Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIE-AZERBAÏDJAN
Pas de reprise de la guerre avant 75 ans entre l’Azerbaïdjan et le
Haut Karabagh selon le combattant arménien Vova Vardanov

La recrudescence des violations par l’Azerbaïdjan du cessez-le-feu et
attaques régulières peuvent elles être le signal d’une reprise de la
guerre au Haut Karabagh ? Selon Vova Vardanov, l’un des plus célèbres
combattants arméniens lors de la guerre de libération de l’Artsakh
(Karabagh), la probabilité d’une reprise de la guerre arméno-azérie
sont très minces. > dit Vova
Vardanov lorsque les gisements de pétrole et de gaz azéri seront à
sec. Entre-temps, > dit-il. Selon Vova Vardanov, l’unique objectif du
clan Aliev est de puiser les richesses de l’Azerbaïdjan. Le combattant
arménien ne craint pas non plus le surarmement de l’Azerbaïdjan. > dit-il. Il a
également affirmé que les troupes arméniennes sont dans la sérénité et
contrôle la situation sur les fronts. Ce qui n’est pas le cas des
Azéris…

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 3 août 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

ARMENIE
Arménie : des militants pro-Russie attaquent des membres de la
diaspora pour la promotion de >

La méfiance face aux > au sein d’un segment
important de la société arménienne fournit du combustible pour une
guerre de la culture métissée en Arménie.

La poussée du gouvernement pour des liens plus étroits avec la Russie
semble creuser un fossé culturel en Arménie. L’écart a été exposée au
cours d’une audience judiciaire le 9 mai concernant un cas de violence
familiale dans la région orientale du Gegharkunik, une des zones les
plus socialement conservateurs de l’Arménie. À un moment donné au
cours de la procédure, Robert Aharonian, un militant pro-russe qui
assistait à l’audience, s’en est pris à deux défenseurs des droits des
femmes nés en Amérique du Nord qui font la promotion de > qui condamnent la violence physique contre les femmes.

a-t-il affirmé, selon les
médias locaux. La question de la violence domestique est devenue un
sujet brûlant pour le débat public ces derniers mois. Les Arméniens de
la diaspora qui >
devraient quitter l’Arménie, a continué Aharonian jurant vivement. >.

Ses commentaires ont particulièrement ciblés une américaine d’origine
arménienne Maro Matossian, chef du Centre de soutien aux femmes basé à
Erevan, et la directrice du centre de ressources des femmes Lara
Aharonian, originaire du Canada et qui n’a aucune relation avec Robert
Aharonian.

Les deux femmes sont des résidents arméniens à long terme qui ont
critiqué le bilan des droits civils du gouvernement. Les deux femmes
sont devenues des cibles au cours des dernières années pour les
militants opposés à l’intégration européenne.

Les tensions entre les Arméniens nés dans le pays et les membres de la
diaspora ne sont pas nouvelles. Mais l’échec du gouvernement à
formuler des observations sur les attaques verbales de Robert
Aharonian, un sujet brûlant sur les réseaux sociaux, a soulevé des
soupçons que les fonctionnaires eux les tolèrent en silence comme un
moyen de repousser les critiques ; en particulier pendant la période
qui a précédé le 1er Juin date prévue par Erevan pour adhérer à
l’Union douanière avec la Russie , le Kazakhstan et la Biélorussie.

Un militant d’opposition Hranoush Kharatian, un ancien chef du
Département des minorités nationales, a suggéré que l’accent mis sur
la famille, > est
destiné à isoler comme des > et > les Arméniens
de la diaspora >> qui ne sont pas les favoris des autorités >>.

Anna Safarian, un conseiller au défenseur des droits humains Karen
Andreasian nommé par le gouvernement, a condamné les paroles
d’Aharonian comme du > et un >.
Pendant ce temps, le chef d’état-major au ministère de la dispora
Firdus Zakarian a soutenu que les remarques de Robert Aharonian
étaient inappropriées et donc pas digne d’une réponse.

> a
déclaré Zakarian. en Arménie.

. Il a défini cette > non pas
comme > ou les organisations non gouvernementales
financé par l’ occident parce qu’elles étaient un >
potentiel entre la Russie et l’Arménie.

Matossian et Lara Aharonian ont appelé le gouvernement à faire preuve
de >. Le silence du gouvernement
devrait inciter les Arméniens de la diaspora qui ont soutenu les
autorités arméniennes à comprendre qu ‘> a ajouté Lara Aharonian.

