Author: Kanayan Tamar

SHOOTINGS AND EXPLOSIONS CAN BE HEARD IN THE ARMENIAN DISTRICTS OF ALEPPO: REISIAN

16:31, 28 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Although the situation in the
central districts of Aleppo is calm, but shootings and explosions can
be heard in the Armenian New Village district. The Press Secretary
of the Armenian National Prelacy in Aleppo Jirayr Reisian informed
“Armenpress” about this. In addition he said that there are snipers
around the city as well.

Among other things Reisian stated that Armenian Armen Jukjukian
returned home after the payment of the ransom. Armen Jukjukian was
kidnapped a few days ago on the way from Qamishli to Aleppo.

As to the Armenians kidnapped in the road from Beirut to Aleppo Reisian
said that they have no information about them and the situation is
still uncertain. They spare no effort for their release.

Among other things Jirayr Reisian spoke about the situation in Northern
regions of Syria and said that they are still endangered. The situation
near Armenian populated Kessab is rather intense.

Syrian SANA agency states that dozens of people died and were injured
because of the explosion in the Armenian populated district of Jaramana
in Damascus in the morning on November 28. Among them there are women
and children.

The majority of Jaramana population are Christians, including more
than 400 Armenian families.

Member of “Emergency Unit of the Syrian-Armenians” Raffi Avetisyan
informed the Armenian portal of the Middle East “Azat Hay” that in
accordance with the present information the clashes in Syria lasting
about 20 months caused the death of 40 Armenians and the injuries of
66 people of Armenian origin. There are also 7 kidnapped Armenians,
and 2 missing servicemen. More than 200 houses have been damaged.

WIRED: PRESENCE OF HOUSEHOLD COMPUTERS AT 28 PERCENT, TRIPLED SINCE 2008

IT and Telecom | 28.11.12 | 13:19

According to the National Statistical Service, 28.7 percent of
Armenian households have computers (as of end of 2011).

The number of household computers has tripled since 2008. Thirty-nine
percent of urban households have computers, compared to 12.4 percent
in villages.

Permanent at-home internet is found in 19.1 percent of households; 3.1
percent have temporary access, while 24.8 percent use internet from
sources outside the home and on mobile phones.

PARENTS OF VICTIMS OF MARCH 1 EVENTS TO SUE AUTHOR OF HISTORY TEXTBOOK

TERT.AM
28.11.12

Parents of March 1, 2008 victims are going to apply to court to what
they said hold Edik Minasyan, author of Armenian History textbook
for higher educational establishments, accountable for distorting
the March 1 events.

“We are going to consult with our lawyers and see how to ground our
claims at court,” mother of one of the ten victims Alla Hovhanissyan
said. “Who has given him the right to distort our history and present
our children as criminals?” she said.

The mother of the killed Tigran Khachatryan said the author should
not have referred to the March 1 in this phase. “I think he should
not have referred to it at all as the investigation is under way
but as far as he did it, he at least should have been unbiased and
present the viewpoints of the two parties,” she said, adding that
before doing it he should have known that there will be people who
will respond and be persistent.

The noise over the textbook has been raised after the video of dispute
between the Armenian National Congress (ANC) activists with the dean
of the Yerevan State University History Faculty appeared in Youtube.

The activists claimed that the dean hit them, which though the dean
refuted, saying that he is not the person to hit a student.

The event followed the discussion of March 1 events presented by Edik
Minasyan and their comparisons with the real facts. The author has
been accused of using the archive of Haylur (Armenian Public TV’s
news program) and distorting the facts.

Speaking earlier to Tert.am though, Edik Miansyan said he has presented
objective reality grounding it with different sources.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE YET TO BE GIVEN ADEQUATE ASSESSMENT – PRESIDENT

November 28, 2012 – 14:42 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – With the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in Ottoman Empire ahead , the international community has yet to
give adequate assessment to this crime against humanity, Armenian
President said in Lebanon.

As Serzh Sargsyan stressed during his meeting with the students and
professors of Haigazian University, American University of Beirut,
Lebanese American University and St. Joseph University Beirut,
regional stability is threatened by conflicts, which hamper the
prospect of peaceful coexistence and stable development.

As he further noted, Armenia takes best efforts to provide safe and
prosperous future for generations to come.

KHOSROV STILL IN CONTROVERSY: ENVIRONMENTALISTS QUESTION NEW DIRECTOR’S CREDENTIALS
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN

ArmeniaNow
28.11.12 | 13:34

Karen Manvelyan (left) and Arman Vermishyan

Armenian branches of two major international environmental
organizations are demanding that the Ministry of Environmental
Protection annul the selection results for filling the vacant position
of Khosrov preserve-museum’s director and announce a new competition
for the job. Leaders of the green organizations stated they are
stopping indefinitely their financial support to the preserve.

Enlarge Photo

At issue is the placement of a new director who, critics say, is
himself a hunter with questionable credentials for protecting the
vulnerable species that inhabit the preserve.

“Khosrov preserve is not only an area under special protection, but
also a scientific research center. Hence, the person in charge has to
have the highest relevant academic background, vision, publications,
and meet a number of other criteria, whereas the newly-appointed
director of Khosrov Preserve doesn’t. The same can happen to other
preserves and reserves, that is why it’s pointless to invest money
when who knows how it will be used,” says director of World Wildlife
Fund Armenia Karen Manvelyan.

After the dismissal of director Varantsov Barseghyan on October 18,
the ministry announced the vacancy with November 7 as the deadline
for submitting applications. One of the three applicants Gabriel
Poghosyan was selected.

Arman Vermishyan, national coordinator at Caucasus Nature Fund
(CNF) in Armenia, who was present at the selection process, said
Poghosyan doesn’t meet a number of criteria stated in the law on
state non-commercial organizations.

“So someone who has taken courses for security guards at some
God-forsaken place [he says Kingbungtu] can also have ambitions for
becoming the director of Khosrov preserve, if that position is now
held by Gabriel Poghosyan, graduate of the department of commodity
research at Rostov State University,” says Vermishyan.

Over the past three years CNF has invested in the preserve more than
210,000 euros. Another 40,000 was planned to be invested in late 2012
to be followed by a new quarter-based funding project. Since 2006,
WWF-Armenia has invested half a million US dollars and was planning
to continue funding through the coming year.

Haykakan Zhamanak oppositional daily writes that Poghosyan, better
known by his nickname Nono, is buddies with Speaker of Parliamenet
Hovik Abrahamyan and his brother. He is also said to be fond of
hunting.

Environmental activists (Yeghia Nersisyan, Mary Khachatryan, Anna
Shahnazaryan) claim Poghosyan is “a well-known poacher”.

WWF’s Manvelyan says in Armenia everybody knows who is who and who’s
backing, who comes from where.

“And that person, who used to be a hunter, even if he wants to keep a
preserve, he won’t be able to, because first of all he lacks proper
academic background, and second, his circle of acquaintances won’t
let him. There are many people he can’t refuse and ‘shut the door’
in front of them,” he says.

After the selection process was over Poghosyan said he likes animals
very much and last time he hunted was 12 years ago and the only thing
he hunted was quail.

“We are not poachers, we are poacher punishers,” he said.

WWF-Armenia and CNF-Armenia leaders have voiced a warning that
if the ministry does not annul the selection results and does not
announce the vacancy again, they will turn to the board members of
their respective organizations, who in turn are representatives of
a number of international structures.

The minister will announce his decision in two days.

Meanwhile, the ministry has released a statement in which the demand
to hold a new competition is regarded as “exceeding their commission”.

“They are no more than agents of those organizations, their
contractors, and are not authorized to reconsider the relationship
between those organizations and the ministry,” says the statement. “In
the nearest future the ministry, regardless of further developments
with the competition, will make a judgment viewing the environmental
organizations’ statement as a failed attempt at interfering with the
ministry’s internal matters.”

QUALITY OF NATURAL GAS DRAWS INCREASING COMPLAINTS BY ARMENIA’S POPULATION

tert.am
28.11.12

The consumers of natural gas have been recently raising complaints
about the quality of the blue fuel.

Most say that the blue fuel no longer ensures the same degree of heat
as it used to before, with the flow of dirty gas often impairing the
operation of the reduction gears.

“We switch on our gas boiler on the same degree as we did last year,
but it is relatively cooler in our house. While the bulk water
transport used to take 30 seconds, it now takes 1-1.5 minutes. But
the climate outside is almost the same,” Gayane Aghababyan, a resident
of Yerevan’s Pushkin street, told Tert.am.

Arthur Hakobyan, who installs heating supply systems in apartments,
says people often complain of the system’s poor operation which is
caused by unclean gas.

“The flow of dirty gas often impairs the work of the reduction gears,
and the population often turns to us as they have to be changed by a
specialist,” he said, adding that the lower gas burning temperature
is caused by the presence of air in the fuel.

A chief engineer at Hayrusgazard, Hrant Tadevosyyan, had earlier
dismissed the reports about supplying the population natural gas
mixed with air.

The pressure of natural gas often drops in winter, the problem
requiring an intervention by specialists.

ANTI-IRAN SANCTIONS DAMAGING ARMENIA ECONOMY: ARMENIAN PM

On Line: 27 November 2012 15:36
In Print: Wednesday 28 November 2012

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan says the U.S.-engineered
sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic are damaging the
economy of Armenia.

“International sanctions practically nullify our opportunities to
work with Iran. This creates serious problems for Armenia,” Sargsyan
said in an interview with Interfax on Monday.

“At the same time we face problems exporting goods to the Middle East,
which reduces the opportunities for diversification and creates more
difficult conditions for competitiveness with higher transport fees,”
the Armenian premier said.

The illegal US-engineered sanctions have been imposed on Iran based
on the unfounded accusation that the Islamic Republic is pursuing
non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology
for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s
nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence of divergence
toward military objectives in Iran’s nuclear energy program.

BAGRATYAN: WE BUY GAS AT EUROPEAN PRICE

Story from Lragir.am News:

16:51 27/11/2012

Member of Parliament Hrant Bagratyan, Armenian National Congress,
said during today’s press conference that the gas price will go up in
February. According to Bagratyan, it is possible to avoid the increase
with the help of reduction of internal costs since transportation
of gas from the Armenian border to the customer costs more than from
the supplier to the border.

The former prime minister noted that Gazprom sells gas at 180 USD,
but as soon as it gets to Armenia, the price increases by 200 USD
before it reaches the customer.

Hrant Bagratyan says that Karen Karapetyan left Armenia in ruins.

Since Gazprom is both the supplier and the local provider, Armenia
eventually buys gas at 420 USD, which is the European price.

POLITICIAN: ARMENIA STILL HAS SEVERAL MONTHS TO BREATHE EASILY AND NOT TO TAKE PART IN THE KARABAKH NEGOTIATING PROCESS

arminfo
Tuesday, November 27, 16:50

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen have already fixed that the
negotiating process on the Karabakh conflict settlement will continue
on the level of foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, ex-foreign
minister of the NKR and former adviser of the NKR president, Arman
Melikyan, said at today’s press-conference.

“There is no information about the meeting of the head of states. And
as presidential election will be soon held in Armenia, official
Yerevan still has several months to breathe easily and not to take
part in these processes. Perhaps, just over this period of time the
republic will manage to sum up the way passed, to correct mistakes,
to form new approaches and to follow them in future”, – Melikyan said.

Touching on the statement by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs that
functioning of Stepanakert airport will bring extra tension in
the region, he said that nothing has changed in rhetoric of the
intermediaries. “Only flexibility and high quality of the Armenian
party will promote settlement of this problem and functioning of the
airport”, – Melikyan said and added that they could not have such a
problem if Armenia started the process on recognition of the NKR.

FUTURE OF ARMENIAN STATE WILL BE QUESTIONED UNLESS KARABAKH CONFLICT IS SETTLED

News.Az
Tue 27 November 2012 12:28 GMT | 12:28 Local Time

“Karabakh conflict cannot be left unsolved.

Azerbaijani territories must be liberated by all means”.

The statement came from chief of the foreign relations department
of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov,
APA reports.

Mammadov also unveiled Baku’s expectations from the Minsk Group:
“Our wishes and demands to the co-chairs are that this issue cannot
be protracted. They have been negotiating for already so many years,
which were ineffective. This issue cannot be left unsolved.

Azerbaijani lands must be liberated by all means.

I personally consider that the sooner it occurs, the sooner Armenia as
a state may get the guarantee for the future fate of Armenian people.

If the situation does not change, the future of this state and these
people will be under question”.