Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIE
Soldats tués par les forces azerbaïdjanaises : l’Arménie prône une riposte

Le président arménien Serge Sarkissian a prôné vendredi une riposte
aux tirs azerbaïdjanais, après que trois soldats arméniens ont été
tués par les forces azerbaïdjanaises à la frontière entre les deux
pays.

`Les tirs azerbaïdjanais visant notre territoire se poursuivent (…)
Une réaction appropriée est inévitable`, a déclaré M. Sarkissian,
selon un communiqué diffusé par son service de presse.

`Je ne crois pas que quelqu’un doute de la puissance de nos forces
armées`, a-t-il ajouté.

Trois soldats arméniens ont été tués dans la nuit de jeudi à vendredi
par les forces azerbaïdjanaises dans la région de Tavouch, dans le
nord du pays, où deux autres soldats avaient été tués le mois dernier,
a indiqué le ministère de la Défense dans un communiqué.

M. Sarkissian a également accusé la partie azerbaïdjanaise d’avoir
tiré sur une école maternelle et une ambulance ces derniers jours.

Le ministère azerbaïdjanais des Affaires étrangères a rejeté ces
accusations, qualifiant l’Arménie d’`agresseur`.

`Les autorités arméniennes essayent d’induire en erreur la communauté
internationale`, a déclaré le porte-parole du ministère, Elman
Abdullayev, à l’agence Interfax-Azerbaïdjan.

De son côté, le ministère azerbaïdjanais de la Défense a accusé
vendredi les forces arméniennes d’avoir tué un officier azerbaïdjanais
à Agdam, près de la ligne de front du Nagorny Karabakh.

Des échanges de tirs impliquant des troupes arméniennes et
azerbaïdjanaises ont lieu régulièrement le long de la ligne de front
du Nagorny Karabakh, enclave séparatiste en Azerbaïdjan peuplée
majoritairement d’Arméniens.

La dernière attaque visant les trois soldats arméniens s’est cependant
produite loin de ce territoire revendiqué par Bakou et Erevan.

L’Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe (OSCE)
s’est dite vendredi `profondément inquiète` de la montée de la tension
dans cette région.

`De tels actes de violences absurdes violent l’engagement des parties
de s’abstenir du recours à la force et de chercher un règlement
pacifique`, a indiqué dans un communiqué le groupe de Minsk de l’OSCE,
le médiateur du conflit azerbaïdjano-arménien concernant le territoire
rebelle.

Rattaché à l’Azerbaïdjan pendant la période soviétique, le Nagorny
Karabakh a proclamé son indépendance, non reconnue par la communauté
internationale, après une guerre qui a fait 30.000 morts et des
centaines de milliers de réfugiés entre 1988 et 1994.

Un cessez-le-feu a été signé en 1994, mais Bakou et Erevan n’arrivent
pas à se mettre d’accord sur le statut de la région qui reste une
source de tension dans le Caucase du Sud, une zone stratégique située
entre l’Iran, la Russie et la Turquie.

samedi 28 avril 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

UNVEILING IRAN’S EVERYDAY LIVES
by Zena Alkayat

Metro
April 26, 2012 Thursday
UK

Iranian author ZOYA PIRZAD says it was worth waiting ten years to
have her novel translated into English By Zena Alkayat

AMONG the terraces of a mundane new town, a middle-aged motherof-three
laments marrying her disengaged, thoughtless husband. Clarisse is
a typical, unfulfilled suburban housewife, and author Zoya Pirzad’s
decision to place her in the mid-1960s, in the Iranian town of Abadan,
is almost by the by – Clarisse could just as easily live in modern
day Milton Keynes.

Certainly, Pirzad’s debut novel, Things We Left Unsaid, barely
acknowledges Iran’s religious or political character. Instead, the
author delves into the domestic story of a housewife, making it yet
more universal by sidestepping the poetic and exalting prose so common
in traditional Persian literature.

