Author: Kanayan Tamar

BOYER DEMANDE “QUE TOUTE PROPAGANDE NEGATIONISTE CESSE”

Maritima.info
27 fevr 2013

Communique de Valerie Boyer, depute UMP de la 1ère circonscription
des Bouches-du-Rhône :

“En entretenant la propagande negationniste et en multipliant les
actes de provocation anti-armeniens avec notamment la promotion
des criminels qui se sont rendus coupables d’actes de barbarie
anti-armenienne (affaire Safarov), le regime d’Aliev encourage le type
d’incident qui s’est produit hier dans l’enceinte meme de l’Assemblee
nationale où s’est deroulee la commemoration du 25ème anniversaire des
pogroms armeniens de Soumgaït, les 28-29 fevrier 1988. Ce moment de
recueillement et d’emotion a ete le theâtre d’une nouvelle provocation
azeri prouvant une nouvelle fois que les intentions de l’Azerbaïdjan ne
sont ni a l’apaisement ni a la resolution du conflit du Haut-Karabagh.

Il y a un an, je me suis rendue au Haut-Karabagh pour connaître cette
terre ancestrale armenienne où se joue depuis des annees un conflit
ethnique oublie auquel le gouvernement socialiste est totalement
indifferent. Pire, le President Hollande tout sourire recevait Aliev
en septembre 2012.

La voix de notre pays doit s’elever pour defendre les valeurs de
la Convention de sauvegarde des droits de l’homme et des libertes
fondamentales. A l’approche du centenaire du genocide armenien,
il ne faudrait pas que les armeniens du Haut-Karabagh soient encore
l’objet de persecutions du fait de leur origine.

Je demande a Francois Hollande de prendre les mesures diplomatiques
qui s’imposent afin que sur le sol national francais toute propagande
negationniste cesse. Je demande a Claude Bartolone d’inscrire a l’ordre
du jour de l’Assemblee nationale ma proposition de Loi tendant a la
transposition en droit interne de la Decision-cadre 2008/913/JAI du 28
novembre 2008 sur la lutte contre certaines formes et manifestations
de racisme et de xenophobie au moyen du droit penal, qui entend
precisement creer une sanction penale a l’encontre des personnes se
rendant coupables de contestations du Genocide armenien.

Le petrole n’achète ni la memoire, ni les Droits de l’Homme.”

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT NAKHCHIVAN

NEWS.AM
February 26, 2013 | 20:15

President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili will visit Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic within the framework of his trip to Azerbaijan
on February 27-28.

He is expected to hold a number of official meetings, APA agency
reported.

The Georgian delegation includes Mayor of Tbilisi Gigi Ugulava and
former chairman of the Adjara Autonomous Republic ìevan Varshalunidze.

CIVIL ACTIVISTS HOLD PROTEST ACTIONS IN FRONT OF EMBASSIES IN YEREVAN

ARMINFO
Tuesday, February 26, 20:02

Today several dozens of civil activists held protest actions in
front of the Embassies of France, Italy and Russia in Yerevan. They
expressed their discontent with the fact that the foreign states’
presidents congratulated Serzh Sargsyan on victory in the presidential
election in Armenia.

The number of law-enforcers guarding the building of the embassies
was higher than that of the protesters. The law-enforcers blocked
the pavements near the embassies. The protesters held posters saying:
“You congratulate the false president!”, “Don’t encourage a new March
1!”, “We want a Carrefour in Armenia”. One of the activists managed to
pass by the police and made his way to the building of French Embassy,
however, the police pushed him off, took his poster and tore it. The
poster said: “We present Serzh Sargsyan to you”. “They took away
my poster, swore at me and then mocked that I had no poster. I told
them to return my poster, and they replied that I had come without
any poster”, said activist Vahagn Minasyan.

As regards the Embassy of Italy, a representative of the Embassy took
a letter from the protesters’ hands. The protesters had managed to
approach the fence of the building before the police’s arrival. When
the activists approached the building of the Russian Embassy, the
number of law-enforcers increased, however, the protesters managed to
hand their letter. The letter expresses the activists’ disappointment
in the assessment of the presidential election. “In our opinion,
such assessment could be a result of two things: either the Head of
your state is unaware of the large-scale electoral fraud and bribery
of voters in the course of the presidential election in Armenia or
he supports the criminal oligarchs’ usurpation of power in Armenia”.

The letter also demonstrates the activists’ willingness to continue
the fight aimed at establishment of democracy. “We are determined to
do our actions and we have announced civil disobedience. We are not
going to obey the instructions of the non-elected president, including
the international agreements signed by him. We want you to remain
committed to democratic values”, says the letter. “You have no right
to devaluate the moral capital of Armenia formed among the European
peoples over years. Such policy will lead to the loss of our confidence
and creation of a barrier between Europe and Armenia”, the letter says.

