Author: nina hovnanian

TWO MORE AZERBAIJANI SOLDIERS HIT MINE

News.Az
Wed 21 November 2012 12:12 GMT | 12:12 Local Time

Two more soldiers of the Azerbaijani Army have stepped on a mine.

The incident took place this morning on the contact line of the
Azerbaijani-Armenian troops, in Goranboy direction.

Solider Mammadov Jamil Veysal, 19, and Jarrasov Sevgikhan Chingizkhan,
19, hit the mine. The both soldiers were hospitalized with heavy
wounds. One leg of the both soldiers was amputated.

Spokesman of the Defence Ministry Teymur Abdullayev has confirmed
the fact to Gun.Az.

SEMINAR DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS MADE FROM BRONZE IS HELD IN YEREVAN

11:13, 21 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. The History Museum of Armenia and
Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Values has organized
the 2nd international seminar dedicated to the exchange of experience
and knowledge of the Armenian and foreign experts in the field of
preservation of archeological objects made from bronze.

Representatives form Armenia, Japan, Russia, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and a number of other countries partake in the seminar. The
conference will be held on November 21-28.

The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia informed
“Armenpress” that open seminars dedicated to “Archeological Studies
of Bronze”, “Paradigms and Examples of Preservation”, and “the Ethics
of Cleansing and Preservation of Archeological Objects from Bronze”
are included in the agenda of the seminars. The joint discussions
of the Armenian and foreign experts dedicated to the aforementioned
topics will be held on November 23, 24, and 27.

I HAVE SPENT MY LIFE WITH THE CHARACTERS AND THERE WAS NO TIME TO CRY: “THE BOOK OF WHISPERS” ABOUT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONTINUES ITS TRIUMPHAL MARCH

09:46, 21 November, 2012

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Varujan Vosganian’s grandfather’s
words, which served as a preface for his renowned “the Book of
Whispers” sound like this: “Not what who we are was distinctive for us,
but upon what deceased we were mourning.” The Mankind must not only
be conscious of the sufferings of our nation, but it also must show
all due submission towards our sufferings. The author is confident
that the memory of the Armenian people is not in the past, but they
live with us. In a conversation with “Armenpress” the Chairman of
the Armenian Union of Romania and author Varujan Vosganian stated:
“Our deceased ancestors live with us, especially when the majority
of them did not find even a grave under the heaven. For us the past
is not something to forget about, it’s present. As to the forgetting
it equals to suicide.”

On a question what it was that compelled him to write a book about
the Identity of the Armenian people, their fate and the biggest
crime of the Ottoman Turks – the Armenian Genocide, Varujan Vosganian
answered and said that he had been writing the book not in a single
period of his life, but during its whole course. Vosganian noted:
“I was carrying all those stories from my childhood with me during my
whole life and one day I decided that they must be written down and
live the life of their own. To tell about them was a unique necessity
and obligation for me, as there are some events, which would not be
known to the world, if not this book.” Varujan Vosganian told us a
story to prove what he said. When the ceremony of the presentation
of the book in the Library after Jorge Luis Borges in Argentina was
over an old man stood up and started crying. He said that his father
died in Siberia and in his opinion there was nobody who knew anything
about his father. Varujan Vosganian said: “I never feared death, but
when I started writing the book, I was afraid of dying and leaving
it unfinished. This was a personal question for me; I had to save
this all staff.” In addition he advised not to underestimate the
power of culture. There are cases when it becomes much stronger,
than what is enclosed in the history textbooks.

Varujan Vosganian is the Deputy Chairman of the Writer’s Union
of Romania and Senator. His book has already been translated into
Armenian, Italian, Spanish and Hebrew. Next year it will be introduced
in French, German, Swedish, Bulgarian, Russian, and Arabian. The
novel has been recognized as the best literary work in Romania and
won the main prize of the Romanian Academy. It is also listed among
the top five bestsellers in Columbia.

