Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIAN POLITICAL FIGURE SPEAKS OF FIVE MAJOR TASKS

15:50 ~U 27.02.13

Zhirair Sefilyan, a Sardarapat movement member, believes that five
major tasks must be accomplished to put an end to the current domestic
political situation.

“The first task is to clearly formulate Armenia’s prospects and a
program of achieving aims. The second task is to mobilize the potential
of Armenian intellectuals – both in and outside Armenia. The third task
is to ensure a change of political generations in terms of quality.

The fourth task is establishing the principle of group
decision-making. And the fifth task is to find a mechanism of putting
an end to the approach that romanticists carry out revolutions,”
he told journalists on Wednesday.

“It will be the essence of Armenia’s revival,” he said.

As to Armenian National Congress MP Nikol Pashinyan’s opinion that,
at his public meetings, Heritage party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian
is supposed to gradually propose a new cabinet, Mr Sefilyan told
Tert.am that “Nikol Pashinyan’s proposal is somewhat superficial. Our
proposal is a profound one. Do not think proposing a cabinet should
be the first step. We must create a new judicial system, which would
investigate cases simultaneously with courts and so on.”

Mr Sefilyan believes Raffi Hovannisian’s sincerity and thinks he is
“an alternative for the Armenian people.”

“Our aim is to create a state of new quality and Armenia we are
dreaming of through radical reforms. I am sure our struggle will
prevent a new March 1and produce results,” Mr Sefilyan said.

GERMANY TO ALLOCATE 65,000 EURO FOR MONITORING OF ORPHANAGES AND RESIDENTIAL CARE INSTITUTIONS IN ARMENIA

14:13, 27 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS: A cooperation agreement was signed
between UNICEF and Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany on
February 27, whereby German Embassy will allocate 65, 000 EURO to
strengthen capacities of Independent Public Group for Monitoring of
Residential Care Institutions.

As Armenpress reports, UNICEF Representative in Armenia Henriette
Ahrens stated ” children living in orphanages and night care centers
may be at higher risk of being abused and neglected. Urgent steps
must be undertaken for preventing child rights violation in night-
care centers and orphanages”.

“The protection of human rights is a priority of the German
Government. We trust that our joined efforts in this project will have
a tangible impact on the protection of children’s rights in Armenia”
Reiner Morell, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in
Armenia underscored. The objective of the current project funded by
the German Embassy in Armenia is to improve the situation of the child
rights protection in special institutions. The Independent Public
group will also improve its internal regulations and structures,
monitoring methodology, mechanisms and tools.

Approximately 4500 children are living in residential care institutions
of Armenia.

MPI UNION OF ARMENIA, “GXP” CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE AND NAN SIGN MEMORANDUM OF COOPERATION

YEREVAN, February 27. /ARKA/. Medicine Producers and Importers
(MPI) Union of Armenia, “GXP” Centre of Excellence and International
Scientific and Educational Center of the National Academy of Sciences
(NAN) signed a memorandum about cooperation, the press service of
MPI Union reported.

In particular, the aim of the memorandum is to facilitate student
manufacturing practice in pharmaceutical companies members of MPI
Union, to create student CVs in the online expert database of MPI
Union and hold professional trainings on EU GMP standards in “GXP”
Centre of Excellence.

The memorandum is also to help the companies cooperate in research
works and study processes, develop cooperation and establish contacts
with leading international universities and scientific centers,
publish scientific articles and research papers in “Pharma” scientific
magazine. -0–

PEOPLE AFFILIATED WITH THE AZERI EMBASSY IN PARIS BEGIN BRAWL SHOWING DISRESPECT TO THE VICTIMS OF THE SUMGAIT PORGOMS

12:17, 27 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS: Azeri delegation disrupted a
commemoration event marking the 25th anniversary of the Sumgait
Massacres taking place inside the French Parliament Tuesday when they
refused to stand in observance of a moment of silence for the victims.

As reports Armenpress, referring to Asbarez, the brawl was initiated
by Azeris.

The APA news agency reported on its Web site that Armenians locked
the door of the auditorium and were accompanied by French members of
the audience in “brutally” beating them.

According to Mourad Papazian, chairman of the Coordinating Council
of Armenian Organization in France (CCAF), one of the Azeris punched
an event organizer, Hratch Varjabedian, who had approached them to
inquire about their show of disrespect.

Eyewitnesses reported that one of the Azeris shouted that he would
only stand to commemorate “the victims of Khojaly.”

After Varjabedian was punched, a group of young Armenians rushed to
the scene and a brawl ensued before audience members broke it up and
police cordoned off the room.

Surprisingly, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to France, Elchin Amirbeyov
immediately arrived at the scene accompanied by other embassy officials
and issued a condemnation of the attack.

The event, entitled, “Sumgait events after 25 years: the present
situation and future prospects for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh”
was organized by French Parliament member Francois Roshebloun and
was attended by several parliament members.

