Author: nina hovnanian

RISKS OF MINING INDUSTRY CONCENTRATED IN MEGHRADZOR RESORT ZONE

13:39, December 25, 2012

“EcoLur” Informational NGO has sent a letter to Nature Protection
Ministry, which says, “Meghradzor resort zone turned out to be in
the epicenter of hazardous project implementation – cyanic plant,
Meghradzor gold mine opencast development and Tezhsar nepheline-syenite
mine.

As EcoLur learnt, on 25 December Nature Protection Minister intends to
meet with the administration of Alumina Corporation on the issue of
Tezhsar nepheline-syenite mine. The company is persistently holding
public hearings and displays project documents, which don’t comply
with the existing extremely weak standards of environmental expertise.

Meanwhile the Nature Protection Ministry accepts documentation and
recognized the hearings as lawful. Moreover, though the company didn’t
turn up at the hearings it organized in May, the Ministry is ready
to recognize these hearings lawful as well. The last discussion was
held on 21 December, and the public recognized it unlawful.

Another hazardous project planned to be implemented in Meghradzor
Village is the construction project of cyanic plant on gold extraction
submitted by Meghradzor Gold Company – Director and Owner Vardan
Margaryan, project developer – Hovik Nikaghosyan, Head of Environmental
Department of “Lernametalurgiakan Institute”.

Public hearings were held twice – on 5 and 17 December.

Nevertheless, Vardan Margaryan and Village Head Karlen Hovhannisyan
gathered the villagers on 23 December without making any prior
statements and told them that the project doesn’t bear any risks and
they considered this meeting to be the third public hearings. Two
days before, on 21 Decemberm Meghradzor villagers met with EcoLur
in Hrazdan and expressed their concerns that, as a matter of fact,
risks exist and asked us to help them to organize public hearings with
an invited expert. The Village Head interfered into the conversation
and told EcoLur that talks about risks is misinformation.

Then, on 23 December, there was a phone call from Meghradzor to
EcoLur, where the villagers said that pressure was exercised on them
and neither the village head nor the director wanted to discuss the
project with invited organizations.

“We proposed to organize a voting among the villagers, but the company
director didn’t agree. None of our proposals was accepted. When we
asked to hold public hearings with invited NGOs, we were told that
meeting was a public hearing and that the company has its own experts,”
the villagers told us.

We do know their names, but we don’t publish them on their request for
safety reasons. The problem is that ordinary employees of the company
are involved in the clash of interests, who think that farmers want
to deprive them of their work.

EcoLur thinks that the process of public discussions on these very
projects passed into non-transparency stage, personal arrangements
and high pressure on public and local villagers, which is fraught
with high corruption risks and law violations.

We call for Nature Protection Ministry and personally Minister
Aram Harutyunyan, who bears service and political responsibility,
to take the process of public discussion on these given projects out
of private talks, to make them transparent, to give thorough expert
assessment and to organize official public hearings, where the opinion
of invited experts, villagers and independent experts will be taken
into consideration together with all existing risks.

We also inform Nature Protection Ministry that closed development of
Meghradzor mine has long been changed to opencast development. In
this regard, we consider it necessary to carry out the examination
of Meghradzor Gold Company documentation submitted for environmental
expertise on changing development method of Meghradzor gold mine.

We would like to ask to provide the following documents: announcement
about holding public hearings, the opinion of stakeholders, timeframes
of holding public hearings, providing information about opencast
development and the opinion of the environmental expertise.”

“Ecolur” Informational NGO

Street after Marshal Babajanyan to appear in Odessa

December 22, 2012 | 18:24

Odessa City Council voted to change the name of a number of streets
and squares. Rekordnaya Street will now be called after Chief Marshal
of Armored Forces and the Hero of the Soviet Union Hamazasp
Babajanyan.

On February 22, at a joint meeting of Union of Armenians of Ukraine
and the Armenian community of Odessa, the head of the Union of
Armenians of Ukraine Vilen Shatvoryan presented an appropriate request
to the authorities of the city. Earlier, a similar initiative was
implemented by the local Armenian community and the chairman of the
society in memory of Marshal Hamazasp Babajanyan, Grant Grigoryants,
Analitika.at.ua informs.

