Author: nina hovnanian

Czech Embassy Denies Press Reports on Abrahamyan’s visit

19:32, 23 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: Chargé d´affaires of the Czech
Republic in Yerevan denid yesterday the information published in
Zhamanak daily electronic edition (First Armenian News and Analysis)
about the official visit of the Speaker of the RA National Assembly,
Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan, to the Czech Republic on 29 – 31 October, where
Mr. Abrahamyan, supposedly, demanded extremely luxurious and expensive
accommodation at the expense of the inviting party. As Embassy
informed Armenian National News Agency Armenpress, Mr. Abrahamyan was
offered by the Senat of the Parliament of the Czech Republic the
accommodation appropriate to his position at the hotel usually used
for the high level foreign visits, which cost in no way corresponds
with ammounts presented in the article. ?Mr. Abrahamyan accepted the
accommodation and did not present any demands described by First
Armenian News and Analysis. Visit of the Speaker of the National
Assembly to Czechia is evaluated both by Armenian and Czech side as a
very succesful one, contributing to the development of bilateral
relations between our two countries. We regret that unauthenticated
information can appear in serious Armenian media and possibly
negatively affect the spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding
both countries cherish’,- statement says.

RAFFI HOVHANNISYAN TO SET OFF TO BAKU TODAY

Mediamax News Agency
Nov 21 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Leader of “Heritage” party Raffi Hovhannisyan
will leave for Baku today where he will make a speech at the General
Assembly of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties
(ICAPP) due to be held on November 22-23.

After Raffi Hovhannisyan initially refused to take part in the
forum, the ICAPP leadership agreed to ensure him equal conditions
for participation in the forum held under “Security, Peace and
Reconciliation in Asia” title, pres service of “Heritage” reports.

SHERIFF BACA VISITS MARTYRS’ MONUMENT

asbarez
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Sheriff Lee Baca Rev. Ashot Kambourian and community members at the
Montebello Martyrs Monument

MONTEBELLO-Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca visited the Montebello
Armenian Genocide Martyrs’ Monument earlier this month, laid a wreath
and paid respect to the memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims
of the Armenian Genocide.

After prayers at the memorial, Baca laid a wreath and commemorated
Genocide victims. Montebello Armenian community leaders and clergy
were also present at the event.

“The memorial behind me is significant because the memories are
required in all Holocaust activities throughout the world. In this
particular case, this is the first of the greatest of the genocides
in the history of mankind; the Armenian society that was slaughtered
between 1915 and 1921. So the tribute today is because of the holiness
of life and that the Armenian -American society requires justice,”
said Baca after the brief ceremony.

Baca also urged the government of Turkey to “put forth a serious
attempt to reconcile the loss.”

“Now… there is a need to discuss what is justice in circumstances
that happened close to a hundred years ago,” said Baca. “So I am
confident that until that happens, the significance of the loss and
the lack of justice will continue to burn in the hearts and minds of
Armenian-Americans and Armenians throughout the world.”

After paying respects at the Montebello Martyrs Monument, Baca joined
the community for lunch at the Armenian Center, where various issues
of concern to the community were discussed.

Weeks prior to Baca’s visit to the Armenian Genocide monument, Baca
met with a delegation of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western
US Central Committee at its headquarters in Glendale.

During the more than two-hour meeting with Baca, challenges facing Los
Angeles County as well as issues pertaining to the Armenian-American
community were discussed in great length.

The Central Committee conveyed its position and concerns regarding the
sheriff’s recent efforts to engage in normalization of Armenian-Turkish
relations. Baca demonstrated his understanding about the Central
Committee’s concerns and expectations.

THE MAJORITY IS IRRESPONSIBLE: ARMEN RUSTAMYAN

12:38 – 21.11.2012

As it was expected The Republican Party did not appear at the special
session of NA initiated by ANC. Because of that there was no quorum.

Head of ARF fraction Armen Rustamyan said today during the press
conference that this action is nothing but ignorance towards the
Parliament.

“The Majority had to be there: it was their responsibility and not
their rights. By this they make the role of the parliament useless as,
according to the Constitution, special sessions can be called only
3 times: by the initiation of the President, the Government and NA MPs.

So, today the Majority announced that we cannot use the Constitutional
rights”, announced Armen Rustamyan.

