Author: Badalian Vardan

“I’M WITH YOU”: YAIR AURON TO CONTINUE STRUGGLE FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

10:07, 27 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS: Ahead of the centennial of the
Armenian Genocide, the Armenians of the world and their friends are
going to commemorate the innocent victims of the Great Genocide on
April 24. Armenpress had a talk with the famous Israeli scientist,
expert of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, racism and modern Jewish
studies, the associate professor of the Open University of Israel Yair
Auronabout his views to reach recognition of the Armenian Genocide
by Israel.

– During the visit to Stepanakert you stated that upon the return
to Israel you will continue the struggle for the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. How are you going to do that?

– I tell about it everywhere and not only there (smiling). I teach
“Armenian Genocide and General Genocide” at the Open University of
Israel. Every year we have 4500 students, which is a great number
and there is a textbook on the Armenian Genocide included in the
educational program. This is one of the versions. Besides, we have
initiated a public petition, asking the government to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. We hope to submit it by April 24. Though I have
little doubts about it but we have a great number of signatures. I
have a great belief towards the education and invest my efforts in
this area.

– How does the population of Israel treat the Armenian Genocide fact?

Do they know about the massacres of the Armenians in the beginning
of the 20th century?

– Certainly, by means of the television, newspapers and academic
literature, people now know more than they used to in the past. You
know, when Israeli people learn about the Armenian Genocide, the vast
majority of them identify them with you. The thing is that in the
past they did not know about the Genocide, like as they do not know
anything about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Though when they know,
they are with you.

– What do you think, if the society recognizes the Armenian Genocide,
will it change the position of the state on the Armenians’ killing
by the Ottoman Turks?

– No, maybe later but not now. The government pursues disgusting
interests and, unfortunately, it would not recognize the Armenian
Genocide. It is unacceptable for me, though, this is the reality.

Though in Israel there are parties, which support the Armenian
Cause, but the government refuses to accept that fact. Maybe, in
case of availability of some conditions, the parliament recognizes
the Armenian Genocide, but the government will not do it.

HISTORICAL TRUTH SHOULD BE KEY VECTOR OF INFLUENCE ON WIDE SECTIONS OF ARMENIA’S POPULATION – KALININ

YEREVAN, February 27. /ARKA/. There are multi-faceted vectors of
influence on wide groups of the population, and it is necessary to
form the historical truth vector and stick to it, Mark Kalinin, head
of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Yerevan, was quoted
by Novosti-Armenia as saying Friday at the first session of the Club
of Young Eurasian Historians.

“Such events are very important from this point of view,” he
said. The project is organized by Russia’s North-South Political
Analysis Center for Development of Information and Scientific Ties
with Foreign Countries with support from CIS Interstate Humanitarian
Cooperation Fund.

Kalinin passed on to participants of the session greetings from Russian
Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volinkin and said that interaction between
Armenian and Russian civil society organizations has intensified over
the last year.

“The main topic of the event is the 70th anniversary of the victory in
the Great Patriotic War (World War II),” Kalinin said adding that the
ambassador-affiliated public council is already set up and a program
of celebration of the 70th of the victory is already being composed.

Kalinin said 2015 is a landmark
year for Armenians – they will mark centenary of Armenian Genocide.

The first session of the Club of Young Eurasian Historians being
held in Yerevan on February 27 and 28 is aimed at setting discussion
platforms for communication among historians of Eurasian Economic
Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States member countries.

Yulia Yakusheva, executive director of the North-South Political
Analysis Center, on her side, said the session is dedicated to
restoration of historical truth.

she said.

In her words, although the Eurasian Economic Union is an economic
project, it is mainly based on historical and civilizational grounds
and on historical unity.

In her opinion, unbiased comprehensive perception of historical
processes needed for preservation of common humanitarian space,
which exists between Russia and Armenia.

she said. Yakusheva said.

Armenian Defense Ministry Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan expressed
satisfaction at the organization of such events in Armenia ahead of
celebration of the 70th anniversary in Armenia.

he said.

And this is not only for the fact that more than one million
Armenians fought in this war, he said, but also for many of them
were high-ranking commanders in the Soviet Army and for the outcome
of Stalingrad Battle solved the issue of Turkey’s participation in
the war on Germany’s side, what could mean repetition of the Armenian
Genocide 2015-23.

Hovhannisyan.

Young professionals, historians, sociologists and specialists in
international relations from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia are present at the session.

Round-table discussions and professional master classes will be held
as part of the session. –0—–

ARMENIA: MY ILLUSION

13:14, February 27, 2015

By Meltem Naz KaÃ…~_o

A week after a three-month stay in Armenia, I am once again at home
in my green room in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears,” a quote from
Albert Camus, is written on my wall. To me, Armenia seems like an
illusion now. An illusion I lived and created to the point of tears.

For a Turk, going to Armenia seems a crazy idea. It’s not like going
anywhere else with a Turkish passport.

I was selected by the Hrant Dink Foundation to be a research fellow in
a Yerevan-based NGO, to contribute to cross-border understanding. Just
as Turkey has racists, Armenia has its own.

“Somebody can intentionally hurt you, or even kill you, just to
make a point,” a friend of mine said. My cousin who works for the
UN claimed that Yerevan was a safe city. “But not for a Turk,” he
added. I recalled the Armenian terrorist organization ASALA’s killing
of Turkish diplomats around the world in the seventies. They did it
to force discussion of the Armenian Genocide. Hurting a young Turkish
woman in Yerevan during the centennial anniversary of the Genocide,
I imagined, could be equally useful. “Make sure they don’t cut you,”
a Turkish friend said ominously when he wished me farewell.

Immediately after arriving in Armenia, I met a local surgeon who
expressed interest in me. Smelling the white roses he brought me,
I consoled myself in the knowledge that, were my fears realized,
I had a surgeon on my side. He wasn’t a bad guy. Not once did he
come after me with a gun or a knife, or a cross word. But there was
a gulf between us. To him, we were two attractive bodies. To me,
we were souls being pulled towards each other by unknown forces. He
saw magnetism, I wanted magic.

Armenia offered less consuming, and more substantial, delights. Public
Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK), the LGBT rights advocate NGO
for which I worked, was a temple of joy. I still hear, in my world of
illusion, Nvard’s screams of “Meltushiiii” as she hugs me to welcome
me to the office. “Hi darling,” Kolya used to say nonchalantly. His
openness encouraged me to be at ease with myself. Soon, Kolya became
my alter ego. When faced with challenging circumstances, I developed
the habit of asking myself: “What would Kolya do in this situation?”

Never will I forget my host Nouneh either. She opened her house to
me, giving me her daughter’s old room. Now, only after a week, the
names of the streets of Yerevan are disappearing from my mind. Facts
are becoming illusionary. But what stays with me is the proportion of
Nouneh’s eyes, nose, and lips. Her familiar face made me feel at home
when we cooked recipes she had learned from her deceased mother. Out
of generosity and love she shared her legacy with a stranger.

I was lucky enough to know the Seferian brothers as well. One evening,
I invited Nar over for dinner. I provided the food while he brought
memories to laugh about and information on history and politics. With
his inquisitive eyes, he looked around and found something wise to
say about the architecture of the house and the future of Armenia
and Turkey. His older brother, Naz, frequently read my written work
before I dared share it with the rest of the world. To him, I exposed
my most vulnerable self: my stories.

During my last week in Armenia, the Seferian brothers, Naz’s wife
Mariam, his little son Mikael, and I went to a restaurant. It was
called Aintab, a city in today’s southeast Turkey, and branded itself
as a provider of “Western Armenian Food.”

It was right then and there, sharing appetizers and kebab with them,
that I realized the price of the Genocide and the forced departure of
Armenians. What it must have been then and what it is today. A price
in more than land and money. It was the price of home, of proximity
and trust, of exchange and empathy. I understood and wished that,
somehow, the Seferians had stayed in Western Armenia, their home,
so that we could be neighbors.

Figments of my imagination produced almost-fictional women whom I
registered as my “mother Armenias.”Ani, Anna, and Anush – the three
of them guided me in fashioning armor to protect me from people
or place that sought to do me harm. The armor was in the form of
a feminine, home-made apron shield. Ani, two years older than me,
accepted my naivety wholeheartedly and guided me to listen to the
strong voice inside me and not to give in to anxiety. Anna and Anush,
the organizers of my fellowship program had planned my visit with
logic and forethought.

During our farewell lunch at the Central Cafe, Anna gave me a book
of poetry that she had published. She wrote about what it meant to
be a woman. That same night, I read her book under candle light,
repeating over and over again two of her poems. She taught me how
rationality and intuition can go hand in hand.

On my last day in Armenia, Anush, a green stone I held in my hands for
those three months, brought me to the Parisian Cafe on Abovyan Street.

We were there the morning after my arrival in Armenia too. We had
some coffee. The same waitress served us. Anush gifted me mint tea
in a green box. Each time I drink it I return to Armenia, to her arms
and her loving kindness.

I wasn’t all that close to the three Turkish fellows that participated
in the same program. We had no fights or unpleasantness, but I never
felt from them the openness and generosity that I received from my
hosts. What did it mean that I was emotionally closer to my Armenian
friends than the Turks who came with me?

I offer no overarching conclusion about Armenians and Turks. No two
people are the same even if they hold the same national identity. But
I accept that, sometimes, friendships can pass closed borders when
they cannot walk across a room. In illusory worlds, lived and created
to the point of tears, they do.

Meltem Naz KaÃ…~_o is a short story writer, freelance journalist, and
a social science researcher. As part of the Hrant Dink Foundation’s
fellowship program to facilitate cross cultural affiliations between
Armenia and Turkey, she conducted comparative research for Public
Information and Need of Knowledge (Pink Armenia). Meltem received a
Comparative Human Development degree and graduated with honors from
the University of Chicago.

YEREVAN TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INVESTMENTS IN CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA IN OCTOBER

YEREVAN, February 27. / ARKA /. Armenian Prime minister Hovik
Abrahamyan had a meeting today with Mark Donfrid, the founder and
executive director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD),
to discuss conduction of an international conference in Armenia on
investments in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the government press
office reported, saying also the gathering is scheduled to take place
in October.

It said the prime minister highlighted the conduction of the conference
in Armenia saying the government is ready to show assistance in its
organization and conduction. He also said the conference will be an
important event in terms of attracting new investments to Armenia.

The conference will analyze the political, economic and social
situation in the Caucasus and Central Asia and discuss the prospects
of international investment in these regions.

It is expected that the gathering will be attended by government
officials from several countries, international experts, diplomats,
representatives of the private sector and civil society, as well as
other interested parties.

The event will feature thematic discussions, round tables, as well
as cultural and social activities.

The government said prime minister Abrahamyan instructed several
agencies to cooperate with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy for
organization and conduction of the conference at proper level.-0-

RUSSIAN RUBLE DEVALUATION BLAMED FOR FALL IN ARMENIAN EXPORTS OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

ECONOMY | 27.02.15 | 16:13

Alina Nikoghosyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Armenia registered a 27-percent decline of exports of alcoholic
beverages at the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015, Avag Harutyunyan,
head of the Armenian Winemakers Union, said, adding that official
data is not published yet.

Harutyunyan told reporters Friday that in the past Armenia experienced
such crises also in 1998, 2008 and 2009.

“The decline of brandy export in 2014 is explained by tendencies
that started in November of 2014 connected with the Russian ruble’s
devaluation and that got more intense gradually, and in January of
2015 we could see no light,” he said, adding that if this situation
continues till June they will not be able to purchase the whole
harvest from villagers.

Armenia became a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) since
January 2, 2015, and the Russian ruble has been in fluctuations since
earlier in 2014.

According to the data published by the National Statistical Service
(NSS), in January this year, compared to January 2014, a 4.3-percent
inflation was registered, electricity production fell by almost 20
percent, a 7.4-percent decrease was registered in sales, a 6.3-percent
decline in the volume of industrial production.

According to Harutyunyan, in 2014, compared to 2013, export volumes
of wine grew nearly by 49 percent, and brandy exports declined by
5 percent.

“2014 was the best year for vodka, it is the second year Armenians,
unfortunately, have restored their lost tradition. In 2014 we imported
an unprecedented number – never in our history had there been such
an amount – 9 million bottles and nearly 250,000 liters of vodka,
mainly from Russia, and we imported a huge amount, 700,000 liters of
alcohol,” he said.

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT STILL REVIEWING PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING A FUTURE RAILWAY TO IRAN

YEREVAN, February 26. / ARKA /. The Armenian government on Thursday
postponed for two months the deadline for the ministry of transport
and communications to present the principles and mechanisms for
management of a railway that is to be built from Iran to Armenia.

Transport and communications minister Gagik Beglaryan said the deadline
was postponed because the government was still reviewing the principles
and mechanisms in questions.

A provisional program for the construction of the railway was approved
by the government last August.

In 2012, the Dubai-based Rasia FZE Investment Company was granted a
50-year concession by the Armenian government to build and manage the
305-kilometer railway from Armenia to Iran, to be named the Southern
Armenian Railway (SAR).

By late 2013 Rasia FZE developed a feasibility study for the project.

This project is estimated to cost $3.5 billion. The high cost is
explained by mountainous terrain through which it is supposed to pass.

Specifically, the 306 km-long railway will have 19.6 km-long 64
bridges and 60 tunnels of 102.3 kilometers.

The railway is to run from Gagarin station in Armenia’s Gegharkunik
province to Agarak in southern Syunik and may transport up to 25
million cargos a year.

According to an Armenian government statement, the Southern Armenia
Railway will create the shortest transportation route from the ports
of the Black Sea to the ports of the Persian Gulf and establish a
major commodities transit corridor between Europe and the Persian
Gulf region.” .-0-

TURKEY KEEPS INSISTING ON NON-CONSTRUCTIVE PRECONDITIONS – EXPERTS

10:33 * 26.02.15

Turkologists in Armenia express their criticism of Turkish foreign
minister’s recent statement linking the bilateral reconciliation
process with the unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

According to Artak Shakaryan, Mevlut Cavushoglu’s call for leaving
Nagorno-Karabakh without Armenians fully fits within the logic adopted
in the 1990’s (when Turkey closed its state border with Armenia as
a sign of solidarity with Azerbaijan).

“Back in the 1990s, Turkey would insist on the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue, with Armenia always saying that the relations should never be
contingent upon third countries. Armenia never imposed any condition
on Turkey to urge for the withdrawal of its troops from Cyprus, and
it never made it a precondition for [normalizing] the Armenia-Turkey
ties,” he told Tert.am.

“We have always been ready for the unconditional normalization
of ties, but we also saw that Turkey wouldn’t back away from its
preconditions. So Turkey alone is to blame for the failure.”

In a speech in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on Wednesday, the
Turkish official slammed Armenia for a “failure to pass the openness
test” which he said led to the decision to withdraw the 2009 bilateral
protocols from parliament. He also reiterated the Turkish authorities’
earlier calls for “liberating the Azerbaijani territories”.

Noting that the Turkish authorities have so far taken no essential step
to enforce the bilateral protocols signed in Zurich (Switzerland), the
Turkologist said he finds that the ball is now in that country’s court.

“For them, the protocols’ signing was not principally essential;
what mattered was their availability. The Turkish side was doing all
its best to keep the protocols on the agenda, so the withdrawal from
the Armenian parliament makes them nervous,” Shakaryan said, adding
that he expects the country to do everything possible to keep the
documents alive.

Speaking to Tert.am, Turkologist Levon Hovespyan described the
Turkish official’s remark as an attempt to justify the country’s
earlier efforts towards derailing the process.

“The entire process’ failure is due to Turkey, as their activities
in the past six years were targeted at killing the process. So Turkey
translated that into action. All they can do now is to pretend, with
statements of the kind, that they are ready to keep the process going,”
he added.

The expert said he hasn’t seen any constructive step by Turkey over
the past period, with the only strategy remaining the rhetoric of
preconditions.

“It is important to note at the same time that the Armenian side’s
decision did not come as a surprise to Turkey, but they will long
speculate that fact, demonstrating that the ball is in Armenia’s
court. That’s for certain. Turkey has clearly shown what policies it
pursues and what intentions it has, i.e. – the language of blackmails
and use of pressure mechanisms,” he added.

ARMENIANS HAVE A HIGH GENETIC AFFINITY TO ANCIENT EUROPEANS, NEW STUDY REVEALS

16:16, 26 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

A new study into Armenian genetics reveals that present day Armenians
are a mixture of local Bronze Age people who have retained homogeneity
for over three thousand years, and show great affinity to Neolithic
Europeans, PeopleOfAr reports.

Armenians are an ethno-linguistic-religious group distinct from
their surrounding neighbors. They have their own church, the Armenian
Apostolic Church, which was founded in the 1st century CE, and became
in 301 CE the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion.

They have also their own alphabet and language which is classified
as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family.

The historical homeland of the Armenians sits north of the
Fertile Crescent, a region of substantial importance to modern
human evolution. Genetic and archaeological data suggest farmers
expanding from this region during the Neolithic populated Europe and
interacted/admixed with pre-existing huntergatherer populations.

Furthermore, Armenia’s location may have been important for the spread
of Indo-European languages, since it is believed to encompass or be
close to the Proto-Indo-European homeland (Anatolia or Pontic Steppe)
from which the Indo-Europeans and their culture spread to Western
Europe, Central Asia and India.

Bel tried to impose his tyranny upon Hayk’s people. But proud Hayk
refused to submit to Bel. As soon as his son Aramaneak was born, Hayk
rose up and led his people back into his ancestral land of Ararad. At
the foot of the mountain he built a village and called it with his name
“Haykashen”.

According to a new study into Armenian genetics, published on the
bioRxiv preprint service for biology, the Armenian people derive
their ancestry from a number of local Bronze age tribes. A team
of international scholars (from UK, Spain, Italy and Lebanon) led
by Marc Haber have analysed Armenian genes and compared them to 78
other worldwide populations including some ancient DNA samples. They
conclude that:

The Armenians show signatures of an origin from mixture of diverse
populations occurring 3,000 to 2,000 BCE. This period spans the Bronze
Age, characterized by extensive use of metals in farming tools,
chariots and weapons, accompanied by development of the earliest
writing systems and the establishment of trade routes and commerce.

These mixture dates also coincide with the legendary establishment
of Armenia in 2,492 BCE.

However, unlike Armenian neighbors the Armenians show no significant
traces of further admixture after 1,200 BCE, some three and a half
thousand years ago. It appears that Armenians have stopped mixing
around that time and today carry little to no mixture of foreign
populations, retaining their ethnic and cultural homogeneity since
the end of the Bronze Age. Haber et. al describe:

Tests suggest that Armenians had no significant mixture with other
populations in their recent history and have thus been genetically
isolated since the end of the Bronze Age, 3,000 years ago.

The authors explain the cessation of Armenian admixture as resulting
from a collapse of Bronze Age civilizations coupled with a development
of Armenian cultural distinctiveness.

Admixture signals decrease to insignificant levels after 1,200 BCE,
a time when Bronze Age civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean world
suddenly collapsed, with major cities being destroyed or abandoned and
most trade routes disrupted. This appears to have caused Armenians’
isolation from their surroundings, subsequently sustained by the
cultural/linguistic/religious distinctiveness that persists until
today.

Armenians’ adoption of a distinctive culture early in their history
resulted in their genetic isolation from their surroundings. Their
genetic resemblance today to other genetic isolates in the Near East,
but not to most other Near Easterners, suggests that recent admixture
has changed the genetic landscape in most populations in the region.

We compared patterns of admixture in Armenians to other regional
populations and detected signals of recent admixture in most other
populations. For example, we find 7.9% (±0.4) East Asian ancestry in
Turks from admixture occurring 800 (±170) years ago coinciding with
the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia from their homelands
near the Aral Sea. We also detect sub-Saharan African gene flow 850
(±85) years ago in Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians, consistent
with previous reports on recent gene flow from Africans to Levantine
populations after the Arab expansions.This genetic isolation makes
Armenians quite unique in the region as the study goes on to describe:

The genetic landscape in most of the Middle East appears to have been
continuously changing. Modern Armenians much more so than the Turks,
therefore appear to be a prime representatives of ancient Anatolian
inhabitants:

The position of the Armenians within the global genetic diversity is
unique and appears to mirror the geographical location of Anatolia.

Previous genetic studies have generally used Turks as representatives
of ancient Anatolians. Our results show that Turks are genetically
shifted towards Central Asians, a pattern consistent with a history
of mixture with populations from this region.

These results seem to corroborate with previous studies (Hellenthal
et. al., 2014) which also didn’t find admixture with Armenians for
the past 3 to 4 thousand years.

Affinity to Ancient Europeans

The Armenian Highlands and Anatolia form a bridge connecting Europe,
the Near East and the Caucasus. Anatolia’s location and history have
placed it at the centre of several modern human expansions in Eurasia:
it has been inhabited continuously since at least the early Upper
Palaeolithic, and has the oldest known monumental complex built by
huntergatherers in the 10th millennium BCE (Armenian Portasar commonly
known as Gobekli Tepe). It is believed to have been the origin and/or
route for migrating Near Eastern farmers towards Europe during the
Neolithic, and has also played a major role in the dispersal of the
Indo-European languages. Armenia’s location at the northern tip of
the Near East suggests a plausible relationship to the expanding
Neolithic farmers.

In order to compare Armenians with ancient Europeans the authors have
analysed ancient DNA samples from Europe including that of Otzi the
Iceman (a 5,300-year-old individual discovered on the Italian part
of the Otztal Alps). The study concludes:

We show that Armenians have higher genetic affinity to Neolithic
Europeans than other present-day Near Easterners, and that 29% of
the Armenian ancestry may originate from an ancestral population best
represented by Neolithic Europeans.

We find in Armenians and other genetic isolates in the Near East
high shared ancestry with ancient European farmers with ancestry
proportions similar to presentday Europeans but not to present-day
Near Easterners… Our tests show that most of the Near East genetic
isolates ancestry shared with Europeans can be attributed to expansion
after the Neolithic period.

The long period of genetic isolation makes Armenians in particular
unique to the region. The study of the Armenian DNA is therefore
very interesting to scholars who study European DNA, because to
them Armenians are like an image of what the DNA groups were before
they started spreading out.These results suggest that the Armenians
(the genetic isolates in the Near East) probably retain features of
an ancient genetic landscape in the Near East that had more affinity
to Europe than most of the present day Near Eastern populations do.

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit
institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience,
plant genetics, genomics and quantitative biology

OPPOSITION IN SHAMBLES?: ANALYSTS SAY PAP “BREAKDOWN” LEAVES ARMENIA WITH NO MAJOR FORCE OPPOSED TO GOVERNMENT

POLITICS | 26.02.15 | 10:17

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Following the dramatic developments of recent days around the
Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) many analysts say there is no major
opposition force left in Armenia and no political party will be able
to rise up to that level in the near future.

The PAP led by tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan tried to mount a challenge to
President Serzh Sargsyan, but quickly backed off amid a government
crackdown that included detentions of its members who own businesses
as well as threats to prosecute Tsarukyan himself over tax evasion.

The PAP is preparing for its “extraordinary” convention that will be
held on March 5. Meanwhile, five members of its parliamentary faction
have already quit it. And some of the party lawmakers also recently
met with Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan to discuss issues related to
“small and medium-sized enterprises”.

The opposition, if not has been destroyed, then it is has been
considerably weakened, political analyst Sergey Minasyan said at a
press conference on Wednesday.

“We understand how the events will develop within the PAP, but it
cannot have any positive impact on Armenia’s political life. The
political career of Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan,
if not ended, then has been frozen,” the political analyst said.

Tsarukyan angered the current administration by an apparent “ultimatum”
to give up the constitutional reform or face a campaign of sustained
street protests demanding early presidential and parliamentary
elections. The PAP leader made those statements at a conference of
“non-governing” forces on February 5.

On February 12, President Serzh Sargsyan, the leader of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia, lashed out at Tsarukyan and effectively
called on his party to oust the PAP leader from Armenian politics. On
February 15, Tsarukyan’s PAP and its two opposition allies, the
Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Heritage met to discuss their
response and scheduled a joint rally for February 20, but the PAP
called it off after Tsarukyan’s conciliatory remarks several days
later.

It is remarkable that Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian and his
supporters did turn out for the rally not attended by the PAP and the
ANC. Then Hovannisian declared that the troika effectively did not
exist any longer. He said that they no longer “play these games” and
that the ANC rally scheduled for March 1 will provide a “breakthrough”.

The actions against Tsarukyan were an attempt to put an end to
the situation created in February and the authorities did it by
decapitating one of the leading organizing forces, ANC parliamentary
leader Levon Zurabyan said.

“At this moment the PAP is out of the game. Now the PAP itself should
say where it stands. After coming under an intimidation campaign the
PAP has said nothing,” Zurabyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Now
the March 1 rally will be a test for the forces that continue their
struggle in the name of Armenia no matter what terror they have been
subjected to by the regime.”

Pressure on the PAP leader appears to continue. While Tsarukyan
has not yet been stripped of his parliamentary seat over “chronic
absenteeism”, Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan said that the current
RPA position is not different from that expressed by President Sargsyan
on February 12.

“I think that the PAP should come up with a new strategy. As for who
will lead this new party strategy is not known to me,” he said.

ARTS PERSONALITIES LIKELY TO REQUEST SERZH SARGSYAN TO PARDON VARDAN PETROSYAN

Lragir.am
Law – 26 February 2015, 15:52

The Haykakan Zhamanak writes: “HZh has learned that some arts
personalities are considering to address Serzh Sargsyan with a request
to pardon the famous actor Vardan Petrosyan sentenced to 5 years.

After the sentence had been pronounced, one of his advocates Nikolay
Baghdasaryan announced that considering that the crime was committed
by negligence, if he is sentenced to five years, he will be amnestied.

Inmates of different penitentiaries are also expecting Serzh Sargsyan
to announce an amnesty on the centenary of the genocide.

However, at the higher levels of the government they claim that
there are no such preparations now, and nothing like this is expected
until April 24. Hence, the arts personalities who will be probably
joined by some famous public personalities are discussing the option
of holding out a request to Serzh Sargsyan. The higher levels of the
government are speaking that soon Serzh Sargsyan will, most probably,
pardon some other people as well.”