Author: nina hovnanian

Lithuanian Ambassador Summoned To Azerbaijan’S For.Min Over N.K Group

Baltic News Service / – BNS
March 19, 2013 Tuesday 1:35 PM EET

VILNIUS, Mar 19, BNS – Lithuania’s Ambassador in Baku Arturas
Zurauskas was summoned to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry to explain
over the group of friendship with Nagorno Karabakh established at
the Lithuanian parliament.

Zurauskas confirmed to BNS he met with Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Vice-Minister Halaf Halafov on Monday.

“Formally, he did not hand me a note but expressed the concerns from
Azerbaijan’s side, which have been cited everywhere. This is what
happened. No official note was received, however, it has the same
power, whether it is in a written or verbal form. I forwarded the
things I was told to the center just like it was a written form,”
the ambassador told BNS.

An official announcement was made during a parliamentary plenary
meeting last week about establishment of the friendship group with
the unrecognized republic of Nagorno Karabakh. The group was founded
during an event held at the Seimas in the end of February. Nagorno
Karabakh’s foreign minister was present at the event.

Lithuania’s former foreign minister Audronius Azubalis of the
opposition Conservatives then expressed indignation, saying the move
would affect the country’s official foreign policy. Earlier this month,
Azerbaijan’s ambassador handed a note to Lithuania over the group as
a potential threat to bilateral relations.

ARMENIAN OFFSHORE CAPITAL IN CYPRUS BANKS MAY LEAD TO CRISIS AT HOME

Haykakan Zhamanak, Armenia
March 21 2013

[Translated from Armenian]

Yerevan, 21 March: The financial crisis in Cyprus’ banking system
which is currently in the global focus may also have a serious impact
on Armenia’s banking sector in the near future.

The reason is that a sum of rather suspicious capital of Armenian
origin has been deposited in Cyprus banks. This capital mainly belongs
to our high-ranking officials who are investing this money in Armenia
via Cyprus for them to be considered as foreign investments.

By acting in this way, they manage to hide their assets from the
public. To get a clear idea about the volume of these “dark sums”,
it is worth noting that in the Armenian banking system alone,
Cypriot investments, even according to official data, amount to some
84m dollars.

THE KURDS: ONE PEOPLE, FOUR COUNTRIES

Agence France Presse
March 20, 2013 Wednesday 11:36 AM GMT

Despite their longstanding wish for a single homeland called Kurdistan,
the Kurds are today scattered over four countries spanning half a
million square kilometres: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Originally of Indo-European origin, the Kurds trace their roots back
to the Medes of ancient Persia. Mainly Sunni Muslim, they live in
mountainous regions straddling the four countries, and have kept
their language, culture and tribal system.

While their population differs according to official or Kurdish
sources, they number between 25 and 35 million.

The largest number of Kurds lives in Turkey, where their numbers are
disputed, but believed to be between 12 and 15 million.

There are five million Kurds in Iran, about 4.5 million in Iraq and
around two million in Syria.

Large expatriate Kurdish communities also exist in the former Soviet
Union, notably Azerbaijan and Armenia, and in Lebanon and some European
countries such as Germany.

As a large and distinct group Kurds are neither Arabs, Turks or
Persians and are therefore seen as a political threat by all four of
the countries that they inhabit.

In past centuries the Kurds enjoyed periods of self-rule under Kurdish
dynasties in semi-autonomous principalities, some of which survived
until the mid-19th century when they were overthrown by the Ottoman
empire and Persia, as Iran was formerly called.

The Kurds’ claim for an ethnic homeland, which dates back to 1695,
has been the source of their problems in a history that has been a
long tale of harassment, discrimination and occasionally of slaughter.

The traditional refuge of the Kurds has always been the mountains,
with their steep pastures and fertile valleys.

Following the Turkish defeat in World War I and the collapse of the
Ottoman empire, Kurdish demands for an independent homeland were
recognised under the Treaty of Sevres (1920), but promises received
from London and Paris were never implemented.

