Author: Kanayan Tamar

RUSSIA, US RUE LACK OF KARABAKH PROGRESS

South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh
RIA Novosti. Ilya Pitalev
21:57 18/06/2013

LOUGH ERNE, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia, the United States and
France, the three countries mediating the conflict over the disputed
South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh, said Tuesday that they
were greatly concerned by the lack of progress in bringing peace to
the region.

The parties to the conflict – Armenia and Azerbaijan – are still
pursuing unilateral aims rather than trying to find a solution based
on due consideration for each other’s interests, the presidents of
the three mediating countries said in a joint statement.

Presidents Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama and Francois Hollande warned
that further delays in reaching a framework agreement leading to a
comprehensive peace treaty was “unacceptable” and urged the leaders
of Armenia and Azerbaijan to redouble their efforts and focus on
finding a solution.

They also called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to reaffirm their
commitment to the Helsinki principles, in particular the non-use or
threat of force, territorial integrity, equality and people’s right
to self-determination.

Relations between the two countries have been strained for more than
two decades, since the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly
ethnic Armenian region, first erupted in 1988. The region then claimed
independence from Azerbaijan to join Armenia.

Over 30,000 people are estimated to have died on both sides between
1988 and 1994, when a ceasefire was agreed. Nagorno-Karabakh has
remained in Armenian control and tensions between Azerbaijan and
Armenia have persisted.

ARMAVIA EMPLOYEES WAITING FOR WAGES

07:40 PM | TODAY | SOCIAL

Former employees of Armenian businessman Mikhail Bagdasarov’s Armavia
Airline Company, the country’s only carrier that launched bankruptcy
procedures earlier this year due to grave financial problems, again
gathered in front of the Company’s office demanding their unpaid
wages. As the pilots said the administration had promised them to
pay part of the wages but again it failed to keep the promise.

Later in the day, the former employees met with Armavia CEO Norayr
Beluyan who again assured the group that the company would pay their
wages, without specifying the long-awaited date of payment.

Armavia has not paid its employees since November 2012.

Armenia’s last national airline, Armavia, ceased operations on April 1,
2013, over grave financial problems. In a statement released later
on the day, the Company linked its inability to pay debts to the
consequences of the world economic crisis that has hit the aviation
industry hard and has caused the bankruptcy or liquidation of several
major carriers such as American Airlines and Russia’s Kuban.

Founded in 1996 by Armenian businessman Mikhail Bagdasarov, Armavia
owned one Airbus A320, three Boeing 737, and four medium-range planes.

The Company served 48 destinations in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

Armavia’s bankruptcy leaves Armenia without a national air carrier,
since the other state-owned carrier, Armenian Airlines, went bankrupt
in 2003.

OPPOSITIONIST MP TELLS ABOUT HOW ARMENIAN PRESIDENT’S BROTHER STARTED AS A DRIVER AND BECAME A MULTIMILLIONAIRE

The authorities in Armenia are stuck in corruption at the same time
fighting it. The authorities are inherently illegitimate, but they
fight illegality. They boost migration allegedly trying to stop it,
Nikol Pashinyan, parliamentarian from the Armenian National Congress,
said in the parliament, Tuesday.

The oppositionist said that he is not going to dispute the ruling
party’s statement that total fraud in the country started yet in
1990s. “We can remember that Serzh Sarhsyan then headed one of
the key structures fighting corruption – Ministry for the State
Security and then the Interior Ministry. It is not surprising that
his brother Alexander Sargsyan who started as a driver easily became
a multimillionaire. All the statements that Alexander Sargsyan became
wealthy through joint ‘fraud’ and seizure of others business is ‘dirty
slander.’ The Armenian public does not believe in that ‘slander’,
as the authorities used to say,” Pashinyan said.

The oppositionists recalled also another person who, as he says,
gathered wealth after becoming the president’s son- in-law – Mikael
Minasyan. Pashinyan is bewildered with the fact that Armenia has two
diplomatic offices in one city, in fact. He means the embassies in
Rome and Vatican. “What issues must the Embassy in Vatican settle?

The Embassy operates on the funds of Armenian taxpayers. Probably,
it has been opened for the president’s family to have an opportunity
to take photos with the Pope and hold noble talks with him,” Pashinyan
said recalling that Mikael Minasyan is the Ambassador to Vatican.

HOSPITALS IN ARMENIA CASH IN ON PATIENTS

The hospitals in Armenia cut costs of the state-guaranteed order
and cash in on the patients. This is the conclusion of the Financial
Control Inspection of the Armenian Finance Ministry for 2012.

At today’spress conference the head of the Inspection, Sona Gharibyan,
said that violations were registered in almost all hospitals of
the republic.

She said that state-guaranteed treatment in all hospitals include
food, whereas only 2 or 3 hospitals give food to the patients. The
hospitals also reduce the period of the state-guaranteed treatment.

For instance, TBC patients are to undergo 50-day treatment, but they
stay in hospital no longer than 40 days, she said.

PRESIDENTS RUSSIA, USA AND FRANCE ISSUED A SPECIAL STATEMENT ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

17:41, 18 June, 2013

YEEREVAN, JUNE 18, ARMENPRESS: OSCE Minsk Group countries Russia,
USA and France, which are involved in settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, express their deep condolences that the sides of the conflict
till now have not succeeded in finding the solution of the problem
in result of negotiating process.

“We express our deep condolences on occasion that the sides instead
of trying to find solutions based on mutual interests have continued
trying to gain one-sided results,” is said in the joint statement
about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict signed by the presidents of three
countries, reports “Armenpress” calling “Ria Novosti”.

“We are sure that the procrastination of reaching new balanced
arrangement which will bring to universal peace solution is
impermissible and we call the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to
focus with fresh energy on the solution of the problems which continue
to stay open up to now,” is highlighted in the document.

Russia, USA and France expressed assurance that the statements with
which they performed during the last four years on this issue must
become the base of stable and fair solution of Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

“We strongly urge the leaders of all sides to confirm once more
their loyalty to Helsinki principles, particularly to Refraining
from the threat or use of force, Territorial integrity of States and
self-determination of peoples,” is said in the joint statement.

In opinion of the leaders of three states this position should be
considered as a unity as any attempt to give advantage to one of
mentioned principles excludes the opportunity of balanced solution.

UNION CITY HOLDS ANNUAL MAY 28TH OBSERVANCE

June 16, 2013

UNION CITY, N.J.-On Fri., May 24, city officials in Union City hosted
the annual flag raising ceremony in observance of the establishment
of the First Independent Republic of Armenia. The program was opened
with a prayer by Rev. Fr. Hovnan Bozoian of Sts. Vartanantz and
included members of the Board of Commissioners and other officials
who recognized the long history and contributions made by the Armenian
community in Union City.

Haroutune Misserlian receives proclamation.

The flag was raised to the singing of “Mer Hairenik” as city
officials and members of the Armenian community of New Jersey looked
on. A proclamation was read and presented to Haroutune Misserlian,
an educator, lecturer, and active community leader for the last four
decades in the New York and New Jersey communities. Misserlian accepted
the proclamation as a representative of the Armenian National Committee
(ANC) of New Jersey.

Local resident Vergine Tegrarian established this annual observance
15 years ago when she presented the city with the Armenian flag used
in the ceremony.

Very Rev. Vazken Karayan of Holy Cross Church in Union City concluded
the ceremony with a prayer. The event was followed by a reception.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION TO MEET WITH ARMENIAN BLOGGERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USERS ON THURSDAY

YEREVAN, June 18./ARKA/. President of Armenian Football Federation
Ruben Hayrapetyan will receive Thursday some active social network
users and bloggers, the Association reported.

The meeting will be held at the Federation’s head office on 20 June
at 12:00 local time.

“All those fans who express their viewpoints on Armenian football and
team on some Internet platforms are welcome to have an open meeting
with Hayrapetyan,” the source said.

