Author: nina hovnanian

IMF APPROVES USD84-MIL. LOAN INSTALMENT TO ARMENIA AFTER POSITIVE REVIEW

Global Insight
July 9, 2013

by Lilit Gevorgyan

Armenia will receive an additional USD84 million (55 million Special
Drawing Rights) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According
to the latest press release from the IMF, Armenian government qualified
for the final instalment of its USD407.2-million (SDR 266.8-million)
IMF loan, following a successful conclusion of the review by the IMF
Executive Board of Armenia’s economic performance.

IMF stated that the Armenian government largely delivered on criteria
under the Fund’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit
Facility (ECF) arrangements. The assistance programme, which started in
2010, will conclude in September 2013. The Board commended Armenia’s
monetary and fiscal policies, noting that the Central Bank of Armenia
(CBA) permitted greater flexibility of the dram over the past 12
months, as recommended during the last IMF review.

Tax revenues have also increased due to more rigorous tax collection.

The CBA managed to keep inflation below target. Armenia’s overall
economic growth remained healthy, with the GDP expanding by 4.7%
in 2011, 7.2% in 2012 and projected to post strong growth in 2013. A
healthy economic performance has helped to narrow the fiscal deficit
since 2010, leading to fiscal sustainability. The Board also reported
that Armenia’s banking system remains sound, but urged the government
to continue with structural reforms to allow further development of
the private sector, and reduce poverty.

Significance:The Armenian government has managed to make significant
progress in terms of controlling and reducing its fiscal deficit and
achieved health economic growth numbers in the past three years, as
evidenced by the latest IMF assessment. However, the economy remains
highly vulnerable due to both domestic and external factors. As
highlighted by the IMF, the economic expansion since 2010 was largely
due to high metal prices, good harvests and high metal prices.

However, 2013 could be a challenging year, considering weak demand
for Armenian exports of metal. Due to adverse weather conditions,
the harvest is expected to be poor this year. The increase in energy
prices since early 2013 and resultant inflation is likely to curb
one of the best performing sectors of the economy, private consumption.

Armenia’s external financing needs remain very high. This is putting
more pressure on the government to pursue the long overdue regulatory
improvements. Most importantly, this involves fighting corruption
and creating a better environment to unlock the potential of small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Strengthening SMEs, among others
could help to end the ongoing wealth polarisation and offer an avenue
to poverty reduction, as advised by the IMF.

MEA LAUNCHES FLIGHT LINE BETWEEN BEIRUT, YEREVAN

National News Agency Lebanon (NNA)
July 8, 2013 Monday

NNA – Caretaker Minister of Industry, Vrej Sabounjian, signed on
Monday a Memorandum of Understanding between the Beirut and Mount
Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, of Industry and Agriculture and the
Republic of Armenia.

The signing event took place during the two-day visit of Saboujian
to Armenia to attend the launching of a direct flight line between
Beirut and Yerevan via the MEA Company.

MPs Jean Oghassapian and Artur Nazarian attended the event along with
LCB Vice President Harut Samoeilian and Ambassadors Jean Maakaron
and Ashot Kocharian, and other concerned officials.

Sabounjian said that this initiative aimed at developing ties on all
levels for the benefit of both, Lebanon and Armenia.

“This line will facilitate the transport of Lebanese businessmen to
several capitals of Russia and countries of Central Asia, which will
enable them to be open to new markets,” he said.

Caretaker Industry Minister also thanked the Armenian government and
Armenian Ministers for their efforts.

TURKEY ON THE THRESHOLD OF 2015

11.07.2013

Arestakes Simavoryan
Head of the Center for Armenian Studies, “Noravank” Foundation

While Ankara is trying to handle domestic developments, preparatory
works directed against the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
still remain on the agenda. What does Turkey prepare; how is it going
to implement it; what proposals are made and what issues, which will
be an integral part of Turkey’s policy in the next two years (or even
for a longer period), are put forward?

Turkey’s academic, research and political circles come out with
different analytical articles and ideas on the threshold of 2015. The
viewpoints of the analysts make an impression that Turkey still needs
a strategy to neutralize the activity of the Armenian side.

