Author: nina hovnanian

DEMISSION DU CHEF D’ADMINISTRATION PRESIDENTIELLE
[email protected]

armenews.com
mardi 20 septembre 2011

ARMENIE

Les quotidiens commentent la demission, vendredi dernier, du chef
d’administration presidentielle, Karen Karapetian, frère du richissime
Armenien de Russie, Samvel Karapetian, en avancant quelques hypothèses
a cette demission ” surprise “. M. Karapetian n’aurait plus voulu
attendre sa nomination en tant que PM, promesse qui lui aurait ete
donnee par le chef de l’Etat suite aux elections presidentielles.

Selon Haykakan Jamanak, le frère de M. Karapetian aurait accorde
60 M USD pour la campagne de Serge Sarkissian en 2008, et aurait
promis des investissements a hauteur de 250 M USD en Armenie, ce qui
jusqu’a maintenant n’aurait pas ete fait… De surcroît, comme le
rappelle Haykakan Jamanak, après avoir signe, le 1er mars dernier,
un programme d’investissements de quelques millions de dollars avec le
maire d’Erevan, le frère richissime de M. Karapetian l’aurait aussitôt
annule. Il est suppose, d’après ce quotidien, que la raison principale
de l’annulation des projets financiers serait la non-nomination de
Karen Karapetian en tant que PM.

Les quotidiens avancent aussi une deuxième hypothèse, selon laquelle
M. Karapetian aurait demissionne en raison de ses relations ” tendues
” avec l’un de ses adjoints, Mikhaël Minassian, qui est le beau-fils
du President Sarkissian. Il n’aurait plus voulu etre rejete au second
plan, en ce qui concerne la prise de decisions importantes, selon
Haykakan Jamanak.

Les quotidiens s’interrogent par ailleurs sur les repercussions que
cette demission pourrait avoir sur le processus de politique interieure
en Armenie, vue les moyens financiers et politiques considerables
dont dispose la famille Karapetian. Ils notent que M.

Karapetian n’a pas quitte le parti Republicain et ne se prepare pas
non plus de quitter la scène politique armenienne.

Ambassade de France en Armenie

Service de presse

ARMENIAN WRESTLERS COME AWAY FROM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH 1 BRONZE AND 2 OLYMPIC PASSES

news.am
Sept 19 2011
Armenia

The 2011 World Wrestling Championships wrapped up in Istanbul. On the
final day of the tournament, Ruslan Basiev, representing Armenia in
the 120-kg category, was the closest medal hopeful of the Armenian
national freestyle wrestling team. But Armenia’s representative lost
to Russian Bilyal Makhov in the quarter-finals.

And during the bronze-medal match, Basiev lost to Chuluunbat
Yargalsaykhan of Mongolia.

In 66 kilograms, Davit Safaryan was defeated in the very first match.

In 74 kilograms, Armenia’s hopeful Musa Murtazaliyev lost to
Azerbaijani Ashraf Aliyev, in the quarter-finals.

Armenia’s Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestlers came away from Istanbul
with 1 bronze medal and 2 qualifications for the Olympics. Greco-Roman
wrestler Arsen Julfalakyan became third and freestyle wrestler Mihran
Jaburyan captured 5th place.

RUSSIAN POLITICIAN MAY BE BLACKLISTED IN AZERBAIJAN

news.az
Sept 19 2011
Azerbaijan

According to Armenian mass media, last Friday Mitrofanov attended the
opening of the house of popular festivities Moscow in Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan~Rs Foreign Ministry is checking information about the
visit of former deputy of the Russian State Duma, current member of
the Spravedlivaya Rossiya Party Alexei Mitrofanov to the occupied
Azerbaijani lands.

Naturally, this information will be investigated. Such a visit to
the occupied lands üithout prior notification to official Baku is
inadmissible and demonstrates disrespect to the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan~T, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the country
Elman Abdullayev said.

