Author: Maral Takmazian

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Tuesday


Yerevan: To curb the destructive policy of Azerbaijan, the mediators
must move from statements to concrete actions

Yerevan May 30

Mariana Mkrtchyan. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group pointed out
for the first time that it was Azerbaijan that violated the ceasefire
agreement and opened fire. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
stated this at a joint press conference with the OSCE Secretary
General Lamberto Zannier on May 30 in Yerevan.

According to him, Azerbaijan opposed the implementation of the
mechanisms of trust, because it did not want to give the OSCE MG
co-chairs or relevant participants in these mechanisms, to indicate
who violates the ceasefire regime, who first opens fire. "However,
this is obvious without these mechanisms, as evidenced by the last
statement of the Minsk mediators. But this is not the first address
statement of the co- chairs. They repeatedly spoke with targeted
statements directed to Azerbaijan, that there is no need to aggravate
the situation in the region, it is necessary to reaffirm the
commitment to the peaceful settlement of the conflict, to respect the
mandate of the mediators, to refrain from attempts to transfer the
settlement process to other formats, and to introduce mechanisms for
investigating the incidents. This list can be continued. Even if there
are indirect statements, it immediately becomes clear to whom they are
addressed," said the diplomat.

He recalled, that Armenia and Artsakh were always for the
implementation of term less three parted agreement of 1994-95, unlike
Azerbaijan. According to him, mediators did not only make statements
but also sent official letters calling on to respect the agreements
reached. "

On May 18, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs issued a statement in
connection with the missile strike struck on May 15 by the Azerbaijani
Armed Forces on the military site of Nagorno- Karabakh: "According to
information collected from several reliable sources, on May 15 the
Azerbaijani armed forces fired a missile strike on military equipment
on the opposite side of the contact line. From the evening of May 16
until May 17, the Armenian armed forces struck back with mortars of
various calibers. These actions by both sides are a serious violation
of the ceasefire and are of concern. There are conflicting reports
about the goals of these recent attacks, as well as on the victims and
the damage done. The co-chairs of the Minsk Group and the Personal
Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office continue to collect
additional data and analytical materials in order to obtain more
complete and accurate information on the current situation. The OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs condemn these recent violations of the ceasefire
regime and urge the parties to take all necessary measures to prevent
further escalation of the conflict."

                                        Tuesday, 

Tsarukian Allies Quit Parliament


 . Tatevik Lazarian


Armenia - The newly elected National Assembly holds its first sitting
in Yerevan, 18May2017.

Three members of Armenia's new parliament, who effectively revolted
against businessman Gagik Tsarukian shortly after recent elections,
have ceded their parliament seats to other members of his alliance.

The Tsarukian Bloc won 31 of the 105 seats in the new National
Assembly elected on April 2. Shortly after the vote, it submitted to
the Central Election Commission (CEC) letters of resignation
supposedly signed by 23 of its mostly successful election candidates.

Twelve of those candidates told the CEC, however, that they did not
sign the letters and would still like to become parliament
deputies. The commission handed parliamentary mandates to eight of
them.

Tsarukian said through a spokeswoman last month that that all of those
men had formally pledged ahead of the elections not to take up
parliament seats if they fail to get a particular number of votes in
various constituencies across Armenia.

In the event, three of the deputies representing the Tsarukian Bloc --
Harutyun Gharagyozian, Khachik Manukian and Artyom Tsarukian (no
relation) -- agreed to resign from the parliament. They formally
ceased to be members of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The five other lawmakers refused to follow suit, while remaining
affiliated with the second largest parliamentary force.

Tsarukian's press secretary, Iveta Tonoyan, downplayed the three
resignations, denying that there are disagreements within the
bloc. "There were political agreements," she told reporters. "This is
a political process."

Tonoyan also did not confirm reports that Tsarukian has fallen out
with Ishkhan Zakarian, the man who managed the bloc's election
campaign and was also elected to the National Assembly. Asked to
comment on rumors that Zakarian too will resign from the parliament,
she said: "I have never heard about such an intention from Ishkhan
Zakarian."



OSCE Vows Continued Engagement In Armenia After Office Closure


 . Sargis Harutyunyan


Armenia - OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier speaks at a news
conference in Yerevan, 30May2017.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will continue
to promote wide-ranging reforms in Armenia despite the closure of its
Yerevan office forced by Azerbaijan, OSCE Secretary General Lamberto
Zannier said on Tuesday.

"The closure of the office does not mean that we will conclude our
cooperation with Armenia," Zannier said during a visit to
Yerevan. "There are many important issues on our agenda."

"We will therefore try to find various ways of working together and
ensuring that the closure of the office only means that one chapter of
our cooperation has been closed but other avenues of joint work have
opened up," he told a joint news conference with Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian.