It should be mentioned that such strategic programmes and actions are
not always public. Contrary to the concerns of Turkey connected with
the “absence of strategy”, the starting point has been laid down and
now one can confidently say that the powers involved in this process
has initiated preparatory works.

Back in September 2011 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ahmet
Davutoglu at the meeting with the Turkish diplomatic corps “secretly
alerted”, ordering to be more active in hampering the activity of the
Armenian Diaspora all over the world through particularly setting
close relations with the Armenian Diaspora.

Many Turkish political, public and intellectual circles believe that
before 2015 Turkey should cardinally change its policy of
preconditions towards Armenia from establishing diplomatic relations
to apologizing to Armenians. In particular, in the opinion of the
analyst of the American Brookings Institute Omer Taspinar connecting
Armenian-Turkish protocols with the Karabakh issue leads to a
deadlock1.

While speaking about rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey before
2015, Turkish analyst Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu thinks that establishing of
the political relations can put an end to all the issues and mark the
victory of the Turkish diplomacy in this contradictory geographic
situation2. Even western futurologists believe that Turkey will again
initiate negotiations with Armenia with purpose of establishing
diplomatic relation and opening borders before 2015 in spite of
Azerbaijan’s discontent.

Even apologizing to the Armenians, when it is spoken about the
“repent” on a state level, is considered in other dimension – ”as a
broader framework of a “shared tragedy,” where there is also Armenian
empathy for Turkish losses”3. This approach is based on Ahmet
Davutoglu’s “fair memory” concept and being controversial for some
representatives of Turkish intelligentsia, nevertheless, it is taken
as the most acceptable in the relations with Armenia at least
concerning the Genocide.

It is obvious that possible “apologizing” at a state level will regard
not to the Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish state but to the
so-called “humanitarian disaster”, i.e. to the consequences of the war
in the Ottoman Empire which appeared on the brink of collapse. And
here they mean not only a unilateral apology. In order to substantiate
our words we can bring concept of Dr. Sedat Laciner, the author of
several anti-Armenian books and dozens of analytical articles, rector
of the Canakkale “18th of March” University: “2015 is the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian deportations and Armenians prepare
seriously for it. I wonder whether the president of Armenia can lay a
rose or a carnation to the tomb of out victims if he visits Gallipoli
Peninsula in March 2015. And in this case will our president or
prime-minister visit Yerevan, go to the Genocide memorial and, laying
a wreath, will he say that we don’t call it Genocide (underlined by us
– A.S.) but we understand your pain?”4 Turkey will do everything to
avoid using word genocide. This is one of the points of the Turkish
strategy5.

Long-repeated proposals and points of view of the Turkish analysts,
which have the same content, prove their directedness. Public
“attempts” of the Turks directed to setting the relations with Armenia
in reality are meant for the international audience and their goal is
to weaken our attentiveness on the threshold of 2015.

In the struggle with the Armenians the information and propaganda
means of different character and scale are offered, including the
tactics of engaging foreign “scholars”. Today the foreign “scholars”
also continue to closely cooperate with political and intellectual
circles of Turkey and they often come out with proposals and appeals.

Professor of Massachusetts University Gunter Levi, who has been
working for Turkey for ages and who has been called “Turkish agent”,
urged to prepare well for 2015 which would be a serious challenge to
Turkey6.

The founder of the “21st Century” Turkish institute and Institute for
the Armenian Studies under the Eurasian Center for Strategic Studies,
which was working back in 2000 (ASAM)7, Umit Ozdal, who has been
dealing with the Armenian theme and information security for many
years, considers all the actions on efficient dissemination of the
Turkish postulates aboard carried out till now insufficient. He
proposes to prepare foreign young “scholars” and celebrated
“historians” who will protect the interests of Turkey in the
target-countries, such as US, Great Britain, France, Spain, Latin
America, Lithuania, Germany, China and Japan. In the future these
“scholars” will have an opportunity to publish pro-Turkish “academic”
works in dozens of languages and further establishment of Turkish
research institutes in the aforementioned countries8. We believe that
the generation of foreign falsifier “historians” is becoming old and
the issue of the alternation of the generation has become urgent. Such
ideas as making anti-Armenian films, putting on shows, holding other
cultural event as well we establishment of new analytical center
dealing with the Armenian question have been put into circulation.