‘My writing has been compared to Raymond Carver,’ says Iranian-Armenian
Pirzad, who, like many Western authors, demonstrates rather than
describes. ‘I think it’s the honest dialogue that people originally
found exciting. In Persian novels, people do not talk like real
people. So when I started out, I offered a simple, real approach.

It was a new way of writing.’

It’s this economic style, as well as her frank portrayal of everyday
family life and sympathy for female characters, that first brought her
attention in Iran in the 1990s. She has published three short-story
collections and another bestselling novel since her debut but her
output means she has repeatedly faced the stringent, compulsory
reviews of the country’s publishing censors.

‘It doesn’t change the way I write,’ Pirzad attests. ‘I write for
myself and I don’t even think about getting published. If I get
permission, great. If not, I will wait.’ But it’s a wonder Things We
Left Unsaid ever made it to the bookshops, what with it containing two
of the censors’ key deal-breakers: sexual content and politics. ‘They
either didn’t mind or they didn’t understand,’ she jokes. But despite
the subtlety of these themes, they are plainly evident.

Clarisse, fed up with her hobby-socialist husband, finds an electric
connection with her new neighbour, the attentive and charming Emile,
and dances around the idea of an affair. She also experiences the
thrill of caring for a cause outside of her family when she befriends
a women’s rights campaigner. Her blossoming independence is almost
ironic, given what we know in hindsight: the Iranian Revolution of
1979 was just a few years off and Clarisse’s new, strappy-dresswearing
confidence would soon be quashed by the Islamic Republic.

PIRZAd never gives an overt or knowing nod to the impending and brutal
clampdown on freedom of speech and women’s rights but she also insists
that, despite the revolution, the country hasn’t become, as we might
have it, subsumed under the shadow of violence and discrimination.

‘What Western people think about Iran is untrue,’ she says. ‘Even
nowadays, after the revolution, we are quite Westernised. Yes,
there is a contradiction between your life at home and outside –
it’s true Iranian women must wear a headscarf, for example – but we
lead a full life. This is not Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. We have women
in traditionally male roles – estate agents, officials – we have
fashion and parties.’

Though Things We Left Unsaid was Pirzad’s breakthrough debut and
has been translated into many languages, it’s taken more than ten
years for it to be published in English. The wait, she says, has been
largely down to the intricacies of finding a suitable publisher.

‘I had been asked a few times to translate my work but it was often by
a university or academic publishing house,’ she explains. ‘When your
book is published by a university press, it sort of kills it. It has
a sort of patronising effect. I don’t want to be translated because
I’m Iranian. Or because of politics. I want my books to be translated
for their literary value. For their universal subjects.’

Things We Left Unsaid (Oneworld) is out on Tuesday, priced £11.99.

THREE CANDIDATES FOR ONE SEAT IN ARMENIA’S MAJORITY SYSTEM

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 27 2012
Russia

139 candidates are running for 41 seats in parliament, Chairman of
the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia Tigran Mukuchyan said on
Thursday, News Armenia reports.

23 out of 180 single-mandate candidates have withdrawn their bids,
16 withdrew, two were not approved by the CEC. According to April 26,
there were 139 candidates, 54 of whom were independent, 9 were females.

17 candidates were aged over 60, 31 aged 29-40. The oldest candidate
was born in 1942, the youngest in 1982.

Armenia will hold parliamentary polls on May 6 with 8 parties and a
bloc running.

They include the Republican Party, Prosperous Armenia, Orinats Yerkir,
Dashnaktsutyun, Heritage, Armenian National Congress, Democratic Party,
Communist Party and United Armenians.

Experts expect the main struggle among the Republican Party, Prosperous
Armenia and the Armenian National Congress.

The parliament consists of 131 seats in total. 41 MPs are elected via
the majority system, 90 via the proportional system. Parties need at
least 5% of votes, blocs need 7%.

