Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIA: SPATE OF ATTACKS AGAINST PROTESTERS

Reuters
Sept 11 2013

Source: Human Rights Watch – Thu, 12 Sep 2013 02:00 AM

A spate of violent attacks against peaceful protesters appears to be
a concerted effort to intimidate activists and should be effectively
investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a September 11, 2013 letter to
the Armenia police chief and to the head of the Special Investigative
Service. Officials should swiftly bring the attackers to justice
and make clear that any violence against people for exercising their
right to peaceful protest will be neither tolerated nor condoned.

(Berlin) – A spate of violent attacks against peaceful protesters
appears to be a concerted effort to intimidate activists and should
be effectively investigated, Human Rights Watch said in a September
11, 2013 letter to the Armenia police chief and to the head of the
Special Investigative Service. Officials should swiftly bring the
attackers to justice and make clear that any violence against people
for exercising their right to peaceful protest will be neither
tolerated nor condoned. Human Rights Watch documented attacks
against five activists in three separate incidents in the past three
weeks. In each case, unidentified men in civilian clothes set upon
individual demonstrators late at night after they left protest sites
in Yerevan, either in front of the city government building or the
ruling Republican Party headquarters. The victims were cut and bruised,
and some had concussions or broken bones, including one whose nose was
broken. “If thugs keep jumping on protesters and beating them up as
they leave for home, that’s hardly a coincidence,” said Giorgi Gogia,
senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The police
and other Armenian authorities need to be prepared to make clear
that they are going to put a stop to these attacks, starting with
effective investigations that lead to arrests and prosecutions.” In
all cases Human Rights Watch documented, the police took reports
from the victims, and in one case police went with the victim to the
crime scene. However, the victims told Human Rights Watch that the
investigative authorities did not follow up, even when one of the
victims was able to identify his suspected attackers. On September
5, about six unidentified assailants attacked Haykak Arshamyan
and Suren Saghatelyan, well-known civil society activists, as they
were returning from a peaceful demonstration in front of the ruling
Republican Party headquarters to protest President Serzh Sargisyan’s
September 3 announcement that Armenia would join the Russia-led
customs union. The men attacked Arshamyan as he tried to open the
garage door in his courtyard, kicking and beating him. “They did not
say anything, not even cursing, just beating without saying a word,”
he said. “I shouted and tried to understand why they were beating me,
but nothing.” When Saghatelyan tried to get out of the car to help
his friend, the assailants also attacked him: “They hit me with
the car door as I tried to leave, and broke my nose and a finger,
my head was also cut.” Saghatelyan was hospitalized for several
days for emergency surgery on his broken nose, and Arshamyan was
treated for multiple bruises that night and discharged. Police took
statements from both men that night, but they have not informed the
men of any further investigatory steps. On the night of September 4,
unidentified assailants attacked Arman Alexanyan, a 21-year-old Yerevan
State University Information Technology student and civic activist,
after he left a sit-in at the Yerevan municipal building. Several
dozen activists have been engaged in round-the-clock protests after a
temporary price increase for municipal transportation in late July. As
Alexanyan was returning home around midnight, about 10 young men in
civilian clothes attacked him, punching and kicking him and berating
him for taking part in protests. His friends called an ambulance and
he was hospitalized briefly for bruises and bumps on his head. Police
took a statement from him at the hospital, and two days later police
asked him to meet them at the scene for investigation purposes. He
identified several of his suspected attackers to the police, but to
the best of his knowledge, police did not take appropriate steps to
apprehend them. At about 1 a.m. on August 25, about six unidentified
assailants attacked two youth activists, Babken Der Grigoryan and
Mihran Margaryan, in the city center shortly after they left the
municipal building protest. Grigoryan told Human Rights Watch,
“They told us, ‘We know you are coming from the protests’ and
started punching us… They punched me in the chest and body and
I fell on the ground as they continued to kick me.” The activists’
friends took them to a police station to file an assault report. More
than two weeks later, as far as they have been able to find out, no
criminal case has been opened. The investigative authorities should
take all appropriate measures to investigate these attacks promptly,
thoroughly, and effectively, Human Rights Watch said. Investigations
should involve participation of the victims and should be conclusive,
public, and capable of leading to the identification and prosecution
of the attackers. “The Armenian authorities need to show that they
intend to stop attacks on peaceful protesters,” Gogia said. “Finding
and prosecuting the attackers in this spate of cases would be a step
toward making it clear that the authorities don’t condone and won’t
tolerate this kind of violence.”

