Author: nina hovnanian

AIK SHAKHNAZARYAN STOPS ALISHER RAKHIMOV IN TWO

Boxing Scene
March 11 2014

Posted by: Alexey Sukachev on 3/11/2014 .

By Alexey Sukachev

20-year old Russian Armenian Aik “The Humanoid” Shakhnazaryan (11-0,
4 KOs) from Samara made a huge step up in competition, and a risk vs.

reward bet has played on perfectly. The expectedly light-hitting
Russian light welterweight made a big splash by knocking out former
contender and 2000 Uzbek Olympian Alisher Rakhimov (25-3, 12 KOs)
in just four minutes. The fight was held in Kohtla-Jarve, Estonian,
and a vacant WBC Baltic title was at stake in this contest.

Rakhimov’s career as an elite boxer looks to be finally over by this
defeat, the first stoppage loss in his pro life. Alisher, now 36,
had his most successful span in 2010-2011, when he consecutively
defeated world-rated contenders Rustam Nugaev, Sergio Thompson and
Saddam Kietyongyuth. His career was then derailed by decision losses
to Ji-Hoon Kim and Denis Shafikov.

AS WEST LEAVES THE FRONT LINE, ‘THE HORRORS OF HISTORY’ RETURN

World Tribune
March 11 2014

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Alexander Maistrovoy

The West has left the forefront of history which is repeating itself
in force and with dispatch throughout Eurasia.

While condemning the actions of Russia in Crimea, John Kerry said
that the time of empires is long gone; we live in the “21st century,
and not in the 19th century”. After speaking with Putin, Angela Merkel
told him that he had lost touch with reality and that he lives “in
another dimension”.

In my opinion the time of empires has not passed and Putin is in full
harmony with reality.

The United States, and with their assistance a significant part of
Europe have created an isolated civilization: extremely successful
and advanced, but isolated.

Geography played a great role because the U.S. and Britain are island
states and mainland Europe is a peninsula. From a cultural stand point,
this civilization has been based on ancient models of Greek democracy
and Roman law; ethnically – on a relatively homogeneous population
in a very limited space.

For millennia the giant Eurasia had existed in a completely different
position that has never changed.

Mircea Eliade wrote with bitterness that his people, Romanians, like
other Balkan peoples consistently lived in fear of the “The Horror
of History”. It’s difficult to create and develop sustainable forms
of democracy when you live in perpetual state of hordes, intrusions
and tyrannies. Meanwhile, leading Eurasian powers – Russia, China,
Turkey and Iran – were formed in exactly such an ominous environment:
endless open borders, limitless vastness, mixed, diverse and often
hostile to each other and its governments population dispersed over
an infinite space.

Only through harsh centralized power was it possible to maintain
such population, these areas and these boundaries. This was a natural
prerequisite for creation of the empires.

Every Eurasian state – from Persian’s Achaemenids and ancient China
(Tianxia) to Ottomans and Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union, Communist
China and Islamic republic of Iran – desired to expand its boundaries
to resist its rivals and hostile, spontaneously emerging entities
(such the Mongols, The Mughal Empire, the state of Tamerlane), to
keep rebellious population and augment the resources.

In the 19th-20th centuries these common threats were supplemented by
the expansion of the West: The British Empire and the United States.

No one, not even modern powers, had forgotten the “surprises”, in
the face of nomads or Islamist gangs, by constantly bustling steppe
spreading from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia.

The ruling power could not afford to discuss issues of law and justice
in a state of permanent external hazards, especially when a significant
part of population looked forward to enemy invasion. Any resistance
had to be crushed by an iron fist and troops mobilized as promptly
and as quickly as possible to launch an attack on the enemy on his
own territory. Such a tactic, with different degrees of success, was
used equally by Sassanids and Sultans after the Ottoman defeat at the
Battle of Ankara; the empire of the Great Ming in China and Shahanshah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after the invasion of Iran during World War II
by Soviet and British forces; Stalin, Chinese Communists and now Putin.

Democracy in such circumstances was not just impossible – it was fatal.

It was perfectly clear to Montesquieu when he wrote that democratic
societies are possible only in relatively small isolated ethnic
homogeneous communities that existed in Europe, and utterly impossible
and implausible in vast spaces of the continent with restless masses
and heterogeneous populations.

