Author: Liana Toganian

Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
December 15, 2017 Friday 10:07 AM MSK


U.S. embassy working with Armenian law enforcement on case of terror
attack plotted in country

YEREVAN. Dec 15

The U.S. Embassy in Armenia is cooperating with Armenian law
enforcement agencies in the inquiry into the case of a terror attack
plotted by a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent in the country.

The U.S. embassy is working with Armenian law enforcers in connection
with this case, the diplomatic mission told Interfax. It is currently
unable to provide additional information in the interest of the
investigation, it said.

The Armenian National Security Service said earlier that it had
declared a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent wanted on suspicion of
preparations for terrorist attacks in the country.

In particular, it established that the U.S. citizen, who is an ethnic
Armenian, identified by the initials R.K., created a fake account
under the name Martin Avagyan on Facebook and published materials on
the founding of a group dubbed 'Fighters for Justice', on the tactics
of its activities, the disciplinary rules of its members, security and
confidentiality in September 2017.

"Calls to commit violence against representatives of Armenian law
enforcement agencies and officials, carry out explosions and acts of
arson thus creating an atmosphere of general fear were also
disseminated via the aforementioned account. R.K. pursued the
objective of destabilizing the situation in Armenia, intimidating the
population of the country, creating an atmosphere of fear, illegally
pressuring the state authorities," the National Security Service said.

"By means of recruiting people to commit acts of arson, explosions,
and other socially dangerous acts aimed at cause death or serious
bodily harm to law enforcement officers and other officials and create
an actual threat of the aforementioned consequences, the U.S. citizen
attempted to set up a criminal network, involving ethnic Armenians
living both in Armenia and outside the country," it said.

"Additionally, according to obtained evidence, the U.S. citizens
plotted terror attacks in Armenia via accomplices and by means of
advice, orders and provided funds. It was decided to bring charges
against the aforementioned person for an attempt to create a criminal
network and plot a terror attack. The court ruled to impose a
restrictive measure in the form of placement into custody on the
defendant, and he has been put on wanted lists," it said.

The relevant U.S. authority forwarded information on the suspect's
place of residence to the Armenian Prosecutor General's Office in
order to prevent the plotted crimes, while measures to identify and
detect his accomplices in Armenia are currently underway.

ARMENIA TREE PROJECT
400 W Cummings Park, Suite 3900
Woburn, MA 01801 USA
Tel: (617) 926-TREE
Web: www.armeniatree.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2017

ATP Issues Statement on Monsanto: Keep Armenia Free of GMOs

In response to news of the US Embassy hosting Monsanto in Yerevan, ATP
founder Carolyn Mugar, director of Farm Aid, a US non-profit that works with
family farmers, invoked the Precautionary Principle: "When an activity
raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary
measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not
fully established scientifically." The first endorsement of the principle
was in 1982 by the United Nations General Assembly. This is a good framework
for science, innovation and public policy which the European Union has
adopted, leading it to largely reject GMO crop production.

The agribusiness event in Yerevan presents Armenians with an opportunity to
talk about the future of Armenia, its food and farming. Who benefits from
bringing this company into Armenia? What are the potential environmental,
agricultural and food effects of GMO production? Here are just a few of the
risks and considerations:

. Monsanto's seeds are a threat to biodiversity and native and organic
crops, because consolidation and corporate ownership of seeds threatens
publicly developed seed, genetic research and farmer innovation and
seed-saving.

. Monsanto's pesticides have created superweeds/super pests resulting in
increased use of even more toxic chemicals. 

. Farmers have been pushed out of business and off the land by corporations
like Monsanto due to corporate control of seeds, their required applications
of proprietary pesticides and by failure to take responsibility for the
drift of GMO seeds and pesticides. Also, GMO crops do not necessarily
improve yield or farm profitability.

. Consumer trends are toward increased transparency in our food, including
labeling of GMOs. The contamination of the US food supply with glyphosate,
the result of GMO cropping, is now widely known. Armenia's ability to retain
its agricultural heritage as a GMO-free agricultural producer could result
in important market opportunities.

. The long-term safety of utilizing GMO technology has not been fully
evaluated. Hence the framework of the Precautionary Principle is the
appropriate way for Armenia to determine the future of its farming
practices.

The issue speaks to the value of Armenia's environment. Worldwide the trend
with Monsanto and GMOs is that the harmful effects on the soil, water and
farm profitability are increasingly exposed.

With your support, ATP is working in the remote villages of Armenia for the
long-term benefit of our people. That's what we stand for. We believe in a
strong Armenia with a healthy ecological and economic infrastructure.

Let's be forward looking. Armenia--with its unique history and
character--can seize the opportunity to be a GMO-free country.

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Tuesday


Balayan: Baku tries to distract the attention of the international
community from the corruption scandal through the Karabakh conflict

Yerevan October 24

Marianna Mkrtchyan. Baku once again misused the site of the
international conference in Palermo, which has nothing to do with the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This was stated in his microblog on Twitter
by the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Tigran
Balayan.

"These manipulations are aimed at diverting attention from the
corruption scandal, better known as Landromat, which has disgraced
Azerbaijan to the whole world because of corruption and aggressive
criminal positions," Balayan wrote.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on October 24 in Palermo
takes Participation in the OSCE summit on flows of refugees and
migrants.Recall that the Center for the Study of Corruption and
Organized CrimeCrime (OCCRP) unveiled an investigation into the
establishment of the authorities Azerbaijan fictitious companies in
the UK for the purpose of money laundering. In total, it is about 2.9
billion dollars, which went to pay bribes to European politicians, the
acquisition of luxury goods and other self-serving purposes. The
document notes that from 2012 to 2014, against the background of mass
arrests of activists and journalists in Azerbaijan, representatives of
the ruling elite of the country bribed European politicians who
lobbied Baku's interests in the EU and blocked resolutions condemning
human rights violations in the transcaucasian republic. From the
accounts of these fictitious companies, personal expenses of
high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan were also paid.

In addition, the accounts of these companies received tens of millions
of euros from the Russian supplier of arms - Rosoboronexport, the
investigation notes. Later, this money was transferred to the account
of the first vice-premier of Azerbaijan. Companies in the UK that
participated in money laundering were registered with front men from
Azerbaijan. These firms provided fictitious accounts, although
billions of euros passed through their accounts. All of them were
serviced in the Estonian branch of one bank - Danske Bank from
Denmark. Data on the flow of money on their accounts was received by
the Danish newspaper Berlingske, which shared them with the Organized
Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The case was
conditionally called "Laundromat".