Author: nina hovnanian

ZARUHI POSTANJYAN SEES RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AS PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY (VIDEO)

13:05 | October 15,2014 | Politics

The demand of a change of government should have a clear agenda,
with the primary focus on president’s resignation, Armenian lawmaker
Zaruhi Postanjyan told reporters on Wednesday, speaking about the
actions of the three non-governing forces.

The authorities should definitely step down, she said. Speaking
about the Armenian Revolutionary Federation- Dashnaktsutyun, Zaruhi
Postanjyan said the party should find enough strength to undergo
surgery in order to stop all links with the authorities.

The member of the Heritage party sees only Raffi Hovannisian as
president of the country. At the same time, she stressed that people
should make their choice and avoid taking bribes.

ORGANIZATIONAL AND MOBILIZATION SPECIALISTS OF RUSSIAN ARMY GENERAL STAFF ARRIVE IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, October 15./ARKA/. Specialists from the chief organizational
and mobilization department of the Russian Armed Forced General Staff
arrived in Armenia on Wednesday, the press office of the Armenian
defense ministry reported.

The visit is paid as part of the 2014 cooperation program approved
by the ministries of defense of Armenia and Russia, according to
the report.

The delegation arrived in Armenia for a joint discussion of
registration of pre-inductees, staffing issues, and mobilization
training, says the report.

The head of the Russia engineer force lieutenant-general Yury Stavitsky
is also in Armenia on a visit, together with a working group from
the office of radiation, chemical and biological defense. -0–

HOW GREEK PARLIAMENTARIAN IN PACE ANGERED ARMENIANS – GREEK MEDIA

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

13:13 15/10/2014 >> MISCELLANEOUS

Mignatiou.com Greek news website has published an article about the
activities of Greek parliamentarian in the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE), ex-Foreign Minister of Greece
Dora Bakoyannis. The article is titled “How Dora Angered
Armenians.”

The article notes that Dora Bakoyannis delivered a blow to
Armenian-Greek relations by supporting the Azerbaijani motion on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the PACE.

It became known that there has been a political clash in the
PACE between Dora Bakoyannis and veteran lawmaker Andreas Gross
(Switzerland) when the latter raised a question about Bakoyannis’
honesty and ethics and said that she is on close terms with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev and has held a dinner in his honor.

Bakoyannis justified herself by saying that she invited Aliyev to
dinner as chairwoman of the Greek Olympic Committee.

Mignatiou website says, citing an article posted on Panorama.am:
“The relationship of Dora Bakoyannis and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev has oligarchic interests, and the Armenian website
Panorama.am claims that one of the reasons why Bakoyannis initiated the
resolution on Nagorno-Karabakh is that she wants to get Aliyev’s
support for becoming European Commissioner for Energy.”

The article says that the issue of Dora Bakoyannis was even discussed
at the highest level, during the visit of Greek President Karolos
Papoulias to Yerevan. In response to the Armenian side’s
concerns over Bakoyannis, President Papoulias said Greece has a
clear position on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the approach of
Ms Bakoyannis does not reflect the position of the Greek government,
according to the article.

As was reported earlier, during the summer session of the PACE, two
draft resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were combined
and the PACE Bureau decided to send the draft resolutions to the
PACE Political Affairs Committee for preparation of a report titled
“Escalation of Violence in Nagorno- Karabakh and Other Occupied
Territories of Azerbaijan.” At the autumn session the PACE
approved the Bureau’s decision, with Robert Walter of the UK
being appointed rapporteur.

Related: Azerbaijani caviar occupies PACE: Assembly to draft report
on Karabakh

PAST YEARS’ SCIENTIFIC REFORMS YIELD POSITIVE RESULTS IN ARMENIA, SAYS OFFICIAL

12:51 * 15.10.14

The science development strategy is a very important and valuable tool
which has already produced certain results, a senior education official
has said, highlighting the significance of the past years’ reforms.

Speaking to Tert.am, Head of the State Committee of Science Samvel
Harutyunyan praised the recent 4-5 years’ achievements in the sector,
noting that they considerably outnumber the measures taken in the
previous decade and half.