Modern passionate supporters of democracy have completely forgotten
this although the situation has not changed a bit. Russia, China,
Turkey and Iran are huge conglomerates with diverse populations,
bordering with other aggressive and powerful nations. As has occurred
many times before – lightly loosened reins would cause a state to
collapse: during the unrest in Iran in the late 18th century; in Turkey
in the early 20th century; in China in the era of the Three Kingdoms
(AD 220-280), during the Boxer Uprising and other periods of unrest
in the late 19th – early 20th century; in the course of the Russian
Provisional Government in 1917 and after the dismantling of the USSR.

Rigid ruling demanded clear game rules. In order to survive, a
full submission of peoples of empires to the regime was required
– otherwise, a catastrophe would incur upon them similar to the
one happened to the Armenians and Assyrians in Turkey, Chechens,
Circassians and Tatars in Russia.

Small independent entities immediately become the object of
confrontation: obviously, not being a part of one Empire, they
automatically become part of another and subsequently a place of
arms for further offenses. This happened with the Kurds, occupied
by the Turks, Iran and Iraq; with Tibet, which lies on the border of
India and China; with Caucasus, which divide the Ottoman and Russian
empires; with South Azerbaijan, which occupied by Russians, Turks,
Soviet Union and eventually by Iran in 1946, and with Armenia.

This is exactly what’s happening now with Ukraine and especially
the Crimea peninsula with a massive Russian population and as a
strategically important base for Russia’s naval fleet in Sevastopol
which Russia wouldn’t give up to anyone – neither NATO, nor Turkey. A
land without an owner is doomed to become an enemy outpost and a
threat to the Empire.

These principles were, are, and will always be eternal for mainland
Eurasia. This is why, first of all, there will never be strong liberal
democracy, similar to the island civilizations, and secondly, fighting
for territory will never stop. It is the very essence of survival,
and not a whim of Putin, the Chinese Communists, the actual Turkish
rulers (no matter, army or Islamist) or the Iranian regime, either
Shah or ayatollahs.

The natural aspiration of Eurasian empires for expansion can only
be restrained vigorously. West fears any serious interference;
eternal mechanisms are at work, as in nature, with full force, and
any moralizing by Obama, Kerry, Merkel and Cameron becomes a reason
for mockery in Kremlin, Beijing and Teheran.

Ayatollahs, Communists in China and Islamists in Turkey are
carefully following the developments around Ukraine. They want to
see what actions the West will take next, in order to make their own
conclusions. They have all the reasons to believe that the West would
limit itself by verbal reprimand.

The West has voluntarily left the stage of History. So it is not
surprising that history returns bringing horror to world.

‘INVISIBLE,’ ‘TABIJA,’ ‘THE DARKNESS’ SET FOR CANNES ATELIER

Variety Magazine
March 10 2014

15-project co-pro forum also features projects by Mikhael Hers,
Antonio Mendez Esparza and Marc Recha

John Hopewell & Elsa Keslassy

PARIS – Pablo Giorgelli’s “Invisible,” Igor Drljaca’s “Tabija” and
Daniel Castro Zimbron’s “The Darkness” (pictured, in concept art)
are among 15 projects that will be pitched at the Cannes Festival’s
10th Cinefondation-Atelier, a co-production mart and networking hub
for films in development from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia
and Africa among principal sources.

Launched in 2005 as part of the Cannes Festival’s Cinefondation
training facility, the Atelier will see projects’ directors and
producers invited to the Cannes Festival over May 16-22. There, thy
will meet with potential co-production partners and sales agents as
well as receiving expert one-to-one advice on project development.

Turning on an 18-year-old girl confronting her mother’s death and
unwanted pregnancy, “Invisible” is Giorgelli’s awaited follow-up to
his debut, the low-key romantic road movie “Las acacias,” which, sold
by France’s UDI, won the Argentine director Cannes’ 2011 Camera d’Or.

Portraying the young post-war generation is Bosnia-Herzegovina,
“Tabija” won Rotterdam CineMart’s Eurimages Prize plus an Excellence
Award at the Sarajevo Festival.

First unveiled in public at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window, and backed
by a clutch of high-caliber Mexican companies, psychological thriller
“The Darkness” turns on a family in an isolated hamlet cabin whorled
by perpetual fog and terrorized by a stalking beast.

Pablo Zimbron at Mexico’s Varios Lobos produces; Darkness” is
co-produced, among others, by Jorge Michel Grau and Mayra Castro’s
Velarium Arts, fast-emerging as one of Mexico’s prime genre pic
production hubs.

