Author: nina hovnanian

US CONGRESSMEN CONCERNED OVER AZERBAIJAN’S CONTINUED MILITARY BUILDUP

13:32 – 17.03.2012

Members of the U.S. Congress have issued statements to commemorate the
victims of pogroms by Azerbaijani nationalists against the republic’s
Armenian population in 1988-1990.

Representatives Frank Wolf, Judy Chu, David Cicilline, Anna Eshoo ,
Adam Schiff, Howard Berman, Brad Sherman, Michael Burgess, Frank
Pallone, Jr., Robert J. Dold , and Jim Costa have condemned the
atrocities, and reiterated that crimes against humanity should not
go unrecognized.

The members of the US Congress expressed concern over Azerbaijan’s
continued military buildup and a continued warmongering, which
undermines the regional stability and jeopardizes international
efforts to find a settlement to the Azerbaijan – Artsakh confrontation.

NKR representative in the USA Robert Avetisyan thanked members of
the Congress for their critical support of Artsakh’s freedom. In
his letter, Avetisyan stressed that the statements by the members
of the US Congress commemorating the victims of the atrocities,
when hundreds of innocent civilians were tortured to death just for
being Armenians, has sent a strong signal to the perpetrators that
“the racism and genocidal actions do not have time limitation”

ROMAN AMOYAN VICTIME D’UN ARBITRAGE SCANDALEUX FUT ELIMINE !
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 17 mars 2012

l’Azerbaïdjan finance la Federation internationale de lutte (FILA)…

Et si l’Armenie etait victime de la Federation internationale de lutte
(FILA) dont le principal sponsor est une societe azerie du non d’Ata ?

L’Armenie qui est revenue des championnats d’Europe de lutte
greco-romaine qui se sont deroules le week-end dernier a Belgrade
(Serbie) avec une medaille d’or et deux de bronze aurait normalement
du compter au minimum une medaille supplementaire. Mais le champion
d’Europe en titre, l’Armenien Roman Amoyan (55 kg) a ete vole dès
son premier combat face a l’Azeri Eltchin Aliev par un arbitrage
absolument scandaleux et unilateral en faveur de l’Azeri. Roman Amoyan,
très enerve par cet arbitrage inouï a manifeste son mecontentement
en allant lever le bras de l’adversaire, avant meme la fin du
combat…en signe de manifestation de cette tricherie organisee de
la FILA. Une tricherie qui obeissait sans doute aux financements de
Bakou. La FILA a sanctionne le geste de l’Armenien en l’excluant des
championnats d’Europe. ” Mais cette sanction ne devrait pas concerner
les prochains tournois de Roman Amoyan ” rassure l’entraîneur armenien
Levon Djoulfalakian. D’autant plus que Roman Amoyan devrait dans
les prochaines semaines participer a des tournois qualificatifs pour
les Jeux Olympiques de Londres. Rappelons que Roman Amoyan, champion
d’Europe 2011 est l’un des espoirs de medaille de l’Armenie aux J.O.

de Londres…en cas de qualification. Notons enfin que par
ses arbitrages contre les lutteurs Armeniens -a la demande de
l’Azerbaïdjan- la FILA est largement discreditee sur la scène
internationale.

NATO: NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SHOULD BE RESOLVED QUICKLY AND LEGALLY

Trend
March 16 2012
Azerbaijan

NATO has no intention or plans to participate in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, nor become involved in the peace process which now goes
under the aegis of the Minsk Group, the special representative of
the alliance in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, James Appathurai
said in the interview, NATO Community.org website said.

“There is concern over the Minsk process. We have heard from the two
presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan here at NATO headquarters in
recent weeks that they are committed to the process and the peaceful
settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. However the reality is that
the Minsk process is accompanied by difficulties, especially in recent
years” Appathurai said.

The region of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is probably not receiving
as much attention from the international media as it deserves,
Appathurai said.

He noted that the South Caucasus is of crucial strategic importance
due to its location, potential and the transit of energy and role in
energy supply.