“What we had from the independence period [early 1990’s] until 2008
were only a couple of decisions; from 2008 onwards, 30 agreements
have been signed and over 40 decisions were made on the level of
the Government and the prime minister. Most of the decisions are of
formative significance. One law was passed, and two more are on the
National Assembly’s [agenda] now. We have two mega-projects decisions:
CANDLE [Center for the Advancement of Natural Discoveries using Light
Emission] and the nuclear medicine program,” he explained.

Harutyunyan noted in the meantime that the number of scientists has
decreased fivefold since the Soviet period. “We had 33,000 scientists
in Armenia in the Soviet times; today the number reaches 7,000,
which is five times less,” the official said.

But he considered the number quite normal, noting that Soviet
Armenia’s scientific and research potential was directed to the entire
USSR, not one country alone. “Our scientist and 70 percent of our
[research] institutes engaged in applied sciences, and they had
a union-wide significance. For example, the Institute of Physics,
the Computer Research and Development [Institute] and many others
were establishments of a union-wide significance which served the
superpower. The number is quite big for Armenia alone, whereas for the
Soviet Union, it’s absolutely normal. We now have 7,000 employees of
whom 4,000 are scientists, with the other 3,000 constituting ancillary
staff. So 4,000 is quite a normal figure for our state. Our problem
has to do with the age of scientists. Doctors’ average age here
is above 60, while those holding the degree of a PhD candidate are
over 55. This speaks about the ageing of science, although the past
4-5 years’ reforms have made the age younger by five to six years,
which I think is quite a good result.”

Armenian News – Tert.am

TSARUKYAN’S GODSON PREPARING TO RUN FOR ABOVYAN MAYOR: ZHOGHOVURD

10.14.2014 11:12 epress.am

Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan’s godson, Artur
Harutyunyan (known as Palach), has bought 50% of the shares of the
city of Abovyan’s television station, writes the daily Zhogovurd.

According to the paper’s sources, Harutyunyan is preparing to run
for the Abovyan mayoral elections taking place in the fall of 2016.

Yesterday, while Harutyunyan spoke to Zhoghovurd, he confirmed news
circulating about his buying the television station. He noted that
currently, the TV station is not in a good condition, and he wants to
“make it in tune with our present day.”

In regards to the rumors of Harutyunyan’s potential nomination to
the Abovyan mayoral elections, he urged the journalist not to ask
provocative questions.

After a conflict with Gagik Tsarukyan, Harutyunyan joined the ranks
of the Republican Party of Armenia. Back in 2012, he attempted to run
against Tsarukyan’s son-in-law, Karapet Guloyan, the current mayor
of Abovyan.

ISIL WORKS ON BEHALF OF TURKEY’S INTEREST – ANALYST

[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]

10:16 14/10/2014 >> INTERVIEWS

The ISIL Takfiri militants are acting on behalf of Turkey’s
interest as the country has already aimed to set up a buffer zone in
northern Syria, says an analyst.

“I believe that ISIL is acting on behalf of Erdogan’s
interest in Turkey because Erdogan was planning on installing a buffer
zone in northern Syria and in northern Iraq, and he wanted to use
northern Syria as a gateway to the Arab world,” Jamal Wakim,
with the Lebanese International University, from Beirut, said in an
interview with Press TV.

“So the ISIL is clearing this region off the Kurds who might be
an obstacle towards an easy Turkish passage towards the Arab world and
that is why Turkey is not letting Turkish Kurds support their brothers
in Kobani,” the analyst stated, in reference to Syria’s
strategic border town of Kobani near Turkey.

The urban warfare between Kurdish fighters and the ISIL Takfiri
militants rages on in Syria’s border town of Ain al-Arab,
also known as Kobani.

The border town is still under the ISIL fire despite more than
three weeks of airstrikes by the US-led coalition on the militants’
positions.

“I do not believe that United States and its allies are serious
about wiping out ISIL as they claimed. They used ISIL as a pretext
to take from Iraq what they could not get in 2011,” the analyst
said with regard to the US role in fighting the ISIL terrorist group.

“The Americans want ISIL to keep controlling the area that is
controlling now because it drives a wedge between Baghdad and Damascus
in order to facilitate the control of the whole Middle East,”
he added.