Also Atelier bound is Mickael Hers’ second film after “Memory Lane,”
about passing adolescence, the death-tinged “Ce Sentiment de l’ete.”

“A sensorial and impressionist film leading us from darkness to light”
in Hers’ own words, it has already received significant industry
recognition, pulling down co-production coin from Art France Cinema.

“Saudade” marks Antonio Mendez Esparza’s follow-up to “Aqui y Alla,” a
Spain-U.S. co-production – with Torch Films partnering out of the U.S.

– which won Cannes Critics’ Week. Like “Aqui y Alla,” it records the
emotional collateral of immigration, here via a Spain-set Brazilian
mother-son story.

Among other Atelier projects, frozen conflict-zone drama “Territoria,”
from Armenia’s Nora Martirosyan, received World Cinema Support coin
from France’s CNC film board. Canada’s Guy Edoin will attend to present
the French-language “Ville-Marie,” a choral drama whose characters
converge on the same Ville-Marie Hospital; Nepalese director Deepak
Rauniyar (“Highway”) will move “White Sun,” a Nepalese village-set
feel-good family drama, which has won Hubert Bals Fund co-financing.

“It’s an optimistic film which notes the weight of the Nepalese past
on the present, but explores new ways in which the Nepalese can work
together,” said Cinefondation general manager Georges Goldenstern.

Selection mixes feature debuts- such as “To All Naked Men,” from
Syria’s Bassam Chekhes, whose “Waiting for P.O. Box” was the first
Syrian short selected to compete at Cannes, and Romanian Bogdan
Mirica’s “Dogs,” a Western set in contempo Romania, – with movies from
far more seasoned helmers such as Catalan Marc Recha. His father-son
identity drama “Ruta salvatje” marks a more open film for the director
of “Pau and His Brother,” which played Cannes competition in 2001.

“In the Shade of the Trees,” from Chile’s Matias Rojas (“Raiz”),
won June’s Bolivia Lab. A chronicle of true events at a sinister
Chilean boarding school run by German settlers, its development
included script consultancy from Gonzalo Maza, co-scribe of “Gloria,”
Sebastian Lelio’s Berlin Silver Bear winner.

“Trees” rounds up a strong Latin American presence at this year’s
Atelier. “I was impressed by the Latin American applications. They
are often surprising, exploring new ways of talking about issues,”
Goldenstern commented.

Further projects include the Niger Delta-set “Oil on Water,” the fourth
feature from Nigerian Newton I. Aduaka (“Rage,” “Ezra”) about two men –
one a washed-out journalist, the other his protege – who search for
a white woman, Adikhan Yerzhanov’s “Aliyushka,” winner of the 2013
New Kazakh Cinema 2013 Award, and K. Rajagopol’s “A Yellow Bird,”
about an ex-con seeking redemption and his daughter set on Singapore’s
mean streets. Projects details will be published early April.

Emilio Mayorga contributed to this article

CANNES CINEFONDATION-ATELIER PROJECTS 2014

“Invisible,” Pablo Giorgelli (Argentina)

“Territoria,” Nora Martirosyan (Armenia)

“Tabija,” Igor Drljaca (Bosnia)

“Saudade,” Antonio Mendez Esparza (Brazil)

“Ville-Marie,” Guy Edoin (Canada)

“In the Shade of the Trees,” Matias Rojas Valencia (Chile)

“Ce sentiment de l’ete,” Mikhael Hers (France)

“Aliyushka,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan)

“The Darkness,” Daniel Castro Zimbron (Mexico)

“White Sun,” Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal)

“To All Naked Men,” Bassam Chekhes (Netherlands, Syria)

“Oil on Water,” Newton I. Aduaka (Nigeria)

“Dogs,” Bogdan Mirica (Romania)

“A Yellow Bird,” K. Rajagopal (Singapore) “Ruta salvatge,” Marc Recha
(Spain)

RIYADI STUNNED BY NEW BOYS HOMENETMEN

The Daily Star, Lebanon
March 10 2014

March 10, 2014 12:31 AMBy Dany Abboud

BEIRUT: Riyadi delivered one of their worst performances of the season
Saturday, going down 70-63 against eighth-placed Homenetmen in round
10 of the Lebanese Basketball League at Mezher. With an aggressive
display, the Armenian side outmuscled Riyadi, the best defensive team
in the league, on both ends and led by as many as 20 points in the
third period.

