Author: Chakrian Hovsep

ARMENIAN DIASPORA MINISTER HRANUSH HAKOBYAN VISITS JORDAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 7, 2010 – 22:01 AMT 17:01 GMT

Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan left for Jordan, accompanied
by Honorary Consul of Armenia in Israel Tsolag Momjian.

Before her meeting with the Armenian community of Jordan, Minister
Hakobyan paid a visit to the Armenian Church being built at the site
where Christ was baptized. By the decision of the authorities of
Jordan, leaders of 16 Christian churches, including the Apostolic
Church of Armenia, are building churches near the site where Christ
was baptized by John the Baptist. The Armenian Church is being built
with funding from French Armenian doctor Karo Karapetian’s heritage
which was left for that purpose.

Hranush Hakobyan also paid a visit to Calouste Gulbenkian Seminary in
Amman where she had a meeting with teachers and students. The Minister
also attended an event organized by the students, which was dedicated
to Armenia and the Armenian Army.

RA Minister of Diaspora also visited the Armenian Prelacy in Amman
and had a meeting with heads of the Armenian community. During the
meeting, she discussed issues related to strengthening of relations
between Armenia and the Diaspora.

Minister Hakobyan met representatives of the Armenian community at
the Armenian cultural center in Jordan. During the nearly two-hour
meeting, the Minister gave a lengthy speech and answered the community
representatives’ questions regarding acquisition of RA citizenship,
Diaspora Armenian businessmen’s activities in Armenia, taxing and
customs obligations and more.

Hakobyan donated the books published by the RA Ministry of Diaspora
to representatives of the Armenian community and Calouste Gulbenkian
Seminary, RA Diaspora Ministry official website reported.

REMEMBERING SHUSHI: 18 YEARS AFTER LIBERATION
By Suren Musayelyan

ArmeniaNow
May 7, 2010

When the bravest of Armenia’s sons were on standby before launching
an offensive that would mark a turning point in the Karabakh war 18
years ago today, many perhaps had the glory of their World War II
veteran grandfathers on their minds.

In the early hours of May 8, 1992, 47 years after Armenians danced
Kochari in Berlin at the end of World War Two in Europe, elite
Armenian soldiers began to storm Shushi, an Azeri-held strategic
town some ten kilometers south of the Karabakh capital. A day later,
the Azeri stronghold that had turned the lives of civilians in
lower-lying Stepanakert and nearby villages into hell, fell, opening
up opportunities for further Armenian victories in the Karabakh war.

Today, 18 years after that victory, participants of the Shushi
liberation remember those days and their meaning for the future
victories that would come in Karabakh battlefields.

Doctor Aida Serobyan says she went to Karabakh after seeing on TV that
people there were in dire need of doctors. She says the liberation
of Shushi gave the residents of Stepanakert an opportunity to leave
the basements of their homes and walk outside without fearing Azeri
shelling for the first time in two years.

"Babies, who were born in cellars, saw light for the first time after
Shushi’s liberation," says the doctor.

Igor Sargsyan, one of the participants of the Shushi liberation,
fought in the detachment consisting of students. Sargsyan says the
Karabakh war is not over yet and that Armenians should be ready for
renewed hostilities any moment.

Sargsyan says the years of relative peace in Armenia and Karabakh
that followed the 1994 ceasefire have somewhat altered the values as
"heroism, devotion and self-sacrifice have given way to greed and
meanness as virtues."

But both Sargsyan and Serobyan say they will again go and fight for
their homeland should it need their services.

"If not we, then who was supposed to stand for the defense of the
Homeland? Our generation performed its duty," says Sargsyan.

NICE : LA COMMUNAUTE ARMENIENNE SOUS HAUTE TENSION
par Stephane

armenews
jeudi6 mai 2010

REVUE DE PRESSE

Rien ne va plus a l’eglise apostolique du boulevard de la Madeleine.

Des paroissiens denoncent un climat d’intimidation.

Ce sont des coups de poing qui en disent long. Revelateurs du climat
de haute tension qui règne au sein de la communaute armenienne a Nice.

L’agression dont a ete victime le fils d’un de ses responsables (lire
ci-dessous) a suscite l’intervention, avant-hier, du procureur de la
Republique en personne, desireux d’enrayer une derive inquietante.

" La situation ambiante au sein de la communaute armenienne pose des
problèmes, dixit Eric de Montgolfier. Il y a une lutte de pouvoir
assez âpre, qui a pris cette fois-ci un tour violent. J’ai voulu
adresser un avertissement pour l’avenir. "

Au coeur du conflit : l’eglise apostolique situee boulevard de la
Madeleine, a proximite immediate du centre culturel Barsamian. Deux
camps s’opposent farouchement pour son contrôle. L’affaire n’est pas
sans evoquer celle de l’Eglise orthodoxe russe du boulevard Tzarewitch,
où deux partis s’affrontent pour la propriete des lieux.

Mais le climat est, ici, autrement plus deletère. Avec des accusations
mutuelles d’intimidations, menaces ou malversations. Voire des passages
a l’acte.

Menaces de mort

" Jamais dans la longue histoire de [notre] Eglise, nous n’avions
traverse une crise aussi grave et aussi dangereuse. " C’est la
paroisse qui a recemment tire la sonnette d’alarme dans un bulletin
d’information exceptionnel.

Mais qui s’oppose donc a qui ? Pour Michel Djarbikian, vice-president
du conseil paroissial, ce sont les ecclesiastiques qui veulent prendre
le pouvoir aux depens des laïcs. Et c’est le père Vatche Ayrapetyan,
le cure de la paroisse – aujourd’hui demissionnaire – qui est pointe
du doigt.

Dans un courrier adresse au president de la Republique, les membres
du conseil paroissial et du conseil communautaire (1) denoncent un "
risque de derive communautariste " et des " menaces de mort emanant
d’un groupe violent constitue d’une cinquantaine d’hommes de main. " Le
president du conseil communautaire, Gaspard Kayadjanian, deplore pour
sa part des agissements " très dommageables pour notre communaute ".

Un emissaire du Catholicos

Quant au père Vatche Ayrapetyan, il se refuse a toute declaration,
s’estimant tenu a un devoir de reserve. Mis en cause par une partie
de la communaute, il a presente sa demission, laquelle n’a pas
encore ete acceptee par les instances religieuses. Pour l’heure,
il n’officie plus.

Le " pape " de l’Eglise armenienne, le Catholicos Karekine II qui
reside a Etchmiadzine, près d’Erevan, a depeche un emissaire, le père
Mesrop Barsamian, pour ramener un peu de serenite. Les 4 000 Nicois
d’origine armenienne prient avec lui pour que cette communaute,
qui a toujours ete exemplaire, retrouve la paix.

1.-Le conseil communautaire represente la communaute armenienne et
a une fonction essentiellement culturelle.

UNREADY FLIRTATION WITH TURKEY

Lragir.am
6/05/10

The first phase of the Armenian and Turkish process ended in favor of
Turkey, said the former NKR foreign minister Arman Melikyan. Melikyan
says Turkey managed to show to the international society that Armenia
"in essence, reconciled with the events taken place in the region after
the first war and the territorial losses of Armenia". Arman Melikyan
says that today Turkey refers to the treaty of Kars in connection
with Nakhidjevan issue, noting that Turkey will go one making such
steps, while Armenia is not ready for them either ideologically or
intellectually. "I do not mean the governmental camp only. I mean the
public too, because I do not see discussions in this connections",
says Arman Melikyan.

Member of Armenian National Congress, Chair of Liberal party Hovhannes
Hovhannisyan agreed with Arman Melikyan. He stated that the republic
of Armenia was not ready for a "flirtation" with Turkey. According to
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, democratic reforms were required in Armenia,
a power formed through public will, public consensus and only after an
initiative to normalize relations with Turkey. Hovhannisyan reiterated
that Serge Sargsyan’s initiative was aimed only to cover the lack of
his home legitimacy with foreign one.

Arman Melikyan noted that now Armenia is not a geopolitical factor,
but a means which will do everything it is said to. According to him,
after the upcoming visit of Medvedev to Turkey, Armenia will be said
what to do. Melikyan says if Armenia really wants to become a factor,
it has to state in public that the provisions of the Kars treaty are
no longer in force. According to him, so Armenia will create a new
situation in the region becoming a significant factor.

Hovhannes Hovhannisyan also thinks that Armenia is not independent. He
thinks Armenia takes decisions only with the approval of foreign
forces, just like, probably, in case of the suspension of the Armenian
and Turkish protocols’ ratification process.

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FMS TO MEET IN EUROPE SOON

Today
2.html
May 6 2010
Azerbaijan

Co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group expect to hold a regular meeting between
foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Europe to discuss
the next actions in the negotiation process on Nagorno-Karabakh,
the statement said.

A meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group was held on Wednesday in Vienna
in a closed format. At the briefing, chairmen of the group informed
representatives of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries about the
negotiation process to resolve the Karabakh conflict, and future
actions.

They underscored the commitment of the parties to make progress on the
elaboration of a settlement based on the Madrid Principles as well as
the elements contained in the joint statement issued by Presidents
of the Co-Chair countries at the L’Aquila Summit of the Eight July
10, 2009.

At the Vienna meeting, Russian co-chairman Yuri Merzlyakov formally
handed over his post to Igor Popov newly appointed to this position.

SOVIET INTELLIGENCE AGENTS GEVORG AND GOHAR VARDANYANS TO TELL ABOUT TEHRAN-43

Times.am
4 May, 2010, 10:18 pm

The Russian television audience will have the opportunity to watch a
docudrama about , legendary intelligence agents, this month. The film
will tell about the role of the Soviet intelligence agents foreign
intelligence service in the failure of fascist Germany’s plans on
annihilation of leaders of the anti-Nazi coalition during their
historical meeting in Tehran in 1943, RIA Novosti reported.

The source quoted Head of the Press Office of the Russian Foreign
Intelligence Service (FIS) Sergei Ivanov as saying that the film
is dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great
Patriotic War. Besides, the film is a part of a large-scale project
dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Russian intelligence service.

It is created through the assistance of the press office of the
Russian FIS.

According to Ivanov, Gevorg and Gohar Vardanyans are the main
characters of the film, entitled: "True story: Tehran 43." The
married couple of underground intelligence agents will tell about the
events took place in Tehran in 1943. "The couple will tell about many
episodes of their professional and private life for the first time,"
Ivanov noted.

NICE : GENOCIDE ARMENIEN 95E COMMEMORATION
Stephane

armenews
4 mai 2010

Une fois encore, les Armeniens de Nice se sont rassembles devant le
jardin Albert 1er pour marcher vers le monument aux morts de Rauba
Capeu derrière le president du conseil communautaire armenien de la
Côte d’Azur, Gaspard Kayadjanian, aux côtes du ministre de l’Industrie
et maire de Nice, Christian Estrosi.

A quand l’inscription de la loi sur le negationnisme au Senat ?

Devant, les enfants d’Armenie avec leurs ~illets rouges de Nice qu’ils
deposeront au monument aux morts, derrière, les banderoles appelant a
la penalisation du negationnisme du genocide, comme c’est deja le cas
pour le genocide juif de la 2e guerre mondiale. Qu’attend la communaute
armenienne de France aujourd’hui ? Que la loi sur la penalisation
du negationnisme sur le genocide armenien soit enfin inscrite a
l’ordre du jour du Senat pour que les decrets soient promulgues,
ce qui n’a jamais ete fait depuis trois ans. C’est ce qu’a rappele
dans son allocution, le president des Armeniens de la Côte d’Azur,
Gaspard Kayadjanian. Le gouvernement semble l’avoir entendu puisque
des assurances ont ete donnees a la communaute pour une inscription
a l’ordre du jour du Senat, a l’automne prochain. Devant le monument
aux morts, les mots de bienvenue ont ete prononces par un jeune,
Garo Mardirosyan, qui a laisse place a la lecture d’un poème du
celèbre Toumanian, lu en armenien par une jeune fille de la communaute.

Gaspard Kayadjanian a rappele les elements historiques du genocide
de plus d’1,5 millions d’Armeniens en avril 1915, les gens deportes,
assassines, femmes et enfants, vieillards et elus du peuple, villages
rases, monastères et eglises pilles et saccages.

Les trois bonnes nouvelles de 2010

Encore aujourd’hui, la blessure reste beante tant le gouvernement
turc s’obstine a refuser de reconnaître l’evidence, et sans que les
autres le fassent comme le president Barack Obama qui n’a pas ose
citer le mot de " genocide ". Il y a encore un long chemin avant la
reconnaissance… Le blocus de l’Armenie par la Turquie est toujours
applique aujourd’hui.

Pourtant, en 2010, il y a eu trois bonnes nouvelles selon Gaspard
Kayadjanian : " La Catalogne, la Suède et la Chambre des representants
aux Etats-Unis ont signe la reconnaissance du genocide ".

Et derrière, encore les memes menaces du gouvernement turc d’expulser
des Armeniens et de se tourner vers le frère musulman iranien.

Decidemment, la Turquie ne peut pas etre un pays membre de l’Union
europeenne. Pourtant, elle beneficie de conditions financières plus que
favorables de l’Europe " avec un pret de plus de 6 milliards d’~@ ".

En finir avec les declarations menacantes des Turcs

Les Armeniens ne demandent que la plus elementaire des justices,
que le mensonge soit puni : " Pour qu’on puisse, enfin, faire notre
travail de deuil et de memoire… Quand la Turquie s’inclinera
devant nos morts, alors nos martyrs pourront reposer en paix ", a
conclu Gaspard Kayadjanian. S’en est suivi les traditionnels depôts
de gerbes en commencant par celui ô combien symbolique en ces temps
troubles, du conseil communautaire avec Gaspard Kayadjanian et son
vice-president, Kirkor Ajderhanian, le depôt de gerbes des anciens
combattants, du president du conseil general 06, represente par
Lionnel Luca et Joseph Calza, du president du conseil regional Paca,
represente par Patrick Allemand, du maire de Nice par Rudy Salles,
Dominique Estrosi-Sassone et Annie Kassigian.

Enfin la prière a ete prononcee conjointement par Mesrop Barsamian et
le père antonin Blanchi representant l’eveque de Nice, Mgr Sankale, qui
a recite le Notre Père : " Qui veut qu’on soit uni et que l’on pardonne
a ceux qui nous ont offense ". La sonnerie aux morts pouvait retentir.

English ousts Russian in ex-Soviet Georgia’s schools

Created 03/05/2010 –

At schools across ex-Soviet Georgia, English is ousting Russian as the
pro-Western authorities mount an ambitious campaign to promote the language
of Shakespeare.

Keen to build closer ties with the West and amid continued tensions with
Moscow after the 2008 Georgia-Russia war, Georgia’s government seems
determined to end Russian’s dominance as the country’s most-spoken foreign
language.

And young Georgians, anxious to learn one of the most widely spoken
languages in the world, couldn’t be happier.

"Every Georgian needs to know English. It is impossible to get a proper
education and build a successful career without knowing English," said
16-year-old Mariam Sulashvili during a break from her English classes at
high school number 47 in central Tbilisi.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a fluent English speaker himself,
has led the charge for English, saying earlier this year that Georgia needs
a "linguistic revolution."

A string of new measures are being taken to help promote English.

Earlier this year, Georgia’s education ministry launched a programme to
bring 1,000 native English teachers to schools across the country starting
in September.

>From 2011, English classes will become compulsory from the first grade in
all Georgian schools.

Tbilisi city hall is also offering free English lessons for adults aimed at
boosting their career prospects.

New rules will even forbid Georgian television from broadcasting
English-language films with Russian voiceover translation, requiring the use
of Georgian subtitles instead.

Education Minister Dimitri Shashkin said the goals of these efforts go
beyond simply teaching English and are important to the country’s
pro-Western aspirations.

"Beyond its immediate goal — to improve English language proficiency — the
programme is aimed at helping Georgian schoolchildren in adopting and
sharing Western values and culture," Shashkin told AFP.

Shashkin insisted that the programme "must not be implemented to the
detriment of the Russian language."

But some in Georgia are concerned about the diminishing knowledge of Russian
here and worry that Georgia is losing touch with the language that for
generations was the small country’s window on the outside world.

First under Tsarist and later under Soviet rule, Russian was the most widely
spoken second language in Georgia and knowledge of it was considered
essential.

Some tensions over use of Russian did exist, as for example when thousands
took to the streets in 1978 to protest plans to abolish the status of
Georgian as an official language in the then-Soviet republic.

But for the most part Georgians embraced Russian and Russian culture had a
profound influence on the country.

Zurab Abashidze, Georgia’s former ambassador to Moscow and director of the
Georgian Institute for Russian Studies, said it was unfortunate that current
tensions with Moscow were pushing Russian to the sidelines.

"The language of Pushkin and Dostoevsky has nothing to do with politics," he
said.

"One day our relations with Russia will be normalised and we may discover
that we lost the Russian language and cut centuries-old cultural ties with
our giant neighbour."

Supporters of the government’s efforts, however, say that regardless of
politics teaching English simply makes more sense in today’s world.
"It is a natural situation caused by the demands of our shrinking world…
and not by artificial government policies," said the director of high school
number 47, Irma Khutsishvili.

"Unlike English, Russian is not a universal language and cannot play the
role that the English language is playing."

AFP

ARMENIAN BUDGET FOR OFFICIALS’ WELL-BEING

news.am
April 30 2010
Armenia

The RA Ministry of Finance has released a budget report on for the
1st quarter of 2010.

According to the report, the budget revenues totaled 164.1bn AMD (7.2%
more than the government-budgeted amount). On-budget expenditures
totaled 170.1bn AMD (90.5%). As a result the budget deficit proved
to be less than the budgeted deficit.

The on-budget expenditures showed an increase of 10.9% (16.7bn AMD) as
compared with the corresponding period last year. The ministry accounts
for the increase by an increase in expenses due to non-financial
assets ands grants, as well as on the service of foreign debt and
social benefits.

Government-financed employees were unlucky. In the 1st quarter 2010,
salaries, though raised by 6.6%, proved to be 10.7% lower than the
budgeted level. So the relevant expenses totaled 14.8bn AMD (8.7%
of the on-budget expenditures).

The government-financed employees can, however, be grouped as follows:
the fist group has to live on "crumbs from the table," whereas the
second, sitting round the table, enjoy themselves with dainties.

High-ranking and other officials at "elite" government agencies make
full use of the opportunities afforded by the state budget.

Specifically, a total of 1.5bn AMD (almost U.S. $4m) has been budgeted
for the salaries to "people’s deputies" and the RA Parliament staff
this year. The expenses on the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) (staff,
cars, business tips, etc..) will total 4.7bn AMD (U.S. $12.2m).

Although the number of ministries is not so high as compared with
the Soviet period, numerous new government agencies have been formed
only to prove a heavy burden on the shoestring state budget. The
past decade has seen the formation of numerous institutes for public
administration and economic management.

Among them is the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission, which
recently gained notoriety for approving the ArmRusgasprom Company’s
application for a new natural gas price. Taxpayers, with most of
them being the monopolist’s clients, are actually "sponsoring" the
company and its highly paid staff, while the company’s decisions
run counter to taxpayers’ interests. Moe examples might as well be
cited. Of importance is, however, the following conclusion: despite
their numerous reports, the sinecure organizations are hardly of
benefit to the Armenian economy.

On top of all this, officials promote their well-being by participating
in numerous projects sponsored by international financial agencies
and donor organizations. This is actually the reason for various
strategic programs, like the Poverty Reduction Program.

WHY I SUPPORT RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE (REP. JOHN SARBANES)
John Sarbanes

The Hill
n-policy/95181-why-i-support-recognition-of-the-ar menian-genocide-rep-john-sarbanes
April 29 2010
DC

April 24th marked the 95th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide,
the systematic annihilation of more than 1.5 million Armenians by
Ottoman-era Turkish authorities. On March 4, 2010, the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs voted in favor of Resolution 252 to recognize the
Genocide. The next step is to achieve recognition in the full House of
Representatives. The Armenian Genocide, the first of the 20th Century,
included massacres, deportations, and death marches where hundreds
of thousands were herded into the Syrian Desert to die of thirst and
starvation. Without final rites, the remains of these victims lay
strewn across the desert in testament to a horrific demise.

Modern-day Turkish authorities sadly have chosen to deny this chapter
of Turkish history and have sought every opportunity to discredit
the findings of legitimate genocide scholars. Notable scholars
and historians who recognize the Armenian Genocide include the
International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Elie Wiesel
Foundation for Humanity whose opinion is supported by 53 Nobel
Laureates. Yet, in the face of all the evidence, Turkey presses
on, exporting a legacy of Genocide denial – a legacy ruthlessly
enforced within its own borders. In Turkey, anyone who uses the word
"genocide" to describe the massacre of the Armenians is subject to
criminal punishment under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. The
late journalist Hrant Dink was prosecuted under this article, and
after being marked as an "enemy of the state," was slain in 2007 by a
17-year old Turkish nationalist. In 2005, Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s first
Nobel Laureate, was charged with the crime of insulting Turkishness,
because he too made mere reference to the Armenian Genocide during
an interview. Thankfully, an international outcry spared him from
full prosecution.

Affirmative denial of the Armenian Genocide – as well as denial
of similar aggression directed in the past at millions of Greeks,
Assyrians and other religious minorities — compromises Turkey’s
ability to tell the positive story of its economic and political
progress in recent years. It also reinforces international perceptions
that Turkey is still governed by a repressive impulse – one that
continues to be directed at those of its peoples who do not comply
with a rigid definition of "Turkishness." For years, Turkey has
discriminated against its largest ethnic minority by outlawing the
Kurdish language, suppressing the Kurdish culture, and officially
classifying Kurds as Mountain Turks, or Eastern Turks. Even the
religious liberties of Turkey’s Muslim majority are subjected to
discriminatory state controls.

In Congress, there is significant support for recognizing the Armenian
Genocide, but sponsors of a resolution to do just that have been
thwarted by Turkey’s relentless lobbying campaign. Threatening
all manner of retaliation should the resolution pass, Turkey has
convinced some members that such action would imperil Turkish-American
relations. The United States should be confident enough about
the mutual stake both parties have in their relationship to know
otherwise. Furthermore, the experience of other nations suggests
there is every reason to believe that America’s recognition of the
Armenian Genocide will ultimately enhance, not damage, its relations
with Turkey. The European Parliament and the legislatures of more
than twenty countries including Canada, France, Italy, and Russia,
have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has not
halted its attempts to join the European Union, and its political
and economic relationship with each of these countries has only grown
since their Genocide recognition.

By speaking candidly to our ally, we can encourage Turkey to face
the dark chapters of its past and abandon the destructive ventures
of its present, such as the ongoing state-sanctioned discrimination
against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the continued occupation of the
Republic of Cyprus and the disenfranchisement of the Kurdish minority.

Recognition of the Armenian Genocide can serve as a catalyst in
securing Turkey’s status as a European democracy worthy of full
European Union membership.

I have heard the common refrain: "It’s just not a good time." That
excuse – and it is only an excuse – can always be trotted out based on
one or another issue that may be pending between the United States and
Turkey. But that excuse ignores the moral imperative to recognize the
Genocide and misunderstands that such recognition will actually enhance
Turkish-American relations and advance America’s strategic interests.

For the sake of its core values and in true furtherance of its
strategic interests, the United States must take a deep breath, look
its ally Turkey in the eye, and recognize the tragedy of the Armenian
Genocide to be an unambiguous fact of history.