Author: Kanayan Tamar

THE SYSTEM OF HEEL LICKSPITTLES

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

August 7 2013

Archbishop Nurhan Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, in
his letter to His Holiness Karekin II, raised the issues that we,
Armenians, both secular and spiritual are worried about. The reason
perhaps is so essential: neither this archbishop nor the former
leader of France’s diocese, Archbishop Norvan Zakarian, who is taken
under the protection of the Patriarch, definitely will not be ranked
among the saints, just as Catholicos of All Armenians. Principally,
Jerusalem Patriarch is right when he says that there can not be
healthy offspring in the atmosphere of fear and intimidation, the
mother church and the people will suffer, while there is more need
for advanced and puritan clergymen than the heel lickspittles. 

Especially, during the period of this His Holiness a system has
been created, where the only guarantee of official progress of the
priest is to fawn the superior, when any independent, freethinking is
punishable, when the words of praise about the subordinate is perceived
as an insult addressed to the superiors. All this, of course, promoted
the grayness of spiritual atmosphere (or, if you want, tepidity) and
discrediting of our church. Apparently, some personal characteristics
of the Catholicos play a certain role here, in the presence of which,
spreading mediocrity around, and demanding unconditional obedience
and adulation is natural. 

But there are “shades”, the matter is not private. Otherwise,
the situation at different levels of state institutions or parties
will differ from the Holy See. And the fact that it does not differ,
its vivid manifestation is that special people are kept in both the
state systems and the parties, whose duty is to “give a strong rebuff”
to all those who have noticed an eye brow above their ‘boss’s’ eye.

The so-called staff ‘lickspittles’. There are parties and institutions,
where this “strong rebuff” is written by the first person, and then
give it to sign to his “dependents”. The Soviet-style leaders simply
reflect the Soviet style society. 

Of course, it would be desirable that the clergies and the religious
sector be above all. But it is not real. The priest can not be apart
from social diseases. If the culmination of the public aspirations,
let’s assume, is a gorgeous car, the clergy should also dream about
it. If the most respected figure is the ‘businessman’, the priests
also, to the extent of possibility, should strive towards the business
sector. 

That was always and everywhere. Catholic cardinals lying hugged by
courtesans were signing orders on publicly burning the wives, who
betrayed their husbands.

ARAM ABRAHAMYAN

Read more at:

KARABAKH MOD DISMISSES AZERBAIJANI REPORTS ON “FIRES” AT LINE OF CONTACT

August 08, 2013 | 02:03

STEPANAKERT. – The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Ministry of Defense
(NKR MOD) considered the Azerbaijani reports on “fires” at line of
contact to be misinformation.

The Karabakh side carries out agricultural activities as it considers
necessary, NKR MOD Press Secretary Senor Hasratyan told Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

But he added that, in response, the Azerbaijani media disseminate
inaccurate information, and in an attempt to mislead the public.

Each spring and summer, the Azerbaijani side disseminates “information”
on fires at line of contact. In the past, however, there were numerous
times when the actual sources of the fires were in the Azerbaijani
side.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

UN EDITEUR TALYSH RECOMPENSE D’UN PRIX DES DROITS DE L’HOMME

AZERBAIDJAN

Hilal Mamedov, qui est actuellement poursuivi a Bakou sur des
accusations d’espionnage pour l’Iran, pour incitation a la haine
interethnique et possession illegale de stupefiants, s’est vu decerne
par l’Institut Azerbaïdjan de la paix et de la democratie le prix
Isakhan Ashurov en reconnaissance de son engagement pour les droits de
l’homme. Pendant ce temps, les procedures judiciaires ont ete ajournees
la semaine dernière après qu’un temoin cle de l’accusation ne s’est
pas presente pour faire face aux questions des avocats de Mamedov.