Riyadi played the match without their American center, Loren Woods,
who has been suspended for two games following violent conduct
against Champville last Sunday, and he will also miss the game against
Bejjeh Monday.

In his absence, American center Terrence Leather and former Manara
stalwart Joe Vogel outclassed Riyadi’s front court, while the latter,
who is still playing at the age of 40, put in a superb performance
netting 7-of-11 field goal attempts including 2-of-5 from beyond
the arc.

Leather led the scoring for Homenetmen with 21 points and eight
rebounds, while Vogel added 17 points and nine rebounds and Dion Dixon
notched 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Sevag Ketenjian
also delivered a solid performance with nine points and four rebounds,
while 18-year-old Marc Korjian, who played as a starter, had six
points from two 3-pointers.

Egyptian veteran Ismael Ahmad netted 15 points and 14 rebounds for
Riyadi, while Amir Saoud added 14 points and Ali Haidar had 13 points
and eight rebounds.

The loss has proved costly for Riyadi as they squandered top spot
to Amchit for the first time on head-to-head advantage, as they both
share the same record of 8-2.

Meanwhile, the famous win sees Homenetmen move level with seventh
placed Champville at 3-7, after their loss against Tadamon Saturday
85-75.

American duo Hugh Robertson and Jarrid Famous combined for 55 points,
as Tadamon recorded their second win in as many games against
Champville this season.

Robertson finished with 29 points and nine rebounds, while Famous
added 26 points and seven rebounds. Bashir Ammoury also impressed
with 15 points and seven rebounds.

Serbian center Vladan Vukosavljevic top scored for Champville with 26
points and 10 rebounds, while Georgian point guard Giorgi Tsintsadze
added 17 points and six rebounds. Sabah Khoury and Hussein Khatib
had 14 and 10 points each.

Tadamon ensured sixth spot at 4-6 following three consecutive losses.

Round 10 of Lebanese basketball also saw victory for Amchit against
Sagesse (96-92) after overtime, while Byblos defeated Hoops and
Mouttahed saw off Bejjeh.

Meanwhile, Mouttahed rallied in the last quarter to beat Byblos 67-62
in round 11 at Tripoli Sunday.

The Tripoli side also avenged their first round loss to the Jbeil
outfit 80-88. Byblos led for much of the game until veteran guard
Rony Fahed hit a big 3-pointer to give his side a one-point lead
before Mouttahed eventually pulled away

American guard Corey Williams led the scoring for the winners with 21
points, eight rebounds and eight assists, while his compatriot Hasan
Whiteside added 15 points, 19 rebounds and six blocks. Bassel Bawji
also had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Jay Youngblood posted 18 points and five rebounds for Byblos, while
Mazen Mneimneh added 13 points and Mike Fraser contributed 10 points
and 13 rebounds.

With the win, Mouttahed move from fifth to third place at 8-3, but
they will drop to fourth if Sagesse beat Hoops Wednesday. Byblos are
now fifth at 7-4.

Round 11 resumes Monday when Riyadi host Bejjeh.

CRIMEAN TATARS ASK AZERBAIJAN’S ILHAM ALIYEV FOR HELP

EurasiaNet.org
March 10 2014

March 10, 2014 – 10:47am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Four days after Crimean Tatars sent an SOS to Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev, nothing has been heard from Baku but silence. For all its
grievances with Moscow, chances are slim that Azerbaijan, the Tatars’
rich South-Caucasus cousin, will stick its neck out over Crimea.

But Crimean Tatar community leader Mustafa Dzhemilyev, a Ukrainian
parliamentarian, gave it his best shot in a March 6 interview with
the news site Haqqin. “Do not leave your Crimean brothers and sisters
at this difficult time,” Dzhemilyev implored Aliyev.

Recalling repressions by Tsarist and Soviet Russia, he underlined
that the Tatars will never put up with a Russian takeover of the
Crimean peninsula, and asked Aliyev to use his influence with Russian
President Vladimir Putin to prevent such an event.

The request was cc-ed to Turkish President Abdullah Gul and another
Turkic leader, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Turkey has so far weighed in the strongest on the issue, while
Aliyev and Nazarbayev have been slow to provide even a non-binding,
thinking-of-you response.