Hamazasp Babajanyan (1906-1977) – Marshal of Armored Forces (1967),
Hero of the Soviet Union (1944). Fought during the Soviet-Finnish War
(1939-1940). He graduated from the Military Academy of the General
Staff (1948), then held senior command positions. Since 1959 was the
commander of the Odessa Military District. In 1967-1969 was the Head
of the Military Academy of Armored Forces after Marshal Malinovsky. He
was awarded with three Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner,
Order of Suvorov (1st and 2nd degree), Kutuzov 1st degree, World War
1st degree, two Orders of the Red Star, two Polish orders and medals.

Vote 2013: Hovannisian opts for self-nomination, Sargsyan’s nomination
seconded, Ter-Petrosyan still `undecided’

Vote 2013 | 22.12.12 | 15:40

Two major opposition parties and one pro-establishment force held
conventions on Saturday, resulting in the announcement of at least one
candidacy and seconding of another in the upcoming presidential
election.

The Heritage Party presented its decision to formally nominate its
founding leader Raffi Hovannisian as a candidate in the February vote.
But Hovannisian said addressing the delegates attending the party
convention that he preferred self-nomination. Heritage will now
support the decision of its leader to run for president as an
individual rather than a party-nominated candidate.

A coalition member party, Orinats Yerkir, meanwhile, expressed support
for incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan, who has already been nominated
for reelection by his ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

Contrary to expectations, no major news came from the opposition
Armenian National Congress (ANC) bloc today. Its leader Levon
Ter-Petrosyan prolonged the suspense by saying he needed `a couple of
more days’ to make his decision regarding the forthcoming election as
he addressed the convention of a key ANC-member party on Saturday.

He found a way out of what was an awkward moment by speaking in a joking manner.

`I have turned to all world powers and cannot provide my answer before
I get their approval. Please, wait for two more days, now all world
powers are thinking over this strategy, I was told to wait for another
couple of days,’ said the ANC leader, jokingly, addressing the
delegates of the December 22 congress of the former ruling Armenian
National Movement party.

In accordance with the schedule of the 2013 presidential election
announced by the Central Election Commission, all potential candidates
are to submit their nomination papers within a period from December 25
to January 4 inclusive.

Earlier this week, former Prime Minister and current member of the ANC
bloc Hrant Bagratyan spoke about his intention to run for the top
political post. He made it clear, however, that his nomination would
be from the ANC-member Liberal Party, of which he is the leader and
which plan its convention for Monday, but he also stressed that he
would withdraw from the race if Ter-Petrosyan eventually decided to
join the fray.

Comment: A controversial genocide

Saturday, 22 December, 2012
BY ROBERT ELLIS

The Danish Royal Library has, together with the Armenian embassy, held
an exhibition on “The Armenian genocide and the Scandinavian reaction”
though due to protests from the Turkish embassy, the library’s
director, Erland Kolding Nielsen, has agreed to hold an alternative
exhibition titled, “The so-called Armenian genocide.”

This decision has caused widespread debate and 37 Turkish
intellectuals, including Taner Akçam, Cengiz Aktar, Murat Belge,
Baskýn Oran and Ýpek and Oral Çalýþlar, have in an open letter in
Denmark’s leading daily Berlingske called on the library’s director to
reconsider his decision.

In their view, the Turkish government has followed a policy of denial
for more than 90 years, culminating in the murder of Hrant Dink in
2007.

To allow the Turkish government to arrange an alternative exhibition
will only support this policy.

As Turkish intellectuals fighting for a democratic Turkey, the
signatories conclude that Turkey, through its position of denying
historical truths, represents an obstacle to the development of peace,
democracy and stability in the Middle East.

The reason the Armenian genocide is so controversial is because it is
closely connected with Turkey’s self-image and the foundation of the
Turkish Republic.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has claimed that “Turkey
has not committed genocide throughout its history” and that “The
character of this nation does not let it commit such crimes.”

Even in defense of the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, he has said,
“a Muslim can never commit genocide.”