The interview by Arusik Zakharyan

Photos by Arevik Grigoryan

LES COMBATS FONT RAGE PRES DE KESSAB OV RESIDENT DE NOMBREUX ARMENIENS
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
mercredi 21 novembre 2012

La situation près de la localite de Kessab où resident beaucoup
d’Armeniens dans les environs de Lattaquie, a la frontière syro-turque
est explosive. Des combats intenses font rage a quelques kilomètres de
Kessab entre les forces gouvernementales et l’opposition armee soutenue
par la Turquie. Les combats ont detruit de nombreux generateurs
electriques privant de l’electricite une partie importante de la
ville. Le telephone est egalement coupe. Les emetteurs des portables
etant par ailleurs en dysfonctionnement. Selon le site armenien ”
Azad hay ” (Armenien libre) lors des 20 mois de guerre civile en
Syrie, 40 Armeniens furent tues et 66 autres blesses. Il convient
egalement d’ajouter a ces chiffres les 7 civils Armeniens disparus
ainsi que 2 soldats Armeniens. Près de 200 habitations appartenant
a des Armeniens ont ete detruits ou endommages.

mercredi 21 novembre 2012, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

AZERBAIJAN WANTS TO GET RID OF OSCE MINSK GROUP FORMAT, ARMENIA’S DEPUTY FM SAYS

armradio.am
12:44 20.11.20120

Azerbaijan’s propaganda that the OSCE Minsk Group format has already
exhausted itself pursue only one goal – to get rid of the format,
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said, speaking
to Tert.am.

He said even if the negotiations within this format are not efficient
it is not the fault of the Minks Group but Azerbaijan’s which has
adopted a tough stance. “And as far as it is so, it [Azerbaijan]
does everything to maintain the existing situation – the status quo,”
he said.

The deputy FM says it is necessary to remember that the Minsk Group
co-chairs have two missions. The first is to help the parties reach
agreement, and second, to prevent military actions. He said it is
not accidental that the three Minsk Group countries are permanent
members of the Security Council.

“There was no conflict in history when a permanent member was a
security member as well, in this case, three of them separately
are, and together they state that the conflict is to be solved in
an exclusively peaceful way,” Kocharyan said, stressing that it
makes clear why Azerbaijan wants to get rid of the format and why it
spreads black propaganda, while the Armenian side has never spoken
about either a standstill or inefficiency of the Minsk Group.

The deputy FM said with its unconstructive policy Azerbaijan is doing
everything for the international community to understand that there is
no alternative to the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic. “After the vulgar case with Ramil Safarov it is ridiculous
when Azerbaijan speaks about returning Karabakh and making it part
of Azerbaijan,” Kocharyan said, adding that all steps of Azerbaijan,
its unconstructive policy, its indifference toward mediators and
international right, history and geography will result in inevitable
international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

TURQUIE : PINAR SELEK DOIT ETRE DEFINITIVEMENT ACQUITTEE

Publié le : 20-11-2012

Info Collectif VAN – – L’historien francais
Ã~Itienne Copeaux, spécialiste de la Turquie, sera ce jeudi 22
novembre 2012 devant le Tribunal d’Istanbul (Turquie) où doit être
a nouveau jugée la sociologue turque Pınar Selek, accusée de
terrorisme comme de nombreux autres intellectuels turcs et kurdes. Le
chercheur francais y lira le texte ci-dessous devant la presse. Il
y revient sur le procès kafkaïen auquel est confrontée depuis
14 ans une universitaire de renom, née en 1971 sur les rives
du Bosphore. Ã~Itienne Copeaux note avec justesse que “tout ceci
ne concerne pas seulement la Turquie. La Turquie est candidate a
l’intégration dans l’Union européenne et tout ce qui se passe ici
nous regarde en tant que citoyens européens. La Turquie, Ã~Itat
coercitif, dispose déja par divers moyens de leviers d’intervention
dans les pays d’Europe. Mais si la Turquie devient un Ã~Itat membre,
elle disposera alors de l’arme du ” mandat d’arrêt européen ”
qui lui permettrait de faire arrêter une personne poursuivie dans
n’importe quel pays de l’Union, et de la faire livrer a la police
turque.” Le Collectif VAN vous soumet ce texte d’Etienne Copeaux
publié sur son site susam-sokak.fr le 17 novembre 2012.

susam-sokak.fr

Samedi 17 novembre 2012

Soutien a Pınar Selek – 22 novembre

Voici le texte qui sera lu a la presse jeudi 22 novembre 2012, devant
le tribunal où doit être a nouveau jugée Pınar Selek

Je suis historien francais, spécialiste de la Turquie, et je suis
venu comme observateur de cette nouvelle audience du procès de Pınar
Selek pour témoigner de ma préoccupation et de mon soutien.