Azerbaijani officials routinely emphasize Azerbaijan’s emergence as a
regional power, but don’t expect Aliyev to snap his fingers in Putin’s
face over Crimea. Through its economic and political involvement in
the region and its many conflicts, Nagorno-Karabakh included, Russia
could hurt Azerbaijan.

But not everyone in Azerbaijan is willing to sit back. On March
9, two senior members of Azerbaijan’s opposition Musavat Party,
Arif Gadjily and Gulaga Aslanly, were detained in Makhachkala, in
Russia’s North Caucasus, while traveling by train to Ukraine. The
party has been outspokenly critical of Russia’s Ukraine policy, and,
apparently, somebody had an eye out for any whistle-stop tours to
Kyiv. Local police on March 10 claimed that the two were sent back
home, APA reported.

But Baku is not alone in its reticence about Crimea.

Armenia, also slated to join Russia’s Customs Union, is in a
straitjacket of economic dependence on Moscow, tightened by Russia’s
49-year lease on a military base in Gyumri.

In Georgia, the most pro-West of the three, partisan screaming matches
continue about formulating a unanimous position on Ukraine, with the
government trying to say just enough not to spark a backlash by Moscow.

For now, looks like the South Caucasus is choosing to let the big
guys — be it Russia, the US or EU — handle this one.

OBAMA REFUSES TO RECOGNIZE A RUSSIAN CRIMEA. BUT IS SECESSION ILLEGAL?

The Christian Science Monitor
March 9, 2014 Sunday

Crimea is set to hold a referendum on March 16 on whether to secede
from Ukraine and join Russia. President Obama says it is illegal
according to international law. Western scholars agree.

by Mark Sappenfield Staff writer

An Obama administration adviser said Sunday that the United States
will not recognize a March 16 referendum in Crimea if it leads to
the region’s annexation into Russia. The comments further clarify
statements made by President Obama Thursday, which claimed that the
vote would “violate international law.”

But would it?

Both sides, it would seem, have compelling arguments. Russians and
Crimeans can argue that the people of Crimea are overwhelmingly
Russian and want to be a part of Russia, and other ethnic enclaves
such as Kosovo have broken off to form independent nations in the
recent past. Western nations including the US argue that Russia has
forced the issue by intervening militarily in Ukrainian territory.

The debate boils down to a simple question: Does a region’s right to
self-determination include a fundamental right to secede?

Western legal scholars suggest that the answer is “no.”

International law is necessarily flexible on this point. If parts of
a nation decide mutually to break apart, international law generally
recognizes this as a fait accompli. “Under international law, a
secession is neither a right nor necessarily illegal. It is treated
as a fact: a secession either was successful, it was not, or it is
still being contested,” writes Chris Borgen on the “Opinio Juris” blog.

But international law recognizes a nation’s right to exist without
being involuntarily dismembered from within. In other words, Texas
can’t just decide to secede from the United States. If it wishes
to secede, it must do so through negotiations with the US and the
international community.

“According to international precedent,” writes University of Cambridge
law professor Marc Weller on the BBC website, Crimea “cannot simply
secede unilaterally, even if that wish is supported by the local
population in a referendum.”

The preference is for regions within nations to work with their
central governments to gain more autonomy and greater rights without
seceding. “International practice generally seeks to accommodate
separatist demands within the existing territorial boundaries,”
writes Professor Weller.

In a case like Kosovo’s, where the local ethnic population was subject
to significant repression from the Yugoslavian state, the path to
independence took years and remains disputed.

Though NATO intervened on humanitarian grounds, it “did not occupy the
territory in consequence of its humanitarian intervention,” Weller
adds. “Instead, the UN administered Kosovo for some eight years,
creating a neutral environment in which its future could be addressed.”

The fact is, nothing remotely approaching a humanitarian crisis has
ever been reported in Crimea, and Russia has repeatedly recognized
Crimea to be a part of Ukraine: in the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration that
dissolved the Soviet Union, in the 1994 Budapest nuclear weapons
memorandum, and a 1997 agreement that allows Russia to station its
Black Sea fleet in Crimean ports.

Russia’s current intervention appears to be something from its
post-Soviet playbook, pitting ethnic Russian enclaves against former
Soviet states.

