Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIE
L’Arménie est un état fasciste selon Aliyev

L’Arménie est un “Etat fasciste” créé sur des > qui finiront par revenir à
l’Azerbaïdjan, selon le président azéri Ilham Aliyev.

ARMENIE
Ameria s’est penché sur le secteur des télécommunications dans une étude récente

La société de conseil Ameria a récemment étudié le domaine des
télécommunications en Arménie. L’étude a porté sur le marché des
télévisions par cble, la téléphonie mobile et par fil, l’accès à
Internet et l’utilisation des équipements de télécommunication
complémentaire à Erevan (téléphones mobiles, ordinateurs portables,
tablettes et téléviseurs).

Le document fournit des évaluations de la situation actuelle sur le
terrain, des processus récents et des projections concernant les
évolutions futures.

Les résultats de l’étude soulignent les effets très limités de la
crise financière et économique sur les télécommunications en Arménie.

En particulier, en 2013 les revenus dans le domaine ont dépassé les
niveaux de 2008 de 7% (en prix courants). La téléphonie mobile
représente 64% des revenus, Internet 17% et la téléphonie filaire 13%
en 2013.

Les résultats de l’étude montrent que les services de télévision par
cble sont l’un des marchés les plus en développement rapide dans le
domaine des télécommunications : ses revenus ont été multiplié par
quatre entre 2008 et 2013.

L’étude indique également que la téléphonie fil est encore demandé à
Erevan – 68,7% de la population dans le groupe des 15-69 ans utilise
ces lignes tous les jours.

Les experts ont découvert qu’environ 55% des ménages ont un seul
ordinateur à Erevan et seulement 8,5% ont un ordinateur, un ordinateur
portable et une tablette en même temps.

Les résultats de l’étude montrent que la télévision par cble et
l’accès à Internet sont les marchés les plus porteurs pour le
développement.

vendredi 28 mars 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

EUROPE
La FEAJD appelle les dirigeants de l’UE à agir pour Kessab

Le président de la Fédération Euro-Arménienne pour la Justice et la
Démocratie (ANC Europe) Kaspar Karampetian a envoyé une lettre au
président du Conseil européen, Herman Van Rompuy, au président de la
Commission européenne, José Manuel Barroso, et au président du
Parlement européen, Martin Schulz.

Dans sa lettre le président de la FEAJD écrit >.

>.

vendredi 28 mars 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Rustamyan: Constitutional Court will probably make interim decision

13:10 28/03/2014 >> POLITICS

At a briefing in parliament, head of ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary
faction Armen Rustamyan spoke about the hearing of the lawsuit on the
pension law ongoing in the Constitutional Court.

“I was present at the hearing and I have the impression that the facts
pointing to constitutional violations are indisputable,” Rustamyan
said, adding that he does not see any grounds for the Constitutional
Court to dismiss the case initiated by the four non-coalition
parliamentary factions.

In Rustamyan’s opinion, the court will make an interim decision
implying considerable changes. “At the minimum, it is clear that the
compulsory component must be reviewed,” he said.

Source: Panorama.am

Union of Artsakh War Veterans calls on Armenian Diaspora to start mass
demonstrations to support Kessab

by Nana Martirosyan

Friday, March 28, 15:27

The Union of Artsakh War Veterans calls on the Armenian Diaspora to
start mass demonstrations to support the Armenians of Kessab. In
particular, the veterans expressed their concern over the Turkish
aggression against Armenians and call on the international community
to condemn the situation in Kessab. “All measures should be taken to
evacuate the citizens and keep their property in Kessab”, the
statement says.

The Armenian-populated town of Kessab has been attacked by Turks since
March 21. Nearly 700 Armenian families have been evacuated to
Lattakia. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Armenian political
parties have already made statements drawing the international
community’s attention to the actions of Turkey. An Armenian
parliamentary delegation left for Syria and met with Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad.

PRESIDENT AL-ASSAD WARNS OF WESTERN-BACKED EXTREMISM ON THE REGION’S UNITY

Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, Syria
March 27 2014

Mar 27, 2014

Damascus, (SANA) President Bashar al-Assad warned of the dangers
of terrorism and extremism backed by the West and some countries in
the region.

