Author: Kanayan Tamar

HUNGARIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT PRESIDENT APOLOGIZES TO ARMENIAN PEOPLE FOR CONSEQUENCES OF SAFAROV’S EXTRADITION

17:54 03/07/2013 ” TOPIC OF THE DAY

The Hungarian court’s decision sentencing Azerbaijani officer Ramil
Safarov to life imprisonment was not strict enough, Peter Paczolay,
President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, told reporters at
the Armenian National Assembly.

The Hungarian official is in Armenia to attend the pan-European
Conference on “The European Legal Standards of Rule of Law and the
Scope of Discretion of Powers in the Member-States of the Council
of Europe.”

Mr Paczolay said that Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan so that
he would serve his imprisonment in that country, not be pardoned and
released. The Hungarian official added that he cannot say anything
on behalf of his country’s government since he is not familiar with
the conditions of the extradition, and apologized to the Armenian
people for the consequences of Hungary’s extradition of the convicted
Azerbaijani axe-murderer.

PRESIDENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURT HAS NO RIGHT NOT TO BELIEVE CYPRIOT PROSECUTOR GENERAL

Today, in National Assembly, president of Constitutional Court Gagik
Harutiunyan dwelt on the offshore scandal featuring prime minister
Tigran Sargsyan and Vicar of the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese Archbishop
Navasard Kchoyan.

According to Henaran.am, asked whether he believes the statement of
the Cypriot prosecutor general about the impossibility to register
offshore assets to someone’s name without the latter’s presence or
an authorized person, Harutiunyan said that he has no right not to
believe. “He knows better their legislation than me. How can I not
believe him?”

16:19 03/07/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

“TNJRE” INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL TO TAKE PLACE IN ARTSAKH

13:58 02/07/2013 ” CULTURE

>From July 1-8, 2013 Artsakh will host the 3rd International Festival
of Young Performers of Classical Music “TNJRE” organized by the NKR
Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs.

The aim of the festival is to enable young musicians of Artsakh to
get to know the best traditions of performing art and create favorable
conditions for their full-fledged participation in the international
music life, as well as develop the culture of classical music in
Artsakh and establish cultural ties with colleagues from different
countries.

The symbol and the name of the festival – “TNJRE”/the name of the
2000-years-old platan tree in Karabakh dialect/ has been chosen in
order to draw attention to the conservation and protection of this
unique natural monument of Artsakh, as well as for improving the area
around Tnjre.

The number of participating countries in the festival grows year by
year. Participants from thirteen countries will perform at “TNJRE 2013”
festival. They will appear in solo concerts and joint accompaniments,
as well as with the International Festival Orchestra.

Twelve concerts of the festival will take place in Stepanakert,
Shushi, the village of Togh in Hadrut and the village of Astghashen
in Askeran, as well as in Martuni and Karvachar. The immortal works
by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Khachatrian, also works by
contemporary composers will be performed.

Within the framework of the festival invited teachers from
four countries will give master classes in violin, piano, piano
accompaniment, violin and chamber ensembles. On the first day of
the festival a trip to the symbol of the festival – TNJRE – will be
organized where a small concert under the crown of the ancient tree
will mark the beginning of the 3rd festival.

By organizing concerts in different parts of the republic, the festival
aims to bring classical music culture to all the residents of Nagorno
Karabakh Republic. At the same time, the festival in different parts of
the NKR will reveal the existing problems and needs of the cultural
district centers – the lack or shortage of musical instruments,
musical and teaching literature, the need to repair the premises and
hopefully will contribute to their solution by the state and sponsors.

Since the first “Tnjre” festival was launched (2010), the NKR Ministry
of Culture has received 11 violins, bows and other accessories,
musical stuff, clarinet as gifts from teachers from different
countries. Thanks to the initiative started in Facebook festival
supporters have acquired three pianos which were donated to the
Tokh and Astghashen art schools and Karvachar House of Culture. A
teacher from Finland, Grajina Jeranska Gebert that supports young
musicians of Artsakh on permanent basis has initiated fund-raising
for acquiring a new piano for the Stepanakert central concert hall,
the press service of NKR Ministry of Culture reported.