Je vivais a Istanbul a l’époque de l’explosion accidentelle du Marché
Egyptien, en juillet 1998. Chacun le sait, c’était une période très
dure dans la guerre menée au sud-est, et la chasse aux prétendus
” terroristes ” était féroce. C’est une période qui ressemble
étrangement a celle que vit la Turquie aujourd’hui.

Pınar Selek s’intéressait de près a des sujets politiquement
sensibles : les différentes formes de marginalité dans la société,
et les mouvements politiques kurdes. Elle ne se contentait pas
d’observer a distance : elle a toujours été une sociologue
impliquée. Au cours de l’immense travail qu’elle a réalisé, elle
n’a accompli que des actes légaux. Pourtant, elle a été arrêtée et
torturée, puis inculpée d’avoir fomenté ce prétendu ” attentat ”
du marché égyptien.

Je connais donc l’affaire depuis le début, l’arrestation, puis la
libération de Pınar et son acquittement.

Mais en 2006, j’ai été sidéré d’apprendre que Pınar Selek
était toujours poursuivie, malgré son acquittement et les rapports
d’expertise qui l’innocentaient.

Aussi, en février 2011, je suis venu lui témoigner ici de mon
soutien.

J’ai partagé la joie de ses amis, lorsqu’elle a été acquittée
pour la troisième fois. Tout me semblait plus beau, plus brillant,
dans ce pays que j’aime. Cet acquittement me semblait présager la
continuation de la politique d’ouverture, un assouplissement. Puis,
j’ai partagé la déception et l’amertume lors de la remise en cause
de cet acquittement, et chaque fois que Pınar Selek a subi un déni
de justice.

Car c’est bien de cela qu’il s’agit : la sociologue a été acquittée
trois fois, les chefs d’inculpation n’ont pas résisté aux expertises,
il n’y a plus de charge contre elle. Pourtant le jugement est sans
cesse reporté, et lorsqu’un jugement est prononcé en sa faveur,
il est cassé.

Ce déni de justice est a l’origine d’une peine extra-légale :
l’extension indéfinie de la durée d’un procès ; il s’agit d’une
véritable torture psychologique qui empêche le ou la prévenue de
vivre une vie normale. Selon la Convention européenne des droits
de l’homme (art. 6), que la Turquie a signée, ” Toute personne a
droit a ce que sa cause soit entendue (…) dans un délai raisonnable
”. Est-ce que la justice turque estime ” raisonnable ” un délai
de quatorze ans pour juger un crime qui n’a pas été commis ?

Pınar Selek a déja été emprisonnée durant deux ans et demi,
pour rien.

Elle sait que si elle rentre en Turquie, elle risque a nouveau
la prison. Elle est donc contrainte a l’exil, pour pouvoir vivre
normalement et continuer ses travaux de recherche, car elle est
une travailleuse infatigable. C’est donc une peine de relégation
extra-judiciaire qui a été infligée a Pınar Selek, comme a de
nombreux autres citoyens turcs. Ainsi par la simple menace, par la
pression du système juridique, la Turquie peut se débarrasser de
certains intellectuels qu’elle juge gênants.

Non seulement c’est une violence extra-légale faite aux opposants,
mais c’est une perte absurde pour le pays. Les intellectuels de la
trempe de Pınar Selek sont une richesse, ils représentent l’avenir.

Certes, cela a été un honneur pour nous, en Allemagne, puis en
France, de l’accueillir. Mais son pays est la Turquie, sa ville est
Istanbul, son terrain de recherche est ici.

Nous clamons tous que Pınar Selek n’est pas seule, et il est
réconfortant qu’elle ait de nombreux amis et soutiens dans de
nombreux pays.

Mais nous sommes informés, nous lisons la presse turque et observons
ses médias, et nous savons que malheureusement Pınar Selek n’est
pas seule dans son cas ! Il y avait déja eu des cas de répression
célèbres, comme celui d’Ismail Besikci. Mais l’affaire Selek a été
suivie de tellement d’autres, touchant des milliers d’étudiants, des
dizaines de journalistes, des intellectuels, traducteurs, professeurs,
écrivains, que nous sommes très inquiets.

