Author: Kanayan Tamar

Even the French appreciate Armenian champagne’s quality – expert

October 19, 2013 | 15:22

YEREVAN. – Even the French specialists appreciate the quality of
Armenian champagne.

Anahit Bakunts, laboratory director of Yerevan Champagne Wines Factory
Company, told the above-said to journalists on Friday.

`The classic French technology is maintained in our factory,’ Bakunts stated.

She also expressed satisfaction with the fact that wine is again
starting to be preferred over strong alcohol in Armenia.

`The wine, the champagne are festive; they should be the ones to
accompany us in moments of joy,’ Anahit Bakunts added.

To note, a total of 83,900 liters of champagne, valued at $236,700,
was exported from Armenia in 2012.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Georgian presidential candidate promises to include Armenian history
and literature in school curricula

15:37 19.10.2013

Gita Elibekyan
Tbilisi

Georgian presidential candidate Shalva Natelashvili has not included a
special provision on national minorities in his election platform,
because, as he says, `we are citizens of one common state and we are
equal.’

At the same time he notes that it’s necessary to take steps to include
the Armenian history and literature in school curricula of not only
Armenian, but also Georgian schools.

He also promises to reopen all Armenian schools closed in the recent
period, if elected. Besides, he says a Caucasian Parliament,
resembling the European Parliament, will be created.

`Our future is common, and we have to build it together. Separately
we’ll perish,’ he says.

`I don’t like the existence of a border between the two countries.
There must be a common space without border guards. People must be
able to move freely. The whole world is uniting, while we are
separating. That’s not correct, people suffer, the business incurs
losses on both sides.’

Varujan Vosganian’s new book tells about running sores and memories

12:50, 19 October, 2013

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The former Minister of Economy of
Romania, First Deputy Chairman of the Writers’ Union of Romania
Varujan Vosganian published his new book titled “The Play of Hundred
Leaves and Other Stories” (Jocul celor o sutÄ? de frunze È’i alte
povestiri, Editura Polirom, 2013, Bucuresti).

As reports “Armenpress” there are six stories enclosed in the book.
The stories are dedicated to disagreement, quests, uncertainty, and
running sores.

Vosganian’s “The book of whispers” was published in 2009 in Bucharest
and became the winner of the highest scores and won the most awards of
the publishing year. Just three months after the publication of the
novel, the Spanish Pre-Textos publishing house acquired the right to
publish it in Spanish from Romanian Polirom publishing house.

The Spanish version was published in the early 2011, by Joaquà – n
Garrigós’ translation, and in August of the same year, it was released
in Argentina by the presence of the author and translator.

“The Book of Whispers” begins in a picturesque register, on a lane of
the Armenian quarter of FocÅ?ani in the 1950s, among the steam of
freshly roasted coffee and the scents of grandmother Armenuhi’s
larder, among the old books and photographs of grandfather Garabet.
But the reader is not left to savour the intimacy of this hearth and
home and nor is he invited to chat with the merry folk who in
peacetime spin stories about Ara the Fair and Tigran the Great.

Varujan Vosganian’s “old Armenians from childhood” have no delectable
tales to tell, but rather events that are thoroughly disturbing. In
narrating these events, they attempt to disburden themselves of a
trauma ` their own and that of their forbears.

The history of the 1915 genocide against the Armenians, the history of
the interminable convoys of those banished into the Circles of Death,
into the Deir ez Zor Desert, the secret history of Armenian
freemasonry in Romania, of General Dro’s army, the history of the
Armenians who followed the path of exile in the Stalinist period ` all
these and many other biographically filtered histories are to be found
illustrated in the pages of this unsettling book.

The book caused so many troubles to the Turkish authorities, which
spare no effort to prevent its further translations and publications.
The Turkish Embassy to Romania sent a note of complaint to the
Romanian authorities, when a meeting dedicated to the book and its
author was organized in one of the country’s museums.