“For many people, and for many reasons, it is important that
the Nagorno – Karabakh conflict is resolved peacefully as soon as
possible and in accordance with the principles of international law,”
Appathurai said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

AZERBAIJAN IS IMPORTANT ENERGY, POLITICAL PARTNER IN COMPLEX REGION – GERMAN MINISTER

Interfax
March 15 2012
Russia

An agreement to open the German Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan
was signed at the Wednesday negotiations of the German and Azeri
foreign ministers.

“This chamber will promote the development of bilateral relations,”
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told a press conference he
shared with Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov.

The ministers said they had discussed bilateral cooperation in
politics, energy, democracy, non-oil sector, the EU and NATO, and
ways to ease visa formalities.

“Azerbaijan is an important energy and political partner situated in
a complex region,” Westerwelle said. He noted that bilateral energy
cooperation was very successful and has a big potential.

“Azerbaijan is important not only as an oil producer but also as a
transit state,” he said.

The minister called for the soonest settlement of the Karabakh conflict
with a compromise, which, in his words, would be beneficial for all
countries of the region.

DEESCALATIOJN
BY: Onur Salmanov

Novye Izvestia
March 15, 2012
Russia

[translated from Russian]

AZERBAIJANI MINISTER PROMISES THAT HIS COUNTRY WILL NOT BE USED AS
A STAGING POST; Azerbaijani defense minister visited Iran.

Visiting Tehran, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev said that
the territory of his country was not to be used as a staging post
in an invasion into Iran. Speculations that the Americans or Israeli
will want to use Azerbaijan as a launchpad for an attack on Iranian
nuclear sites began after sale of a major consignment of weapons by
Israel to the Caucasus.

The relations between Iran and Azerbaijan leave much to be desired
at this time. Its own relations with the Western community rapidly
deteriorating, Tehran suspects its northern neighbor of being too
close to the West. European and American politicians in the meantime
speak of a preemptive strike at Iranian nuclear sites more and more
often. The latest parliamentary election in Iran strengthened the
positions of Ajatollah Ali Hamenei who is radical even by President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s standards. Ahmadinejad’s positions are quite
shaky at this point. Certain developments even indicate the possibility
of impeachment.

Abiyev apparently visited Iran to try and deescalate tension in
the bilateral relations. Meeting with his Iranian counterpart
Ahmed Vahidi, he said that there were enemies trying to drive a
wedge between Iran and Azerbaijan but these countries and their
leaders knew better than raise to take the bait. Abiyev even called
Iranian-Azerbaijani military-technical cooperation a “key to regional
peace and stability.” Vahidi replied in the same flowery manner. He
said that Iran was prepared to offer Azerbaijan some military hardware.

Political scientist Vafa Guluzade said, “Iran is disturbed by
the possibility that Azerbaijan just might go ahead and make its
territory available to the Americans and Israelis intent on attacking
Iran. And the recent Azerbaijani-Israeli arms deal strengthened
Iranian suspicions.”

Azerbaijani and Israeli media outlets reported in late February that
Israel planned to deliver $1.6 billion worth of sophisticated unmanned
craft and missile defense systems to Azerbaijan… not to mention
specialists and consultants to help the Azerbaijani military master
them. All of that could put Iran to thinking about staging posts in
connection with a much feared attack from the West. In the meantime,
Azerbaijani officials openly say that there will be a different
theater of operations for the soon to be delivered military hardware.

They mean Armenia. The necessity to reclaim “the occupied territories”
from Armenia is the pet subject in Baku.

LEVEL OF DOLLARIZATION REDUCES IN ARMENIA

NEWS.AM
March 16, 2012 | 22:38

YEREVAN. – The level of dollarization reduced over a year, says the
report issues by Central Bank of Armenia as of January 2012.

In the report dollarization is determined by five main indicators:
four of them related to deposit ratio to various dimensions, and the
fifth – concerning credit market. As to deposits, the dollarization
level has reduced considerably.

Here are the main dollarization indicators over a year:

1. The share of foreign currency deposits in January 2012 made 43.7%
(45.5% in January 2011)

2. Although the share of foreign currency deposits remains high, 61.7%,
compared with the previous year, it decreased significantly (66.1%).