Source: Panorama.am

MANVEL SARGSYAN: TURKS UNLIKE ARMENIANS HAVE ALREADY REALIZED THAT A PROPER FIGHT EVEN FOR A FLOWER WILL LEAD TO A REGIME CHANGE

ArmInfo’s interview with Manvel Sargsyan, Director of the Armenian
Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS)

by David Stepanyan

Tuesday, July 2, 14:47

In the light of the degrading political parties in Armenia, the civil
society seems to have assumed their role. This has brought certain
results in the fight against the outrage of the authorities. However,
public movements have been experiencing certain stagnation lately.

Many say that the authorities have again bribed public activists…

The political and psychological situation and discourses have changed
in Armenia over certain period of time. The past few years and the
year 2012, in particular, were unprecedented in terms of the civic
movements. This is a fact we cannot neglect. And this fact could not
but break the ordinary things and initiate fundamentally new discourses
and scenarios. Actually, all this has happened in Armenia and the
ongoing stagnation conveys nothing. Although the civic activeness did
not settle the issues set by civic activists, many issues were settled
then. The political aura that had been created for decades collapsed
due to public activeness, something that is of extreme importance for
us. Nearly all the citizens have realized that everything that had
happened before was senseless. The last presidential and municipal
elections showed that the old and already senseless political system
has finally collapsed. All of us became witnesses of how quickly the
large-scale protests after the presidential elections of February
calmed down. People once gain made sure that since 1996 nothing has
changed in the election system of Armenia. That is why they just left
home and ignored the Yerevan Mayor’s election.

What was the role of the civic movements in that process?

Civic movements have cleared up the situation in the country. There
are ongoing processes in Armenia. Hundreds and thousands of people
go to streets and block traffic as a sign of protest, which is the
best display of civic activeness. People fight to save nature that
is damaged for construction of hydro-power plants that will serve
the interests of a group of the rich only.

The civic movements in Armenia made the public realize that they
must fight for their rights independently, because politicians will
never do that for them. This was, probably, the main result of those
movements…

Sure, there are examples of various forms of public protests. The
people have realized all that with the growing public movements. And
political accusations of those movements confirmed that. The civic
activists in the Taksim Square in Turkey hit the final nail in the
coffin of Armenia’s political past. After all, the Mashots Park in
Yerevan could grow into a movement similar to that for Gezi Park, but
for the clannish suppression of the movement from all sides, and first
of all, by the efforts of the so-called oppositional parties. In this
light, to overcome the crisis in Turkey, Recep Erdogan just needed to
create a couple of pseudo-oppositional parties like it is practiced in
Armenia. Those parties would easily persuade the people that activists
in the Taksin Square are ‘bad people’ and they should not join them.

Erdogan’s key mistake was to tell that to the people personally.

By the way, do you think that there are pseudo-public movements fed
by the authorities in Armenia?

This is impossible given the reasons of those movements. I don’t think
that the authorities need that either. The logic of this process is
inherently against the authorities. They don’t need, for instance, the
traffic blocked by the Armavir farmers. I think, when the people go to
streets and raise their problems to the government, such technology
cannot work either in Armenia on anywhere else. The authorities must
realize that a fight for a tree can spiral into a revolution. In
Armenia they do not realize this and Turks in the Taksin Square
demonstrated that. Today, there are quite promising trends here. With
help of the Turkish youth the Armenian party demagogy has collapsed.

In Baku they are well aware of that, given that Azerbaijan has not
responded to the processes in Turkey…

In Baku they do not respond to the processes in Turkey as they are well
aware what it may lead to. The Armenian politicians also understand
this, but they have already failed feeding the public with nonsense
for two years to save their party life and gain dividends. In the
meanwhile, Park Gezi is a bight example of what a fight for a park
may grow into. Therefore, we see certain ideological prostration in
Armenia now and a 100% confidence that the old political system is
useless. In Armenia people cannot understand why Turks and Brazilians
succeed but we don’t. The new epoch will answer this question. Turks
have already begun thinking differently and they have already got rid
of stereotypes unlike Armenians. They don’t ask why to fight for a
flower when they need to fight for a regime change. They have realized
that a proper fight even for a flower will lead to a regime change. In
Armenia the people does not know this so far, because we have been told
for years that a change of power is possible only through chanting
‘Serzhik Leave!’ They made us think that we do nothing if we have
no such poster in our hands. In the meanwhile, life has showed that
those who hold such posters do nothing really. What we have now in
Armenia is an active period of revision of everything we have talked
about. And this inspires with hope.

