Author: nina hovnanian

IRRESPECTIVE OF DIFFICULTIES, CHRISTIANS WILL STAY IN THE MIDDLE
EAST’, SAID HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

– MAY 24, 2013

ANTELIAS, Lebanon – On Thursday 23 May 2013, the International
Conference on `Christian Presence and Witness in the Middle East’
opened in Beirut. The conference was organized by the World Council of
Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches. Around two hundred
persons from Europe, North America and Africa were invited.

Rev. Masis Choboyan read the message of His Holiness Aram I. In his
message, the Catholicos greeted the participants, saying, `You have
come from different parts of the world to reflect with us on the
events in the region and its challenges these represent to us.’

He then made the following points:

Christians of the Middle East, who are deeply rooted in their
countries, are strongly committed to Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Christians in the Middle East have defined their lives according to
the Biblical Truths and the teachings of Jesus. Their history has been
one of suffering and martyrdom, one of commitment to spiritual and
human values and principles.

Although the Churches are currently facing great challenges, they are
holding on to hope.

Despite their difficulties in the past, Christians have not cultivated
hatred, but have always chosen the language of love. They have never
accepted defeat and will continue their Christian witness inspired by
faith, strengthened by hope and enabled by love.

For centuries Christians have existed with Islam. Although the
relationship has not always been smooth, Christians and Muslims will
continue to work together by upholding common values and seeking the
road to coexistence.

As members of two Monotheistic religions and co-citizens, Christians
and Muslims will stay together.

The Catholicos ended by stating: `As Christians we shall fulfill our
duties and responsibilities and at the same time we shall remain
attached to our religious and national rights as citizens and as
communities.’

The Catholicos acknowledged the initiatives of the Vatican and the
World Council of Churches to accompany the local churches. However, he
asked churches outside the region not to work on their behalf, but to
express the visible unity of the churches by empowering them in their
witness and service to the Middle East.

Azadlig: Putin refused to leave for Baku before presidential election

17:39 25/05/2013 » SOCIETY

Russian President Vladimir Putin upset the authorities of Azerbaijan.
According to the newspaper “Azadlig”, official Baku tried to organize
Russian president’s visit to Azerbaijan in order to participate in a
formal event, organized at the initiative of official Baku. The
Kremlin, however, refused.

According to the newspaper, Baku has made serious efforts, but could
not come to an agreement with Moscow on the issue, which was discussed
even during the official visit of Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov to Russia.

The official Baku has been informed that the Kremlin considers it
appropriate to hold this event in November-December this year. Baku
was seriously concerned about such a response, and the political
scientists attributed this response to a possible change of government
in Azerbaijan which has to take place after the presidential election
in October.

Source: Panorama.am

Archbishop hails rule of law in Armenian armed forces

May 25, 2013 – 16:26 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Law prevails in Armenian armed forces, army
spiritual leader Archbishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan said.
He noted the army leader as a conscious person, who is well aware of
the internal problems.

`The army is a big institution and shortcomings are inevitable there.
We need to think of ways to educate our children,’ the archbishop told
a press conference, hailing the relations between the church and the
armed forces.

He further voiced confidence that all army units will have priests at
the nearest opportunity.

Recently Citizens Proposed Agenda

Interview with Karen Harutiunyan, IT specialist and civic activist

Karen, elections ended without producing anything positive. What were
your expectations and did they come true?

It was crisp and clear that the elections would be falsified, and the
regime would not let Yerevan go because the opposition forces could
not force it to. The post-electoral wave of protest was not strong
enough and faded away soon due to lack of content. People had
expectations from the elections so they would be disappointed, which
deepens the lack of confidence in the political forces and themselves.
Since many people link every change to elections, they confine
themselves to lack of expectations for 4-5 years, and it will repeat
in the next election period.

Is the opposition to blame for these developments?

The opposition forces are always blaming others, mainly the ruling
regime, people and one another, avoiding responsibility and admitting
their fault. The regime is to blame indeed, and it dictates the unfair
rules of the game but they know about it before, not after the
elections, and nevertheless admit the rules and eventually start
blaming people around. In fact, by shouting about falsifications in
the pre-election period they justify their inevitable defeat.

This is also people’s fault because they are not conscious and do not
fight but authorize the political forces to act on their behalf. The
latter are reluctant or unable to do it. People let the political
parties mislead them, cheat them and do not hold them responsible. One
of the biggest issues of Armenia is the lack of responsibility of the
government, opposition and people. Otherwise they do what they want.