Rustamyan believes that not only do MPs violate their rights but also
the president of NA.

He also announced that he will turn to the Ethical committee for
this issue.

“They either have to announce that they all got sick the at the same
time and bring doctor’s verification or that they don’t care about
the law and do not realize our responsibilities. We have a case when
we have to announce that the Majority is irresponsible”, said he.

To the observation that the Republican party announces as if they
cannot change the law few days before the presidential elections,
Rustamyan said: “They could have said that during the session. We
did not tell them to come and vote for our draft bill. They ruined
the session. This is just an ignorance towards the system”.

UCOM ARMENIAN TELECOM COMPANY SELLING FULL PACKAGE OF NETSYS INTERNET PROVIDER’S SHARES

arminfo
Wednesday, November 21, 20:13

Ucom LLC is selling asset – Netsys Company. The Public Services
Regulatory Commission of Armenia adopted a decision on November 21 to
alienate Ucom’s 100% interests in Netsys Internet provider in favor
of a citizen of Armenia Tigran Hovhannisyan.

Netsys Company told ArmInfo that Tigran Hovhannissyan is a private
who was earlier engaged in telecommunications sector. Netsys’s sale
to Hovhannissyan is connected with the company’s plans to raise big
investments, the company said. The amount of possible investments is
not mentioned.

Earlier in September 2011 PSRC approved a transaction of acquisition
of Netsys by a bigger provider, UCOM LLC. Then Netsys told ArmInfo
that the technical merger will be made within 6 months. Netsys entered
the Armenian market 12 years ago and provides Internet connection in
Yerevan. The merger pursued a goal to raised funds for expansion. In
addition, it was hard for the company to compete with UCOM.

Netsys is an Armenian-American Joint Venture, providing a full range of
Internet services in Armenia: Internet connection & E-mail services
via Dialup and Broadband DSL, WiMAX links, as well as complete
Hosting Solutions, including Domain Name Registration, virtual WEB
and MAIL Hosting. Ucom is a young telecommunication company actively
introducing its products in the market. The company offers Triple Play
(high-speed symmetric Internet connection, IP television and landline
digital phone) in a single package through FTTH. By data for 2011
there were nearly 200,000- 250,000 subscribers of broadband Internet
in Armenia and Ucom’s share in the market was nearly 10%-12%. The
company covers 65% of Yerevan and plans to expand into other big towns
of Armenia. As it was reported earlier, 41% of Ucom’s share belong
to Aram Khachatryan, by 5% of the shares belong to Hayk Yesayan and
Alexander Yesayan and the remaining 49% belong to IU Telecommuncate
Limited, Cyprus.

By some unconfirmed data, the final beneficiary of the company is
Gagik Khachatryan, Head of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia.

In 2011 Ucom announced its merger with Netsys Internet provider company
and acquired 100% shares of another provider – Icon Communications. In
July 2012 Ucom announced acquisition of the full package of share of
the Armenian TV Company Interactive TV.

Ranking of the trade and service companies of Armenia prepared by
ArmInfo says assets of UCOM grew 93.4% for 2011 to 9.8 bln drams,
as the fixed assets grew over twofold (by 4 bln drams) to 7 bln drams.

Loss in 2011 totaled 555 mln drams deepening over threefold over
the year.

WE SHALL FORCE DEPUTIES OF THE RULING PARTY, THAT DID NOT ATTEND EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE PARLIAMENT, INITIATED BY THE OPPOSITION, TO PRESENT MEDICAL NOTES

arminfo
Wednesday, November 21, 20:11

Republican Party of Armenia deprived the opposition deputies
of their right fixed in the Constitution, i.e. the right of
the parliament members to convoke extraordinary session of the
parliament. The behavior of the ruling RPA faction is a flagrant
violation of the Constitution and the norms of parliamentary ethics,
and contradicts principles of political consolidation, a deputy from
ARF Dashnaktiutyun, Vahan Hovannisyan, told Arminfo correspondent.

“There are three entities in Armenia that have a right to convoke
extraordinary session of the parliament – president, government and
deputies. So, the ruling party deprived the deputies, one of these
entities, of such a right. And if the RPA members say that they used
their right not to take part in the parliamentary session, let them
not to get salary for this day”, – Hovannisyan said. He also added
that the opposition factions will force the RPA members to present
medical notes, why they did not attend the session. “This political
illness of the RPA faction damages the opposition factions”, – he said.

