Author: Manouk Vasilian

FARS News Agency, Iran
June 3, 2017 Saturday


Iran, Armenia Opt for Broadening of Mutual Cooperation



TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Minister of Communications and Information
Technology Mahmoud Vaezi and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Vache
Gabrielyan in a meeting in Russia underlined the need for deepening of
bilateral relations.

During the meeting on the sidelines of the 21st St. Petersburg
International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2017) in Russia, Vaezi and
Gabrielyan explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating mutual
cooperation between the two countries.

During the meeting, Vaezi hailed good relations between Tehran and
Yerevan, and said, "The agreements reached during President Hassan
Rouhani's trip to Armenia last year should be made operational.

He expressed hope that during the upcoming visit to Iran by Armenian
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, the two sides will build upon
previous agreements to further ties.

Iranian minister also pointed to the rise in the volume of trade
between Iran and Armenia and the Information and communication
technology (ICT) cooperation between the two nations, and said, "Iran
is committed to all of its agreements."

Gabrielyan, on his part, said Iran is the most important country for
Armenia and he will do his best to develop bilateral ties between
Yerevan and Tehran.

He went on to say that Iran-Armenia cooperation in electricity
exchange and linking electricity network to Georgia is a way to
maintain ties.

In relevant remarks last week, Armenian President Serzh Sargysyan
called for expanding all-out relations between Yerevan and Tehran.

"I am confident that during your tenure in office, the friendly
neighborly Iran will continue to develop upward, bringing its
considerable and important contribution to the regional peace and
stability," President Sargysyan said in a congratulatory message to
his Iranian counterpart on his reelection.

"I am hopeful that through our joint efforts, the traditionally warm
and friendly Armenian-Iranian relations will continue to develop and
strengthen in all areas, registering a qualitatively new level of
cooperation between our peoples," he added.

In late February, Tehran and Yerevan signed an agreement to boost
their cooperation in the field of customs affairs.

The cooperation pact was sealed by Head of Iran's Customs
Administration Massoud Karbasian and Chairman of Armenia's State
Revenue Committee Vardan Harutyunyan in Yerevan.

According to the agreement, the two countries will promote cooperation
on custom regulations, products' value and classification, enforcing
rules and transportation rules.

Both sides discussed challenges and cross-border trade opportunities
and the ways to foster trade relations

Upon implementation of all provisions of the newly-signed protocol,
all information, requests as well as customs and trade documents
between Iran and Armenia need to be provided in accordance with
national laws of both sides.

As per the agreement, every three months as well as on an annual
basis, the two parties will exchange customs statistics data on
bilateral trade turnover.

The cooperation pact will provide the necessary grounds for
facilitating and expanding trade between Tehran and Yerevan as will
also open a new chapter in trade relations, which will in turn,
elevate bilateral economic ties between the two countries.

Export the Islamic Republic of Iran to Armenia amounted to $179.103
million in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 21) and
Iran's imports from Armenia during the same period stood at $20.892
million.

Daily Sabah




Democracy boost for minorities in electing leaders

DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY
ISTANBUL

Members of the Armenian community attend the opening of a restored
church in Istanbul. The city is home to the majority of Turkey's
non-Muslim minorities.

The head of a state-run authority overseeing foundations said that
they were working on regulations allowing non-Muslim minorities to
elect administrators of their foundations. The move is a major
democratic initiative for minorities that have been tightly supervised
by the state in the past and have suffered discrimination

General Directorate of Foundations head Adnan Ertem said his agency is
working on a set of regulations to allow independent elections in
minority-run foundations. If approved, it will mark a milestone for
non-Muslim minorities that conduct their daily affairs and preserve
their heritage through foundations. It will give broader freedom to
communities that are mostly concentrated in Istanbul after decades of
discriminatory policy and tight control by the state. "We would like
(minority) foundations to have the same status as other foundations.
We want them to elect their own administration independently, and we
will only act as observers," he told Anadolu Agency. Non-Muslim
minorities in Turkey were long treated as second-class citizens in the
20th century.

