Author: nina hovnanian

UN MINISTRE DIT QUE LA NOUVELLE LOI SUR LES RETRAITES ENTRERA EN VIGUEUR LE 1ER JUILLET

ARMENIE

La nouvelle loi sur les pensions d’Armenie devrait entrer en vigueur
le 1er Juillet a annonce le ministre David Harutyuyan, chef de cabinet
du gouvernement.

Il a rappele que le salaire minimum pour les employes du secteur
public sera augmente le 1er Juillet et a clairement indique que
le gouvernement prevoit de lier ce processus avec la reforme des
retraites et qu’ainsi les cotisations de retraite ne devraient pas
reduire les budgets personnels des travailleurs.

En reconnaissant certaines parties de la loi sur les retraites comme
inconstitutionnelles la Cour constitutionnelle a donne le 2 Avril
au gouvernement et l’Assemblee nationale jusqu’au 30 Septembre pour
apporter des modifications a la loi.

Hovik Abrahamyan Premier ministre, qui a ete nomme a ce poste le 13
Avril, a toutefois indique qu’il n’allait pas attendre la date limite
pour effectuer les modifications.

lundi 2 juin 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

LE PREMIER MINISTRE PROPOSE DE DIVISER PAR 3 LE NOMBRE DE COMMUNES

ARMENIE

Le Premier ministre armenien Hovik Abrahamyan a declare devant le
parlement que le gouvernement veut que le nombre de collectivites
passe de 915 a environ 300.

Il a fait valoir que le gouvernement ne peut pas se permettre d’avoir
ce nombre d’administrations communautaires.

ISABELLE SADOYAN : MOLIERE DU MEILLEUR SECOND ROLE FEMININ

Theâtre – Paris

Après deux ans d’absence, les Molières sont revenus en force, diffuse
surFrance 2 le 2 juin en deuxième partie de soiree. Aux Folies
Bergères, Nicolas Bedos a reussi son pari, en jambes dans son rôle
de maître de ceremonie. Il faut dire qu’il etait bien accompagne,
entre autres par une Florence Foresti parfaite en Phèdre, un Michel
Fau toujours aussi divine ou encore un Philippe Torreton très en
colère contre le gouvernement.

Parmi une moisson de prix somme toute assez consensuelle, on peut
se feliciter du Molière du second rôle feminin accorde – enfin –
a l’excellente Isabelle Sadoyan pour son rôle de mère indigne dans
la pièce L’Origine du monde de Sebastien Thiery, mise en scène par
Jean-Michel Ribes, qui s’est joue fin 2013 au Theâtre du Rond-Point.

Si la recompense lui avait echappee en 2010 pour son rôle dans Les
fausses confidentes de Marivaux, cette annee elle a ete choisie face
notamment a Valerie Mairesse (Romeo et Juliette) et Fabienne Fabian
(Tartuffe).

C’est par un discours plein d’humilite et de modestie que cette grande
dame du Theâtre est monte sur la scène recuperer sa recompense.

Touchante, elle a remercie l’assistance pour ce premier Molière
amplement merite.

Cependant, on peut s’etonner que la comedienne ait ete nommee dans
cette categorie, et non celle tout simplement de la Meilleure
comedienne. En effet, après plus de 50 ans de seconds rôles, la
comedienne savourait le bonheur d’etre enfin tete d’affiche. Elle
nous confiait en octobre dernier, sans amertume : “Quand vous etes
classe second rôle, on ne pense pas a vous pour un premier rôle meme
si vous en etes tout a fait capable”.

Et pour etre capable, sûr qu’elle l’etait Isabelle Sadoyan dans ce
rôle de mère castratrice ! Alors que son fils realise que son coeur
ne bat plus, une question se pose : pourquoi est-il toujours en vie ?

Pour repondre a cette interrogation, une seule solution selon
le marabout consulte : avoir une photo du vagin de sa mère ! “Cela
faisait longtemps qu’on ne m’avait pas propose une comedie, nous avait
explique Isabelle Sadoyan. Avec cette pièce, je me suis liberee de
beaucoup de choses et cela m’a fait beaucoup de bien”.

Que ceux qui ont rate la pièce se rassure : elle devrait etre reprise
en mars 2015 au Theâtre du Gymnase de Marseille…

mardi 3 juin 2014, Claire (c)armenews.com

TURKISH PARLIAMENT SPEAKER: ARMENIA HOSTAGE OF ITS OWN LOBBY

Trend, Azerbaijan
June 2 2014

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Armenia is a hostage of its own lobby, Turkish Hurriyet newspaper
quoted the country’s parliament speaker Cemil Cicek as saying on
June 2.