RPA AND NA CENTERS OF POLITICAL CORRUPTION
Karine Ionesyan

17:20 27/02/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Interview with Chairwoman of Transparency International Anti-Corruption
Center Sona Ayvazyan

How it happens that parliamentary members accumulate such wealth with
their low salaries?

We know that parliament is composed of businessmen, who are rich and
their presence there guarantees complete immunity. I mean they are
not held responsible, though RoA Constitution sets parliamentarians
can’t engage in business activities. They, most probably, don’t pay
taxes so they get richer.

Do they get richer after assuming their office in the parliament?

Since everything has become more transparent only now, we have no
data from previous years relating to some parliamentarians and we
can’t compare. It will be possible to say in a few years.

Do NA activities help parliamentarians avoiding taxes?

They get political levers, they get the possibility to influence on
the adoption of laws which guarantee their business security. This
is a sort of political corruption.

According to our research, the richest parliamentary members are
Republicans, excluding PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan.

The Republican Party seems a union of businesses, it can hardly be
called a party, it is criminal group which appeared in the NA and
is now forming the political agenda proceeding from the interests of
several people.

MPs provide annual property declarations to Ethics Commission. Do
those numbers correspond to the reality?

We can’t know that. Only investigative journalists can. But it will
be difficult anyway because it is kept secret: high ranking officials
register their property at their relatives. The process of declaration
of property does not regard the relatives of parliamentarians, so
they are not held responsible.

Are there no supervision mechanisms?

First, Ethics Commission’s activities are technical and they don’t
study data. They don’t check whether the property of a certain figure
could be obtained with their salaries. Several years ago, we turned to
relevant bodies with the request to study Tigran Arzaqantsyan’s case,
since he has shares in some companies. Relevant bodies affirm that
if that person is not the executive director, he can’t be considered
involved in business. But it is their interpretation.

Has any MP been held responsible for doing business?

No. When investigative materials appear, we turn to the Ethics
Commission, but as a rule, the law enforcement bodies see no corpus
delicti. They don’t fulfill their duties being engaged in sponsorship.

Many declare their properties as real estate, and very often, it
is impossible to find out the real price. So you think they conceal
anything?

Full declarations and the published part are different. The data are
not fully released because it is a secret, so some important figures
remain out, such as the series of cars, the annual turnover etc. But
this is a shortcoming of the legislation.

What solutions do you propose?

First, the laws need to be amended to eliminate these shortcomings.

The commission of high ranking officials should not be under the
president. The illegal enrichment is not criminally punished: Armenia,
signed the UN convention on corruption fight, but signed the point
on the illegal enrichment with reservations. People should be held
responsible for illegal enrichment.

ARMENIA’S PRIME-MINISTER MEETS WITH US AMBASSADOR

YEREVAN, February 27. /ARKA/. Armenia’s prime-minister Tigran Sargsyan
met with the US ambassador to Armenia John Heffern, the government
press service reported. The meeting was initiated by the ambassador
Heffern.

The sides discussed a wide range of issues.

US embassy political and economic advisers have participated in the
meeting. -0–

HOVIK ABRAHAMIAN CHANGES HIS MIND: HE WILL NOT BECOME PRIME MINISTER

Wednesday,
February 27

“During the time I have held various offices, I have never intended
to become the country’s president,” National Assembly Speaker Hovik
Abrahamian assured reporters today.

In response to the remark that at one time he wanted to become prime
minister, Abrahamian replied that at one time he wanted to be prime
minister, but now he has changed his mind.

“The post of the National Assembly speaker is higher than that of
prime minister,” he said.

TODAY, 15:09

Aysor.am

JIRAYR SEFILYAN: SOCIETY IS FORMING PARALLEL GOVERNMENT

03:59 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

Jirayr Sefilyan, Commander of the “Shushi” special battalion, welcomes
students’ decision to join the nation-wide protests against the
fraudulent Feb. 18 presidential election and says we have appeared
in a situation where it is possible to achieve significant changes
in short periods of time.

“First of all, everything depend on people. Great is also Raffi
Hovannisian’s role, who is leading the nation-wide protests,” said
Mr Sefilyan.

He considers the thoughts expressed by the Heritage party leader
[Raffi Hovannisian] to be unprecedented and incomparable with the
classical practice.

“Ninety percent of the society is forming a parallel government with
all its institutions, preparing for the transitional period. The
collision would have been unavoidable if people had taken the former
path,” said Mr Sefilyan.

AGRICULTURE: FAVORABLE CONDITIONS AND BETTER SEED QUALITY EXPECTED TO INCREASE CROP PRODUCTION

ECONOMY | 27.02.13 | 15:01

Photolure

Hrach Berberyan
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Hrach Berberyan, heading the farmers’ union, believes this year will
be favorable for agriculture.