The Nor Serount in France (AYF of France) cancelled a day-long
demonstration scheduled to take place Wednesday in front of the Azeri
Embassy in France for fear of more Azeri-initiated violence.

SERJ TANKIAN TO SERZH SARGSYAN: “YOU HAVE NOT ANSWERED ANY OF MY QUESTIONS”

Story from Lragir.am News:

11:30 27/02/2013

Today, Serzh Tankian sent a new letter to Serzh Sargsyan, which was
sent to Mediamax by his manager George Tonikyan:

“Dear Mr. President,

I am honored that you have responded to my letter.

I actually wasn’t expecting a response, given the harsh criticism
I conveyed.

The fact that you have done so is encouraging.

But with respect, you have not answered any of my questions nor
addressed any of the issues I brought up in my letter directly.

I think you have done a great job at securing Armenia’s bordersand
dealing with the extremely sensitive and difficult situation presented
by the realities after the Karabakh war.

If you remember, I told you that in person and commended your efforts
in that regard.

That said, security cannot be the scapegoat to diffuse attention from
the inequities and injustices in our homeland.

Republicans in the U.S. have done that for too many elections and no
one seems to buy it anymore.

I, too, feel responsible to future generations for what we leave
behind.

That is the reason for my speaking out, getting involved with mining
and environmental abuse in Armenia (Teghut) and encouraging further
farm subsidies to render our nation more self sufficient.

Citizens across Armenia are protesting the outcome of the elections
and the injustice inherent in the political establishment. Please
listen to their complaints.

Listen to the striking students and don’t let the schools or police
shut out their voices from our democracy. They are the future of
Armenia after all.

Corruption, injustice, emigration, lawlessness and falsified
elections. These ills have emptied our country of its citizens more
than mines and bombs.

What are you going to do about them?

Are you going to reform the system?

Dear Mr. President, please institute the rule of law once and for all
so that people feel respected in the eyes of the law and the courts.

The constitution and the laws of Armenia are fine. It is their
execution that is lacking. We are all tired of hearing about investors
turned away, robbed of their investments in Armenia, political pressure
used for personal gain, media manipulation and consolidation for
political means, injustice in the courts, and on and on.

Most people feel that it will take a generational change to alter the
political culture in Armenia, to rid ourselves of the overt corruption
and abuse.

You can make that happen now!

In your letter you have recognized the need for that change and
seem to suggest that you are willing to take substantive steps in
that regard so that we don’t have to wait another 20 years for us to
arrive to true freedom.

For that, your people will be eternally grateful Serzh.

An equitable nation is a strong nation, where people are not only
proud of their history, but also proud of their present.

I agree that we should all work together toward a better future
for Armenia.

I appreciate the warm wishes to my father. I too, send my regards
and love to your family and hope to meet your grandson Serj sometime.

Peace,

Serj Tankian”.

SPECIALIZED OPHTHALMOLOGICAL SERVICES TO BECOME AVAILABLE FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE REGION AND ARMENIA

09:47, 27 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS: Center of Excellence for Prevention
of Childhood Blindness (CEPCB) is scheduled to be established in
the frame of Armenian ophthalmological project. The center will
operate in the end of the year in Yerevan. The CEPCB is seeking to
struggle against children’s individual blindness and retinopatia. Minas
Hambarzumyan, head of Armenian eye care project (AECP) told Armenpress
“the scope of the AECP provision of ophthalmological services to
children of Armenia and the region”.

2012 has been commemorated with a number of events for AECO and its
partners. Namely 12th International ophthalmological conference was
launched in Yerevan on September 14-15. Representatives of various
ophthalmological branches from USA, Europe and CIS countries took
part in the conference.

The Armenian EyeCare Project (hereafter AECP) is a US-based charity
organization founded in 1992 by Armenian-American ophthalmologist Dr.

Roger Ohanesian. Its mission is to eliminate preventable blindness
and make eye care accessible to all people in Armenia. To this end,
many highly qualified American academic ophthalmologists have been
invited to visit Armenia to treat patients and share the knowledge
with their Armenian colleagues. As well, large quantities of medication
and equipment have been brought to Armenia.

ENTRE JANVIER ET OCTOBRE 2012 L’ARMENIE A RECU 4 237 TONNES D’AIDE HUMANITAIRE

Au cours des dix premiers mois de 2012 l’Armenie a recu 4237 tonnes
metriques d’aide humanitaire valant plus de 21,1 milliards de drams ou
52,9 millions de $, selon le Service National de la Statistique, qui
a cite les chiffres fournis par la Commission des recettes de l’Etat.

L’aide humanitaire vient principalement des Etats-Unis, de la Chine,
de la Suisse, de l’Iran, de l’Allemagne, de la France, de l’Italie
et des pays de la CEI.

mercredi 27 fevrier 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

AZERIS CALL FOR TURKISH, IRANIAN MOSQUES TO SOUND KARABAKHI CALL TO PRAYER

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
February 22, 2013

A group of Azerbaijani officials have staged a rally in the Azerbaijani
capital calling for Muslim countries, particularly Turkey, Iran
and Pakistan, to recite the Karabakhi adhan, or call to prayer,
recorded before the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, in their mosques
to commemorate the Khojaly martyrs killed by Armenian armed forces
on Feb. 26, 1992.

