling “Vorotan” Cascade will be canceled. According to
Hayk Gevorgyan, the strange thing is not that the bid on sale of
“Vorotan” Cascade may be cancelled, but the deal in itself is strange,
because one of Armenia’s best energy facilities is tried to be bought
not by Russian, but American company. “Our energy system, as it is
known, is completely under Russian control, in other words, from the
very first moment it became clear that the government wants to sell
“Vorotan” Cascade to Americans. The deal in itself seemed suspicious.
Sooner or later, it is likely that the deal will take place, but I
think that the matter here is not economic, but the so-called external
political”. To our question of whether it is possible for the
government to pay penalty and fines in the event of cancellation of
almost completed deal, Hayk Gevorgyan said that he is not aware of the
details of the deal, because it is not so public, but he did not rule
out that some problems might arise.

Lusine BUDAGHYAN
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Armenia: Citizens urged to write Wikipedia entry each

31 July 2014 Last updated at 16:00

By News from Elsewhere… …media reports from around the world,
found by BBC Monitoring
National heritage is getting a boost via a flurry of articles on
Armenian Wikipedia

Armenians are being urged to do their patriotic duty – by each writing
an article on Wikipedia, it seems.

The campaign – One Armenian, One Article, dreamed up by the government
– hopes to increase the number and quality of articles in the Armenian
language and script, promote Armenian culture, and perhaps compete
with neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Wikipedia stakes,
according to an advertisement running on EU Armenia TV.

The ad started out as a YouTube clip, but it’s recently been given a
new lease of life running on satellite TV to Armenians all over the
world. The Armenian diaspora – thought to number some eight million
people – far outnumbers the country’s resident population of about 3
million.

High profile artists, musicians and politicians are getting in on the
act. Education minister Armen Ashotyan says in the clip: “One
Armenian, one article – I will definitely do that and believe you will
too.” The Defence Minister, Seyran Ohanyan, says he’s already added an
article about the Armenian army. Articles by celebrities and ordinary
citizens are equally valued, the ad says. A young person is shown
writing an article about radishes.

There may be a competitive edge in the promotion. Reporting the number
of Wikipedia articles has been on the agenda of Armenian TV and news
agencies since the campaign began in March, and it seems Armenian
Wikipedia is currently outstripping its neighbours in page numbers,
racking up more than 125,000 articles compared to around 102,000 in
Azerbaijan and almost 84,000 in Georgia.

Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

Armenia has not bettered its position: PM gives instructions to ministers

12:57 | July 31,2014 | Politics

Before starting today’s government sitting, Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan referred to the 2014 Human Development Index published by
the UNDP, noting that Armenia has not bettered its position.

“Armenia continues to remain 87th in UN Human Development Index,” he said.

The prime minister said he expects great changes and progress in the
education system. Hovik Abrahamyan instructed the Minister of
Education and Science to follow and monitor developments and see to it
that the updated statistics be included in the 2015 report.

The Prime Minister also instructed the cabinet to sum up the 100 days
in office and present to media representatives the government’s
programs and activities.

Armenia’s cognac production drops in first half of 2014

YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. Armenia’s cognac production dropped 18.2% to
a total of 6,649,700 liters in the first half of this year 2014,
compared to the same period the year before, ArmStat reported.

Wine production declined by 5.8% to 2,330,900 liters in the reporting period.

Vodka production rose by 4.9% to 4,448,400 liters in January-June.

A total of 145,400 litres of champagne was produced in the period, a
24.4% increase against January-June 2013.

Beer production totaled 11,333,500 litres, which is a 77.8% increase.

A total of about 30,172,900 litres of non-alcoholic beverages was
manufactured in the period, an increase of 44.5% compared to
January-June 2013. -0–

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Economie
Les banques russes en Arménie minisent les sanctions occidentales

Les filiales arméniennes de deux grandes banques commerciales russes
sanctionnées par l’Union européenne et les États-Unis dans le cadre de
la crise en Ukraine n’auront pas d’incidence grave sur leurs
activités.

Les Etats membres de l’UE ont annoncé mardi de nouvelles sanctions
imposées à la Russie en raison de son soutien continu aux rebelles
pro-russes en Ukraine orientale largement blmé pour avoir abattu le
17 juillet un avion de ligne malaisien.

Deux des banques sanctionnées, Gazprombank et VTB, ont des filiales en
Arménie jouant un rôle majeur dans le secteur bancaire local.

Gazprombank a été inscrit sur la liste au début du mois. La banque,
qui est la troisième par ses actifs en Russie, a insisté par la suite
pour affirmer que les sanctions n’affecteront pas la stabilité de ses
opérations et ses finances.