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not
of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

INTERVIEW: ARMENIA NEEDS MORE MANEUVERS IN TIES WITH EU, RUSSIA: SCHOLAR

Xinhua, China
Sept 11 2013

English.news.cn 2013-09-11 08:14:57
Xinhua Weibo

YEREVAN, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) — Armenia needs more maneuvers in handling
its ties with the European Union and Russia in its foreign policies,
an Armenia scholar said in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

There are two agreements pending between the EU and Armenia — the
Association Agreement (AA), or political document for integration
with the EU, and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA),
an economic and trade document with the EU, said Richard Giragosian,
director of the Regional Studies Center.

The two documents are closely related, said Giragosian.

“The AA has largely been negotiated under understanding that the
key component will be that DCFTA. Therefore, if that is removed,
what is left is seriously diluted — giving Armenia very little,
and giving the EU much less,” he said.

Joining the Russia-led Customs Union closes the door for Armenia’s
access to European markets, and removes the availability of the DCFTA.

“Therefore, the EU reaction has been extremely negative but on a
justifiable ground: it was a complete surprise, and it endangered
several years of commitments and negotiations between Armenia and
the EU,” he said.

“More importantly, it also shows that EU investment and expectations
in Armenia have been diminished. Therefore, Armenia is in danger
of looking insincere and incompetent in the eyes of the EU,” said
Giragosian.

Armenia will lose an opportunity for much bigger markets if it turns
away from Europe, while the Customs Union offers Armenia nothing in
terms of trade with Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), he said.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has said that Armenia is ready to
join the Russia-led Customs Union.

Giragosian said Sargsyan took a very bold but unexpected decision to
commit Armenia to joining the Customs Union at a recent meeting in
Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In many ways this decision was a strategic mistake, which makes
Armenia no longer be capable of signing the DCFTA with EU, he said.

“Four years of negotiations between the EU and Armenia has now been
rejected, and unfortunately Armenia is in danger of returning to a
vassal state within the Russian orbit,” he said.

“Armenia for the past five years has been struggling to strengthen
sovereignty and independence and to pursue a foreign policy designed
to give more options and more space to Armenia to engage with the
West while remaining a security partner of Russia.”

Yet, currently there is a reversal in this trend of diversification,
and the real danger for Armenia now is that it is becoming a little
more than a Russian garrison-state.

Giragosian believed that economically Armenia is looking to the EU,
while militarily it keeps a security agreement with Russia. “This
balance is now in danger of being lost,” he noted.

Giragosian said that Armenia’s decision might be a result of Russian
pressure, which would reveal a deeper problem of the nature of the
relationship or alliance between Russia and Armenia.

If it was not a result of Russian pressure, that’s another problem
because it shows the weakness of the Armenian leadership and
government, he said.

But the real question for Ukraine, Moldova and other former Soviet
states is how to balance the need to overcome isolation and the reality
of having a strong, assertive and aggressive Russia on their borders,
he said.

Currently, Armenia has been actively developing ties beyond its
reliance on Russia in the military cooperation, said Giragosian. It
has deepened ties with NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program as well
as bilateral military ties with a number of other countries, including
the United States, Germany and Greece.

Giragosian also said that over the past four years Armenia has been
negotiating with the EU, and the Russians have never protested,
opposed nor blocked.

What happened over the past several weeks was a rather late change
in Moscow to exercise greater control, power and influence within the
so-called near abroad — the former Soviet states, added the scholar.

He said that Russia’s playing the Armenia card was a message of
strength to the West, to the United States, and more importantly to
Ukraine and Belarus.

It is much more important strategically for Russia to bring Ukraine
into the Customs Union. This is also linked to Russia’s policy over
Syria as well, in terms of confronting and containing any kind of
Western or European interference within its own sphere of influence.

“It is interesting that the Russian position is based on inherent
weakness, not strength. And this is actually a desperate move to
reinforce the decline in Russia’s long-term power and influence,”
he said.

“But I don’t think over the long term it will work, because there
is no incentive, this is more of stick than carrot. But for a small
country like Armenia, it is going to be difficult to try to regain
more options and more strategic maneuverability,” said Giragosian.

“Russian policy has been not very strategic — a much shorter, tactical
response, counterproductive I would argue as well. Because in the long
run, Armenia within this EU framework is a win-win prospect,” he said.

He added that there has not been any danger of Russia losing Armenia
as an ally in this region. Moreover, Armenia is the only reliable
country for Russia in this region, the only member of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization, the only country to host a Russian
military presence.