President al-Assad cautioned, during a meeting Thursday with an
Armenian parliamentary delegation, that this extremist ideology
poses a threat of fragmenting the region that has been historically
characterized by cultural and social diversity.

The delegation, headed by MP Samvel Farmanyan, conveyed to President
al-Assad a message from President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia in which
the latter expressed on his and his people’s behalf condemnation
of terrorist groups attacks backed by Turkey against Kassab city in
Lattakia countryside.

The Armenian President expressed in his message thanks to Syria for
the efforts it is exerting to protect all its citizens.

President al-Assad voiced during the meeting his appreciation of
the objective position of President Sargsyan that is supportive of
Syria’s stability, highlighting the role parliamentarians could play
in revealing threats of terrorism and extremism at international
forums and unifying efforts to face these threats.

For their part, the Armenian parliamentarians affirmed their full
support for what the Syria is doing to restore security and stability
to the country and its efforts to secure the return of people who
have been displaced from Kassab and other areas to their houses and
home villages.

They also voiced confidence that Syria will remain as always a model
of co-existence and national unity.

Later, a meeting was held between Speaker of the People’s Assembly
Mohammad Jihad al-Laham and the Armenian delegation, during which
al-Laham stressed the need for the unification of parliamentary
efforts to form a front to stand in the face of extremist takfiri
thinking and cement parliamentary relations between Syria and Armenia.

The Armenian figures, in turn, called upon Syria’s neighboring
countries to play an efficacious positive role in supporting a peaceful
solution in Syria and not vice versa.

Armenian Ambassador in Damascus and a number of members of the People’s
Assembly’s Arab and Foreign Affairs Committee attended the meeting.

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi also met with the Armenian delegation
and stressed the Syrian government’s keenness to provide protection
for and livelihood and service requirements of its people.

The Premier affirmed that the Armenians in Syria are an essential
part of the components of the Syrian people and are accorded respect
for their contribution to the construction of their country.

The Armenian delegation members expressed denunciation of the scenes of
killing and criminality they saw in Kassab committed by the terrorist
groups that are backed by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

R. Milhem/H. Said

TURKEY LOSES DEMOCRACY AT HOME, REPUTATION IN MIDEAST

AL-Monitor
March 27 2014

Author: Radikal (Turkey)Posted March 27, 2014
by Cengiz Candar

I had just landed in Beirut when I learned that Turkey had shot
down a Syrian plane. Earlier, shortly before I boarded the flight,
I had learned of the first armed confrontation between proponents and
opponents of Syria in Beirut, clashing all night in a neighborhood
on a road from the airport to the city.

As I wrote this article in Beirut yesterday morning [March 25], the
media broke the news that Kasab, a predominantly Armenian town on the
Syrian-Turkish border, had fallen in the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked
Jabhat al-Nusra.

Yesterday’s front page of the As-Safir newspaper, meanwhile,
reported that rebels had seized the only regime-held crossing at
the Turkish border, between Kasab and the Turkish town of Yayladag,
carrying pictures of bearded Salafist militants from Ansar al-Islam
and Ahrar al-Sham. The photos were credited to “Anatolia news agency”
— this goes without comment.

A Turk visiting Lebanon amid such developments would inevitably face
questions on the Syrian crisis and Turkey’s position. And that’s what
happened to me at a panel at Balamand University, perched on a hill
overlooking Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city.

I was there with two other writers for Al-Monitor, the news site that
has become a major reference for Middle East affairs: Sami Nader,
a prominent Lebanese intellectual and economist, and Ali Hashem, the
Tehran bureau chief of al-Mayadeen, a television channel considered
to be pro-Syrian. The topic of the panel was the role of the media,
especially social media, in the Syrian conflict.

About 200 of the university’s students — and in fact the majority
of our audience — were Syrians and, as we were cautioned in advance,
“extremely politicized.”

Tripoli, unlike Beirut, is part of the Syrian war not indirectly
but directly. The city has had loose bonds with Beirut historically,
having its primary links with the Syrian city of Homs and serving as
its seaport.

It feels awkward to be with an audience dominated by Syrian students,
not far from Tripoli, when your country has just shot down a Syrian
plane. It feels even more awkward to speak on Syria in the context
of social media when your country has banned Twitter, in a “medieval”
attempt to counter 21st-century technology.