Russia sought to drive a wedge between the thin, Russian-majority
strip of Moldova called Transnistria, which Monitor contributor Dylan
Robertson referred to as “a Moscow-backed puppet state.” The same
narrative has played out in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh (claimed
by both Armenia and Azerbaijan), as well as in the Georgian regions
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia invaded in 2008.

Crimea seems likely to be added to the list, with Crimea set to join
Russia in a move that the international community rejects.

That Russia should be arguing so strongly on behalf of Crimea’s right
to secession is, in some ways, ironic.

Crimea enjoys a special status within Ukraine – one that offers it
a wide degree of autonomy. Such autonomous regions are a feature
of post-Soviet states including Russia – an acknowledgment of the
tremendous diversity within each nation. Yet independence movements
within Russian autonomous regions – such as Chechnya, Dagestan, and
Ingushetia – have been put down, at times brutally, by the Russian
military.

This apparent double-standard has some former Soviet states worried.

When Estonian authorities moved a Soviet-era war monument, ethnic
Russians – who make up a quarter of the population – were outraged,
and the country was hit by devastating cyberattacks. Estonian officials
blame Russia, though Russian officials have denied involvement.

Estonia and its Baltic neighbors “are certainly very worried that what
is happening to Ukraine today could happen to them tomorrow,” Erik
Brattberg, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The Atlantic.

Both Estonia and Latvia, he noted, have “significant Russian ethnic
minorities.”

MOVEMENT AGAINST FUNDED PENSIONS TO HOLD RALLY ON MARCH 22

18:07 * 10.03.14

The movement against funded pensions plans to hold a rally in Yerevan’s
Freedom Square on March 22.

The movement reminds the public that four non-coalition parliamentary
groups applied to Armenia’s Constitutional Court for ruling as
unconstitutional a number of points of the funded pensions law. The
Constitutional Court is to consider the case on March 28.

The process may last up to three months.

Armenian News – Tert.am

I’M HERE TO TAKE ARMENIA TO EURO-2016, NEW HEAD COACH SAYS

18:36 10.03.2014

Sona Hakobyan
Public Radio of Armenia

President of the Football Federation of Armenia Ruben Hayrapetyan
introduced today the new manager of the Armenian national team,
Bernard Challandes. Challandes was chosen from among 49 coaches the
Federation negotiated with.

The new manager said that “although the team is not in its best form
today, making it to the finals of Euro-2016 is quite possible.”

“Although the group is very strong, we have a good chance to qualify
for Euro-2016,” the newly appointed coach said.

“We have a very good offence, but we must try to search for good
defenders, as well,” he said. Mr. Challandes has watched some matches
of the Armenian league. He said that expressing an opinion would be
untimely, but noted that “compared to the other leagues, the problem
is the lack of speed and intensiveness.”

The new head coach said he was impressed by Armenia’s performance
against Italy in a FIFA World Cup qualification match. “I never thought
I would head that team, and when the offer came, I didn’t think long.”

“I’m here to win,” Challandes said. “I’m well aware what I have come
here for. If I win, I stay, if I lose, I go. That’s an unwritten rule
whether here, in Switzerland or Brazil.”

“I want to work well and take the team to the finals of Euro 2016,”
the head coach said.

ECHAUFFOUREES ENTRE MANIFESTANTS ANTI-REFORME DES RETRAITES ET LA POLICE

Manifestation

Des centaines de personnes, des jeunes pour la plupart, se sont
bagarres avec la police anti-emeute a Erevan vendredi suite a des
manifestations contre la reforme controversee du système de pension
initie par le gouvernement.

La police a utilise la force contre les manifestants et arrete
trois d’entre eux après avoir bloque une rue adjacente au ministère
armenien des Finances. Les trois hommes ont ete liberes plus tard
dans la journee.

La manifestation, organisee par le groupe de pression Dem Em ( je
suis contre ), s’est deroulee devant le bâtiment du ministère pour
condamner le ministre des Finances Davit Sarkissian suite a ses mises
en garde emises aux employeurs publics et prives.

Davit Sarkissian a declare la semaine dernière que les employeurs
feront face a des amendes si elles ne parviennent pas a appliquer
la reforme, en depit de sa suspension par la Cour constitutionnelle
fin janvier. Sont prevues pour pour le 28 mars les audiences sur la
constitutionnalite de la mesure impopulaire, contestee par les quatre
principaux partis d’opposition.