“Armenia should do a better job in actually manipulating its geographic
isolation and vulnerability, and think strategically in longer term,
rather than giving in too soon in exchange for a little benefit,”
noted Giragosian.

Editor: An

COURT AGAIN REFUSES TO SET YOUNG OPPOSITIONIST FREE

Human rights | 11.09.13 | 09:21

Photolure

The Court of Criminal Appeals hearing the case of Tigran Arakelyan
and three other young activists of the opposition Armenian National
Congress (ANC) has again refused to release him from jail till the
end of the trial despite a petition by all non-governing factions
in parliament.

Arakelyan, who has been imprisoned for more than two years now, was
sentenced to six years in jail for hooliganism and using violence
against a police officer. He appealed the verdict and now the case
is being heard at appeals instances.

Arakelyan and his defense attorney describe the conviction and sentence
as an instance of political persecution.

At Tuesday’s court session the counsel for the defense presented a
written document from four out of the six factions in the National
Assembly (Prosperous Armenia, ANC, Dashnaktsutyun and Heritage) in
which they asked the court for Arakelyan to be released “considering
the evaluations given to this case in international documents”. They
also assured the court that while free Arakelyan would not create
obstacles to the investigation.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SIGNS INTO LAW BILL EXEMPTING NON-RESIDENTS FROM PROFIT TAX WHO INVEST IN EUROBONDS

YEREVAN, September 11. / ARKA /. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
signed on Tuesday into law amendments to the law on profit tax.

According to the amendments, the income derived by non-residents from
investing in the Armenian government foreign-currency denominated
bonds, will be exempt from income tax.

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Finance of Armenia, Suren Karajan said
this decision is aimed at encouraging investments of non-residents
in the Armenian Eurobonds.

The first issue will be worth $500 million with a ten-year maturity
period. The government also chose Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank plc
and JPMorgan Securities plc as the underwriters. -0-

11:17 11.09.2013

KARABAKH WAR VETERANS MEET WITH DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER TONOYAN

A group of Karabakh war veterans led by retired Colonel Volodya
Avetisian met today with Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia David
Tonoyan and members of the commission set up for solution of veterans’
problems. The meeting took place in the Defense Ministry. V. Avetisian
told Aysor.am: “We are satisfied with the meeting. They understand
our demands and problems and are ready to help us. Prior to that,
we met the minister of labor and social affairs. He also offered
help, but in order to receive it, it is necessary to make the lists
of veterans more accurate. The Defense Ministry will help us in this
matter,” the colonel said.

According to him, the whole package of proposals made by Karabakh
war veterans was discussed at the meeting with David Tonoyan today.

“The law on voluntary military service and our pensions were among the
issues discussed. We have to wait for ten days, until some inaccuracies
are eliminated. Then a small group of veterans will meet with Tonoyan
again,” Avetisian said. He stressed that Karabakh war veterans believe
that their problems will be solved.

S. ALEKSANIAN: CARREFOUR DIRECTOR SHOOK HIS FINGER AT ME

“Yes, Carrefour’s director shook his finger at me and for this reason
I stayed at home, “the deputy of Republican Party of Armenia (HHK)
faction Samvel Aleksanian declared during a briefing with reporters
in the parliament today, when commenting on the rumors that he has
problems with Carrefour director.

“He shook his finger at me and I have stayed at home for several days.

Today I came after noticing they are not here,” Aleksanian said,
adding, however, that he will attend Carrefour’s opening ceremony. “I
will cut the ribbon”.

Asked to comment on Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union, Aleksanian
said he was glad to hear the news.

“I cannot say anything from a business viewpoint – I am not a
businessman. But President always does the right thing, ” Samvel
Aleksanian said.

‘ARMENIAN PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN NOTABLE FOR PRO-RUSSIAN FEELINGS’

Serzh Sargsyan’s decision about Armenia’s entry into the Customs
Union was revolutionary, the first secretary of the Communist Party
of Armenia Ruben Tovmasian said at a meeting with reporters today.

“The Armenian people have always been notable for their pro-Russian
feelings. The move will be beneficial to us from an economic point
of view as well – Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus are a large market
for our country. Besides, after joining the Customs Union, we will
be able to develop our armaments industry,” Tovmasian said. ‘

He underlined that thanks to Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union,
the Armenian economy will start developing and new jobs can be created.

“Armenia will definitely benefit from joining the Customs Union,”
Ruben Tovmasian stated.