But I was “saved” in a paradoxical way: Skepticism over Turkey’s
Syria policy here has reached such an extent that it is no longer
taken seriously and, compared to one year ago, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s reputation has gone through the floor.

A year ago, a Turkish F-16 shooting down a Syrian MiG-23 would
have instantly spurred a spirit of national solidarity among the
overwhelming majority of Turks.

Today, however, anything Erdogan says or does or wants to do is
met with suspicion, for a very large part of the public has lost
trust in a prime minister who has demonstrated matchless skills in
polarizing society.

No matter what they say, the downing of the Syrian plane is also met
with suspicion. After all, Turkey is now headed by a leader who is
attacking Twitter to cover up a corruption/theft probe and seems to
consider even a wholesale ban on the Internet, making a laughingstock
of himself.

Many Turks believe that a man waging a war on the cyberworld is capable
of orchestrating an external crisis to save his rule, especially when
the Crimea turmoil has made Turkey look so helpless.

Turning south to compensate for the “helplessness” in the north might
come in handy ahead of elections.

Needless to say, Bashar al-Assad’s regime is brutal. But Erdogan’s
policy of supporting al-Qaeda (Jabhat al-Nusra) and Salafist groups
under the pretext of backing the Free Syrian Army holds no water. Not
any longer.

The real trouble for Turkey is that the tensions and problems it has
recently faced are unlikely to go away with the elections. On the
contrary, they may even get worse.

Yesterday, I came across a tweet from Marc Pierini, the former EU
ambassador to Turkey who continues to closely follow the country:
“Last days of municipal campaign in Turkey: All sides will be striking
hard. Western capitals are wondering how democracy will be restored.”

The word “restored” could be translated both as “repaired” and
“re-established” in Turkish. Hence, in Western European eyes, Turkish
democracy is so badly damaged that it needs a major overhaul or has
to be rebuilt anew.

For the West, the threat embodied by Erdogan has jeopardized democracy,
but for others it targets also Islam, as Islamic intellectual Ali
Bulac argues in a striking interview with Aksiyon magazine.

Bulac says Erdogan’s credibility in religious quarters is on the
decline: “Religious groups had given them credit. They said, ‘You
can govern us, you are reliable, decent people.’ Their trust is now
damaged. Those people care about who represents their faith and make
judgments accordingly. If they have started to look at a Muslim and
wonder, ‘How can a Muslim commit corruption? How can a Muslim lie,
get that rich and look down on others?’ then there is a big problem.”

Bulac makes intriguing observations on the perception that “they steal,
but they work hard,” which is said to be widespread in society: “This
is a sign of moral degeneration in society. There is a saying that
‘people follow the sultan’s religion.’ It means that doing what the
sultan does is considered fine. Moreover, the people in question are
believers. So, it boils down to a thinking that religion permits graft,
that a door is left open there. Meanwhile, retirees, farmers, artisans
who don’t steal but bear the consequences of graft would come to think,
‘If that’s what religion is, I don’t need it.’ This is a big disaster.”

Bulac then expresses his concerns “in the name of Islam, Muslims
and Turkey” as he utters his most hard-hitting words: “An Islamic
heritage accumulated over a century — not 10 or 20 years — is
being ruined. It really hurts. The wells that [Turkey’s] Muslims have
dug up with needles since the Young Turks are now being turned into
swamps. All those painstaking efforts are being wasted. Simultaneously,
we are losing our reputation and opportunities in the Middle East. It
would take at least 20, if not 50 years to make up.”

As someone who has spent almost 50 years of his life in the Middle
East or closely following the Middle East and writing this article in
Lebanon after traveling from Baghdad to Karbala in Iraq two weeks ago,
I can confirm that Bulac’s words are right on the spot.

Let me conclude with another observation from the Middle East: The
sooner Turkey’s reins are taken from Erdogan’s hands, the sooner
Turkey will “restore” its democracy and redeem its reputation in the
Middle East.