Azerbaijanis including deputies and theologians took part in a rally
called ‘Towards Nagorno-Karabakh: Voice of Justice,’ which appears to
be part of the ‘Justice for Khojaly’ campaign, in Baku late Thursday.

Moving to Agdam, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh that was partially occupied
by Armenian armed forces in a bloody war in the region in the early
1990s, the Azerbaijani intellectuals then called out the Karabakhi
adhan for the Friday prayer.

Adhan is recited melodiously and loudly by the mosque’s muezzin to
call Muslims to pray five times a day. Calls to prayer in different
Islamic states follow the same rules, differing largely by their
melodies. As such, the Karabakhi adhan is recited under the melody
of Mugham, a composition style of Azerbaijani traditional musical.

After the Friday prayer, the demonstrators came together for a meeting
staged in a village outside Agdam called Cemenli, located three
or four kilometers from the borderline established under Armenia’s
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an address at the meeting, Elsad Iskenderov, chairman of the State
Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said
the Karabakhi adhan should be played from all mosques in Azerbaijan
each Friday.

Echoing Iskenderov, Elmaddin Mehdiyev, Istanbul representative of the
Justice for Khojaly campaign, said while in comments to Today’s Zaman
that the Muslim call to prayer should be recited in every Azerbaijani
mosque until Nagorno-Karabakh is liberated. ‘ It has been 20 years
since the adhan was last recited in Muslim lands in Nagorno-Karabakh,
and it is important to reach out to the world about it. For this
reason we have sounded the call to prayer in our mosque closest to
Nagorno-Karabakh,’ Mehdiyev said, urging Muslim states to play the
Karabakhi adhan over the loudspeakers in their mosques annually on
Feb. 26 to commemorate the Azerbaijani martyrs.

It has been more than two decades since the end to diplomatic
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia after the latter occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan,
and seven other adjacent Azerbaijani territories in the country as
a result of undeclared war that started between the two neighboring
post-Soviet countries in 1988-1994. Some 30,000 were killed between
both sides and hundreds fled their hometowns before a truce was signed
in 1994, although there has still not been a peace treaty.

ANC BOYCOTTS PARLIAMENT SESSION OVER ‘DISRESPECT FOR PEOPLE’ IN ‘RIGGED’ ELECTIONS

VOTE 2013 | 25.02.13 | 16:23

Photo:

The Armenian National Congress (ANC) parliamentary faction has
announced that he is boycotting this week’s session of the National
Assembly which opened today as a sign of protest against last week’s
presidential election that has proved to be “another instance of
disrespect” for the Armenian people.

In a statement the opposition bloc, which did not contest the vote,
but whose leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan, in fact, acknowledged the
“victory” of opposition candidate Raffi Hovannisian (as opposed to the
officially announced victory of President Serzh Sargsyan), said that
on February 18 the government once again used its “full potential”
for rigging the vote.

“The results are far from reflecting the reality. That was another
instance of disrespect for Armenia’s people, violation of their rights
and dignity,” said the ANC faction, which is a successor of a movement
challenging the presidential election result five years ago.

“The public was expected to respond with a new tide of discontent,
which was the case with the rigged elections in 2003 and 2008. This
protest movement has been spreading throughout the country for more
than a week, but the authorities are not showing any understanding,”
said the ANC faction.

“The people have only one issue on the agenda now – restoring the
constitutional order in the country and preventing the regime from
seizing the votes and power. The ANC parliamentary group intends to
make use of the parliamentary procedures to state out position.”

ARA ABRAHAMYAN’S COMPANY ACCUSED OF SEIZING PEOPLE’S PROPERTY. REGNUM

2013-02-25 19:51:17

IA REGNUM edition received an open letter from the citizen of Armenia
Lyubov Piloyan to Russian Armenian oligarch Ara Abrahamyan, in which
she accuses the company “Consent of Armenia” (Soglasie-Armenia)
(belonging to Abrahamyans’ family) in seizing her property.

In particular, it is about a plot of land in the center of the
capital of Armenia, which, according to the complainant, was illegally
alienated in favor of the Yerevan Municipality.

“As you know, the court approved the settlement agreement in
2005 instead of its share in the family home at Arami 38, Yerevan
Municipality allocated land (332.6 square meters) at the same address
for me. This site provides me as compensation in return my property,
located in the Development Zone of North Avenue on the part of
“Soglasie-Armenia.”

That’s the deal of 2008 between CJSC “Soglasie-Armenia” and the
Municipality of Yerevan, which is illegal obstacle to implementation
of the final, enforceable decision of the Cassation Court to grant
me 332.6 square meters according to the Court of Appeal approved the
Settlement Agreement of 2005″, runs the letter.