The United States and its allies started airstrikes against the ISIL
in Syria last month. However, there is a growing concern over the
effectiveness of the military operation with many Kurdish officials
saying the air raids are not working.

RULING PARTY HAS NO AGENDA

12:30 / 14.10.2014

The opponents of the October 10 rally claim that the three political
forces do not have clear agenda. While it appeared that the ruling
Republican party has no agenda either.

The Republican party’s Executive Body’s session is scheduled for
Thursday. According to Ruben Tadevosyan, the chairman of the party’s
organizational committee, the agenda of the October 16 session will
be formed on site.

More probably the agenda will include one issue relating to the
participation of PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan in the recent rally,
or how to discover hidden PAP members among their rows.

Nyut.am

ARMENIAN POLICE KEEPING STAFF LISTS A SECRET: ARTUR SAKUNTS TAKES THEM TO COURT

10.14.2014 15:08 epress.am

The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office has taken the Armenian
police to court again for keeping information secret. Recall, that
the Vanadzor office had presented a similar complaint against the
Police for rejecting an application to receive the results of a civil
investigation: the lawsuit has been rejected in all national courts.

This new case related to the police’s lack of transparency has entered
the trial phase, on October 13 the first court session took place.

The HCA Vanadzor office president Artur Sakunts applied to Police
Chief Vladimir Gasparyan to be provided with information about the
number of employees in the Armenian Police Sub-divisions, the number
of those in leadership positions, ordinary officers, and the number
of males and females. Sakunts asked for the information in accordance
to the presented criteria.

The police rejected the application to provide the information,
and their reasoning was that the information related to the number
of personnel is considered a secret.

OPPOSING THE TROIKA: THREE NON-GOVERNING PARTIES CRITICIZED BY RULING PARTY MEMBERS, OUTSIDERS

POLITICS | 14.10.14 | 12:45

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

While the three non-governing parliamentary parties are preparing for
their second autumn rally, the Civil Contract public-political union
considers their tactic unacceptable. The group led by outspoken
oppositionist Nikol Pashinyan has spoken out against both the
government and the troika of opposition forces, speaking in favor of
forming a “public agenda”.

Since in their public statements representatives of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) have so far ruled out that the
government would conduct negotiations with the non-governing forces,
political analysts have different assessments as to how effective
the troika’s process on “power change” will be.

On Monday, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), the Armenian National
Congress (ANC) and Heritage announced their decision to schedule
the next rally for October 24. They did not say when they’d hold
their next gathering at the Friday rally in Yerevan that attracted
thousands of people.

It is remarkable that ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan described the
“Now”, “Now” calls for immediate action heard from the crowd of
supporters in Liberty Square on October 10 as “wrong” and urged
supporters to obey the decisions and the timetable of action of
the leaders of the struggle. At the same time, he said that fresh
parliamentary and presidential elections were needed to save the
country from a disaster.

“Our plans and objectives are clear, so proposals on dialogue and
compromise solutions should come from the government. If these
proposals are reasonable, it is possible that we will meet them
halfway,” Ter-Petrosyan said in his speech.

Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan, who represents the RPA,
on Monday said there was no need for negotiations with the troika.

“We need to understand what to offer – whether they want posts, so
we can give them posts, or they want a coalition so that we offer
them to form a coalition. What is it that they propose? Can anyone
formulate that?” Sahakyan challenged reporters during a press briefing
in Tsaghkadzor.

Meanwhile, Pashinyan, who fell out with Ter-Petrosyan in 2012 over
the latter’s decision to engage in cooperation with the PAP, believes
that what the troika proposes is a power-sharing deal, something that
he said disregards the people’s opinion.

“They choose a tactic that rules out that someone else makes moves
in the political field. Thus, they keep the entire field,” Pashinyan
said at a press conference on Monday.

Still, the troika appears to continue to remain the key format that
keeps up people’s opposition sentiments. According to political
analyst Armen Grigoryan, the three forces combine large capital and
public support.

“A rally that gathers 40,000 people during a non-electoral stage shows
that they are very strong,” Grigoryan told ArmeniaNow, stressing that
the process is the only hope for people who want to see changes.

