Israel Today
Oct 27 2006

Armenian parliamentarian’s remarks cause storm

Vartan Ayvazian, a member of the Armenian parliament, caused a
political storm when he made anti-Semitic statements concerning a
drilling company in Armenia.

`Do you know whom you defend?’ he was quoted by Armenian newspapers
as angrily telling reporters. `You defend Jews. Why don’t you go and
find out who’s behind Global Gold? Instead of preventing them from
violating our country’s laws, you want to defend them?’

His remarks were a result of a bitter dispute between Armenia and the
American mining company `Global Gold’ that was jointly administered
by Jews and Armenians. Ayvazian has made anti-Semitic comments in the
past.

The Jewish community of Armenia was quick to publicize his latest
remarks. The president of the Armenian Jewish community, Rimma
Varzhapetian said Ayvazian’s statements were insulting and hurtful.

`A man in this position should not express himself in this manner. He
should first think. What was said was very hurtful. There is no
anti-Semitism in Armenia and the Jews live in a nice atmosphere,’ she
said. `We think there are personal interests involved, which in no
way extend to the Armenian people and government,’ so we don’t want
to make a fuss about that.’

The dispute between Ayvazian and Global Gold arose when the
Environment Ministry’s decided to revoke the company’s license to
carry out exploratory work at one of its Armenian gold mines saying
it failed to honor its investment commitments. The company denies the
accusations and will not leave before a court ruling.

Global Gold is run by Van Krikorian, a prominent American Armenian
and former chairman of the Armenian Assembly of America.

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