After the sensational defeat from Malta (0:1), the outraged fans of
the Armenian team overburdened social networks demanding resignation
of couch Vardan Minasyan and Federtion President Ruben Hayrapetyan.

During his recent press conference, Hayrapetyan called
upon the fans to leave the virtual world and discuss
the issues in person with him.-0- – See more at:

DINAMO VS. SHIRAK: GEORGIAN FANS ASSAULT ARMENIAN SPORTSMEN AFTER HOME MATCH (VIDEO)

11:39 ~U 18.06.13

The Dinamo-Shirak match (1-1), held Monday in Tbilisi, Georgia,
was followed by an unpleasant incident which might have ended in a
tragedy. Around 130 fans of Dinamo, including young ladies, decided
to assault the Armenian sportsmen …

The Georgian fans were active during the match, showing active support
to their players. And it didn’t demonstrate an undisciplined conduct.

But a minute after the match, 80 Georgian fans, including 30 young
ladies (reportedly Armenians residing in Georgia), started an
attack off the tribune. A tragedy would have been inevitable if
they had clashed with the sportsmen. Fortunately, the police and
the representatives of Armenia’s delegation managed to restrain the
aggressive Dinamo fans.

Matches between Armenian and Georgian sportsmen, held earlier in
Tbilisi, used to end in such a way, but the recent scandal that
followed a friendly meeting, was not expected absolutely. The game
showed that the Georgian side should have observed security norms
in any case and given the guest team’s fans a couple of minutes for
leaving the tribunes.

US SENATORS STUNNED BY SYRIAN ARMY’S “DRAMATIC” ADVANCE

News number: 9203184528
13:34 | 2013-06-19

TEHRAN (FNA)- A bipartisan trio of key US senators expressed surprise
at the rapid and “dramatic” advances recently made by the Syrian army,
cautioning President Barack Obama that arming the rebels would not do
much to help them.

Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Carl Levin and Republican John
McCain said in a joint letter to Obama that government forces are
advancing so dramatically that providing weapons to the opposition
alone is unlikely to shift the war back in the rebels’ favor.

The administration last week authorized lethal aid to the rebels,
although the US had long been both directly sending arms and
facilitating Saudi and Qatari-procured arms cargos to the rebels.

Yet, the senators are now asking the US to enforce a no-fly zone and
start direct military intervention in Syria.

The senators said the US should consider targeting regime airfields,
runways and aircraft, and help rebels establish safe zones in Syria.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized
attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border
guards being reported across the country.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling system. Media reports
said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received
significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid
for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United
States.

The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May that the Syrian rebels
and terrorist groups battling Assad’s government have received
significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid
for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United
States.

The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign
officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized the
administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces
to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel
credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were
running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons – most
bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements
of the Syrian military in the past – has significantly increased after
a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to
provide millions of dollars in funding each month.

On Monday, NATO and a number of European governments, most
significantly the UK, started airlifting heavy weapons to the Syrian
rebels poised in Aleppo to fend off a major Syrian army offensive.

They disclose that the first shipments were landed Monday night, June
17, and early Tuesday in Turkey and Jordan.

They contained anti-air and tank missiles as well as recoilless 120 mm
cannons mounted on jeeps. From there, they were transferred to rebel
forces in Southern Syria and Aleppo in the Northwest, Debkafile’s
exclusive military sources reported.

The sources report that the first weapons reached rebel-held positions
in Aleppo early Tuesday.

The hardware for the rebels is coming in from three sources of NATO
stores in Europe, the Libyan black market, and the Balkan black
market, chiefly Serbia and Montenegro.

On Sunday, a report said that the US spy agency is gearing up to send
weapons to insurgent groups in Syria through secret bases in Turkey
and Jordan.

The bases are expected to begin conveying shipments of weapons and
ammunition within weeks, the US daily, The Washington Post, reported
Saturday, quoting unnamed American officials as saying.