In response to the reproach of Yerevan’s certain circles regarding the
weaponry deal with Azerbaijan, Moscow habitually says that shipments
of arms are just business. Nevertheless, the large-scale shipments of
offensive arms to Baku is not the best argument in favor of the OSCE
MG’s efforts to maintain the fragile peace in the South Caucasus…

Large-scale shipments of offensive arms to our region cannot be
qualified as business only. Today everybody understands what the
given step of Russia means. I am deeply convinced that this step is
well-considered and Moscow has estimated the consequences, though
Russia is trying to disguise the significance of this step. Today
Russia is trying to strengthen its presence in the region in every
possible way, even by means of such unordinary steps. Meanwhile,
Russia has enough goals in the region, given NATO’s strengthening in
Georgia. Certainly, Armenia should have been informed of the deal
beforehand, but history shows that the Armenian society is never
informed of the steps that are of such significance to it.

Do you think that the problem of opposing Armenia’s European and
Eurasian integration projects is sophisticated?

Armenia’s European and Eurasian integration projects are just topics,
not a goal to set up new geopolitical relations in the region. “My
opinion is based on the lack of specifics, unclearness of the sizes
of the EU Association Agreement project and the Eurasian Union project.

Therefore, I think that all this is nothing but a conversation, which
will further form new geopolitical relations. For instance, if Europe
demands signing the Association Agreement, why does it simultaneously
lay down hard-going conditions for Yerevan? Russia is also creating
difficult problems for Armenia in its way to Eurasian integration.

This is why the ACNIS director is quite skeptical about the perspective
of the given projects.

FESTIVE EVENT HELD ON OCCASION OF LAUNCH OF ARAM KHACHATURIAN’S YEAR IN LOS ANGELES

14:43, 2 July, 2013

YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. The launch of Aram Khachaturian’s year in
Los Angeles was held in Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The Press,
Information, and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Republic of Armenia informed “Armenpress” that some of
the best musicians of Los Angeles philharmonic and chamber orchestras
performed Khachaturian’s masterpieces before hundreds of guests and
aficionados of classical music at the course of the concert organized
on the initiative of the Consulate General of Armenia in Los Angeles.

The gala was also attended by the principal conductor of the Armenian
Philharmonic Orchestra Edward Topchjan. Maestro Eduard Topchjan
also gave a special presentation on Aram Khachaturian at the USC
Thornton School of Music and introduced the life and works of the
great Armenian composer.

Aram Khachaturian was a distinguished Armenian composer. Alongside
Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, Khachaturian is called
one of the three “titans” of Soviet music. Khachaturian’s works were
often influenced by classical European music and Armenian folk music.

Khachaturian’s works span a broad range of musical types, including
ballets, symphonies, concertos, and numerous film scores.

Khachaturian’s works include concertos for violin (sometimes heard
in a composer-sanctioned arrangement for flute), cello and piano as
well as concerto-rhapsodies for the same instruments. These three
concertos were written for the members of a renowned Soviet piano
trio that performed together from 1941 until 1963: David Oistrakh,
violin; Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, cello; Lev Oborin, piano. The piano
concerto originally included an early part for the flexatone, and was
his first work to gain him recognition in the West. Khachaturians’s
three symphonies are varied works, with the third containing parts for
fifteen additional trumpets and organ. The composer’s largest-scaled
works are the ballets Spartacusand Gayane, both of which contain
Khachaturian’s most well-known music, with Gayane featuring in its
final act what is easily his most famous music, the “Sabre Dance”.

He also wrote several solo piano works, including the Toccata in
E-flat minor, and two albums of music for children (Opp. 62 and
100).Children’s Album, Book 1, first published in 1947, contains a
smooth and melodic Andantino originally composed in 1926; this piece
is commonly known as Ivan Sings, which stems from eight of ten pieces
originally being collected as Adventures of Ivan. Children’s Album,
Book 2, first published in 1964, includes a fugue composed in 1928,
and a fast-paced programmatic piece entitled Two Funny Aunties
Argued which is sometimes translated as Two Ladies Gossiping. He
also composed some film music, and incidental music for plays such
as the 1941 production of Mikhail Lermontov’s Masquerade, the “Waltz”
from which has been performed and recorded frequently.

The cinematic quality of his music for Spartacus was clearly seen
when the “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” was used as the theme for
a popular BBC drama series, The Onedin Line, during the 1970s. Since
then, it has become one of the most popular of all classical pieces for
UK audiences. Joel Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy also prominently featured
music from Spartacus and Gayane (the “Sabre Dance” included). Gayane’s
“Adagio” was used in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey and
Patriot Games among other films. He was also the composer for the
state anthem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, whose tune
is one of the five current choices to become the next state anthem
of Armenia. The climax of Spartacus was also used in Caligula and
Ice Age: The Meltdown.

BARE FACTS

()
13:52 | July 2 2013

Politicians, commentators, analysts (of course, not only in Armenia)
always tend to show that they know more than we, common mortals. They
are looking for clan battles, intrigues, Baghramyan 26 and so on
under every bush. All this, of course, is and always will be. If
desired, even the hail in Armavir marz can be connected with the 2018
presidential elections.

But these are flights of political thoughts. And we are interested
in the events, the so-called “documentary” side.

The suspicious renowned businessman Ashot Soukiasyan and the Prime
Minister of “full of corruption risks” Armenia Tigran Sargsyan insists
that the first one despite the will of the second has registered the
Prime Minister as an offshore company shareholder in Cyprus. From the
beginning it seemed illogical to many of us, including me, but in these
issues we need to move not from the logic, but with more knowledge
and awareness. Who can make this issue clear, is it possible, or
impossible? It must be a person who is familiar with the legislations
of Cyprus. I assume that such a person is the Cyprus Attorney General
Petros Clerides. The radio station “Liberty” referred just to him.

Is it possible for someone to register a company in Cyprus offshore
company without the person’s permission? The journalist’s question is
simple and clear. The the Prosecutor General of Cyprus gave the same
answer, no, it is not possible. Now it’s not me but you. Suppose, we
like the current prime minister very much, let’s assume, we understand
that ‘rabiz’ oligarchy has problems with him, whom you will believe,
Tigran Sargsyan and Ashot Sukiasyan, or Petros Clerides. This is a
common rationality, 10 pieces of Baghramyan 26, the White House and
the Kremlin, all politicians of the world will not be able to convince
any rational person that the prime minister and businessman say the
truth, and the Cyprus prosecutor lies.

Or, let’s assume that Ishkhan Zakarian is the most corrupted official
in Armenia and has 100 castles all over the world. Let’s again
move away from all kinds of intrigues, plots, inter-clan battles,
etc. Let’s put the “rollbacks” aside, they need yet to be proven. The
two bio-toilets worth of AMD 123 million, is it true or false? As
far as no one has denied this number of Mr.

Zakarian, then it is true? If it is true, then let any reasonable
person respond whether it was an effective expense of taxpayers’
money, or not.

The answers to these questions for us, ordinary citizens, concern
more than the issue that the politicians deal with, whether a palace
coup will take place. It seems a little unlikely to me. But, let’s
assume it happened, and what then?

ARAM ABRAHAMYAN

WHAT RESOURCES DOES THE GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA USE TO INSTALL STAINED GLASSES ON PACE CHAMBER?

()
11:09 | July 1 2013

A few days ago Aravot.am had reported that on the day of opening the
PACE summer session, Bureau’s report was also discussed, which with
a special line, expressed thanks to the Government of Armenia for
donating glass windows to the Chamber of Assembly. However, there
is no comprehensive information on the terms of the competition,
on money spent and other topics. Only after the publication of the
report, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs explained to Tert.am
that the Republic of Armenia has participated in the competition of
donation to install stained glass on the windows of PACE Chamber,
won it, and made the commitment.

Preparation of stained glass was ordered by artist, designer Arev
Petrosyan. However, there is no information on, ultimately, how many
stained glasses are we talking about, what sizes, and at what cost? It
is obvious that most likely they are purchased by the resources of the
state budget, because the PACE thanked just the government. Aravot.am
tried to obtain information from Arevik Petrosyan regarding these
issues. She conveyed the following: “I am the artist, the author
of sketches. I have presented the sketches, I do not have other
information yet.”

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan was
inquired as to how much money is spent for stained-glass windows. He
did not tell provide the exact information, but instead he said,-
“It is a great joy for us that we have won the competition. We
have passed through a great competition, because some countries
were trying to win the competition. We have done everything to win
the competition, we have passed through the Committee of Culture and
other committees. We are a member of the international community, and
different countries spend money to show their role and importance,
that their name is mentioned in the history.” Again, we tried to
clarify what volume of stained-glass we are talking about and so on. Z.

Mnatsakanyan answered,- “The stained-glasses are not installed yet.

Now I do not have budgetary lines before my eyes. But they are not
huge amounts. We are now talking with the PACE technical specialists
regarding the transportation, security and installation issues. We
have donated one more piece of arts to PACE. The sculpture is called
‘Tamada’ (translator not -“a toastmaster”), it is placed in the ECHR
president’s room. This is not a politics, nor diplomacy, this is the
presentation of our culture in one of the organizations in Europe. We
present our culture to the international community.”

Tatev HARUTYUNYAN

CONTROL CHAMBER FINDINGS ADDRESS DEVELOPMENT SECTOR IN GENERAL, SAYS MINISTER

12:51 ~U 02.07.13

The violations which the Control Chamber has revealed as a result
of recent inspections address construction activities in general,
Armenia’s minister of urban development has said, dismissing the
opinion that the findings target only his agency.

At a news conference held at the Government’s Press Center on Tuesday
morning, Samvel Tadevosyan explained the fact does not absolutely
relieve the Ministry of any responsibility for the existing situation.

“The Ministry has implemented several projects, and the preliminary
results are now obvious. Of the 6.5 billion Drams allocated from
state resources, only 1 billion has been saved, which is only 15%
of the total volume,” he said.

The minister stressed the need of finalizing the number and percentage
of the existing gaps before making any facts public.

“I have no doubt as to the professionalism of the Control Chamber
experts, but the reports do not contain in-depth analyses and
conclusions. The Ministry has conducted studies throughout the year,
revealing the source of the violations,” Tadevosyan said, attributing
most shortcomings to licensed companies.

The minister noted further that organizations responsible for
technical inspection also often failed to work properlys to reveal
gaps and shortcomings.

“Licensed companies carry out a technical inspection of 5-150
organizations through just a couple of employees. We studied and
suspended 550 construction companies last year, returning 53 million
Drams to the State Budget,” he said.

Speaking of kickbacks, the minister noted that the 15% savings policy
is aimed at abolishing such malpractices.

Asked whether the Ministry has ever turned to the Prosecutor General’s
Office after finding violations, Tadevosyan said that they have
chosen instead impose extra-requirement on companies. “Based on the
Ministry’s studies, however, we last year sent a couple of cases to
the Prosecutor’s Office,” he answered.

Armenian News – Tert.am

IRAN ENVOY TO AZERBAIJAN: IRAN WILL NOT BREAK OFF TIES WITH ARMENIA

Iran has never been harmed by Armenia, Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan
Mohsen Pak Ayeen was quoted as saying by the official website of
Iran’s embassy in Azerbaijan.

In an interview with Azadinform.az, Mohsen Pak Ayeen was asked why Iran
has such close relations with Armenia, to which he replied: “Armenia
is Iran’s neighbor. We have economic ties with that country. Armenia
also has close relations with the United States, and a number of
U.S. states have recognized the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Iran has
never been harmed by Armenia, and we are not going to break off our
ties with Armenia.”

Recently, in an interview with an Azerbaijani website, Iran’s envoy
responded to an observation that Armenia is getting stronger due to
friendly relations between Iran and Armenia and economic ties with
Iran, which raises the indignation of the Azerbaijani people.

“If you think that Armenia’s economic situation will deteriorate
if Iran-Armenia relations break off and it will contribute to the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, then you are mistaken,”
Mohsen Pak Ayeen said.

Related: Iran envoy to Azerbaijan: Good relations between Iran and
Armenia prevented Karabakh conflict from becoming religious

Perspectives of Iran-Azerbaijan relations: Commentary by Iranian
Majlis Research Center

Iranian studies expert: Iranian-Armenian relations develop in
atmosphere of mutual trust

Iranian studies expert: Azerbaijan carries out double foreign policy
towards both West and Islamic counties

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIAN SCHOOLS ARE INTRODUCED TO MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER PROGRAM

July 02, 2013 | 01:44

YEREVAN. – The schools in Armenia are being introduced to computer
and technology courses which become a basis for robotics, Instigate
Company Director Arman Poghosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The aforementioned courses use the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT)-created Scratch program which has been
“armenianized.” As a result, it will be possible to not only construct
scenarios and games, but to control robots.

“This enables [the children] to learn the principles of [computer]
programming. The system is very similar to a robot; you can give [it]
commands,” Poghosyan said.

The program has begun to be introduced in about twenty schools in
Armenia. As of September, robot construction teams will be formed in
fifty schools, and an attempt will be made to apply the “armenianized”
Scratch program in these schools, too.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am