Author: Kanayan Tamar

Electricity of 70% of Yerevan consumers is restored – energy ministry

November 02, 2013 | 14:20

YEREVAN. – As of Saturday 11:30am, the electricity of the 70 percent
of the consumers has been restored.

The Armenian Energy and Natural Resources Minister’s press secretary
Lusine Harutyunyan told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am,
commenting on Saturday morning’s widespread power outage in capital
city Yerevan.

As per Harutyunyan, at 10:24am, Armenia’s energy system had disengaged
from that of Iran. But at 10:26am, the joint operation of the two
systems was restored, and electricity is continuing to be supplied
from Iran to Armenia.

Electricity is being imported because Armenia’s nuclear power plant,
which supplies 35-40 percent of the country’s electricity, had
suspended operations earlier, to conduct a planned overhaul and
refueling.

As a result of the aforesaid disengagement, the electricity frequency
of Armenia had dropped, and this caused the power outage.

`Work is underway to restore [the electricity] of the remaining
[consumers],’ the press secretary stated.

Lusine Harutyunyan added that the ministry is investigating the
incident, so that similar incidents can be prevented in the future.

Our Country’s System Has Not Been Restarted For A Long Time

Interview with Samvel Baghdasaryan, comedian

In the 1990s you appeared to the public more frequently. Now there
seems to be no shortage of satire but there seems to be nothing to
say. Is the shortage of politics resulting in shortage of politics in
satire?

Political satire should not necessarily be dominant. In the 1990s it
as interesting because we entered into a new stage of state building,
since 2000 the state has entered into a new stage of changes where
political satire has its share. Besides, over the past four to five
years there seems to have been no shortage of satire in politics.
Politicians amuse the public more frequently than political satirists.
Look with what ease the members of parliament with oligarchic
inclinations afford semi-ironic contacts with reporters, which the
media broadcast with love, whereas the function of journalism and the
media is also to shape taste.

Is there a reason in the real situation to be happy?

In this difficult period of Armenia I am happy with the new generation
and the people who live and discover strength in themselves to pursue
change. These people will prevent stagnation. I don’t know what the
price of change of psychology and values will happen but nature cannot
bear this situation long. Today the citizens are disturbed by the
castle that Surik Khachatryan is building on the hill which seems to
be reigning over the capital city. The culture of the capital city
should exclude such architectural dominance of an individual and
allocation of every patch of land of the city must be based on the
national psychological security. Not a house but a cultural facility
or at least a hotel should be built on the hill in the capital,
providing a nice view of the city from there.

Why are some people obsessed with getting wealthy?

In many cases being wealthy is a sport. Most of them might be
accumulating their wealth for their children but statistics shows that
these children may gamble away everything in two days. Wealth is
energy, it may also be cursed, depending on how one got that money. If
it is obtained through fraud, falsification, murder, it will be
cursed. I want there to be more rich people, businessmen who began
from scratch and rose but not at such a price. In the world people who
gained wealth usually share their experience and thoughts with the
society? What will our `lucky strikes’ share who cheated and falsified
to get their wealth … OK, well, I don’t want to repeat myself.

What do you think about the future awaiting Armenia? They say we are
about to lose our sovereignty and future?

Armenia cannot disappear as a subject. Armenia will disappear if the
world disappears. Let’s take this as an axiom. It is another issue
what vision of development Armenia has. Our life has borders, and the
issue is what we manage to do within that border. Armenia has
prospects for development in case it is able to use its potential
correctly. In fact, the society should not be so much engaged in
political intrigues, it must be aware of its path for the next month,
year, five years and move in that direction because political projects
in Armenia are personified, everyone sees to their personal interest.

How about public interest?

People carry the public interest, and beyond people the supreme
thinking. We are going through our share of logic. Indeed, today’s
citizens cannot see real politicians who are bold, want change and
resist and lose faith. I am also against pointlessly bold ones who set
deadlines for revolution, marking days on the calendar.

Struggle over these years has shown that there were no real bold ones
who would be able to change the reality so there was no confidence in
the opposition.