Hilal Mamedov, 53 ans, est un membre de la minorite Talysh
d’Azerbaïdjan et redacteur en chef d’un journal hebdomadaire en langue
Talysh nomme “Tolyshi sado” (Monde Talysh). Il a ete arrete a Bakou
en juin dernier, peu de temps après un clip video a ete postee sur
YouTube où on le voit chanter en russe, sur une melodie traditionnelle
Talysh, le refrain ” Qui diable etes-vous ? Pourquoi ne pas se perdre
? “Le clip a fait fureur a travers la Russie.

Une fouille subsequente de l’appartement Mamedov a donne une petite
quantite d’heroïne dont sa famille et les militants des droits de
l’homme a Bakou sont convaincus qu’elle a ete planque par la police.

Selon Rafiq Jalilov, co-president d’un comite forme l’ete dernier
pour defendre les droits de Mamedov, l’accusation d’espionnage contre
lui repose exclusivement sur le temoignage de Elman Quliyev . Quliyev
avait ete arrete en 2007 en collaboration le predecesseur de Mamedov
en tant que redacteur en chef de ” Tolyshi sado “, le professeur de
litterature Novruzali Mamedov (les deux Mamedovs ne sont pas lies).

Quliyev et Novruzali Mamedov ont ete condamnes en 2008, Quliyev six ans
sur des accusations de trahison et Mamedov 10 ans sur des accusations
d’espionnage pour l’Iran. Mamedov est mort en prison l’annee suivante.

Temoignant le 6 mars au procès d’Hilal Mamedov, Quliyev dit qu’il
a eu une conversation de cinq heures avec Mamedov dans une maison
de the a Bakou en 2006 au cours de laquelle Mamedov a declare en
presence de deux autres hommes qu’il avait des contacts en Iran avec
l’aide desquels il travaillait a saper la souverainete etatique de
l’Azerbaïdjan. (Les Talysh sont un groupe iranien de souche vivant
des deux côtes de la frontière sud de l’Azerbaïdjan et de l’Iran.)

Mais les deux temoins presumes de cette conversation, vivant a
l’etranger, ont fourni des depositions ecrites niant avoir ete
presents, selon Halil Bagirov, l’un des avocats de Mamedov. Bagirov
souligne egalement que lors de son procès en 2008, Quliyev a dit
qu’il ne connaissait pas Hilal Mamedov.

Quliyev etait en prison au moment de l’arrestation d’Hilal Mamedov
fin juin, mais a depuis ete libere avant la fin de sa peine. Personne
ne sait ou il se trouve actuellement, et pourquoi il ne s’est pas
presente devant le tribunal le 27 mars.

S’exprimant la semaine dernière lors de la presentation officielle
du prix Isakhan Ashurov un autre des avocats de Mamedov, Leyla Yunus,
qui dirige l’Institut de la paix et de la democratie, a explique que
Mamedov a ete choisi comme premier recipiendaire parce que de tous les
militants des droits de l’homme, des journalistes et des avocats an
Azerbaidjan, il est actuellement dans la situation la plus difficile.

Elle a caracterise Mamedov comme un homme qui a toujours cherche a
defendre les droits de l’homme, malgre la pression et les menaces
auxquelles il a ete soumis .

Le prix Isakhan Ashurov porte le nom d’un ex-enqueteur du ministère de
l’Interieur qui est tombe sous le coup des autorites azerbaïdjanaises
en 1994 et a ete emprisonne pour avoir ” outrepasse ses pouvoirs
“. A sa sortie deux ans plus tard, Ashurov a commence a representer
les prisonniers politiques et les prisonniers d’opinion. Il est mort
l’an dernier après une longue maladie.

Aussi la semaine dernière, le Centre culturel Talysh a decide de
reprendre la publication de ” Tolyshi sado ” dans les deux langues
Talysh et azeri. Selon Jalilov, la publication a ete suspendue en
juin 2011, lorsque Hilal Mamedov a d’abord ete soumis a la ” pression
” de personnes qu’il (Mamedov) a refuse de nommer.

jeudi 8 août 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

LES RACCOURCIS INFAMANTS DE FRANCE 2

GILBERT LEVON MINASSIAN

” Mal nommer les choses, c’est ajouter au malheur du monde “, disait
Camus. Aussi, ne peut-on qu’etre choque par la manière dont le journal
de 20h de France 2 a presente mercredi 7 août Gilbert Levon Minassian.

