Author: nina hovnanian

THE KERNEL THAT LED TO ‘THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS’
by Chris Bohjalian

The Armenian Weekly Magazine

Sometimes my novels have positively elephantine gestation periods-and
even that, in some cases, is an underestimate. A mother elephant
carries her young for not quite two years; I have spent, in some cases,
not quite two decades contemplating the tiniest seed of a story and
wondering how it might grow into a novel.

Chris Bohjalian’s novel of the Armenian Genocide, The Sandcastle Girls,
arrives on July 17.

Moreover, in the quarter-century I’ve been writing books, I’ve realized
two things about a lengthy gestation period. First, the longer I spend
allowing an idea to take root inside me, the better the finished book;
second, the more time I spend thinking about a book, the less time
I spend actually writing it. Here’s a confession: The first draft of
the novel for which I may always be known best, Midwives, took a mere
(and eerily appropriate) nine months to write.

Skeletons at the Feast, another book I will always be proud of, took
only 10. But I spent a long time pondering both of these novels before
ever setting a single word down on paper.

Perhaps in no case has the relationship between reflection and
construction-between the ethereal wisps of imagination and the concrete
words of creation-been more evident than in the novel I have arriving
this summer, The Sandcastle Girls. The novel has been gestating at
the very least since 1992, when I first tried to make sense of the
Armenian Genocide: a slaughter that most of the world knows next to
nothing about.

My first attempt to write about the genocide, penned 20 years ago
now, exists only as a rough draft in the underground archives of
my alma mater. It will never be published, neither in my lifetime
nor after I’m dead. I spent over two years struggling mightily to
complete a draft, and I never shared it with my editor. My wife,
who has always been an objective reader of my work, and I agreed:
The manuscript should either be buried or burned. I couldn’t bring
myself to do either, but neither did I ever want the pages to see
the light of the day. Hence, the exile to the underground archives.

Moreover, just about this time, Carol Edgarian published her poignant
drama of the Armenian Genocide and the diaspora, Rise the Euphrates.

It’s a deeply moving novel and, it seemed to me, a further indication
that the world didn’t need my book.

And so instead I embarked upon a novel that had been in the back of
my mind for some time: A tale of a New England midwife and a home
birth that has gone tragically wrong.

Over the next 15 years, all but one of my novels would be set largely
in New England. Sometimes they would be about women and men at the
social margins: homeopaths, transsexuals, and dowsers. Other times
they would plumb social issues that matter to me: homelessness,
domestic violence, and animal rights.

The one exception, the one book not set in New England? Skeletons at
the Feast, a story set in Poland and Germany in the last six months
of the Second World War. That novel is, in part, about a fictional
family’s complicity in the Holocaust. Often as I toured on behalf
of the book in 2008 and 2009, readers would ask me the following:
When was I going to write about the Armenian Genocide? After all,
from my last name it’s clear that I am at least part Armenian. (I am,
in fact, half-Armenian; my mother was Swedish.)

I had contemplated the subject often, even after failing in my first
attempt to build a novel around the Meds Yeghern. The Great Calamity.

Three of my four Armenian great-grandparents died in the poisonous
miasma of the genocide and the First World War. Moreover, some of my
best-and from a novelist’s perspective most interesting-childhood
memories occurred while I was visiting my Armenian grandparents at
their massive brick monolith of a home in a suburb of New York City.

Occasionally, my Mid-Western, Swedish mother would refer to their
house as the “Ottoman annex of the Metropolitan,” because it was-at
least by the standards of Westchester County in the middle third of
the twentieth century-so exotic.

In 2010, my father’s health began to deteriorate badly. He lived in
Florida at the time, while I lived in Vermont. I remember how on one
of my visits, when he was newly home after yet another long stay in
the hospital, together we looked at old family photographs. I was
trying to take his mind off his pain, but I also found the exercise
incredibly interesting. In some cases, these were images I had seen
on the walls of my grandparents’ or my parents’ house since I was a
child, but they had become little more than white noise: I knew them
so well that I barely noticed them and they had grown as invisible
to me as old wallpaper.