I agree that everyone’s time is limited. After all, by reviewing one’s
life one understands the quotient of their usefulness, how one can be
useful to others. One can find one’s quotient of usefulness in one’s
family, relatives, for another one this is a small circle. It is
important to serve one’s time, mind, abilities, nerves.

Armenia is an interesting country, and if one spends one’s energy
efficiently, avoid seeing people that cause disgust, cut 70% of news
from your life, believe me that one can be happy. Otherwise, these
people and news intoxicate one, harm like a virus harms an operating
system. One has counterfeited a brand, the other has killed a man, the
third is building a house on the hill, the fourth is illegitimate.
Altogether they slow your life, the pace of the world surrounding you,
like a computer that needs formatting. Our country’s system has not
been restarted for a long time.

As a result the citizens pack their things and leave because they are
tired of negativity, people, government’s projects that say nothing,
false patriotism. The Chinese saying is take a step if you don’t know
what to do. Citizens do so. However, it is not ruled out that this
movement will be irregular and will not lead anywhere. Citizens need a
revolution of mind, I don’t mean the revolution of mind that our prime
minister offers when they bring to overhauled toilets, ATMs and draw
numbers. Is a toilet a revolution of mind…

The second stage `We pay 100 drams’ will start because the deputy
mayor announced yesterday that fare will rise. Will you join this
time?

I can’t plan now and it is not a matter of being cowardly or weak. I
am grateful to the participants, I am happy that my colleagues also
participate. It was a beautiful movement, the state, the world, the
citizen, the police needed it. It proved that it is possible to boost
morale in the nation by a single move.

Siranuysh Papyan

15:11 02/11/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Next Surprise By State Revenue Committee

An ad posted on the windows of the BCP of Bavra says bringing used
tires to Armenia is prohibited. This ad might be encouraging for every
citizen since used tires pollute the environment. But in this case one
wonders why tires and not plastic bags, bottles or other things are
banned.

The problem is that the ban on import of used tires has nothing to do
with environmental concerns and patriotic activities of the
government. It is no secret that tires are unreasonably expensive, and
thousands of citizens change their tires in Georgia and bring along
their old tires which can be used for some more time. The SRC must
have thought hard on how to tackle with the citizens’ guile and make
them buy tires in Armenia, not in Georgia. This is not an easy matter
and the SRC has thought a lot and decided to prohibit import of old
tires. They think that most citizens who will spare their old tires
will put off their visit to Georgia for as long as they can, waiting
until their tires wear out, and if their tires blast suddenly, the
citizens will have to buy a tire in Armenia. So, the SRC has found the
way how to solve the problem partly. The more tires blast, the better.

I don’t know who imports tires to Armenia. Judging by the unreasonable
prices, someone infamous has the monopoly, and instead of curbing this
investor’s ambitions and ensuring competition to make sure prices
fall, the authorities are acting adversely, such as the SRC.

Vaheh Sargsyan
16:22 02/11/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

ECONOMIE-SOCIAL
L’Arménie classée 95e pays sur l’indice de la prospérité

L’Arménie a été classée 95e sur les 142 pays étudiés au classement sur
l’indice de la prospérité par l’organisme britannique The Legatum
Institute. L’Arménie progresse de 3 positions par rapport au
classement de l’an dernier. Le calcul de cet indice de la prospérité
est réalisé sur près de 80 indicateurs ou données. Le meilleur indice
de l’Arménie est en matière d’éducation avec une 42e position
mondiale. Une donnée qui a réjoui Armen Achotian le ministre arménien
de l’Education et des Sciences. Mais l’Arménie est à la traine avec
des positions qui dépassent la 100e place en matière d’économie, des
libertés individuelles et du capital social. Au tableau final de
l’indice de la prospérité, l’Arménie est devancée par des pays tels
que le Tadjikistan, la Namibie ou le Laos…sans conter l’Azerbaïdjan
(81e) et la Géorgie (84e). En tête du tableau, nous retrouvons la
Norvège, la Suisse et le Canada.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 2 novembre 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION DUE IN TEHRAN SATURDAY

Tasnim News Agency, Iran
Oct 31 2013

October 31, 2013 – 16:53
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A delegation of Armenian lawmakers plans to pay
a visit to Tehran on Saturday to meet senior Iranian parliamentary
officials.

Parliament Speaker’s Adviser for International Affairs Hossein
Sheikholeslam told the Tasnim News Agency on Thursday that the
three-member Armenian delegation will hold a meeting with the Iranian
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, among their meetings with Iranian
parliamentarians.

The Armenian delegation will be headed by MP Galost Sahakyan, he added.

The delegateion will discuss ways to enhance parliamentary cooperation
and improve bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries,
the adviser stated.

In addition to a pipeline that brings Iranian natural gas into Armenia,
the two states have implemented a number of other multi-million dollar
energy projects.

They include the construction of two hydro-electric plants on a river
at the Armenian-Iranian border, a third high-voltage transmission
line linking the two countries’ power grids and dams, among other
projects to be technically engineered by Iranian experts.

In addition, the Armenian and Iranian governments have been working
on a bilateral free trade agreement that was signed at the end of
the year 2007.

The Armenian government is building a second, bigger highway leading
to the Iranian border in the hope of boosting trade with Iran.

RUBEN SAFRASTYAN: STATEMENT ON TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP IN THE CUSTOMS UNION A MESSAGE TO THE EU

17:02 31.10.2013

Anna Nazaryan
Public Radio of Armenia

Having failed to register victory on the Syrian issue, Turkey is
changing its policy. Turkey has launched an independent game, and
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s proposal to accept Turkey in
the Customs Union was part of that game.

According to expert of Turkish studies Ruben Safrastyan, it was a
message to the EU, which has long suspended the membership talks
with Turkey. He says Turkey’s membership in the Customs union is
unrealistic at this point and there are no prerequisites for it.

“However, if we assume Turkey joins the Customs Union, Armenia must
have a say here, of course, if it ever becomes a full member of the
CU,” Sargsatyan said.

What will the Georgian presidential elections change in the region?

Some political scientists believe the Turkish-Azerbaijani factor will
weaken in the country after Margvelashvili’s victory. Safrastyan said
he does not share the opinion.

Unlike Armenia and Georgia, Azerbaijan does not rush to move either
towards the EU or the Customs Union. “Official Baku does not aspire to
join any alliance, as it has oil, which makes it more independent,”
Ruben Safrastyan said. He added that no changes should expected in
the Karabakh issue.

NO FIXATION WHILE COUNTRY IS FALLING

Some commentators who support Armenia’s integration with the West are
looking out for positive expectations for clearly understood motives.

It is possible that the political leadership of Armenia thinks that
the September 3 catastrophe will serve as fixation while our country is
falling nowhere. It’s done and finished. Later on it might be possible
to continue relations with the West while saving relations with Russia.

Those “statesmen” who convinced the president that membership to
the Customs Union will not harm the relations between Armenia and
the West have started a more substantial backstage discussion that
a lasting period of international isolation is awaiting the country,
and cynical though it may be of them, they are blaming the president
for the catastrophe.

In all the three key government institutions the supporters of the
Customs Union would like to understand in more detail what is awaiting
Armenia now and in the future.

First, it will be the culmination of political and human shame if
the president, nevertheless, leaves for Vilnius and signs the “blue
paper” there.

There is so much noise about this scandal for several reasons. First,
this is no catastrophe for the West. It is just a terribly awkward
situation. Second, the Europeans who have offered no proposals on the
security of Armenia would not wish a scandal. Finally, the West has
already reviewed the perspectives and perceptions of the layout in the
South Caucasus, keeping in mind that the stake will be on Azerbaijan.

Georgia expected a new and favorable layout but has to admit that
Azerbaijan will become the leading partner of the West in the South
Caucasus.

Strangely, this state of affairs does not favor the European Union and
NATO. They were faced with the goal of preventing intensification of
Turkish influence on the region (like in other regions) and keeping
a distance from Azerbaijan as an unacceptable partner.

“Liaison” between Georgia and Azerbaijan would help prevent further
decline in the role of the South Caucasus to Europe and the United
States but now it will be necessary to make a lot of corrections and
not quite positive ones.

This means that Armenia may have caused more significant damage to
the West (or rather Armenia directed by Russia) and thus appeared
“out of law” (the Armenian political leaders should know better that
the “card suit” should not be changed or it will be more difficult
but they forgot about it or did not hope for…).

Different politicians, functionaries and diplomats who have an idea
of the European Union more or less have stated confidently that the
economic relations and programs in Armenia will be cut significantly
or stopped altogether, and the Karabakh issue will return to forgotten
and seemingly impossible wording that means return of Karabakh to
Azerbaijan.

NATO Secretary General’s special representative for the South Caucasus
James Appathurai gave a vague answer which means that NATO has partly
lost interest in Armenia. Soon the deeper meaning of this statement
will become obvious. Will NATO be able to build relations with a
non-existent subject? Why should it do?

However, even in this case there will be no fixation when the country
falls. Russia has not engaged Armenia into this profanation called
Customs Union to develop Armenia’s economy but for its total withdrawal
from the area of NATO influence, ruling out any cooperation. The next
stage will be the gobbledygook of Eurasian Union.

The head of state should already announce whether he suggests Armenia’s
membership to this gobbledygook. At least, he would thus clarify
whether Armenia will remain a state or not. This would bring a lot
of joy to those who rejoiced this unsuccessful experiment called the
Republic of Armenia.

Some commentators are trying to refer to law and Constitution,
WTO rules but in this case nobody cares for rules because Russia is
supposed to observe the laws of Armenia unless it considers Armenia
an illegitimate state. But in this case either, there will not be a
fixation while the country is falling.

It is meaningless to continue writing on the old page. It is better
to start from a blank one. This is what the political cretins have
been unable to do so far.

Igor Muradyan 12:17 31/10/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

ARMENIAN ARBITER WILL JUDGE MATCH BETWEEN VISWANATHAN ANAND AND GM MAGNUS CARLSEN

Today – 14:48

A World Championship Match will be held between GM Viswanathan Anand
(India) and GM Magnus Carlsen (Norway) on November 9-28, 2013 in
Chennai, India. Armchess.am informs about this.

The Chief Arbiter of the match is IA Ashot Vardapetyan (Armenia).

THERE MAY BE ARMENIANS IN TURKISH PARLIAMENT – KURDISH PARTY LEADER

October 31, 2013 | 14:11

Chairman Selahattin Demirtas of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish “Peace and
Democracy Party” (BDP) commented on the founding of the Peoples’
Democratic Party (HDP).

Demirtas stressed that the HDP has a lot to do in Turkey.

He stated that although the BDP will not shut down because of the new
political party, it will run in the forthcoming local elections with
the HDP lists, informs CNN Turk news agency of Turkey.

The BDP leader also noted that the HDP will run in the parliamentary
elections, too, and have at least seventy deputies in the parliament.

Selahattin Demirtas added that the aforesaid MPs may include Muslim
women with headscarves and Armenians.

To note, Istanbul-Armenian school principal Garo Paylan and prominent
writer Migirdic Margosyan have become Peoples’ Democratic Party
Board members.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

CONFERENCE DEDICATED TO ARAM TER-GHEVONDYAN’S ANNIVERSARY TO LAUNCH IN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

12:41, 31 October, 2013

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS. International youth scientific
conference dedicated to the 85th anniversary of prominent Armenian
historian-orientalist Aram Ter-Ghevondyan will be held in the National
Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia on November 1-3. The
conference is held under the slogan “Armenia and Arab World: History
and Current Issues”. The Press Service of the National Academy of
Sciences of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that at
the course of the conference the participants will deliver reports
on the Armenian-Arab ties in the Middle Ages, history of Armenian
communities in the Arab countries, Arab-language media’s reflections on
“the Armenian Question”, etc.