Dans son reportage sur l’evenement cree par les revelations du Canard
Enchaîne sur la justice, le commentateur n’a en effet pas hesite a
qualifier cette personne de ” braqueur “. Et ce, alors meme que la cour
d’Assises a declare le 26 juin que l’affaire pour laquelle il etait
poursuivi etait prescrite, mettant ainsi en lumière les abus de droit
dont il a ete victime pendant 30 ans de procedure relevant davantage
de l’acharnement repressif que d’une application normale de la loi.

Designer Levon Minassian par ce substantif aussi infamant que
mensonger, pire, ne le reduire qu’a cela, est indigne pour au moins
deux raisons. Tout d’abord, parce que s’il fallait resumer en un mot
l’itineraire de cet homme qui a devoue sa vie a la cause armenienne*,
c’est celui de militant qui bien evidemment s’imposerait. Ensuite,
parce que reprendre a son compte cette accusation, au moment meme où
les procedures entamees a ce motif viennent d’etre declarees caduques,
relève ni plus ni moins du deni de justice.

On s’etonne de cette conception sur le service public d’un journalisme
populiste qui flatte les bas instincts securitaires presumes de son
auditoire, au detriment d’un minimum de rigueur et d’egards pour les
personnes ainsi livrees a la vindicte publique.

La conclusion de cette affaire montre que le combat de Levon Minassian
pour la cause armenienne recoupe celui pour les droits l’homme. Sa
victoire est non seulement une avancee pour la cause, car ce militant
va pouvoir renouer librement avec ses engagements, mais aussi pour
la justice, dont la prescription est partie integrante.

Ara Toranian

*Qui est Gilbert Levon Minassian ?

En jugeant prescrite la peine que la cour d’assises des
Bouches-du-Rhône avait infligee, par contumace, a Gilbert Minassian
le 19 mai 1989, la Cour de cassation du tribunal de grande instance
de Paris a tourne mercredi 26 juin 2013 la page d’une des plus
longues traques jamais menees a l’encontre d’un militant de la
cause armenienne. Et elle a rendu la liberte a un homme qui se bat
depuis trente ans pour obtenir justice, sans n’avoir jamais cesse,
parallèlement, de defendre les droits de son peuple, sur tous les
fronts.

Le militantisme en faveur des plus opprimes, Gilbert l’a dans la peau
depuis son adolescence, quand il adhère dans son lycee aux jeunesses
communistes. Un combat qu’il continuera sur les bancs de la fac
d’Aix-en-Provence, où sa verve doublee d’une solide rhetorique le
placera en position de leader du mouvement etudiant, a l’echelle
locale puis nationale. C’est lorsque son engagement atteint une
forme d’apogee, faisant de lui une des figures les plus connues des
jeunesses communistes du moment, que ses origines le rattrapent et
qu’il croise la cause armenienne. Une rencontre qui changera sa vie
et marquera a jamais son destin.

Nous sommes a l’epoque montante du renouveau de la lutte armenienne,
incarnee par deux structures combattantes : les justiciers du genocide
armenien et l’ASALA (Armee Secrète Armenienne pour la Liberation de
l’Armenie). Après l’echec de decennies d’efforts diplomatiques, ces
organisations constituent les fers de lance de la ” propagande armee
” qui finira par briser le mur du silence erige autour du premier
genocide du XXe siècle. Leurs actions qui arrivent a imposer la
cause armenienne sur la scène internationale suscitent un veritable
soutien parmi les fils et les filles des rescapes de l’entreprise
d’extermination. C’est a ce moment-la que Gilbert reprend son
prenom armenien, Levon, et rejoint le Mouvement national armenien
(sympathisant de l’ASALA), dont il devient le principal animateur dans
le sud de la France. Son experience politique et son charisme en font
une des figures les plus connues de la communaute armenienne. Mais ses
engagements le placent egalement en coeur de cible de la repression, en
depit du fait qu’il a ete l’un des premiers a s’inscrire en faux contre
les derives militaristes et purement terroristes du clan Hagopian
qui avait pris la direction des operations armees dans l’ASALA.

