Author: nina hovnanian

AZERI POLITICAL SCIENTIST VIEWS ALIYEV’S PROPOSALS FOR NK CONFLICT SETTLEMENT AS RIDICULOUS

17:23, 9 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 9 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Director of the “East-West” Research
Center of Azerbaijan, political scientist Arastun Orujlu views
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev’s “proposals” for the settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the Munich Security Conference as
“absolutely ridiculous”.

As “Armenpress” reports, touching upon Aliyev’s speech in Munich in an
interview with Azerbaijan’s Meydan TV, Orujlu said Aliyev’s thoughts
on “supporting” the civil society of Nagorno-Karabakh “are nothing
but ironic”.

LE DIRECTEUR DE L’ACADEMIE MILITAIRE VAZGUEN SARKISSIAN DEMISSIONNE A LA SUITE DU MEURTRE D’UN ELEVE-OFFICIER

ARMENIE

Arminfo et news.am font etat de la demission du directeur de
l’Academie militaire, le general-major Martin Karapetian, a la suite
d’une reunion extraordinaire convoquee par le Ministre de la Defense
Seyran Ohanian, le 31 janvier, consacree au meurtre d’un elève de
l’Academie militaire, le 29 janvier. Son corps inanime avait ete
trouve dans l’unite militaire de l’Academie. Quatre soldats suspectes
de meurtre ont ete arretes. Lors de la reunion, le Ministre de la
Defense a blâme la direction de l’Academie et les responsables de
l’unite militaire dont l’indifference face a l’ambiance malsaine
entre soldats aurait provoque le meurtre. Il aurait annonce, selon
news.am, le remplacement imminent d’un grand nombre de responsables de
l’Academie (il serait question d’une trentaine ou d’une quarantaine
de personnes). Le Ministre a qualifie le meurtre du soldat de coup
de poignard dans le dos des forces armees qui protègent la frontière
des provocations de l’adversaire jour et nuit. / Hayots Achkhar

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 2 fevrier 2015

lundi 9 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

HISTORIC CANNONBALL STOLEN FROM SOUTHERN CASTLE

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Feb 9 2015

MERSÄ°N – Dogan News Agency

The cannonball in the entrance of the 1,500-year-old Mamure Castle
in the southern province of Mersin has been stolen. The castle was
listed on the UNESCO Temporary World Heritage List in 2012.

Officials, seeing that the cannonball, which had been there for
centuries, was not in its place informed the gendarmerie and the
museum directorate. The gendarmerie has launched an investigation
into the event.

The Anamur District Museum Director Murat Kalas told the gendarmerie
the stolen cannonball had not been registered in the inventory list
of the museum. Scrap dealers and illegal antique dealers are being
investigated.

Mamure Castle

The Mamure Castle is one of the most well-preserved medieval castles
in the Mediterranean. It was built by the rulers of the Armenian
Kingdom of Cilicia on the foundations of a fourth-century Roman
castle. The castle has a unique medieval fortification with the
characteristics of various armies, including the Romans, Byzantines,
Seljuks, Karamanogulları and Ottomans. Covering an area of 3,500
square meters, the castle is one of the largest castles in Turkey.

The castle has a magnificent location for defense, overlooking
the sea around the region. In 1469, the castle was annexed by the
Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently repaired in the 15th, 16th and
18th centuries and a part of the castle was used as a caravanserai
(a resting place for travelers).

The western courtyard contains a small complex with a single-minaret
mosque and a ruined Turkish bath. The southern courtyard has the
remains of a lighthouse.

February/09/2015

HERITAGE: AUTHORITIES ARE TAKING REVENGE ON ACTIVISTS

14:30 | February 9,2015 | Politics

The Heritage party expresses its concerns over the weekend attack on
Artak Khachatryan, a member of the Political Council of the Prosperous
Armenia Party (BHK).

In a statement issued on Monday, the party said it strongly condemns
the chase of citizens for their political views and the vicious
practices of terrorizing citizens, viewing it as ‘a silent permission’
given by the authorities that came to power through rigged elections
and law enforcement agencies.

“The recent attacks make us assume that the authorities are taking
revenge on those activists who are trying to raise a voice of protest
against permissiveness and anarchy in the country.

We demand that relevant agencies, particularly the Armenian Police,
take drastic measures to disclose the assailants and identify the
effeminate perpetrators of the attack, giving each of them his due
punishment, since violence and impunity, as we can see, give birth
to new atrocities,” the party said expressing its support to Artak
Khachatryan and all citizens who are fighting justice.

The party calls on everyone to be united and unyielding in the fight
against the illegitimate regime.

HEAD OF ARMENIAN CHURCH SHOWS UP IN LEAKED HSBC FILES

13:32, February 9, 2015

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, has
shown up in a project published by The IJIC (International Consortium
of Investigative Journalists) looking into 60,000 leaked files
providing details on over 100,000 HSBC clients and their bank accounts.