The controversial wealth tax imposed in 1942, targeting rich
non-Muslims, a pogrom in 1955 and the deportation of non-Muslim
Turkish citizens in 1964 added to "a fear of the state" among
non-Muslim minorities. The "democratization package" announced by the
government a few years ago looks to change the state's view of
minorities and restore their rights. Then-prime minister and current
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced in 2011 that hundreds of
properties that were confiscated from minorities over the years would
be returned and compensation would be paid for properties later sold
to third parties. Though no comprehensive laws exist to restore
property rights, Turkish courts are gradually returning properties to
minorities that prove ownership.

The election issue is a matter overshadowing democratic rights for
minorities. Although the minorities are free to elect their own
foundation members, they are still subject to inspection by the state
and need the approval of the authorities.

Ertem said they were working on viable alternatives to current
regulations for 167 foundations run by minorities, including the
Armenian, Greek, Jewish and Assyriac communities. "The main idea is
decreasing intervention by the Foundations Directorate in elections.
In the end, it is the directorate that faces lawsuits when problems
arise in elections," he said. "One of the options is that our
directorate will be merely an observer inspecting results. Every
foundation will have its own administration, its own election system.
This may be implemented through a law or regulation," he said.

During the late Ottoman period and in the early years of the Republic
of Turkey, foundations belonging to non-Muslim minorities were able to
hold their own elections, but a set of changes in later years hindered
the election process, critics say. In 2013, Turkey suspended
regulations on elections to create a new one with cooperation between
minority representatives and the state. The move was praised for
cooperation with minorities, something rare in the history of the
Republic.

Foundations control the properties of minorities, a main source of
income for small-sized communities, and their administrations largely
consist of influential figures of those minorities. In a way, they
head an entity that is almost the sole representative of their
minorities.

In an interview in February with Anadolu Agency, Deputy Prime Minister
Veysi Kaynak whose area of responsibility covers foundations said that
foundations have been part and parcel of the Republic of Turkey since
the Lausanne Treaty granted them rights in 1923. "(The ruling) Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) governments took important steps
about minority foundations, such as the return of seized properties,"
he noted. Kaynak said a decline in minority populations posed a
challenge for elections in areas hosting only a small number of
community members. Due to past discriminatory policies and changes in
economic conditions, members of minorities left where they and their
ancestors lived for centuries. As most foundations are based in
Istanbul, and the city has the highest number of minorities, the
elections are allowed only within the limits of certain districts.
Kaynak said they have been working on the status of minority
foundations since last year, but the July 15 coup attempt thwarted the
process.

Supporters of new regulations call for a comprehensive change in the
status of foundations, such as broadening their constituencies.
Speaking to Daily Sabah last October when the planned regulations were
on the agenda again, Toros Alcan, a representative of the Armenian
community, said their communities had to handle their affairs with
regulations and other temporary measures and were in need of a law
that would grant their foundations firm legal status. "The foundation
certificate" is another key issue for Jewish, Armenian, Greek and
Assyriac communities, as this document grants any foundation a firm
footing in supervising their own affairs. A 1936 regulation mandated
"minorities" establish foundations via charters and included a list of
the properties owned by them was followed by an unofficial ban on
foundations to acquire properties other than those on the list,
dealing a blow to close-knit communities dependent on revenues. Alcan
said every community had its own dynamics, and while some have many
members and few foundations to address their social and financial
needs, others have many foundations and few members.


 

Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
May 18, 2017 Thursday 11:45 AM MSK


Recognition of Karabakh residents' right to self-determination is
compromise solution to Karabakh issue - Sargsyan

 YEREVAN. May 18

Yerevan wants the Karabakh conflict to be resolved on the basis of
mutual compromises and change of the status quo, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said.

"Changes in the status quo are acceptable, but only provided that the
matter is resolved in a comprehensive way. We have repeatedly spoken
in favor of a compromise solution to the problem, the essence of which
is in the recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh people's right to
self-determination and its enforcement," Sargsyan said in his address
on the occasion of the first session of the Armenian parliament
elected on April 2.

Armenia will not support a settlement of the problem through
unilateral concessions, he said.

"We do not want the status quo to stay and we do not want to place the
burden of settling the issue on the next generation. The efforts we
are making jointly with the mediators to settle this conflict are
aimed at that," Sargsyan said.