Varujan Vosganian was born in Craiova on 25 July 1958. He spent his
childhood and adolescence in FocÅ?ani. He is a graduate of the Faculty
of Commerce of the Academy of Economic Studies and of the Faculty of
Mathematics of Bucharest University. He is a Doctor of Economics,
a founder of the Romanian Society for Economics, an International
Adviser to the European Union’s Centre for Political Studies, based in
Brussels, and a member of the Young Politicians Club (London). He is
the Senator for Jassy and between 2006 and 2008 he was Minister of
Finance and the Economy. He is President of the Union of Armenians in
Romania and Vice President of the Romanian Writers’ Union.

Besides various theoretical works, mainly on economic subjects, he has
published three volumes of poetry: Å?amanul albastru (The Blue
Shaman) (1994), Ochiul alb al reginei (The White Eye of the Queen)
(2001), and Iisus cu o mie de braţe (Jesus with a Thousand Arms)
(2004). His collection of novellas, Statuia comandorului (The Statue
of the Commander) (1994) was awarded the Prize of the Bucharest
Writers’ Association. Varujan Vosganian has written more than five
hundred articles, studies and essays on economics, politics, and
literature, which have been translated in English, Spanish, Russian,
Ukrainian, and Armenian. The novel The Book of Whispers, published in
2009, was greeted as a revelation by the Romanian critics. It has
earned extensive praise and is already regarded as one of the most
important books of contemporary Romanian literature.

LES LYCEENS PARISIENS SE MOBILISENT EN FAVEUR DE KHACHIK KACHATRYAN

REVUE DE PRESSE

Une grosse vingtaine de lycees parisiens etaient bloques, vendredi
matin 18 octobre. Sept autres etablissements etaient perturbes dans
l’academie de Creteil et une dizaine en province. Une manifestation
etait annoncee dans l’après-midi a Paris, pour protester contre les
expulsions de Leonarda Dibrani, collegienne kosovare remise a la police
le 9 octobre lors d’une sortie scolaire, et de Khachik Kachatryan,
un lyceen parisien expulse vers l’Armenie.

Jeudi 17 octobre, des milliers de lyceens ont deja defile – entre 2
500, selon la police, et 7 000, selon le syndicat de lyceens FIDL – et
au moins dix-huit lycees ont ete perturbes. Les manifestants lancaient
des slogans hostiles au ministre de l’interieur tels que “Khachik en
France, Valls en Armenie”, “Valls demission” ou “Liberez Khachik !”.

A Paris, le mouvement s’est cristallise sur le cas du lyceen armenien.

Khachik Kachatryan, ne en 1994 en Armenie, est arrive clandestinement
en France en 2011 avec ses parents et sa soeur. Toute la famille
depose alors une demande d’asile. “Son père, un opposant, partisan de
l’ancien president, etait persecute par le pouvoir actuel”, assure
Dante Bassino, secretaire general de la CGT Educ’action, militant
du Reseau education sans frontières et membre de la direction de la
federation PCF de Paris.

PAS DE REGULARISATION AUTOMATIQUE

Mais la demande d’asile de Khachik Kachatryan est rejetee par l’Office
de protection des refugies et des apatrides (Ofpra), le 23 mars 2012,
puis par la Cour nationale du droit d’asile, le 30 janvier. Pour les
deux juridictions, les menaces dont la famille fait etat ne sont pas
averees. D’autant plus que l’Armenie est inscrite sur la liste des
pays “sûrs” de l’Ofpra, qui declenche une procedure prioritaire, et,
souvent, des refus. Le 7 mai, la Prefecture de police prononce une
obligation de quitter le territoire.

Pour autant, la decision n’est pas suivie d’effets, et Khachik
Kachatryan peut s’inscrire en CAP “agent d’entreposage et de
messagerie” au lycee professionnel Camille-Jenatzy (Paris-18e). Mais,
le 19 septembre, il est interpelle en flagrant delit dans une
affaire de vol dans un magasin de sport. Sans-papiers, il est place
au centre de retention de Vincennes a l’issue de sa garde a vue. Ses
recours et une nouvelle demande d’asile sont rejetes. Le 12 octobre,
il est expulse.

“On a etudie attentivement son dossier, explique-t-on a la prefecture.

Mais, il est arrive très recemment en France, il est majeur,
celibataire, sans enfants. Ses parents et sa s~ur sont entres eux
aussi de facon irregulière et sont egalement sous le coup d’obligations
de quitter le territoire. Et la scolarisation n’appelle pas la
regularisation automatique.”

SOUS CONTRÔLE JUDICIAIRE EN ARMENIE

Selon M. Bassino, de retour en Armenie, Khachik Kachatryan a ete
retenu quelques heures par la police a l’aeroport, puis trois jours
au commissariat de son village avant d’etre libere sous contrôle
judiciaire. Il est vise par une assignation de la justice armenienne,
datee du 6 août, qui l’informe qu'”une enquete judiciaire a ete
ouverte”, car il a “failli a obligation de service militaire”.

Mais le lyceen n’a pu produire a temps ce document, que Le Monde a
pu consulter. Pas plus qu’une attestation de l’avocat de son père
affirmant que ce dernier “a subi une agression a son domicile de la
part des membres du service des affaires interieures” le 27 octobre
2007, avant d’etre “arrete a cause de ses convictions politiques”.

L’Armenie vivait alors une campagne electorale presidentielle
mouvementee.

LE MONDE | 18.10.2013 a 11h17 |

samedi 19 octobre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

BERNARD FASSIER URGES RUSSIA TO REFUSE FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF “DIVIDE TO RULE”

17:24 18.10.2013

Karen Ghazaryan

Head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau’s Hay Dat and
Political Affairs Office Giro Manoyan summed up the results of the
Third Convention of European Armenians held in Brussels October 14-15.

On the first day the participants discussed Armenian issues. The
second-day discussions took place at the European parliament and
featured MEPs. Attending the event were also His Holiness Aram I,
the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, representative of the
Catholicos of All Armenians, Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly
Hovik Abrahamyan and NKR President Bako Sahakyan.

Giro Manoyan said issues related to the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide were discussed. It was decided to bring together
Armenian intellectuals to discuss the works in Europe in that
direction. It was noted that recognition is not an end in itself,
recognition envisages reimbursement, as well.

Manoyan said another convention will be called to discuss the issue
of organization of communities, taking into consideration that a
large number of Armenians have moved to Europe over the past 25 years.

The ways to resist the activity of Turkish-Azerbaijani lobbyist groups
were also on the agenda. Reference was made to the state of Armenians
in Syria and Javakhk.

Giro Manoyan said former French Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group
Bernard Fassier offered an interesting speech on the Karabakh issue.

He urged Russia to refuse from the policy of “divide to rule”
and called on the US not to take into consideration its strategic
partnership with Turkey during its mediation in the Karabakh issue.

Manoyan said some European MPs expressed their surprise at Armenia’s
unexpected decision to join the Customs Union.

EFFORTS OF TURKISH- AZERBAIJANI LOBBY DISCUSSED DURING CONGRESS OF ARMENIANS OF EUROPE

October 18, 2013 | 13:55

YEREVAN. – The third Congress of the Armenians of Europe raised the
questions important for Armenia, ARF Dashnaktustyun member said.

Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of Armenia’s
opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Yerevan Bureau, said speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I, Karbakh
President Bako Sahakyan and Archbishop Noravan participated in the
congress.

“During the first day participants discusses issues related to the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,” Manoyan told reporters
on Friday.

The delegates stressed the need to move from recognizing the genocide
to a demand for compensation.

On the same day, the state of the Armenian communities in 30 European
countries was discussed. Another issue included in the agenda was the
efforts of the Turkish- Azerbaijani lobbying organizations. In this
context, the Congress stressed the need for cooperation of various
Armenian organizations.

“During the first day of the Congress also discussed the status of the
Armenians in Syria and the problems of Javakheti Armenians,” Manoyan
said, adding that the Congress was attended by around 170 delegates.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ARMENIAN LANGUAGE MAY BE TAUGHT IN SOME MOSCOW SCHOOLS

October 18, 2013 | 14:25

YEREVAN. – The project to found a Russian high school in Armenia is
prepared, and the discussions on the respective agreement are underway.

Education and Science Minister of Armenia Armen Ashotyan noted the
abovementioned Friday, in capital city Yerevan, during his talk with
Alexander Klimov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the
Russian Federation.

Ashotyan also reflected on the chances of organizing Armenian language
courses in the state-run schools of Moscow’s several regions that
are densely populated by Armenians. He expressed the hope that the
implementation of this project will also contribute to cultural
diversity.

On his part, Klimov likewise underscored the carrying out of this
plan and expressed his ministry’s respective willingness.

In his words, Russia’s educational standards allow the conducting
of foreign language courses in the primary schools and pre-school
institutions of the country.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

EXPERT BLOG: OSCE MG AND KASPRZYK MADE DANGEROUS STATEMENT

Friday,
October
18

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative of
the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk issued today
a statement concerning yesterday’s incident that prompted the OSCE
mission to abandon the monitoring exercise in the Hadrut direction
of the conflict zone.

The MFA and Defense Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic reported
yesterday that monitoring was stopped because of shots fired from
automatic weapons from the Azerbaijani side. Shots were recorded by
the observation groups of both sides.

Today’s statement of the OSCE Minsk Group and Personal Representative
of the OSCE Chairman-in-office says that “it was not possible to
determine from where the shots were fired”.

What was expected has happened. It is evident from the statement that
the mediators, unwilling to deviate from the ‘set line’, again make
a statement of a general nature, which is the go-ahead for Azerbaijan
to take similar actions in the future.

Such incidents are the best evidence of why Azerbaijan consistently
refuses to introduce mechanisms for investigation of incidents on
the line of contact, of which the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
are also aware.

The statement posted on the OSCE website can be described as dangerous
– it does not have a preventive function, moreover, it contributes
to a recurrence of such incidents. And it is not ruled out that in
the future, shots will be ‘destructive’, rather than ‘warning’ ones.

TODAY, 14:46

Aysor.am

CHAIRMAN OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REAPS 123 MILLION AMD IN DIVIDENDS

Grisha Balasanyan

10:05, October 18, 2013

Hakob Hakobyan, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Social
Affairs of the Armenian National Assembly, is always to quick to
shoot down bills proposed by the opposition seeking to increase the
minimum wage, pensions and social subsidies to the poor.

Hakobyan’s catch-all argument is that the government is financially
strapped and doesn’t have the resources.

A study of Hakobyan’s 2012 income disclosure statement shows that
the official indeed has no need of a salary raise.

Last year, Hakobyan filed revenues of 125.650 million AMD, of which
a mere 3.055 million was his salary.

77.256 million came from dividends from shares in Arpa-Sevan OJSC,
an engineering and construction company. Another 45.339 million was
derived from dividends from Bazenk CJSC, which operates mini hydro
plants in Armenia.

At the start of 2012, Hakobyan declared 35,567 AMD and $162,188 in
bank deposits. At the end of the year, he had 42.275 million AMD
and $101,000.

NKR PRESIDENT MEETS MEMBERS OF THE DUTCH PARLIAMENT

14:18 18.10.2013

On 17 October President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako
Sahakyan met in The Hague some members of the Dutch Parliament’s
foreign affairs committee.

Issue related to the development of the Netherlands-Artsakh
parliamentary ties, the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement and
regional trends were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan mentioned that official Stepanakert was interested
in developing relations with the Netherlands, noting that there were
all the promising perspectives for that.

Bako Sahakyan held a meeting with the leadership of the Armenian
community of the Netherlands in The Hague.

Issues related to the strengthening of ties between the Dutch Armenian
community and Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the Armenian community
of the Netherlands for their assistance to Artsakh, noting that he
expected active participation of our compatriots in the 2013 “Hayastan”
All-Armenian Fund’s Telethon and in other programs to be implemented
in Artsakh.