The HSBC files were obtained through an international collaboration
of news outlets, including the Guardian, Le Monde, BBC Panorama and
the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveal that
HSBC’s Swiss private bank:

The Guardian writes:

HSBC’s Swiss banking arm helped wealthy customers dodge taxes
and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of
untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic
tax authorities, according to a huge cache of leaked secret bank
account files.

The HSBC files, which cover the period 2005-2007, amount to the
biggest banking leak in history, shedding light on some 30,000 accounts
holding almost $120bn (£78bn) of assets.

Here’s the profile of Catholicos Garegin that has appeared in the
IJIC website:

His Holiness Karekin II

Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians

Born Ktrij Nersessian, he was enthroned in 1999 as the 132nd Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos (meaning “universal leader”) of Echmiadzin,
the holy seat of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. He has
traveled the world visiting the Armenian diaspora and promoting
inter-faith dialogue. His travels have taken him to places including
Vatican City, the United States, India and Turkey, milestones of his
pontifical visits.

File details

HSBC internal files first listed Karekin II among its clients in 2000.

He was connected to an account named “His Holiness Karekin II Nersis”
that listed one bank account and held as much as $1.1 million in
2006/2007. The leaked files do not specify the exact role that Karekin
II had in relation to the account.

Comment

A spokesman told ICIJ that the account in question was opened by His
Holiness Karekin II’s predecessor “for the benefit of the Church and
its charities. This account was transferred to His Holiness Karekin
II Nersissian upon the death of his predecessor to be used for the
same purposes. The Catholicosate -the area of responsibility of the
Catholicos- of the Armenian church is a national religious institution
and is not subject to any taxes” and that His Holiness “has immunity
from any taxes.”

DAUGHTER AGREES TO EXHUMATION: CLAIMS HER FATHER WAS MURDERED AND DIDN’T COMMIT SUICIDE

Zaruhi Mejlumyan

09:54, February 9, 2015

Gayaneh Hovhanyan doesn’t believe that her father, whose body was found
hanging from a tree one day after he left his house in the Armenian ton
of Ararat, committed suicide as cited as the official cause of death.

And she’s agreed that her father’s body be exhumed to prove that he
was murdered.

Gyanjirov Hovhanyan’s body was found on July 26, 2013 near the village
ofAvshar, some three kilometers from Ararat.

The daughter believes that two brothers, Narek and Hovhannes Aslanyan,
who own a stone factory in Ararat where her father worked for a couple
of days, are implicated in the death of 65 year-old.

The Hovhanyan family claims that one day before the incident the two
brothers beat Mr. Hovhanyan, accusing him of theft. The family says
that prior to July 25, Mr. Hovhanyan returned home in a frightened
state and told them that the brothers were out to kill him.

Investigators looking into the death of Mr. Hovhanyan never implicated
the Aslanyan brothers in the case.

At a recent Court of Appeals hearing to reopen the case, when asked by
the judge if she suspected that her father had indeed been murdered,
and if so by whom, Gayaneh replied: “I am sure. It wasn’t Aslan
Avetisyan as much as his two sons. They attacked our house the day
before.”

Garik Malkhasyan, the attorney representing the Hovhanyan family,
then told the court that his clients have agreed to an exhumation of
the body of Gyanjirov Hovhanyan to expose the truth.

Ever since her father’s death was officially reported as suicide,
Gayaneh has been conducting an investigation on her own. Initially,
all her petitions to have the case reviewed were rejected. The
pre-investigative body and the state prosecutor found that no one was
guilty of inciting her father to commit suicide or of murdering him.

Gayaneh then filed an appeal against these decisions at the Ararat and
Vayots Dzor Provincial Court. Her appeal was partially sustained. The
court found that her rights, as the legal heir of the deceased,
had been violated.

The Ararat state prosecutor did not agree with the court’s findings and
petitioned the Court of Appeals, arguing that Gayaneh’s rights hadn’t
been violated and that an objective investigation had been conducted.

Before issuing his verdict, Appeals Court Judge Sevak Hambardzoumyan
said he wanted to hear the opinion of case examiner Artour Avetyan. He
will testify at the next court session.

Top photo: Gayaneh Hovhanyan and her mother.

RELATIVES OF SLAIN SOLDIER JOIN RALLIERS OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT BUILDING

14:06 | February 9,2015 | Politics

Hundreds of citizens carrying posters “We are all Artak” and Armenian
tricolour (the national flag) have gathered outside the Government
building in Yerevan, demanding to punish the people who ordered the
kidnapping and beating of activist Artak Khachatryan on Saturday,
February 7.

Vardan Oskanian, a lawmaker representing the Prosperous Armenia Party
(BHK) says this is a war announced not against the political parties
but against the people.

“The real perpetrators must be revealed and punished at once,” he said.