3. The share of demand foreign currency deposits decreased from 59.3%
in 2011 to 55.3%.

4. The share of foreign currency time deposit decreased from 79.5%
to 75.5%.

5. The share of foreign currency loans in January 2012 reached 61.1%
as compared with last year’s 56.8%.

ARMENIAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION PRESIDENT WELCOMES RENOWNED SINGER’S POLITICAL AMBITIONS

Tert.am
15.03.12

Ruben Hayrapetyan, President of the Football Federation of Armenia
(FFA), welcomes Shushan Petrosyan’s intention to engage in politics.

She is an “intellectual person and a talented singer.” “This brings
honor both to all of you and to us. I’m happy that she wants to
join our party, where she can do something else for our country,
instead of helping swindlers who, if they come to power, will prove
a disaster for the country,” Hayrapetyan said.

He does not share the opinion that parliament is a place only for
political figures. “An athlete, singer, poet or journalist does have
the right to engage in politics, be a mayor or any other post, do not
they?” asked Hayrapetyan as he spoke of the possibility of weightlifter
Nazik Avdalyan’s joining the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP).

He hopes that the new parliament will be a “parliament of new quality.”

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA TO ATTEND SITTING OF EURASEC INTER-STATE COUNCIL

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 15, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
will participate on March 19 in the sitting of the EurAsEC inter-state
council. Citing Kremlin press service, Armenpress reports that heads
of the EurAsEC member-states President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev,
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan
Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev and
President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon will participate in the sitting.

Heads of countries having status of observers at EurAsEC – President
of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich
and President of Moldova Marian Lupu – have also been invited.

TURKISH MINISTER: ARMENIA SHOULD HAVE WITHDRAWN FROM NAGORNO-KARABAKH NOT FROM EUROVISION

Trend
March 15 2012
Azerbaijan

Armenia should have withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh not from Eurovision
2012 Song Contest, Zaman quoted Turkey’s European Union Minister
Egemen Bagis as saying on Thursday.

“I think they should revise their decision,” Bagis said on Thursday
during his meeting with Can Bonomo, the Turkish representative at
the contest.

On March 7 Armenia refused to participate in Eurovision 2012 Song
Contest to be held in Baku in May. Thus, 42 countries will participate
in the contest.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 57th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Baku Crystal Hall,
which is under construction near the area of the State Flag.

Semi-final rounds will be held on May 22 and May 24 and the final on
May 26.

BRINGING SIGHT TO ARMENIAN EYES

USAID.gov

March 15 2012

March/April 2012
Jeffrey Paretchan | PARTNERSHIP

“Imagine a crowd of doctors busy around my kid. They tell me that he
will go blind if not operated on immediately,” said Maqruhi Raganyan.

“It was terrible, and I was in panic,” said the mother of 50-day-old
Hakob Raganyan, recalling her visit to a hospital in Yerevan, Armenia,
during the summer of 2010.

Raganyan confessed that she calmed down only after Dr. Thomas Lee,
a visiting physician and director of the Vision Center of Children’s
Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif., approached her and explained in
detail all possible consequences of the disease for her son.

“I really trusted them, because they seemed very experienced people,”
she said. “Finally, I understood that no matter what I feel, I am not
a specialist and I may make a mistake. I will never forgive myself
if my child goes blind because of my mistake.”

In the post-independence years of the early 1990s, Armenia
was described as a “beautiful and tragic place” filled with
bombed-out hospitals, injured people from the war with Azerbaijan,
and disintegrating infrastructure. Cats roamed hospital corridors to
catch mice, and basic medical instruments like scissors were too dull
to cut tissue. If a patient was facing vision loss, there was little
that could be done.

Still today, many Armenians living in the marzes, or regions, outside
the capital city Yerevan are poor. Patients frequently cannot afford
care. And even when care is available in Yerevan, people from the
regions are often unable to travel there. Armenia’s mountainous terrain
and extreme climate reduce access to many parts of the country. Quite
often people are literally stuck at home without help.

In response to these challenges, Dr. Roger Ohanesian organized what
would become the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP). The Armenian EyeCare
Project Charitable Foundation, an Armenian-American diaspora-led
organization, launched a program called “Bringing Sight to Armenian
Eyes” in 2003 to strengthen the eye-care system and reduce preventable
blindness in the country.