“Five days are left before the crop year starts: the layer of snow
was thicker this year as compared to last year, the only concern
now is the possible April frostbite, but there are numerous means to
“cushion” the negative climatic impact, they just need to be applied
in practice. As for the water issue, I can say that last year had no
deficit of humidity, but the water for some reason disappeared. This
year just let them claim there is no water!” Berberyan told the press
on Wednesday.

Berberyan praised the government measures aimed at supporting farmers,
however stressed that there is a need for serious legislative reforms.

The government last week approved the oat, corn, millet, sainfoin
(a forage grain) production development program for 2013, according
to which 850 tons of spring-planted oat seeds, 11 tons of corn
seeds, 37 tons of millet seeds and 530 tons of sainfoin seeds will
be purchased from foreign and local producers and distributed to
farmers at favorable terms. The government program is expected to
enhance the sowing fields, increase the gross volume of crops and the
farmer income. The government has allotted more than 700 million drams
(around $1.7 million) to the purchase of seeds.

“The selling price to the villagers will be lower than the market
price, plus we are going to subsidize 40 percent of it,” Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan stated.

Last year the government gave wheat seeds to farmers with a condition
to return by 2:1 kg ratio, however the seeds were low-quality, hence
did not yield good crops. Berberyan is hopeful this year things
won’t repeat.

According to Berberyan, the post-election unrest will not interfere
with villagers’ work. (There had been speculation that villagers may
get caught up in protests that might interfere with seasonal work.)

“Agriculture is stable, we don’t like tribulations. In Ararat plain the
land workers will be in the fields and orchards in some 10 days, so no
‘shocks’ can affect the development of agriculture. A villager wants
to work and earn his family’s living, nothing else,” said Berberyan.

ROBOTICS STARTS FROM SCHOOL

15:43 27/02/2013 ” ECONOMY

Today, a joint press conference was held at VivaCell-MTS Headquarters
on the theme “Robotics starts from school”. The conference was
presided by:
Karen Vardanyan, the Executive Director of the Union of Information
Technology Enterprises
Ralph Yirikian, VivaCell-MTS General Manager
Anna Sedrakyan, Cronimet Charity Foundation Director
ShaghikMarukhyan, World Vision Armenia Operations Manager

The Union of Information Technology Enterprises, in cooperation with
VivaCell-MTS, Cronimet Charity Foundation, World Vision Armenia and
Counterpart International Armenia, plan to set up robotics groups in 50
Armenian schools. The aim of this initiative is to raise interest among
pupils towards robotics, develop their engineering thinking, as well as
to prepare potential students for studying in technical universities.

“Year by year the number of students interested in robotics and eager
to participate in robotics competitions increases, and they, by the
way, have great success during the competitions. In order to promote
developments the Union has designed a robot set for the study groups.

Currently it is planned to carry out pilot project within the frames of
which 50 Armenian schools will be provided relevant sets of educational
robots”, said the UITE Executive Director Karen Vardanyan.

“The development of robotics is one of the prospects of strengthening
competitiveness in our country. VivaCell-MTS supports by all possible
means the initiatives meant for the development of the field. The
enthusiasm, interest, students’ own demand to learn new things make
schools an ideal environment for establishing a sound basis for
robotics field in Armenia. Certainly, many students would wish to be
specialized particularly in the robotics filed as an essential area,
thus becoming carriers of advantages for competitiveness in the word”,
said VivaCell-MTS Ralph Yirikian. “The development of robotics will
distinctly reduce the “brain outflow,”added VivaCell-MTS General
Manager.

The courses for school groups will start in September 2013. Within
the frames of this project it is envisaged to train the teaching
staff from respective schools in June – July. The programming of
educational robots will be implemented through Labview, Microsoft
robotics studio programmes.

Today there are robotics groups in the following schools of
Yerevan:”AYB” high school, Polytechnic basic college and Quantum
College, as for the regions, in Lori (Akhtala), Syunik (Sisian,
Kapan), Shirak (Gyumri) and Aragatsotn (Talin).

Source: Panorama.am

SUMGAIT POGROM VICTIMS COMMEMORATED IN ISRAEL

February 27, 2013 – 15:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Israeli city of Petah Tikva commemorated the victims
of the 1988 Sumgait pogrom at a Tuesday, February 26 event.

As the press attache of the Ararat Union of Armenians of Israel
Mendel Korsunski told PanARMENIAN.Net those gathered were briefed
on the history of the conflict and atrocities perpetrated against
Armenians in Azerbaijan.

“The Ordinary Genocide” documentary was screened at the event,
followed by a moment of silence for the victims of Sumgait massacres.