“We have relationships today in Syria that we didn’t have six months
ago,” US President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser
Benjamin J. Rhodes said during a White House briefing Friday. The
United States is capable of delivering material “not only into the
country,” Rhodes said, but “into the right hands”.

US officials announced on Thursday that Obama had authorized sending
weapons to the militants in Syria ‘for the first time.’

On Saturday, American newspaper USA Today quoted Christopher Harmer,
an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, as saying that the
US is vetting to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, which is technically
a NATO air base, as a hub for supplying militants in Syria with
weapons.

Also on Sunday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that the US
troops temporarily in neighboring Jordan will leave behind fighter
jets and a cache of Patriot missiles.

Early in March, a ranking member of the US marine troops deployed in
Afghanistan told FNA that the Pentagon made the decision to send a
major part of its light and semi-heavy weapons systems and military
equipment to the Syrian rebels along with its pullout from Afghanistan
when the former US Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, was still in
office.

“The decision to send our arms and weapons systems in Afghanistan to
the rebel groups in Syria was originally made when the former US
Secretary of Defense was in his final days of office, yet the Pentagon
has also received the approval of the new Secretary, Chuck Hagel, as
well,” said the source who asked to remain anonymous due to the
sensitivity of his information.

“One of these cargos consists of the light and semi-heavy military
tools, equipment and weapons that the US army has gathered and piled
up in Kandahar Base and plans to send them to the rebels in Syria in
the form of several air and sea cargos and through Turkey and
specially Jordan,” he explained.

“These weapons and arms systems include anti-armor and missile
systems, rocket-launchers and rockets and tens of armored Humvees,”
the source added, explaining that senior war strategists in the
Pentagon believe that they can change the scene of the war in Syria in
the interest of the rebel groups with the help of these cargos,
specially the shoulder-launched missile systems and the multipurpose
Humvee vehicles.

The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), commonly known
as the Humvee, travels as fast as 150 kilometers per hour under
different weather conditions and in various geographical climates, and
various types of machineguns, rocket-launchers and weapons systems can
be mounted on this vehicle.

As the US continues its pullout from Afghanistan, rebels in Syria have
failed to make any more advancement and the US, EU, Saudi Arabia and
Qatar were forced to soften their tone on the future of the almost
two-year-long conflict in the country after they found that the war of
attrition has rather worked in the interest of President Assad and his
troops.

This, military experts say, has apparently made the US change the war
strategy in Syria and open new fronts in the country.

The US and its allies have been sending most of their arms cargos to
the rebels through Turkey, which neighbors Northern Syria. Just last
week a Libyan member of the al-Qaeda disclosed that France has
supplied the rebel and terrorist groups in Syria with Russian Igla
anti-air missiles and even trained them how to use these systems.

Louay al-Mokdad, the political and media coordinator for the Free
Syrian Army, confirmed that the rebels have procured new weapons
donated from outside Syria, rather than bought on the black market or
seized during the capture of government facilities. But he declined to
say who was behind the effort.

Another coordinator for the Free Syrian Army, whose units have
received several cargos of these new arms supplies since in
mid-February, said “the goal of the supplies also is to shift the
focus of the war away from the North toward the South and the capital,
Assad’s stronghold”.

LIVERPOOL TARGET HENRIKH MKHITARYAN OWES MUCH TO HERITAGE AND HARD WORK

Shakhtar’s rising star comes from strong Armenian stock but had to
graft to become one of eastern Europe’s most exciting players