He underscored that Turkey has several times attempted to restore
its relations with Armenia, but to no avail.

“Previously, Turkey’s president and foreign minister visited Armenia
in order to restore relations between Yerevan and Ankara. But this
visit didn’t give any results, as the opposite side didn’t take any
reciprocal steps,” the speaker said.

Cicek pointed out that the “Armenian genocide” is one of the barriers
in the restoration of Armenian-Turkish relations.

He went on to add that it will be difficult to ensure stability in
the South Caucasus region unless the relations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan are normalized.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey’s predecessor the
Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out “genocide” against the Armenians
living in Anatolia in 1915. Armenians, increasing their propaganda
of the so-called genocide in the world, have achieved its recognition
by parliaments of some countries.

Edited by C.N.

MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS VISIT REGION FOLLOWING TENSION ON ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI FRONTLINE

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
June 2 2014

2 June 2014, 14:08 (GMT+05:00)
By Sara Rajabova

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have visited Azerbaijan to discuss
the settlement process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

The co-chairs’ visit is taking place on the background of the
recent ceasefire violations on the frontline and killing of the two
Azerbaijani soldiers.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs – Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (US), Jacques Faure
(France) on May 31.

Pierre Andrieu, the co-chairman from France who is about to
start his work soon and the special representative of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kaspzyk also attended the meeting.

The sides exchanged views on the current state and prospects for
negotiations to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Last time, co-chairs Jacques Faure (France), James Warlick (U.S.) and
Igor Popov (Russia) and the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, travelled to the region on
May 16-19.

Furthermore, OSCE Minsk Group held a series of meetings in Baku.

French ambassador to Azerbaijan Pascal Monnier said the main purpose
of the visit is to introduce new French co-chair Andrieu to the
Azerbaijani President.

Monnier noted that he knows Andrieu for 20 years, and they jointly
carried out diplomatic activities in China.

He said Andrieu used to work as ambassador to Tajikistan and Moldova,
and therefore is well acquainted with the former USSR.

Monnier added that Faure will serve as co-chairman until mid-June,
and Pierre Andre will accompany him during his visits.

He further noted that long steps should be taken for the peaceful
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after 20 years of the
ceasefire, as peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan will lead to the
stability and prosperity of the region.

Monnier said French President Francois Hollande expressed interest
to receive the Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents together with the
co-chairs in France, adding that the proposal must be approved by
the presidents.

He noted that Hollande put forward specific proposals for achieving
peace between the parties and presidents can discuss them in France.

Monnier also expressed concern over the violation of ceasefire on the
contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops in recent days.

The situation on the frontline has escalated in recent days, as
Armenian sabotage and intelligence groups have attempted several
times to attack the posts of the Azerbaijani Army units.

As a result of ceasefire breaches, two servicemen of the Azerbaijani
Army were killed and one soldier was wounded.

The Armenian armed forces have intensified ceasefire violations
on the contact line between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops since
the beginning of 2014. As a result of ceasefire breaches, several
Azerbaijani soldiers were shot dead.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that ceasefire
violations are mostly taking place in the Fizuli, Agdam, Terter,
Goranboy, Khojavend, and Jabrayil districts. In all cases, the enemy’s
shooting was answered by retaliatory fire.

The head of EU Delegation to Azerbaijan also voiced concern over the
recent ceasefire breaches.

Malena Mard said the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is still
unsolved is extremely worrying.

“The fact that the conflict is not yet resolved after 20 years
is extremely worrying,” Mard stressed, adding that such kind of
conflicts have left both civilians and servicemen wounded and dead
on the contact line.

She said this puts the emphasis on the need to move forward with the
solution of the conflict.

“I know the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are working both with Azerbaijan
and Armenia to hopefully move forward to the peaceful solution of
the conflict,” Mard concluded.

The U.S. Department of State once again called on Azerbaijan and
Armenia to redouble their efforts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

“As a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, we remain committed to helping
the parties reach a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict,” Department of State Spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

She added that the sides should focus on the benefits that the peace
would bring to the people across the region.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in
conflict which emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against its
South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory,
including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing
efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely
fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country’s territories.

ARMENIANS DIDN’T RESPOND TO OVERTURES

Cihan News Agency, Turkey
June 2 2014

Hurriyet also reported that an “interesting dialogue about the
Armenian question took place” during US Ambassador to Turkey Francis
Ricciardone’s farewell visit to Cicek. The US diplomat asked Cicek
about the failure to send the Zurich Protocol, which was aimed at
paving the way toward a normalization in relations between Armenia
and Turkey, to Parliament for deliberations. Cicek’s response was:
“The gravest insult to a country and society is to libel it with
accusations of genocide. This opens very serious wounds in the
relationship. It is necessary to assess the declaration by [the
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan on April 23 concerning the
genocide allegations. Unfortunately the US has not evaluated it
[the statement]. Turkey has taken three very important steps
for the solution of this problem. The president and the foreign
minister visited Armenia. The other side didn’t even take a single
step. If a peace is to come to the South Caucasus, a normalization in
Azerbaijan-Armenia relations is imperative.” Cicek said the Armenian
diaspora seems to exercise tight control over Armenia’s policies. He
also called on the US to approach the issue more fairly while working
in favor of finding a solution to it.

(Cihan/Today’s Zaman)

INFIDEL KINGS AND UNHOLY WARRIORS

Kirkus Reviews (Print)
June 1, 2014, Sunday

Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad

NONFICTION

A dramatic review of Mediterranean history in the Middle Ages.Catlos
(Religious Studies/Univ. of Colorado; The Victors and the Vanquished:
Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300, 2004, etc.)
intentionally veers away from earlier treatments of the age of the
Crusades by focusing on the entire Mediterranean region as a diverse
and interconnected region.

The author moves from west to east as he examines this complex
world through the stories of various individuals. He begins in Spain
with Abu Ibrahim Isma’il, a Jew who rose to the highest ranks of a
Muslim-dominated empire. Catlos then profiles Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar,
the legendary Christian soldier better known as El Cid. Moving
to Italy, the author discusses King Roger II, whose kingdom was
religiously and ethnically diverse. In Cairo, Catlos introduces Bahram
Pahlavuni, an Armenian Christian who ruled an Islamic empire. Finally,
the author examines Reynaud de Châtillon as an archetypal Frankish
crusader. These people, and a wide host of others, come alive in the
author’s energetic prose. Rather than recounting dry history, Catlos
tends to set his stage with imagined scenes of real people dealing
with their landscapes, historic circumstances and even climates. A
touch of dry humor pervades his writing as well. From beginning to end,
readers are struck by the intensely violent nature of this time period,
a characteristic that spanned all religions and regions.

Though warfare was a given, violence was also deeply personal, and
the higher one climbed in any power structure, the more likely they
were to be executed or assassinated. “[A]s integrated and cosmopolitan
as these societies may have appeared,” writes the author, “they were
built on relationships of power in which the threat of violence was
ever present.”A vivid history of “the collaboration and integration
of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian peoples of the Mediterranean
that laid the foundation for the modern world.”

Publication Date: 2014-08-26 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Stage: Adult ISBN: 978-0-8090-5837-2 Price: $27.00 Author: Catlos,
Brian A.

IRANIAN GAS SAVES ARMENIA

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 2 2014

2 June 2014 – 12:43pm

Armenian Deputy Minister for Energy Ara Simonyan said that Iran
kept Armenia supplied with gas during reconstruction of the pipeline
running from Russia, News.am reports.

The pipeline was under reconstruction for over a year. Iranian gas
supplies and reserves of the Abovyan gas holder fulfilled all demands
for gas in the country.

The mudslide in the Darial Gorge of Georgia blocked the
Stepantsmind-Lars road, the only highway connecting Russia and Georgia,
and damaged the gas pipeline.

JORDAN REMEMBERS SHARIF HUSSEIN

Jordan Times, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
June 2 2014

AMMAN — The Kingdom on Tuesday marks the 83rd anniversary of the
death of Sharif Hussein Bin Ali (1852-1931).

Sharif Hussein, who was emir of Mecca and king of Hijaz, launched the
Great Arab Revolt in June 1916 with the objective of establishing an
independent and unified Arab state.

Instead, the dismembered Ottoman lands were carved into several
mandates and protectorates.

However, the Great Arab Revolt secured Arab rule over most of the
Arabian Peninsula, Syria and all of modern Jordan, founded by Sharif
Hussein’s son, King Abdullah I.

In 1924, Sharif Hussein donated a large amount of money for the
reconstruction of Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

In 1926, he was exiled to Cyprus where he funded the building of an
Armenian church.

In 1931, the exiled king returned to Amman, where he died.

In fulfilment of his will, Sharif Hussein was buried near Al Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem.

The Times (London)
May 31, 2014 Saturday

On the trail of Europe’s three-legged leopard

by Simon Barnes

This is the column that supports the underdog. It also supports the
underleopard, and I’m proud to be reporting from the front line of the
battle to ensure its continued existence. I’m just back from Armenia,
where I’ve been visiting a cracking underdog project to safeguard the
future of the Euro-leopard.

Of course it’s Europe: Armenia was fourth in the Eurovision Song
Contest, with Aram Mp3’s Not Alone, and that makes any leopard found
there one of ours: a subspecies called Caucasian leopard, the biggest
leopard on the planet.

Lord, but it’s fabulous country. Mountains everywhere: you hurt your
neck when you look at the sky. Getting a decent breath is like trying
to get drunk on Coca-Cola. It’s a tough, bare, hard place, and it
takes a juniper tree 300 years to grow the size of your own Christmas
tree.

It’s not teeming like the rainforest or the Serengeti, no. You
hyperventilate when you see a goat: the massive-skulled ibex or
bezoar. Golden eagles ridge-soar with devastating nonchalance, alpine
swifts make jet-fighter zooms and the cries of choughs and ravens echo
off the vertical walls. There are bears and wolves in these relentless
hills as well as the leopard: not many and all well used to hard
times.

I climbed towards the peaks on a bony little horse as tough as the
country, mostly with the horse’s head higher than my own and it was
abundantly clear that this is a hard place for humans and all other
big mammals to make a living. The temperature hits the thirties in
summer, which is fine, but drops to minus 30 in the winter. Nothing
about this place is easy.

The Caucasus Wildlife Refuge is run by the Foundation for the
Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), a crash-hot
Armenian NGO that aims to look after this impossible and glorious
place for generations of humans and leopards yet to come. They lease
land from the community and staff it with rangers from local villages,
who keep the place safe.

It’s worth saving for a thousand reasons but the Euro-leopard is the
undisputed flagship and superstar, a beast whose song, if heard, would
certainly beat even Conchita Wurst – bearded like the pard though she
is – into second place in the Eurovision. But it’s hard to know if the
leopards are really there. Until 2012, you had to take it on trust,
but then the rangers found footprints.

So they set out cameras traps and in July last year got a picture.
Grainy as a silo and blurred to boot, it showed a spotty tail. Nah,
said the cynics, fake, someone waggling a bit of leopard-print at the
camera. They’ve shut up now, though. A month later a great spotty face
hogged the camera like Benny Hill’s Fred Scuttle.

But shock and alarm followed as the leopard hopped out of shot.
Hopped? The bloody thing had only three legs. Consternation. Should it
be captured and brought to the zoo to sire generations in captivity?
No! This was clearly a fully viable, healthy male leopard making light
of an old and well-healed injury. Let him thrive. Check him out on
YouTube by typing Caucasian leopard World Land Trust, though you have
to look hard to see the injury.

I was in Armenia as a council member of the World Land Trust, which
gives financial support to FPWC, helping it to put the rangers on the
ground. I went into the high mountains with one of them, Manuk
Manukyan. Sometimes – actually quite often in wildlife conservation –
you meet a person characterised by quiet but ferocious dedication in
impossibly forbidding circumstances. You feel a little ashamed; you
feel a lot inspired.

There’s a great deal to be done here. FPWC wants to expand the refuge
and the local people are solidly behind them. I drank loud vodka
toasts with the mayor, Rafiq Andrasyan: to conservation, to leopards,
to rangers, to friendship. There are plans to open the area for local
and international tourists: they’ll have a ball.

Not all great wildlife projects are about fantastic abundance. These
fierce scarce places are also part of the planet and need conserving,
along with the tough, scattered creatures that live here. There aren’t
much more than a dozen leopards in all Armenia, rambling over home
ranges of impossible size. FPWC faces problems from corruption, and
from the rich men’s mania for trophyhunting – but it carries on,
transparently honest and quietly determined that the underdog wildlife
of this underdog nation should carry on doing what it does best.

I went to Armenia expecting a worthy sort of trip. I was prepared to
report on all the worthy things I found. I didn’t expect to be blown
away by the place and its people. Thanks to them we still have
leopards on the very fringes of Europe.