Now, however, they took on a new life. I recall one in particular that
fascinated me: a formal portrait of my father when he was five years
old, his parents behind him. All of them are impeccably coiffed. My
grandfather is seated in an elegant wooden chair in the sort of suit
and tie and vest that he seemed always to be wearing when I was a boy,
and my grandmother is standing beside him in a beautiful black dress
with a white collar and a corsage. I can see bits of my daughter-their
great-granddaughter-in my grandmother’s beautiful, almond-shaped eyes.

My father, a kindergartener at the time, is wearing shorts, a white
shirt, and a rather badly knotted necktie with a cross on it.

I knew almost nothing about my grandparents’ story. But that picture
reminded me of those moments when, as a child myself, I would sit
on my grandfather’s lap or listen to him, enrapt, as he played his
beloved oud. I recalled the wondrous aroma of lamb and mint that always
wafted from their front door when I would arrive, and my grandmother’s
magnificent cheese boregs. I thought of their library filled with
books in a language-an alphabet-I could not begin to decipher, even
as I was learning to read English.

And at some point, the seeds of my family’s own personal diaspora
began to take root. I had no interest in revisiting the disastrous
manuscript that was gathering dust in my college archives. But I knew
that I wanted to try once again to write about the Armenian Genocide.

A good friend of mine, a journalist and genocide scholar, urged me on.

Ironically, I was about 90 pages into my new book when Mark Mustian
published his beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking
novel, The Gendarme. I felt a bit as I had in 1994 when I read Carol
Edgarian’s Rise the Euphrates. Did the world really need my book
when it had Mark’s-or, for that matter, the stories and memoirs that
Peter Balakian, Nancy Kricorian, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, and Franz
Werfel had given us? It might have been my father’s failing health,
or it might have been the fact that I was older now; it might have
been the reality that already I cared deeply for the fictional women
and men in my new novel. But this time I soldiered on.

I think The Sandcastle Girls may be the most important book I’ve
written. It is certainly the most personal. It’s a big, broad, sweeping
historical love story. The novel moves back and forth in time between
the present and 1915; between the narrative of an Armenian-American
novelist at mid-life and her grandparents’ nightmarish stories of
survival in Aleppo, Van, and Gallipoli in 1915.

Those fictional grandparents are not by any stretch my grandparents,
but the novel would not exist without their courage and charisma.

Is the novel among my best work? The book opens with memories from
my childhood in my grandparents’ home, what my mother referred to as
the Ottoman Annex. In other words, it has been gestating almost my
entire life.

For updates, join Chris Bohjalian’s Facebook page.

LEGISLATORS MARK GENOCIDE IN SENATE, HOUSE FLOOR STATEMENTS

Armenian Weekly
May 1, 2012

Diverse Remarks by Legislators Include Calls for Passage of Genocide
Resolution and Disappointment with Obama’s Failure to Honor Pledge

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators and Representatives took to the floors of
their respective chambers during the week of April 24 to mark the
97th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide and to
share with their colleagues the moral imperative to enact legislation
condemning this crime against humanity, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

Jack Reed These remarks were in addition to the annual Capitol Hill
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, held on April 25, which drew
over 20 Members of Congress.

In the Senate, remarks were offered by Senators Barbara Boxer
(D-Calif.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

Representatives David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Jerry
Costello (D-Ill.), Robert Dold (R-Ill.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Jesse
Jackson Jr (D-Ill.), Sander Levin (D-Mich.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.),
James McGovern (D-Mass.), Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), John Sarbanes
(D-Md.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and Frank
Wolf (R-Va.) offered statements in the House.

Among the more compelling Senate remarks are provided below:

Sen. Jack Reed: Ninety-seven years ago, on April 24, 1915, the Young
Turk leaders of the Ottoman Empire summoned and executed over 200
Armenian community leaders and intellectuals, beginning an 8-year
campaign of oppression and massacre. By 1923, nearly 1.5 million
Armenians were killed, and over a half million survivors were exiled.

