Author: Kanayan Tamar

MEETING WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE RA NA ARMENIA-KUWAIT FRIENDSHIP GROUP

30.05.2013

On May 30 the members RA NA Armenia-Kuwait Friendship Group met with
the deputies of the Kuwaiti Parliament.

Welcoming the guests in the name of Armenia-Kuwait Friendship Group
the Head of the Friendship Group Araik Hovhannisyan thanked them for
visiting Armenia. Highlighting the stimulus of bilateral relations
Araik Hovhannisyan noted that the visit would greatly promote the
development of the friendship relations of the two countries, the
activation of the inter-parliamentary relations, also the further
enlargement of economic relations.

The deputies of Kuwait thanked for the warm reception. They emphasized
the development of inter-parliamentary relations, the bilateral
contacts and the cooperation in international structures.

In the course of the meeting the sides discussed other issues
concerning the development of relations of the two countries.

INAUGURATION DAY OF ARMENIAN PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM KNOWN

10:18, 30 May, 2013

JERUSALEM, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS: The day of inauguration of the elected
Patriarch in Jerusalem is already known to be held on July 4. This
was informed by the Armenpress reporter in Jerusalem, the member of
St. James Convent, Archimandrite Koryun Baghdasaryan.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem sent official invitations
to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the Cilicia Catholicosate,
the Patriarchate of Constantinople and other religious leaders to
participate in the inauguration ceremony.

The members of the Congregation of Holy Hakobyants, serving abroad,
have been also invited.

The Archbishop Nourhan Manougian was elected the Patriarch of Jerusalem
on January 24. The patriarchal seat of Jerusalem was left vacant
after the death of the late Honored Archbishop Torgom Manougian.

Prepared by the member of St. James Convent, Archimandrite Koryun
Baghdasaryan

AZERBAIJANI LEADERS LOVE THE KARABAKH CONFLICT, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST TELLS BBC

15:05 30.05.2013

“I try not to cry so that I can be strong for my son,” mathematics
teacher Sakina Gurbanova tells BBC’s Damien McGuinness, struggling
to hold back the tears, as she shows me a picture of her son.

A handsome, smiling 27-year-old law graduate, Zaur was pulled off the
street by plain-clothed policemen on 1 April. Since then he has been
in jail awaiting trial, accused of possessing arms.

But his mother says their home was never searched for weapons and
that he is being punished for criticising the government.

According to human rights groups, the charges are trumped up – an
authoritarian government’s attempt to stamp out any Arab Spring-style
uprising, they say. And now, faced with presidential elections in
October, the authorities are accused of clamping down even more
heavily.

New regulations mean that participants in anti-government
demonstrations in the city centre face heavy fines worth more than
the yearly earning of many Azeris. And tough new libel laws are
criminalizing criticism online.

“The Azeri government is seen by critics as not only humourless but
also nervous,” Damien McGuinness writes.

“I think the president’s family is using the nationalist card to
distract people from the real problems, such as corruption,” says
investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. “They need an external
enemy to keep people under control.”

“And in Azerbaijan, that enemy is Armenia. Earlier this year, just as
the country was seeing an unusually high number of anti-government
protests, a scandal erupted over an Azeri book which portrayed
Armenians sympathetically. Fortuitous timing to distract from the
unrest, whispered government critics. The novel had actually been
published months before,” the article reads.

Its author, the renowned Azeri writer Akram Aylisli, was stripped of
his literary awards and pension by President Aliyev. His books were
publicly burned and protesters gathered outside his home chanting
death threats – demonstrations which the authorities did not disperse.

This once-revered writer suddenly found himself castigated as a
national villain. “What is the government afraid of?” the elderly
writer said, shaking his head sadly, when I visited him in his
Baku home.

Azeri soldier Ramil Safarov, on the other hand, was turned into the
nation’s hero. He chopped the head off a sleeping Armenian with an
axe in 2004 in Hungary. Last year he returned to Azerbaijan, where he
was supposed to serve out the rest of a life sentence. Only he did
not. He was given a hero’s welcome, was pardoned by the president
and promoted to the rank of major, the article reminds.

“Of course he’s a hero,” one of Ramil Safarov’s neighbours told BBC’s
Damien McGuinness.

“Armenians aren’t human,” another said. “I would have done the same.”

“I think the leaders just love this conflict, they embrace it,”
the journalist Khadija Ismayilova believes. “The right thing to do
right now would be to embrace Armenian citizens in Azerbaijan. But
that would end the conflict. And the government doesn’t want that.”

Read the entire article by Damien McGuinness.