The Sevres treaty was re-negotiated at Lausanne in 1923 and the
Kurdish demands were buried.

With Soviet backing, Iran’s Kurds briefly declared a republic at the
end of World War II, but it was soon crushed by the Iranian army.

In recent decades, Turkey and Iraq have been equally ruthless in
frustrating Kurdish demands. Ankara banned until 2002 the use of the
Kurdish language, and even the words Kurd and Kurdish were banished
from public discourse.

Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein carried out a murderous
campaign, systematically wiping out towns and villages using guns,
planes and bulldozers.

In April 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi warplanes
attacked the Kurdish village of Halabja with poison gas, killing the
entire population.

The US-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago, and the subsequent fall
of the Saddam regime gave Iraqi Kurds new hopes and they now enjoy
wide-ranging autonomy on most issues, have their own parliament
and government.

In Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) led by Abdullah Ocalan,
who is expected to call for a ceasefire on Thursday, was formed in
1978 and in 1984 launched a campaign for a separate state, plunging
southeast Turkey into a civil war in which some 45,000 people, mostly
Kurds, have died.

In Iran, the western province of Kordestan is dominated by Sunni
Muslims and has seen deadly fighting in recent years between Iranian
security forces and Kurdish rebels of the PJAK group operating out
of rear-bases in neighbouring Iraq.

PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is closely allied with
Turkey’s PKK.

doc-jmy-kd/ck/lc

CYPRUS SEEKS NEW RESCUE PLAN INVOLVING RUSSIA

Associated Press Online
March 20, 2013 Wednesday 3:52 PM GMT

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS and ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press NICOSIA
Cyprus

Cypriot officials rushed Wednesday to find new ways to stave off
financial ruin, including asking Russia for help, after Parliament
rejected a plan to contribute to the nation’s bailout package by
seizing people’s bank savings.

Tuesday’s rejection of the plan to take a slice of all deposits above
20,000 euros ($25,888) has left the country’s bailout in question.

Without the bailout, the Cypriot banking sector would collapse,
devastating the economy and potentially causing the country to leave
the euro.

That could roil global financial markets as well as endanger deposits
in the country even further.

Political party leaders met at the central bank to discuss an
alternative plan to raise the 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) the
country needs to qualify for 10 billion euros in rescue loans from
its fellow euro countries and the International Monetary Fund.

They also discussed not raising the full 5.8 billion domestically,
with the rest potentially coming from other sources, such as Russia.

Cyprus’ finance minister was in Moscow to ask for support, possibly
in the form of an extension on an existing loan.

“We will be here until some kind of agreement is reached,” said
Michalis Sarris in Moscow.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades held talks with European and
IMF officials but issued no statement on the result. The eurozone
and IMF officials must sign off on any Plan B the Cypriots come up
with if it is to be approved as part of the bailout.

Anastasiades called a meeting of his cabinet ministers for later
Wednesday. The ministers would likely draft a bill to limit the
amount of money leaving the country, according to a banking official
who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to
discuss the situation.

The ministers would also try to create a so-called “bad bank,” a fund
in which the dump the nonperforming investments of the country’s two
largest banks, which lost billions on bad Greek debt.

Cyprus is running on borrowed time, literally.

The ECB is keeping the Cypriot banks alive by allowing them to draw
on emergency support from the local central bank. But the ECB has
said it would cut off that aid if there was no bailout deal soon and
it became clear the banks had no hope of becoming solvent again.

Under the initial bailout plan conceived in Brussels last weekend,
other eurozone countries and the IMF would give Cyprus 10 billion euros
($12.9 billion) in rescue loans if the country raised 5.8 billion euros
($7.5 billion) through the one-off bank deposit seizures.

The plan was initially to take 6.75 percent of deposits up to 100,000
euros and 9.9 percent on those above that threshold. That caused
outrage, leading the government to propose an amended version that
would have spared deposits up to 20,000 euros. But that new plan also
failed to win over Cypriot lawmakers.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union
that is involved in the bailout talks, said in a statement that it
was Cypriot authorities that had wanted to extend the seizures to
deposits below 100,000 euros.