Certes, la Turquie a les apparences d’un Etat de droit ; mais le droit
est construit pour exercer la contrainte, la justice est transformée
en un instrument de répression : elle atteint un degré d’état
d’exception, de régime autoritaire et coercitif, qui cherche a
intimider sa population et a imposer le silence.

J’ai déja mentionné le déni de justice, la prolongation
indéfinie de certains processus judiciaires ; je dois mentionner
aussi l’outrepassement du droit, qui fait que les juges peuvent
estimer qu’une répétition de certains actes légaux peut devenir ”
signe d’appartenance a une organisation terroriste ” et justifier a
leurs yeux l’incarcération et une lourde condamnation. Nous en avons
observé des exemples l’été dernier. Les Francais, en particulier,
le savent bien depuis que l’une de leurs compatriotes, Sevil Sevimli,
a été arrêtée.

Nous sommes inquiets pour la Turquie et son avenir politique, mais
nous sommes aussi inquiets pour l’Europe.

Car tout ceci ne concerne pas seulement la Turquie.

La Turquie est candidate a l’intégration dans l’Union européenne et
tout ce qui se passe ici nous regarde en tant que citoyens européens.

La Turquie, Etat coercitif, dispose déja par divers moyens de leviers
d’intervention dans les pays d’Europe.

Mais si la Turquie devient un Etat membre, elle disposera alors de
l’arme du ” mandat d’arrêt européen ” qui lui permettrait de faire
arrêter une personne poursuivie dans n’importe quel pays de l’Union,
et de la faire livrer a la police turque.

En outre, la Turquie représente un singulier ” modèle ” de pays où
l’extrême-droite et l’ultra-nationalisme sont puissants et exercent
leur influence sur l’Etat depuis des décennies. C’est un ” modèle ”
qui pourrait être copié. En France, lorsque la droite est au pouvoir,
nous voyons surgir dans les pratiques politiques des éléments qui
prévalent en Turquie, et cela nous fait peur.

C’est pourquoi, en tant que Francais, en tant qu’Européens, nous
avons le devoir de nous intéresser a la Turquie, a ce ” modèle ”
ultra libéral et répressif, et de l’analyser.

Je souhaite a mes amis turcs le bonheur de pouvoir vivre dans un pays
démocratique, libéré d’une guerre qui dure depuis bientôt trente
ans – et nous avons appris en France a quel point ce genre de conflit
peut mettre en danger la démocratie.

PINAR SELEK DOIT Ã~JTRE DÃ~IFINITIVEMENT ACQUITTÃ~IE !

Et ni Pınar Selek, ni les milliers de personnes emprisonnées ou en
attente d’un jugement ne sont seuls ! Nous nous informerons, nous
observerons, nous diffuserons les informations, jusqu’a ce que la
Turquie soit rendue a la démocratie !

Etienne Copeaux

17 novembre 2012

Lire aussi:

Sevil Sevimli, Pinar Selek, deux femmes face a la justice turque

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : susam-sokak.fr

BOOK: INSIDE THE MINDS OF THOSE WHO TAKE POT SHOTS AT POSTERITY: AGE OF ASSASSINS

The Observer (England)
November 18, 2012

HISTORY: Inside the minds of those who take pot shots at posterity:
Age of Assassins: A History of Conspiracy and Political Violence,
Michael Newton, Faber £ 25, pp736

Ian Thomson

In Geoffrey Household’s tense thriller Rogue Male (1939), a lone
English adventurer takes a pot shot at Hitler and then runs for his
life. Few Germans were brave or reckless enough to resist the Fuhrer.

Once Hitler’s madness was obvious, however, the dilemma for German
patriots was painful: to love the Fatherland yet desire the downfall
of Nazism.

Had Hitler been assassinated, what sort of Germany might have emerged?

Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who put the bomb in the briefcase,
reportedly cried out, “Long live holy Germany!” in front of his
executioners – hardly an ideal slogan for a modern democratic nation.

In Michael Newton’s view, von Stauffenberg was the “apotheosis of
Teutonic manhood”; he wore a steel helmet even to his wedding. Few
would dispute the justice of killing Hitler, yet von Stauffenberg is
viewed as an ambivalent hero in Germany today; his dog-like devotion
to Prussian codes of honour is reckoned to be anachronistic.