The efforts in this direction are augmented by the both Turkish and
foreign “think tanks” funded by Turkey. Many countries, having big
experience in using the knowledge of these organizations and activity
of individuals who have influence in the state structures and who
constitute part of their “Diaspora”, managed to establish their target
analytical centers abroad. In this aspect, the most active after
Israel, are Turkey and Azerbaijan, which consider their “think tanks”
in the US and Great Britain as an alternative “diplomatic corps” or
lobbyist groups, in a activity of which first of all specialists who
works in the country’s leading higher educational establishments and
“think tanks” are involved. Such centers are Center for Strategic
Re¬¬search and Analysis (CESRAN) in Great Britain and The Reth¬ink
Ins¬titut and Тhe Foundation for Political, Economic and Social
Re¬search (SE¬TA) in the US.

The activity of the Center for Lobbyist Researches which has its
branches in Istanbul and Washington should be mentioned. Recently this
center has elaborated new strategy – mobilization of the lobbyist
activity in the Turkish society, which main goal is to send protests
to the presidents, ministers, state officials of different countries,
well-known media holdings, international mass media and online media,
Turkish ambassadors and consuls as well as carrying out non-public
actions. And the movement which is called “national mobilization”
should serve the interests of Azerbaijan in the NKR issue.

The attempt will be made to consolidate those circles of the so-called
Turkish and Azerbaijani “Diaspora” which will be able to work actively
on the one hand against Armenia and on the other hand against
Diaspora. The work in this direction is already being carried out.

New anti-Armenian manifestations can be expected on the threshold of
2015 in consequence of the activity of the Turkish and Azerbaijani
trade unions and NGOs established in Europe. Thus, anti-Armenian moods
are taken from the territory of Turkey to Europe, US, Latin America,
where works are also carried out.

It is remarkable that in regard to the Genocide issue the Turkic
speaking countries have abstained from joining joint
Turkish-Azerbaijani actions at the pan-Turkic forums and conferences
till now. Nevertheless, today the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem tends to
involve them too.

“World Turkic Forum” held the 1st meeting of “Wise Persons Board” the
participants of which alongside with other issues discussed the
necessity of opposing Armenians in 20159. Thought the representatives
of the Central Asian Turkic-speaking countries have been more
interested in humanitarian, cultural and economic aspects of these
meeting, nevertheless they involuntarily appeared under the pressure
and were indirectly involved in the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

According to some points of view, some provocations and aggressive
actions are not excluded either. In particular, the representative of
Turkish intelligentsia who writes critical articles for “Taraf”
newspaper Alper Germus expressed an opinion in connection with
assaults against the Armenians in Samatia district of Istanbul saying
that the assaults against the Armenians were direct in consequence of
“anti-missionary” movement which had been initiated in early 2000s in
Turkey, which could be considered as a purposeful actions directed to
the intimidation of the Armenians on the threshold of 201510.

Recently the so-called “International Association against Unfounded
Armenian Allegations” (ASIMDER) and different Turkish
ultra-nationalist powers have been speculating on the “New ASALA”,
which has been made up by themselves, and possible “terrorist acts of
the Armenians”.

Summing up, we would like to mention that there are adherents of both
soft and tough policies in the Turkish academic and analytical and
political circles and they discuss the ways of opposing to the
Armenians. The measures taken by Turkey on the threshold of 2015 may
differ from the aforementioned ones, but, one way or another, some of
their components can constitute a part of general and more large-scale
actions.

1 Omer TaÅ~_pınar, Armenia-Turkey and 2015,

2 Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu, Turkey needs to devise a 2015 strategy,

3 Omer TaÅ~_pınar, Armenia-Turkey and 2015,

4 Rektörun 2015 Hayali,

5 Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Turkiye’nin 2015 stratejisi: “Soykırım”
kelimesinden mutlak Å~_ekilde kacınmak,

6 Turk ajanı olmakla suclanan Lewy’den uyarı,

7 The Institute for the Armenian Studies which used to work under the
Eurasian Center for Strategic Studies is now continues to work under
other foundation which also deals with the strategic studies – AVIM
().