What should the role of political parties and the civil society be in
the upcoming few years?

Elections are over, and the political parties are embarrassed, they
have nothing to do.

The political forces have problems with admitting criticism, therefore
they often are not adequate to the situation and cut themselves from
the public. Political parties pursue the interests of their parties,
which is normal if the state is constitutional. Otherwise, they have
to cooperate with the illegal regime and follow its rules, what we
witness today.

The political parties are stagnant, they need to understand the
challenges, confront them and find ways out. Otherwise, they will have
to mark time until the next election to activate and repeat the cycle,
so it is better for them to dissolve themselves because they lose
their classical meaning without a constitutional state.

The political sector is more promising. Recently the citizens have a
key role and proposed the agenda of the political field. They do not
have partisan interests, even during the elections, and in the
post-electoral period they had a greater role in control, revelation
of violations, establishment of a new political culture.

A lot of people understood that change should not be linked to
elections and post-electoral developments and are looking for other
ways. The system is not only the regime, and in order to remove it the
lower level underpinning the regime should be taken into consideration
as well.

What is the reason why no changes occur in Armenia? Is the reason bad
politicians, public, wrong strategies or are there other reasons?

The reasons are deep, one of them is the set of values underlying the
distorted political culture. It affects the politicians, the public,
the choice of strategy.

Another reason is the low level of legal consciousness of the public
although, on the other hand, it is also the consequence of false
values and political manipulation. Sense of freedom and responsibility
are also important.
15:05 25/05/2013
Story from Lragir.am News:

Karabakh President attends opening of archaeological exhibition

May 25, 2013 | 14:27

STEPANAKERT. – Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), or Artsakh, President
Bako Sahakyan on Saturday attended the official opening of an
archaeological exhibition.

During the event, which is titled `The Land’s Memory: Artsakh’ and
held in NKR capital city Stepanakert, President Sahakyan underscored
the carrying out of archaeological excavations in Artsakh at a highly
professional level, adding that this process should also involve
foreign experts and their results should be available to a large
cross-section of the public, Central Information Department of the
Office of the NKR President informs.

According to the President, the implementation of such activities in
Artsakh is important from the scientific, cultural, and political
perspective.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, NKR National Assembly Speaker Ashot
Ghulyan, and several other officials likewise attended this event.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian says his ex-wife is a habitual lier

15:05 25.05.2013

American Armenian Kirk Kerkorian has fired back against his ex-wife
who is gunning to put him under a conservatorship, calling her a
serial liar motivated by unbridled greed, TMZ reports.

Lisa Bonder had filed legal docs claiming the 95-year-old Kirk was
being held hostage by people in his company and she wanted someone to
step in and, at the very least, allow Kirk to re-establish a
relationship with their 15-year-old daughter Kira.

Now Kirk has fired back in legal docs, saying, `The only person Lisa
Bonder has ever cared about is Lisa Bonder.’ Kirk says Lisa is a
proven liar many times over – for starters, he notes she deceived him
into believing Kira was his kid by rigging a DNA test – he says she
took the DNA from Kirk’s natural child and passed it off as Kira’s.

Even though Kirk’s not the dad, he stepped up for benefit of Kira and
agreed to pay child support, but he says it’s never been enough for
Lisa. Kirk had agreed to pay $50,000 a month in child support, but
Lisa wanted $100,000. After Kirk agreed to pay her $100,000 and gave
her more than $10 million to just go away, she came back and asked for
$500,000 a month.

Kirk notes in the docs that Lisa has lied to multiple judges about
what she claims are Kira’s needs, only to be shut down and exposed as
a liar.

Kirk believes Lisa wants a conservatorship because she thinks she can
screw him out of more money with a conservator.

Zhoghovurd: Armavia fails to pay salaries to pilots, engineers and air
stewards for seven months

10:46 – 25.05.13

Previous pilots, engineers and air stewards of Armavia airline have
applied to Zhoghovurd paper saying that the company has not paid their
salaries for seven months.

The paper says the remarkable thing though is not that the company has
not paid its most significant employees but it has cheated the
Republic of Armenia.

`The social payments on our behalf have not been made since 2011. Of
course, deductions were made, the salaries were paid but we have found
out that from 2011 till 2012 November the social payments were not
made.