Nevertheless, there is overwhelming evidence that Turkey, under the
leadership of the CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) in 1915, was
guilty of a premeditated attempt to annihilate the Armenian population
through massacres and deportation.

The events must be seen in a historical context, as the Ottoman Empire
had collapsed and Armenian nationalists – like the Kurds today – were
demanding independence.

Turkey had allied itself with Germany during World War I and the
Russian advance on the eastern front with the support of Armenian
auxiliaries and the Allied invasion in the west at Gallipoli sealed
the Armenians’ fate.

A joint declaration by France, Great Britain and Russia on May 24,
1915 for the first time dealt with the concept of “crimes against
humanity” and formed the legal basis for the Nuremberg trials and the
U.N. convention on genocide.

Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk originally supported
the punishment of the perpetrators but their attitude changed with the
Treaty of Sevres and Turkey’s partition.

After the war of independence and the foundation of the Turkish
Republic in 1923, many of those suspected of war crimes were given
leading posts in the government.

In all fairness, it must be stated that Armenian auxiliaries and
guerillas were responsible for massacres of the Turkish civilian
population, but these acts of revenge can in no way justify a
premeditated campaign of racial extermination in the same way that
German atrocities in Russia after the invasion in 1941 can be excused
by the behavior of Russian troops in Germany in 1945.

What makes this topic so sensitive is Turkey’s fear that an open
debate, not to speak of any admission, can lead to territorial claims
from Armenia.

This was why Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek in May 2005 called a planned
conference on Ottoman Armenians at Boðaziçi University “a stab in the
back of the Turkish nation.”

In 2005, Erdoðan extended an invitation to Armenian president Robert
Kocharian to establish a joint commission of historians and other
experts to study the events of 1915, but this was rejected. One way
forward could be to hold an international conference on the subject,
where Denmark could act as an “honest broker.”

But the question is, who will take the initiative?

Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish
and international press.

Armenian Government Ignores Concerns Raised by 14 Organizations about
Teghut Mine

11:57, December 21, 2012

The Armenia Copper Programme (ACP), a division of the Vallex Group
registered offshore in Liechtenstein, has begun operating a
controversial mining project initiated in 2007 in the northern village
of Teghut, Armenia. Preliminary work on the project began with the
clearing of a portion of the pristine Teghut Forest to create a
massive tailing dump for the toxic waste left after mineral
processing. Currently, the company is aggressively removing a mountain
in order to reach the underground deposits of copper and molybdenum.

The Republic of Armenia has openly made mining a key part of its
economic development strategy for the country, despite widespread
public protest on environmental, economic, and social grounds. There
are more than 400 active mines and 19 tailing dumps in Armenia, a
small country the size of the US state of Maryland. Scientists have
reported major health risks in communities around the mines scattered
throughout Armenia. Human rights and environmental activists have also
protested violations of property rights and the loss of rare and
endangered ecosystems and biodiversity.

According to an expert at a recent conference on the socio-economics
of mining held at American University of Armenia, the value of the
minerals in the Teghut mine are $20 billion, yet only $300 million is
anticipated in taxes and salaries from this project, or a mere 1.5
percent. This is widely understood to be grossly inadequate to cover
the environmental and social costs that a project of this type and
magnitude will generate.

A coalition of 14 prominent organizations including Armenia Tree
Project (ATP) and Armenian Environmental Network (AEN) sent a letter
to President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan on
October 30, requesting an independent Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) for the Teghut mining project.

`Cases brought in opposition to the operations in Armenian courts have
been cursorily and improperly dismissed on strictly procedural bases
without proper examination as to the substance of the claims. The
Environmental Impact Assessment and public notice requirements are
fatally flawed. The irreparable damage already done to Teghut, and the
yet greater damage that will be done to the region if mining
continues, demand immediate attention,’ reads the letter, in part.

