Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ALLIES AND ALLEGIANCES: ARMENIA AGAIN VOICES DISCONTENT WITH RUSSIAN ARMS DELIVERIES TO AZERBAIJAN

ANALYSIS | 16.03.15 | 10:21

Photo:

By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent

Armenia would prefer if Russia did not sell arms to Azerbaijan, the
nation’s top diplomat said in a recent interview with the Slovenian
Dnevnik newspaper.

“But we are not asking friendly countries, partner countries to do
something for Armenia against somebody else. What we are expecting
concretely on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not to support one
side against the other, just to be in line with the position of the
international community expressed by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group. And Russia is one of the three Co-Chairs,” Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian said.

Russia, which is a strategic ally of Armenia, has sold weapons worth
billions of dollars to Azerbaijan, which has, in fact, declared war
on Armenia. And this fact in recent years has become a major stumbling
block in the relations between Yerevan and Moscow.

Foreign Minister Nalbandian, perhaps, for the first time expresses
dissatisfaction with Russia. Before him, on several occasions President
Serzh Sargsyan and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan spoke about the
matter publicly. However, Russia did not consider it necessary to
cut off supplies.

The information background of the Armenian-Russian friendship has
clearly deteriorated. While officially only cautious discontent is
heard, in parliament, in the press and in public forums there has
been a more frequent talk about the negative role of Russia in the
events after the 1915 Genocide, the Russian support for Armenia’s
enemies today, etc. The information background has been pretty
much messed up by the tragic events in Gyumri where on January 12
a soldier of the locally stationed Russian military base allegedly
killed a seven-member Armenian family in a shooting spree. And Russia
consistently does not want to transfer the accused to Armenian justice.

The negative impact on the myth of the eternal Armenian-Russian
friendship and Russia’s saving role was also made by the apparent
compulsion of Armenia to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The
first results of Armenia’s membership are almost disastrous for
Armenian producers and exporters, and the official statistics of
Armenia demonstratively does not hide it.

In Moscow they understand that the deterioration of the information
background may lead to a rupture of political relations. As a step to
reduce the degree of tension it was stated that on April 24 Russian
President Vladimir Putin will visit Yerevan for the commemoration
of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. However, against the
background of rumors about the disappearance of Putin and certain
political processes in Moscow this information has had no propaganda
influence on Yerevan.

Will Armenia remain an eternal and, perhaps, only ally of Russia?

Moscow is rapidly losing allies – at the end of last week, China
suddenly denounced the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and
said about strengthening of relations with the United States. Even
Belarus and Kazakhstan – Russia’s partners in the EEU – are actively
developing relations with the West. Armenian leadership remains,
perhaps, alone in the camp of allies of Russia, which, on its part,
torpedoes relations between Yerevan and its Western partners and Iran.

The words of the Armenian foreign minister, who is known for his
unconditional support of friendship with Russia, are also evidence
that Armenia’s political allegiance is not infinite.

PARTICIPANTS OF EURONEST SESSION VISIT TSITSERNAKABERD

13:27, 16 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Participants of the 4th Ordinary Session of Euronest Parliamentary
Assembly visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan today.

Parliamentarians of European and Eastern Partnership states’
parliaments meet for 4th Ordinary Session of Euronest Parliamentary
Assembly in Yerevan, Armenia, 16-18 March.

LARGE STORES KILL SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES -CONSUMER WATCHDOG

YEREVAN, March 16. / ARKA /. The emergence of supermarkets leads
to death of small and medium-sized businesses, according to Armen
Poghosyan, the head of the Association of Armenian Consumers.

Speaking at a news conference today he said shopping malls and big
stores in the country are constructed in places where free space is
available by ignoring other factors.

As an example he pointed out four big shopping centers built next to
one another in a downtown street in Yerevan which means that small
and medium-sized shops will not be able to exist in their neighborhood.

According to him, there is no urban planning at all ‘because urban
planning is not only construction of buildings, but also proper
distribution of labor and material assets.”

He said big supermarkets should be built outside downtown areas,
while small shops should be within walking distance next to each
residential house.

“In big cities small stores on 15 square meters and big stores on
15500 square meters are cost-effective,’ said Poghosyan. He said
large supermarkets should not be built in small towns because of
little population.

According to the National Statistical Service, in late 2014 there
were 12,786 stores in Armenia (76.8% of all shopping facilities, a 1%
increase from the previous year) with a turnover of 1.080 trillion
drams (a 2.9% rise from 2013). Yerevan had 8,149 stores which accounted
for 964, 8 billion drams of the total turnover.

