Category: 2020

News.am, Armenia

Feb 13 2020

Public Radio of Armenia

Feb 13 2020

 17:22,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. During Parliament-Cabinet Q&A session Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan responded to the criticism addressed to the authorities about oppressing the people with opposition views.

ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan said, “There has never been any voting in Armenia when there are 5 opposition TV channels, there has never been a voting in Armenia when Armenia shares the 8th place with France in terms of freedom of press. What are you talking about? Whose mouth do we shut? Whose car do we burn”, he said.

Saying “Whose car do we burn?” Nikol Pashinyan supposedly referred to the incident when his car was burnt down in 2004, when he was the editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak daily.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 16:48,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Turkish historian Taner Akcam’s books on the Armenian Genocide – “A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility” and the Killing Orders …Talat Pasha’s Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide”, have been translated, published in Arabic and now are available to a broad audience.

Translator Kivork Khatoun Wanes, who is from Syria, has Armenian origins, but currently lives in Belgium, told Armenpress that the most important motive behind the translation of these books was the enrichment of the Arab Library on this subject which is rarely known to the Arab readers in addition to the courage, credibility, objectivity and impartiality of the writer.

“A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility” was published in August 2017, and the second one in September 2019 in Lebanon by Dar Alfarabi international alliance of independent publishers. These two books are available online via the following websites: www.neelwafurat.com, www.Jamalon.com.

“At the beginning of 1915, under the cover of the World War I, a whole nation was deliberately killed. More than one million Armenians lost their lives as a result of massacres, forced deportation and starvation. Although many countries and historians accept the deliberate plan to kill the Armenian people, the Turkish authorities still deny that this shameful act has taken place.

In this amazing work Turkish historian Taner Akcam deeply and thoroughly examines this deliberate action carried out by the Ottoman government relying mainly on the Ottoman sources, such as military notes, court hearings, parliamentary protocols and reports. In this work Taner Akcam explores the plan of extermination and its implementation by the state agencies, the army and the ruling party”, the translator said in the summary of the book “A Shameful Act”.

In the summary of the book “Killing Orders”, Kivork Khatoun Wanes says: “In this work Akcam, who was called the “Sherlock Holmes of Armenian Genocide” in New York, presents the telegrams existing in the memoirs of Naim Efendi up to the smallest details and compares them with the thousands of documents received from the Ottoman archives (coding methods, signatures of Aleppo governor, telegram dates, mentioned people and events)”.

The Killing Orders is also available in French.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 17:28,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan assures that the Government will never keep a blind eye to any corruption manifestation, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan said during Parliament-Cabinet Q&A session.

MP Karen Simonyan representing “Luminous Armenia” Party noted that 4 laboratories in Armenia are tasked to carry out the tests of the food imported to Armenia, but one of the laboratories has a dominant position. According to the MP, he has information that the laboratory gained the dominance due to some personal links.

“If there are personal links I promise that the people standing behind that will be severely punished”, the PM said, urging the MP to submit his information to law enforcement bodies.

“I assure that it’s ruled out that we keep a blind eye to any corruption manifestation in any situation”, the PM said.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

 17:42,

YEREVAN, 12 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 12 february, USD exchange rate up by 0.24 drams to 479.29 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.60 drams to 523.34 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.09 drams to 7.59 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.47 drams to 622.07 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 29.46 drams to 24200.67 drams. Silver price down by 1.09 drams to 272.83 drams. Platinum price down by 38.76 drams to 14854.79 drams.

 18:38,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. American-Armenian asset manager Mark Chenian is a heir of genocide survivors. His parents were born in Western Armenia and were saved by German and American missionaries. The two fortunate babies ended up in Egypt. ARMENPRESS reports in an interview with “Cyprus-mail” Mark Chenian, presenting the story of his family, noted that during that time when 1.5 million Armenians fell victim of the genocide, the two orphans grew up in different families and then joint, forming a family.

Mark’s mother was a wedding-gown designer, his father an electrical engineer; the family name was Chechenian, but he shortened it – just as he Anglicised his own name, Nishan (which literally means ‘mark’), when he went to the US.

He’s lived in California for decades, working as an asset manager and investment consultant; his office is in Beverly Hills, his home about three miles away on the Los Angeles side.