But doing so would have required increasing the size of the
confiscations on larger deposits, something Cyprus apparently refused
to do. The government is worried about scaring away large depositors,
who could put a strain on the island’s financial system if they were
to pull their money out quickly.

The central bank’s deputy governor, Spyros Stavrinakis, said no
decision had been taken on when banks, which have been shut since the
weekend, would reopen, and that a new plan has not yet been presented
to the country’s euro partners and IMF.

The banks remained shut for the third day running to avoid a bank run,
and there are growing expectations they may not reopen until next
week certainly not until Cypriot authorities come up with a credible
financial package.

In Nicosia, residents waited anxiously to see what lay in store
for them.

Avetis Bahcecian has been running his Armenian restaurant in Nicosia
for years. Now, with the uncertainty swirling around Cyprus, he’s
worried about his business.

“Whatever they do, they have to do it quickly because this uncertainty
is hurting business,” the 41-year-old said as he kneaded dough to make
lahmacun, a traditional Armenian pizza-style food. “Our business is
down by 40 percent in the last couple days.”

ATMs have been dispensing cash and debit and credit cards have been
working, so Cypriots have not faced any immediate cash shortage for
day-to-day living.

As uncertainty grew over the country’s future, even the country’s
influential Orthodox church offered to help.

Its head, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, said the church was willing
to mortgage its assets to invest in government bonds. The church
has considerable wealth, including property, stakes in a bank and
a brewery.

“The wealth of the church is at the disposal of the country,”
Chrysostomos said.

David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

OBAMA GREETED BY ARMENIAN ARCHBISHOP IN BETHLEHEM

NEWS.AM
March 22, 2013 | 17:38

U.S. President Barack Obama visited on Friday the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem.

He was accompanied by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary
of State John Kerry and other officials.

In the church, he was greeted by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos
III, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Franciscan Custodian of the
Holy Land, and Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Sevan Gharibian, NBC
News reported.

After his visit to Bethlehem, Obama will head to Jordan where he will
meet with King Abdullah II.

The Church of the Nativity is administered jointly by Roman Catholic,
Greek Orthodox and Armenian church.

LES KURDES, UN PEUPLE DIVISE ENTRE QUATRE PAYS

Les Kurdes, musulmans sunnites dans leur majorite, sont etablis sur
près d’un demi-million de kilomètres carres, aux confins de la Turquie,
de l’Iran, de l’Irak et de la Syrie.

Peuple d’origine indo-europeenne, les Kurdes descendent des Mèdes de
l’ancienne Perse, qui fondèrent un empire au VIIe siècle avant J.C.

Leur nombre total varie, selon les sources officielles ou kurdes,
de 25 a 35 millions de personnes. Le plus grand nombre vit en Turquie
(12 a 15 millions), suivie de l’Iran (environ 5 millions), de l’Irak
(près de 4,5 millions) et de la Syrie (quelque 2 millions).

D’importantes communautes kurdes vivent egalement en Azerbaïdjan,
en Armenie et au Liban ainsi qu’en Europe, notamment en Allemagne.

Situes dans des zones a l’interieur des terres, les Kurdes ont su
preserver leurs dialectes, leurs traditions et un mode d’organisation
largement clanique.

L’effondrement de l’Empire ottoman a l’issue de la première guerre
mondiale ouvrit la voie a la creation d’un Etat kurde, prevue par
le traite de Sèvres en 1920, situe dans l’est de l’Anatolie et dans
la province de Mossoul. Mais après la victoire de Mustafa Kemal,
“Ataturk”, en Turquie, les Allies revinrent sur leur decision et,
en 1923, le traite de Lausanne consacra la domination de la Turquie,
de l’Iran, de la Grande-Bretagne (pour l’Irak) et de la France (pour
la Syrie) sur les populations kurdes.

