Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

ARMENIAN DIASPORA IN UAE IS DEAD: HEAD OF AZERBAIJANI DIASPORA ORGANIZATION

Today.Az
ciety/54467.html
Aug 7 2009
Azerbaijan

Head of Azerbaijani diaspora organization in the United Aram Emirates
Samir Iman spoke in an interview with Day.Az.

Day.Az: How many Azerbaijanis live in UAE at the moment?

Samir Iman: Azerbaijani diaspora of the United Arab Emirates comprises
about 1,000 people including all family members. Most of Azerbaijanis
live in Dubai and Sharjah as major cities are located in these two
emirates.

As you know, the law of this country does not allow foreigners to
obtain citizenship regardless of how many years they lived here. That
is why the number of our compatriots are not so great. Talking about
their employment, it is safe to note that they are represented in
all areas including business and medicine and in half-governmental
agencies. For example, an Azerbaijani works as chief engineer at
Sharjah emirate TV channel. Our doctors work in public hospitals. Chief
editor of Russian magazine Aviamost which is published here is
Azerbaijani, too. Our countrywoman works for local newspaper Khaleej
Times.

Lot of our young people are enrolled in high schools in UAE. I note
that at the American University of Dubai has opened up Department
of Journalism two years ago. It would be nice if our students would
come to this department, but not only business, management or design
departments. Indeed, in the future this will enable them to skilfully
write about the culture and history of Azerbaijan and the Karabakh
issue.

Q: How local population treats Azerbaijanis in the UAE?

A: Azerbaijanis in UAE live well. The attitude of local authorities
and population to us is positive. The country respect the laws very
well, so people who come to the UAE for the first time faced some
problems due to lack of knowledge of laws but with time everything
falls into place

Q: It is known there is large Armenian diaspora in the UAE. Please
tell us how many people it comprises and in what it is engaged?

A: Some 10,000 Armenians live in the Emirates. They are mostly from
Lebanon, Syria and some from Palestine. In this regard, it is easy for
them to get adapted to life here because of knowledge of the Arabic
language. Almost all of them have an Arab education. Armenians from
Armenia is not so much.

They are also represented in all spheres of life: business and civil
service. Despite a relatively large number, hey can not do anything.

Friday is a day-off in the Muslim world. In Sharjah there is Armenian
church where they go on that day. Here, children learn their native
language, culture, discuss their problems, including the issue of
Karabakh.

But they can not do anything openly or stage any propaganda. We can say
that the Armenian diaspora in the UAE is dead and is hardly felt here.

Last year, Gulf News newspaper published an article about Turkish
president’s visit to Armenia. Only then Armenians, taking advantage of
the opportunity, were able to print in a newspaper that allegedly with
the support of Turkey Azerbaijan has imposed a blockade on Karabakh
and wanted to occupy it. After reading this article, I decided to
force the newspaper to correct the errors and punish them for their
lies. I succeeded to do it in a month . It took a lot of efforts. All
the authorities were informed in a written form that the paper was
engaged in anti-Emirate propaganda.

As a result, after a great pressure from local authorities, the
newspaper published a new article, which included the following:
"Karabakh is historical Azerbaijani land occupied by Armenian
extremists, thus killing thousands of innocent people." We must always
be alert and monitor the press, both Arab and English speaking.

Over the past two years I have been signed and handed two books
entitled "Armenian terrorism" and "Heydar Aliyev, National and
Spiritual Values" by writer Adel Abdullah Al-Fallahi, chairman of the
State Committee for Religious Affairs of Kuwait, to all government
institutions and other organizations.

ARMENIA ACTED AS CATALYST IN CSTO DEVELOPMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
06.08.2009 15:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia proved itself a worthy CSTO chairman in
2008, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said at Moscow-Yerevan
video-bridge.

"Serious resolutions were passed and activities undertaken during
Armenia’s chairmanship," CSTO Secretary General said, citing first
meeting of Foreign Ministers within UNO General Assembly framework,
Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Helsinki and Proxy operation for
information security provision.

"During its chairmanship, Armenia acted as catalyst in CSTO
development," Bordyuzha noted adding that significant documents on
collective rapid reaction forces formation were drawn and signed
during Armenia’s chairmanship.

PEOPLE OF ARTSAKH DON’T NECESSARILY AGREE WITH GOVERNMENT POSITION ON SETTLEMENT
Arman Gharibyan

ty-7/
2009/08/04 | 13:36

Politics

At a press conference held today, Heritage Party spokesperson Hovsep
Khurshudyan said that, "Sadly, the Karabakh authorities totally trust
Serzh Sargsyan when it comes to their legitimate rights, and which has
perhaps been mediated by Vazgen Manukyan on behalf of NKR President
Bako Sahakyan."