Les représentants de certaines organisations représentant les
Arméniens de la diaspora, y compris l’Union Générale Arménienne de
Bienfaisance (UGAB), un groupe basé à New-York-City qui a versé
environ 170 millions de dollars dans le pays depuis 1991, tentent de
tasser la controverse. > a déclaré Hovig Eordekian, directeur
adjoint du bureau d’Erevan de l’UGAB .

Note de la rédaction :

Gayane Abrahamyan est un journaliste indépendant et rédacteur en chef à Erevan.

Eurasianet.org

dimanche 3 août 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

A presidential meeting on agriculture held in Karabakh

STEPANAKERT, August 1. /ARKA/. The president of Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR) Bako Sahakyan held a meeting on agricultural problems
in the country on Thursday, the press office of NKR’s president
reported.

State support to farmers who suffered from natural disasters was
discussed in the meeting. Reports were made by minister of agriculture
and heads of regional administrations.

The president gave certain instructions to the respective bodies for
efficient harvesting and elimination of consequences from natural
disasters.

The meeting was attended by NKR’s premier Ara Harutiunyan and other
officials. -0–

– See more at:

Cihan News Agency, Turkey
Aug 2 2014

Azerbaijani armed forces fully control situation on border with Armenia

BAKU – 02.08.2014 14:04:50

The Azerbaijani armed forces fully control the situation on the
Azerbaijani-Armenian border and on the frontline, spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagif Dergahli told Trend on August 2.

“There is no retreat from the Azerbaijani side,” he added.

“Despite the losses, Azerbaijani soldiers and officers prevented the
enemy’s attack on various fronts,” he said.

“The enemy also suffered losses,” he added. “Armenia hid its losses.
At present, Azerbaijani Air Forces control the situation along the
frontline. The situation is also controlled by Azerbaiajni Defense
Minister Zakir Hasanov. He gave the relevant instructions resulting in
suppressing the enemy’s attacks. In some cases our servicemen
suppressed the mortar positions by machine-guns. A wounded ensign
continued fighting and destroyed several armed Armenian soldiers.
Armenians suffered many more losses, although we do not have accurate
statistics.”

“After the first aid was rendered, wounded Azerbaijani servicemen were
transported to Baku’s main hospital of the armed forces,” he added.
“The specialized medical care will be rendered to them.
”
Some 12 Azerbaijani servicemen and some were wounded as a result of
the Armenian reconnaissance and sabotage groups’ attacks on the
positions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces for the last four days.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result
of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent
of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven
surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions. (Cihan/Trend az)

BFMTV.COM-
1 août 2014

Wikipédia, symbole de la fierté nationale arménienne

Pour développer le Wikipédia arménien, des journalistes et des
ministres poussent leurs concitoyens à écrire chacun un article dans
leur langue natale.

Les Arméniens ont trouvé un moyen original de montrer leur
patriotisme: une campagne de pub les pousse à écrire chacun un article
Wikipédia, sous l’intitulé “Un Arménien, un article”. Objectif de la
manoeuvre selon la BBC, dépasser la Géorgie et l’Azerbaïdjan.

Commencée par une vidéo youtube en mars, la campagne diffuse désormais
ses vidéos sur le cble. Le ministre de la Défense y annonce avoir
écrit un article sur l’armée nationale.

Le ministre de l’Education annonce, lui, qu’il ne faut pas forcément
être spécialiste pour écrire: “Un Arménien, un article: je vais
définitivement le faire, et j’espère que vous aussi”.

11 millions de personnes parlent arménien dans le monde

Seulement 3 millions de personnes habitent en Arménie, mais la
campagne compte également sur les 8 millions d’expatriés dans le
monde.

Mais certains d’entre eux ne savent pas écrire l’Arménien. L’Unesco
reconnaît d’ailleurs que le langage, et son alphabet, risquent
l’extinction. Raison de plus pour les internautes d’aider le projet.

Fin mai, quelques 130.000 articles avaient été écrits en Arménien. A
titre de comparaison, le Wikipedia anglais compte 4,6 millions
d’articles, loin devant le Wikipedia hollandais et ses 1,8 million
d’articles. La version française du site se place seulement en
cinquième place, à 1,5 million.

Aram Sargsyan. “The cold war will end up in Russia’s capitulation.”