For most assassins, says Newton, the intended victim is always
a “Hitler” of sorts and deserving of death. Violet Gibson, the
Dublin-born daughter of a Conservative MP, shot Mussolini three times
in Rome in 1926. The Italian dictator escaped with merely a grazed
nose. Was Gibson mad? She had intuited the danger of fascism early
on, and for this at least her attempt to eliminate the Duce might
lay claim to our admiration.

In Newton’s superb history of conspiracy and political violence
throughout the ages from 1865-1981, assassins and would-be assassins
emerge as complex and often paranoid personalities, who came close at
times to changing the fate of nations. Inevitably, assassination is
a subject that attracts conspiracy theorists of one stripe or another.

Half a century on, cliques and shadowy cabals are still believed to
have manipulated “the truth” behind the Kennedy assassinations of
the 1960s.

Hydra-headed conspiracy theories flourish in the absence of hard
evidence. For all his avowed allegiance to communist Cuba, Lee
Harvey Oswald was probably unattached to any “red” paymaster. The
Illinois-born drifter James Early Ray, who murdered Martin Luther
King, was seemingly another freelance operator. In Ray’s corrosive
sense of racial grievance and “anti-nigra” politics Newton sees an
echo of an earlier American assassination.

Abraham Lincoln’s murder in 1865 was the work of a deluded white
supremacist named John Wilkes Booth, who likewise viewed the world
solely through the lens of racial conflict. Lincoln, in Booth’s
distorted vision, was a money-grubbing Yankee hostile to the gracious
suavities of the gallant south.

>>From Lincoln to assassination attempts made on Queen Victoria and
Ronald Reagan, Newton contemplates political violence in all its
complexity. Assassinations were at their most frequent amid the moral
and material ruins of post-first-world-war Europe. In 1921, an Ottoman
leader was gunned down in Berlin in revenge for Turkey’s slaughter of
Armenians. The assassin, a young Armenian named Soghomon Tehlirian,
had exacted justice on behalf of the voiceless dead, he said.

Other assassins have been less transparent in their motives. President
Nixon’s would-be killer, Arthur Bremer, was a “no-hoper” who
scrounged for a living in 1970s Milwaukee, and appeared to relish
a life of subterfuge. On the eve of his long-planned assassination,
he ritualistically shaved off his hippy-length hair for a Mohican Taxi
Driver look. Yet his ambition to shoot Nixon came to nothing. Instead,
Bremer shot and paralysed the segregationist Alabama politician George
C Wallace. His motives for doing so remain obscure.

In recounting the lives of lesser-known assassins, Newton risks
providing a platform for their monomania. Yet the point is well
made: by the late 20th century, shooting a US president had become
no different from shooting, say, John Lennon or Andy Warhol, because
politics had become a subdivision of stardom.

Age of Assassins is an unusual work of social history. If the writing
is at times overdone (“the grey area of our pampered and inadequate
pity”), the book has immense narrative verve and psychological
fascination. I was gripped from start to finish. Ian Thomson

To buy Age of Assassins for £ 18 with free UK p&p call 00330 333 6847
or go to guardianbookshop.co.uk

Captions:

‘Assassins emerge as complex personalities who came close to changing
the fate of nations.’ Getty Images

USSR TO RISE FROM ASHES THROUGH JOINT EURASIAN CURRENCY

PRAVDA
Nov 19 2012
Russia

Maria Snytkova
Pravda.Ru. 19.11.2012

The creation of the supranational currency within the scope of
the Customs Union is inevitable, Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran
Sargsyan, believes. According to him, this should be the next stage of
integration within the organization, which makes sense from the point
of view of simplification of currency circulation in transfers. The
new currency may see the light on January 1, 2015.

As the prime minister of Armenia said during the meeting with members
of the Club of Editors of the CIS, Baltic countries and Georgia, it
would be advantageous for three member states of the Customs Union to
have a supranational currency. “This is beneficial both to economic
entities and citizens. What’s the point in having a national currency
and losing money during transfers?” said Sargsyan.

