Author: nina hovnanian

news.am, Armenia
Aug 6 2011

Hikari – piece of Japan in Armenia

August 06, 2011 | 22:01

YEREVAN.- Origami is not only an ancient art. It is a kind of therapy
acknowledged by modern medicine, said head of Yerevan-based Hikari
center Karine Piliposyan.

Hikari, translated as `light’ from Japanese, was created three years
ago, the main direction is teaching children the ancient Japanese art
of origami.

`However, we are not teaching traditional origami, we complement and
develop it to create something new,’ she said.

About 40 children included in four groups are studying origami art in
the center, the youngest are only four years old. Their works were
presented in the Armenian capital on June 17 at a charity origami
exhibition with proceeds to be sent to the Japanese Embassy in Moscow
to aid some children’s institution in disaster-hit Japan.

Karine Piliposyan pointed out indifferent attitude of the Armenian
officials towards the exhibition.

`Origami exhibition was held at the City Hall but representatives of
the municipality did not show any interest,’ she emphasized.

In addition to promoting an origami art, the center stages
performances and marks the Japanese national and state holidays.

The center is presently located in the building of the National Arts
Centre which is in need of repair.

`We have applied to Japanese Embassy for financial assistance,’ Piliposyan said.

According to her, if the center had a large room, it would be possible
to have more groups without age restrictions, open language groups and
a group of Japanese ceramics.

`If we manage to implement our ideas, it will be a piece of Japan in
Yerevan,’ head of the center concluded.

news.am, Armenia
Aug 6 2011

Infightings in Turkey useful for Armenia – expert

August 06, 2011 | 17:29

YEREVAN. – Infightings in Turkey are useful for Armenia. As Ankara
will have less time for effective external politics in that case,
specialist of Turkish studies Artak Shakaryan told Armenian
News-NEWS.am commenting on the change of the military leadership.

In general, weakening of the military position in Turkey is useful for
Armenia. As generals have always had extreme nationalistic attitude
and always put forward relations with Azerbaijan. Moreover, Turkish
military took Armenian community as a potential internal threat.

While Justice and Development Party headed by the Turkish PM Erdogan
consider Turkey as a mosaic state, though still run
Azerbaijan-centrist policy.

`During Erdogan’s reign, the state withdrew from politics and Turkey
became more democratic,’ Shakaryan stated.

He brought an example of Syria. If military decided issues regarding
Syria in 1998, currently they can only express their opinion but are
not decisive.

The President of Turkey Abdullah Gul approved the appointment of
General Necdet Ozel as Chief of General Stuff. The former Chief of GS
Isik Kosaner resigned unexpectedly last week. Commanders of the Land
Forces, the Navy and the Air Force also resigned together with
Kosaner. The Generals resigned the day before the major meeting of the
Supreme military council.

news.az, Azerbaijan
Aug 6 2011

Azerbaijan maintains ties with Israel, raises influence in Arab world – MP
Sat 06 August 2011 04:30 GMT | 0:30 Local Time

News.Az interviews Asim Mollazade, MP and leader of the Democratic
Reforms Party.
Earlier this week you met Palestinian ambassador to Azerbaijan. What
did you discuss at the meeting?

The talks focused on resolution of Middle East and Nagorno-Karabakh
conflicts, cooperation between Azerbaijan and Palestine.

We agreed that these conflicts have generated a lot of refugees and
created a humanitarian catastrophe. In Palestine, the situation has
lasted more than 40 years, and people there are sensitive to the
humanitarian problems that surfaced as a result of occupation of
Azerbaijani territory by Armenia. The ambassador expressed his full
support for territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

I also briefed the ambassador on policies of our party, told him about
our domestic and foreign policy and economic situation in the country.
In general, it was an interesting meeting. As far as I understood, the
meeting was initiated by the ambassador. Yes. You know that we
regularly meet with ambassadors of various countries accredited in
Azerbaijan and exchange views on many issues.

Did Palestinian envoy send any message to the Azerbaijani side and did
he express any wish of his government?

No, he above all thanked Azerbaijan for the very warm reception for
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and said that Palestine, in turn, is
ready to fight for Azerbaijan and its just cause in solving the
Karabakh conflict on the international scene. Most importantly, this
is, after all, rule of law, the implementation of UN Security Council
resolutions in practice.

In your opinion, will Azerbaijan support recognition of Palestinian
State during a voting that will take place in September?