The OSCE office has implemented projects relating, among other things,
to human rights, tax and police reforms, gender equality and press
freedom ever since it was opened in 2000. Azerbaijan vetoed late last
year a further extension of its mandate, objecting to a humanitarian
demining program sponsored by it in Armenia. It claimed that the
program could "strengthen" the Armenian military in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia has repeatedly shrugged off those allegations. It says that
Baku is simply keen to force the closure of the Yerevan office after
having a similar OSCE office in Baku shut down in 2015 in line with
its poor human rights record.

OSCE decisions on opening such missions and extending their activities
have to be unanimously approved by all 57 member states of the
organization.

Baku did not drop its objections even after the Armenian government
agreed in January to exclude demining from the wide range of OSCE
activities in Armenia. Its uncompromising stance prompted a stern
warning from the United States, with a senior U.S. diplomat saying in
February that the office closure would "reflect poorly on Azerbaijan."

A representative of Austria, the current holder of the OSCE
presidency, told the OSCE's Permanent Council in Vienna on May 4 that
the Azerbaijani government remains adamant in demanding the shutdown.

The issue seems to have dominated Zannier's separate meetings with
Nalbandian and President Serzh Sarkisian. The OSCE secretary general
described the talks as "useful" in a written statement issued later in
the day. "I would like to see the achievements of the Office preserved
and built upon as far as possible," he added.



Armenian-Azeri Summit `Unlikely For Now'


 . Sargis Harutyunyan


Armenia - Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian at a news conference in
Yerevan, 30May2017.

A fresh meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents is still
not on the cards despite international mediators' efforts to
reinvigorate the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian indicated on Tuesday.

"Armenia has never objected to meetings at the level of [foreign]
ministers or presidents," he said. "If conditions are ripe, such
meetings are possible. But this kind of meetings, especially at the
high, presidential level, have to be properly prepared
for. Ministerial meetings are aimed at ensuring that as well."

"For the time being, we can only talk about a meeting at the
ministerial level," Nalbandian told a joint news conference with
Lamberto Zannier, the visiting secretary general of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev most recently met in Saint
Petersburg last July for talks hosted by their Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin. The Karabakh peace process has remained essentially
deadlocked since then.

Richard Hoagland, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, expressed
hope in March that Nalbandian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov will "prepare the ground" for a fresh Aliyev-Sarkisian
encounter. The two ministers met in Moscow in late April. A Russian
Foreign Ministry statement on their talks said nothing about the
possibility of an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit.

Nalbandian also announced on Tuesday that Hoagland and his fellow
Minsk Group co-chairs from Russia and France will visit Yerevan and
Stepanakert next week.



Press Review



"Zhoghovurd" says the opposition Yerkir Tsirani party's decision to
take up its five seats in Yerevan's newly elected municipal council
means that its sessions are promising to be dramatic and heated. The
paper says that Yerkir Tsirani leader Zaruhi Postanjian's presence in
the council may have a "somewhat positive impact" on the work of the
legislature and make life harder for Mayor Taron Markarian and his
aides. But, it says, the party's decision not to boycott the council
is not consistent with its tough anti-government stance.

"Zhamanak" is highly skeptical about a new anti-corruption body that
will be set up soon by the Armenian government. The paper predicts
that the authorities will use the body to get rid of "undesirable"
officials that will fall from their grace. "In other words, what is
being created in Armenia is not a truly independent anti-corruption
body # but an institution of, so to speak, intra-governmental
inquisition," it claims. "The authorities will thus solve two
issues. On one hand, the new structure will enable them to elevate
their anti-corruption dialogue with international bodies to a new
level # On the other hand, the intra-governmental inquisition will
allow them to make the [government] system more manageable in the
current period of transition."

Interviewed by "168 Zham," Vadim Dubnov, a Russian political analyst,
plays down the significance of a recent statement by the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs that essentially held Azerbaijan responsible for the
latest escalation of tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone. Dubnov
argues that just a few months ago the Russian, U.S. and French
co-chairs issued another statement that was more favorable to
Azerbaijan. "I think that in or two or two weeks it will be forgotten
in both Baku and Yerevan," he says. Dubnov also believes that the
Azerbaijani leadership is presently "not quite interested in a
de-escalation of the conflict." "And I am not fully convinced that
Yerevan is interested in that," he adds.

"Chorrord Ishkhanutyun" comments on the Karabakh Armenian military's
decision to issue statements on truce violations on a weekly, rather
than daily, basis from now on. General Movses Hakobian, the chief of
the Armenian army's General Staff, is quoted as defending the decision
on security grounds. The paper dismisses this speculation, saying that
daily reports on the situation along the Karabakh "line of contact"
would not reveal any military secrets to Baku.