"We also brought up the issue with the people of Artsakh and we
received an official response from Vahan Atanesyan, President of the
NKR Committee on Foreign Affairs," according to Mr. Khurshudyan stating
that the response was that, "As regards the position of the RoA on
the factual recognition of Karabakh, our view is that as a sovereign
state Armenia chooses its foreign policy agenda and priorities."

Mr. Khurshudyan added that he believed this was quite a correct answer.

Member of the Heritage Party parliamentary faction, Zaruhi Postanjyan,
added that the view of the NKR authorities doesn’t totally correspond
with that of the people of Artsakh and presented the statement of the
young people of Hadrut as an example. "This proves that the people
of Artsakh still think as they did twenty years ago. They have been
operating as an independent country for twenty years and are extending
their authority in those territories," Deputy Postanjyan said.

She added that regarding a settlement of the conflict the people
don’t trust in political forces but in the entire Armenian nation. "No
political force has the authority to reach an agreement on behalf of
our people and to sign any document. That is something for all of us
to decide. When war broke out in the 1990’s and the people of Artsakh
had to defend themselves, no political force adopted a decision to
do so. All of us participated, our people participated and I trust
in the people."

"NONSENSE," SAYS ARMENIAN OFFICIAL COMMENTING ITALIAN MEDIA PUBLICATION

Panorama.am
16:46 03/08/2009

"Anti-Armenian hysteria" called Serob Karapetyan, of General
Department of Civil Aviation, the news spread by international
mass media that crashed Tehran-Yerevan ÒÓ-154 aircraft was carrying
ammunition belonging to "Hzbolah".

Note that Italian "Corriere della Sera" published yesterday referring
to its sources in Middle East that the aircraft was crashed because of
fire in boot; the aircraft was carrying ammunition which belonged to
"Hzbolah", newsru.israel reports.

"Experts of inter-governmental aviation committee have announced that
the reason of the crash was the engine which had failed working. A
part of the engine was cut out and damaged aircraft’s system,"
S. Karapetyan said.

"It’s nonsense; it’s anti-Armenian hysteria. They are concerned about
Armenia and Iran to be in good relations, they want it to be spoiled,"
official said excluding the version of transferring weapon through
Armenian territory.

LEVON ARONIAN TAKES SECOND PLACE IN FISHER-960 TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Aug 3, 2009

BERLIN, AUGUST 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The Fisher-960 Tournament which was held
within the framework of the Chess International Festival ended on July
30 in Germany. Levon Aronian (Armenia) was defeated in the final, with
05 – 3.5 points to Hikaru Nakamura (U.S.) and took the second place.

Sergey Movsisian (Slovakia) and Victor Bologan (Moldova)
correspondingly took the third and fourth places.

Armenian Universities will not participate in the Ark of Europe project

01.08.2009 16:18

Marianna Gyurjyan
`Radiolur’

Saint-Petersburg University, University of Bologna, University of Malta
and University of George Mason (USA) organize a large-scale Summer
University in Malta.

The event will take place on 1-18 of August, 2009. It is a joint
project of the European Universities together with American partners
and support of UN Institute for Training and Research and Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation.

More than 200 young people, from various academic fields, whose
ultimate joint influence will have an impact on the future decisions in
Europe and in the world, will gather in the in the open atmosphere of
summer Mediterranean.

The Armenian universities have not received an invitation. Moreover,
Armenia had to refuse from other programs because of financial
difficulties, Armenian Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan
told `Radiolur.’ Despite this, the Minister predicts that the year will
be rich in changes in the field of education.

Being a member of the Bologna Process, Armenia will participate in the
process to be held in Stockholm. `We have restricted all types of
activity because of the financial crisis. However, we are going to
participate in the scientific conference to be organized by the World
Bank, as well’ the Minister said.

ARMENIAN CONSULATE IN LOS ANGELES ISSUES STATEMENT ON IMMIGRATION PROBE

Asbarez
rmenian-consulate-in-los-angeles-issues-statement- on-immigration-probe/
July 30, 2009

LOS ANGELES-Armenia’s Consulate in Los Angeles issued a statement
Thursday in response to the arrest of five individuals, including a
former Consul, charged in an immigration scam.

The Consulate said that it has been informed of the charges levied
against the five individuals of Armenian descent regarding the forgery
of immigration documents and that it is ready to offer all possible
assistance to the law enforcement authorities in the United States.

It added that Norayr Ghalumyan, the former consul and one of the five
arrested, stopped working for the consulate after 2002 and took up
permanent residence in the U.S. in 2003

Another arrested individual, Hakob Hovhannisyan, a citizen of the
U.S., used to work for the technical department at the consulate but
was dismissed in 2007.

The statement goes on to say that it expects to receive additional
details from U.S. officials, especially regarding the forgery of
consular documents.

SEVAN TRIATHLON BENEVOLENT COMPETITION RAISED $9 THOUSAND

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
27.07.2009 13:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The second triathlon benevolent competition was held
on the initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan on Sevan lakeside,
bringing together 75 participants from various organizations, embassy
employees, Americans living in Armenia and RA citizens.

The competition raised $9 thousand but the organizers are planning
to continue collection of funds till the end of the month.

The sum will be allocated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and
Tiramayr summer camp where children from poor families spend holidays.

PanARMENIAN.Net news agency was the media sponsor of the event.

Turkmenistan to sue Azerbaijan at the international court over the
Caspian Sea
25.07.2009 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov
ordered to address the international experts and high-degree lawyers
to learn the Azerbaijan’s claims over the disputed fields in the
Caspian Sea and legality of the foreign oil-gas companies’ operation
in those fields and then to send the documents to the International
Court of Arbitration.
According to APA, the president ordered to the vice prime minister and
foreign minister Rashid Meredov to address this issue. Chairman of the
State Office for the Caspian Issues under the President Toyli Komekov
informed the cabinet about the results of Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan
negotiations over the sharing of Caspian depth and resources held in
Baku on July 15-17.
The cabinet noted that despite the Turkmenistan’s efforts no consensus
was reached on this issue because of disputes between Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan over the oil-gas fields in the central part of the
Caspian Sea. After hearing the report, President Berdymuhamedov said
that the Caspian problems, concretely the coordination of the
principles of Caspian delimitation, sharing of its depth and resources
were urgent issues for the country.
Touching upon the history of the negotiations, the president said
special position of Azerbaijan, which claimed to the disputed fields
of Omer and Osman, as well as Sardar, called before as `Araliq’,
delayed the decision agreed by both sides. He said normative acts
approved by the relevant ministries and offices in the USSR period
showed these fields within the territory of Turkmenistan. `Such
unilateral actions in the Caspian, particularly exploration of the
fields without the agreement of the interested parts are unacceptable
for Turkmenistan. Based on the principles of the international
cooperation, Turkmenistan brought the disputed territories on the
agenda of the Turkmen-Azerbaijani negotiations, but there was no
agreement. The existent situation is delaying the exploitation of the
natural resources of the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian, implementation
of the important programs for the economic development of the region
and protection of the environmental welfare of the sea and coastal
areas’.
The president stated that Turkmenistan doesn’t claim to the territory
of anyone and always supports fair sharing and delimitation of the
legal and sea borders of the unique lake according to the
international experience, APA reports.

OPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL TO TAKE PLACE BETWEEN JULY 30 TO SEPTEMBER 21 IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan
July 24, 2009

YEREVAN, JULY 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The goal of holding the Open Music
Festival dedicated to music of various genres is to meet the
lack of cultural events noticed in July, August and September in
Yerevan. Artistic director and principal conductor of the National
Chamber Orchestra of Armenia Aram Gharabekian stated it at the July
23 press conference. He said that the festival which consists of
twenty-three separate concerts and a number of special events will
start on July 30 and continue till September 21.

"A summer music illumination will take place," A. Gharabekian
promised. He emphasized that the peculiarity of the expected concerts
is that they will be organized at the open-air hall of the Moscow
cinema, with vocal equipments brought from abroad specially for this
festival. "I do not know any other capital which has such a wonderful
open-air hall," A. Gharabekian added.

Touching upon the festival title, maestro mentioned that the term
"open" symbolizes people’s open hearts, free way of thinking and
tolerance. The festival will represent both famous musicians of Armenia
and artists and companies arrived from abroad, including accordeonist
and bandoneonist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, clarnetist Michel
Lethiec, Mezzo-soprano Anna Maria Chiuri and saxophonist Federico
Mondelci. Famous jazz pionist Tigran Hamasian will also perform.

In A. Gharabekian’s words, the festival would not take place if
there were no people believing in its success. He mentioned that
VivaCell-MTS, Converse Bank, HayPost, Diasporan Armenian benefactor
Hovig Kurkjian, U.S. Embassy in Armenia, Gimishian fund are the
sponsors of the festival.