Author: Kalantarian Kevo

LA TROIKA DISCREDITEE PAR LE POUVOIR, Y-A-T-IL PLACE POUR UNE VRAIE OPPOSITION EN ARMENIE ?, PAR ROBERT AYDABIRIAN

OPINION

La facon honteuse avec laquelle le conseil du Parti Republicain et
son President ont, le 5 fevrier, insulte Gagik Tzaroukian, le leader
de la Troïka (coalition des trois principaux partis de l’opposition
parlementaire), lui ont ordonne de quitter le champ politique et
menace d’enquete fiscale, en dit long sur la culture democratique du
pouvoir armenien.

La manifestation prevue pour le 20 fevrier, d’abord interdite par
la municipalite, puis annulee par Tzaroukian, suite a son entretien
avec Serge Sarkissian, laisse encore un fois la population decue et
frustree devant le chantage des uns et la lâchete des autres. Les
sphères proches du Kremlin et la presse russe avait diabolise ce
enième rassemblement sur la place de l’Opera, le presentant comme le
prelude a un Maïdan armenien.

La crise s’amplifie.

Ces derniers mois, le pays a vu monter : . les violences policières
contre les militants de divers mouvements (Parlement Fondateur)
ou partis (CNA et PAP) a Bertzor et a Erevan, . le mecontentement
social notamment chez les ouvriers de Naïrite prives de salaire depuis
18 mois et prochainement d’emplois, . l’exasperation des habitants
de Gyumri devant l’impotence du pouvoir judiciaire face a la tuerie
d’une famille entière par un soldat russe . la grogne des cadres des
petits commercants et entrepreneurs.

Tout cela a amene le 13 fevrier le chef modere de la Troïka a durcir
le ton par une replique cinglante aux provocations de Sarkissian,
a rappeler la dizaine de dysfonctionnements majeurs de l’Etat et
exiger en vain la tenue d’elections legislatives et presidentielles
anticipees.

Excluant toute idee de partage du pouvoir et de formation d’un
gouvernement de salut national, le clan au pouvoir rappelle par
son comportement hegemonique et inquisiteur la periode sinistre du
regime stalinien.

Le pire est donc a prevoir de la part des milices privees qui avec
le soutien des services de securite interieure et la passivite de
la justice, sont pretes a multiplier les actions repressives en vue
d’eliminer les elements les plus actifs et courageux de la societe
civile.

La crise economique s’est encore accentuee en decembre 2014 avec la
chute de 50% de la valeur du rouble et du baril de petrole, ce qui a
eu pour consequences la baisse des subsides venant des travailleurs
emigres en Russie, la chute du dram et la montee spectaculaire
des prix.

La population se tourne de plus en plus vers le credit bancaire,
au taux minimum de 20%. Le système bancaire montre des signes de
fragilisation, alors que les importations representent les 2/3 d’une
balance commerciale en peril. Au centre meme de Erevan on constate
la fermeture de magasins et le licenciement de leurs employes.

Dans l’attente d’un sursaut national

Le principal ennemi du pays mais aussi du pouvoir est desormais le
temps. Attendre les elections de 2018, imaginer qu’elles se derouleront
de facon regulière, et permettront un changement de politique et
de personnel gouvernemental, apparait illusoire et dangereux pour
ceux qui s’inquiètent du delitement du pays, de l’aggravation du
climat social et de la poursuite de l’emigration de masse. D’où
proviendra-t-il donc ce sursaut national, indispensable a la perennite
de la Republique, au maintien de son statut de sujet independant de
la communaute internationale, et de patrie historique des Armeniens du
monde entier ? Sera-t-il issu du sein meme du pouvoir, de l’opposition
parlementaire, de la societe civile ou de l’armee ? Les deux premiers
ayant perdu leur credibilite, d’aucuns se tourneront alors vers les
deux autres. L’armee reste en principe le dernier recours pour la
protection de la patrie et de sa population.

Rappelons-nous de la bataille historique de Sardarabad quand la
population, encadree par des fedaïs et des officiers experimentes,
repoussa en 1918, le dernier assaut turque et permit la naissance de
la première Republique.

Quel soutien moral attendre de la diaspora embarquee dans les
commemorations du centenaire ? Va-t-elle enfin regarder le destin de
son peuple tel qu’il se presente aujourd’hui, sans se laisser duper
par des declarations de complaisance ?

Robert Aydabirian

vendredi 27 fevrier 2015, Ara (c)armenews.com

ZHOGHOVURD: SERIOUS VIOLATIONS REVEALED IN AKHTALA MINE ENRICHMENT PLANT

11:28 27/02/2015 >> DAILY PRESS

Armenia’s Ministry of Nature Protection has recently conducted checks
at Akhtala Mine Enrichment Plant, according to Zhoghovurd daily.

Serious violations have been revealed, the newspaper’s sources say.

The Ministry confirmed this report to the newspaper, but did not give
any details.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA SLAMS ISRAELI FM OVER PRESENCE AT KHOJALY EVENT

KARABAKH | 27.02.15 | 10:10

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Official Yerevan finds it inappropriate that Israeli Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman has attended an event organized by Azerbaijan as
part of its campaign on the so-called “Khojaly genocide”.

Enlarge Photo Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan

Lieberman, a Soviet-born Israeli politician who also serves as Israel’s
deputy prime minister today, was on a delegation that also included
a Knesset member that reportedly attended on February 26 an event
marking the 23rd anniversary of what Azerbaijan presents as a massacre
of civilians by Armenian forces in the town of Khajaly in Karabakh.

The Armenian side blames civilian deaths among Azeris during the
Khojaly operation on the Azerbaijani military, saying that they did
not allow the civilian population to be evacuated despite the presence
of a humanitarian corridor.

Asked by the Armenpress news agency about how Yerevan assesses
the presence of the top Israeli diplomat, as part of the electoral
campaign, at the kind of event organized by the Azerbaijani propaganda,
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said: “It is
inappropriate that any politician could allow himself to be dragged
in the Azerbaijani cheap manipulations.”

UNE INFRASTRUCTURE ENERGETIQUE VENDUE A UNE SOCIETE AMERICAINE

ARMENIE

L’ensemble de la presse annonce que le Conseil des Ministres a
approuve l’accord amende de la vente de la centrale hydroelectrique
de Vorotan a la societe americaine Contour Global pour un montant de
180 M USD. Pour memoire, un accord de vente de la centrale avait ete
signe entre le Gouvernement armenien et la societe americaine le 29
janvier 2014, mais, en invoquant des erreurs techniques et tarifaires
figurant le texte de l’accord, la partie armenienne avait suspendu la
transaction. Le Conseil des Ministres a donne son feu vert a la vente
de cette infrastructure a la societe americaine. Haykakan Jamanak
relève que la cascade de Vorotan sera l’infrastructure energetique
la plus chère vendue par la RA a une societe etrangère. Ce quotidien
attire l’attention sur le fait que le Gouvernement a donne son feu
vert a cette transaction a la suite de la visite a Erevan de la
sous-secretaire d’Etat americaine, Victoria Nuland.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 20 fevrier 2015

vendredi 27 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

LA PRODUCTION DE LA JOAILLERIE EN BAISSE

ARMENIE

La production de bijoux s’est eleve a 8,23 milliards de drams en
Armenie entre Janvier et Octobre 2014 soit une baisse de 45,7% par
rapport a la meme periode de 2013, a rapporte ArmStat.

Un total de 895,2 kg de bijoux a ete produit dans la periode,
comparativement a 879,3 kg entre Janvier et Octobre 2013 ( en hausse
de 1,8%).

La production de diamants a ete de 46 094 carats, soit une baisse
de 37,3%.

Les exportations de pierres precieuses et semi-precieuses, de metaux
precieux et produits de leur part ont totalise 188,2 millions de $
(en hausse de 21,2%) entre Janvier et Octobre 2014 ; les importations
etaient de 262,9 millions de $ (en hausse de 7,6%).

vendredi 27 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

MAJORETTE MANIA

ARMENIE

“Nous sommes uniques dans la region, un spectacle inhabituel et
exclusif. Nous sommes les filles du bâton tournoyant “, a declare
Emma Ohanian, majorette armenienne de 21 ans. Elle fait partie du
groupe depuis sa creation en 2009 et aujourd’hui, elle est enseignante.

“Il faut etre en bonne forme physique, avoir un bon sens du rythme,
une bonne posture et, bien sûr, du devouement >>, dit Emma.

D’autres filles dans la bande reconnaissent qu’au debut, cela a ete > pour elles dans leur famille et a l’exterieur compte
tenu de la nature de ces danses choregraphiees en Armenie peu connues.

Mais le public, disent-ils, a pris l’habitude et maintenant les gens
sont fiers d’elles.

Le groupe comprend 21 jeunes femmes âgees de 15 a 23 ans. La
plupart d’entre elles sont diplômees des ecoles de musique. Le
groupe participe a divers defiles et autres evenements, tels que les
ceremonies d’ouverture, les receptions presidentielles, etc ..

vendredi 27 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

SUITE DU PROCÈS PERINCEK : GEORGE ET AMAL CLOONEY MENACES ?

Publie le : 27-02-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – > Nota CVAN : Quand on
connaît les methodes violentes des ultranationalistes turcs qui ont
fait de Perincek leur heros, sachant qu’ils sont en plus soutenus
en sous-main par l’Etat turc, il n’y a pas lieu de s’etonner des
precautions que prend le couple Clooney. Il serait interessant de
savoir s’il a recu des menaces effectives.

Par ailleurs, dans un registre plus leger, des rumeurs courent selon
lesquelles la star americaine de la tele-realite, Kim Kardashian, qui
n’a jamais cache ses origines armeniennes, aurait instamment (mais en
vain) propose ses services a Amal Clooney pour lui servir d’assistante
dans ce procès où l’avocate des droits de l’homme plaidait au nom de
l’Armenie. L’histoire ne dit pas si la pièce de survie installee par
George et Amal Clooney pourrait egalement accueillir Kim Kardashian
et sa famille en cas de pepin avec les Loups Gris… Quoi qu’il en
soit, ce qui est indeniable, c’est que ces informations atteignent
un public qui n’aurait jamais entendu parler du genocide armenien et
de sa negation sans Amal Clooney ou Kim Kardashian. Le Collectif VAN
vous propose la traduction d’extraits d’articles, publies du 18 au
22 fevrier 2015, dans differents medias anglophones.

L’avocate Amal Clooney, au procès en appel de la Suisse contre
Dogu Perincek, devant la Cour Europeenne des Droits de l’Homme a
Strasbourg, le 28 janvier 2015. Amal Clooney representait l’Armenie
qui intervenait aux côtes de la Suisse. Dogu Perincek, homme politique
turc, fondateur du Comite Talaat Pacha, et condamne en Suisse pour
avoir declare a de multiples reprises : >, etait defendu par l’Etat turc et par
ses propres avocats.

Photo : Collectif VAN

George Clooney et Amal Clooney installent une pièce de survie dans
leur maison en Angleterre

Les Clooney ne font pas les choses a moitie quand il s’agit de
securiser leur maison. Amal a des clients prestigieux dans des procès
controverses, selon une source.

Par Zayda Rivera New York Daily News Mercredi 18 fevrier 2015 11:46

Quand il s’agit de la securite de la maison, les Clooney prennent
des precautions.

“Ils ont installe une pièce de survie,” a dit une source a Us Weekly
a propos des renovations de George et Amal Clooney dans leur demeure
de Berkshire en Angleterre.

“Elle sera a l’epreuve du feu, des bombes, et resistante aux attaques,”
a ajoute la source.

Ne vous y trompez pas. Leurs mesures de securite interieure drastiques
n’ont rien a voir avec le comedien laureat des Oscars.

“Amal a des clients prestigieux dans des procès controverses,” a dit
une source interne, au sujet de l’avocate des droits de l’homme âgee
de 37 ans, et de la necessite de proteger ses dossiers. “Elle a besoin
d’etre protegee.”

Amal Clooney a recemment ete chargee de plaider contre Dogu Perincek,
qui interjette appel de sa condamnation pour avoir nie le genocide
armenien de 1915.

George et Amal ont choisi de passer les deux premières annees de leur
mariage dans la propriete de Berkshire, presentee comme etant luxueuse,
bien decoree, super privatisee et situee dans une campagne eloignee.

*****

Nouvelles d’Amal Clooney: l’avocate des droits de l’Homme a-t-elle
peur pour sa securite?

Economic World

22 fevrier 2015

Amal Clooney et son mari l’acteur hollywoodien George Clooney mettent
en place des procedures extremes pour proteger leur securite. Une
nouvelle information suggère que les nouveaux maries intègrent
l’installation d’une “pièce de survie” dans leur nouvelle maison de
Berkshire, en Angleterre.

Informations 2015 sur George et Amal Clooney ; Le couple prevoit un
rendez-vous discret avec un autre couple hollywoodien

Dans le meme temps, il y a eu une rumeur autour du fait que Kim
Kardashian veut etre la nouvelle assistante d’Amal.

Selon le Gossip Cop de jeudi, un eclaircissement a ete donne selon
lequel Kardashian travaille de manière ininterrompue pour offrir a Amal
ses Le tabloïd de supermarche a lie l’interet suppose de Kardashian
au fait qu’Alamuddin, avocate des droits de l’homme, travaille
actuellement sur un procès relatif au genocide armenien et que
Kardashian “a ouvertement parle de son heritage armenien.”

“Kim a appele les gestionnaires de George [Clooney], plaidant pour
une introduction auprès d’Amal,” a affirme une soi-disant >
a l’Enquirer. “Kim a egalement envoye un mail au bureau d’Amal a
Londres en esperant la contacter. Malgre le fait que Kim n’a pas de
diplôme en droit ni meme un diplôme d’universite, elle veut qu’Amal
l’embauche comme consultante sur le procès pour l’Armenie.

La source presumee de l’Enquirer affirme que Kardashian, qui
a recemment annonce un prochain voyage en Armenie,

OSCE AND UNISON NGO PRESENT REPORT ON ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN ARMENIA FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

States News Service
February 24, 2015 Tuesday

YEREVAN

The following information was released by the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE):

The findings and recommendations of an OSCE-supported survey exploring
the main obstacles encountered by people with disabilities in accessing
Armenia’s higher education system, was presented today in Yerevan.

The report commissioned by the OSCE Office in Yerevan was produced
by the Unison NGO that supports people with special needs. It
provides comprehensive statistical data and focuses on physical
and programmatic, as well as the academic inclusiveness of higher
education.

“The report is a good example of innovative thinking. It analyses
the system of higher education from the perspective of students with
special needs. The report’s recommendations and the effort invested
are positive steps toward increasing the integrity of higher education
in Armenia,” said Oliver McCoy, Democratization Programme Officer at
the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

The report finds that only one of the 29 higher education institutions
surveyed is physically accessible to people with mobility issues. The
majority of universities think that inclusiveness of higher education
should be guaranteed only to young people with mobility, sight,
hearing, speaking or general disabilities, excluding those with mental
issues. There are no set mechanisms within universities to adapt the
educational process to the needs of people with disabilities. It is
only the good will of faculty members and fellow students to make
the learning process favourable to disabled students, the report notes.

Armen Alaverdyan, Executive Director of the Unison NGO, said: “The
survey outcomes show that Armenian universities mostly lack inclusive
policies, facilities and academic programmes for students with
disabilities. I strongly believe we should fill this gap by heavily
promoting equal opportunities to get a decent education in Armenia.”

The survey is based on opinions of students with and without
disabilities, administrative and academic staff of higher education
institutions and young persons with disabilities, as well as the
general public. Twenty-nine universities in Yerevan, Gyumri and
Vanadzor were included in the survey which was conducted during
September-November 2014.

ANZAC VOICE: A SOLDIER’S RECORDING LIVES ON AT THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL NEARLY A CENTURY AFTER HIS DEATH

ABC Regional News (Australia)
February 24, 2015 Tuesday 1:18 PM AEST

by Louise Maher

The voice of a young Anzac who was killed in France in 1916 lives on
in a recorded message he sent his family for Christmas.

Twenty-four-year-old Private Henry Miller Lanser recorded his letter
on a hand pressed shellac disc in late 1914 or early 1915 at the
Cairo studio of Armenian businessman Setrak Mechian.

He was training in Egypt with the First Australian Infantry Battalion
in the lead up to the Gallipoli landing.

Lanser’s disc ‘the only one of its kind’

Concept leader for the development of the new World War I galleries
at the Australian War Memorial (AWM), Nick Fletcher, said the private
wished his family “good luck” during the recording.

“He speaks very much as though he were in the room with the family,”
Mr Fletcher said.

“He speaks quite clearly, which is nice, but there’s none of that
informality that you would get in a modern recording.”

Private Lanser began his three-and-a-half minute recorded letter by
greeting his “dear” mother and father, and Ethel, Beattie and Basil.

“This is rather a novelty to come to Australia this way,” he said.

“But here I am, can’t see and can’t be seen or welcomed in the usual
way with a hug or a kiss.”

He spoke about the training which was getting “heavier every day”
and wished his family “a real, jolly good Christmas”.

He signed off with “goodbye and good luck”.

The Lanser disc is the only known recorded letter made by an Australian
soldier during WWI and is believed to be the only one of its kind in
the world.

A missing chunk indicates it may have been dropped at some time.

But the AWM has been able to copy the original recording from the
metal master disc, which had also been sent to Private Lanser’s family.

Listening to a legendary figure in history

Private Lanser enlisted in Sydney in September 1914, just weeks after
the war was declared.

He was wounded twice at Gallipoli but made a full recovery, and was
eventually promoted to Second Lieutenant and sent to fight in France.

He was killed in action on the Western Front in November 1916, mowed
down by German gunfire in the mud of the Somme.

After Lanser’s death, Mr Fletcher said, the sound of his recorded
voice would have been, for his loved ones, both a consolation and,
at times “a terrible thing to suffer through”.

“You would think that as the years passed, particularly for his
parents, it must have become a more and more treasured possession,”
Mr Fletcher said.

“Through his voice we can get so close to [Henry] Miller.

“We feel like we know him because we’ve heard him speaking.

“To listen to the voice of a man who wasn’t yet aware that he was
going to become an Anzac, one of the sort of legendary figures of
Australian history, is an astonishing thing, I think.”

HISTORY RISKS REPEATING ITSELF AS OBAMA TIPTOES AROUND ISIS THREAT

The Oakland Press
Feb 25 2015

In this Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, photo, released by the U.S. Air
Force, a pair of U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle flies over northern Iraq,
after conducting airstrikes in Syria. U.S.-led coalition warplanes
bombed oil installations and other facilities in territory controlled
by Islamic State militants in eastern Syria on Friday, Sept. 26, 2014,
taking aim for a second consecutive day at a key source of financing
that has swelled the extremist group’s coffers, activists said. (AP
Photo/U.S. Air Force, Matthew Bruch)

By Mitch Kehetian, Special to Digital First Media

When it comes to America’s foreign policy in the troubled Middle East,
presidents George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama sure messed it up,
and it’s getting to be a threat to western civilization through the
creation of a radical Islamic State.

The turmoil is for real. Obama must cease playing checker board policy
games that amount to appeasing the radical Islamic dream at forcibly
shrinking Christian Europe.

To begin with the ISIS movement, at carving out an Islamic State out
of Syria and Iraq, rests with the White House.

Advertisement

It started with young Bush when he took us to war with Saddam’s Iraq
on the false claim the Iraq dictator had a stockpile of weapons of
mass destruction. When UN observers failed to find the so-called
weapons, they were told to get out before American warplanes attacked
the country.

We never found the weapons of mass destruction. But a greater threat
was looming when Obama moved into the White House with the vow to
fulfill a peace pledge to get us out of Iraq. He even sent out his
time table on our “boots on the ground” departure much to the to the
glee of the radical ISIS movement.

In essence, the president told ISIS to wait until we get out. But
Obama went further by getting us involved in the civil war in Syria
by supporting the moderate rebels to oust dictator Assad. Soon, all
of northern Syria was under ISIS control and linked to huge swaths
of land in neighboring Iraq.

Obama said Syria’s Assad must go. But his failed intelligence surfaced
again. Assad may have been a dictator, but he kept the Shite and
Sunni Muslims apart and protected the country’s large Orthodox
Christian community.

Meanwhile, the radical Islamic movement has taken over Libya with
chaos sweeping the country after we helped the rebels topple Ghaddafi’s
rule. Then just weeks ago, Obama praised the democratic process taking
place in Yemen. Shortly after his victory pledge, our former ally’s
regime collapsed to rebel forces. We evacuated our embassy as the
extremist Muslims seized control.

Meanwhile, Obama and his liberal loyalists look upon ISIS as a mere
organization we can subdue with air power. You don’t win wars with
just air power. History tells us so. We also recall Obama tagging
ISIS as just a mere “junior varsity” team.

When Germany swept through Europe at the height of World War II,
the government was under the rule of Hitler’s Nazi Party. The Nazis
murdered millions of people, while sending six million Jews to Nazi-run
concentration camps where they perished in what is remembered as
the Holocaust.

Then let’s look at the old Soviet Union. The turning point came when
the Bolsheviks seized power after killing the czar. It too was an
organization eventually absorbed by the expanding Communist Party to
match the Nazis in mass killings and slave labor in Siberia.

So let’s stop the false belief that ISIS is just an organization.

Remember how the Nazi and Communist movements took over. As for the
ISIS goal at creating a radical Islamic State, it comes from the
pages of ancient history. When the Ottoman Turkish sultans and their
armies sought to forcibly convert Christian Europe to Islam, they were
stopped at the gates of Vienna and at the Gibraltar straits to Spain.

But the Islamic movement did not give up in its plan to convert the
“infidels,” as witnessed in World War I when Ottoman Turkey joined
forces with the Austria-German Empire to regain lost lands. Again,
Europe was horrified when Turkey plotted the genocide of more than
one million Christian Armenians in its eastern provinces of historical
Armenia.

When Obama asked Congress for the authority to wage war against ISIS,
he again broadcasted “no ground troops.” Nor did he use the proper
term that we now face a radical Islamic State.

Our president might know his law, but he fails history.

I’m not surprised. In his remarks at the most recent national prayer
breakfast in Washington, Obama cautioned Christians should not get on
their high horses in criticizing Islam by the actions of the radical
element. He did by stressing that during the crusades Christians
committed sins by using the name of Christ in their defense.

Mr. President, that was more than a thousand years ago.

Enough said.

Mitch Kehetian is a retired editor of The Macomb Daily and former
board trustee at Central Michigan University.