The joint letter requests the EIA in order to: 1) comply with domestic
and international laws, 2) determine and present an accurate analysis
of the environmental impact of the Teghut mining operations, 3)
address the potential public health impacts of the Teghut mining
operations, 4) take alternative development options to mining into
consideration, and 5) restore public faith and trust in government.
For the full text of the letter, click here

The coalition recently received a response to the letter from Edgar
Pirumyan, Ministry of Nature Protection Chief of Staff, who said that
an EIA was completed within the scope of the law and that the project
was therefore approved. For the full text of the reply, click here

`We are disappointed with the perfunctory response through the
Ministry of Nature Protection whose primary mission is the protection
of Armenia’s environment. While an environmental assessment was
conducted for the Teghut mining project, the organization conducting
it, LMI, is a subsidiary of Vallex, which is the project sponsor. By
international standards, the LMI assessment certainly cannot be
considered an `independent’ environmental assessment,’ notes ATP
Managing Director Tom Garabedian.

`We restate our request that a valid independent environmental impact
assessment be conducted before any further work at the Teghut site is
undertaken. We are heartened by the public scrutiny which the Teghut
project has received and support the efforts of the activists who are
petitioning the Armenian government. In a recent visit to California,
the Prime Minister expressed his commitment to Armenia’s environment.
We hope that there is a willingness of the government to reexamine
Teghut and mining in Armenia as a whole,’ concludes Garabedian.

`The Teghut issue resonates with Armenians near and far because it
weaves together a number of contemporary issues: rule of law;
transparency in decision-making; public health considerations; and
public access to information,’ says Ursula Kazarian, President of AEN.
She continues, `The unrelenting pillaging of precious and limited
natural resources for the short-term financial benefit of a handful of
foreign and Armenian investors is both tragic and appalling. Despite
the government’s lackluster response to our request for an independent
EIA, we are encouraged by the increasing civic engagement we are
seeing on the ground and in the Diaspora around this issue, and we
hope to see that momentum continue.’

The letter was co-signed by Acopian Center for the Environment,
Armenian American Health Professionals Organization, Armenian American
Medical Association, Armenian American Nurses Association, Armenian
American Pharmacists Association, Armenian Bar Association, Armenian
International Dental Association, Armenian Medical International
Committee, Axis of Justice (Serj Tankian), Civic Forum, haikProject,
and World Wide Fund for Nature, Armenia.

Armenian Environmental Network
Armenia Tree Project

PHOTO CAPTION

A coalition of prominent Armenian organizations has raised
environmental, economic, and social concerns about a large mining
project underway in the northern village of Teghut; this photograph of
mountaintop removal was taken at the site on December 1, 2012 by
Babken DerGrigorian

ARMENIE
Les citoyens d’Arménie vont voir l’amélioration de la qualité de
services sociaux très bientôt

Très bientôt les citoyens d’Arménie sentiront des améliorations dans
la qualité des services sociaux grce à l’introduction du système
intégré de services sociaux dans le pays a annoncé le Ministre du
travail et des Affaires Sociales Artem Asatryan pendant une discussion
sur l’exécution du budget du gouvernement en 2011.

Le 23 décembre 2010, le gouvernement a approuvé le concept de système
simple de services sociaux intégrés. Grce à cela a été mis un guichet
unique.

Conformément au concept, 15 centres de services sociaux intégrés
seront ouverts en Arménie.

« Probablement, il est difficile d’indiquer un pays où chacun est
heureux de la politique sociale » a dit Asatryan. « Je peux seulement
dire que la plus grande partie de la population est mécontente par des
services de basse qualité ».

Présentant le rapport d’activité 2011 du ministère, il a dit qu’il y
avait 509 000 pensionnés en Arménie à la date du 1er janvier 2011 et
que la taille moyenne d’une pension était de 27 163 drams.

Il a dit que 91 575 familles ont reçu des aides sociales en 2011 et 10
349 familles étaient les bénéficiaires du programme de secours. La
taille moyenne des aides était de 26 850 drams en 2011.

samedi 22 décembre 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD)
Dec 20 2012

THIRD EUROPEAN ARMENIAN CONVENTION TO TAKE PLACE IN BRUSSELS, MARCH 4-5, 2013

by EAFJD on Thursday, December 20, 2012 at 3:35pm ·.

BRUSSELS – The third European Armenian Convention will take place in
Brussels, the second part of which in the European Parliament, on
March 4 – 5, 2013. The Convention will gather distinguished activists,
academics, and politicians from Armenia, Europe, the United States of
America and elsewhere, alongside Armenian National Committees (Hay
Tad) across Europe and other Armenian organizations in the continent.