I think the issue is not on the agenda. Azerbaijan will be consulting
with all its allies in this regard. Apparently, the stand of
Azerbaijan will coincide with stand of other countries, that is, will
be based on decisions of the UN Security Council. The main thing in
this matter, which Azerbaijan is always concerned about, is the
situation of refugees, civilian deaths as a result of clashes, women
and children. Azerbaijan, which has felt the pain of this tragedy, is
always sympathetic to the pain of other countries and peoples.

Should Azerbaijan in cooperation with Palestine worry about
long-standing ties of the autonomy with the Armenian terrorists, who,
at least in the past were trained in bases of extremists in Palestine?

The situation has changed. Cooperation of Armenian terrorist
organizations with other similar organizations happened in the 1970s
and 80s. Today Armenian terrorism has changed the mask, geography of
its operations and focused its attacks on territory of Azerbaijan,
where a huge amount of terrorist attacks have been committed since the
late 1980s.

With regard to killings of Turkish diplomats, Armenian terrorist
organizations somehow merged with PKK in this matter. In other words,
activities of Armenian terrorists have shifted from the Middle East to
the South Caucasus and Turkey.

However, there is evidence that many Armenian militant groups in
Lebanon are cooperating with Hezbollah, and we must always keep this
in mind.

I will ask the question differently. During the period of activity of
Armenian terrorists, closely linked with the Armenian extremism,
Azerbaijan did not have such close relations with Arab world
benevolent towards Armenians. Now the situation is different and
leaders of Syria, Palestine visit Baku. Does this help stop aiding for
Armenian terrorists on the part of these countries, which had been in
the past?

Azerbaijan is trying to build normal relations with all Arab
countries. As a whole, Azerbaijan needs support of international
community, especially within the framework of international
organizations on the issue of Armenia’s aggression against our
territory.

However, Azerbaijan has normal relations with Israel and works with it
on many fronts. Therefore, in this case it is impossible to speak
about inclination in Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. In fact, it is based
on a partnership strategy, that is, we do not act in the spirit of
medieval psychology, but pursue a pragmatic policy based on
partnership, mutually beneficial cooperation. This suggests that
Azerbaijan, while maintaining normal relations with Israel, increases
its influence in the Arab world.

F.H.
News.Az

Genady Melikyan quits as deputy chief of Russia’s Central Bank

14:15 – 04.08.11

The first deputy chief of Russia’s Central Bank, Genady Melikyan, has
quits from office, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Melikyan, who was responsible for the bank’s loans control procedures,
has confirmed earlier reports on his resignation in an interview with
the agency.

“I think it’s already time,” he said, adding that he had submitted his
resignation notice before taking a leave three weeks ago.

He refrained from giving further comments on his resignation. Neither
did he say anything the person who is going to replace him.

Tert.am

LE CANADA ET LA FRANCE EN OUTSIDERS POUR UNE CENTRALE NUCLEAIRE
Ara

armenews.com
vendredi 5 aout 2011

ANKARA, (AFP) – Le ministre turc de l’Energie Taner Yildiz a affirme
jeudi a Ankara qu’un partenariat avec le Canada ou la France pourrait
etre envisage pour la construction d’une centrale nucleaire dans le
nord de la Turquie en cas d’echec de negociations avec le Japon après
le retrait de Tepco.

Interroge par des journalistes, le ministre a explique que la compagnie
japonaise Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), dont il a annonce mercredi le
retrait des negociations, etait l’operateur pressenti pour la nouvelle
centrale, dans un plan japonais comprenant egalement la construction
et le financement. Les negociateurs japonais tentent maintenant de
“renforcer une offre dont un des trois piliers est ebranle, qui
reste sans operateur”, a declare M. Yildiz, cite par l’agence de
presse Anatolie.

“Est-ce que cette offre pourra etre renforcee ou pas ? Dans quelle
mesure ? C’est ce que nous allons constater avec nos evaluations au
cours de la periode a venir”, a-t-il ajoute.

Interroge sur ses intentions en cas d’echec de la proposition
japonaise, le ministre a repondu : “Dans ce cas la, des pays
producteurs (d’energie nucleaire, ndlr) comme le Canada ou la France
evalueront la situation.” La Turquie projette de construire trois
centrales nucleaires d’ici cinq ans. Elle a conclu un accord en 2010
avec la Russie pour construire une première centrale a Akkuyu, dans
la province de Mersin (sud).

Pour la deuxième centrale, prevue a Sinop (nord), elle a d’abord eu des
tractations infructueuse avec la Coree du Sud, puis a signe en decembre
2010 avec le Japon un protocole d’accord sur la cooperation dans le
nucleaire civil, premier pas non contraignant vers la construction
de la centrale. Le violent seisme suivi d’un tsunami qui a frappe
le Japon le 11 mars, provoquant un grave accident nucleaire dans la
centrale Fukushima Daiichi (220 km au nord-est de Tokyo), n’a pas
remis en cause son projet.

Il a en revanche plonge Tepco, la première compagnie d’electricite
du Japon, qui exploitait la centrale, dans une crise sans precedent.

CLASSIC COMEDY STANDS ALONE PHILIPPA HAWKER

Sydney Morning Herald

Aug 4, 2011
Australia

FRANCIS Veber is the son of a Jewish father and an Armenian mother:
as a child born of two genocides, he says wryly, of course he went
into comedy. His parents were writers, but found it hard to make
money from their work, and were desperate for him to do something else.

Veber proved them wrong. He is a screenwriter, director and playwright,
responsible for some of France’s biggest comic hits, several of which
have been remade in Hollywood – La Cage Aux Folles and The Dinner
Game. His plays are performed around the world: Kenneth Branagh,
he says, is about to star in an adaptation of L’Emmerdeur in Belfast.

As a child, he recalls, “I wrote short stories, the way kids sneak
cigarettes in the toilet”. Obedient to his parents’ wishes, he spent
four years in medical school and two years studying science. Finally,
after military service, he found his way into writing. Sadly, they
didn’t live to see his success: “I lost them early.”

Veber is at the Melbourne International Film Festival giving talks and
masterclasses. He says his method is not telling people what to do,
but sharing what he knows. When he’s speaking with other writers,
it’s as if “we are doing the same work in different restaurants,
and we are meeting and sharing recipes”.

What he does know for certain is that “all writing is difficult,
you are always in a deep anxiety. It’s a strange job. It’s only if
you are mediocre, if you don’t care, that you are happy with what
you’re doing.”

Veber has an insider’s view of Hollywood; he spent six years there
as a consultant for Disney. He says this was far more relaxing than
writing, and he was surprised by how open-minded people were. “It
wasn’t that they thought their work was bad, or that they needed help,
but that they felt the need, sometimes, for a fresh eye. And there
was no ego. Not mine, not theirs.”

But there were bad experiences. He directed two movies while in
America; one, Three Fugitives, was based on a French film he had
written, and the other, Out on a Limb, on a screenplay written by
others. The latter “was a horrible flop, and the worst nightmare”.

He felt trapped in the script, unable to change anything, and he had
no support.

He had had positive experiences in Hollywood, but this was “so
negative, I decided not to work for movies any more”. He went back to
the theatre and wrote The Dinner Game, one of his biggest hits. It
became a successful film and was remade in Hollywood as Dinner For
Schmucks – with what Veber regards as distressing results.

“They kept on saying, we have to open it up, and I kept asking them
why. If it’s funny in a room, we don’t need the Grand Canyon.” Rather
than understanding what they have, “they take French foie gras and
put whipped cream on it,” Veber says.

Veber is giving a talk in French today at the State Library, and is in
conversation in English on Saturday at the Festival Club, Forum Cinema.

POLITICAL ANALYST: PROBABILITY OF POWER CHANGE IS HIGH IN ARMENIA IN NEAR FUTURE
Trend, T. Hajiyev

Trend
Aug 3, 2011
Azerbaijan

Probability of power change is high in Armenia in near future,
Azerbaijani political analyst, Trend Expert Council member, MP Rasim
Musabeyov told Trend on Wednesday.

He said power change in Armenia will not be revolutionary, as it
happened in the Arab countries, but by arrangement.

“Former president, the current head of the Armenian opposition Levon
Ter-Petrossian also came to power in Armenia by arrangement. And
now one can feel that he intends to come to a specific agreement
with Serzh Sargsyan. Rather, formation of a coalition government or
parliamentary elections will be possible within this agreement. If
parliamentary elections are held, Dashnaks and “Heritage” Party will
be left out. Levon Ter-Petrossian’s supporters can be represented with
great fraction in the parliament. This is the most likely option,”
Musabeyov said.

He said as a result of pressure of people, left out power, Sargsyan
will get some opportunity for maneuvering also in the resolution of
the Karabakh conflict.

“Military and some political forces in Armenia, including
the”Dashnaktsutyun” and “Heritage” party, are against the settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the Madrid
principles. Sargsyan, using this factor may play for time, not changing
anything in the direction of resolving Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,”
Musabeyov said.

He said probability of a whole change of government is high as well.