(Other observers estimated the turnout at the October 10 rally at
between 10,000 to 15,000 people).

“One of the most important things [for the opposition] is to
ensure that the constitutional amendments are not passed, because
constitutional amendments are the greatest threat to political
parties. Everyone understands that if it happens, [President] Serzh
Sargsyan will rule for his lifetime in Armenia, and that’s why it
becomes the most important political factor,” said the political
analyst.

However, according to expert on political and electoral technologies
Armen Badalyan, in Armenia the potential of political forces is not
as important as the potential of society.

“There were 40,000-45,000 people at the Friday rally, but if we compare
that to the number of people who live in poor conditions and seek
justice in Armenia, it appears to be a very low figure. If half of
the workers of Armenian markets came, if half of those who complain
about the red-line parking rules came, there would have been four or
five times more people,” Badalyan told ArmeniaNow.

ALBERT ET GILBERT PRECÈDERONT LES BLEUS A EREVAN

FOOTBALL

Un jour de 1992, Albert Arstanian, createur et patron du formidable
“Domaine de Tournon”, qui, dans les annees 80-90, a accueilli
la fine fleur du sport mondial, vu arriver Mme Ghazarian, avec
le president de la Fede armenienne de foot, tout juste creee et
le premier selectionneur, Makarov. “Ils m’ont dit qu’ils allaient
disputer leur premier match officiel contre la Belgique et avaient
besoin de monter une equipe. Pouvais- je les heberger ? Oui, combien
de temps ? Un mois ? Oui. Combien seront-ils ? Entre 25 et 30 ! Ah
! Bon, je ne peux les laisser a la rue. Et pouvez-vous leur trouver
des equipements, ils n’ont ni ballons ni maillots ? Oui !”

Voila comment le populaire “Banane” est devenu le relais privilegie
du foot armenien en France et meme dans le monde, car il a endosse
le rôle d’ambassadeur auprès de l’UEFA (il ne tarit pas d’eloges sur
Michel Platini) et la FIFA.

Aujourd’hui, il s’envole pour Erevan, avec une delegation d’Armeniens
de Provence, qui assistera samedi a Armenie-Serbie et mardi prochain
a Armenie-France. Parmi ses compagnons de voyage, Gilbert Deukmedjian,
vice-president du Club central des supporters de l’OM, dont ce ne sera
pas le premier voyage. “J’avais assiste au match contre l’Allemagne
en 1996, notre gardien etait deja Berezovski, puis je les ai vus
battre Andorre. C’est très emouvant d’aller en Armenie, mais j’ai
bien besoin d’Albert, car moi, je ne parle pas un mot de la langue
de mes ancetres.”

Papikian, futur Mkhitaryan ?

Àecouter Albert Arstanian discuter au telephone avec le president de
la Federation qui lui enumère la liste des absents, on comprend que
l’ami de Charles Aznavour maîtrise l’idiome. “Il va nous manquer cinq
joueurs, dont le petit Henrikh Mkhitaryan, notre meilleur element. Il
faudrait que je puisse etablir une passerelle avec des clubs de
chez nous pour que le jeune Papikian, qui est notre meilleur espoir,
puisse s’aguerrir.”

À force d’envois de vitamines, de ballons, de pelouse, Albert et son
reseau de connaissances a aide le foot armenien a se structurer, mais
il lui reste desormais a franchir un palier au niveau du jeu. “Le
match contre la France va permettre a nos joueurs de progresser,
beaucoup plus qu’en se contentant de jouer contre des anciennes
nations sovietiques.”

Et tandis qu’il nous montre le fanion du match Armenie-France de
1999 et le maillot de Youri Djorkaeff (le filleul de son epouse), qui
avait marque le but decisif ce jour-la a Erevan, Albert ne decolère
pas après Noël Le Graët. “Il n’a pas voulu fixer le match retoura
Marseille ou a Lyon, où la communaute armenienne est très importante.

Nous jouerons a Lorient, quel dommage quand meme !”

Mais ca, c’est loin. L’immediat, c’est Erevan. Depart aujourd’hui
et visite des sites, car Albert devrait oeuvrer aussi pour le
developpement du tourisme en Armenie…

LA PROVENCE

mardi 14 octobre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com