C’est durant cette periode troublee que dans la nuit du 27 au 28
juillet 1984 se deroule près de l’aeroport de Marignane une attaque
a main armee contre un fourgon postal. Quelques-uns des participants
a ce hold-up, qui se feront interpeler quelques jours plus tard,
denoncent dans des conditions plus qu’obscures l’implication de Levon
Minassian dans ce forfait. Il n’est pas rare, a cette epoque, que
les mouvements clandestins recourent au ” hold-up revolutionnaire ”
pour financer leurs combats. Et l’accusation porte. Levon est arrete
et interpele. Il clame son innocence. Elle sera confirmee par Monte
Melkonian avec lequel il etait en reunion au moment des faits. Celui
qui perira en heros le 12 juin 1993 au Haut Karabagh, rejoint alors en
effet la France en 84 et apporte confidentiellement son temoignage au
juge. Un fort elan de solidarite s’organise autour de Levon Minassian
qui obtiendra un ‘~Rnon-lieu’~R et sera finalement remis en liberte
sous contrôle judiciaire le 12 mars 1985.

Pour autant, les services speciaux qui avaient concouru a son
arrestation ne lâchent pas prise. Il s’agit a l’epoque pour eux de
mettre a profit la phase de recul du mouvement armenien, declenche
notamment par la scission a l’interieur de l’ASALA consecutive a
l’attentat d’Orly ( 15 juillet 1983), pour neutraliser l’ensemble
de la mouvance militante, et en particulier ses elements les plus
conscients et efficaces. Il y a a ce moment environ une vingtaine de
militants plus ou moins proches de l’ASALA incarceres ou mis en examen
en France, tandis que des attentats antiarmeniens se multiplient sur
le territoire. L’etau se resserre alors sur Levon Minassian, cible par
les services turcs comme par la fraction fanatique du clan Hagopian qui
ne lui pardonne pas d’avoir denonce sa derive jusqu’au-boutiste, son
terrorisme aveugle et d’avoir soutenu le MR (Mouvement revolutionnaire)
cristallise autour de Monte Melkonian. Encercle de tous côtes, traque
par certaines branches des services francais dont l’histoire montrera
par la suite qu’elles n’ont pas agi sans connivence avec Ankara,
place dans la ligne de mire des Services turcs, menace par la frange
la plus extremiste de la nebuleuse armenienne, il prend la decision
d’entrer dans la clandestinite.

Il ne refera surface qu’au debut des annees 90, durant la guerre du
Karabagh. Il sera le premier feday issu des rangs de la diaspora a y
participer et deviendra commandant du bataillon suicide ARDZIV 1. Il
signera ensuite sous le nom de Hovsep Hovsepian un des hauts faits
de la resistance en organisant et en participant ( entre autres) a
la liberation de Kelbadjar (son bataillon penetrera en premier dans
la ville liberee). Puis Levon sera a nouveau contraint de se cacher.

Robert Guediguian, lui-meme venu de cette meme trajectoire communiste
ayant marque les premiers pas de l’engagement de Levon, s’inspirera
de son personnage qui sera incarne par Gerard Meylan, dans son film
“Voyage en Armenie”.

La decision prise hier par la Cour de Cassation met un terme definitif
a cette traque et a cette cavale qui dure depuis presque trente ans.

L’histoire individuelle de Levon Minassian peut ainsi rejoindre en
toute transparence la grande histoire collective du peuple armenien.