The number of micro stores (with up to 5 employees) increased last year
by 1.3% to 11,597 with the turnover of 197.6 billion drams (up 5.6%),
while the number of small shops (6-15 employees) decreased by 5 7%
to 701 with the turnover of 129.5 billion drams (a decline of 9%).

The number of medium-sized stores (16-30 employees) increased by 7.7%
to 168 with the turnover of 70.7 billion drams (a decline of 3.8%),
and the number of large stores (31 people or more) increased by 5. 1%
to 163 with the turnover of 682.1 billion drams (a growth of 5.4%). ($
1 – 481.28 drams). -0-

The Times Educational Supplement, UK
March 13, 2015

Armenian ‘soup’ has the ingredients to unite nations

by: William Stewart

£83 million international school aims to promote world peace

Nestled between snow-covered mountains at the bottom of a steep,
forested valley, Dilijan is blessed with an undeniably beautiful
location.

But just as apparent in the Armenian town is poverty. Austere
Communist-era blocks of flats are interspersed with ramshackle houses,
exposed gas pipes and battered old Soviet cars.

In the past two years, an island of wealth and investment has sprung
up in this unlikely location, in the form of a gleaming new $125
million (£83 million) school under the headship of John Puddefoot,
former deputy head of Eton College.

Few locals will attend this state-of-the-art campus. It has been
funded by the near-billion-dollar fortune of Ruben Vardanian, a
banking tycoon turned philanthropist, partly because the Moscow-based
Armenian wanted somewhere to send his two youngest children.

But their future schoolmates are unlikely to share such affluent
backgrounds. Some will come from the poorest countries in the world,
from families who cannot afford to give them pocket money, let alone
pay school fees.

This is not the straightforward story of a boarding school designed to
get rich kids into top universities.

This is the latest United World College (UWC), part of a global
educational movement founded in South Wales more than half a century
ago, with the lofty goal of promoting world peace.

Its roots go back to Atlantic College, an independent sixth-form
boarding college on the Glamorgan coast, opened in 1962 by Kurt Hahn.
Amid growing cold war tension, the German educationalist wanted to use
education as a way of uniting the world.

Out of Atlantic College grew both the International Baccalaureate and
a string of affiliated schools on five different continents, all based
on Hahn’s principles.

He believed that by schooling children from opposing countries
together, they would go on to promote peace.

At the new school in Dilijan, which opened last autumn and is the 14th
UWC, you can see those principles in action among the first students,
who come from 48 different countries.

TES visited the day after heavy fighting resumed in Ukraine between
government forces and Russian-backed rebels.

As the students gathered for a group discussion on the purpose of
education, one of their teachers quietly pointed out that two students
from the warring countries had sat down next to each other.

And alongside them were an Armenian and a Turk – students who grew up
on opposite sides of the divide created by the 1915 Armenian genocide;
an atrocity that still creates tensions a hundred years later.

The seating arrangements were not contrived, they were just friends
who wanted to sit together. And that is exactly how a UWC is supposed
to work. Asked how the school – which also has students from Gaza,
Israel, Iran, Syria and Lebanon – copes when trouble flares up in such
areas, headteacher Mr Puddefoot said: “If people live together they
have to get on.

“It is more subtle than saying, ‘Let’s have a seminar on conflict
resolution.’ We don’t do that. We have found that the students
themselves generate the conversation that is required.

“We simply show people that, even though they are from nations at
loggerheads on a political level, they are human beings just like
anybody else.”

Mr Puddefoot added: “They don’t just bring political differences. They
also bring religious, cultural and socioeconomic differences. So it is
an absolute soup of different perspectives, which we need to manage
actively.”

The soup is very carefully concocted. Each UWC decides the exact
international balance of students it wants, and then turns to the UWC
national committees in 147 countries to recruit and select them.

Admission is designed to be needs-blind: 63 of Dilijan’s initial 96
students are on 100 per cent scholarships; most of the rest will have
at least half their fees paid.

But to be admitted, the teenagers – who will have no choice over which
UWC they are sent to – must be able to speak English, or be able pick
it up quickly.

They need to be able to thrive in a strange country and have, as Mr
Puddefoot puts it, “some sense of wanting the world to be a better
place”.

That comes over powerfully from the school’s idealistic and articulate students.

“This college is making me a better human being,” said Jady Sampaio de
Araujo, a 17-year-old from Brazil. “Now when I hear about the Ukraine
it has a name and a face. I know people, so when I hear about the
conflict it touches my heart.”

Co-founder and chair of governors Veronika Zonabend, the wife of Mr
Vardanian, was originally inspired to create a utopian school after
hearing a speech by Liverpudlian educationalist Sir Ken Robinson.

“He said, ‘Education is the key for the future, but the key is turned
in the wrong direction’,” Ms Zonabend recalled. “I agree that
education doesn’t need reforming. It needs a completely new approach.”

The couple felt that Armenia offered more potential for this than more
developed countries, and set out to open a genuinely international
school – a perfect fit, they quickly realised, with the UWC movement.

No expense has been spared in turning their vision into reality.
Boarding houses look like Swiss chalets, built with local materials to
traditional Armenian designs.

The school itself – with roofs sculpted to merge with the valley floor
– feels like an extremely high-end academy, complete with a very
expensive-looking swimming pool.

One student described the campus as “over-fancy”, and was concerned
about how that would make local people feel.

But the foundation set up by the couple behind the school is also
investing in the rest of Dilijan. It has already created more than 100
new jobs and is ensuring that the school remains active in the local
community.

Ms Zonabend is unapologetic about the college’s intake. “We are not an
Armenian school,” she said. “We are an international school in
Armenia. I do not believe in double standards and the fact that I
built this school for my kids is proof that I really believe in it.”

Her staff believe in it, too. “It is very different from a girls’
independent school in Surrey,” said deputy head Sally Norris, who
came, via Atlantic College, from just such a school. “There is no
shared culture and assumptions, so people have to listen to each
other.

“Everyone looks at things through a lens and here you learn what your
own lens is.”

Glendale News Press, CA
March 13 2015

Protesters assemble at Americana after mall’s handling of apparel
referencing Armenian Genocide

By Arin Mikailian, [email protected] and Sameea Kamal,
[email protected]

March 13, 2015 | 8:39 p.m.

About 50 people, most of them Armenian-Americans, gathered at the
Americana at Brand Friday evening wearing T-shirts that referenced the
Armenian Genocide — shirts the outdoor mall’s management allegedly
told the vendor to stop displaying before reversing their decision and
issuing an apology on social media.

They were there in protest of the management’s decision, which
recently came to light.

At around 6:30 p.m., protesters began assembling around the Brand
Boulevard entrance. They walked inside the Americana and went, first,
to the booth where the T-shirts were being sold.

The T-shirts and hoodies were not on display because one of the owners
of the business, Tina Chuldzhyan, said she still has not received a
personal apology from Caruso Affiliated.

Later, the protesters walked in a circle around the outdoor mall.

Ara Manoogian, founder of the blog “The Truth Must be Told,” organized
the event, which was meant to be a peaceful gathering. He said
participants were handing out fliers with an article written about the
controversy by an Armenian publication.

“The overall goal, at this stage, is to get an explanation from
Americana management because there’s been a lot of inconsistencies,”
Manoogian said, adding that if Americana officials want to show
they’re sorry, they could host an event commemorating the centennial
of the Armenian genocide because they’ve organized other events
celebrating heritage, such as the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Glendale police officers were walking around the mall during the
protest, but there was no confrontation with the protesters.

,0,6646359.story

L’Obs, France
15 mars 2015

“Arménien, j’ai vraiment eu peur que notre culture disparaisse”

Par L’ Obs

VIDEO. Antoine Agoudjian photographie les Arméniens d’aujourd’hui afin
de participer à l’écriture de leur histoire tant niée.

Le 24 avril prochain auront lieu les commémorations du génocide
arménien, responsable d’environ 1,5 million de morts en 1915. Cette
semaine, l’Obs publie les bonnes feuilles du travail d’Antoine
Agoudjian, dont l’oeuvre “Le Cri du silence” sera publiée le 18 mars
prochain (Flammarion).

Longtemps tireur en laboratoire, il fut révélé à la photographie lors
d’un premier voyage humanitaire en Arménie, durement frappée en 1988
par un terrible tremblement de terre. De retour en France, ses images
retiennent l’attention de personnalités comme Robert Delpire et Robert
Doisneau.

Depuis, inlassablement, l’homme part sur les traces de la culture
arménienne de la Turquie à l’Irak, en passant par Jérusalem ou la
Syrie. Pendant ses voyages, il s’arrête dans des villages improbables,
parfois invisibles sur les cartes, et nous offre des portraits d’une
force inouïe.

Antoine Agoudjian exposera également à Lyon à la Galerie “Le Bleu du
ciel”, du 3 avril au 23 mai. Puis à Montélimar au Centre d’art Espace
Chabrillan, du 12 mai au 7 juin.

Le Populaire du Centre
Mardi 10 Mars 2015

RUBRIQUE: HAUTE VIENNE OUVERTURE

Le cycle d’événements préparés par Caucase Arménie plus débutera
jeudi, par un colloque international (entrée libre et gratuite).

Dès 9 heures, les conférences s’enchaîneront à la faculté de droit de
Limoges (site Turgot) : « le crime de masse et le droit », à 9 h 45,
par Virginie Saint-James, maître de conférence en droit public à
l’université de Limoges ; « la nécessité de juger les crimes de masse
», à 10 h 45, par maître Christian Bournazel, avocat au barreau de
Paris ; « les premiers procès du génocide des Arméniens », à 11 h 15,
par Mickaël Nichanian, conservateur à la Bibliothèque nationale de
France ; « la question du génocide des Arméniens à l’épreuve des
droits fondamentaux », à 11 h 45, par Daniel Kuri, maître de
conférence en droit privé (Limoges) ; « la mémoire et ses lieux,
approche comparée : Arménie, Cambodge, ex-Yougoslavie, Rwanda », à 14
heures, par Pascal Plas, directeur de la chaire d’excellence « gestion
du conflit et de l’après-conflit » (Limoges) ; « la place du génocide
des Arméniens dans la controverse sur les lois mémorielles », à 14 h
30, par Boris Adjemian, historien ; « Le génocide des Arméniens :
l’héritage traumatique. Exemple de sa transmission chez une Française
d’origine arménienne », à 15 heures, par Janine Altounian, essayiste.

A 17 heures, Aghet, un documentaire fiction de 2010, qui retrace le
déroulement du génocide, de 1915 à 1917, sera projeté par
l’association.

Vendredi, à la BFM, Olivier Balabanian et Françoise Ardillier-Caras
aborderont les frontières de l’Arménie. A 16 heures, projection de
Chouchi, le murmure des ruines, présentée par sa réalisatrice . A 18
heures : un apéritif-concert, au café littéraire : Yerso et ses
musiciens.

Samedi : à 11 heures, inauguration de l’exposition « la foi des
montagnes », visible jusque le 21 mars ; à 14 heures, à la BFM, une
conférence intitulée « Nation et religion, la double vocation de
l’Eglise arménienne », par Philippe Sukiasyan ; à 19 h 30, grand repas
arménien, salle Jean-Paul-II, à Limoges (30 ?).

Dimanche, à 11 heures, une messe sera donnée à la cathédrale, en
hommage aux victimes des génocides, par Mgr Kalist, évêque de Limoges
et Mgr Teyrouz, éparque de Sainte-Croix des Arméniens de Paris.

Enfin, au foyer de l’opéra-thétre de Limoges, Adam Barro,
baryton-basse, chantera des airs d’opéra et de compositeurs arméniens,
accompagné au piano par Antoine Mételin.

Tragic news: Arthur Yernjakyan, ArmInfo’s leading economic columnist
dies aged 52

Monday, March 16, 00:06

ArmInfo’s staff is shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Arthur
Yernjakyan, the leading economic columnist of the agency.

Yet a few days ago we wished him a happy travel. Arthur with a group
of other Armenian journalists left to Georgia on an official journey.
On the last day of the journey, the journalists were enjoying a supper
at a local restaurant when suddenly Arthur felt sick. The ambulance
crew could not save his life. The talented journalist died of a heart
attack. His slogan was “only reliable and accurate information”, “no
rumors or unverified data.” This is how he worked. The Lord works in a
strange way! Arthur passed away aged 52, leaving alone his two minor
children and lovely wife he adored and cared deeply. A family man with
great sense of humor, aware and responsive to his friends and
colleagues, he was a man of many accomplishments.

Rest in peace, dear friend! May the ground be light to you!

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 14 2015

Turkey slams European Parliament call for recognition of `Armenian genocide’

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session in
Strasbourg. (Photo: Reuters)

March 14, 2015, Saturday/ 16:09:35/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

The Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced on Saturday a report adopted
last week by the European Parliament that called on European Union
member states to recognize Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of
the late Ottoman Empire.

In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç called the
European Parliament’s annual human rights and democracy report’s
reference to the Armenian claims as `devoid of historical reality and
legal basis.’

`We find these expressions extremely problematic and regret them,’
Bilgiç said in the statement.

The European Parliament adopted the Annual Report on Human Rights and
Democracy in the World 2013 on March 12. Article 77 of the report
`calls, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, on
all the Member States legally to acknowledge it, and encourages the
Member States and the EU institutions to contribute further to its
recognition.’

Armenians say 1.5 people were killed during the First World War years
in eastern Anatolia as part of a systematic genocide campaign against
the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey disputes that
claim, saying both that the death toll is inflated and that the
Armenians were killed while the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell
unrest caused by Armenian attacks on Turkish population in an effort
to establish an Armenian state in eastern Anatolia.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute and normalize relations
between Turkey and Armenia have produced no result after protocols
signed to that effect were shelved amid disagreements over Turkish
demands that a settlement should also include a resolution in the
Azerbaijani territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied by Armenia.

Armenians are preparing for commemorations on centennial of the
killings on April 24, the date they say marks the beginning of the
alleged genocide campaign in 1915. The annual commemoration is also an
opportunity for increased lobbying for greater recognition of the
alleged genocide worldwide.

Turkey declared that it will also host commemorative events on April
24 this year, in memory of those who perished during the Gallipoli
Battle of the First World War in 1915. More than 100 countries,
including Armenia, were invited to the events in Çanakkale but
Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan swiftly dismissed the invitation,
saying in an open letter addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an that it is an attempt to distract the world’s attention from
the 100th anniversary of the alleged genocide.

Bilgiç said the European Parliament report offers a `one-sided’
interpretation of an era that was `tragic’ for the entire population
of the Ottoman Empire with a `selective sense of justice’ and that the
document sets out `demands that defy logic and law.’

He said such steps hurt both Turkey-EU relations and prospects for the
Turks and Armenians to build their future together and added that
Ankara expected its European partners to contribute to efforts to
resolve the disputes, not to deepen them.

“DO NOTHING, SAY NOTHING, TAKE WHAT IS GIVEN”: WHY THE EEU IS CONVENIENT FOR ARMENIAN LEADERS

03.13.2015 18:29 epress.am

In recent years, a culture of sanctimonious, pseudo-traditional
relations has formed in Armenia, which has been mixed with criminal
world’s “rule book.” The latter was said by writer, public intellectual
Vahram Martirosyan (pictured on right) during a press conference
today, March 13, speaking of the peculiarities of the current
political culture.

According to the writer, the proof of the latter is that the conflict
between President Serzh Sargsyan and Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik
Tsarukyan was resolved by the rules of a “a criminal showdown.”

“A quite distant mediator appeared, reconcilatory gestures were
found between the sides. One was expelled with humiliation, the
other generously won without using all of his winner’s rights,”
said Martirosyan. He stressed, however, that they did make numerous
accusations about each other, which has to do with the “qyart (rabiz)
culture” that has formed in Armenia.

To the question of whether the situation were to get worse after
joining the Eurasian Economic Union, Vahram Martirosyan answered
in agreement, noting that Russia’ political culture has a negative
influence on Armenia.

Another press conference participant cultural academic Vardan Jaloyan
(pictured on left) stressed that Russia’s negative influence did not
start in one day and is not only connected to joining the EEU. He
recalled that the Russian ruling “United Russia Party” slogan, “Go,
Russia!”, was copied by Serzh Sargsyan’s team in 2008 saying, “Go,
Armenia!” According to Jaloyan, Armenia’s ruling Republican Party
copies the United Russia Party’s structure in the same manner; “Both
of them are the same type of party – a party of everything. You can
find whatever you want there, if, of course, the person is corrupted,
or has any other kind of weakness.” That, according to the speaker,
is tied to Serzh Sargsyan’s basic approach of ‘don’t do anything and
don’t say anything, take what’s given and make an autonomous state
into a political colony.’

Turning to the formulation of ‘not doing anything,’ Vahram Martirosyan
tied the second and third presidencies of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh
Sargsyan to the Soviet past.

“Both, Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan were officials of a middle
management party. They are used to working in a hierarchal structure.

And now, that the EEU’s reality is conceived, it is of a higher
psychological convenience for that type of officials, because they
have someone higher than them,” said Martirosyan.