ELECTION BRIBE-TAKERS NOT TO FACE LAW IF THEY INFORM POLICE – ARMENIAN LEADER

Mediamax
April 25 2012
Armenia

Yerevan, 25 April: One of the priorities of the activities of the
competent bodies should be relieving of criminal responsibility in
case the people who had got election bribes informed law-enforcement
agencies about it on their own will and helped reveal the crime.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said this during his meeting with
Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepyan today, Mediamax reports.

According to the president, in conditions of such guarantees citizens
who once make a mistake will be given the opportunity to help combating
“election bribes” getting relieved of the unavoidable punishment.

“Of course, the negative phenomenon considerably sets off the
legitimacy of any elections and neutralization of such undesirable
influence and ensuring and holding of free and fair elections is
an important legal and democratic objective of each state,” said
the president.

CIS TO SEND OBSERVERS TO PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA

ITAR-TASS
April 24, 2012 Tuesday 11:44 AM GMT+4
Russia

The CIS Executive Committee will send its observers to regular
parliamentary elections in Armenia due to be held on May 6, chairman of
the executive committee, CIS executive secretary Sergei Lebedev said
at a meeting with Vice-Premier, Territorial Management Minister of
Armenia, member of the CIS Economic Council Armen Gevorkyan on Monday.

“The CIS mission monitored the election campaign and will continue
its work during the whole period of elections,” Lebedev stressed.

According the vice-premier, the Armenian authorities undertake efforts
to organize elections at a due level in accordance with democratic
criteria.

Lebedev, who is staying here in connection with the launch of the
program “Yerevan – a Book Capital of the World,” has highly assessed
the celebrations which were held. “Armenia is the first of CIS
countries which took upon itself such a mission,” he noted.

The meeting participants also discussed issues of the agenda for the
CIS charter bodies.

HOYER STATEMENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Congressional Documents and Publications
April 24, 2012

Office of the Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, April 24, 2012

Contact: Katie Grant, 202-225-3130

Hoyer Statement on the Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released
the following statement today marking the anniversary of the Armenian
genocide:

“Today, in Armenia and across the world, we remember the 1.5 million
victims of the Armenian genocide. On this date in 1915, that tragedy
opened with the arrest and persecution of hundreds of Armenian
political figures, business professionals, clergy, and journalists. It
is a painful reminder that the first acts suppressing freedom are
seldom the last. Today, Armenian communities in this country continue
to honor the memory of those who perished by marking this anniversary
with solemnity and continuing to contribute to our national life as
leaders in business, government, research, and the arts.

“The scars borne from crimes against humanity never fully disappear,
but through dialogue, remembrance, and an acceptance of history we can
advance the process of healing and reconciliation and, along with it,
prospects for a future based on lasting peace. I join in mourning
the loss of so many innocent men, women, and children. Let us never
forget them or this powerful lesson from history.”

TURKISH FLAG BURNED AT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY MARCH IN YEREVAN

Interfax
April 24 2012
Russia

A torch procession marking the 97th anniversary of the murder of
1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 was held in Yerevan
on Monday.

>From 5,000 to 6,000 people moved from the center of Yerevan to the
Tsitsernakaberd Memorial commemorating the Armenian Genocide victims.

A Turkish flag was burned at the start of the event.

Such processions have been held in Yerevan annually since 2000. Their
organizer is the Youth Union of the Dashnaktsutyun Armenian Revolution
Party.

The 1915 murder of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
has been recognized as an act of genocide by a number of states,
but Turkey has refused to recognize genocide.

Armenian political forces running in a May 6 parliamentary election
suspended their election campaigns on April 24.

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

asbarez
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

A young Armenian holds a sign: “1915 is never forgotten” The Armenian
Youth Federation Western US issued an open letter to President Obama
Urging him to recognize the Genocide. Below is the text of the letter.

April 24, 2012 President Barak Obama 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

In 2008 when you ran for president of the United States, thousands of
American Armenians registered to vote to elect a president who would
properly recognize the Armenian Genocide. Believing in your words that
“as president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide” the Armenian
community supported your campaign, became civically active and voted
for “hope” and “change.” We voted for hope that this nation would
have a leader who stands up for human rights and for change from
former Presidents who were complicit in genocide denial.

Yet your promise for hope and change to the American Armenian community
to finally rectify past injustices remains unfulfilled. For the past
three years, American Armenians have been glued to the television
screen on April 24th, expecting to hear the word ‘Genocide’ in your
statement directed to our community. Since your election, the American
Armenians have been disappointed with your characterization of the
Armenian Genocide as the “Medz Yeghern” and the like, which fall short
of proper recognition. Not only have you failed to acknowledge the
Genocide of 1.5 million Armenians; your statements also failed to bring
the justice that was promised to us during your Presidential campaign.

Your record in regards to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
committed by the Ottoman Turkish government from 1915 to 1923 goes
against the principled position adopted by your Administration on
various human rights issues, including condemnation of Genocides.

Since your election, you have pursued a policy of sanctions and tough
diplomatic rhetoric towards the government of the Sudan, which has
conducted a genocidal policy against its own people in the region of
Darfur. There was no hesitation on your end to correctly classify the
events in Darfur as Genocide. We, the American Armenians, ask today:
why is it so difficult for you to use the same word in regards to
the experience of the Armenian people?

As the first term of your presidency comes to a close and you seek
re-election, the Armenian community feels deceived and betrayed. We
invested a lot of time, energy, and resources in your election and
after almost four years in office, it is apparent that your promises
were merely campaign rhetoric. But in the final hours of your first
term, you have the ability to fulfill your campaign promise.

In 2008 you catalyzed a new voting block of young Americans, appealing
to notions of universal justice, fairness, and decency. The American
Armenians share those values and expect that our President will
do what is right when it comes to an issue, which is important to
every American Armenian. This April 24th, do not turn your back on
our community. We ask, once again, for you to properly recognize the
Armenian Genocide and help bring justice to those who perished from
the hands of the genocidal Turkish state.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA FAMILIARIZES HIMSELF WITH REPAIR WORKS OF VARAGAVANQ MONASTERY COMPLEX

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 26, 2012
YEREVAN

VARAGAVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS: In frame of the working visit to
Tavush province on April 26, Chairman of Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA), President Serzh Sargsyan familiarized himself with the repair
works of Varagavanq monastery complex.

With the agreement reached between the Culture Ministry of Armenia and
philanthropist Norayr Khachatryan, the Culture Ministry is committed
to provide the entire information on the monument, the documentary
materials and projects free of charge. Within the frameworks of the
cooperation a repair project has already been designed by architect
Mary Danielyan. The project has already been discussed and approved
by the ministry. The repair of the Church of the Holy Virgin will
need about 120 million drams, and will be funded by the philanthropist.

The president’s election program intended repair of the road leading
to Varagavanq historical monument. In 2009, the 2, 6 km part of the
road (4, 5 km) was repaired with the funding of the state budget
(395 million drams). The rest of the works were accomplished in 2011.

TBILISI HOSTS TRADE, INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF ARMENIAN PRODUCTS

news.am
April 26, 2012 | 14:28

Session of the International Economic Forum BRIDGE was held in
Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on April 21. And along the lines of the
Forum, the BRIDGE EXPO Universal Trade and Industrial Exhibition of
Armenian Products was held on April 21-22.

Over 40 Armenian businessmen and state agency representatives attended
the Forum, and 33 Armenian companies took part in the Exhibition.

During the Forum, discussions were held on the topic: “Big
Opportunities of Small Countries.”

The Armenian Development Agency and the Georgian National Investment
Agency made presentations at the Forum’s session entitled “General
Rules of the New Reality.”

As a result of the Forum and the Exhibition, new business relations
were established, and the opportunities and prospects for exporting
Armenian products to Georgia were examined.