Les opposants a la reforme affirment que les autorites fiscales ne sont
pas autorises a deduire 5 % du salaire brut des travailleurs, au moins
jusqu’a ce qu’une decision du tribunal soit prise. Les representants
du gouvernement, y compris Sarkissian, affirment le contraire.

” Le ministre est devenu une personne qui veut extorquer de l’argent
“, a crie Davit Manoukian, leader Dem Em, dans un megaphone devant le
bâtiment du ministère. Manoukian et d’autres manifestants ont exige
que Sarkissian sorte de l’immeuble et vienne a leur rencontre.

Le ministre a refuse de le faire. Il a envoye le chef de son
etat-major, Karen Tamazian, pour parler aux manifestants en colère.

“C’est de la demagogie”, leur a dit Tamazian. ” Ce n’est pas une
offre de dialogue. ”

Tamazian a egalement declare que Sarkissian est pret a recevoir les
representants des manifestants dans son bureau. La foule a rejete
l’offre avant de jeter des pièces sur le bâtiment et de bloquer
la rue. Les agents de police ont rapidement utilise la force pour
la debloquer.

Aux echauffourees ont suivi une tentative d’auto-immolation par un
vieil homme qui a rejoint la manifestation. Nikolay Aghabekian, âge
de 67 ans, a verse de l’essence sur lui et a tente de s’immoler par
le feu. Les policiers l’en ont empeche.

Quelques instants avant cette tentative de suicide, Aghabekian avait
exhorte les gens beaucoup plus jeunes a continuer la manifestation,
brandissant ses livrets d’epargne bancaires de l’ère sovietique. Il
a declare que ses economie de toute une vie economies ete aneantis
par l’hyperinflation des annees 1990.

Des centaines de milliers d’autres Armeniens ont subi des pertes
financières similaires a l’epoque. Le sort de ces depôts en espèces
est l’un des principaux arguments des travailleurs opposes a la
reforme. Ils disent qu’ils peuvent de meme etre incapables de recuperer
leur epargne- retraite une fois arrive a l’âge de la retraite.

Les representants du gouvernement retorquent que les deux fonds de
pension prives choisis pour gerer leur argent sont detenus par des
societes de gestion d’actifs europeens de renom. L’un d’eux est une
joint-venture entre C-QUADRAT (Autriche) et Talanx Asset Management
(Allemagne). L’autre, Amundi – ACBA, est une filiale des banques
francaises Credit Agricole et Societe Generale.

lundi 10 mars 2014, Claire (c)armenews.com

EREVAN PREOCCUPE PAR LA SITUATION UKRAINIENNE

Crise ukrainienne

Erevan a reagi avec beaucoup de prudence sur la situation en Ukraine :
le president Serge Sarkissian a exprime sa profonde preoccupation et
a appele a un dialogue entre les parties en conflit.

” Les evenements ukrainiens sont un sujet preoccupant pour nous tous.

Nous regrettons profondement la perte de nombreuses vies humaines
a Kiev “, a t-il dit lors d’un sommet du Parti populaire europeen
a Dublin jeudi soir. ” Dans les circonstances actuelles, il est
necessaire de prendre toutes les mesures possibles afin d’apaiser
les tensions et de trouver des solutions raisonnables en dialoguant. ”

Sarkissian n’a rien ajoute, evitant toute mention a l’intervention
militaire de la Russie en Crimee, qui a ete fermement condamnee
par l’Occident.

Les autres representants du gouvernement armenien n’ont fait aucune
declaration publique sur la crise jusqu’a present, ce que critique
l’opposition pro-occidentale, des militants de la societe civile et
des diplomates a la retraite. La position extremement prudente reflète
les liens etroits entre l’Armenie et la Russie qui s’approfondiront
encore davantage après l’adhesion a une l’Union douanière plus tard
cette annee.

Le ministère armenien des Affaires etrangères a refuse de preciser
si Erevan reconnaît le nouveau gouvernement interimaire de l’Ukraine
forme après la fuite du president Viktor Ianoukovitch. Moscou considère
toujours Ianoukovitch comme le president legitime d’Ukraine.

L’Armenie se trouvera dans une position encore plus delicate si
la Crimee est unilateralement incorporee dans la Russie ou declare
son independance dans les semaines a venir. Il reste a voir si le
gouvernement armenien sera soumis a la pression russe de reconnaître
la secession de la mer Noire peninsule de l’Ukraine.

lundi 10 mars 2014, Claire (c)armenews.com