ARMENIAN RUGS SOCIETY TO HOST CONFERENCE

Thursday, March 27th, 2014

‘The Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Woven Art’, a conference
hosted by the Armenian Rug Society

GLENDALE, Calif.–The Armenian Rugs Society has organized a conference
entitled “The Armenian Genocide Survivors and the Woven Art.” The
conference will examine the impact of the Armenian Genocide on the
weaving traditions of the Armenian culture. The event will take place
at the Glendale Public Library on Sunday, March 30, from 3 to 7 pm.

This conference aims to illuminate the Armenian Genocide from the
perspective of the woven art in its widest scope: rugs, embroideries,
lace work, handkerchiefs, textiles, and so on. The artists were widows
and orphans, survivors who from the massacres in the mid-1890s through
the decades following World War I maintained their sanity and dignity
by keeping busy with gainful occupations. In a sense, traumatized
as they were, they mocked life’s unfairness and cruelty by producing
what was beautiful and ennobling. Their manufactured articles reached
Europe, the United States and elsewhere. People purchased them out
of humanitarianism, but by doing so they also enriched themselves
with priceless artworks.

The following speakers will participate: Gevork Nazaryan, “Armenian
Weaving Centers in the Ottoman Empire on the Eve of the Genocide”;
Harold Bedoukian, “Armenian Orphans and Orphanages: Their Contribution
to the Carpet Weaving World”; Hratch Kozibeyokian, “The Revival
of an Ancient People and Their Crafts in Post-World War I Aleppo,
Syria”; Susan Lind-Sinanian: “Stitching to Survive: Handcrafts of
Armenian Widows and Orphans, 1896-1930”; Garabet Krikor Moumdjian,
“Why such conferences matter.” Levon Der Bedrosian will deliver the
opening remarks and introduce the speakers.

Several historic Armenian rugs will be on display during this
unprecedented event; including a 16th century fragment of an Armenian
inscribed rug, as well as a signed “Orphanage” rug that was woven by
Armenian orphans.

After the conference, a fund raising auction will take place which will
feature many Armenian and other handmade rugs that will be auctioned
to benefit the cultural and educational activities of the Armenian
Rugs Society.

Glendale Public Library is located at 222 Harvard Street, Glendale,
California, 91205.

Admission is free. Additional parking is available in the Glendale
Marketplace parking structure that is located across the street
on Harvard.

The Armenian Rugs Society was established in 1980 and is dedicated
to the study, preservation and documentation of the artistic and
cultural contributions made by Armenian rug weavers to the rich and
vibrant history of textile arts. The society sponsors conferences,
exhibitions and publications to further awareness of these woven
works. Events have been held in the United States, Europe, and Armenia.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN: DISAGREEMENTS OVER CRIMEA SHOULD BE SETTLED THROUGH NEGOTIATIONS

16:40 27/03/2014 >> POLITICS

The disagreements over Crimea should be settled by diplomatic means,
through negotiations, leader of Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian said
at a discussion about the Ukraine crisis on Thursday.

“We are in favor of a negotiated solution of the Crimea issue, and
we are opposed to the use of force. As a member of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenia should insist on its
participation in all decision making processes,” Mr Hovannisian said.

Counselor of Ukraine’s Embassy in Armenia Igor Roman said for his
part that the referendum held in Crimea on March 16 was a “farce.”

“Ukraine cannot become an ally of Russia in the near future,”
he stressed.

Source: Panorama.am

BUYING BREAD ON LOAN AND SCHOOLS ON VERGE OF CLOSING: PROBLEMS IN AN ARMENIAN VILLAGE

03.27.2014 12:33 epress.am

Residents of the rural community of Okhtar in Syunik, home to
22 families, buy bread on loan, Okhtar village mayor Vagharshak
Hambartsumyan informed local daily Zhoghovurd. “We have an agreement
with several shops that bring bread to the village daily, and at the
end of the month, villagers pay [off their debt] with their pensions,”
he said.

The newspaper also found out from the village mayor that the village
school will soon close, as the number of students decreases day by
day. And this in that case when students of the five neighboring
villages go to this school. There are barely 25-27 schoolchildren in
all the six villages combined.

“Well since there are no young people in the village, for that reason
there’s no marriage either. The last time a child was born in our
village was 10 years ago,” said Hambartsumyan.