Those who visit the occupied Nagorno Karabakh without coordination
with Azerbaijan are blacklisted in the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan.

According to Armenian mass media, last Friday Mitrofanov attended
the opening of the house of popular festivities Moscow in Nagorno
Karabakh. During the visit the former State Duma deputy called on
official Moscow to recognize independence of Nagorno Karabakh.

PROSECUTOR SAYS ERGENEKON’S TRABZON CELL COMMITTED DINK MURDER

Today’s Zaman
Sept 19 2011
Turkey

A Turkish prosecutor conducting the investigation into the
assassination of Turkish- Armenian journalist Hrant Dink said on
Monday that the murder was committed by Ergenekon’s cell in the Black
Sea province of Trabzon.

Prosecutor Hikmet Usta announced his opinion as to who masterminded the
assassination and as to the accusations directed at suspects during
the 20th hearing of the 20-suspect Dink trial at the Ä°stanbul 14th
High Criminal Court. The prosecutor said the murder was the work of
Ergenekon’s Trabzon cell and demanded life imprisonment for seven
suspects, including key suspects Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, on
charges of attempting to destroy the constitutional order.

“The Dink assassination was the latest assassination of the deep
structures. The suspects acted on ideological motives. The target
was the Turkish Republic and public order. There is suspicion that
the murder is linked to the Ergenekon network. We have reached the
conclusion that the Dink murder was committed by the Trabzon cell of
the Ergenekon terrorist organization,” Prosecutor Usta said.

Tuncel, a former police informant, is believed to have supplied the
hit man with a gun and Hayal is accused of having acted with Tuncel in
masterminding the Dink murder. Among other key suspects is Ogun Samast,
the ultranationalist teenager who gunned Dink down outside his office
in 2007. He was standing trial at the Ä°stanbul 2nd Juvenile Court
since he was a minor at the time of the murder. Samast has recently
been sentenced to 22 years, 10 months in prison by the court.

Meanwhile, during Monday’s hearing, lawyers representing the Dink
family said they had reached new and crucial evidence about the murder
and requested the prosecutor delay announcing his opinion for further
investigation into the newly emerged evidence. However, the prosecutor
denied their request and the lawyers left the courtroom in protest.

Dink, the late editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot dead by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
broad daylight in Ä°stanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. The investigation into
his murder stalled when the suspected perpetrator and his accomplices
were put on trial, but those who masterminded the plot to kill him
have yet to be exposed and punished.

The investigation that followed Dink’s death revealed that the police
had been tipped off about plans to murder the journalist. Nineteen
suspects are currently facing trial in the murder case. A majority
of the suspects, including the hitman, are from Trabzon, where the
police say they had informed the Ä°stanbul police about the plot to
kill Dink on more than one occasion.

In addition to having ignored the tip-off about the plot, lawyers
representing the plaintiff are accusing the police of destroying
crucial evidence to protect some of the suspects, among who is an
ex-police informant. Lawyers representing the Dink family have long
alleged that the murder was the doing of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang
with members nested within the state hierarchy who are currently on
trial for attempting to overthrow the government by force.

Ergenekon is accused of being behind many atrocious crimes and plots
that sought to create chaos in Turkey, with the intent of triggering a
military takeover. The Dink family’s lawyers earlier demanded that the
court investigate whether Dink’s killing was part of the Cage plan, an
alleged military plot of Ergenekon exposed by the Taraf daily in 2009.

The plan mostly focused on killing non-Muslims and other religious
targets to create turmoil that would eventually help the plotters
take over the government. The Cage plan calls the killings of Dink,
Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro and three Christians in Malatya
an “operation.”

In June, the Trabzon 2nd Criminal Court of Peace convicted six of eight
suspects in a negligence case over the prevention of Dink’s murder,
a rare positive development since the start of the trial four years
ago. The court handed down prison sentences of six months each for
Trabzon army commander Col. Ali Oz and army intelligence unit director
Capt. Metin Yıldız.