“Because the current Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan does not
posses great authority in the country. This is a man who covered up
authorities’ criminal acts, and now it is not necessary,” Musabeyov
underlined.

Head of the Armenian National Congress said in a rally on Tuesday
that the Armenian government will agree to hold early presidential
elections.

SECOND CASE ON ASSASSINATION PLOT MERGED WITH ERGENEKON

Today’s Zaman
Aug 3, 2011
Turkey

A second case regarding a suspected assassination plot against Armenian
community leader Minas Durmazguler was merged on Wednesday with the
ongoing case into Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network charged
with plotting to overthrow the government by creating large-scale
chaos in the country.

The Ä°stanbul 13th High Criminal Court, which is hearing what is known
as the second Ergenekon trial since it was initiated on the basis of
a second indictment prepared by the prosecution during the course of
the investigation, ruled to merge the assassination plot case with
the second Ergenekon trial on the grounds that there are legal and
evidentiary links between the two cases.

The prosecution claims that Garip Ä°rfan Torun, one of the suspects
in the assassination case, was given a Glock gun to kill Durmazguler
by Ä°brahim Å~^ahin, currently under arrest on charges of membership
in the coup-plotting clandestine organization known as Ergenekon.

The first case filed regarding the assassination plot was earlier
merged with Ergenekon. Bekir Celik and Emrah Gönenci are the two
suspects in that case. Investigators conducting the probe into the
assassination plot to kill Durmazguler have found that the two men were
connected to Å~^ahin. In October 2010, the two were apprehended in the
investigation, but released pending trial. The Ä°stanbul 13th High
Criminal Court accepted the indictment for the plot after a Sivas
prosecutor asked that the case be merged with one of the ongoing
Ergenekon trials. The court merged the two cases.

Å~^ahin, a former senior police official who was the deputy head
of the National Police Department’s Special Operations Unit, was
arrested after investigators in the Ergenekon trial established
that he was recruiting police officers to join his S1 death squads,
which would have staged attacks and assassinated important community
leaders to serve Ergenekon’s goal of causing chaos in Turkey with
the ultimate hope of triggering a military coup. Tracking Gönenci’s
connections revealed his ties to Å~^ahin. The police found that he
had gathered intelligence about would-be victim Durmazguler under
Å~^ahin’s instructions and relayed this information to the former
police official. The indictment notes that during a visit from Å~^ahin
to Sivas, he stayed at Gönenci’s home and that the two men drove to
Kayseri and Tokat together.

WHY US DOESN’T PLAN FOREIGN AID FOR AZERBAIJAN?

Panorama
Aug 3, 2011
Armenia

US House Panel doesn’t plan any aid for Azerbaijan. Armenian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan was asked to make remarks
for Panorama.am in this respect. MFA spokesman said the House
Appropriations Committee decision is the beginning of a long-term
process.

The House Panel has named only some countries to provide aid, including
Armenia, which is supposed to get $40 million.

“Other countries, including Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, have been
included in the list which the House Appropriations Committee and the
Senate should discuss. If the sub-committee is silent with Azerbaijan,
it has approved that the foreign aid for Nagorno-Karabakh will meet
the humanitarian needs.”

Thus, the sub-committee has already approved the foreign aid to
Nagorno-Karabakh but hasn’t yet defined its volume, MFA spokesman said.

LEVON SHIRINYAN: “NATIONAL ANSWER SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ANTI-ARMENIAN ATTACK

Noyan Tapan

03.08.2011

(Noyan Tapan – 03.08.2011) Mikheil Saakashvili’s statement that
Azerbaijan’s enemy is also Georgia’s enemy is directed to Armenia
and neglects the honor of Georgia-residing Armenians. A Doctor of
Political Sciences Levon Shirinyan announced this during the press
conference on August 3.

Now Georgia leads a policy which is a continuation of Georgia’s
policy in 1918-1920s. “Of course, Russia is Georgia’s big problem, but
this statement also refers to Armenia. We should explain to Georgia,
that now Armenia has great allies. Diaspora can also counteract any
anti-Armenian step by all means,” the politician said.

L.Shirinyan thinks that Russia will try to strain the relations
between Armenia and Georgia.

According to L. Shirinyan, national answer should be given to this
anti-Armenian attack. “Everybody should protest in Armenia and
Diaspora. I know that Diaspora is very sensitive, while because of
the wrong policy of Armenia, Diaspora didn’t respond properly,” said L.

Shirinyan.

In politician’s words most people now think that Armenia is in a
serious situation and they profit by the occasion.