(Tigran Avetisian)


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Agence France Presse
18 mai 2017 jeudi 4:45 AM GMT


Argentine: Artyn, 100 ans, toujours fringant sur le court de tennis

Buenos Aires 18 mai 2017

"Je ne suis pas un phénomène", se défend Artyn, tout en sortant sa
raquette. C'est pourtant loin d'être vrai: à 100 ans, après avoir
survécu au génocide arménien puis refait sa vie en Argentine, il joue
au tennis trois fois par semaine.

Sur un court de terre battue de Buenos Aires, le vieil homme affiche
une santé de fer, assurant être arrivé à son grand âge "sans beaucoup
d'efforts".

"Je n'ai pas de secrets", dit Artyn Elmayan, à part peut-être celui de
"se faire peu de mauvais sang, prendre les choses comme elles viennent
et aider, car ça fait du bien à l'esprit".

Il ne prend pas de médicaments, ne porte pas de lunettes et ne souffre
que d'arthrose, qu'il combat "avec de l'indifférence et des
étirements".

"Le moteur va bien, les câbles électriques ont quelques ratés mais le
principal, ça va", confie-t-il, se rappelant ses débuts dans le tennis
à seulement 39 ans.

Dans la catégorie Seniors, son palmarès est impressionnant: 27 coupes,
dont la dernière il y a 10 ans, quand il a arrêté de faire des
compétitions dans la catégorie des plus de 90 ans, faute d'adversaire.

Son partenaire de jeu, c'est Luis, un "gamin de 79 ans". "Je ne joue
pas de doubles parce que ça m'ennuie, je veux être toujours dans le
jeu".

- Eternel jeune homme -

L'an dernier, il a exaucé son rêve de rencontrer Guillermo Vilas, la
gloire du tennis argentin des années 1970. "Il est venu à mon
anniversaire, c'est mon préféré, je le suivais à fond", raconte Artyn.

Trois fois par semaine, il prend le train depuis San Isidro, où il
vit, jusqu'au club River Plate, uniquement accompagné de sa raquette.
"Oui, je viens seul, il y a seulement sept arrêts", dit-il en haussant
distraitement les épaules.

Quand on voit Artyn, on lui donne facilement 20 ans de moins. Et quand
on l'écoute, on lui en enlève 10 de plus.

Cet éternel jeune homme souriant dit lire "de la philosophie et des
choses scientifiques, car c'est utile", parlant couramment les cinq
langues qu'il a apprises au moment de son exil forcé d'Arménie,
d'abord vers le Liban et la Syrie, avant d'atterrir à Buenos Aires à
21 ans.

Son régime? Manger tout ce qu'il aime, mais "avec modération". Mais
impossible de se contrôler quand il déguste un lehmeyun, sandwich
typique de son Arménie natale.

Il a fêté son siècle de vie en avril mais ne compte pas s'arrêter là:
"Si je suis en forme normale à 100 ans, arriver à 111 c'est dans la
poche".

Son dernier coup dur a été le décès en 2016 de Luisa, son épouse
pendant 74 ans et la mère de son unique fille, Elisa, avec qui il vit
actuellement.

- La vie, 'comme le tennis'-

Mais dès son plus jeune âge, Artyn n'a pas été épargné par la vie:
quand il avait à peine deux ans, les Turcs ont fusillé son père.
Accueilli dans un orphelinat au Liban, il n'a retrouvé sa mère qu'à
six ans.

"Mon enfance a été horrible, vous le savez, nous sommes des survivants
du génocide arménien", dit-il.

Les Arméniens estiment qu'un million et demi des leurs ont été tués de
manière systématique à la fin de l'Empire ottoman. Nombre d'historiens
et plus de 20 pays, dont la France, l'Italie et la Russie, ont reconnu
qu'il y avait eu un génocide.

La Turquie affirme qu'il s'agissait d'une guerre civile, doublée d'une
famine, dans laquelle 300.000 à 500.000 Arméniens et autant de Turcs
ont trouvé la mort.

Artyn a commencé une deuxième vie en Argentine, suivant sa soeur qui y
avait lancé une usine de chaussures, puis créant son propre entreprise
de confection d'uniformes scolaires.

Il est retourné en Arménie - comme touriste - dans les années 1980 et
a bien l'intention d'y aller encore.

"J'aimerais m'y rendre peut-être cette année, en juillet ou septembre,
car j'ai déjà 100 ans", confie-t-il, avant se s'interroger: "Est-ce
que je suis heureux? Cela peut aller. Chacun a son destin. La vie,
c'est comme le tennis: quand on entre sur le court, on ne sait pas si
on va gagner".