He is confident that the RPA members had a strict instruction from
“above” -not to attend extraordinary session of the parliament.

POLITICIAN: ARMENIA’S EUROPEAN INTEGRATION MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO AFFECT THE COUNTRY’S SECURITY

arminfo
Wednesday, November 21, 20:05

Armenia needs good and deep relations with the European Union but
they must not be allowed to affect its security, Armenian politician,
ex Foreign Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Arman Melikyan told
journalists on Wednesday.

He said that the Armenian authorities are trying to combine good
relations with Russia and the CIS with close ties with the EU. “But
here I see a big difference: the European Union does not regard Armenia
as its potential member, while the Eurasian Union is ready to admit
it. Moreover, some European officials have made it quite clear that
membership to the Eurasian Union would mean a setback for Armenia’s
integration with Europe,” Melikyan said, adding that Armenia’s security
depends mostly on its military-political cooperation with Russia.

“We must decide who we are with as in the next five years Azerbaijan
will try to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through a new war
and we must be ready for this,” the expert said.

YEREVAN PRESS CLUB WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

NOVEMBER 16-22, 2012

HIGHLIGHTS:

“PRESS CLUB” TALK SHOW: COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS AND JOURNALISTIC ETHICS

INFORMATION DISPUTES COUNCIL’S OPINION ON SUIT OF BLOGGER TIGRAN KOCHARIAN
VERSUS “CHORRORD INKNISHKHANUTIUN” FOUNDER

“PRESS CLUB” TALK SHOW: COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS AND JOURNALISTIC ETHICS

On November 19, another program of “Press Club” cycle, dealing with
journalistic ethics, went on “Yerkir Media” TV channel. The TV shows’ series
are produced by Yerevan Press Club in the frames of the “Promoting Freedom,
Professionalism and Pluralism of the Media in the South Caucasus and
Moldova” programme, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of
Europe.

The topic of the talk show was the journalistic ethics norms for using
copyrighted materials and was initiated by the Media Ethics Observatory
(). On November 12, 2012, the MEO received a
complaint from architecture-theorist Yeva Sargsian against “Shoghakat” TV
channel. The complainant invoked that in the scripts of its documentary
“Lost Memory” “Shoghakat” had used extracts from some articles about Yerevan
architecture, including the ones written by Yeva Sargsian, without referring
to the source. The TV channel broadcast the documentary on April 26-27 and
May 22-23, 2012. Yeva Sargsian appeared in “Press Club” as one of the
discussants, and her opponent was Ara Galoyan, Program Director of
“Shoghakat”. The experts of the program were Levon Barseghian, Board
Chairman of “Asparez” Journalists Club of Gyumri, Ashot Melikian, Chairman
of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, Susanna Nersisian, Director
of “Armauthor” NGO, and lawyer Ara Ghazarian. The experts proposed the
conflict parties to seek reconciliation. YPC President Boris Navasardian
hosted the talk show.

The next “Press Club” will be aired on “Yerkir Media” on Monday, November 26
at 18.00 (rerun – on Saturday, December 1 at 12.50).

Watch “Press Club” of November 19, 2012 here

INFORMATION DISPUTES COUNCIL’S OPINION ON SUIT OF BLOGGER TIGRAN KOCHARIAN
VERSUS “CHORRORD INKNISHKHANUTIUN” FOUNDER

On November 19, Information Disputes Council released an opinion on the
court litigation upon the suit of blogger Tigran Kocharian versus the
founder of “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun” daily, “Trespassers W.” LLC. As we
have reported, the hearings on the case started on September 24, 2012 at
the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash Administrative
Districts of Yerevan. The subject of the litigation was the piece “Fascist
and Elephant: Save the Elephants”, published in “Chorrord Inknishkhanutiun”
on July 13, 2012. The piece contained critics about Tigran Kocharian, whose
Internet nickname is “Elephant”. The plaintiff demanded refutation and
awards in the amount of 3,500,000 AMD (about $ 8,600), from which 3 million
AMD as moral damage, caused by libel and insult, and 500,000 AMD – attorney
fees (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, November 2-8, 2012).