The first session on Monday, 4th of March will be focused on the
pan-European challenges facing the Armenians living in Europe, which
will be discussed among representatives of European Armenian
Organizations. Other than challenges like identity, culture and
language, political issues such as facing the joint Turkish-Azeri
lobby in Europe, the Armenian Genocide centenary events and the
criminalization of Genocides’ denial and negationism, and working
towards the recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic will be
discussed, as well. The panel will consist of various representatives
from East and West Europe, as well as Armenia.

The next panel, on March 5th, in the European Parliament, under the
auspices of the largest political group in the European Parliament –
the European Popular Party (EPP) – will discuss issues such as the
European Union’s responsibility to prevent and protect, look into
`Genocide and the International Law’, will discuss and look for `New
Perspectives for the South Caucasus’.At a time when European Union –
Republic of Armenia relations are at an all time high, with highest
level of visits from both sides, Armenia’s approach to European
standards rising, the third European Armenian Convention will examine
all aspects of the relations, discuss and propose new ways forward at
a grass roots level.

Participants to the Convention will be European Union high level
staff, representatives of political groups in the European Parliament,
Members of the European Parliament, heads of parliamentary delegations
and members of political parties and leadership from all spheres of
the spectrum from the EU and Armenia.

The conference is organized by the European Armenian Federation for
Justice and Democracy (Hay Tad Europe). Details will follow.

Ouest-France
jeudi 20 décembre 2012
Angers Edition

L’école Voltaire soutient une jeune Arménienne

Une mère arménienne et ses deux filles sont menacées d’expulsion.
L’école Voltaire, à Angers, se mobilise jeudi matin pour elles. La
famille est logée dans un hôtel à Angers. Elle est ici depuis cinq ans
; elle fait l’objet d’une obligation de quitter le territoire
français. Selon l’une des enseignantes de l’école, la préfecture a
décidé de ne plus payer l’hôtel. Les enseignants demandent à ce que
les deux enfants puissent au moins terminer l’année scolaire. La plus
petite est en CM2 à l’école Voltaire ; l’aînée au collège.

The International Herald Tribune, France
December 22, 2012 Saturday

Chastising U.S., Putin defends Syria stance

Russian leader argues against military role by using Libya as example

by DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
MOSCOW

ABSTRACT
The Russian leader reiterated his opposition to military intervention
in Syria and suggested that the U.S. role in toppling Col. Muammar
el-Qaddafi ultimately led to the Benghazi catastrophe.

FULL TEXT
President Vladimir V. Putin has strongly defended Russia’s implacable
opposition to military intervention in Syria and sharply chastised the
United States for its role in toppling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of
Libya, describing that outcome as a mistake that created chaos and
ultimately led to the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in
Benghazi.

However, speaking at his annual end-of-year news conference, Mr. Putin
made clear Thursday that Russia, a longtime ally of Syria, was now
mainly concerned about averting ”never-ending civil war,” not
preserving the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.”We are not
concerned with the fate of Assad’s regime,” Mr. Putin said. ”Of
course, changes are being demanded, but it’s something else that
concerns – what will happen next?”

In recent days, the Kremlin has sounded increasingly pessimistic about
Mr. Assad’s government, and Russian officials have acknowledged
developing contingency plans to evacuate thousands of Russian
citizens, mostly women wed to Syrians who had studied at Russian
universities.

The West has been looking for signs that Russia might cease using its
veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to
defend the sovereignty of the Assad government and to block the more
aggressive intervention sought by the United States and many other
countries. Mr. Putin’s comments against intervention left open the
uncertain possibility that Russia might persuade Mr. Assad to step
down.

Mr. Putin expressed worry that the Assad government and the Syrian
opposition could merely switch places, with the rebels in power but
with the fighting unabated. In answer to a question, he rejected an
assertion that Russia was making a mistake, potentially isolating
itself and at risk of losing influence in the Middle East, by opposing
intervention. Mr. Putin pointed to Libya as his evidence that
intervention by the NATO alliance of Western nations had caused more
harm than good.

