Author: Babajanian Karo

FAIRY OF MAURITIUS

News On Sunday

May 27 2011
Mauritius

Emma Grigoryan comes from a far away country situated between Turkey
and Azerbaijan named Armenia. Two and a half years ago, our small
island was unknown to her and she would never have thought of coming
to the Indian Ocean where she would discover her true talent for
photography. Her first sight of Mauritius was a magical moment and her
discovery of the ethnic diversity of the island very much surprised
her. It was actually by “pure coincidence” that Emma came to live in
Mauritius. “One day my husband was checking his spam mail, which he
actually never does, and found that he had a job offer in Mauritius.

We immediately started to search information on the island and were
delighted with what we saw. We decided to come as we are young and
want to experience new things,” she says.

Emma worked as a graphic designer in her native country. Photography
was a hobby to her at the beginning. However, she “always had a liking
for it” and was inspired by the very old pictures she had at home
which were taken by her father, also a keen photographer. In fact,
Emma’s grandfather was a professional photographer. At the age of 17,
Emma decided to buy her own camera. “It came naturally and I started to
take my camera everywhere with me,” says Emma. She entered the world of
photography with photojournalism as she started to help and work with
her sister who is a journalist. With this, Emma explains her “talent
developed” and “discovered that I had potential and I was maybe made
for that job.” Emma Grigoryan is now more into concept and portrait
photography and has her own style whereby she “shoots with sunlight.”

Emma has to connect with the people she is photographing. Her goal
through her photos is to make her subjects “see them and like them.”

Choosing Mauritian women to represent her personal vision of the island
was not that difficult. “Woman is the start of everything,” she truly
believes. Emma wanted to add a fairy touch to the landscape of the
island and considered that she “made a very good choice in choosing
them to represent the island.” Emma also argues that her objective is
to make Mauritian women realise “how beautiful they are and that they
can move forward in life and profession. When you are confident you
can do anything. A woman who is confident shines.” Emma confides that
she worked on every aspect of the photo shoots, from make-up to art
direction, together with the help of Kunal Jankee. The appreciation
she received for the photo exhibition gave her “more confidence that
I could move forward.”

In fact Emma gets the motivation to move forward from the support
of her family especially her mum and people around her. She is also
very thankful to Kunal Jankee who gave her huge support as well as
all the staff, whom she describes as “family”, who worked to put
up the exhibition. Emma Grigoryan says that women have to “accept
the way they are as they are unique.” The key to success is to “do
something you like and love because you feel happy and at peace.” She
would like to stay in our island for as long as possible. Living in
Mauritius inspires Emma and she feels in harmony with us and most
importantly she feels that she “can produce more beautiful work” here.

INITIATIVE ON PASSING VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT IN PROGRESS?

news.am
May 27 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN.- Initiative on passing a vote of no confidence in the
government is in progress, MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party Artsvik
Minasyan said in parliament on Thursday.

Despite the issue is formally closed, de facto it is being considered,
he added.

The MP stressed that the government does not control economic
situation in the country and any of its arguments and answers is only
an aspiration to duck responsibility.

Head of ruling Republican parliamentary group Galust Sahakyan said
that the current government should be grateful to their predecessors
for getting a good legacy that helped somehow overcome consequences
of the global crisis.

AZERBAIJAN TO MAKE FINAL DECISION ON NABUCCO PARTICIPATION BY NEXT YEAR

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 27, 2011 – 16:07 AMT

By the end of 2011, Azerbaijan will make a final decision on Nabucco
participation, Rovnag Abdullayev, head of state oil company Socar,
said.

As he noted earlier, Azerbaijan is in talks to deliver natural gas
to the Nabucco pipeline consortium from the Shah Deniz-2 field and
will make a final decision on an export route to Europe by Oct. 1.

The European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline project competes with
other pipeline projects such as South Stream to deliver gas from
Azerbaijan to Europe, but the choice of route will depend on proposed
transportation tariffs, Abdullayev said.

“Only after the decision on transportation tariffs, we can keep the
specific work with buyers,” he said.

The issue will be discussed during an upcoming visit to Baku by E.U.
Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger on June 6-7, the head of the
E.U. delegation in Azerbaijan Roland Kobia noted.

“We are now at the stage where all options are open and we are well
aware that Azerbaijan will take its time to determine its decision,”
The Wall Street Journal quoted Kobia as saying.

FOOTBALL : BOGHOSSIAN CONVOQUE A LA FFF APRES SON VOYAGE A GROZNY

Le Monde
Mercredi 18 Mai 2011
France

Le deplacement d’Alain Boghossian a Grozny n’en finit pas de faire
des vagues. Selon L’Equipe, la Federation francaise de football (FFF)
devrait convoquer lÂ’entraîneur adjoint des Bleus afin dÂ’avoir plus
dÂ’informations sur sa participation a un match de gala, qui s’est tenu
le mercredi 11 mai, organise par Ramzan Kadyrov, leader controverse de
la Republique de Tchetchenie, a l’occasion de l’inauguration d’un stade
(lire le post de blog de Jerôme Latta – “Les Bronzes font Grozny”).

Interroge jeudi 12 mai par Le Monde.fr, la FFF et Philippe Tournon
(charge de la communication de l’equipe de France) avouaient qu’ils
n’etaient ni l’un ni l’autre au courant du sejour dans la capitale
tchetchène de l’entraîneur adjoint des Bleus. Dimanche, un reportage
de Canal+ montrait Boghossian et ses partenaires qui recevaient une
montre sertie de diamants avant leur depart. De meme, selon la chaine
cryptee, les joueurs presents au match (notamment Diego Maradona,
Luis Figo, Franco Baresi, Fabien Barthez, Jean-Pierre Papin) auraient
touche entre 20 000 et 50 000 euros pour cette operation. Ce que
conteste Alain Boghossian. “C’etait une initiative privee, cela ne
concernait pas mon engagement a la Federation francaise de football,
a declare Boghossian. J’ai pris des conges pour pouvoir jouer ce match.

Il n’a jamais ete question d’argent. C’est un joueur qui m’a fait la
demande. J’ai accepte parce que cela concernait des oeuvres caritatives
et humanitaires, pour des enfants.”

Interroge sur les images qui le montrent en train de plaisanter sur
la taille des diamants qui ornent la montre offerte par les autorites
tchetchènes, Boghossian plaide la bonne foi. “Je recois une montre,
je fais l’idiot parce que je suis spontane. Je suis surpris mais un
cadeau ca ne se refuse pas. On n’a rien a me reprocher”, se defend
l’adjoint de Laurent Blanc.

“AUCUNE CONNOTATION POLITIQUE OU FINANCIÈRE”

Conscient des retombees pour le moins negatives de ce match de gala,
l’ancien international tricolore, d’origine armenienne, tente de se
justifier. “Cette region du monde n’est pas loin de la terre de mes
ancetres, explique-t-il. Ce sont des peuples qui ont souffert. Je
me sens proche d’eux par rapport a mes origines. Je voulais donc
donner un coup de main et amener un peu de chaleur. Il n’y avait
aucune connotation politique ou financière, je ne connaissais pas le
regime en place. Depuis mon retour, j’ai compris ce qui s’etait passe
en Tchetchenie. Je regrette comment cela a ete exploite a la tele.”

Alain Boghossian a egalement indique avoir eu un entretien avec
Fernand Duchaussoy, le president de la FFF, depuis son retour, qui
avait qualifie l’initiative de “connerie”. “Il n’y a pas de problème
entre nous, a-t-il affirme. En aucun cas je ne suis alle a ce mach
avec mon etiquette ‘equipe de France’, mais avec celle de champion
du monde. Cela n’avait rien a voir avec mes fonctions.”

Selon L’Equipe, la FFF, “très choquee en interne par ce deplacement
non-officiel de l’un de ses salaries”, s’apprete donc a passer, après
l’affaire dite des quotas, d’une enquete a l’autre afin de faire la
lumière sur les conditions du voyage a Grozny du numero 2 des Bleus.

Et Alain Boghossian a promis de faire don de la montre a une oeuvre
caritative.

DANS LA FAMILLE HARUTUNIAN, L’INTEGRATION PASSE PAR LA LUTTE
par JEAN-BERNARD STERNE

MIDI LIBRE
16 mai 2011 lundi
France

Un jour, ils ont debarque avec leur maigre valise mais un bagage
sportif suffisamment etoffe pour donner des couleurs a la vie. C’etait
un voyage sans retour entre l’Armenie et Beziers pour cette famille
de refugies.Depuis, Hakob Harutunian, sa femme Emma, leurs deux fils
Gor et Narek, sont installes dans l’Herault avec les bons papiers. Et
s’ils luttent aujour- d’hui encore, c’est pour defendre un sport qui se
noie dans le maelstrom des disciplines de combat.Au debut etait Gor,
gringalet, timide, un brin apeure : ” Ouais, j’etais tout maigre,
il n’y avait pas de sport pour moi.

Et puis notre père nous a mis a la lutte, juste pour voir. La-bas,
en Armenie, c’est le sport national. Mais dans le club, on nous
mettait un peu a l’ecart, on n’avait pas le profil. Alors, avec mon
frère Narek, on s’entraînait tout seul, avant et après l’ecole. C’est
comme ca que la passion est nee… ” C’est aussi comme ca que Hakob,
lutteur lui-meme, a compris que ses enfants avaient ce supplement
d’âme, cette volonte a detourner les prejuges sur le chemin d’un
exil.Poussee par le souffle de l’envie, la famille Harutunian
s’installe donc a Beziers. Ici ou ailleurs, qu’importe. ” Nous sommes
arrives en 1999, j’avais 11 ans et mon frère, 9 ” , raconte Gor dont
les mots s’accrochent a quelques hesitations. ” La lutte a ete ce trait
d’union entre notre passe et notre avenir. Mais il a fallu avoir de
la volonte. ” Filières de haut niveau C’est a Sète et a Montpellier
qu’ils ont muscle leurs talents avant d’integrer les filières du haut
niveau a Font-Romeu puis a Dijon.Narek est pensionnaire a l’Insep,
fidèle a la lutte traditionnelle. Gor s’est ‘reconverti’ au pancrace ou
‘free fight’. Aujourd’hui, les Harutunian ont pignon sur rue a Beziers
avec deux salles dediees a ces disciplines de combat. ” Parce que je
veux transmettre a d’autres ce que mon sport m’a permis de vivre ”
, precise Gor. Qui a parle de lutte finale ?

VLADIMIR KAZIMIROV: RUSSIA TO PLAY ITS POSITIVE ROLE IN THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE NAGORNO- KARABAKH CONFLICT

ARMENPRESS
MAY 27, 2011
YEREVAN

“I hope that Russia will play its positive role in the final settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict”, former Russian co-chairman of the
OSCE Minsk group Vladimir Kazimirov said, speaking to Armenpress. “The
atmosphere of bilateral distrust existing among the conflicting
parties aroused additional obstacles in the activity of mediators,
but I think that Russia must not be tired of its mediation activity”,
Kazimirov said.

He reminded that in the beginning of the negotiation process the Minsk
conference was presided by Italians, after a year and a half they were
“tired” as this process was rather expensive and was not bringing big
privileges to the Italian diplomacy. Afterwards, the presidency passed
to Sweden and then to Finland. Already during Sweden’s presidency the
co-chairmanship was formed with Russia. During the OSCE Lisbon Summit
France replaced Finland. “It raised big discontent in Azerbaijan.

Heydar Aliev was thinking about the influence of big Armenian diasporas
in France and Russia. In this condition the USA wished to join the
parties. This is the way of trilateral co-chairmanship was formed”,
the Russian diplomat presented the history.

“Russia’s intensive activity in the process of conflict settlement
was noticeably intensive as compared with France and the USA. I do not
say it for blaming these countries. It happens objectively”, he said,
adding that even Iran and Turkey which are situated in neighborhood
are not so interested in the settlement of the issue as Russia. “This
issue is more painful for us and it is natural”, Kazimirov said.

SONYA ORFALIAN A RADIO TRE

Radio Tre Suite – Rai Radio Tre
SABATO 28 MAGGIO 2011 – dalle 23:00 alle 23:40

Domani sera sulle frequenze di Rai Radio Tre, nell’ambito della
trasmissione Radio Tre Suite, Sonya Orfalian interviene per presentare
lo spettacolo teatrale di Paola Ponti “Una cena armena”, in prima
nazionale al Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari nei giorni 1 e 2 giugno p.v.

Nel corso della trasmissione verranno intervistati da Laura Palmieri –
oltre all’autrice del lavoro e alla stessa Sonya Orfalian, consulente
ai testi – il regista Danilo Nigrelli e le due attrici impegnate
nella pièce, Silvia Ajelli e Antonella Attili.

HOW SHOULD EUROPE PERCEIVE AZERBAIJAN?
by Zaur Shiriyev

Today’s Zaman
*.html
May 27 2011
Turkey

In his influential book “The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st
Century,” George Friedman uses a historical-comparative method of
examining the world system to challenge people living in this period
by appropriating the term “imagine.”

For example, the Caucasus is in a capricious setting where clashes
between global players have altered somewhat the conditions and
players that have not changed much in the course of a century.

However, if we were to imagine ourselves at the beginning of the 20th
century, it would be impossible to forecast the rising influence of
Azerbaijan in Europe, while the founding fathers of the Azerbaijani
Democratic Republic kept this dream eternal. Nevertheless, there are
some things that could have been — and, in fact, were — forecasted.

In the early 20th century, Kurban Said brilliantly described the
quest for being a part of Europe, which had always been and still is
deeply ingrained in the region, in his quintessential novel about the
Caucasus, “Ali and Nino,” as follows: “Some scholars look on the area
south of the Caucasian mountains as belonging to Asia, while others, in
view of Transcaucasia’s cultural evolution, believe that this country
should be considered part of Europe. It can therefore be said, my
children, that it is partly your responsibility as to whether our town
[ Baku ] should belong to progressive Europe or to reactionary Asia.”

Now, imagine that you were alive in 1918-1920, at the end of World War
I; the Caucasus ‘ new independent states are trying to preserve their
independence, which they gained in 28 May1918. The first Azerbaijan
Democratic Republic at the same time was the first legal and secular
state in the Turkic-Muslim world. The new republic gave equal rights
to all citizens, minorities, men and women and allowed Azerbaijani
women to vote, when women in the United States were still banned from
participating in elections

At this time, the founding fathers had done much to introduce the
young republic to the international arena in order to prevent the
intervention of foreign countries. Specifically, Parliament Chairman
A.M. Topchubashov was sent to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and
attained the de-facto recognition of the republic by a number of big
countries. After meeting Topchubashov at the Paris Peace Conference,
President Woodrow Wilson noted: “I met with a very dignified and
interesting group of gentlemen from Azerbaijan, men who spoke the
same language I did about ideas and concepts of liberty, rights and
justice.” Unfortunately, independence was short-lived, and ended
in 1920.

Now, imagine the end of 1991, when the Soviet Union had completely
collapsed and Azerbaijan restored its independence. The Caucasus saw
an explosion of extreme forms of war similar to patterns elsewhere in
the former Soviet Union. The most bloody conflict was between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, whose military phase of the confrontation ended in
May of 1994 with the signing of a cease-fire agreement, following
the occupation of just under 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory and
the displacement of civilians on an unprecedented scale by Armenian
occupation forces, which resulted in large numbers of refugees and
internally displaced people (IDPs). After these developments under the
leadership of Heydar Aliyev, pragmatism became a trademark policy for
Baku, which was extraordinarily important in realizing energy projects
and providing benefits to an economically stable country. Finally,
Western countries engaged the Caspian Basin, which was unimaginable
in the early 20th century.

Imagine now the year 2001, during the 10th year of independence
when Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe; our flag flew with the
continent’s preeminent organization, and at the time of its admission,
the move was hailed as a sign that Azerbaijan had graduated from
the post-Soviet doldrums and taken a critical step closer to the
league of Western states. Even afterwards, Azerbaijan described its
dream to be part of Europe in a National Security Doctrine and with
bilateral agreements.

Then look at today in the year 2011, the 20th year of restoring the
independence of the South Caucasus countries. In the South Caucasus,
the status quo over the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
is working against peace in the region, making the conflict intractable
and increasing the chances of war. For this reason, the name Caucasus
is sometimes used as a synonym for war in the international arena:
“This is the Caucasus — there is eternal war.”

Therefore, the region has become synonymous with conflict, volatility
and threat.

In this context, the Azerbaijani entrants were successful and won the
Eurovision Song Contest, which parallels the country’s economic success
stories under the Ilham Aliyev presidency. The founding fathers of the
first Azerbaijani republic might have been upset to see the rising
influence of Azerbaijan in Europe and one year later the Europeans
coming to Azerbaijan to “recognize” this country, which they forced
into such a troubled period with little financial recourse to de-jure
recognize Azerbaijan’s independence in Europe.

Right now, after a confident victory in Eurovision, Azerbaijan’s
success in the Western capitals can, and should be, used to further
raise the Caucasus’ international profile and to add new positive
dimensions to the region’s equilibrium. But, ordinary Europeans still
ask the same question: Where is Azerbaijan? There are several ways to
answer this question: Azerbaijan is a country in which 20 percent of
its territories are still under occupation by Armenia, or, on the eve
of the 20th anniversary of the independence of the South Caucasian
states, they can solve all territorial problems and the region will
be known as a peaceful one in Europe. Much is still dependent on the
conditionality of a more pragmatic and regional approach to be adopted
in Yerevan and how the European Union will engage with the region’s
problems. It would be interesting to “imagine” peace and prosperity
in the South Caucasus.

*Zaur Shiriyev is a foreign policy analyst at the Center for Strategic
Studies in Baku, Azerbaijan.

ARMENIA’S TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN AND ITS MULTI-VECTORED FOREIGN POLICY
by Joshua Kucera

EurasiaNet.org
May 27 2011
NY

Armenia’s announcement this month that it was tripling its troop
commitment to Afghanistan raised some eyebrows. It has no NATO
aspirations, and has largely thrown in its strategic lot with Russia,
as evidenced by the agreement it recently signed allowing a large,
decades-long Russian military presence in the country.

But the newest trend in Eurasian geopolitics is multi-vectored
foreign policy (i.e., trying to balance relations between various big
powers rather than becoming dependent on a single one), pioneered
by Kazakhstan but now increasingly deliberately employed across
the region. And that means that even faithfully pro-Moscow states
like Armenia have to hedge their bets a little. Thus, Armenia’s
contribution of two extra platoons (81 soldiers) to help guard the
airport in Mazar-e-Sharif, bringing its troop contribution to a total
of about 130. As Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan told Mediamax:

First of all, this step is based on Armenia’s interests in accordance
with the multi-layer and initiative foreign policy of our country,
and demonstrates our particular place in the world order after the
“cold war”.

And he played down suggestions that cooperating with NATO in
Afghanistan was somehow incompatible with Armenia’s membership in
the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, emphasizing
the CSTO’s cooperation with ISAF in Afghanistan:

Participation of the active CSTO member – Armenia – in ISAF Mission
strengthens our country’s relations with the North-Atlantic Alliance
and EU member countries, and this is based on common interests of
both our country and the international community. These interests are
obvious, taking into account the assistance, rendered by CSTO-allied
and our strategic partner Russia to NATO in provision of transit
across its territory to Afghanistan for the transportation of and
resupply for Alliance troops.

The role of infrastructural and logistic support, provided by CSTO
member countries – Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is also
great in terms of ensuring ISAF Mission’s success. In this context,
it is difficult to assess whose contribution from CSTO countries is of
more importance; however it is obvious that CSTO plays a significant
role in provision of security and stability in Afghanistan.

Emil Danielyan, writing in Jamestown’s Eurasia Daily Monitor, says
that while the move is surprising, Russia isn’t objecting too much —
probably because it understands that Armenia’s commitment to NATO is
modest and does not threaten its ties with Moscow:

The Armenian government’s decision was rather unexpected against the
backdrop of a new Russian-Armenian military agreement signed during
President Dmitry Medvedev’s August 2010 visit to Yerevan. The agreement
prolonged the presence of a Russian military base in Armenia by 25
years-until 2044-and upgraded its security mission. It also committed
Russia to supply the Armenian military with more modern weaponry.

By boosting its military commitments in Afghanistan, Yerevan is
signaling that the new defense pact with Moscow will not hold it back
from seeking closer military cooperation with Western powers, which has
deepened significantly over the past decade. Armenia participated in
the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq with a small army contingent, and
currently has about 80 soldiers serving in Kosovo under NATO command…

Still, Moscow has never publicly faulted Yerevan, suggesting that
it does not yet consider the growing Armenia-NATO ties a cause for
serious concern. According to Anatoly Tsyganok, a Russian defense
analyst, the Kremlin “does not quite like” them but at the same time
“understands the difficult situation Armenia is in. Russia will not
insist that the Armenian armed forces stop cooperating with NATO,”
Tsyganok was quoted by Regnum as saying on May 13.

Furthermore, there are reasons beyond geopolitics for the deployment.

Forces that take part in missions like this gain valuable practical
experience, something that the CSTO can’t really offer. Tonoyan again:

[I]n terms of experience exchange, due to participation of Armenian
military in ISAF, our units familiarize on the spot with Western
military art and military culture, employ in combat the most advanced
armament, military equipment and high technologies, supplied by the
German side, adopt new tactics. All this is of highest value in terms
of our defence reforms and development of the Armenian Armed Forces.

This is not only participation in multi-national operations, but also
an intensive training and education for our peacekeepers.

However, no comment yet from the Taliban, which responded strongly to
Kazakhstan’s announced deployment, which turned out to be all of four
soldiers. Perhaps, as the first country ever to adopt Christianity,
the Taliban considers Armenia a lost cause.

ARMENIA’S POLICY ON GEORGIA UNDEVELOPED-EXPERT

news.am
May 27 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s policy on Georgia is unclear and undeveloped,
political expert Levon Shirinyan told a press conference on Friday.

He stressed that Georgia always sought to ‘own’ Armenia. According
to him, Armenia’s blockade by its neighbors is of benefit to Georgia,
whereas Armenia fails to take measures.

The analyst also expressed concern over the outflow of Armenians