Revendiquant la creation d’un Kurdistan unifie, les Kurdes sont
consideres comme une constante menace a l’integrite territoriale des
pays où ils sont installes.

En Turquie, une rebellion armee, menee par le Parti des travailleurs
du Kurdistan (PKK) contre le pouvoir central a fait 45.000 morts
depuis 1984. Le PKK, qui a pris les armes pour la creation d’un Etat
kurde independant, ne revendique plus desormais qu’une autonomie des
regions de peuplement kurdes et des droits collectifs accrus.

Les rebelles kurdes ont deja observe plusieurs cessez-le-feu
unilateraux, toujours rejetes par les autorites d’Ankara, et procede
a plusieurs liberations de prisonniers. Au terme d’une annee 2012
particulièrement meurtrière, les autorites d’Ankara ont repris le
dialogue avec le chef du PKK Abdullah Ocalan, qui purge depuis 1999
une peine de reclusion a perpetuite. Le chef rebelle kurde doit appeler
ses troupes a un cessez-le-feu, jeudi a l’occasion du Nouvel an kurde.

Autonomie

La communaute kurde irakienne a longtemps ete persecutee, en
particulier sous le regime de Saddam Hussein qui la deplaca de force,
au debut des annees 1970, puis, bombarda a l’arme chimique la ville
de Halabja, en 1988, faisant près de 5.000 morts.

En 1991, après la fin de la guerre du Golfe, plus de deux millions
de Kurdes irakiens fuirent la repression irakienne, poussant les
allies occidentaux a instaurer une zone d’exclusion aerienne au nord
du 36e parallèle.

Aujourd’hui, les Kurdes d’Irak ont obtenu une forme d’autonomie :
formee de trois provinces, la region autonome du Kurdistan irakien
dispose de son propre gouvernement, de ses forces de securite,
ses postes-frontières et son drapeau, mais recoit toujours une
partie du budget federal. Les relations entre Erbil et Bagdad
se sont considerablement degradees ces derniers mois en raison de
revendications territoriales kurdes, concernant notamment la province
de Kirkourk, et de differends sur des contrats petroliers.

En Syrie, les Kurdes qui representent environ 15% de la population,
surtout dans le Nord, se sont engages très prudemment dans la
contestation qui secoue le pays depuis deux ans. Ils ont essaye
d’empecher les rebelles de penetrer dans leurs regions pour eviter
des represailles du regime.

En Iran, au lendemain de la Revolution islamique de 1979, un
soulèvement kurde a ete sevèrement mate par les autorites et les partis
representant cette minorite, en particulier le Parti democratique du
Kurdistan iranien (PDKI), ont ete interdits. En juillet 2011, les
Gardiens de la revolution ont lance une vaste offensive contre les
groupes rebelles kurdes au nord-ouest de l’Iran, tuant le numero deux
du Parti pour une vie libre au Kurdistan (PJAK), principal mouvement
kurde de lutte contre le regime de Teheran, proche du PKK.

jeudi 21 mars 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

BRITISH UNDER-SECRETARY OF FOREIGN OFFICE WANTS ARMENIA TO BE FRIENDS WITH NEIGHBOURS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 20 2012

British Under-Secretary of Foreign Office Simon Fraser said that
the agreements on free trade zone of Armenia and the EU and their
association agreement were of strategic significance for Armenia.

British Under-Secretary of Foreign Office Simon Fraser said that
the agreements on free trade zone of Armenia and the EU and their
association agreement were of strategic significance for Armenia,
Aravot reports.

Armenia will make progress in management and democracy. It would
improve stability and security in South Caucasus.

The diplomat noted that Russia was encouraging Armenia to join the
Customs and Eurasian Union while Armenian lobbyists were promoting
the European vector. Regardless of Armenia’s choice, the republic
should have good ties with neighbours, he added.