”No matter how they explained their position, the state is falling
apart,” he said. ”Interethnic, interclan and intertribal conflicts
continue. Moreover, it went as far as the murder of the United States
ambassador.” He added, ”I was asked here about mistakes: Isn’t it a
mistake? And you want us to constantly repeat these mistakes in other
countries?”

Russia has been a major Syria arms supplier and trade partner with the
Assad government and maintains a small naval refueling installation in
the Syrian port of Tartus. But on Thursday, Mr. Putin sought to
portray the relationship as transactional. ”Some special economic
relations?” Mr. Putin asked rhetorically. ”No.”

His remarks about Syria came as U.N. human rights investigators said
in a new report that the Syria crisis had evolved from a battle to
oust Mr. Assad into more of a sectarian conflict, pitting entire
communities against one another and pulling in fighters from the
Middle East and North Africa.

As the conflict approaches the end of its second year, it ”has become
overtly sectarian in nature,” said the report by a panel of the Human
Rights Council.

The panel, led by Paulo Pinheiro, a human rights investigator from
Brazil, said attacks and reprisals had led communities to arm
themselves and to be armed by different parties to the conflict.
”Entire communities are at risk of being forced out of the country or
killed inside the country,” the panel wrote.

”Feeling threatened and under attack, ethnic and religious minority
groups have increasingly aligned themselves with parties to the
conflict, deepening sectarian divides,” the panel said.

The sharpest split is between the ruling minority Alawite sect, a
Shiite Muslim offshoot from which Mr. Assad’s most senior political
and military associates are drawn, and the country’s Sunni Muslim
majority, mostly aligned with the opposition, the panel noted. But it
said the conflict had drawn in other minorities, including Armenians,
Christians, Druse, Palestinians, Kurds and Turkmens.

Most foreign fighters joining the conflict are Sunni Muslims from
Middle Eastern and North African countries, many of them linked to
extremist groups, the panel said, and often operating independently of
the opposition Free Syrian Army but coordinating attacks with its
forces.

Hezbollah, a Shiite group from Lebanon, confirmed that its members
were fighting for the Assad government, the panel said, and it was
investigating reports that Iraqi Shiites had also entered Syria. Iran
has also confirmed that members of its Revolutionary Guards Corps are
providing the Assad government with ”intellectual and advisory
support.”

Making their fourth submission to the Human Rights Council, the panel
of four investigators said that government forces and supporting
militias had attacked Sunni civilians and that opposition forces had
attacked Alawite and other pro-government communities. It said that
Kurdish groups had clashed with government and anti-government forces,
that Turkmen militias were fighting with anti-government forces and
that Palestinians, increasingly split in their views of the Assad
government, were being armed by both pro- and anti-government forces.

On Thursday, at the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp south of
Damascus, hundreds of residents who had fled fighting between factions
returned during a lull, after what Palestinian activists said was a
negotiated truce. A Palestinian activist with a pro-rebel faction said
that the negotiations had taken place in the in Damascus and that
armed gunmen had agreed to pull out of the camp.

”We have an urgent humanitarian crisis,” said the activist, who used
the name Abu Khalid. ”We should solve it, and then talk about the
past mistakes of some factions. The camps should be secure and stable
areas for all unarmed Palestinians and Syrians.”

On Thursday, dozens of cars brought back families heeding Palestinian
activists’ invitation, via the Internet, to return. Many stores were
open, and there was no sign of armed men on the streets. By nightfall,
activist groups were reporting that the camp was being shelled again.

Armenia not promoting migration from country or Diaspora – President

December 21, 2012 | 20:47

YEREVAN. – Armenia does not desire to promote migration from the
country or from Diaspora, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told in an
interview to Russia 24 TV channel.

Sargsyan also stated that demography and migration are indeed serious
issues not only for Armenia but for other states as well.

He claimed that he has no intentions to limit the free movement of
people despite that. The solution of the problem is the establishment
of the conditions, which Armenia lacks, hence Armenians seek to obtain
those conditions in other countries.

Regarding Diaspora, Armenian has no intentions to promote migration,
for example, among Armenian community of Syria, as well.