These atrocities affected the lives of every Armenian living in
Asia Minor and, indeed, throughout the world. The survivors of the
Armenian Genocide, however, persevered due to their unbreakable spirit,
their steadfast resolve, and their deep commitment to their faith and
their families. They went on to enrich their countries of emigration,
including the United States, with their centuries-old customs, their
culture, and their innate decency. To watch Reed’s remarks on YouTube,
visit

Sen. Carl Levin: Mr. President, this is a week to bear witness. Today,
April 24, we mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day-the day on which
we remind one another of the organized campaign of deportation,
expropriation, starvation, and atrocity perpetrated by the Ottoman
Empire against its Armenian population, beginning with the detention
and eventual execution of hundreds of Armenian community members
on April 24, 1915, just as, a few days ago, we marked Holocaust
Remembrance Day, bearing witness to the attempt by Nazi Germany to
destroy Europe’s Jewish population. Why do we mark these days? Because
in recognizing and condemning the horror of these acts, we affirm
our own humanity, we ensure that the victims of these atrocities will
not be forgotten, and we warn those who believe they can perpetrate
similar crimes with impunity that they will not escape the world’s
notice. We remind ourselves that we must never again allow such mass
assaults against human decency without acting to stop them. And we
mark these atrocities because only by acknowledging the violence and
inhumanity can we begin the process of reconciling populations who
even today are haunted by the damage done decades ago.

Sen. Barbara Boxer: Mr. President, I rise today to solemnly recognize
the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1948, the General
Assembly of the United Nations passed the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide based in part on the horrific
crimes perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian people
between 1915-23. Yet, in the 63 years that have passed since the
Convention was adopted, successive U.S. administrations have refused
to call the deliberate massacre of the Armenians by what it was-a
genocide. For many years, I have urged these administrations to right
this terrible wrong, and I do so again today, calling on President
Obama to acknowledge unequivocally-as he did as a Senator-that
the Armenian Genocide is a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence. … There is no room for
discretion when dealing with unspeakable crimes against humanity;
genocide must be called genocide, murder must be called murder. And
every day that goes by without the U.S. acknowledgment of what happened
to the Armenian people in the early 20th century undermines the United
States’ role as a beacon for human rights around the world.

Among the more compelling House remarks are provided below:

Rep. David Cicilline: Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember the 1.5
million Armenian men, women, and children who were massacred under
the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Each year,
Armenians throughout the world mark April 24 as Genocide Remembrance
Day by honoring those who perished from 1915 to 1923, and I join my
friends and colleagues in remembering the victims today. It’s important
to raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide not only because it is
an undeniable chapter in world history, but also because learning more
about this horrific tragedy underscores the importance of eliminating
intolerance and bigotry wherever it occurs. To watch Cicilline’s
remarks on YouTube, visit

Rep. Jim Costa: Growing up in Fresno, Calif., the place William
Saroyan, a great American author of Armenian descent, called home, I
heard the stories of this tragic time between 1915 and 1923. The sons
and daughters of survivors, time and time again, told the stories of
their families. The facts are clear. What happened 97 years ago can
only be called by one name: genocide, the first genocide of the 20th
century. Yet after nearly a century, the House of Representatives and
current and past American presidents have refused to recognize the
Armenian Genocide as such. We cannot wait for a convenient moment,
for it’s not a convenient truth. Man’s inhumanity to mankind never is.

Now is the time to pass House Resolution 304 that I am a cosponsor
of and formally recognize the Armenian Genocide. To watch Costa’s
remarks on YouTube, visit

Rep. Jerry Costello: Mr. Speaker, I stand to commemorate the Armenian
Genocide on the 97th anniversary of its occurrence. It is unfortunate,
however, that once again I do so without an official recognition
on behalf of the American government. As I have said in years past,
the undeniable genocidal actions by the Ottoman Empire against its
Armenian citizens deserve official recognition from the American
government. 1.5 million Armenians were killed, the first genocide of
the 20th century. As a member of the House Armenian Issues Caucus, I
have co-sponsored legislation to affirm the U.S. position on Armenian
Genocide and will continue to urge my colleagues in Congress and
the Obama Administration to support this position. As we mourn the
lives of those lost, it is important to recognize the resilience
and incredible strides the Armenian people have made in recovering
from that unspeakable past. I stand in solidarity with the Armenian
people and renew my commitment to pursuing a future of reconciliation
and peace.