August 2 2014

“The problem has its original cause, the sanctions, which are used
against Russia, do we consider them justified or wrong and unfair? I
think they are justified. Russia has taken on the mission to become a
major geopolitical pole, to which it has neither economic, nor
democratic, demographic and legal rights and possibilities. In this
context, it has also involved Armenia and any sanction imposed to
Russia will have worse influence on Armenia than on Russia,” said the
leader of the “Republic” party, Aram Sargsyan, to the question of
Aravot.am of what possible developments and consequences will the
Russian-American confrontation have in Armenia. Recall that yesterday,
the U.S. embassy in Armenia had released a message warning the RA
government and businesses that the partnership with Russia imposed
sanction officials and companies can be risky. This was followed by
Russian Embassy’s answer to Armenia, “It is not appropriate for the
diplomatic mission to indicate to the authorities of the host country
with whom and how they should cooperate, especially using by using
poorly veiled threats in respect of the sovereign state. (…)We believe
that the business community of Armenia is also able to understand the
business issues and do not need others’ suggestions. We express our
concern about American attempts to complicate the work of Russian
business in the Republic of Armenia. All Russian companies represented
on the territory of Armenia, including “VTB Armenia” bank and
“Areximbank”, are under the jurisdiction of given country, make a
profit and pay taxes in Armenia and provide employment to the
significant part of the country population.” “In the general context,
Armenia’s economy will greatly suffer from it, starting from the
transfers coming to Armenia and ending with Russian enterprises that
were not making investments here and were operated and depreciated to
throw away and leave, and now, they will not operate them at all.
Unemployment and so on, which is very bad,” said our interlocutor,
adding that with Eurasian Union, Russia considers itself an
alternative to European Union by raising a question, “What is the
alternative? The European Union is a democracy, human rights, free
judicial market system, competition in the economy, serious financing
of scientific resources. Which is Russia’s alternative to it? Is your
democracy to have constantly the same life-president, corrupt judicial
system, monopolies in market economy and having oligarchs? We have to
make a choice in-between these two. There are many political parties,
including government and non-government, which see the development of
Armenia with the Russian path. There are forces that see the
development of Armenia beyond it, one of which is also the “Republic”.
And what they say the main debate in the upcoming next or early
parliamentary or presidential elections will be among these forces and
around this idea.” Pursuant to Aram Sargsyan, Armenia does not have
any opportunity to come out safe from this Russian-American conflict
in Armenia. To the question of how deep the process will go, our
interlocutor said, “I think this process of the Cold War, which has
begun will end up in Russia’s capitulation.”

Nelly GRIGORYAN
Read more at:

Locals write to Australian Prime Minister demanding change in position

Source: armenia.com.au | Saturday, 02 August 2014

SYDNEY: A group of Armenian-Australians residing in Prime Minister
Tony Abbott’s electorate of Warringah have written to him demanding
his Foreign Minister Julie Bishop retracts her recent statement
explicitly denying the Armenian Genocide.

In a letter addressed to the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance,
Bishop extraordinarily denied the historical reality of the first
genocide of the 20th century by stating “we, do not however, recognise
these events as ‘genocide’.” This outright denial, according to the
Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia), “takes
Australia almost as far back as Turkey on this issue”.

In addition to an online letter drive initiated by ANC Australia,
which attracted over 500 complaint emails to Bishop’s inbox, a number
community members who reside in Killarney Heights, Forestville, Manly,
Beauty Point, Beacon Hill and Balgowlah have written to their local
Member of Parliament, Prime Minister Abbott to ensure their anger is
heard.

“ANC Australia has received copies of these letters sent from
understandably disgusted members of our community, all of whom are
direct descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANC
Australia Executive Director, Vache Kahramanian. “It is with this sort
of direct involvement in the political process that we can expect the
answers we demand from our leaders.”

Azerbaijan incites fresh deadly violence on Line of Contact

09:59 * 02.08.14

One Armenian and three Azerbaijani servicemen were killed and another
seven were injured in an overnight act of sabotage in the north-east
of the Line of Contact.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army reports that its forces managed to
timely react to the adversary and repel its special detachment forces
to starting positions, causing both human and material losses.

The Azerbaijani side is said to have left special-purpose weapons and
other technical equipment in the battlefield.

The Armenian serviceman killed during the cross-border violence is
reported to be Zorik Zh Gevorgyan, 25. The seven injured servicemen
are Azerbaijanis.

The Defense Army extended its condolences to the family, friends and
fellow servicemen of the deceased.

A probe has been launched into further details.

The previous night, the Azerbaijani troops targeted the north and
north-eastern military units on the Line of Contact. The Defense
Army’s frontline subdivisions managed to counteract to the violent
attack, repelling the adversary to the starting position.

Nagorno-Karabakh suffered no losses in the crossfire; possible losses
by Azerbaijan are yet to be clarified.