There are people who are to retire but the problem has not been
settled, in short we are in desperate situation,’ the paper quoted
them as saying.
Armavia company has told the paper that they will comment after the holidays.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Strategic Pressure of the Strategic Ally

May 24 2013

According to David Shahnazaryan, the Russian Federation tries to
prevent enhancement of relations between the Republic of Armenia and
the European Union and signing of the EU Association Agreement. * Mr.
Shahnazaryan, how will you describe the internal political situation,
what does the post-election period stand out for? * As a result of
three elections within one year, the whole political system in Armenia
has proved its irrelevance and incompetence. The political system in
its current state cannot ensure any progress. Basically, neither the
government nor the opposition nor non-government organizations have
political content and work style, and they have separated themselves
from society. The government continues to be oligarchic, doesn’t carry
out political government, promises of political changes are up in the
air, and current government hasn’t taken any step yet, by which it
would prove that it intended to lead Armenia along the path of normal
development, although it has the capacity to do that. Selective
adherence to principles, nonpublic, shadow functions and deals
dominate the opposition camp. The opposition hasn’t developed a
political agenda appropriate to the situation, except for
revolutionary scenarios. The democratic opposition, maturity of which
is a must these days, is undeveloped and immature. * What agenda
should the opposition forces have developed? * The revolutionary
non-ideological approaches of disorder and disobedience dominate the
opposition camp. The most important issue is real separation of
executive, legislative and judicial branches of power, but one should
first of all achieve separation of business and politics not only
inside the government, but also in the non-government and opposition
parts of the political system. One of the pivotal issues on the
political agenda should be signing of the Association Agreement
between Armenia and the EU and consistent implementation of
obligations stemming from that agreement. This is an unprecedented
opportunity for Armenia to switch from a criminal oligarchic country
to a developing state. This is just an opportunity, a chance, seizing
which will require travelling a hard and difficult road, for which
both the government and the opposition should have unequivocal
political will, whereas the current political system in its current
state is unable to do that. If we miss this opportunity, Armenia will
be set back, and morals, which exist in Russia, will take root –
persecutions of opposition and civil society. Association with the EU
should become a nonpartisan goal, in which civil society should play a
huge part. * After the elections, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP)
leader stated that the PAP could not be opposition, but there are
heated debates now as to how one should understand that statement;
everyone gives his own explanation to the PAP’s being or not being
opposition. You have expressed your position on the PAP many times;
nonetheless, what can you say about the latest developments related to
the PAP? * It is a meaningless question whether the PAP is opposition
or not, since the PAP is not a political organization, to begin with;
it hasn’t been established as such and has never been such. A
political force cannot avoid responsibility, which is characteristic
of the PAP both at the time when it was in power and now when it is
formally not in power. A force that has always used the government’s
backdoor favor and whose representatives have made contradictory
assessments, avoid political responsibility cannot be opposition.
Combination of charity for political reasons, economic monopolies,
business and crime and simultaneous synthesis of influences on the
opposition camp are not only incompatible with politics, but are also
destructive for any country’s political system. The PAP thinks that
all the troubles of Armenia have started in the past one year, i.e.
when it withdrew from the ruling coalition. It is obvious that they
share the opinion of some circles in Russia that the oligarchic system
in Armenia developed in 2009-2010…. By the way, the PAP and forces
supporting it are proponents of Armenia’s membership in the Customs
Union and the Eurasian Union. * Can the reason for the fuss about the
increase in gas prices be the latest developments in the relations
between Armenia and the EU? Do you agree with the opinion expressed by
many people these days that the Russian side proposes a change in gas
prices as a result of our willingness to sign the EU Association
Agreement? * This is a direct consequence of the former government’s,
Kocharyan’s and Oskanian’s, foreign policy; during their tenure, very
important strategic facilities, including almost the whole energy
system, in particular the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline whose diameter is
small as it is, were handed over to Russia. Russia’s abruptly
increasing the gas prices is political pressure on Armenia, which aims
at preventing enhancement of the relations between Armenia and the
European Union, as well as signing of the EU Association agreement.
This is Armenia’s strategic ally’s pressure on Armenia that pursues
strategic aims. I think that these pressures exerted by Russia will be
continuous and will not be confined to use of gas levers. The
government has hushed up the increase in gas prices, and generally,
the government avoids talking about these challenges in public, since
it doesn’t act as the representative of Armenian society. It would be
possible to resist this gas pressure exerted by Russia, as well as
other expected pressures in the future, if the government was engaged
in political activities, was guided exceptionally by the interests of
state and society. The apolitical activities of the Armenian
government are not appropriate to the external and internal
challenges. The government should take immediate measures to build a
new, 1400mm- diameter gas pipeline parallel to the existing Iranian
gas pipeline, which may become a transit pipeline in the future, and
it should not be turned over to some third state. EMMA GABRIELYAN

Read more at:

© 1998 – 2013 Aravot – News from Armenia

ANCA testimony to call for conditions on Turkey trade deal

May 25, 2013 – 10:42 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian will testify this coming
week before the U.S. International Trade Commission in support of
strict rule-of-law conditions on any new American trade agreements
involving Turkey.