Pour sa famille, ses amis, cette nouvelle constitue un immense
soulagement. La fin d’annees de souffrances et d’angoisse. Elle
intervient malheureusement quelques mois après le decès du père de
Levon, Garabed Minassian, qui gravement malade n’aura pas pu voir de
son vivant son fils libre. Pour ce militant brillant et courageux,
c’est une page qui se tourne et une nouvelle vie qui commence. Et
sans doute aussi un nouveau chapitre qui s’ouvre pour la cause qu’il
a faite sienne.

Ara Toranian

Photo : Max Sivaslian

Voir le lien en bas

jeudi 8 août 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

U.S. AMBASSADOR SAYS NEW MEDIATOR ON KARABAKH RESOLUTION WILL DO HIS JOB WELL

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Aug 7 2013

7 August 2013, 13:49 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova

A new co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group will do his job well, the U.S.

Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar told journalists on
August 6.

He was commenting on appointment of James Warlick as OSCE mediator.

Morningstar noted that the newly appointed co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group from the United States, James Warlick, is a very experienced
diplomat.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on August 5 the
appointment of Ambassador James Warlick as the next U.S. co-chair of
the Minsk Group.

According to Morningstar, Warlick worked as deputy director of the
Afghan Bureau of the U.S. State Department and served as the U.S.

ambassador to Bulgaria. He also noted that he has worked with Warlick.

“I know that James Warlick will be a good co-chairman, he will do
the job well,” Morningstar said.

Regarding how appointment of a new co-chair of the Minsk Group will
affect the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Morningstar
noted that the U.S. always backs the positive changes in this issue.

“All our efforts are focused on resolving the conflict through peaceful
means,” he underlined.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing
of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since
occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized
territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions,
defying the U.N. Security Council’s four resolutions on a pullout
from the occupied territories.

Morningstar also informed that the exact date of the visit of the
new co-chair to the region is still unknown, expressing the hope that
this will happen soon.

Ambassador Warlick is due to take up his new position in September.

He most recently served as Deputy Special Representative for
Afghanistan and Pakistan and lead negotiator for the Bilateral Security
Agreement with Afghanistan. He served as Ambassador to Bulgaria from
2009-2012, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau
of International Organization Affairs from 2006 to 2009 and Director
of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs from 2005
to 2006.

Ian Kelly currently acts as a temporary representative of the United
States to the Minsk Group.

Kelly was named as the U.S. co-chair on an interim basis on December
21, 2012, pending the appointment of a new permanent co-chair.

In December Robert Bradtke completed his term as the U.S. Minsk
Group co-chair.

The United States, along with Russia and France, has long been working
to broker a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the
Minsk Group, but their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

Peace talks are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by
the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also known
as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the territories
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the
final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia
to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to
return home.

AFFECTIONATE LOOK AT ARMENIA BY A SOVIET MAN OF LETTERS

Sunday Business Post
July 28, 2013

BOOK
An Armenian Sketchbook
**By Vasily Grossman**
**MacLehose Press, EUR 15.10**
**Reviewed by Jonathan O’Brien**

…..

The last time that Armenia got into the news with any regularity was
about 25 years ago, when it and Azerbaijan waged a nasty little
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave on Azeri
territory. The war is long over, but while Azerbaijan has since
elbowed its way into western consciousness with its hosting of the
Eurovision Song Contest, its sponsorship of Atletico Madrid and its
open-door welcoming of Big Oil, its smaller neighbour has languished
in the shadows.

Armenia has no oil and few other resources, leaving it somewhat out in
the cold. A friend who went there for an Ireland game in 2010 reported
back that while the place itself was perfectly safe and fine, if a
little drab, it held a sense of feeling cut off from the world —
unsurprisingly, given its rugged geography.

There’s a lengthy tradition in Russian literature of writers
travelling to the Caucasus — a region which, even after two decades
of strife, still looks like a Timotei-ad Alpine paradise — for
inspiration. Lermontov, Pushkin, Mandelstam and Tolstoy all did it.

Vasily Grossman, the venerated chronicler of the horrors of the
Holocaust and Stalingrad, was thus in good company when he journeyed
to Armenia in the early 1960s.