Earlier, two Armenian servicemen were reported killed in an act of
sabotage provoked by the Azerbaijanis.

The Defense Army says that its forces continue the military vigil
across the Line of Contact, managing, upon necessity, to impose their
own will upon the adversary.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Minister Of Industrial Infrastructures – Artsakh

Jul 28th, 2014

Stimulating Investment In Industry And Infrastructure

Hakob Ghahramanyan, Minister of Industrial Infrastructures

Hakob Ghahramanyan, Minister of Industrial Infrastructures, introduces
Nagorno Karabakh’s industrial sector and highlights its outstanding
investment opportunities. He also discusses major projects underway to
upgrade the republic’s infrastructure.

European Times: What are your ministry’s main goals?

Hakob Ghahramanyan: The Ministry regulates and coordinates the energy,
transport, communications and water sectors. Our main goal is to
develop our infrastructure in order to ensure reliable energy
resources, efficient global communications, safe road conditions and
clean drinking water for the entire country. We are working on a
variety of projects to attract investments, such as construction of
hydropower stations through our subsidiary Artsakh HEK, which is an
open joint-stock hydropower company in which European investors hold
the major share. We are now looking to establish partnerships with
other institutions around the world to help us develop our energy
sector so that we can not only supply our own country’s needs but also
be involved in export.

European Times: How developed is the republic’s ICT infrastructure?

Hakob Ghahramanyan: Our communications infrastructure is 3G, and
approximately 95% of the country has access to mobile communications
and Internet connections. We will complete the switch to digital
television by the end of this year, with around 70% of our population
having access to this service. All of these projects have been funded
by both private and government investments. We have three licensed
telecom providers. One is a state-owned company, the second is not yet
operating and the third is Karabakh Telecom, which is foreign owned
and the country’s only mobile-services provider. We also have a few
Internet companies.

European Times: Why should international investors choose Nagorno Karabakh?

Hakob Ghahramanyan: Nagorno Karabakh is open to investors. Our
investment environment is very liberal, our tax conditions are very
favourable, and operating of our new airport will offer even more
investment attractions. Our ministry is very transparent and always
ready to assist investors. We would like to see more involvement by
the EU here. There are many opportunities in all sectors, from
renewable energy to food processing.

European Times: What is your personal message to potential investors
in Nagorno Karabakh?

Hakob Ghahramanyan: I would like to ask people around the world to
ignore negative media reports about our country. The republic has a
long history, and for those who are interested in making investments
here, we will work to alleviate their concerns in the best ways we
can. We want to assure any investors that they and their investments
will be safe in Nagorno Karabakh.

EurasiaNet.org
July 30 2014

Will Sanctions on Russia Hurt Armenia?

July 30, 2014 – 9:52am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

As international sanctions pile up against Russia, Armenia, a country
literally powered by the Russian economy, expects to get hit, too.

Armenian officials and economy-wonks are not certain about the size
and scope of the impact, but they are positive there is going to be
one. Russia is Armenia’s single largest investor, export-outlet and
energy supplier, so the lateral effects of the sanctions could be
potentially felt in all those directions. “At this stage it is hard
to make expert conclusions. Even the Russian experts do not yet have
precise calculations,” Economy Minister Karen Chshmatirian was quoted
as saying by Regnum news agency.

The latest round of US sanctions targeted, among others, Russia’s VTB
Bank, which happens to be the largest private lender in Armenia. “The
measures taken by the US Government to restrict VTB’s access to the
capital market do not impact the bank’s operational performance and
creditworthiness,” asserted VTB, which is majority-owned by the
Russian government. Bloomberg, however, reported that major
international lenders to the VTB Group already have put on hold a
$1.5-billion loan to the bank.

Another target of the sanctions, Gazprombank, also has a presence in
Armenia. It is owned by Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom, which
essentially is the sole supplier of natural gas to Armenia.

Armenia was also pinning investment hopes on the Russian state oil
corporation Rosneft, another sanctions-target which had plans to
purchase Armenia’s Nairit, a large rubber-manufacturer. Armenian Prime
Minister Hovik Abrahamian did not rule out that these plans may fall
through, though, since the sanctions may put Rosneft out of the
investment mood.

Vaagn Khachatrian, an expert on the Armenian economy and member of the
opposition Armenian National Congress, said in comments to 1in.am news
service that he expects Russian investment to become scarce and
lending more expensive.

The assessments vary about the depth of the impact, but, for now, no
official word on cold feet about the Customs Union; a membership-move
that would further tie Armenia to Russia’s economy.