Fraser reminded that the “football diplomacy” of Armenian president
in relations with Turkey after the elections of 2008 and the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process had brought no results. The diplomat
considers ideas of the new government unclear.

He expressed hope that the OSCE Minsk Group would boost the process,
basing on the Helsinki principles with account of each other’s
interests.

.

SURVEY: GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT OF ARMENIA’S HOUSEHOLDS IS DECLINING

ARMINFO
Wednesday, March 20, 19:33

Gainful employment of Armenia’s households is declining, the results
of the Caucasus Barometer 2012 survey say. The survey was conducted by
the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) and Eurasia Partnership
Foundation.

In 2010 61% of Armenia’s households had gainful employment, in 2011
this index dropped to 59%, and in 2012 – to 58%. In 2010 26% of the
households wanted to use the opportunity to move to another country
for permanent residence, in 2011 – 23%, and in 2012 this index rose
to the level of 2010. In the meantime, 59% of the households would
have moved to another country for temporary residence in 2010, 56%
in 2011 and 54% in 2012.

When asked about their economic conditions as compared to the major
part of other households, only 1% of Armenian respondents replied “very
good” in 2010-12. 13% of the respondents qualified their comparative
conditions as “good” in 2010, 11% – in 2011, and in 2012 this index
was the same as in 2010. 66% of the respondents were in “average”
conditions in 2010, 69% in 2011, and up to 70% – in 2012.

15% of the respondents qualified their economic conditions as “bad”
in 2010, 16% in 2011, and 13% in 2012. 5% of the respondents said
“very bad” in 2010, 3% in 2011 and 2% in 2012.

To note, a total of 6715 respondents were interviewed face-to-face
(2384 in Armenia, 1829 in Azerbaijan, and 2502 in Georgia.

REPORT: BAKU CONTINUOUSLY BOOSTS ARMS IMPORTS

March 20, 2013 – 22:32 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Azerbaijan is the sole country in Eastern Europe
to continuously increase the volume of arms imports, according
to the annual report of Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI). “Azerbaijan increased its arms imports by 155%
in 2003-2012,” SIPRI experts write, citing Nagorno Karabakh conflict
as the key reason.

“Along with Aerostar UAV and Hermes-450, Baku purchased Russian Mi-24
helicopters, as well as Matador and Marauder armoured vehicles from
South Africa built under license in Azerbaijan,” the report reads,
rbc reports.

In the past 10 years, Azerbaijan advanced its positions from 48th to
35th in the world list of arms importers.

Meanwhile, Turkey was also reported to actively purchase new arms,
however, not in the same pace as Azerbaijan.

It’s noteworthy that in March, Georgia and Azerbaijan signed a plan
of defense cooperation for 2013. Georgian authorities keep stating
they show respect for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, whilst
expressing intention to maintain friendly relations with Armenia.

OSKANIAN: THEY HINDER ACTIVITIES OF CIVILITAS

Wednesday,
March 20

The Civilitas Foundation has attracted funds to Armenia, rather than
has taken resources from the country’s state budget, the ex-Foreign
Minister of Armenia, member of Prosperous Armenia party (BHK) Vartan
Oskanian told RFE/RL Armenia Service.

“I have repeatedly said that what is taking place against Civilitas
is baseless. I am accused of embezzlement. And I am accused by the
authorities who are knee-deep in kickbacks. There are two proceedings
now – against me and Civilitas, both are political ones,” Vartan
Oskanian stated.

In his words, checks have been conducted in Civilitas for a year,
hindering the Foundation’s normal activities.

“This is a form of pressure. I declare officially that the National
Security Service is hindering our work. I am asking you to stop it,”
Vartan Oskanian said.

In his words, a lot of money could be attracted to Armenia.

“But there are two major conditions for receiving money: you must have
a program and gain confidence. Both factors are absent in our state.

For this reason, foreign investments are not made here and the external
debt is increasing” Oskanian said, adding that he and the Civilitas
Foundation have a single task of promoting the country’s development.

TODAY, 18:02

Aysor.am