Jonathan Wilson
Wednesday 19 June 2013 11.38 BST
guardian.co.uk

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has caught the attention of Europe’s top clubs
after shining for Shakhtar Donetsk. Photograph: Valerio
Pennicino/Getty Images
When Jadson returned to Brazil to join São Paulo last season, the
expectation was that Shakhtar Donetsk would buy another of his
compatriots: how else could they replicate his creativity and goals
from midfield? Mircea Lucescu, though, simply advanced one of his
deeper lying midfielders, breaking the habit of the previous few
seasons by playing an eastern European towards the front of his team.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan had, in fairness, only been playing so deep because
of Fernandinho’s broken leg but still, nobody quite expected the
explosion when he resumed his former role. His first 14 league games
of last season brought 16 goals and he went on to amass 25 for the
season. He is not, though, he insists, a forward: rather, he is a
midfielder who can operate either as a deep-lying distributor or
behind a striker. In Shakhtar’s fluent 4-2-3-1 system, he was pivotal,
a hub whose movement helped shape the whole. In that regard, it’s easy
to see why Brendan Rodgers is so keen to bring him to Liverpool:
Mkhitaryan has the ability to find and generate space that is vital to
possession-based teams – and he also has a ruthlessness in front of
goal that Liverpool have lacked over the past couple of seasons.

For Mkhitaryan the move feels logical. Liverpool aspire to a style of
football relatively similar to Shakhtar’s. At 24, now is probably the
time to make the step up to the consistent competition of the Premier
League, particularly as the Shakhtar team is dismantled, with Willian,
Fernandinho and Razvan Rat already departed (it’s not Liverpool’s
fault, but there is something sad about seeing another bright young
team – like Athletic Bilbao and Porto before them – broken down and
sold off after one season of flickering achievement; one of the curses
of the economic disparities of the modern game).

Whether Mkhitaryan would adapt is impossible to say but the signs are
good. Mkhitaryan has a gift for languages – it’s a family trait: his
sister Monica works as a translator for Uefa – and has a
down-to-earthness that suggests he is smart and pragmatic enough to
adjust. Just as importantly, he gives a sense of understanding his own
game: he is not a savant to whom excellence just happened; he has
worked methodically to develop his talent, something in which he was
helped by his close relationship with Lucescu.

“It wasn’t easy for him from the start,” said the Romanian, “but his
integration was speeded up by his high level of football intelligence.

His game awareness is perhaps his most valuable quality – that and the
speed and power and technique Henrikh was gifted by nature and that
he’s developed. Because of those virtues, he’s one of the players who
most consistently fulfils the tasks set by the coaching staff. Working
with him is fun.”

Mkhitaryan’s father, Hamlet, was a well-respected centre-forward for
Ararat Yerevan, Armenia’s most successful club in Soviet times, in the
late 80s. He had a brief stint at Kotayk Abovyan, and then, in 1989, a
few months after Henrikh’s birth, he was transferred to the French
club ASOA Valence, where he spent five years before a move to Issy,
picking up two caps for the newly independent Armenia. Even then,
Henrikh’s love for football was clear. “When I was a child, I used to
watch my father playing football, and I always wanted to follow him to
training,” he said. “When he didn’t take me with him I stayed next to
the door, crying. I always wanted to become a football player, and I
thank my parents, as they helped me so much to realise this dream.

They always supported me on my path.”

The Mkhitaryans returned to Yerevan in 1995 and, just a year later,
when Henrikh was seven, his father died from a brain tumour. Football,
though, remained a major part of the family’s life, with his mother
now heading the national team department at the Armenian football
federation.

In the pantheon of Armenian footballers, Mkhitaryan stands at the very
top, alongside Nikita Simonyan, Eduard Markarov and Khoren
Hovhannisyan. As the greatest Armenian player since fragmentation, he
probably carries a greater responsibility than any of them, a role of
which he is well aware. “Not so many Armenian players are given the
chance to play in the Champions League, and this is really important
for me, because I want to do everything to impress the children who
are watching me playing,” he said last season.

“For those children, I want their goal to be to play in the Champions
League, and for the most important European teams. They don’t have to
stop in the Armenian league, thinking that they’re not able to achieve
anything more. Every person has to keep in mind that they can grow up
and reach the top, no matter where they are born, whether it’s in
Russia, in Ukraine, in Europe; they’ve still got the opportunity to
show their talent and the culture of their people.”

If he joins Liverpool, he will of course have to forego Champions
League football but it may be that he can help bring the competition
back to Anfield.