ARMEN MARTIROSYAN: ANOTHER SITUATION SIMILAR TO DEATH OF SOLDIER LUKS STEPANYAN MAY SPARK A REVOLUTION IN ARMENIA

ArmInfo’s interview with Armen Martirosyan, Deputy Chairman of Heritage Party

by David Stepanyan

Thursday, May 30, 12:36

It has been argued recently in Armenia that the public must fight
for its rights through civil movements amid degrading oppositional
political parties. We’d like to listen to the opinion of an
oppositionist…

Incidentally, many statements by some representatives of the so-called
civil movements, saying that the opposition is weak, incapable and
seeks power only with a purpose to spoil the people, coincide with
the statements by the authorities. I’d like to recall that it was
the Heritage party that was at the origins of the civil movement
in Armenia. When the people had any complaint or displeasure, we
were next to them and were trying to get observance of their civil
rights. Certainly, in some cases the power represented by the RPA
members has counterarguments against the opposition, represented by
the ANC. The authorities say that they learned from the former power,
the current opposition, how to falsify elections. In this context,
Heritage is the only party against which such argumentation is
senseless, taking into account the fact that Heritage party has never
been a part of the power, and has never broken the law. There are no
medium-sized or big businessmen among the Heritage party members. For
this reason, any clash of interests is also ruled out.

Taking into consideration such an invincibility, the authorities
have nothing else to do than from time to time to blame us for
“being guided from outside”, although according to the results of
the last presidential election, we see that just the RPA appeals to
the opinion “from outside”. The only argument of the RPA in favor of
Serzh Sargsyan’s victory were the congratulations and recognition
of the results of the presidential election by the leaders of
several countries. At the same time, they did not want to remember
that in its final report on the presidential election in Armenia,
the OSCE ODIHR characterized the authorities of the republic like
partycrats. In the meanwhile, partycracy makes impossible free,
fair and transparent elections.

Well, where does it concern civil movements?

Those wishing to organize a civic movement in Armenia must stop trying
to reinvent the wheel. The civilized world has long proved that the
best weapon of political struggle is a political party. As a rule,
civic movements are not independent and are sponsored and guided by
political forces. So, those calling themselves civic movements and
saying that the times of political parties have gone are just trying
to sling mud at the opposition and Heritage Party.

Did the civic movements bear any relations to the protest actions in
Armavir region, protests of the parents of killed soldiers etc?

All of the recent protest actions were just a spontaneous expression
of people’s displeasure rather than a specific campaign organized by
civic movements. It is not they who have made people active. People
are active because they have run out of patience. Heritage was by
their side during all of the actions. Our duty is to support them.

However, globally, there are no civic movements in Armenia.

The Authorities have found themselves in rather hard situation
following the latest social and economic challenges. How will the
government settle the emerging problems?

I think the Government will not solve our problems because it cannot
and does not want to do it. The point is that their interests do not
coincide with the interests of their people. While banks worldwide
were facing a crisis, Armenian banks were recording growing profits
– as much as 28% in 2012 alone. This was achieved at the expense of
the economy, while normally banks should be drivers of economy. Our
foreign debt is swelling to a dangerous size, but our regime is doing
nothing to stop this. They are not willing to lose their profits,
and so, they will be just maneuvering. The Government’s decision
to partly subsidize the gas tariff was unacceptable. How can they
equally subsidize a millionaire who spends thousands of US dollars
to heat his palace and a pensioner who can hardly find 1,000 AMD for
his small flat?

What do you think of the prime minister’s idea to subsidize the rise
in the gas price via issue of Eurobonds?

Prime Minister’s idea to subsidize 30% of the rise in the gas tariff
by issuing eurobonds is just an attempt to mask one more increase in
the country’s foreign debt.

What do you think of the aggravating domestic political and social
situation in Armenia?

If such a social and economic situation arose in other more
civilized than Armenia countries, it would open a direct way to the
revolution. The ratio between the incomes of wealthy people to the
poor ones by four and even six times is considered to be normal,
from six to eight times – dangerous, and from eight and more – may
cause revolution. According to the official data, in Armenia the
ratio between wealthy and poor people is twenty to one. The total
of 600 thsd poor families have been living in Armenia, according
to the official data, there are the families with medium income and
rich families are just 100,000. So, there are many preconditions for
making revolution in Armenia. But taking into account some obstacles,
it is not clear if a revolution is possible in Armenia or not. First
of all, it is not clear if the Armenian society itself is ready for
revolution. It is not clear either, what direction external levers
will work to, as till today, thanks to infringing upon the national
interest, our foreign partners were just protecting and supporting the
authorities. For their part, the authorities expressed readiness to
settle the Karabakh conflict on the basis of the “Madrid principles”,
they also signed the Zurich protocols and in general it has become a
tradition for them to incline head at a whistle from outside to the
detriment of the national interests of Armenia. The possibility of
the opposition consolidation causes many problems. I am confident that
in case of consolidation, an absolutely new situation will appear in
Armenia, when the authorities will find themselves in a situation not
to be able to make a step without adoption of extraordinary decisions.