Grossman went there because, after his book Life And Fate was
“arrested” by Khrushchev’s ministry of literary correctness, he
received a surprising offer to translate an old novel (about, wait
for it, the construction of a copper-smelting plant) from Armenian
into Russan. Relieved at the chance of some respite from the KGB,
he headed south for two months and wrote down everything he saw.

But while those men of letters generally went to the Caucasus to bask
in gorgeous surroundings and take the waters, Armenia was and is the
exception to the region’s jaw-dropping mixture of lush pastures and
tropical vistas. “There is no greenery,” writes Grossman. “The houses
are surrounded by dense scatterings of grey stone. Sometimes a grey
stone comes to life and begins to move. A sheep.”

Everywhere he walks, he sees granite instead of growth, sterility
instead of fertility. “Sometimes this seems to be a strange and
terrible kingdom where the earth engenders not life, but death.”

Reaching Yerevan, the bustling capital, he marvels at the huge Stalin
statue that towers over the city. The Armenians — who will soon tear
it down — react to this praise by dismissing Stalin as a maniac and,
worse, a puppet figurehead. Grossman feels a mad urge to stick up for
the dictator — a bizarre position for a Soviet intellectual to find
themselves in.

Grossman finds Armenia’s inhabitants a puzzle. He recoils from the
stereotype of Armenians as “primitive[s], pederasts and swindlers”,
but keeps running into individuals whose trumpeting of Armenian
superiority in the arts, culture and architecture drives him slowly
insane. He knows it stems from an inner defensiveness caused by the
bloodstained history of the place, but finds it no more palatable for
that: “What matters is the global, even cosmic, superiority of the
Armenian people. Sometimes this passion is touching and wonderful;
sometimes it is sweet and funny; sometimes it is so insane as to
be shocking.”

Grossman died of cancer in 1964 and never saw An Armenian Sketchbook
published. It’s obvious he loved the place, for all its oddness —
the book pulses with life and affection on every page, even though
he apologises on the final page for “clumsy and wrong” things he’d
written. He needn’t have worried. This is a moving, beautiful little
encomium to what is still, even today, one of the obscurest corners
of Europe.

THE ARMENIAN HIGHER EDUCATION INITIATIVE BRINGS NEW REGIONS, NEW DISCIPLINES TO SECOND ANNUAL SUMMER PROGRAM

19:15, August 7, 2013

The AHEI is pleased to announce the completion of its second annual
Summer Program in Humanities and Social Sciences. This year, students
came together from Javakh, Abkhazia, as well as several regions of
Armenia for an intensive course designed to enhance critical thinking
skills and lay solid groundwork for future research undertakings. The
program was sponsored by the Open Society Institute, and training
space was provided by Yerevan State University.

A variety of experts from across the Armenian diaspora combined efforts
to deliver an integrated series of seminars and lectures in their
respective areas of specialization. Two primary seminars in political
science theory and historiography – given by DrsHamazaspDanielyan of
Yerevan State University and Elke Hartmann of the Freie University
of Berlin – were complemented by lectures in comparative government;
the history of diplomacy; art, politics, and propaganda; and other
subjects. In addition, participants received an intensive two-week
introduction to SPSS, a software program commonly used in social
science research.

Following the course, students will spend the next several months
conducting research on themes determined during the course of the
program. Research projects will be monitored distantly by participating
professors.

AHEI alumni continue to build bonds with one another and share
academic and professional opportunities through active online
networks. Because of the links created between staff, alumni, and
related parties, participants have expanded their academic horizons,
gained employment, and found new volunteer opportunities. In addition,
AHEI networks serve as a bridge between critical members of diasporan
communities that would otherwise have very little or no contact with
one another. The organization continues to work on expanding these
networks and opening more doors to its members.

For more information about the Armenian Higher Education Initiative,
please go to or contact Sarah Ludwig, Executive Director
at [email protected].

ABOUT 200 YOUNG ARMENIANS TO GET EDUCATION AT RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES

ITAR-TASS, Russia
August 2, 2013 Friday 10:48 PM GMT+4

YEREVAN August 2

– About 200 young men and girls from Armenia will get higher
education at the leading universities and senior colleges in Moscow,
St Petersburg and other Russian cities.

An opportunity for this has opened up thanks to an intergovernmental
agreement on cooperation in the sphere of education.

A gala ceremony of honoring the applicants who have been admitted to
universities was held here Friday.

“You’ll get education in the specialties enjoying a high social
demand,” the Russian ambassador to Armenia, Ivan Volynkin said at
the ceremony as the greeted the new students. “You’ll be educated in
line with the Russian standards, which means you’ll get an up-to-date
quality education.”

“Russian has become the language of your professional training now,”
he went on. “It opens a door into the world of science and innovations,
as well as into high spiritual culture that close and well-familiar
to the broadest sections of Armenia’s population.”

The Russian language will become an important factor for job placement
and professional growth of the young people when they graduate from
universities.

“Your knowledge and skills will be needed, first and foremost at the
1,500 enterprises and companies with Russian ownership that boast a
big production potential and need qualified personnel,” Volynkin said.

“Along with your studies, this demand for personnel will continue
growing, as many new developments will occur over that time in the
multifaceted Russian-Armenian allied cooperation.”

He voiced the confidence that each of the 200 new students “will
complete education in Russia and will work successfully for the benefit
of your homeland, assisting a growth of friendship and cooperation
between Russia and Armenia.”

Volynkin wished “fruitful studies, successes, achievements, and
creative discoveries young people.

Viktor Rebets, the Director General of the South Caucasian Railway
said this affiliation of the Russian state railway corporation RZD
will look forward to employing the graduates of Russian universities
and colleges.

FIRST NATIONS NEED TO QUIT BLAMING THE PAST

The Vancouver Province (British Columbia)
July 31, 2013 Wednesday
Final Edition

by Naomi Lakritz, The Province
Editorial

It was edifying to learn that colonialism was responsible for the
death of five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair of Fisher River, Man. I always
thought that her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch’s common-law
husband, Karl McKay, were responsible. After all, they’re the ones
serving life sentences for her murder. They’re the ones who chose to
torture her to death.

According to Jay Funke, a lawyer for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs
and the Southern Chiefs Organization, it was colonialism. Last week,
he told an inquiry into the little girl’s death that “First Nation
leaders believe that the tragedy suffered by Phoenix was, in large
part, the result of centuries of colonial-based policies and practices
which have been forced upon the First Nations people of Canada.”

That’s odd. All the colonials I know had the same reaction when
they heard of the terrible abuse Kematch and McKay inflicted on this
poor child, including beatings, shooting her with a BB gun, choking
her until she was unconscious, forcing her to eat her own vomit and
leaving her to die on a cold basement floor, eight years ago. That
reaction was: “I wish I could have adopted her and loved her and
saved her life.”

Oh, these heartless colonials, eh? But First Nations leaders believe
colonialism was responsible. Deflect, deflect, deflect. Excuses,
excuses, excuses. Poor Kematch and McKay, they’re not to blame. They
were just puppets of forces bigger than themselves. Apparently not
endowed with the ability to make decisions, know right from wrong or
take adult responsibility for their adult lives, they were victims
of colonialism.

Can’t you just see it now? “Karl, our ancestors were misled and lied
to by David Laird after he was made Indian commissioner responsible
for Manitoba in 1898. So, shoot Phoenix some more with the BB gun. She
isn’t crying hard enough.”

Odd, too, how colonialism could have such a huge effect on McKay, but
leave his teenage son unaffected and perfectly able to distinguish
right from wrong. The boy testified at his father’s trial that
he noticed how “skinny” Phoenix had become in the spring of 2005,
but that Kematch threatened him if he tried to give Phoenix food. He
told the court he never saw the little girl eat and then, weeping, he
testified that “I waited until those guys left and gave her food. They
didn’t help her.”

