Author: Kanayan Tamar

L’EX-MAIRE DE GUMRI A NOUVEAU ACCUSE DE VIOLENCE

CLAN

Vartan Ghukasian, l’ancien maire controverse de Gumri, est confronte a
de nouvelles accusations de conduite violente un an après sa demission
qui avait ete voulue par le gouvernement armenien.

Ghoukasian et plusieurs de ses partisans auraient agresse un homme de
la deuxième ville d’Armenie mardi lors du procès d’un autre resident
local accuse d’avoir tue le fiance de sa fille.

L’assassinat a eu lieu en avril de l’annee dernière. Karen Yesayan,
27 ans et resident aux Etats-Unis, a ete retrouve tue par balle dans
sa voiture le jour de la ceremoniede fiancailles prevue avec Manya
Ghoukasian, la fille aînee du maire de Gumri.

L’enquete criminelle a debouche sur l’arrestation d’un autre jeune
homme, Harutyun Sarkissian. Selon la police Gyumri il s’agirait d’un
drame de la jalousie, le presume coupable desirant lui aussi se marier
avec Manya Ghoukasian. Sarkissian a plaide non coupable.

Après des mois d’attente, Vartan Ghukasian a comparu devant
un tribunal Gyumri mardi pour temoigner dans cette affaire très
mediatisee. L’ex-maire a refuse de repondre aux questions de l’avocat
de l’accuse en le denoncant comme un ” diable “. ” Il s’en est tenu
a son premier temoignage et a refuse d’en dire davantage .

Selon les proches de Sarkissian, les hommes de main de Ghoukasian
auraient passe a tabac Samvel, le père de l’accuse, dans le hall du
tribunal. Samvel Sarkissian, qui est un ancien officier superieur de
la police locale, aurait ete emmene a l’hôpital Gumri. Les medecins
ont declare mercredi qu’il avait ete blesse a la jambe droite et
souffrait d’une pression arterielle très elevee.

Une porte-parole de Ghoukasian contacte mercredi par le service
armenien de RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am) a refuse de commenter ces faits.

Ghoukasian a ete maire de Gumri pendant près de 13 ans, en jouissant
de l’appui du President Serge Sarkissian et son predecesseur Robert
Kotcharian. Son long règne a ete marque par de frequents incidents
violents l’impliquant lui-meme, son fils et d’autres parents.

Ghoukasian, qui est affilie avec le Parti republicain de Sarkissian, a
demissionne l’ete dernier après avoir perdu le soutien du gouvernement.

Le flamboyant ex-maire a ete brièvement detenu avec plusieurs de ses
parents en avril 2013 a la suite d’une fusillade mortelle dans les
rues de Gumri resultant d’une longue querelle entre sa famille (au
sens large) et un clan rival local. Un de ses neveux a ete inculpe
d’assassinat.

La police armenienne a egalement confisque de grandes quantites
d’armes dans les deux clans. Le chef de la police nationale, Vladimir
Gasparian, a promis de mettre fin a leur domination dans les affaires
locales.

vendredi 19 juillet 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

ARMENIA CORRE: MIRA LAS FOTOS Y RESULTADOS COMPLETES

Terra.com, Argentina
11 de julio de 2013

Se corrio la tradicional carrera de Palermo, Armenia Corre, con
distancias de 8K y 3K participativa. Este año, 3000 corredores
se ananimaron a la carrera por la igualdad y la memoria. La baja
sensacion termica no inhibio a nadie.

La prueba se realizo en el marco del 98º aniversario del Genocidio
Armenio, perpetuado por el estado de Turquía en 1915. En consecuencia,
miles de armenios emigraron a distintas partes del mundo escapando
de esta tragedia y formaron la diaspora armenia.

Ganadores:

General caballeros: 1º: Nahuel Luengo (25m18s) 2º: Matias Demarco
(26m32s) 3º: Daniel Simbron (26m41s)

General damas: 1º: Carolina Natalia Zanuzzi (31m12s) 2º: Natalia Nigro
(32m45s) 3º: Gabriela Muiña (33m02s)

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EU ENVOY TO DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT IN BAKU

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
July 18 2013

18 July 2013, 18:38 (GMT+05:00)

By Sara Rajabova

European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus Philippe
Lefort is due to visit Azerbaijan to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement and the development of cooperation between
Azerbaijan and the EU.