The Information Disputes Council noted that even though the court case is
still pending, the parties continue accusing each other by using the media
and other platforms, putting the contents of the disputed article as a
subject for public debate. Taking into account that the piece does not raise
any issue of public significance, but only includes thoughts and comments of
personal nature, there is no public interest of receiving information about
the court proceedings, the IDC stressed. The IDC called on the conflicting
parties to limit by finding remedies of the dispute at the courtroom, to
show their good will and refrain from imparting redundant publicity to the
case before the proceedings end. In its turn, the IDC abstained from
providing opinion about the subject matter of the dispute, since the case is
still ongoing, no court act has been adopted, while outside the courtroom
the discussions about the conflict are exacerbating.

The opinion of the Information Disputes Council is available in Armenian and
in English at

When reprinting or using the information above, reference to the Yerevan
Press Club is required.

You are welcome to send any comment and feedback about the Newsletter to:
[email protected]

Subscription for the Newsletter is free. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
this mailing list, please send a message to: [email protected]

Editor of YPC Newsletter – Elina POGHOSBEKIAN
____________________________________________
Yerevan Press Club
9B, Ghazar Parpetsi str.
0002, Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+ 374 10) 53 00 67; 53 35 41; 53 76 62
Fax: (+374 10) 53 56 61
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site:

IRAN – IS THE KEY TARGET OF TEL-AVIV’S ACTIONS IN GAZA SECTOR, A MEMBER OF IRANIAN PARLIAMENT SAYS

ARMINFO
Thursday, November 22, 15:46

Though it seems strange, but the actions of Israel in Gaza Sector are
directed against Iran, as Teheran is practically the final target of
all the actions of Tel-Aviv, a member of Islamist parliament of Iran,
Karen Khanlaryan, told Arminfo correspondent when commenting on recent
actions of Tel-Aviv in Gaza Sector.

He said that the conference of Non-Aligned Movement member-states
held in Iran at the end of August 2012, called to regulate Middle
East problems which are still relevant today, including Syrian crisis,
was the reason of the last military operation of Israel in Gaza Sector.

“By its actions in Gaza Sector Tel-Aviv has a purpose to disrupt
the efforts of this conference and to neutralize an intermediary and
diplomatic role of Teheran in settlement of conflicts in the Middle
East, as Tel-Aviv’s final target is permanent isolation of Iran.

Meanwhile, in case of diplomatic and intermediary success of Teheran
for normalizing of the Syrian conflict and in settlement of other
Middle East conflict, it would be practically impossible to isolate
Iran. For this reason, Tel-Aviv has initiated a military operation in
Gaza Sector so that to disrupt the efforts of the conference of Non
Aligned Movement member-states for settlement of the problems in the
Middle East”, -the deputy concluded and predicted that the conflict
in Gaza Sector will last long and negatively affect the situation in
the Arab world in general.

CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE LIKELY TO RECOGNIZE NKR INDEPENDENCE
Lilit Sedrakyan

“Radiolur”
16:30 22.11.2012

The California State Senate in Sacramento held the first ever reception
for a delegation from the Nagorno Karabakh Republic headed by NKR
National Assembly Speaker Ashot Ghulyan.

The event was organized by California Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian
and Member of the State Senate Kevin De Leon. In attendance were also
representatives of the Berkley, San Francisco, Davis and California
Universities, heads of international trade agencies, members of the
local Armenian community.

The NKR Speaker briefed the attendees on the economic situation of
Artsakh, its foreign policy agenda and the existing problems. Ashot
Ghulyan spoke about the current state of settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, which does not move forward because of Azerbaijan’s
non-constructive posture.

The Speaker urged the officials of the country, which cherishes human
rights and democratic values, to support the Caucasian countries that
share the same values.

Senator Kevin De Leon voiced hope that through active work it
would be possible to reach recognition of the right of NKR people
to self-determination.

“There is a great likelihood that the California State Senate will
recognize the independence of NKR. We’ll probably visit Artsakh to
see and learn about the country. This will take place in the coming
year within the framework of a visit to Armenia,” he said.

Associate Professor at San Francisco University Richard Callahan, who
observed the presidential elections in Artsakh, said “the electoral
processes in Nagorno Karabakh were organized in compliance with
international standards.”

“I was impressed by the transparency of the electoral process. Many
international observers and journalists were freely following the
elections. I’m glad I had a chance to see the democratic path that
country has chosen,” the Professor said.