They didn’t help her – not because of the historic wrongs done to
aboriginal people, but because “those guys” were scum. They alone are
responsible for her torture and murder, not history. This is about
individuals and their character, not their ethnicity.

Funke also told the inquiry that a lot of aboriginal people see the
seizing of native children as being like the residential school
system. Who cares how they see it? If they are not going to take
proper care of their children, then they have nobody to blame but
themselves when their kids are seized. If Phoenix had been placed
with foster parents, white or aboriginal, and not returned to the
piece of garbage who is her mother, she would be alive today.

There are no circumstances which prevent anyone from deciding that they
are going to be the best parents they can be. Nothing prevents them
from seeking help to achieve that goal, if needs be. No situation,
whether it took place in history or is being lived right now in
the present moment, is so bad that it makes individuals decide to
shoot, choke, beat and otherwise torture a fiveyear-old child. At
the trial, McKay’s lawyer said that his client was just performing
“fun choke holds” he’d seen on TV wrestling shows and was surprised
that he had hurt Phoenix. Performing “fun choke holds” from wrestling
shows? Colonialism no more makes you perform fun choke holds on your
child until she blacks out than it makes you a fan of TV wrestling.

Funke told the inquiry that “the First Nations leaders of (Manitoba)
are committed to ensuring that Phoenix did not die in vain.” Sadly,
Phoenix did die in vain and nothing can change that. But those leaders
can see to it that more children do not die in vain by dropping
the victimization mantle because it is not doing aboriginal people
any favours.

There is not an ethnic group in the world that has not suffered
terrible injustices at one time or another in its history. No one has
escaped this. To name just a few, the Armenians suffered genocide
in 1915, the Tutsis of Rwanda in 1994, the Jews and Roma suffered
unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, the Ukrainians were victims
of Josef Stalin’s forced famine, with more than seven million starved
to death in Stalin’s diabolical plot to destroy them for the “crime”
of wanting independence from his reign.

None of these ethnic groups blames their own histories when a member of
the group abuses, neglects, or tortures to death their own children,
as Kematch and McKay tortured Phoenix to death. If First Nations
leaders want to start somewhere, a good place would be with the
concept of individual responsibility.

Naomi Lakritz is a columnist with the Calgary Herald.

OWNER OF RIVERBOAT IN EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP PUSHES VESSEL BACK INTO WATER

The Press of Atlantic City (Pleasantville New Jersey)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
July 29, 2013 Monday

by Joel Landau, The Press of Atlantic City, Pleasantville, N.J.

July 29–Egg Harbor Township’s riverboat is back where it belongs. The
Belle Miracle Ann returned to the water in the township near the
Longport-Somers Point Boulevard on Wednesday, said its owner,
Leonard Dagit.

The historic riverboat, one of the South Jersey’s more unique roadside
attractions, sustained damage and washed ashore after Hurricane Sandy
in October. Dagit did not have a monetary figure for the damage,
noting some of his other properties — including his home — were
also damaged and that it was a cumulative cleanup.

Dagit had to wait for the boat, which dates to the 1920s, to be
restored before it could be moved several hundred feet back onto the
water at the Anchorage Poynte community.

“So far so good,” he said Thursday night, adding it was a relief to
return the large vessel to the water. “A lot of people in the area
will be affected by Sandy a lot longer than this.”

A large crane and excavator were used to push the boat onto the water.

Dagit said they waited for a full moon and high tide so the water
level would be at its highest.

“If it wasn’t (moved Wednesday), it would have been (moved) next
month,” he said.

The multilevel boat was first brought to the back bays of Egg Harbor
Township in 2005 by Hosrof “Sonny” Bagraduni, the Armenian-American
owner of a West Atlantic City hotel. Bagraduni died in 2008 before
he could renovate the vessel — then known as the Tarlan Rose —
as a floating event hall.

Two years later, Dagit purchased the boat, renamed it the Belle Miracle
Ann and towed it to its location near the entrance to Anchorage Poynte.

The boat’s purpose is mainly for private parties that Dagit said
occur only a couple of times a year.