The Armenian Prime Minister also said that Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan are now at about the same level of development, “and no
country is going to live at the expense of another.” According to
Sargsyan, five years of coordinated monetary and fiscal policy will
be enough for everyone to realize the need for a single currency.

However, for representatives of the Russian side this question is
important already today. The active discussion of the issue began in
the summer of 2012.

“In the summer of this year, Russian Prime Minister Medvedev called
for the creation of a single currency for Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan. He repeated a similar idea at the recent CIS forum in
Yalta – Alexander Razuvayev, Ph.D. and Director Analytical Department
of Alpari said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. – In principle, it may
seem that the idea looks a little strange against the background of
the crisis in the euro zone and the probability that not only Greece,
but perhaps Spain may leave the euro zone, but there is a grain of
common sense here, because money decides a lot in today’s world. Only
a single currency may actually unite the single economic space.”

Originally, the main challenge to the single currency of the Customs
Union was the fact that the idea was presented by the Russian
government from the dominant position. That is, Russia offered the
CIS countries to join the ruble zone, while Moscow would retain the
right to control the money-printing process, and other countries
would automatically fall into dependence on the Russian Central Bank
and the Finance Ministry. Needless to say that this approach left
Belarus and Kazakhstan dissatisfied. As a result, everyone started
to pull the blanket over in this matter.

“Some would say that Belarus has planned economy, some would say
that there are problems in Kazakhstan. However, we must realize that
Russia’s economy is much larger than that of Kazakhstan, and especially
of Belarus. One shouldn’t forget that Russia has world’s third largest
international reserves, more than 500 billion dollars, and Russia’s
GDP this year is about 2 trillion. Accordingly, given the positive
macroeconomic situation in Russia, this includes the growth of more
than 4 percent, and the budget surplus, so to form a currency area
like that would be easy enough, taking into consideration the fact
that there is political will for that on the part of Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan. As for Belarus, the idea was very popular 10 years
ago, but during that time Mr. Lukashenko wanted to have the emission
center. Well, of course, neither the Russian Finance Ministry nor
the Russian Central Bank could accept that,” says Alexander Razuvayev.

Another major problem of the Customs Union was Ukraine’s reluctance
to join it. Experts say that the full integration within the Customs
Union and the Eurasian Economic Community is impossible without
the participation of Ukraine. However, it was reported at the end
of last week that Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated
the impossibility of joining the Customs Union, as the country sets
the course for European integration. The reasonable arguments saying
that the Russian market was much more advantageous for Ukraine than
the Ukrainian was for Russia, have not brought any results.

Surprisingly, though, the free trade idea between the CIS countries
and Russia inspired the Crimean Republic, the first president of
which, Yuri Meshkov, unexpectedly expressed his intention to join
the Customs Union regardless of the Ukraine. Moscow does not hope
much for the influence of the Crimea, although it may ring another
“bell” for Ukraine’s Yanukovych. Experts tend to see the “hand of the
Kremlin” here, rather than an independent decision made by the head
of the autonomous territory. However, it is no secret that Russia
can make Ukraine join the union through the use of more abrupt,
manipulative measures.

“In today’s world, only 200-250-million-strong markets can be
self-sufficient. Kazakhstan and Russia, plus Belarus is somewhat less.

And, accordingly, the system can work only if Ukraine is integrated.

One shouldn’t forget that Russia can put pressure on Ukraine through
energy carriers,” says Alexander Razuvayev.

To date, Russia has taken a detached attitude to Ukraine. Ukrainian
officials say that there could be a possibility for the country to
join the Customs Union in the event the economic situation in the euro
zone worsens. For the time being, Ukraine is standing at a crossroads,
wondering which union to join.

“Either way, it is believed that the new currency will appear on
1 January 2015, although possibly earlier. Political sovereignty
can hardly be questioned. It is unlikely that it will be the
Russian ruble. Most likely, it will be a new Eurasian currency, and,
consequently, we will have a new Eurasian Central Bank. Of course, it
will be a local currency, because the size of combined economies is
still a lot smaller than the economy of the United States, China,
or the European Union. However, it will really mark the actual
denunciation of Belovezha Accords and restoration of the Soviet Union,
albeit in a new version 2.0 and on absolutely new market and capitalist
principles,” the expert concluded.

FROM THE SOUTH CAUCASUS TO SOUTH AMERICA: MORE TENSIONS OVER EL KARABAJ

EurasiaNet.org
Nov 19 2012
NY

November 19, 2012 – 11:36am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Uruguay may be best known these days for its government’s push to
become a “leading pot dealer,” but it will need much more than cannabis
to make peace with Azerbaijan over a recent trip by Uruguayan lawmakers
to breakaway Nagorno Karabakh.

The decades-long row between Azerbaijan and Armenia about Karabakh
has been increasingly playing out in Latin America, with Yerevan
seeking supporters for the territory’s independence from Azerbaijan,
and Baku working to nip such ideas in the bud.

Uruguay, with one of Latin America’s largest Armenian Diasporas and
a track record of having already recognized as genocide the Ottoman
Empire’s slaughter of ethnic Armenians, has now found itself in the
middle of this tug-of-war.

After arriving in Yerevan early last week, Uruguayan House of
Representatives Speaker Jorge Orrico and other delegates hopped
over to Karabakh to meet de-facto leader Bako Sahakian and other
local officials.

In comments similar to an earlier statement by Uruguay’s foreign
minister, Luis Almagro, Orrico expressed support for Karabakh,
but stopped short of making unequivocal promises to recognize the
territory.

Still, it was enough to rile Baku.

In an ongoing ping-pong exchange of diplomatic notes, Montevideo
on November 19 tried to reassure Azerbaijan about the depths of its
respect; without, that is, failing to mention its “deep and traditional
contacts” with Azerbaijani foe Armenia.

Arguably, it’s those “deep and traditional contacts” which may present
a key sore point for Azerbaijan these days.

Speaking on November 17 to members of his ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev denounced (as he has before) “the
Armenian lobby,” a term usually applied to Armenian Diaspora groups,
as “our main enemy,” Trend.az reported.

What Uruguay, with its support for Armenian-Diaspora-promoted
initiatives, makes of such reasoning is not clear. But perhaps that
will come in lesson two of this crash course on Caucasus Conflicts.

LET’S THINK A BIT ABOUT OUR NEIGHBORS…
Sevak Sarukhanyan

Mediamax
Nov 14 2012
Armenia

How many specialists are there in Armenia who know what is modern
Azerbaijan and its economy like, or their society? Or the public
sector? In which state the Azerbaijani regions especially those
adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh and Republic of Armenia are ? What is
the social-economic situation in Nakhijevan, for instance?

I don’t know the exact number of such specialists. Moreover, I don’t
know a single one. Of course, that doesn’t mean there are no such
specialists. I am probably not aware of their existence.

But I know dozens of specialists who will be able to explain how
the Azerbaijani state formed, how and in what ways the Turkic tribes
first intruded into the South Caucasus.

Of course, it’s very important information which perhaps has two
drawbacks from the practical standpoint: 1) everything is already
written and proved, 2) all this has very little do with our current
problems. One may think that we conflict not a modern state but a
history or Turkic tribes.

One may have in impression that if we show Azerbaijanis that their
ancestors are newcomers to this land and Nizami is Persian, Baku
will at once capitulate and Republic of Azerbaijan will decompose
and vanish from the face of the earth.

I cited Azerbaijan just as an example. The same is true of the rest of
our neighbors. The same Georgia, for instance. Are there specialists
who can present a fundamental research on the options of facilitation
of cargo transportation from Georgia to Armenia? Of course, it’s
very important to know what contribution Armenians made in the life
of Tiflis but it’s merely an issue of Armenian studies which no way
affects current Armenian-Georgian relations. Just like the way how
Armenian’s contribution to Tiflis didn’t influence (though, it may
have perhaps influence in a negative sense) the process of forcing
Armenians out of Tbilisi.

I have an impression that the Armenian social science is mostly cut
off from the reality and lives up to its own guidelines and ideas
which are closed and unclear, as a rule.

Why am I writing about all this? Perhaps, because I want to remind
that the knowledge on humanities can be not only theoretical but also
applied. Of course, it’s not acceptable to downgrade theory to the
practice but it’s just a crime to do the opposite. Especially for a
country which is being in a blockade – not theoretical but a real one.

Sevak Sarukhanyan is a Candidate of Political Sciences. These views
are his own.