In this regard, the Dink family’s lawyers say that although the
decision was welcome, it was unlikely to be a groundbreaking ruling
in the course of the main trial in Ä°stanbul. They had demanded the
prison sentences be based on accomplice charges and that the military
men be tried in the Ä°stanbul court as primary suspects.

SPEAKING OF DEMOCRACY IN AZERBAIJANI SULTANATE IS NONSENSE – ARMENIAN MP

news.am
Sept 19 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – To speak about development of democracy in Azerbaijan is
futile, said MP from Prosperous Armenia party Naira Zohrabyan to a
press conference on Monday.

According to her, the lag of Azerbaijan in maintenance of democratic
institutions is openly marked in European community.

“One of the international meetings attended by Azerbaijani MPs openly
stressed that the country is facing a serious setback in democracy
building. One could not expect something different from a country
that several years ago adopted amendments to the constitution and
removed the two terms limitation for the president. It is futile to
talk about democracy and pluralism in a country that gradually turns
into sultanate,” said Zohrabyan.

N. ZOHRABYAN SAYS RECOGNITION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS A MATTER OF TIME

Panorama
Sept 19 2011
Armenia

The issue of NKR is a vital challenge for Armenia. Obviously some
advancement is felt here – the international community stresses the
people’s right of self-determination, while it used to signify the
territorial integrity, said Naira Zohrabyan, a member of Prosperous
Armenia faction, in a news conference.

The MP says recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh is a matter of time. “We
should keep the negotiations in the format of Minsk Group,” said
the MP.

Republican MP Karine Atchemyan said she agreed with her colleague. She
said certain advancement has been recorded in these years.

Heghine Bisharyan, the head of Rule of Law faction has ensured Armenia
will get the international recognition of NKR. “Our statesmen are
putting forth efforts to get that,” said the MP.

SHOW-TRIAL OVER APRIL 2 PROTESTERS

Azerireport
Sep 19, 2011

Tural Abbasli enters the court-hall

BAKU. September 19, 2011: Today, the Court continued the trial
over the opposition activists Arif Hajili, Mahammad Majidli, Tural
Abbasli and Fuad Gahramanli. Arif Hajili is the deputy chairman of
the opposition Musavat party; Tural Abbasli is the leader of the
Musavat Youth Organization; Mahammad Majidli is the member of the
opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA); Fuad Gahramanli
is the PFPA deputy chairman. They are accused of participating in the
April 2 rally of the opposition. The prosecution claims that these
people caused injuries to policemen and damaged the private property
in the vicinity of the opposition action on April 2.

The witnesses against the opposition activists were mainly policemen.

One of the police-witnesses Tarlan Ahmadov said he remembered that
his leg was injured but he did not recognize any of the four accused
opposition activists. During the cross-examination, it became clear
that during the preliminary investigation, this policeman had claimed
that he had received a back injury. The police-witness’s explanation
was that 6 months had passed since the incident and he did not
remember everything.

Arif Hajili at today’s trial

The prosecution also introduced the witnesses who owned stores in the
downtown area of Baku where the opposition held its rally on April 2.

During the preliminary investigation these persons had claimed that
their property had been damaged by the opposition activists. The
witness Rauf Humbatov, the owner of the DNS-Computer Store said his
store’s windows were broken but he had not seen who had committed
that act. Humbatov said his store had suffered damages in the amount
of 250 AZN (about $280), that he did not know any of the defendants,
and that he withdrew his complaint against them. Another property
owner in the area – Elvin Ahmadov – similarly testified that his
shop’s window was broken but that he had not seen the person who did
it and that he had no complaint against these four defendants.

The prosecution also introduced a police-witness who had not witnesses
anything. The police officer Rauf Tagiyev he heard from other policemen
that the defendants had been engaged in “illegal activities.”

Arif Hajili, the accused Musavat deputy chairman, said this was a
show-trial over the opposition activists, that the window-breakers
were the police-provocateurs.