8 Umit Ozdag, DıÅ~_ Ä°Å~_leri Bakanına Acık Mektup veya 2015’e Dogru Yeni
Bir Buyuk Strateji Onerisi,

9 2. Dunya Turk Forumu Ä°stanbul Deklarasyonu ( Taslak),
¬ponent-/content/article/10-haberler/106–2-duenya-tuerk-forumu-stanbul-deklarasyonu-taslak.

10 Alper GörmuÅ~_, 2015’e ayarlı ‘Ermenileri urkutme’ operasyonu,

“Globus” analytical journal, #6, 2013

Another materials of author
SCHOOLS OF THE ARMENIAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN ISTANBUL[06.06.2013]
ACADEMIC AND EXPERT POTENTIAL OF THE DIASPORA: ISSUES OF ASSESSMENT
AND ORGANIZATION[04.03.2013]
THE GROUNDS OF INTER-CONFESSIONAL COOPERATION IN THE DIASPORA[03.09.2012]
CHRISTIANS IN TODAY’S TURKEY (Protestants and Catholics) [24.05.2012]
THE CLERICAL AND CHURCH ISSUES OF THE ARMENIAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN
RUSSIA[22.12.2011]
CATHOLIC ARMENIANS IN POLAND[17.10.2011]
FORECASTS ON TURKEY’S FUTURE[15.09.2011]
ON THE ISSUES OF THE CATHOLICS ARMENIAN[09.06.2011]
ARMENIAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN RUSSIA[24.12.2010]
ARMENIAN CATHOLICS IN TURKEY[01.03.2010]

UK WARNS OF ‘CHEMICAL CATASTROPHE’ IN SYRIA IF ASSAD TOPPED

July 11, 2013 – 08:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Syria’s huge array of chemical weapons could fall
into the hands of militants if President Bashar Assad was toppled,
with “catastrophic” consequences, according to a report by senior
British lawmakers published on Wednesday, July 10.

Britain’s foreign intelligence services had no doubt Syria owned
“vast stockpiles” of such weapons, including mustard gas, sarin,
ricin and VX, the deadliest nerve agent, parliament’s Intelligence
and Security Committee (ISC) said in its report, according to Haaretz.

Last month, the United States said Assad’s forces had used the nerve
agent sarin on a small scale multiple times against opposition
fighters, an assessment with which the British government said
it agreed.

On Tuesday, Russian’s UN envoy reported that Russian scientific
analysis had indicated that Syrian rebels had also used sarin in an
attack on the city of Aleppo in March. On Wednesday, the opposition
Syrian National Coalition denied this report.

The committee said the SIS had told them that “the most worrying
point about our intelligence on Syria’s attitude to chemical weapons
is how low a threshold they have for its use.”

The report also said that Britain’s spy chiefs believed al-Qaeda groups
and individual militants who have gained expertise and experience in
Syria posed the biggest emerging threat to the West.

“Large numbers of radicalized individuals have been attracted to
the country, including significant numbers from the UK and Europe,”
it said.

Last week, Britain’s top counter-terrorism official said the conflict
in Syria had brought large numbers of al-Qaeda fighters close to
Europe for the first time.

So far, chief UN chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom’s team has
not traveled to Syria because of diplomatic wrangling over the scope
of access he would have there.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants Sellstrom to have unfettered
access to investigate all credible alleged chemical attacks while
Assad’s government wants the UN experts to confine their investigation
to the March 19 incident. That disagreement has caused a deadlock
in talks between the United Nations and Syria on access for the
inspection team.

Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari on Monday said his government has
invited Sellstrom and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane to Damascus
to discuss allegations of banned arms use in Syria’s two-year civil
war but suggested it would not compromise on access.

The senior Western diplomat said Sellstrom and Kane were expected to
accept the invitation and travel to Damascus soon to discuss ways of
breaking the deadlock.