Rep. Robert Dold: Madam Speaker, about 97 years ago, the government of
the Ottoman Empire killed over 1.5 million people during the Armenian
Genocide. The Turkish state has never accepted responsibility for the
acts of its predecessor government and maintains that the genocide
never took place. For the past 90 years, the Armenian people have
sought justice, yet the Turkish government has continued to actively
obstruct any attempt to recognize what has happened to the Armenian
people. The United States can help bring closure to this longstanding
moral issue by recognizing the Armenian Genocide. To watch Dold’s
remarks on YouTube, visit

Rep. Anna Eshoo: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and
commemorate a solemn occasion of deep personal significance. Today
marks 97 years since the infamous episode in which the Ottoman Empire
began rounding up and murdering Armenian intellectuals and community
leaders in Constantinople. By 1923, some 1.5 million Armenian women,
children, and men were dead from a systematic campaign we now know as
the Armenian Genocide, or Great Crime. Their lives ended in the most
brutal ways imaginable, subjected to death marches, burnings, rape,
and forced starvation. Some 500,000 Armenians who did survive-my own
grandparents among them-were forced into exile. Like others whose
families experienced this tragedy first-hand, I did not first learn
of the Armenian Genocide in history books. I learned about it from my
own grandmother as she recounted the murders of priests and her flight
from the only home she knew. We must be clear: There is no doubt to
the fact that the Armenian Genocide took place. There is no credible
historian who can dispute it, and there is no evidence that detracts
from its horror and magnitude. What’s missing is a moral clarity as
penetrating as the facts themselves, and a willingness in this House
and in our government to acknowledge the Genocide.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.: Mr. Speaker, the atrocities committed during
this period must never be forgotten. We cannot allow events such as
these to be swept under the rug or we face the sad outcome of denying
ourselves the ability to learn from the mistakes of our past. We must
shape a brighter future for the global community. It is an absolute
injustice to the Armenian people, as well as the global community,
to refer to this atrocity as anything other than what it was: genocide.

And the unfortunate truth is that the Armenian people are not the
only ethnic group to be subjected to such an experience.

Rep. Sander Levin: Ninety-seven years ago, the government of the
Ottoman Empire started a ruthless and systematic campaign of genocide
against the Armenian people. Beginning with the targeted execution
of 300 Armenian leaders, this intentional attempt at extermination
ultimately claimed the lives of over 1.5 million people and forcibly
exiled another 500,000. And despite these chilling numbers and a clear
historical record of fact, there remains a failure to acknowledge
this vast human tragedy for what it truly is: genocide.

That is why it is essential that we continue to speak out and solemnly
commemorate the Armenian Genocide. Accordingly, I am proud to support
a resolution this session of Congress that affirms the U.S. record
on the Armenian Genocide and honors its victims and survivors. By
acknowledging this dark chapter of human history, we help protect
against the possible creation of a violent culture of impunity. We
cannot allow past acts of evil to be erased from our collective
consciousness if we are to prevent similar tragedies from occurring
in the future.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA): I am very proud to represent the 7th district
of Massachusetts because my district includes the community with the
third highest percentage of Armenian Americans in the Nation. …

Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire carried out the deportation
of nearly 2 million Armenians from their homes, resulting in the
deaths of 1.5 million innocent children, women, and men. This must
never happen again. In order to prevent future genocides, we must
recognize those of the past. For many years the House has had before
it a resolution which clearly affirms the United States record on the
Armenian Genocide. I have been a strong supporter and vocal co-sponsor
of this resolution in every Congress, and I remain so today. Almost
100 years have passed since the Armenian Genocide, yet the suffering
will continue for Armenians and non-Armenians alike as long as the
world allows denial to prevail.

Rep. Jim McGovern: Every year I have been in Congress, I have marked
this solemn anniversary remembering the victims of this genocide and
the expulsion of tens of thousands of Armenians from their homes
and homeland, and honoring the survivors of one of the greatest
tragedies of the 20th century. These survivors and their descendants
have helped awaken and teach the world to the horrors of genocide
and the necessity of standing up to the forces of denial. This year,
however, Mr. Speaker, I come before this House angry and frustrated
by the refusal of my own government to recognize and identify the
events from 1915 to 1923 as the Armenian Genocide. It doesn’t seem
to make a difference if the White House is occupied by a Republican
or a Democrat; no one has the political courage to call the Armenian
Genocide by name. I am always told that now is not the right time to
take such an action. When will be the right time, Mr. Speaker? When the
last survivor, the last eye-witness to the genocide has passed away?