Nevertheless, the statement by the head of the IMF mission in
Armenia, Mark Horton, and resident representative of IMF in Armenia,
Guillermo Tolosa, in which they called on the Armenian authorities
to make radical reforms, are rather symptomatic for the authorities
of Armenia in this context. The external challenges, the explosive
situation in the region and in the Karabakh conflict, all this may
become the reason of revolt in the republic. I did not want to say
about that, but repetition of the situation similar to the death of
a soldier Luks Stepanyan may spark a revolution in Armenia. This time
the authorities managed to neutralize the spark, but it is not clear
if they will manage to do that next time.

INTERNATIONAL DONORS DEPRIVE ME OF INDEPENDENCE – ARMENIAN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER

May 30, 2013 | 10:58

YEREVAN. – When receiving grants from the international donor
organizations, several conditions are imposed which deprive the
ombudsman from his independence.

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, Karen Andreasyan, noted the aforesaid
during Thursday’s National Assembly session devoted to the initial
discussion of the 2012 Budget performance.

Specifically, as per the ombudsman, when providing grants the donors
require that the Human Rights Defender’s statements be concurred
with them.

“It is inappropriate for the ombudsman to fine-tune his statements
with any other body,” Andreasyan said.

He confirmed that there are pressures from the international
organizations in terms of content and the political aspect, but,
according to Armenia’s ombudsman, the concurrence of statements is
unacceptable in the technical sense, too.

“When I am funded by the state, I am fully independent, but when the
international donor does the funding, this impacts my independence,”
Karen Andreasyan maintained.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

FRENCH LAWMAKER: ARTSAKH WILL ONE DAY BE RECOGNIZED

09:38 30/05/2013 ” COMMENTS

Artsakh will one day garner international recognition, said French
lawmaker and chairman of the France Artsakh Friendship Group Francois
Rochebloine, who was visiting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic along with
two of his parliamentary colleagues Tuesday, according to Asbarez.com.

Rochebloine, who is a member of the France’s center-right party loyal
to former President Nicolas Sarkozy said the first step in advancing
cooperation was the creation of the France-Artsakh Friedship group,
adding that the priority at the moment is to preserve the peace and
to ensure that achievements within the peace process are not hindered.

Rochebloine, a member of the French lower house is being accompanied
to Artsakh by Senators Henri de Raincourt and Bernard Saugey who held
meetings with Karabakh’s President Bako Sahakian and Foreign Minister
Karen Mirzoyan.

Rochebloine observed that non-recognition of Artsakh has not slowed
the development and work of state bodies, saying that youth in Artsakh
will provide a “bright future” for the country.

On the last day of their visit, the legislators were accompanied
by Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Parliament Speaker Ashot Ghulian on a
visit to the Stepanakert Memorial where they laid wreaths at the tomb
of Artsakh’s first president Arthur Lazarian and French political
figure Henri Sabi, who is buried in Artsakh.

After the Memorial the French parliamentarians went to Shoushi, where
they visited the Museum of Fine Arts. At a special ceremony there,
Ghulyan awarded the French visitors with a special medal dedicated
to the 25th anniversary of Artsakh’s Liberation Struggle.

While in Shoushi, the French leaders visited the St. Ghazanchetsots
Church and other sites.

Back in Stepanakert, the members of the France-Artsakh Friendship Group
met with the representatives of the youth organizations in the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic and members of the French Club in Stepanakert.

Source: Panorama.am

Algérie Soir, Algérie
27 mai 2013

L’Algérie et l’Arménie disposent du potentiel nécessaire à même de
renforcer leurs relations (ministre)

Algérie Presse Service

“Nous disposons du potentiel nécessaire à même de permettre à nos deux
pays de renforcer leurs relations aux plans politique, économique et
culturel”, a déclaré Mme Hakobyan lors d’une conférence de presse
conjointe avec le secrétaire d’Etat, chargé de la Communauté nationale
à l’étranger, Belkacem Sahli, à l’issue de leur entretien.

Dans le même contexte, elle a souligné le rôle que pourraient jouer
les diasporas algérienne et arménienne dans le rapprochement entre les
deux pays et les deux peuples.

Mme Hakobyan a affirmé que l’Algérie est un “pays ami” de l’Arménie et
que les deux Etats coopèrent au niveau des instances internationales,
notamment les Nations Unies.

Par ailleurs, la ministre arménienne a indiqué que sa visite en
Algérie constitue une opportunité pour échanger les expériences et
prendre connaissance des politiques respectives des deux pays en
matière de prise en charge de leurs communautés établies à l’étranger.

“Chaque pays dispose de ses propres mécanismes en matière de prise en
charge de sa diaspora et nos experts vont poursuivre leur travail à ce
sujet”, a-t-elle souligné, tout en se félicitant des dispositions
prises par le gouvernement algérien pour l’accueil de sa communauté
établie à l’étranger durant la saison estivale.

Evoquant la diaspora arménienne, elle a indiqué que le nombre
d’Arméniens établis à l’étranger s’élevait à 7 millions sur une
population estimée à 10 millions de personnes.

“L’Arménie est indépendante depuis 22 ans mais la diaspora arménienne
a une histoire de plus d’un siècle”, a-t-elle précisé, ajoutant que la
diaspora arménienne constitue une “ressource importante” pour le pays
et contribue au développement de son économie.

Dans ce contexte, Mme Hakobyan a précisé que le montant des transferts
d’argent de la diaspora arménienne vers son pays s’élevait à 2
milliards de dollars par an.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 27 2013

Russia-Azerbaijan: Understanding the dynamics behind current tensions

ZAUR SHIRIYEV
[email protected]

Russian-Azerbaijani relations have been subjected to much discussion
recently — this month has seen a number of developments that have
highlighted tensions between the two countries.

This month, the Russian government terminated a bilateral agreement on
the transit of Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline.
This agreement had been in place since 1996. Subsequently, we saw the
development of the Eurovision scandal, in which Azerbaijan received
top marks from Russia but gave the Russian team zero points in the
final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted in Malmo, Sweden.
Russian media and officials alike both formally and informally
declared this development as a move against Moscow. The furor
highlights the increasing politicization of the Eurovision Song
Contest — Moscow clearly views Azerbaijan’s vote as an answer to a
political question: Do the Azerbaijani people want to join the
European Union or the Moscow-sponsored Eurasian Union? Following this
development, a visit to Moscow by Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, Elmar
Mammadyarov, and his consultations with his Russian counterpart sent
the message that there are no `serious’ problems in the bilateral
relationship.

Taking into account this latest development and the political climate,
Azerbaijani political analysts claim that despite the ongoing high
level contacts between Moscow and Baku, tensions are high. Why are
these developments happening and, as the Russian Eurovision contestant
asked in her song, `What if’?

Clearly, since Russian President Vladimir Putin started his third term
in office, the relationship between the two countries has been in
decline. Since last January, Moscow has not put any effort into
meeting the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, while during Dmitry
Medvedev’s presidency it was one of Russia’s missions to hold
trilateral meetings. Both the termination of Russia’s lease of the
Gabala radar station last December and the recent decision to
terminate the Baku-Novorossiysk agreement are indications of Moscow’s
dissatisfaction and both moves are seen by Baku as `power instruments’
deployed by Moscow.

Beyond these developments, there are a number of factors that can
illuminate the current dynamics.

First of all, Russia wants to see Azerbaijan in the orbit of its
foreign policy; that is, these developments are a means of pressuring
Baku to give a positive answer to joining its Customs Union and as
well as the so-called Eurasian Union. The chief card for Moscow
towards Azerbaijan, beyond its role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
is the Azerbaijani population in Russia, estimated to be close to 2
million. In recent years, Russian authorities have tightened
regulations on migration from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
countries, now requiring immigrants to complete a Russian language
exam. A few days ago the Russian Federal Migration Service declared
that a proposal was being presented to legislators regarding changes
to the existing law to require CIS citizens to receive an invitation
to come to the Russian Federation. It is possible that in the coming
years, Russian authorities will amend the law to constrict the
mobility of citizens of countries that are not members of the Customs
Union. Russia’s new approach towards migrants from CIS countries puts
pressure on governments to join both the Customs Union and the
so-called Eurasian Union.