THE WOBBLING PILLAR

Editorial, July 2013

“When three Armenians settle in a new country, the first thing they
do is build a church, a club, and a school,” is the axiom, boast,
half-joke Diaspora Armenians have told to each other and to “odars”
for more than a century. There is much truth in the observation.

The bad news is that one of the three pillars-the day-schools-are
wobbling everywhere in the Diaspora.

There are anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 Armenians in California.

Greater Los Angeles prides in having almost a dozen Armenian
day-schools. However, the student count is a depressing 5,000. While
it’s difficult to determine the number of school-age Armenian students
in California, the student count is less than 1% of California
Armenians. This might seem an embarrassing statistic for a community
which prides itself as being the largest in Diaspora (if one discounts
Russia) but for the fact that in various Armenian centres-Paris,
Buenos Aires, Jerusalem–Armenian day- schools are also struggling.

In Canada there were four day schools (three in Montreal and one in
Toronto). Last year one of the Toronto schools (owned by the AGBU)
closed due to financial challenges. The three Montreal schools have
1,350 students. In recent years these numbers have been maintained
at an even level, thanks to new immigrants from Syria and Iraq. One
of the schools also admits Christian Arabs. The Toronto school has
550 students (0.8% of the Toronto-area Armenian population).

A primary reason Armenian day schools don’t attract Armenian students
is the cost of tuition. In Toronto and Montreal the average annual
income (before taxes) per household is about $68,000. In Toronto the
tuition fees at the Armenian day school are $4,800 (sans transportation
and ancillary expenses such as registration, books, sports activities,
school trips, etc.). This is a formidable financial challenge, and
counts for approximately 10% of net family income per student. In
Montreal combined tuition and bus transportation costs are a low
$2,600 because the Quebec government subsidizes the schools.

In the Los Angeles Basin cities where most California Armenians live,
the annual (before taxes) household income, according to the “Los
Angeles Times” is $34,000 (Hollywood), $54,000 (San Fernando Valley),
$57,000 (Glendale), $63,000 (Pasadena), and $64,000 (Burbank). The
average annual day-school tuition per student ranges (depending on the
school) from $500 to $800 per month, not including ancillary expenses.

You do the math about the size of the slice tuition takes from the
family income pie.

While Armenian day school tuition fees have risen beyond the rate of
inflation, they are still modest compared to those of other private
schools. For example, in Toronto the average tuition fees for private
schools are $15,000.

Are these demands on Armenian families financially sustainable? It’s a
fact that families with two children, and who could send one child to
Armenian school, choose not to send both children to Armenian school so
as not to play favorites. In other instances, parents have pulled their
children from Armenian school because of harsh economic conditions.

Armenian day schools are a barometer of the community’s health. When
a school faces tuition crisis it means the community is facing a
crisis. Although the tuition crisis is palpable, nobody seems to be
making a significant and over-arching effort to resolve the dilemma
across the Diaspora.

The negative side-effects of Armenian day school “high tuition” are
significant and self-evident. Because many Armenian parents can’t
afford to send their children to Armenian schools, they feel excluded
from the community, and those who send their children to Armenian
schools feel their lifestyle is demonstrably constricted due to the
cost of providing their children education at an Armenian school. The
tuition pressure also restrict parents from making greater financial
contribution to their church, community centre, to Armenia and to
Artsakh, to cite a few vital causes. Thus an institution vital to the
continuance of the community may be eating away at the well-being of
that very community.

Is the Diaspora buckling under the high cost of Armenian life? How much
financial sacrifice do parents have to make to retain our Armenian life
and make sure their children are educated in an Armenian atmosphere
and are versed in our language, culture, and identity? Will our
communities slowly implode under the costs of retaining a semblance
of Armenian communal and family life?

The current vigor of North American Armenian communities is mostly
due to emigration from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Istanbul. North
American Armenian community life had begun to fade by the ’60s. With
the pioneers (Genocide survivors) of the community dead or in failing
health, the second generation was often assimilated or half-hearted
about carrying on the torch. A few could speak Armenian. It was the
newcomers from the Middle East who revived these hobbling communities.