Rep. Laura Richardson: Mr. Speaker, the historical record is clear
and the Armenian Genocide is a tragic fact. It must be acknowledged
and remembered so that it will never be repeated. As a member of the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, I know that the refusal of
modern-day Turkey to acknowledge one of the worst examples of man’s
inhumanity in the 20th century haunts survivors of the Armenian
Genocide, as well as their families. As a Member of Congress from
California, which is home to more Armenian Americans than any other
state, I believe this is not only an affront to the memory of the
victims and to their descendants, but it does a disservice to the
United States as it seeks to stand up for the victims of violence
today. The issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide and helping the
Armenian people is neither a partisan nor geopolitical issue. Rather,
it is a question of giving the Armenian people the justice they
deserve. In doing so, we affirm the dignity of humankind everywhere.

Rep. John Sarbanes: When faced with the deeply compelling research and
scholarship surrounding the Armenian Genocide, it is wholly untenable
to assert that the genocide did not occur. Instead, many in Congress
offer the protest that recognition would harm our relationship with
Turkey and undermine our broader geo-strategic interests. Others
suggest weakly that it is just not the right time to push the issue
of recognition. The result is the same: the continued failure on the
part of the United States to do the right thing. This failure puts
salt on the wounds of the Armenian people. But it does more than
that. It corrodes the moral standing of our nation as a whole.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen: Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate
the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. It was 97 years ago today
that over 1.5 million men, women, and children, almost 75 percent of
the pre-war Armenian population, were brutally exterminated by the
Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman authorities arrested and later murdered
over 250 Armenian political, intellectual, and religious leaders in
Istanbul, beginning a horrific and systematic campaign to wipe a 3,000
year-old community from the face of the earth. … And yet, despite
clear evidence that genocide occurred, many officials today refuse
to even to use the word genocide when referring to this incident. By
equivocating, they not only dishonor the victims of this atrocity
and their descendents, they increase the chance that other crimes
against humanity are met with similar equivocation.

Rep. Henry Waxman: Mr. Speaker, today, we gather to remember the
genocide against the Armenian people. Although the generation that
experienced these atrocities has passed, their suffering has been
prolonged by the continued efforts to silence their cries and deny
that a genocide occurred. When words can help bring comfort to those
who suffer, silence isolates and inflicts pain. When time marches
forward and history becomes more distant, silence erodes the memory of
those who were lost. When affirmation and recognition could prevent
such a tragedy from being repeated, silence allows the perpetrators
of genocide to assume their actions will meet neither obstacle nor
objection. Thus, the ongoing efforts of the Turkish leadership to
silence discussion of the Armenian genocide inflict yet another
cruelty. … Today, we will not be silent.

Rep. Frank Wolf: This year’s observance of the anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide is especially meaningful. In December 2011, the
House of Representatives adopted H. Res. 306, which I was pleased
to cosponsor. The resolution calls on the secretary of state to urge
Turkey to end religious discrimination and return all Christian places
of worship and religious artifacts to their rightful owners. Thousands
of these sacred sites and artifacts were confiscated by the Ottoman
Empire during and after the Armenian Genocide

ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN HOLDS ITS FINAL CAMPAIGN RALLY IN YEREVAN

news.am
May 02, 2012 | 20:03

YEREVAN. – The demonstration of ARF Dashnaktsutyun, the last within
the framework of election campaign, has kicked off in Liberty Square
of Yerevan.

ARFD members Armen Rustamyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan and Artsvik Minasyan
are on the platform. The rally will be followed by a concert.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun is one of
the oldest Armenian political parties. It was founded in the end of
19th century.

In June 2003, the party signed a coalition memorandum with the
Republican Party of Armenia and Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law). However,
in 2009 ARFD left the coalition in protest against signing the
protocols with Turkey.

Party’s proportional list includes 85 candidates. Eight candidates
will run for an MP seat with majority system. The party’s motto is
‘Freedom, Justice, Dashnaktsutyun.’

EXHIBITION ON ELECTORAL BRIBE OPENS IN YEREVAN

Panorama.am
02/05/2012

A unique exhibition on electoral bribe, featuring eggs, natural goods,
jam, asphalt, opened at the House-Museum of Hovhannes Tumanyan today.

The exhibition’s symbol is a 5000 dram note with Hovhannes Tumanyan’s
image.

“The exhibition touches upon widespread electoral bribe and aims to
send certain messages to addressees,” Hovhannes Margaryan, member of
Art Laboratoria NGO, the exhibition’s organizer, told reporters.

Youtube videos on electoral bribe were shown during the exhibition.

The exhibition will last until May 7.
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From: Mihran Keheyian
Subject: Exhibition on electoral bribe opens in Yerevan

Exhibition on electoral bribe opens in Yerevan

17:51 02/05/2012 » Society

A unique exhibition on electoral bribe, featuring eggs, natural goods,
jam, asphalt, opened at the House-Museum of Hovhannes Tumanyan today.
The exhibition?s symbol is a 5000 dram note with Hovhannes Tumanyan?s
image.

?The exhibition touches upon widespread electoral bribe and aims to
send certain messages to addressees,? Hovhannes Margaryan, member of
Art Laboratoria NGO, the exhibition?s organizer, told reporters.

Youtube videos on electoral bribe were shown during the exhibition.

The exhibition will last until May 7.

Source: Panorama.am

NICOLAS SARKOZY REND DE NOUVEAU HOMMAGE AUX ARMENIENS
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 4 mai 2012

Dans son discours de Toulon hier, Nicolas Sarkozy a de nouveau rendu
hommage aux Armeniens :

18h41 : “Il ne peut pas y avoir de pardon quand il n’y a pas de
reconnaissance de la blessure. La Republique doit toujours panser
les blessures. Je veux rendre hommage a tous ceux qui ont choisi la
France, qui travaillent dur pour elever leurs enfants. La Republique
leur a fait la promesse de l’egalite, elle doit la tenir”.

18h36 : “La Republique ne doit pas attiser la concurrences des
memoires” mais ne pas oublier “les souffrances du passe”. Il pense
aux Harkis, pour qui la France a une “dette”. Aux “rapatries dont la
blessure ne se refermera jamais”, ceux qui ont vecu “un genocide”,
enumère-t-il, citant le genocide armenien. “La France a des principes,
elle est du côte des victimes, pas des boureaux”.

UN SATELLITE DE TELECOMMUNICATIONS POUR L’ARMENIE ?
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
vendredi 4 mai 2012

Pourparlers de l’Armenie avec Roscosmos pour un Premier Satellite
de Telecommunications

Satellite Finance

27 avril 2012

Le gouvernement d’Armenie, selon certaines sources, aurait ouvert des
discussions avec l’agence spatiale russe Roscosmos pour la commande
d’un premier satellite de telecommunications.

Tigran Sarkissian, le premier ministre d’Armenie, a rencontre les
representants de Roscosmos a l’occasion de leur visite, le 24 avril,
pour discuter d’une eventuelle cooperation sur un projet spatial
commercial, selon des articles de presse reprenant un brève declaration
du gouvernement armenien.

Il faut cependant que le pays depose sa proposition a l’Union
Internationale des Telecommunications, une etape clef du processus,
a declare a SatelliteFinanace un porte parole de l’organisme de
règlementation.

Roscosmos et le gouvernement armenien n’ont ete en mesure de discuter
ni les details sur le programme envisage, ni compris l’aspect
financement.

Ce changement serait une première, le gouvernement armenien
n’ayant jusque la jamais exprime publiquement son interet pour la
possession d’un satellite. Il suivrait en cela un groupe de pays
relativement petits qui envisagent, au lieu de louer des espaces
chez d’autres operateurs, l’acquisition de leur propre satellite
de telecommunication,.

Très recemment, en avril, le gouvernement d’Afghanistan annoncait
un appel d’offres a des investisseurs pour construire et lancer le
premier satellite du pays. A peu près en meme temps, le Bangladesh
se disait sur le point de lancer un appel d’offre pour construire
son premier engin, qui devra s’appeler Bangabandhu-1.

Entre temps, un certain nombre d’autres pays, parmi lesquels le
Turkmenistan, l’Azerbaïdjan et l’Ukraine, ont en cours la construction
de leur premier satellite.

AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTRY: ARMENIAN PRESIDENT DOES NOT HAVE COURAGE TO ADMIT HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TROUBLES OF HIS PEOPLE

Trend
May 2 2012
Azerbaijan

Statement of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is nothing more than
faux populism, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev
told Trend on Wednesday, while commenting on the speech of Sargsyan
at a meeting with the voters of Kotayk province.

“To justify his prolonged failures by meaningless statements became
a habit of the Armenian President,” Abdullayev said.

He said that, apparently, President Sargsyan has no courage to declare
openly to the Armenian people that it’s he and other representatives
of the Armenian leadership who are truly responsible for troubles of
his people.

“President Sargsyan does not want to talk that because of his selfish
goals or goals of those whom he represents, Armenia is in economic
stagnation. It’s hard to admit that, when the country is in crisis, the
Armenian authorities aggravate the situation by continuing aggressive
policy, which resulted in total bloody ethnic cleansing against the
people, who for centuries lived in these lands,” Abdullayev said.

He said the main question to the leadership of Armenia, which
is difficult to get an adequate answer to is as follows: What did
president Sargsyan and other representatives of the authorities need
in these strange lands and how can he be justified, if we talk about
the genocide victims and about one million refugees as a result of
their bloody policy?

UAPFP CHAIRMAN: “AZERBAIJAN MUST DEMAND UNAMBIGUOUSLY POSITION FROM WEST”

APA
May 2 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Parvin Abbasov – APA. “I consider progressive the Novruz
Mammadov’s opinions on review of the cooperation policy of Azerbaijan
with West.

Azerbaijan is completely right to show such relation,” chairman of the
United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party, MP Gudrat Hasanguliyev told APA.

Chief of the Department of Foreign Relations of Azerbaijani
Presidential Administration Novruz Mammadov told “Bloomberg” agency
that if Azerbaijan didn’t receive special support in Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, Azerbaijan would review the relation with West and could
enter new block.

Hasanguliyev said that Azerbaijan always faces serious pressures of
Russia and Iran, because of closely relation with West: “Both these
countries gave serious political, economical and military support
to Armenia. Azerbaijani territories have been occupation for years,
because of the assistance of neighboring states to Armenia. The matter
is that West also approaches bias to Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”

The chairman said that Azerbaijan must demand principal position form
West on this issue. Azerbaijan needs to put issue openly in front of
West. West must support Azerbaijan for liberation of Azerbaijani
territories and demand unambiguously from Armenia to liberate
occupied territories. But the worse is that even the occupier is
being supported. It is contradictory to the international law and
UN regulation.

Hasanguliyev said that West must show its principle in Nagorno Karabakh
conflict: “I offered two years ago that Azerbaijan must cooperate
with the state, which unambiguously supports Azerbaijan in Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, in energy and other spheres.”

ARMENIAN DEMOGRAPHIC CATASTROPHE BECOMES MORE EVIDENT

Vestnik Kavkaza
May 2 2012
Russia

Armenia had 19,569 people born in the first quarter of 2012. The
rate dropped by 5.7% compared with the same period in 2011. It is
the lowest figure in the last 4 years, Tert.am reports.

The death rate increased to 17,953, the highest level in the last 10
years. The rate keeps increasing annually.

In other words, the birth rate is dropping, while the death rate is
increasing. The processes were caused by high migration activity due
to the socio-economic and moral-psychological condition of the country.

CSTO COLLECTIVE FORCES TO RECEIVE MODERN WEAPONS

Vestnik Kavkaza
May 2 2012
Russia

Defense ministers of the member states of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) will meet in Astana today to discuss
armament of the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (CRRF), press
secretary of the CSTO Vladimir Zaynetdinov said, RIA Novosti reports.

The ministers will hold a session chaired by Kazakh Defense Minister
Adilbek Jaksybekov. They will talk about modern weapons and equipment
for the collective forces and military and economic cooperation.

CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha will present a report.

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Oganyan will inform the ministers
about joint drills planned for 2012.

Attendees of the session will also participate in the opening of the
international exhibition for weapons and military equipment KADEX-2012.

CSTO states agreed on formation of the CRRF in February 2009 and
signed a related document on June 14, 2009.

The CRRF consists of mobile armed formations equipped with advanced
weapons and vehicles. They consist of law enforcers, security services
and emergency staff.

The CSTO consists of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.