Areksimbank, entièrement détenue par Gazprombank, a fait des
assurances similaires hier. Yelena Markova, une porte-parole
d’Areksimbank, a dit que les sanctions à l’encontre de sa société mère
n’auront pas un impact sérieux sur la banque parce qu’elle est une
entité juridique distincte.

La banque VTB a également minimisé l’importance des sanctions
américaines, disant qu’elles “ne seront en aucun infléchi sur nos
clients.” “La banque continuera à fournir la gamme complète de
services et obligations, sans aucune restriction et dans l’ensemble
des devises “, a indiqué la banque dans un communiqué. Cela comprend
les opérations via les systèmes de paiement internationaux Visa et
MasterCard.

La déclaration ne fait aucune mention des sanctions de l’UE, dont les
détails devraient être publiés aujourd’hui.

jeudi 31 juillet 2014,
Claire (c)armenews.com

New York Daily News
July 28 2014

Erdogan’s odious anti-Semitic slander

Turkey denies its own genocide and accuses Israel

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s anti-Semitism is getting the better of him.
Once again, the Turkish prime minister has trotted out the Hitler
analogy in relation to Israel and what it has done in Gaza. “They
curse Hitler morning and night,” he said of the Israelis. “However,
now their barbarism has surpassed even Hitler’s.”

Erdogan’s Hitler fetish is both revolting and inaccurate. Hitler
murdered an estimated 6 million Jews, not to mention millions of
Poles, Russians, Gypsies and, as a group, homosexuals; the Israelis
have killed in the current Gaza operation more than 1,000
Palestinians. The difference between murdered and killed — the former
on purpose, the latter mostly what’s called “collateral damage” —
ought to be clear to anyone whose mind is not addled by anti-Semitism.

Israel has gone out of its way to try to avoid civilian deaths. It has
often — maybe too often — not succeeded. But it has warned civilians
with telephone calls and text messages and even dummy bombs hitting
the roof. This, I point out, is far more than President Obama has done
when American drones kill terrorists in Pakistan or wherever. Hamas
militants are also terrorists and they hide, as every guerrilla army
has ever done, among the people.

The loss of civilian life is awful, but it is no Holocaust. It is,
though, an opportunity for anti-Semites, latent or otherwise, to
express their bigotry. Their implied statement is that the Jews had it
coming — see how they act now! Their bigotry overpowers their logic
and they deliriously lose all sense of proportion — 6 million versus
1,000 or so in Gaza — and they conflate the killer with the killed. It
is repugnant.

For Erdogan, the handier and closer to home reference would have been
what the Turks did to the Armenians. This genocide — the very word was
coined by Raphael Lemkin to encompass what happened to 1.5 million
Armenians during and after World War I — has been roundly denied by
the Turkish government. In a dizzying feat of irrationality, the head
of that government brushes past the crimes of his own nation to point
an accusatory finger at the victims of another nation.

Erdogan’s remarks are merely the reductio ad absurdum of the
anti-Israel argument. Some accuse Israel of a hideous lack of
proportionality without pausing to say what the proper proportion of
death and destruction should be. Would Hamas have ceased firing
rockets into Israel if Israel had bombed less? Somehow, I think not.
Would Hamas have blown up its own tunnels if Israel had ceased its
attack after, say, a week? Again, no.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, did the U.S. go into Afghanistan
to kill exactly 2,977 Al Qaeda and Taliban, an eye for every eye
extinguished on that infamous day? Israel is a small nation of only
about 8 million people, more than a fifth of them Arabs.
Proportionality is a luxury beyond its reach.

It is clear that much of the world has grown weary of Israel. Its
persistent settlement of the West Bank is surely cause for
indignation. Yet there is an edge to the outrage that is elsewhere
lacking. When did thousands gather in Europe to protest the Syrian
slaughter — not just the government’s abhorrent bombing, use of gas
and repression, but the torture and murder of about 10,000 activists
and dissidents? It was a mass murder that the Syrian government
studiously archived — photos and such — which surely deserves the Nazi
analogy that comes so easily to the tongue of Erdogan and others. No
matter. Silence.

I take psychiatric theories with a grain of salt, but the effort of
Erdogan to make the victim worse than the victimizer is not only false
and tasteless, it is psychologically intriguing. It does more than
blame the victim. It tends to exonerate the criminal. History is
repeating itself — not, as Marx said, as either tragedy or farce, but
in Erdogan’s telling as pornography.

Azeris Fire at Red Cross Convoy in Chinari Village

Monday, July 28th, 2014

A road in the Armenian village of Chinari, in the Tavush region

CHINARI, Armenia–A convoy carrying Armenian representatives of the
International Committee of the Red Cross was fired on by Azerbaijani
snipers Monday. No report on damages was released.

The spokeswoman for the Red Cross Armenia office Zara Amatouni told
RFE/RL that the organization’s aid workers were in the Chinari village
in the Tavush region of Armenia at the request of the villagers who
had asked for the Red Cross’ presence during the summer harvest
season.

The Red Cross used its mandate to secure an agreement from the sides
to not violate the cease fire during the summer harvest. Nevertheless,
according to the Chinari village administrator, Samvel Saghoyan, at
three minutes before 7 p.m. shots were fired from the Azeri direction.

The villagers had borrowed farming equipment from the neighboring
Movses village to facilitate the summer harvest with the Red Cross
officials on site.

Saghoyan told Aysor.am that the Red Cross vehicle was shot at breaking
its side mirror and tearing the Red Cross flag.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry announced on Monday that Armenian border
troops did not fire until the Azerbaijani snipers shot at border
village directions.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan told reporters that
the ministry always provides added supports to border villages at the
time of the harvest, explaining that Azerbaijan intensifies its sniper
attacks during the season.

Villagers reported that Azerbaijan intensifies its attack during
harvest season in order to destroy the crops, which are the only
source of income for the population on the border.

Another Karabakh Soldier Killed
The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry announced Saturday that
20-year-old Khachatur Badasian was killed after Azerbaijani force
attempted to enter the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Despite the death,
the Azerbaijani forces were driven back to their posts.

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic President Bako Sahakian on Monday
posthumously awarded Badasian a medal of courage.

Member of European Parliament Calls for Release of Levon Hayrapetian

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Member of the European Parliament, Czech Senator Jaromà – r Ã…tÄ?tina

PRAGUE (Armenpress)’Member of the European Parliament, Czech Senator
Jaromà – r Ã…tÄ?tina, Discussed the arrest of his childhood friend,
Armenian businessman and philanthropist Levon Hayrapetian in a public
statement published on Facebook. ÅtÄ?tina expresses his concerns
regarding Hayrapetian’s arrest, saying: `Levon is my childhood friend.
We have crossed the Siberian rivers together. I am afraid for his
life.’ Jaromà – r Ã…tÄ?tina also issued a statement calling upon the
President of the Russian Vladimir Putin to release Levon Hayrapetian.

Levon Hayrapetian’s health condition was assessed as `satisfactory,’
Hayrapetian’s spokesman Matsak Poladian told Armenpress.

Poladyan noted: `This morning I was informed that Levon Hayrapetian’s
health conditions were assessed as satisfactory. This gives us hope.
They [the Russian authorities] also promised to take him to a hospital
or place him under house arrest in the coming days.’

Hayrapetian suffers from diabetes and cancer and recently experienced
a stroke, requiring him to receive regular medical attention.

Hayrapetian, 65, was arrested by Russian Federal Security Service
officials on July 15. Last Thursday, a Moscow court allowed the
businessman’s two-month imprisonment while investigators conduct a
probe into his alleged criminal connections and involvement in some
illegal financial dealings. Official charges against Hayrapetian are
expected to be brought on July 24.

Hayrapetian is considered to be one of the wealthiest Armenians in the
world. He is known to have invested millions of dollars into
developing Nagorno-Karabakh’s infrastructure and renovating the area’s
historical-cultural monuments. His charity included a mass wedding for
hundreds of Karabakh couples in 2008 and sponsorship of the
construction of a military college in Martakert.

Hrant Bagratyan: Government has done nothing in 100 days (video)

16:25 | July 28,2014 | Politics

The authorities in Armenia have not promised the four non-governing
forces to implement the opposition-submitted 12-point list of demands:
they have more tasks to perform, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament
Galust Sahakyan said on July 28.

“Of course it will be much better if these 12 points coincide with our
programs,” he said adding that ‘otherwise, the opposition is to draw
corresponding conclusions.’

Mr Galust Sahakyan advises the opposition to forget about the change of power.

“I have been in politics for many years and I have frequently heard
the opposition saying, “We shall soon come to power…”

The parliament official observes that ‘people who come to power
usually do it calmly and quietly without loud shouts and warnings.’

Hrant Bagratyan, a lawmaker of the opposition Armenian National
Congress (HAK), says the political forces do not like sitting and
waiting for the government to take concrete steps. The economist says
the executive body led by Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan has made one
or two steps; there is no reason to be optimistic.

Evaluating the first 100 days of the government, Mr Bagratyan said the
executive could have done ten times more things during this period;
the figures do not greatly exceed the indexes of the previous
government.

Hrant Bagratyan also cited several items from the program proposed by
the Abrahamyan-led government which offered concrete steps. The HAK
member says in fact the government has done nothing in 100 days.

U.S. Puts Forth Tough Conditions To Turkey

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 28 July 2014, 13:01

After 2010 the United States and Turkey reached quite important
agreements on a series of foreign political, including geopolitical
issues, which appears an important factor of international, especially
regional politics.

It is interesting that during the same period the analytical materials
of leading think-tanks of the United States and Europe do not cover
thoroughly the “Turkish topic”, primarily the U.S.-Turkish
relationship. There are articles that reflect the Turkish policy on
the Near East, Turkish-French relations and Turkish relations with
other European states but the U.S.-Turkish relations have not been
deeply revealed.

Analysis based on over 100 materials of American and European analysts
did not allow drawing expected and substantial conclusions.
Interaction with different U.S. and European experts demonstrated that
the U.S.-Turkish relations remain a relatively closed topic.

These experts are partly not ready to review the issues that interest
us and are partly uninformed. Finding out the character and content of
agreements between the United States and Turkey at this stage requires
mostly an intuitive review, as well as occurrence of the necessary
signs to define one condition or another of general and specific
agreements. Besides this approach, a stage by stage comparative
analysis of different events and processes is important.

It should be noted that during the past years, in 2003-2011 which is
quite a long time, the United States apparently had an unpublished and
controllable agreement over implementation of a policy on Turkey and
analytical publications on the Turkish topic. The impression was that
the U.S. administration, both Republican and Democratic, was not
interested in restraining the qualified discourse in Washington over
the Turkish topic though Turkey initiated the discussion, fearing that
the issues relating to it would be leveled and disappear from the
political arena.

The Bush administration ignored Turkey toughly and demonstratively,
and the Obama administration preferred “softer forms” of this
position, realizing that Turkey has already “matured” to return under
the U.S. control, a number of steps were taken to resolve different
problems and preparations for normalization of relations were
underway.

Over the past years the United States conducted a policy of “soft
containment” of Turkish foreign political ambitions, leaving
opportunities for relatively painless “return” into the traditional
U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States did not allow significant
strengthening of the Turkish influence over Iraq and the Near East,
overall prevented closer rapprochement of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, as
well as thwarted development of relations between Turkey and Iran.
Analogically, the political rapprochement of Turkey and Iran was
prevented, creating problematic situations in regard to this
objective.

The policy of France and Germany on Turkey, which has led to maximum
distance and lack of any alignment between Turkey and the leading
European states, as well as the European Union, favors the United
States and the United Kingdom. The European project of Turkey is
practically complete, at this stage the Europeans do not have any
levers to influence Turkey and are reluctant to have any necessity to
use such levers. The policy of France, Germany and all the other
European states, including the United Kingdom on Turkey has been
“economized”. As a result, Turkey faced the United States with famous
contribution by the United Kingdom.

Having found itself in tight geopolitical blockade and isolation,
Turkey has not just returned to former relations with the United
States but also control by the latter.

The United States has achieved what worried it the most, i.e. Turkey
has given up autonomous and independent regional politics, agrees its
regional politics with the United States, which is illustrated by the
Syrian example.

Turkey is trying to conduct a more independent policy on Russia but
apparently it will not succeed. The Russian dimension of the Turkish
policy is principal to the United States, and the Americans are trying
to avoid unexpected developments.

At the same time, there are signs that the Turkish topic stops being
delicate in the relations between the United States and Turkey though
both sides are trying not to break the existing agreements on
political matters. The current U.S. administration and the political
circles have to find out how crucial the discussion on the Turkish
topic may be.

The behavior of the old partner and ally of the United States in NATO
remains defiant, especially in regard to the problems of regional
politics and relations with the Atlantic alliance. Ahead of the next
NATO summit in Cardiff Turkey has a series of agreements with the
United States and European partners but according to some information,
Ankara has certain intentions to agitate the summit, and the Americans
understand very well that these Turkish initiatives pursue certain
goals.

Turkey’s claims to its partners, primarily the United States, over the
problems of the Near East and other regional issues continue.
Therefore, a controversial situation has occurred. For example, the
United States and Turkey seem to have definite agreements on
non-interference of Turkey in the Karabakh issue, non-intervention in
the next possible war in Karabakh as well as containment and
prevention of the Azerbaijani aggression towards Armenia.

This is an important sign that the United States and Turkey have
serious agreements but can they be viewed as long-term? Now the United
States has taken measures to isolate Turkey from Russia but there are
no signals as to whether it was a success.

We think this policy means not only isolation, i.e. a non-active role
in the isolation of Russia but non-intervention of Turkey in the
processes between the West and Russia. In other words, there is hope
that this U.S. policy bears a systemic character though in the modern
world “systemic” has lost its significance.

In any case, changes in the U.S. foreign policy are reflected in this
regional aspect. Hence, the period of “delicacy” in the U.S.-Turkish
relations has passed, and it is time for more specific and tough
relations.

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