With the Middle East emptying of Armenians, North American and
European Armenian communities can’t count on future white knights
from Beirut, Damascus, Aleppo, Jerusalem, and Cairo to revive Diaspora
communities. The Diaspora has to give birth and nourish its domestic
community leaders and educators.

One of the aims of Diaspora Armenian schools is to be a primary source
of our community future leaders and activists. Without Armenian
schools our chances of knowledgeable and committed future leaders
dim significantly. Without capable leaders there can’t be a healthy
community.

It’s high time our communities took a serious look at the looming
Armenian school crisis. Are we cognizant of the challenges or are
we stuck in the mindset of previous decades? Do we appreciate the
importance of our schools in the survival of our communities? Finally,
how do we make sure our schools flourish and tuition fees are
affordable?

Our schools need additional financial support from the community,
from foundations, from wealthy Armenians and from Armenia. As much as
a subsidy to Armenian parents who want their children to be educated
in an Armenian milieu, the subsidy would be an investment in our
communities’ future. Armenian schools are not a luxury. They are
crucial for our communal survival.

ARMENIAN FILMMAKER SPEAKS OF GOLDEN APRICOT’S MISSION

12:55 ~U 11.07.13

Vigen Chaldranyan, the producer of the film ‘The Voice of Silence’
screened in the Armenian Panorama and Feature Competition categories,
at the Golden Apricot 10th international film festival, told
journalists on Thursday that the festival has undertaken an important
mission – restoring the atmosphere of cinema.

“I have done something impermissible. I asked my students to sincerely
tell me if they wanted to leave Armenia. None of them raised his hand.

I am happy about that. Of course, it is desirable that people go to
Europe to study, but apply their skills here,” he said.

Mariam Davtyan, the female lead in the film, told the journalists
that she loved her heroine.

Armenian News – Tert.am

US APPETITE FOR ACCESSING INFORMATION INSATIABLE, SAYS FORMER CIA ANALYST

09:20 10/07/2013 ” INTERVIEWS

Press TV has conducted an interview with David MacMichael, former
senior CIA analyst, about new revelations showing that the US has
reached an agreement with a private company to maintain its spying
activities against American citizens. What follows is an approximate
transcription of the interview.

– First of all, the revelation by Edward Snowden followed by the
Director of National Intelligence backtracking on his statements made
to Congress and now this. Sir, where does it stop?

– Well I do not know where it stops, I think I can tell you about
where it started. It is interestingly enough this during the United
States civil war hundred and fifty years ago, it had came just at
the time with the big advance in telecommunications, the telegraph,
the wire telegraph system had begun and the United States government
immediately sent its agents into all telegraph offices throughout
the United States and demanded and received access to all messages
sent through the telegraph.

So you are asking where did it begin, that is I would say a good place
to say it began and where will it end, frankly I do not think it is
going to end anywhere. This Team Telecom that you referred to, well it
is a … by the United States when a foreign controlled agent company
was buying the firm Global Crossing which is one of the major fiber
optics firms and this was during the decade beginning in the 1990s
when fiber optics essentially begin, replaced the under ocean cables
and other transmission means with a new technology and what the United
States government has insisted upon before the Federal Communications
Commission would approve this sale and the operation of this company in
United States was a team composed of representatives of the Pentagon,
of the National Security Agency, the CIA, the military and the US
Federal Communications Commission was added to the management of
this new firm in Global Crossing so that the United States could
have access to all of this and to use it and of course this is now
incorporated into what Edward Snowden has revealed, the NSA system.

– Mr. MacMichael, what is the fact now? Is it there is a lot of spying
going on?

EU officials are subject to spying, the Chinese are subject to data
espionage, even the American citizens, ordinary American citizens
are being spied on. The question that comes to mind is what is the
US looking for?

– Well it is this insatiable appetite on the part and this is
historically on the part of people in authority, governments if you
will, and I do not care whether they are in the West, the East, Asian
or capitalist…, these governments have an insatiable appetite for
accessing information and it goes beyond any rational consideration of
what most people would consider national security or national interest.

