Author: Babajanian Karo

ARMENIAN AIR DEFENCE FORCES BEST IN REGION, EXPERT BELIEVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 17, 2011 – 16:13 AMT

Military expert Artsrun Hovhannesyan gave high assessment to the
excellent performance of Armenian air defence forces in Karabakh war
years, characterizing it as the best in the region.

As the head of the air defence department at Military Aviation
Institute after Armenak Khamfertsyan, Haykaz Gevorgyan noted,
rearmament is another successful step by Armenian air defence forces.

Even before Armenia purchased S-300 missile systems, Armenian experts
had excellent command of them. During post-Soviet period, Armenian
air defence forces showed more progress than those of NATO, he said.

ARMENIANS MAKE BAKU VOTE AGAINST TURKEY AT CIS MEETING

news.am
May 16 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Representatives of the Armenian delegation in fact made
their Azerbaijani colleagues vote against Turkey at the meeting of
CIS parliamentary assembly’s committee on foreign affairs.

Participants of the meeting discussed possible granting of observer’s
status to Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-speaking Countries
(TURK PA) which includes Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan,
and Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO).

Granting an observer’s status to TURK PA and IAO was initiated by
the organizations, spokesperson for Armenia’s Republican Party Eduard
Sharmazanov told Armenian News-NEWS.am from Saint Petersburg.

Azerbaijan offered to vote on both issues. However, Eduard Sharmazanov
said that these are two different organizations and the issues should
be discussed separately.

“Azerbaijan is trying to involve Turkey in CIS affairs creating a new
platform for anti-Armenian agitation. Therefore, we did our utmost
to ruin this initiative,” he said.

Finally, Azerbaijan voted against granting status to IAO and was
urged to vote against TURK PA as well.

HUNGARY’S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER TO VISIT ARMENIA

news.am
May 16 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – The Hungarian delegation headed by Parliament Speaker Laszlo
Kover will arrive on a two-day official visit to Armenia on Tuesday.

He will hold meetings with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan,
Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan and Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian, parliamentary press service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The delegation will also meet with the members of Armenia-Hungary
friendship group.

Hungarian MPs will visit Memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims.

ARMENIAN GOR MINASYAN BECOMES WORLD CHAMPION

Panorama
May 16 2011
Armenia

Lima-hosted World Youth Weightlifting Championship ended with a
perfect victory of Armenian athlete Gor Minasyan, who has lifted
a total of 379kg and has become World Champion. Gor Minasyan, 16,
also won gold medals in the snatch (174 kg), and clean & jerk (205 kg).

Armenian national team has occupied the 3rd horizontal having only
yielded teams of Russia and China.

ARMENIAN WEIGHTLIFTER WINS GOLD IN PERU

Tert.am
16.05.11

An Armenian weightlifter has won the title of world champion at the
+94kg category.

Gor Minasyan won the prize by raising a total of 379kg in the snatch
and jerk combinations at the World Youth Weightlifting Championship
held in Lima, Peru.

According to the Armenian sports news website, Gor Minasyan lifted
12kg more than his main competitor.

Earlier, Andranik Karapetyan (62kg) won a bronze by lifting a total
of 255 kg.

SWEDISH BUSINESSMEN TO STUDY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN ARMENIA

Tert.am
16.05.11

Swedish businessmen will get familiarized with the possibilities of
doing business in Armenia.

At a meeting on Monday Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan and Sweden’s
Ambassador to Armenia (residence in Tbilisi) Diana Yansen discussed
also issues related to municipal governance.

According to a press release by the Municipality Diana Yansen said
Sweden can offer Armenia its experience in regulating municipal
parking lots.

Further, Karen Karapetyan presented the Yansen the policy pursued in
the municipal governance, as well as the programs under implementation.

He also highlighted the importance of exchange of international
experience.

Yansen, in turn, expressed willingness to assist Armenia as much as
possible and to pass Karapetyan’s intentions to Swedish businessmen.

KARABAKH CONFLICT SHOULD BE RESOLVED WITHOUT FOREIGN ACTORS – CZECH PRESIDENT

news.am
May 16 2011
Armenia

The Czech Republic is monitoring developments in the Karabakh peace
process although it is not directly involved in talks, President of
Czech RepublicVaclav Klaus told Azerbaijani Trend news agency.

Klaus said he is confident that resolution of the conflict should be
achieved through decisions made in the region, not with participation
of foreign actors.

“Therefore, we welcome direct talks between Presidents of Azerbaijan
and Armenia which continue since 2008. There is no other way to
solution,” he added.

MP: ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES WILL TRY TO FACILITATE THE CONSEQUENCES OF PETROL PRICE INCREASE

/ ARKA /
May 16, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, May 16. /ARKA/. Armenian authorities will undertake steps for
facilitation of consequences of regular increase of petrol prices,
considers member of parliament from the leading Republican Party of
Armenia Gagik Melikyan.

“It is not a secret, that the reason of petrol price increase in
Armenia is price increase of fuel products in the international
market. I think that our authorities will undertake steps in
facilitation of its consequences”, he said.

These steps will not envisage price reduction of petrol but, for
example, it will be reflected in the type of introduction of not
expensive pesticides, technologies or subsidies for agriculture.

Petrol price increase will have its negative consequences on the
policy of inflation control conducted in Armenia.

According to the data of Armenian National Statistic Service, petrol
and diesel fuel prices in April 2011 increased compared with the
same period of 2010 by 3.9% and 5.8% accordingly. Petrol and diesel
fuel prices in April 2011 increased by 15.1% and 19.9% accordingly
compared with December 2010.

TIGRAN POSTANJYAN STARTS HUNGER STRIKE IN PENITENTIARY

Tert.am
16.05.11

Tigran Postanjyan, who is the brother of Heritage MP Zaruhi
Postanjyan and is currently under detention, has started a hunger
strike, protesting against “inhuman and degrading conditions” at the
Nubarashen penitentiary.

On Monday the leader of the opposition Heritage party faction in
parliament, Stepan Safaryan, sent a letter to Armenia’s Human Rights
Defender Karen Andreasyan, Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan and
Chief of Police Alik Sargsyan, informing them about Postanjyan’s
hunger strike.

Also in the letter, Safaryan says that the persecution Tigran
Postanjyan is subjected has a political motive. According to him,
it is aimed at exerting pressure on Tigran Postanjyan’s sister,
Zaruhi Postanjyan.

Zaruhi Postanjyan has largely criticized the ruling authorities over
various issues, including the Karabakh conflict and the tragic events
of March 1, 2008 that left at least 10 killed and dozens wounded
during the political unrest sparked after presidential elections.

In the letter, Safaryan further says that Tigran Postanjyan is kept
with 18 other inmates in a cell that occupies 25 square meters.

Smokers and non-smokers are all kept in the same cell. They have also
to sleep in turns due to shortage of place.

Tigran Postanjyan is accused of “illegally demanding and taking money”
(100,000 Armenian drams, around $274) from a state-run agency. He
was arrested by National Security Service on February 23.

Stepan Safaryan also said that the inmates sleep with clothes for fears
of the insects in the cells. The inmates also develop insect-sting
allergy, while the smell of the chemicals used against the insects
makes breathing impossible in the cell.

The law stipulates that each prisoner must have at least 4 square
meters. While the situation in Nubarashen penitentiary, according
to Safaryan, violates the Article 3 of European Convention on Human
Rights.

“We demand the elimination of these illegalities,” read the letter.

Safaryan further said that Zaruhi Postanjyan has raised alarm over
her brother’s arrest also at the Council of Europe.

War Against History is No Path to Peace
by Simon Maghakyan
May 16, 2011

Five years ago in December 2005, the magnificent medieval cemetery of
Djulfa was reduced to dust in southwestern Azerbaijan. According to
video evidence, the Azerbaijani army itself had conducted the
operation to destroy the thousands of intricately carved khachkars, or
cross-stones, which were the proof and symbol of ancient Armenian
heritage in the exclave of Nakhichevan. `An absolute lie,’ declared
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and then banned a European
Parliament delegation from visiting the site.

But last December, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science publicly confirmed Djulfa’s complete disappearance through
satellite image comparison. A few months later, the Azeri authorities
banned the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan from visiting the site where
the cemetery existed.

`Armenians have never lived in Nakhichevan, which has been Azerbaijani
land from time immemorial, and that’s why there are no Armenian
cemeteries and monuments and have never been any,’ is one argument –
to quote Azeri official Hasan Zeynalov – of denial of the destruction.
Such reasoning is not meant to cover up, but rather project the intent
of the crime. Armenians, according to the official historiography in
Azerbaijan, did not live in the Caucasus before the 19th century.

While fighting history in Nakhichevan by making indigenous artifacts
disappear, Azerbaijan vows to win back the Armenian region of Nagorno
Karabakh it lost in a post-Soviet war in the 1990s. Such flare fails
to realize that Karabakh’s fight for freedom wasn’t a mere tussle to
revoke Joseph Stalin’s 1920s awarding of Nagorno-Karabakh (along with
Nakhichevan) to Soviet Azerbaijan, but a hustle to avoid Djulfa’s very
fate.

Cultural destruction in post-Soviet conflicts is not unavoidable as
seen in Armenia’s ongoing restoration of Azerbaijani mosques in
Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s own 2004 renovation of the Armenian
church, built in 1887, in the capital Baku. Drawing from the latter,
Azerbaijan’s government can reverse its war on history by facilitating
an impartial investigation into the demolition that occurred at
Djulfa; prosecuting those who gave orders and supervised the
destruction; and designating the site where the cemetery existed as an
archaeological landmark.

Baku must acknowledge that a war against history is no path to peace.