Lefort’s visit to Baku is scheduled for next week, the EU Baku office
told Trend news agency on July 18.

The EU envoy is currently on a visit to Yerevan where he discussed
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, Armenian media reported.

During the meeting with the Armenian president Lefort confirmed
the EU’s support for the OSCE Minsk Group, which is mediating the
settlement of the long-standing conflict.

In June, the EU envoy visited Azerbaijan and discussed the development
of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU, as well as the current
state of and prospects for the talks to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict with Azerbaijani officials.

He said the conflict is a very important issue for the EU and the
organization respects the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made
territorial claims against Azerbaijan, its South Caucasus neighbor.

The two countries 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. Armenia has
not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four resolutions on
a pullout from the occupied territories.

Russia, France and the U.S. have long been working to broker a solution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the OSCE Minsk Group, but
their efforts have been largely fruitless so far.

PETERSEN: IRAN LOOKS TO THE NORTH: TEHRAN TIPS ITS DESIGNS ON PRO-WESTERN AZERBAIJAN

Washington Times
July 18 2013

By Alexandros Petersen

In the United States, our focus is on Iran’s activities to its
west and east. Tehran supports Bashar Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in
Lebanon, menaces oil exports in the Gulf and threatens Israel with
annihilation. On its other flank, it seeks influence in Afghanistan as
U.S. and NATO forces prepare to withdraw. However, we tend to ignore
Iran’s actions to its north, even as this – the greater Caspian region
– emerges as a particularly active theater for Iran’s ambitions of
regional power.

We do so to our detriment. With Washington’s focus elsewhere during
the past few months, Iran has steadily pushed the envelope with its
northern neighbors, in the disputed Caspian Sea and along its land
borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan. While Iran’s new president,
Hassan Rouhani, is considered more moderate than his predecessor,
since his election, Iran seems to be continuing its northward pivot.

In late June, Iranian warships sailed across the Caspian Sea to the
Russian port of Astrakhan. Their mission was to coordinate plans for
a major joint naval exercise in the fall. This is noteworthy because
not only is the Caspian a center of oil production that is exported to
Western markets, but also a key transit hub for the withdrawal of U.S.

and NATO forces and equipment from Afghanistan. Vessels with U.S.

military hardware routinely sail from Kazakhstan’s port of Aktau on
the eastern shore to Azerbaijan’s capitol, Baku, in the west. Joint
Iranian-Russian naval exercises could disrupt both the energy and
transit activities on the sea.

It would not be the first time. Iranian warships have in the
past threatened to attack Azerbaijani oil fields that were at the
time being explored by BP vessels. The issue of how the Caspian’s
energy-rich waters are divided among the littoral states remains
unresolved. While most of the countries on its shores have come to
bilateral understandings, Iran refuses to cooperate with any of its
neighbors – except when it teams with Russia to threaten the rest.

Iran is also injecting itself into the region’s most protracted
conflict: the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

While Iran supported pro-Russian Armenia in the 1990s against secular,
pro-Western Azerbaijan, Iranian clerics are now painting the conflict
as a war against Islam. They recently met with ethnic Azeris seeking
to liberate Karabakh.

On the other hand, Tehran has cultivated pro-Iranian groups and
extremist clerics in Azerbaijan to undermine the government in Baku.

It has mobilized hacker attacks under the banner of the Iranian Cyber
Army. These activities are intensifying as the October presidential
election in Azerbaijan approaches.

Earlier this year, Iranian lawmakers on the Security and Foreign
Policy Committee in Parliament released a number of statements
demanding the annexation of 17 of Azerbaijan’s cities, including the
capitol Baku. They prepared a bill that would revise the 1828 treaty
demarcating Iran’s northern border to pave the way for a greater Iran
that could incorporate territory from across the Caspian region,
from Turkey to Central Asia. It seems that Israel is not the only
country that Tehran has considered wiping off the map.

These sorts of actions have actually pushed Azerbaijan and Israel
closer together. The two have a joint venture on the production of
drone aircraft, as well as a wider defense technology relationship
wherein Azerbaijan has sought anti-aircraft systems from Israel
to guard against potential Iranian attack. Such threats are all
too specific for Azerbaijan, as Iran’s leadership has consistently
mentioned Azerbaijan’s major oil pipeline from the Caspian to the
Mediterranean as a primary target in the event of conflict with
the West.

Were such a clash to occur, it would behoove U.S. policymakers to be
more cognizant of the northern angle in Iran’s aggressive regional
policy. Even without the prospect of a major conflict, U.S. Iran policy
should reflect Tehran’s threats to our interests in the Caspian and
to regional partners such as Azerbaijan. For all Iran watchers, its
activities to its north will serve as a key test of Mr. Rouhani’s
supposed moderation.

Alexandros Petersen is the author of “The World Island: Eurasian
Geopolitics and the Fate of the West” (Praeger, 2011).

BAKU WELCOMES IRAN’S INTENTION TO FACILITATE KARABAKH SETTLEMENT PROCESS – AZERI FOREIGN MINISTER

Interfax, Russia
July 17 2013

BAKU. July 17

Baku welcomes Iran’s intentions to facilitate the settlement of
the Azeri-Armenian conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azeri Foreign
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a joint press conference with
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Baku on Wednesday.

“Concerning Iran’s initiative on taking part in facilitating the
settlement process, we will welcome it if some country makes attempts
to set this process in motion. We want the conflict to be resolved,”
Mammadyarov said.

He agreed with Davutoglu that Nagorno-Karabakh is a difficult process,
for “otherwise it would have been resolved long ago.”

“Therefore, Azerbaijan always and everywhere brings up the issue of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and will be doing this further,” he said.

Baku is discontented with the mediators’ activities in settling this
conflict, he said.

“I am asked sometimes whether Azerbaijan is satisfied with the
OSCE Minsk Group’s activities. We are really dissatisfied with it,
as there is no result, and our land remains under occupation. There
have been no actions so far, and therefore we are unhappy about the
Minsk Group’s activities,” he said.

For positive changes to happen in the process, Armenia should withdraw
its troops from the Azeri territories they have occupied, he said.

“If Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied territories,
serious changes will start happening in the region,” he said.

va mk

CONCERT DEDICATED TO 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARAM KHACHATURYAN TO BE HELD IN BULGARIA

20:23, 18 July, 2013

YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS: A meeting between Bulgarian minister
of culture Petr Stoianovich and ambassador extraordinary and
plenipotentiary of Armenia to Bulgaria Arsen Shoyan was held on
ministry of culture of Bulgaria on July 17. “Armenpress” reports that
ambassador Shoyan handed to newly-appointed minister the congratulatory
address of Armenian minister Hasmik Poghosyan.

The sides mentioned that in cultural sphere the development of
cooperation will be favorable for strengthening relations between
nations which have rich cultural heritage. Discussing the bilateral
cooperation and reverberating to the 110 th anniversary of great
composer Aram Khachaturyan Ambassador Arsen Shoyansuggested organizing
also in Bulgaria under the auspice of Minister Petr Stoianovich.

Speaking about events dedicated to 100 th anniversary of Armenian
genocide Ambassador Shoyan particularly reverberated to the opportunity
of digitizing the materials relating to Armenian genocide which
Bulgarian archives expecting the support of Bulgarian side in that
issue.

SYUNIQ GOVERNOR AND HIS FAMILY LEAVE FOR FRANCE
Thu, 07/18/2013 – 20:33

According to information of henaran.am Syuniq former governor Surik
Khachatryan decided to temporarily leave Armenia. Our sources report
that he will leave for France with his family.

Let us recall that on 1 June during a shooting that occurred in front
of the governor’s house one person was killed, another two wounded. A
criminal case was initiated in which former governor’s son Tigran
Khachatryan was arrested.

For detailed information please follow the link.

Author: Factinfo – See more at:

KURDS SEIZE SYRIAN BORDER TOWN AMID ANKARA CONCERNS

July 18, 2013 – 15:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish
militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after
days of clashes with Islamist fighters, the Turkish military said,
according to Reuters.

The capture of Ras al-Ain on Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey
by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will heighten Ankara’s fears
that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could
embolden homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.

Turkey’s foreign minister voiced concern at the spillover of violence
from the war in its southern neighbor and called again on the United
Nations Security Council, which has yet to come to a consensus over
Syria, to act.

In a statement late on Wednesday, July 17 the military said Ras
al-Ain had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described
as a “separatist terrorist organization”. Fighting in the town had
now stopped.

Turkish troops had shot at PYD fighters in Syria in accordance with
its rules of engagement after two rocket propelled grenades fired
from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side of the frontier.