Second, the clearest evidence of the deteriorating relationship
between Moscow and Baku seems to be the termination of the lease of
the Gabala Radar Station in Azerbaijan. The reality, however, is that
Russia has been uneasy since Azerbaijan and Turkey brought forward the
realization of their Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project in 2012.
Indeed, Russian energy giant Gazprom’s strategic interest is to ensure
that Azerbaijani gas doesn’t reach European markets with competitive
spot market prices — it is true that the Azerbaijani State Oil
Company (SOCAR) does not have an advantage over Gazprom in terms of
their comparative capabilities. But SOCAR is trying to invest in the
Greek gas market and given the possibility that Iraqi and Israeli gas
may be involved in TANAP in the near future, Russia’s worries are
increasing. The latest move to terminate the Baku-Novorossiysk
agreement, even after the Russian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers
declared that they would work on a new contract, sent a clear message
to Azerbaijan. It might be that from an economic standpoint, the
Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline was not reliable but given the fact that
this pipeline passes across the North Caucasus, it is in Russia’s
interest to attract investment to this unstable region. It is also in
Baku’s interests to stabilize the North Caucasus, where instability
would immediately provoke problems along Azerbaijan’s borders, with a
flood of refugees, infiltration of guerrillas and the emergence of
religious radicals.

Third, despite the fact that by joining the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
in May 2011, Baku gave Russia the impression that it is not interested
in NATO membership. The possibility of using the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
(BTK) railway for transporting NATO forces during the post-2014 period
in Afghanistan makes Moscow uneasy. Azerbaijan and Georgia started
lobbying in Brussels and Washington, stating that the BTK will be
ready for NATO forces after their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Further, the latest trilateral meeting between the Azerbaijani,
Georgian and Turkish foreign ministers in March and the Batumi meeting
joint communiqué repeated this intention. Most probably, Moscow
assumes that there is possibility that the US and NATO may give Baku
and Tbilisi the equipment from its Afghan operations because from an
economic point of view, it is better for NATO to give this military
equipment to allies than to transport it back.

In this sense, it is likely that during the fourth meeting of the
Russian-Azerbaijani inter-regional forum, the “Russian-Azerbaijani
dialogue 2013,” which will be held in the Russian city of Volgograd
next month, high-level government officials will participate and the
parties will discuss bilateral ties to try to reduce tensions.

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
May 26 2013

Turkish minister views cooperation with Islamic body, EU

JEDDA (AA) – 24.05.2013 – Turkey’s European Union Minister and Chief
Negotiator Egemen Bagis said Turkey would keep on supporting the
Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), expressing his countyr’s
appreciation for the support Arab nations extended for Turkey’s EU
accession.

Speaking at a press conference in Jedda on the first day of his visit
in the Saudi Arabian city Bagis said, “EU should never underestimate
Turkey. It needs Turkey more than Turkey needs EU.”

The Turkish minister pays a visit in Jedda upon the invitation by the
President of the Organization for Islamic Coopeation (OIC) Ekmelettin
Ihsanoglu.

Bagis said all Turkish citizens benefited from Turkey’s EU accession
process, citing the landmark reopening of an Orthodox Christian church
on the Akdamar island of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, where hundreds
Armenians conducted in September 2010 a religious service for the
first time in 112 years.

Rejecting any ‘axis shift’ in Turkey’s foreign policy, Bagis said,
“Turkey is a bridge between the West and the East, the North and the
South. Forcing it to make a choice is the biggest injustice.”

Following the press conference, Bagis, accompanied by Turkey’s
ambassador to Saudi Arabia, visited Ihsanoglu in his office.
During the meeting they discussed Turkey’s relations with the OIC and the EU.

Reminding that 10 per cent of the EU population is composed of
Muslims, Bagis said, “Islam is a fact of Europe. It is a positive
development that the EU countries started to acknowledge this fact,
albeit a bit late.”

Bagis will attend on Saturday at the Jedda Chamber of Commerce a
conference on “Potential Economic and Commercial Impacts of Turkey’s
EU Membership on the Middle East and Islamic Countries.”

ESC Today (EuroVision Song Contest), EU
May 27 2013

Armenia: Dorians open air concert on International Children’s Day!

Armenia, News, Sweden 2013 27 May 2013

Source: esctoday.com, Written by: Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani

The 2013 Armenian Eurovision representatives Dorians will be giving a
special open air concert in Yerevan on 1 June, marking the
International Children’s Day.

Dorians represented Armenia at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in
Malmo with the song Lonely Planet, placing 18th.

The Dorians will be giving an open air free concert for all their
fans and followers 1 June (International Children’s Day) at The
Cascade Complex, Yerevan, Armenia. The concert will kick off at 9pm.

The proposal of the concert was made by the Cafesjian Center for the
Arts. After their Eurovision experience, the Armenian band Dorians
were planning to give an open-air concert for their fans and
followers, in order to thank them and show their gratitude to all
those people who believed in them and supported them. The proposal
from the Cafesjian Center for the Arts was made just at the right
time.

Dorians hope to meet most of their fans on 1st of June in The Cascade
Complex. The band Dorians are more than happy and honoured to perform
on The International Children’s Day.