This is the second “set” of April 2 protesters. Prior to these
proceedings, the local court in Baku had already convicted the first
“set” – six opposition activists arrested for their participation in
the April 2 rally under the similar charges (Azerireport).

TER-PETROSYAN, SARGSYAN CAN’T SIT AT THE SAME TABLE

04:01 pm | Sep 19, 2011

Politics

“During its rally on September 23, the Armenian National Congress (HAK)
will sum up the steps made by the authorities during the timeframe
set by the opposition bloc. Then it will be our turn to act,” HAK
Coordinator Levon Zurabyan told journalists on Monday.

The opposition official says the authorities are missing their last
chance to conclude reconciliation with the opposition, and people
will have to talk to them in a language they understand better.

According to Wikileaks publications, the democratic world is well aware
of the grave situation in Armenia but turns a blind eye to Armenian
illegitimate authorities who rigged elections, thereby encouraging
recurrence of similar crimes.

“The decision of the PACE Monitoring Committee to consider the
chapter of March 1 tragic events closed evidences that they attempt to
neutralize public hopes for free and fair elections. The democratic
world is simply disregarding the processes going on in Armenia,”
said Zurabyan.

The HAK representative believes that the ‘vulnerable legitimacy of
Armenian leadership will play into the hands of superpowers in the
issue of Karabakh conflict.

Speaking about the disrupted opposition-government talks, Zurabyan
said the authorities will hardy make any concessions unless they are
forced into concessions by people.

Levon Zurabyan says Armenian first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan cannot
attend the events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s
independence since Ter-Petrosyan cannot sit on the same table with
the kleptocratic regime or participate in their feast.’

Speaking at the previous opposition rally held on September 9,
opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan gave the government a new
deadline to call fresh elections or face a new wave of street protests.

ARMENIAN-BELGIAN BUSINESS FORUM IN YEREVAN SLATED FOR NOVEMBER 7-9

ARKA
Sep 19, 2011

YEREVAN, September 19. / ARKA /. Armenia’s capital city Yerevan will
host an Armenian-Belgian business-forum “Belgian Week in Armenia” on
November 7-9, the press service of the Armenian government told ARKA.

It said Armenian prime minister Tigran Sarkisian who is visiting
Brussels discussed a set of issues related to the business forum
during a meeting with the chairman of the Armenian-Belgian Commerce
Chamber Valery Safarian.

The government press service said about 50 Belgian business people
will arrive in Yerevan for the forum. The business forum will bring
to Yerevan three different delegations from Belgium -Flemish, Walloon
as well as representatives of Agoria Business Club.

Safarian told Armenian prime minister that the Flemish part of
the country is specialized in construction, road construction,
diamond cutting and the Walloon part in food, energy, chemical and
pharmaceutical industries, as well as in leather processing.

According to Safarian, Belgian businessmen are seriously interested
in Armenian market, and consider Armenia as a regional business center.

Unlike Flemish entrepreneurs, business people from Walloon are
familiar with Armenia through a joint ARMENWAL project implemented by
the Armenian Development Agency and the Walloon’s Agency of Foreign
Trade and Investment.

LIFE TERMS SOUGHT IN JOURNALIST KILLING

Associated Press
09.19.11, 10:47 AM EDT

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s state-run news agency says a prosecutor
is demanding life imprisonment for seven men accused of involvement
in the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist.

Hrant Dink was shot outside his office in 2007, a killing allegedly
motivated by ethnic tensions.

In July, a juvenile court sentenced a now 21-year-old Turkish
nationalist hardliner to nearly 23 years in prison for killing Dink.

Nineteen other people are on trial separately, accused of instigating
the killing.

The Anatolia agency says the prosecutor on Monday recommended seven
suspects serve a life term, arguing the murder was based on “ideology”
and amounted to an act against “the Turkish state and its order.”

He said five suspects should serve three years in prison, while seven
others should be acquitted.