BABKEN PIPOYAN: AN ECONOMY IS NEEDED FOR JOINING A UNION

While discussing the decision on Armenia’s entry into the Customs
Union during a meeting with reporters today, Chairman of Well-Informed
and Protected Consumer NGO Babken Pipoyan said that first o fall,
a country should have an economy for joining a union.

“Economies of all countries are developing clockwise, whereas the
economy of our country is developing anticlockwise. There is no
control, everything is a neglected condition. We should set up a
supervisory commission which, unlike the other bodies, will work,”
Pipoyan stated.

According to him, the country also has the problem of low quality
of produced commodities and in this sphere Armenia assumed many
obligations which it has not fulfilled.

U.S. STARTS DELIVERING WEAPONS TO SYRIAN REBELS

September 11, 2013 – 13:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The United States has begun distributing some weapons
to the Syrian rebels, a spokesman for the Syrian Coalition of groups
opposed to President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday, Sept 10, after
months of reported delays, according to Reuters.

White House officials suggested in June that President Barack Obama
had decided to provide military aid to the Syrian rebels, but in the
months since, rebel leaders and U.S. lawmakers have said no lethal
assistance has arrived.

“The U.S. is distributing non-lethal aid and … some lethal assistance
as well to the SMC (Supreme Military Council),” Saleh told a news
conference, referring to the council that oversees operations of
rebels loyal to General Salim Idriss.

The United States is providing lethal assistance “because they are
sure that the mechanisms that the SMC has established are well tested
and they will be sure that the weapons are not falling into the wrong
hands,” Saleh said.

He apparently referred to Washington’s concerns that U.S. arms could
end up benefiting radical Islamist groups, such as the al Nusra Front,
active in northern Syria.

Saleh’s comments at a Washington news conference may be the first
public indication that U.S.-provided military goods such as arms or
ammunition are actually moving to anti-Assad forces.

One U.S. government source said it was “unlikely” that any
U.S.-supplied arms were on the ground in the hands of Syrian rebels
at this time, while not dismissing the possibility that such aid was
in the works.

Separately, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that
Washington was trying to upgrade its support for the Syrian opposition.

“It is ramping up, but I can tell you that many of the items that
people have complained were not getting (to) them are now getting to
them,” Kerry said in a Google+ Hangout interview. He declined to say
what military items were arriving.

Rebel spokesman Saleh, who is based in Turkey, spoke at a news
conference called to urge the U.S. Congress to authorize Obama’s
proposal for limited military strikes in Syria following a chemical
weapons attack on rebel areas outside Damascus on August 21 that the
United States has blamed on Assad’s forces.

Saleh said rebel military leaders were coordinating with the countries
that might participate in a U.S.-led strike. He said the Supreme
Military Council also had a plan to derive tactical benefits from the
strikes if they do take place, such as by securing areas that are hit.

The chances of U.S. military action have receded, however, since
Russia offered a proposal on Monday for Syria to surrender its chemical
weapons stockpile to international control.

Rebel sources recently confirmed receipt of arms such as anti-tank
weapons financed by Saudi Arabia, which arrived last month through
Jordan.

JULIA ZILBERQUIT: I PARTICIPATED IN CONCERTS DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND HOLOCAUST

SEPTEMBER 11, 11:55

World famous pianist Julia Zilberquit gave a concert in Yerevan on
Tuesday and participated in the opening of a new season of State
Youth Orchestra of Armenia.

During the press conference in Yerevan, Zilberquit shared her thoughts
about renowned Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian and impressions
about Armenia.

The famous pianist said she had participated five times in annual
concerts dedicated to the Armenian Genocide and Holocaust which are
held in New York.

“The concerts are held in a huge Saint John church in New York every
fall. It is usually attended by several thousands, including the
mayor of New York,” she said.

Julia Zilberquit noted she had performed the works of Aram Khachaturian
in the past.

“It is classics. Khachaturian is a part of our repertoire, just
as Mozart, Bach and Shostakovich,” she emphasized. “It is my first
visit to Yerevan. It is an amazing city, amazing people and wonderful
weather,” she added.

Russian-born American pianist Julia Zilberquit has earned critical
acclaim as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician and
recording artist.

In 2008, Ms. Zilberquit premiered Slonimsky’s Jewish Rhapsody for
Piano and Orchestra, which was commissioned by and dedicated to her,
with Leon Botstein and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, in commemoration
of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel in Jerusalem.