Nahapetian will appear before a hearing called to consider public
comments regarding the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP), which will take place over May 29 and 30. It will
be chaired by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and include a
panel of senior officials from member agencies of the Trade Policy
Staff Committee.
The Turkish government, has, in recent months, lobbied Washington
aggressively for inclusion in a proposed far-ranging Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership between the U.S. and the European
Union, as well as for its own U.S.-Turkey bilateral free trade
agreement. The ANCA, consistent with a joint written statement
submitted earlier this month to the USTR along with the American
Hellenic Institute (AHI) and the Hellenic American Leadership Council
(HALC), will encourage the U.S. government to require, as a
pre-condition for any trade deals involving Turkey, that the Turkish
government have fully withdrawn its unlawful military occupation of
Cyprus, unconditionally lifted its illegal economic blockade of
Armenia, and ended all obstacles to trade, investment, and other forms
of commerce has Ankara imposed on Cyprus and Armenia.

Also offering testimony will be a broad range of corporate, labor,
citizens, and trade associations, including U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
AFL-CIO, American Insurance Association, Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association, Software Information Industry
Association, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Public Citizen,
U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Consumer Federation of America,
Underwriters Laboratories, Biotechnology Industry Organization,
Transatlantic Business Council, American Association of Exporters and
Importers, American Apparel and Footwear Association, and American
Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.

Supreme Court urged to review Lower Court decision on Armenian
Genocide-era insurance claims case

13:08 25.05.2013

The plaintiffs in the Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims case
filed an incisive and thoughtfully argued brief urging the Supreme
Court to `review and correct’ the Ninth Circuit’s 2012 decision
striking down a California law extending the statute of limitations on
such matters, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA).

The plaintiff’s brief came in response to one filed by the U.S.
Solicitor General less than two weeks ago, which urged the Supreme
Court not to review the case. The Supreme Court is set to consider
all submissions dealing with the Armenian Genocide-era insurance case
on June 6th, and will issue a decision whether or not to take the case
soon thereafter.

`This case raises important questions of states’ ability to enact laws
for the benefit of their own citizens that do not conflict with the
federal government’s foreign policy or actions,’ noted Igor Timofeyev
of Paul Hastings LLP, who is serving as the lead counsel for
plaintiffs on a pro-bono basis. `Along with several Attorneys General
from around the country, we believe the Supreme Court should resolve
this issue.’

In the 19-page response, plaintiffs argue that while the Solicitor
General’s brief does not cite any Congressional or Presidential action
that would have blocked California’s ability to extend the statute of
limitations on Genocide-era insurance claims, the Government is
advancing a `revolutionary proposition that states lack all authority
to enact legislation concerning their citizens’ private claims if they
originate in events that occurred abroad.’ The Solicitor General’s
position `advances an unprecedented theory of federal foreign affairs
preemption’ that is `antithetical to the respect due to states as
separate sovereigns,’ the brief continued.

The plaintiffs’ response to the Solicitor General’s brief, as well as
all filings associated with this case, can be viewed
at:

`We would like to thank Igor Timofeyev and the team at Paul Hastings
LLP for their expert legal representation,’ said ANCA Government
Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian. `Whether or not the Supreme Court
agrees to review this case – which will be based on federalism grounds
and not the merits of the claims – we will not be deterred from
pursuing what even the Solicitor General and lower courts have
recognized as unremedied claims.’

The Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims case has traveled a long
and complex legal path, which has included three separate and
conflicting opinions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most
recent on February 23, 2012. That decision struck down the California
law extending the statute of limitations for certain life insurance
claims based on an unprecedented expansion of the rarely invoked
doctrine of foreign affairs field preemption. Defendant Munich Re, a
German insurance company, is represented by Neil Soltman of Mayer
Brown’s Los Angeles office.