The return fire was the second time in as many days the military has
answered in kind after several stray bullets from Syria struck the
police headquarters and several homes in the adjacent Turkish town
of Ceylanpinar on Tuesday.

Two Turkish citizens, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by
stray bullets in what was the most serious spillover of violence into
Turkey from Syria in weeks. The military said it had now strengthened
security along that part of the border with armored vehicles.

BRITISH MUSEUM RENAMES ITS ROOM 54 FROM “ANCIENT TURKEY” INTO “ANATOLIA, URARTU”
by Karina Manukyan

Thursday, July 18, 18:13
The British Museum has renamed its room 54 from “Ancient Turkey” into
“Anatolia, Urartu.”

In early 2013 the Forum of Armenian Associations of Europe (FAAE),
expressed a protest against the use of “Ancient Turkey” name for
the museum’s room 54 and suggested that it be renamed into “Urartu,
Ancient Armenia.”

FAAE said that the values exhibited in the room had no relation to
Turkey but to Urartu, an ancient state located in the territory of
the Armenian Plateau. “This is just one example. Sometimes Armenian
values, like carpets, are exhibited as Muslim values,” FAAE said.

In its response to FAAE, the Museum’s keeper Jonathan N. Tubb said:
“Our curators are very aware that Ancient Turkey is nonsensical from
a historical point of view and so the naming of this room was the
subject of much debate, and continues as such.”

VARTU VILLAGER TELLS HIS STORY

16:35 18.07.13

Arsen Okmez, an Armenian man born in the Vartu village, 5km of Iraq,
near Van, lived there until 1978.

Arsen Okmez (Okmezyan, with the suffix ‘yan’ cut off during a census
conducted by the Turkish authorities in 1960) has for the last 20
years been living in Brussels with his wife Belinda and four children.

Three generations of this family had different surnames. The family
had had their grandfather’s surname, Miroyan, before 1915. The surname
of Arsen’s father Tigran was Okmezyan, and Arsen himself is Okmez.

Arsen told Tert.am that Vartu had been an Armenian village before
1915. Five Armenian Genocide survivors, including his grandfather,
repurchased it from the Turkish authorities after the Armenian
massacres.

“In summer we would shepherd sheep in the mountains and return home in
winter,” says Arsen. Turkish and Kurdish were spoken in the village,
but Armenians spoke only Armenian at home.

“Before 1967 we had not known if other Armenians lived in Turkey. We
could not speak Armenian, they would have cut our tongues off. One
nice day a clergyman came from Istanbul with an instruction to find
out if there were other Christian people there. He came to our village
and began talking with young people in Armenian. But they did not
understand well. But older people knew the language and they began to
talk with him. I did not remember the clergyman’s name, but he told us
that about 70,000 Armenians lived in Istanbul. We thought we were alone
in Turkey, but he said ‘no, we are going to see people in Istanbul’.”

Four or five young people went to Istanbul with the clergyman and
returned. Twenty-eight people went the following year, and Arsen’s
elder brother was among them. In 1978, the Armenian village of Vartu
emptied.

While in Istanbul, Arsen’s father suddenly decided to settle down
in Armenia.

“Daddy said we had to go to our homeland. We arrived in Hoktemberyan
and lived for two years there. We were a 10-member family. Daddy
worked for a collective farm to keep his family. He did not want to
leave, but two of my elder brothers did not want to stay in communist
Armenia,” Arsen says.

The family returned to Turkey, but four years later, following the
father’s advice, went to Marseilles and then to Belgium.

A couple of months ago Arsen’s fellow villagers went to Vartu to
find out that they did not own the lands any longer. They retained
a lawyer and got their lands back.

During the Armenian Genocide, Arsen’s grandfather and his 4-year-old
brother were the only survivors of the family. Their Turkish friends
called on them, treated them to lamb, but then “shot and the war
broke out.”

Turks are well aware of the Armenian Genocide. “They know about it,
but do not admit it. They say both sides were involved in massacres.

Those living and studying in Europe admit the fact. One came here
and said ‘It never happened’. I said to him ‘Go to school and read a
little.’ A month later he came and said it had actually happened. I
hear Talaat Pasha’s grandchild went to Tsitsenakaberd [Memorial to
Armenian Genocide victims in Yerevan].”

Turkey must admit the Armenian Genocide before it joins the European
Union, Arsen says.

Armenian News – Tert.am