Aram Ter-Ghevondyan was a preeminent Armenian historian and scholar who
specialized in the study of historical sources and medieval Armenia’s
relations with the Islamic world and Oriental studies. His seminal
work, The Arab Emirates in Bagratuni Armenia, is an important study
on the Bagratuni Kingdom of Armenia. From 1981 until his death,
Ter-Ghevondyan headed the Institute of Oriental Studies at the
Armenian Academy of Sciences and he additionally held an honorary
doctorate from the University of Aleppo and was an associate member
of the Tiberian Academy of Rome.

Ter-Ghevondyan was born in Cairo, Egypt to an Armenian family which
had fled from the town of Marash in the Ottoman Empire during the
massacres of the Armenian Genocide. In the late 1940s, his family
repatriated to Soviet Armenia and there he was immediately admitted
to Yerevan State University. Ter-Ghevondyan graduated from the
university’s department of philology of Oriental languages in 1954.

Pursuing higher studies, he was accepted to the Oriental Studies
Department at Leningrad State University. There, he met the renowned
Armenian scholars Hrachia Acharian and Joseph Orbeli. He was especially
fond of the guidance and advice Orbeli provided him with, as he
repeatedly remarked after he had completed his studies, “Once more,
fortune had smiled upon me, [for] my adviser was Academician Hovsep
[Joseph] Orbeli.” He defended his dissertation, The Emirate of Dvin
from the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries, and was awarded his kandidat
nauk in 1958.

As a scholar who was fluent in Arabic, Ter-Ghevondyan had a profound
interest in the history of the medieval Arab caliphates andemirates.

>From 1958 to 1981, he worked at the Institute of History at the
Armenian Academy of Sciences (AAS) with a special emphasis in
philology, historiography and the study of historical sources. His
first significant work devoted to Bagratuni Armenia’s relations
with the Islamic world was The Arab Emirates in Bagratuni Armenia
(Armenian:Ô±O~@Õ¡Õ¢Õ¡Õ¯Õ¡Õ¶ Ô±Õ´Õ”O~@Õ¡ÕµÕ¸O~BÕ©ÕµÕ¸O~BÕ¶Õ¶Õ¥O~@Õ¨
Ô²Õ¡Õ£O~@Õ¡Õ¿Õ¸O~BÕ¶ÕµÕ¡O~A Õ~@Õ¡ÕµÕ¡Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶Õ¸O~BÕ´) and was published
in 1965. The book was highly praised and found to be of such great
importance that it was translated from Armenian into English by
American Byzantine scholar Nina Garsoïan, and later into Arabic by
Aleksan Keshishyan. Ter-Ghevondyan’s doctoral work centered on the
political and cultural links between Armenians and Arabs during the
medieval era and he defended his dissertation once more and received
his doktor nauk in 1977. Titled Armenia and the Arab Caliphate,
Ter-Ghevondyan’s work was published by the AAS in the same year.

In 1981, thanks to Ter-Ghevondyan’s efforts, the institute of Oriental
Studies at the AAS was established and he was appointed to be the
inaugural holder of the chair for the study of primary sources. He
continued on with his research and in the same year, he completed
the translation of the excerpts of the work of the 13th-century
Arab chronicler Ibn al-Asir, as part of a series initiated by the
AAS to translate historical sources about Armenia and Armenians from
their original languages into Armenian. He translated fromclassical
to modern Armenian, wrote the introductions and commentaries on,
in 1982 and 1983 respectively, the works of Armenian historians
Ghevond (History) and Agatangeghos (History of Armenia). In 1983,
Ter-Ghevondyan became a professor at Yerevan State University and
taught the courses “Ancient and Medieval History of the Arab World”
and “An Introduction to Arabic Philology.”

Due to his death in February 1988, many of Ter-Ghevondyan’s works were
left unpublished. His monograph, Armenia in 6th to 8th Centuries,
was published posthumously in 1996. He was the author of over 100
articles and a regular contributor to the Arab-related entries in the
Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (1974-1987) and wrote numerous chapters
in the second and third volumes of the History of the Armenian People
(vol. ii, 1984; vol. iii, 1976).