The reporter notes that Chenian uses the word “Armenian” very often in the interview. His CV includes stints on various outfits with names like ‘Armenian Business Forum’ and ‘Armenian Educational Foundation’.

Continuing the topic of the Armenian Genocide, Mark Chenian noted that the assets of the Armenian was one of the key reasons of the genocide, since the Turks were able to take ownership of the Armenian assets.  “Indeed if you look at big business empires in Turkey, they’ll often have their genesis in the early 20th century. These companies didn’t start at ground zero. There’s a lot of fighting for recognition of the genocide and so on – but my thoughts are completely in another direction. I would like to go and make claims on today’s Turkish economic system – that I have vested interests in these empires that you built, because you acquired my farms, my factories and so forth”, he said.

To the question of the reporter if he is speaking about restitution, Chenian answered, “It’s not restitution, I’m not talking about restitution… That asset [which was taken in 1915] has present value. I would like to be an equivalent stockholder. It’s ownership rather than restitution.”

Saying ‘claims’ Mark means legal claims, and in fact he’s already “engaging some scholars to really look at it”. It’s like another of the grand schemes he’s working on, a plan to repatriate Armenian antiquities.

“In major museums in the US, there are a lot of artefacts where the provenance is questionable,” he explains – so the plan is to hire art historians to scan museum catalogues, identifying items which are clearly of Armenian origin but not labelled as such. “That is first phase,” he says coolly. “Second phase, bring in attorneys. Because I always believe that, when you’re dealing with institutions, legal language has teeth.”

 23:57,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s Greco-Roman wrestler Artur Aleksanyan (97kg) has won gold at the European Championships in Italy.

Three-time world champion, Olympic champion Aleksanyan defeated Italy’s Nikoloz Kakhelashvili 7:1 and conquered his fifth European championship title in Rome.

Aleksanyan navigated the road to the finals by defeating 5-1 Rio Olympic bronze medalist Cenk Ildem from Turkey, then 2018 world runner-up Kiril Milov (BUL) by 9-0 and a semifinal 8:1 win over Matti Kuosmanen (FIN).

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

 

 09:41,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 13, ARMENPRESS. The Gastro Yard pilot program implemented in Armenia back in 2018 is becoming more and more widespread across the country. By seeing the successful experience residents of various communities also express a wish to implement this interesting tourism initiative in their communities. The program is funded by the Russian government and is implemented within the frames of the UNDP’s Integrated Rural Tourism Development (IRTD) project.

IRTD project development expert Lusine Balayan told Armenpress that the Gastro Yard project consisted of two components – food and winemaking, food and crafts. Gastro Yards are unique touristic destinations which aim to promote rural local hospitality, authentic food and beverages. Tourists have chance to get to know local culture, people and history of Armenia.

“Gastro Yards are not just some kind of places, people live there and introduce tourists on our traditions, culture, cuisine, handmade works, etc. In 2018 we have implemented several pilot projects in different provinces of Armenia, including Tavush, Aragatsotn, Vayots Dzor and Ararat”, Lusine Balayan said.

As these projects resulted in success, in 2019 we announced competition for the implementation of Gastro Yards projects with 3 components: food-winemaking, food-crafts, food-crafts-winemaking. More than 130 applications were submitted. The committee selected those who passed to the second stage, conducted on-site monitoring to assess the potential of beneficiaries. The winners got an opportunity to build their own Gastro Yards in their communities.

Within the framework of this project the beneficiaries are provided with support, including equipment, as well as consulting, designing support. For instance, there was a major assistance for winemaking. In order to ensure the sustainability of the project the beneficiary was provided with the necessary equipment for making homemade wines for a three-year term. These technologies are designed for ensuring the entire period of producing wine. They are also cooperating with specialists who follow the quality of wine and the proper implementation of the production.

“The project was so successful and interesting that the Armenian government also participated in it, and we are very happy for that”, she said.

This year as well more than two dozen such yards are expected to open in the Republic. The official opening ceremony of ART-TAKARD GASTRO YARD will take place on February 15, at the village of Khachpar of Ararat province.

Gastro Yard project aims at contributing to the diversification, development and promotion of tourism services in rural communities of Armenia. It creates tourism services based on rural household economies. The project includes three main services – food, homemade wine and crafts.

Interview by Anna Gziryan

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan