Author: Toneyan Mark

Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Tuesday
Azerbaijani media distort Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson's
statement on Armenia
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani media once again
tried to distort the statements of Iran’s foreign ministry
spokesperson Bahram Qassemi on Armenia, reports Armenpress.
Expert on Iranian studies Armen Israyelyan says this time the talk is
about the question of a reporter of the Azerbaijani APA news agency
addressed to Qassemi related to the Armenian foreign minister’s visit
to Israel.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson responded to the question in
the following way: “Iran has had good relations with Armenia since
independence, Armenia is one of those neighbors with which we have
little problems. Armenia builds its political relations, and we have
no plan to interfere in that country’s internal affairs, but, knowing
Israel, we are confident that its actions are not directed towards
establishment of stability, therefore, we urge our Armenian friends to
carefully follow Israel’s actions in the region, we are convinced that
Armenia is informed about this issue”.
Whereas the Azerbaijani source, although its headline was somehow
similar to the Iranian foreign ministry’s statement, contained a
formulation different from the main content which is the following:
“…We advice Armenians to carefully follow their actions in the
Caucasus region”.
“Such behavior is perhaps linked with the fact that Azerbaijan
understands that it is Baku which is taking part in Israel’s
anti-Iranian actions for many years”, the expert on Iranian studies
said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
 Saturday
Rutgers receives $34M collection of Soviet-era art
Emerson I. Max
Rutgers University has received what it says is its largest-ever
single donation, a huge collection of Soviet nonconformist art valued
at more than $34 million.
Nancy Dodge, widow of famed economist and art collector Norton Dodge,
is the donor of the collection, which contains over 17,300 artworks,
the university said in a statement Thursday. The works will join the
body of over 4,000 pieces of Soviet nonconformist art the Dodges
donated in 1991 to Rutgers Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New
Brunswick, N.J.
It is staggering to have the entire collection brought together at
last, said Thomas Sokolowski, director of the Zimmerli. Rutgers
University No. 2, Sacralizators for a Friendly Party (1979) by Viktor
Pivovarov. Graphite and colored pencil on paper.
The Dodge family-related Avenir Foundation also will provide an
endowment of $10 million for exhibiting and conserving the art and for
scholarships.
The joined collections contain the work of more than 1,000 artists who
were active between the 1950s and the collapse of the Soviet Union in
the early 1990s.
The newly donated works include paintings on canvas and panel,
sculptures, assemblages, installations, works on paper, photographs,
videos, and artists books.
Besides Russia, the collection includes works produced in the former
Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan, the university said.
My husband, Norton, and I felt it was our mission to bring to light
these remarkable works that had been consigned to obscurity, and to
honor artists of exceptional talent who had been suppressed and
defamed, Dodge said in a statement.
The university said the donation makes the museum the world s
principal site for studying and exhibiting the most vital, diverse,
and daring strains of art produced throughout the USSR over four
decades.
This remarkable gift underscores our university s cultural and
educational value to our global society, said Deba Dutta, chancellor
of Rutgers=New Brunswick.
The largest donation Rutgers had previously received was $27 million
from an anonymous donor in 2011 to fund endowed chair positions.

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Tuesday
Deputy: If Armenia loses nuclear power, it will become a banana republic
Yerevan October 24
Alexander Avanesov. Statements by Armenian officials on the
possibility of replacing the nuclear power plant with alternative
sources of energy can not but cause concern. With such a statement on
October 24 from the rostrum of the National Assembly of the republic
made a former Prime Minister of RA, MP from the opposition faction
"Elk" ("Exit") Aram Sargsyan.
According to him, Armenia's nuclear power industry has no alternative.
The WWER reactor at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is guaranteed to
provide the republic with electricity at an affordable price. Neither
wind nor solar energy has such capabilities, and hydropower requires
large areas that the country does not have. Thermal energy gives such
an opportunity, but it is too expensive. Even Iran, possessing serious
reserves of hydrocarbon raw materials, builds atomic blocs. Moreover,
official Tehran sets itself the task of becoming a country that
produces nuclear fuel. "Armenia should have not only a nuclear power
plant but also a country that has its own uranium. There are all
technical, material, and political opportunities for the republic.
There are 34 uranium deposits in Armenia, mainly in Syunik and Vayots
Dzor. The country's participation in the International Center in
Angarsk in Russia also gives this opportunity," Aram Sargsyan said,
urging the ruling Republican Party to address this issue. "If we lose
nuclear power, we will turn into a banana republic," the deputy said.
The Armenian nuclear power plant consists of two units with Soviet
(Russian) WWER reactors. The first unit was commissioned in 1976, the
second - in 1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which
killed 25 thousand people, the station's work was stopped. In November
1995, in connection with the most acute energy crisis, the second
power unit of the station with a capacity of 407.5 MW was involved. In
March 2014, the Armenian government decided to extend the life of the
second power unit by 10 years - until 2026. The project is coordinated
by the subsidiary structure of the State Corporation Rosatom - JSC
Rusatom Service. Completion of work is planned for 2019. The
Government of the Russian Federation allocated a state export credit
for this purpose to Armenia for $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30
million. In March 2015, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) was
established to implement the program. Up to now, five meetings of the
JCC were held.

                                        Friday, 
Armenian-Azeri Summit Set For October 16
Switzerland -- Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (L) and his
Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev meet for talks on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Bern, December 19, 2015.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Geneva on Monday
for fresh negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, official
Yerevan and Baku said on Friday.
The announcements by President Serzh Sarkisian's office and the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry came one week after the U.S., Russian and
French mediators' latest trip to the region.
In an October 7 statement, the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group
said Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "confirmed their
readiness to reengage in negotiations with the purpose of reaching a
peaceful settlement to the conflict." The mediators have for months
pressed for the Aliyev-Sarkisian meeting in hopes of breaking the
continuing deadlock in the Karabakh peace process.
The two presidents most recently met in May and June 2016 shortly
after four-day deadly hostilities around Karabakh that nearly
denigrated into an all-out war. They agreed to allow the OSCE to
deploy more field observers in the conflict zone and investigate truce
violations occurring there. They also hinted at progress towards a
peaceful settlement.
The peace process again stalled in the following months, however. The
Azerbaijani government has since been reluctant to implement the
agreed safeguards against renewed fighting, saying that they would
cement the status quo.
Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian sounded
pessimistic about prospects for a Karabakh settlement when he spoke to
reporters in Yerevan on Thursday. He said decisive progress towards an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord will be "impossible" as long as Baku
refuses to bolster the ceasefire regime.
Government Reports Major Rise In Tourist Arrivals
Armenia - A general view of central Yerevan against the backdrop of
Mount Ararat, 5Nov2014.
The number of foreign tourists visiting Armenia rose by over 24
percent in the first half of this year, the Armenian government said
on Friday.
In an extensive report on its one-year activities, the government put
their total number at 622,381.
Tourist arrivals in the country were up by about 6 percent last year,
according to separate government data. It also shows that they have
grown by an average of 9 percent annually from 2012-2016.
The government sought to facilitate growth of the domestic tourism
industry by liberalizing in 2013 Armenia's civil aviation sector. The
average cost of air travel to and from the country has fallen since
then, even if some local tour operators believe that it is still not
sufficiently low.
Also, the Armenian authorities unilaterally scrapped visas for
citizens of the European Union member states and the United States in
2012 and 2014 respectively. An agreement on visa-free travel between
Armenia and Iran came into effect in August 2016. The Islamic Republic
is a major source of incoming tourism to the South Caucasus country.
Yerevan also lifted visa restrictions for citizens of Japan, the
United Arab Emirates, Qatar and three other nations in the course of
this year. In another effort to boost the influx of tourists, it
allowed Russian nationals in March to visit Armenia with Russian
internal passports.
Court Refuses To Free Jailed Oppositionist
 . Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Zhirayr Sefilian, an arrested opposition figure, greets
supporters during is trial in Yerevan, 13Jun2017.
A court in Yerevan on Friday refused to release from custody Zhirayr
Sefilian, a radical opposition figure standing trial for allegedly
plotting an armed revolt against the government.
The trial of Sefilian and six other men began in May almost one year
after their arrest. They stand accused of forming an armed group to
seize government buildings and military facilities.
Sefilian was also charged with planning to provoke "mass disturbances"
in Yerevan in 2015. Both he and his Founding Parliament opposition
group have denied the charges as politically motivated.
The high-profile trial has been regularly interrupted by disputes
between the presiding judge, Tatevik Grigorian, and the defendants as
well as their lawyers alleging serious violations of the due
process. Sefilian has been repeatedly removed from the courtroom for
contempt of court.
Sefilian's lawyer, Tigran Hayrapetian, demanded at the latest court
hearing that his client be set free at least until a verdict in the
case. Grigorian rejected the petition.
She also dismissed Hayrapetian's demand to quit the trial and let
another judge take over the case. The lawyer insisted that she is not
impartial and favors the prosecution.
Sefilian's June 2016 arrest came less than a month before three dozen
armed men mostly affiliated with Founding Parliament seized a police
station in Yerevan. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian
free their Lebanese-born leader and step down. They surrendered to
law-enforcement authorities following a two-week standoff which left
three police officers dead.
The jailed gunmen went on two separate trials in June.
Press Review
"Zhamanak" says that the International Monetary Fund expects that
economic growth in Armenia will be slower this year than has been
forecast by the Armenian government. The paper says the IMF projection
of 3.5 percent growth is more credible than the 4.3 percent rate
forecast by the government because the fund the Washington-based fund
has "no current political interests in our country."
"Zhoghovurd" reports that Armenia has sharply increased imports of
cement despite the existence of two large cement factories in the
country. The paper says those imports totaled over 25,000 tons in the
first half of this year, up from 6,800 tons in the same period in
2016. The cement was imported from Iran, Georgia, Russia, Germany and
even Tukey. "This is hardly accidental," it says. "Engaging in
manufacturing is not quite beneficial in Armenia because production
costs are high."
"Haykakan Zhamanak" reports that authorities in Russia are tightening
controls on imports of agricultural products from Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Belarus. They suspect that the three countries illegally re-export
to Russia tomatoes grown in Turkey and other countries on which Moscow
imposed trade embargoes. The paper notes in this regard that official
Armenian statistics showed last year an enormous surge in tomato
exports to Russia. It believes that the bulk of them were Turkish
tomatoes. "This year the volume of tomato exports from Armenia to
Russia have drastically decreased. They will probably fall further
after the latest tightening [of Russian export controls,]" concludes
"Haykakan Zhamanak."
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org