And I have said this before I think in talking with you and others
that well over fifty years ago the French scientist and political
philosopher Jacques Ellul emphasized that whatever technology was
introduced, no matter how beneficial it was, if it could be used for
an adverse or an evil purpose, it would be and this is a fact of life
and as you said yourself spying goes on.

Source: Panorama.am

MORE ARMENIAN CITIZENS TRAVEL TO TURKEY

July 10, 2013 | 10:10

ANKARA. – A total of 20,500 citizens of Armenia headed to Turkey from
January to May 2013.

The number of Armenian citizens that visited Turkey between these
months grew by 3.9 percent as compared to the same time period in the
year past, Armenian News-NEWS.am ascertained from Turkey’s Culture
and Tourism Ministry.

In its turn, the aforesaid figure is 4.8-percent more than the same
time period in 2011.

A total of 5,236 citizens of Armenia visited Turkey in May alone.

To note, 70,956 Armenian citizens had traveled to Turkey all through
2012.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ANAHIT NIKOLYAN: “SPARTAK GHUKASYAN KILLED KAREN YESAYAN”

Yesterday the Court of General Jurisdiction of Shirak Marz continued
the hearing of Karen Yesayan’s murder. Note that Karen Yesayan was
going to marry the daughter of the former Mayor of Gyumri Vardan
Ghukasyan. He was killed on the day of their engagement.

Galatv.am reports that yesterday’s trial was very tense. Anahit
Nikolyan, mother of defendant Harutiun Sargsyan, gave a testimony. He
was one of the three witnesses who refused to testify. The other
two are the former mayor of Gyumri Vardan Ghukasyan and his daughter
Manya Ghukasyan.

Anahit Nikolyan stated that she has hear the rumors that Karen Yesayan
was killed by Vardan Ghukasyan’s son, Spartak Ghukasyan.

10:34 10/07/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

WILL ARTAK BUDAGHYAN BE ENOUGH PRINCIPLED?

Colonel Artak Budaghyan was charged under Article 137.1 of the RA
Criminal Code since having learned that his brother Avetik was beaten
in the car of Syunik former governor Surik Khachatryan, armed Artak
Budaghyan went to his house and threatened the governor and his
family. Budaghyan isn’t pleading guilty.

The case on Avetik Budaghyan’s murder in front of the house of former
Syunik governor in an incident which injured Artak Budaghyan and one of
the governor’s bodyguards, is acquiring a key meaning. It may either
become the beginning of the celebration of justice, which will break
the vicious biased judiciary of Armenia, or it will bury the hopes
for transformations in our life for long.

The trial is unusually public. First, the security camera video
was released to prove that Budaghyan brothers attacked Khachatryan’s
house and the governor’s son shot at Budaghyan in self-defense. Later,
other details came out. Budagyan’s lawyer Hayk Alumyan said that the
real video shows that his client was shot from behind and that the
incident didn’t happen in the governor’s yard, but on the street,
which means it was not an armed attack.

At the same time, everyone is sure the case won’t be considered in
the legal, but in the political, or rather criminal field. Immediate
statements were issued that the authorities are trying to defend Surik
Khachatryan though his son was arrested right after the incident and
was charged with murder. Then, they said Surik Khachatryan himself
shot and that everything would be done to prove this fact.

This case is symptomatic because both sides are close to the government
and equal in terms of “class weight”. It was hoped that in this case
the authority would take a purely legal decision. But, most of all,
it was decided to do everything so that both sides had “minimal loss”.

Proceeding from this logic, it t is not ruled out that Budaghyan is
being blackmailed and “convinced” not to present direct accusations
to Surik Khachatryan being threatened with the accusation of an
armed attack.

Since a milder charge was presented to Artak Budaghyan rather than
armed attack and wounding the bodyguard, room for “negotiation” is
left. Now, much depends on how principled Artak Budaghyan will be. He
may agree to serve his term in prison even for an armed assault,
if only those guilty are punished with the full weight of the law.

Judging by the statements of Artak Budaghyan’s lawyer, his client is
decisive, and he has materials which have not yet been released. Those
are legal documents which may lose force when you are in the political
or criminal plot.

Naira Hayrumyan 12:20 10/07/2013 Story from Lragir.am News: