Author: Kalashian Nyrie

POCKETBOOK POLITICS: REGIME TARGETS BUSINESS INTERESTS OF SUKIASYAN FAMILY
Ararat Davtyan

iasyan/
2010/03/08 | 15:22

First "Bjni" now "Byuregh": Authorities seek to cripple opposition
supporters

Khachatur Sukiasyan supported the candidacy of Levon Ter-Petrosyan
in the 2008 presidential elections and has paid the price.

Even though he was "granted" his freedom after coming out of hiding,
the preliminary investigation in his case continues. Then too,
criminal charges were levied against his brother, Saribek Sukiasyan,
just last month. This development, however, has more to do with the
attempt to strip the family of their assets and property.

MP Ruben Hayrapetyan – no love lost with Sukiasyans

Ruben Hayrapetyan, President of the Armenian Football Federation
and a Republican Party MP, has played a pretty significant role in
this property seizure process. Mr. Hayrapetyan confesses that for
many years, especially during the days of the first president, his
relations with Khachatur Sukiasyan have been strained.

When the government put the "Bjni" mineral water company, owned by
the Sukiasyan family, up for auction, the sole bidder turned out to
be Ruben Hayrapetyan, who finally managed to "purchase" the company
late last year.

A year ago, at a press conference on the subject, Ruben Hayrapetyan
advised those who were speaking from a position of morality to take a
look back at the 1990’s and see the methods employed by the Sukiasyan
family to amass their assets, including the "Bjni" plant.

"Let all the do-gooders take a good look and see how their beloved
Sukiasyan’s purchased or grabbed what they now own. Was what they
did moral? If the Sukiasyan’s accept the fact that what they did
was immoral, then I have done the same," said Mr. Hayrapetyan. "Let
us not politicize the issue. In a year’s time we will see if it was
political or economic."

The past year has shown that MP Hayrapetyan, based on economic
interests, wishes to purchase especially those factories that belong
to the Sukiasyan family.

Gor Vardanyan and the alleged gun threat

One year after the interview mentioned, on February 12, 2010, law
enforcement officials raided the offices of Sil Group and took into
custody, Saribek Sukiasyan, Chairman of the Board of HayEconomBank,
and Artash Stepanyan, Director of the Ayrarat Marketplace. The
official explanation for the raid is that Gor Vardanyan, Director
of Audit Ltd. allegedly sent an SMS message to his friend claiming
that "Sukiasyan and Artash threatened to kill him unless he signed
certain documents."

Days later, Yerevan police Chief Nerses Nazaryan announced that Gor
Davtyan originally had said that a gun was used to threaten him and
that was why the indictment included the use of a weapon. However,
at present, when Davtyan has refused to testify about any gun, the
police removed mention of a weapon from the official indictment.

Saribek Sukiasyan’s lawyer, Yervand Varosyan, says, "We are dealing
with a case of shady manipulation. They take testimony from one guy
and start an investigation on that testimony alone. An indictment is
prepared and a man is arrested."

Sukiasyan and Stepanyan were freed three days after being arrested.

They had to sign an affidavit that they wouldn’t flee the country.

They have been charged with the crime of "involvement in a premeditated
group conspiracy to imprison another for personal gain" They face a
3-5 year sentence if found guilty.

Police Chief Nazaryan also stated that when law enforcement arrived
on the scene they found Saribek Sukiasyan, Artashes Stepanyan and
Gor Davtyan in the locked Sil Group office. The police also say they
confiscated the documents Vardanyan was being forced to sign.

Sukiasyan defense lawyers, Lusineh Sahakyan and Yervand Varosyan,
have already made the video tapes of the office security cameras
available to the press. The photos show Gor Vardanyan calmly leaving
the Sil office.

"So it turns out that Police Chief Nazaryan circulated information that
can only be described as false. Either the city police are deceiving
the investigative unit or else, knowing the facts, they are trying to
deceive the public. In both cases, the police aren’t acting correctly,"
says attorney Lusineh Sahakyan.

Saribek Sukiasyan: "The bandits will never win"

"The criminal case was formulated on fabrications. The aim is to
deprive us of our new plant and to smear our good name. The political
motivations for this are known to all," Saribek Sukiasyan said in his
public statement. "I would like to inform all, that no one will be
able to strip us from our property or break our spirit by conducting
such a false criminal case or by launching an indictment against us. I
hope that time will never come when we will be forced to publish all
the names of the bandit group that wishes to steal away our assets.

The only thing that guides our actions is a business approach."

According to the police statement, Gor Vardanyan, who owns 41% of
the Byuregh CJSC stock, sold stock worth 105.7 million AMD to Aspram
Tonoyan, the wife of Saribek Sukiasyan, in October, 2008. However,
about one year later, the Court of Cassation deemed the transaction
null and void, after which a new stockholder appeared in the CJSC
who expressed a desire to buy the shares he owes.

The statement reads, "It was to inform Saribek Sukiasyan of this
that prompted Gor Davtyan to visit the Sil Group office and where
Saribek Sukiasyan and Artash Stepanyan forced him to sign certain
shareholder documents."

The police did not publish the name of the new shareholder in
Byuregh, who, it turned out later, was in fact Ruben Hayrapetyan. The
attorneys argue that what actually happen is the exact opposite of
the police version of the story. Accordingly, on February 11, Gor
Davtyan telephoned attorney Ara Zohrabyan and told him that Ruben
Hayrapetyan threatened him and took him to the police station and the
prosecutor’s office, where he was pressured into selling the Byuregh
shares not to the Sukiasyans but to Hayrapetyan.

"Gor Vardanyan refused and telephoned attorney Ara Zohrabyan and
requested a meeting with Sukiasyan’ probably expecting his assistance.

Sukiasyan meets with Davtyan who, trembling, recounts what has
happened and asks Sukiasyan to help in the legal formulation, so
that he can pull out of selling shares to Hayrapetyan," says attorney
Lusineh Sahakyan, adding that Zohrabyan drafts a corresponding letter
addressed to Hayrapetyan in which the legal reasons are underlined
explaining why he can’t purchase the shares.

Prosecution witness Vardanyan has fled Armenia

"In a strange twist, right after this the Sil office is raided. Gor
Vardanyan is taken into custody and held under arrest for several
hours," notes attorney Sahakyan.

"We were in the Erebuni police station till about 5:30 in the morning
on February 13 and there we spotted Gor Davtyan, registered as the
injured party in the case. He was there the whole day. A group of
cops were constantly escorting him from one room to another. They
took him to see the police chief and then to the investigations unit,"
attorney Yervand Varosyan continues.

The defense team notes that Gor Vardanyan is actually an injured party
in the affair and he seemed pretty disconsolate in the police station.

He was sitting with his head in his hands and looking for help. The
lawyers also say that they saw an individual at the station who
absolutely had no right to be there. This mystery man was in the
shadows, following Vardanyan.

"At this time, we cannot publicize the person’s name since it would
throw a wrench in our defense tactics. We know who this person is and
we have irrefutable evidence placing him at the side of the injured
in the police station. We will go public with this in due course,"
says Yervand Varosyan.

The lawyers refuse to say whether this person is in any way connected
to Ruben Hayrapetyan.

They say that have a whole dossier contradicting the police version
of the matter, but that they are not preparing to submit it to law
enforcement right now.

"We understood the sooner we hand over evidence to the preliminary
investigative unit, the more time they have to alter the facts. They
start to get hold of other evidence and fabricate the whole affair."

Ruben Hayrapetyan has so far refused to comment on the case. The
police, according to press reports, are hot on the heels of Gor
Vardanyan, who is said to have fled Armenia after the incidents
described.

P.S. – "On February 22, just ten days after launching a criminal case
against Saribek Sukiasyan and Artash Stepanyan, Ruben Hayrapetyan
purchased (in any event he signed a contract) the Byuregh shares owned
by Gor Davtyan and Robert Harutyunyan. Hayrapetyan thus became a 90%
shareholder of the firm. We believe no further explanation is needed,"
noted attorney Lusineh Sahakyan in her statement.

POLISH PRIME MINISTER DONALD TUSK TO VISIT ARMENIA ON MARCH 12

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.03.2010 15:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has scheduled
a visit Armenia on March 12, 2010. A meeting with Armenian Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan, followed by a news conference, is on Donald
Tusk’s agenda, governmental press service told PanARMENIAN.Net.

On the evening of Tuesday, March 9, Polish Prime Minister is departing
on a 4-day tour of Caucasus, including visits to Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia.

During his regional visit, the Prime Minister will focus on Eastern
Partnership, political situation in Caucasus and energy policy.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:THE BETRAYAL OF SOULS AND THE DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

The Cutting Edge
rticle=12016
March 8 2010

In the book The Guilt of Nations, Elazar Barkan wrote, "For a ‘new’
history to become more than a partisan ‘extremist’ story, the narrative
often has to persuade not only the members of the group that will
‘benefit’ from the new interpretation but also their ‘others,’ those
whose own history will presumably be ‘diminished,’ or tainted by
the new stories." Clearly Turkey’s reaction to the vote by the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on the Armenian Genocide resolution shows
that Turkey remains unpersuaded by its own guilt. This is painful to
continue to witness.

Nearly a hundred years after the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians
by Turkish forces during World War One, Turkey, an otherwise moderate
country, continues to deny what eyewitness accounts prove to be an
undeniable fact. Turkey’s reaction in recalling its Ambassador to
the United States is both heavy-handed and a touch of "thou protesth
too much."

In recent efforts to defeat similar resolutions, Turkey has enlisted
the help of high-paid Washington lobbyists to cajole, persuade, and
arm twist individual Members of Congress to make it impossible to pass
the resolution recognizing this genocide. Threats of dire consequences
to US-Turkish relations ensued, with cynical accusations of damaging
the relationship over a resolution recognizing what the world already
knew to be true. March 4th’s Turkish reaction is no different.

During the Senate Banking Committee’s three-year investigation into
the actions of the Swiss banks withholding of the assets of Holocaust
victims, Swiss banks tried the same trick of buying their way out
of trouble. Perhaps in the end, their settlement with the survivors
and claimants of $1.25 billion was tantamount to the same, but it was
nevertheless accompanied with a quasi-admission of guilt. For Turkey,
there is plenty of money being spent to fight the campaign against
them, but certainly no admission of responsibility or wrongdoing is
forthcoming, only simple, stubborn, unremitting denial.

Turkey’s denial of its forefathers’ actions would be laughable were it
not so deadly serious for its historical precedent. As it has often
been said, Turkey’s genocide of the Armenians opened the door to
further genocides in the twentieth century: the Holocaust, Cambodia,
Biafra, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the long list goes on. Official
Turkey is overwhelmed with denial.

During meetings with Turkish diplomats years ago in Ankara to discuss
Turkey’s role on the ill-fated United Nations Oil-for-Food program,
instead of addressing the topic I was serenaded by complaints about
the "propaganda" spewed from Armenian summer camps in California about
the "supposed genocide." Even Turks who promote the idea within their
own country, including Nobel Laureates, are prosecuted. This is sad.

While this denial is awful in its construction, it is harmful
no less to Turks than it is to Armenians. For Turkey to continue
this irresponsible attitude is to tar their country with an almost
snickering response to its protestations. Far better for Turkey
would be to confess its wrongdoings in a responsible, humble way and
to move forward. Germany, the obvious poster child for historical
guilt and genocidal successor to the Turks–as Hans Frank, the former
Governor-General of Poland was to have stated, "A thousand years will
pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased."–has long dealt
with the responsibility for its crimes.

Some will say that now is not the right time. They will say Turkey
and Armenia are in delicate negotiations. They say it will damage
Israel’s relations with this important Muslim country. While not
discounting the threats Turkey will bring out, surely, the souls of
those marched out into the Anatolian desert and slaughtered cry out
for more. They cry out for recognition.

About the Holocaust, Alan Dershowitz argues, all Jews are victims. For
the Armenians, the same is true. Jews are so clearly pained when idiots
who deny the Holocaust do so with a straight face, defiant in their
ignorance. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Holocaust is a lie, Jews
cringe. How must Armenians feel when Turkey denies its responsibility
for the same type of crime? As long as Turkey refuses responsibility
for its sins, then all Armenians are in fact victims: the souls of the
Armenian dead wander and their descendants are betrayed. The time for
denial is over and the time for recognition is overdue. When this crime
is finally recognized, memory, history, and truth will be restored.

Cutting Edge contgribuitor Gregg J. Rickman served as the first U.S.

Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism from 2006-2009. He
is a Senior Fellow for the Study and Combat of Anti-Semitism at the
Institute on Religion and Policy in Washington, DC; a Visiting Fellow
at The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; and a Research Scholar
at the Initiative on Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism of the Institute
for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco.

Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
March 7 2010

Counting the votes and counting the cost

by ANDREW FINKEL

`Anger’ was the way the BBC described the Turkish reaction to the US
congressional committee’s vote to call for the recognition of the
deaths of the Armenians under Ottoman rule as genocide. The Wall
Street Journal said Ankara was `riled.’ However, whatever rage there
was, not much of it was on display. The Sabah newspaper dismissed the
whole voting procedure of the august House Committee on Foreign
Affairs as `farcical.’ The Turkish foreign minister displayed
dignified nonchalance, calling the session in which the vote was kept
open so that stragglers could roll up as `lacking in seriousness.’ He
complained of a lack of vision in Washington, suggesting with
schoolmasterly disapproval that the American government wasn’t really
up to the job of running an alliance.

Even the Taraf newspaper — some of whose columnists have been on the
firing line for expressing the unpopular view that Turkey must atone
for its misdeeds in 1915 — was mocking of the whole affair. `This
year’s genocide season has begun,’ its headline ran. While the world
waits for Turkey to snarl at the congressional committee’s decision,
public opinion has simply looked away in dignified contempt. `The old
genocide film is making the rounds again,’ yawned Mehmet Ali Birand in
his syndicated column.

Of course, this sangfroid is predicated on the assumption that the
resolution will never make its way to the floor of the House for a
final tally. That is what happened in previous years when the vote
committee was far closer than last Thursday’s 23-22. However, in
previous years the administration was far less conflicted. Barack
Obama’s Hamlet-like deliberations can be heard from a long way off.
Does he do what he thinks is right, or what he knows to be expedient.
`It’s not anger that Ankara is experiencing; its fear,’ a diplomat
told me from one of those countries which has already passed a
genocide resolution. Once America concedes the existence of genocide,
it will become the received wisdom.

Through the miracle of Internet streaming, I followed the committee’s
debate. The `ayes’ had no reservation that the tragedy befalling the
Armenian people was the first genocide of the 20th century, that
survivors and their offspring had a right to have this truth
recognized. Some congressman were sorry that this had to be at the
expense of a trusted ally but that it was in Turkey’s own interests to
face up to the past. Some were less apologetic. Brad Sherman, a
California Democrat, labeled Turkey a `paper tiger’ and that it was
high time to call its bluff. Those against the motion said it was not
the business of Congress to judge the past, particularly if that meant
damaging US interests in the present. It was not the business of
government to adjudicate between the claims of one set of `hyphenated
American’ against another, according to Texan Republican Ron Paul,
which is as close as anyone got to accusing the other side of
barnstorming to their electorate. However, no one used the crib-sheet
provided by the Turkish Historical Society (TTK) that the genocide
never happened.

The debate wended its way to a cliffhanger finish — and before he
knew it, poor Namık Tan, Turkey’s envoy in Washington, was being
recalled onto the next plane home for consultations. The message he
should bring is that Turkey can win the battle and it can win the war,
but that it has lost the argument.

`Look at our allies,’ my neighbor told me during my efforts to conduct
an impromptu vox populi poll. His list included pretty much the whole
of the American defense industry: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon,
United Technologies Corp, Northrop Grumman. With friends like that,
who needed enemies, he suggested, and added that lots of countries had
recognized the genocide without the sky over Ankara falling down. I
don’t suppose his is the majority view in Turkey and, should the
resolution pass, Ankara may not spin off into a frenzy of self-harm,
but it will hardly shrug the matter off. Rapprochement with Armenia
will move from its current position on the back burner off the stove
entirely.

07.03.2010

news.az, azerbaijan
March 6 2010

Iran assists Armenia to live in these crisis years – Azerbaijani official
Sat 06 March 2010 | 05:16 GMT Text size:

Novruz Mammadov `It’s impossible for Iran to assist the solution to
Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the framework of OSCE Minsk Group.

It has no legal basis’, Chief of the International Relations
Department of the Presidential Administration Novruz Mammadov said.

`Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries assisting Armenia to
live in these crisis years. Armenia receives main resources from Iran.
Iran has a lot of means and it can help the solution to the conflict
whenever it wants. Iran recognizes the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. If Iran changes attitude towards Armenia, then it may help
us. But I don’t see such a thing now’, he said.

`It is interesting that after the frame agreement offered in Madrid,
Azerbaijani side hasn’t accepted it during half year. But then
Azerbaijan agreed with the proposals demonstrating its
constructiveness in the solution to the conflict. After all these,
Armenia changed its positions during Sochi meeting. Unfortunately,
some circles support Armenia and try for the welfare of Armenia’

Mammadov touched upon the meeting between Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov and Co-chairs in Paris: `If there is a new idea,
opinion after this meeting, we will be informed’

APA

news.az, Azerbaijan
March 5 2010

Congress step is mistaken and unfair – Presidential official
Fri 05 March 2010 | 10:57 GMT Text size:

Ali Hasanov Azerbaijan’s presidential administration comments on
recognition of so-called `Armenian genocide’ in US Congressional
Committee.

The Azerbaijani presidential administration has condemned yesterday’s
decision of the committee on foreign affairs of the US Congress about
the fictional `Armenian genocide’.

Ali Hasanov, chief of the public policy department of Azerbaijan’s
Presidential Administration, said that this step is mistaken and
unfair:

‘All countries and peoples that participated in the First World War in
1915 suffered losses at one of the fronts. Some of them had greater
losses, others had smaller losses. It is not for the Congress of the
country which claims for the status of superpowers but for independent
historians to decide about the implications of war for each country.

The Azerbaijani government condemns this step by the US Congressmen
featuring it as one-sided, unjust and pro-Armenian, targeting the
Turkic world. We consider that this step does not meet the interests
of the United States and the US people and it will damage the
international image of this country’.

Hasanov voiced hope that this decision of the committee will receive
the relevant assessment in the Congressional House of Representatives
and will return back, while the responsibility for this will be lifted
from the US government.

News.Az

news.am, Armenia
March 5 2010

Great Britain for open Armenian-Turkish border

19:37 / 03/05/2010Great Britain wants the South Caucasus countries to
establish friendly relations with each other, as well as with their
neighbors, British Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale told
NEWS.am. He pointed out that Great Britain is for both the
Armenian-Turkish protocols and reopening of the Armenian-Turkish
border. The past must by no means be forgotten, but good neighborly
relations must be established and maintained, the Ambassador said. Mr.
Lonsdale pointed out that Armenia and Great Britain are both
interested in the Armenian-Turkish border being reopened.

Ambassador Lonsdale refused to comment on the approval of the Armenian
Genocide resolution by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He
said that it us up to the U.S. Congress to make a decision.

T.P.

Washington Post
March 5 2010

No plans for House to vote on Armenian genocide resolution, aide says

There is no current plan for the House to vote on a resolution
branding as genocide the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by
Turkish forces, a Democratic leadership aide said Friday.

The Obama administration has an understanding with U.S. congressional
leaders that the measure will go no further in Congress, a senior U.S.
official said later.

"We believe it will stop where it is now," the official told
reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly approved Thursday a
nonbinding resolution labeling the killings as genocide, prompting
Turkey to recall its ambassador from Washington.

The Obama administration had urged the committee to put off the vote,
saying that it could hurt ties with a NATO ally.

The leadership aide said Friday, "There are no plans to schedule [a
vote on the House floor] at this point."

Another Democratic aide added that advocates of the largely symbolic
measure would have to show caucus leaders that they have the votes to
pass it before it would be come to the floor.

Both aides also spoke on the condition that they not be named.

Armenian-Americans are an important constituency in states such as
California and New Jersey, and as senators, President Obama, Vice
President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton all
called on the Bush White House to condemn the killings as genocide.

But Turkey has angrily denounced the resolution and Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan warned of possible damage to relations with the United
States.

The resolution has 137 co-sponsors, not close to the majority of 217
votes that would be needed to pass.

YES, WE CAN RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Rosario Teixeira

/yes-we-can-recognize-the-armenian-genocide/
March 3, 2010

FOXBORO, Mass.-Yes We Can Recognize the Armenian Genocide" is
the message on the 2010 Armenian Genocide Commemorative Billboard
sponsored by Peace of Art Inc. now on digital
display in Foxboro.

The billboard, owned by Carroll Advertising, is located ¼ mile south of
the main entrance to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place. It is highly
visible and strategically located at a long 4-way traffic signal on
Route 1, between I-95 and I-495. The message reaches fans of the New
England Patriots, New England Revolution, and patrons of Concerts,
Trade Shows and Patriot Place.

YES WE CAN was the slogan of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign,
which was shared with the rest of the world. It promised that changes
were on the way, and for the American Armenians was a message of hope
for the recognition of the Armenian genocide by our government.

The Armenian Genocide Commemorative Billboards "has given me the
opportunity not only to proclaim the reality of the genocide of
the Armenian people, as an undeniable historical event, that must
be recognized, but also to champion the universal ideas of peace,
liberty and justice," said Daniel Varoujan Hejinian, the president of
Peace of Art, Inc., who, since 1996 has been sponsoring the Armenian
Genocide Commemorative Billboards in Watertown, Mass. This year,
Peace of Art, Inc., is taking this message to other communities.

The collection of billboards will be on display at the Armenian
Library and Museum of America, in Watertown from March 28 to May 2
as part of Varoujan’s art exhibit "A Journey Through the Years."

Peace of Art, Inc., is a non-profit tax-exempt educational
organization. Founded in 2003, by the artist Daniel Varoujan Hejinian,
which uses the universal language of art to bring awareness to the
human condition. For more information about this project, or to make
a tax-deductible donation, please log onto

477 UNDERAGE CRIMINALS

ime
01:54 pm | March 04, 2010

Social

In 2009, 10,889 people were identified as criminals in Armenia.

According to age groups, 118 of them were between the ages of 14 and
15, 359 were 16-17 years old, 1,624 ranged from 18 to 24 years of age,
1,771 were between the ages of 25 and 29, while 7,017 were above the
age of 30.

Out of the criminals, 1,385 were women. 459 citizens committed
crimes under the influence of alcohol and 37 were under the influence
of drugs.