In October 2004, USAID and AECP joined forces. Through the partnership,
USAID/Armenia helped the AECP roll out and scale up a program that
complemented the mission’s goal of strengthening primary health-care
programs in Armenia. The project ended in 2011.

The AECP doctors and the project’s state-of-the-art Mobile Eye Hospital
(MEH) traveled countrywide to provide high-quality eye care in the
regions, covering 90 percent of Armenian’s communities. The MEH is
a semi-truck consisting of two exam areas, a scrub and prep room,
and a surgical room along with state-of-the-art equipment. Patients
can be screened for diseases and undergo cataract surgery and laser
procedures. Since 2004, the AECP has examined 245,000 people, provided
laser treatment or surgery to nearly 10,000 patients in the MEH,
and distributed 36,000 eyeglasses to vulnerable populations.

“We Will Try to Save Your Daughter’s Eyes”

Gevorg Avetisyan recalls the day he brought his daughter Ani to visit
the eye doctor at the Malayan Ophthalmic Center in Yerevan.

“On that day there were a lot of people on our floor in the corridor.

‘Americans are here! They examine patients!’ people were whispering
all around,” he said. “When we entered the screening room, we saw
one tall American guy with his shorter colleague examining patients
surrounded with a crowd of Armenian doctors. Our ophthalmologist, Dr.

Anna Hovakimyan, introduced Ani to them.

“After they examined my daughter, I heard the best words of the recent
years: ‘We will try to save your daughter’s eyes. There is a special
artificial retina prosthesis, which we will implant.’ We were very
lucky on that day.”

Sixteen-year-old Ani now has 30-percent vision in both eyes, attends
school to learn to read and write, and has discovered a passion for
her new hobby-sewing.

The project not only brought American doctors to Armenia, but
provided medical education and training for Armenian physicians in
the United States. These doctors returned to Armenia and became heads
of departments and conducted training for other doctors in country.

According to Dr. Hovakimyan, Ani’s physician and a doctor at the
Malayan Ophthalmic Center: “The major success was the combined hard
work performed by the [Malayan Ophthalmic Center] medical staff in
restoring the [patient’s] eyesight. It is very noteworthy that all
doctors were AECP fellows trained in the United States. This is really
a great investment and contribution from AECP.”

AECP organized intensive professional re-training of 61 regional
ophthalmologists, as well as training in the basics of ophthalmology
for 57 family medicine doctors and 773 nurses. More than 1,600 primary
health-care providers in Yerevan and the regions have been trained,
which enabled practitioners to diagnose sight problems at an earlier
stage, thereby preventing longer-term vision issues.

“The best thing we’ve gained from this project is confidence,” said
Dr. Alex Malayan, director of the Malayan Ophthalmology Center.

In the past, difficult patients would be sent to Moscow; now patients
come from Moscow, as well as neighboring countries, to get eye care
in Yerevan, he said. “There is no other program like this in Armenia,”
he added.

Overall the project cost $10 million with the USAID share at $1.5
million, leveraging $6 of funding from partners for every dollar put
in by USAID.

Building Local Capacity

In addition to improving eye health and training medical professionals,
the project has helped increase the capacity of Armenia’s Ministry
of Health. It also led to the creation of a database and analysis
of ophthalmological-disease information in Armenia, which had not
previously existed.

Additionally, the partnership exemplified the significance of
Armenian diaspora engagement, said AECP founder Dr. Ohanesian. “Why
do we continue to go back to a country where there is a lot of work,
a lot of effort, a lot of bureaucracy?” he asked, and then answered.

“I remember one child was brought in. He had penetrating injuries
into both eyes. Both eyes became infected. Both eyes had to be
removed. It had happened six months before. I looked at him and
I said, ‘What can I do? He has already had both eyes removed. But
he is crying-is he still in pain?’ And his parents are crying too,
and the interpreter talked to them and he turned to me and said,
‘No, they thought you brought new eyes from America.'”

“That level of trust in what America can do-and what the diaspora
can do-is what keeps us all going,” Dr. Ohanesian said.

The ending was happier for infant Hakob Raganyan. The ad-hoc laser
treatment lasted until 3 a.m., when the AECP doctors and their
Armenian colleagues completed their job. The surgery was a success
and his mother is full of confidence that everything will be alright
for her only child.