A group of BHK lawmakers have joined the ralliers outside the
government building. Aram Manukyan and Lyudmila Sargsyan from the
Armenian National Congress (HAK) are also there.

Artak Khachatryan was attacked Saturday afternoon in Yerevan by
three masked men who forced him into a car and took him to an unknown
direction. He was later found near his home in an unconscious state.

The relatives of Haykaz Barseghyan who was found killed at the
Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute, have grouped near the government
building. They say Haykaz Barseghyan is also joining the rally in
support of Artak Khachatryan.

HEALTH CONDITION OF BEATEN MEMBER OF PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY CRITICAL BUT STABLE – BROTHER

YEREVAN, February 9. /ARKA/. Health condition of Artak Khachatryan,
a member of Prosperous Armenia Party’s board, is critical but stable,
his brother, Artem Khachatryan, told reporters on Monday.

He was quoted by Novosti-Armenia as saying that some positive signed
were already seen and special measures have been undertaken along with
lung drainage to ease breathing, and this will last two or three days.

In his words, his brother has his lugs injured and ribs broken.

According to the Armenian Investigation Committee, on Saturday at
12:00 local time, Artak Khachatryan was kidnapped and beaten by a
group of unidentified men.

Artem Khachatryan ruled out possibility of criminal wrangles saying
that his brother had no ties with criminals and oligarchs.

“He was involved in public activity over the last five years,” he
said. He is a member of a movement called Kasetsum that is struggling
against the amendments to the turnover tax law to which small and
medium entrepreneurs are strongly opposed.

The National Assembly, responding to the government’s proposal,
postponed enforcement of the amendments until July 2015.

The postponement was prompted by the protests staged by SMEs. Artem
Khachatryan denounced this violence not as a crime against only one
person, but against the whole society.

He, however, refrained from naming suspects. Levon Torosyan and Armen
Nersisyan, representatives of Kasetsum movement, said a demonstration
will be staged on Monday outside the government building.

He also stressed that the movement is vigorously combating corruption
and assumed that may be somebody was unhappy about this.

On Sunday, the Prosperous Armenia’s board issued a statement condemning
the kidnapping and denouncing it as an impudent and cynical challenge
tossed to political forces and society.

“It is obvious that the political leadership of the country is
responsible for what happened,” the party’s members said in their
statement. Prosperous Armenia, a moderate centrist liberal-leaning
party, was established in April 2004 by Gagik Tsarukyan, a prominent
entrepreneur.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, the party won 36 of 131 seats
in the National Assembly forming the second biggest faction here.

Over a period between 2007 and 2012 the party was a member of the
ruling coalition, but now it introduces itself as an alternative
political party. –0—–

ELECTRICAL NETWORKS OF ARMENIA PROMISES 8.4 BILLION DRAMS INVESTMENT THIS YEAR INTO UPGRADING OF SYSTEM

YEREVAN, February 9. / ARKA /. The Electric Networks of Armenia company
has pledged to invest 8.4 billion drams in 2015 into upgrading the
facility, the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) said today,
citing the company’s investment program.

Particularly, the company will spend 2 billion drams on maintaining the
current frequency of outages, on raising the safety of the facility
and replacement of outdated equipment. Another 5 billion drams are
to be spent on connecting new subscribers to the power grid and
implementation of special projects.

According to the ministry of energy and natural resources, the
Electric Networks of Armenia has $220 million in outstanding debts to
local banks. The Russian-owned company blames the current situation
on higher than planned losses (by 2 percent) that translates into
5 billion drams annually. Besides, it has to buy more expensive
electricity from thermal power plants because hydropower plants do
not operate at their full capacity.

Citing this ministry of energy and natural resources argues that the
current tariffs do not reflect the real costs of power generating
companies. It says it has developed a methodology for reduction of
losses and improving the efficiency of the system, which will allow
to reduce losses by 2% in the next two years.

In 2013 PSRC allowed the company to raise the energy price by
27 percent, ‘because of the increased cost of Russian natural
gas’, which is used to generates more than one-third of Armenia’s
electricity. The price went up by another 10 percent in July 2014,
‘to help the company to end mounting financial losses,’ according to
PSRC . ($ 1 – 477.46 drams). -0–

ARMENIA’S CONSUMER PRICES HIKE 2.5 PERCENT IN JANUARY

YEREVAN, February 9. /ARKA/. Armenia’s consumer prices rose by 2.5%
in January, 2015, compared to the month before, Armenia’s National
Statistical Service (NSS) reported.

Food prices hiked is recorded mainly due to a 4.5% rise in food prices
in the period. Prices for nonfoods and for services hiked by 0.5%
compared to the month before, according to the report.

The year-on-year consumer price index was 104.3% in January 2015.

Price index was 105.3% for foods alone (including alcohol and tobacco),
102.4% for nonfoods and 103.2% for services.

The 2015 budget projection for inflation is 4% (±1.5%). -0–