Armenian News...Six individual reports...

RFE/RL Report
Armenian Top Brass Discusses Karabakh Escalation
Naira Bulghadarian
08.01.2015
Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian and Armenia's top army generals 

met on Thursday to discuss, among other things, skirmishes with 

Azerbaijani forces that appear to have intensified since the start of 

the new year.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said the meeting touched upon ongoing
efforts to boost the combat readiness of Armenian frontline troops. It
said Ohanian, the chief of the Armenian army's General Staff,
Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov, their deputies and the heads of
ministry departments also mapped out further training activities for
military personnel.

A ministry statement added that Khachaturov presented a report on
Azerbaijani armed "provocations" of the past week and Armenian "steps
taken in response to them." It gave no details.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani militaries, meanwhile, reported fresh
truce violations on "the line of contact" around Karabakh and the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The Karabakh Armenian army said
Azerbaijani troops fired more than 5,000 gunshots and seven mortar
rounds on its frontline positions late on Wednesday and early
Thursday. It also strongly denied opening fire on Azerbaijani villages
east of Karabakh earlier this week.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, for its part, alleged 74 instances
of Armenian gunfire registered over the past 24 hours.

Artsrun Hovannisian, the Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman,
described the situation on the frontlines as "very tense." "But you
can't compare it to the incidents of July-August ," he told RFE/RL's
Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), referring to last year's upsurge in
deadly fighting in the Karabakh conflict zone.

In a related development, the United States continued to express
concern over the renewed escalation of tensions which the conflicting
parties blame on each other. "The benefits of a negotiated settlement
far outweigh the costs of war," James Warlick, Washington's chief
Karabakh negotiator, wrote on his Twitter page. "[Karabakh peace] can
bring greater prosperity to the region." 

The Metropolitan, Canada
Jan 8 2015
Je Suis Charlie
By Father John Walsh on January 8, 2015

The world must stand up for freedom, freedom of expression; freedom,
pure and simple!  History has proven that the denial of freedom is the
greatest obstacle to our development as human beings.  The greatest
freedom we have is to seek the truth.  Truth will make you free.  What
is the truth about Je Suis Charlie?

Although we seek truth that is absolute and therefore self-evident,
truth is not absolute, it is relative to the events and circumstances
in which we seek the truth.  It is not situational but must be
situated in the time and space in which truth is sought after.  In the
case of Charlie Hebdo, people use their pens as satirists and draw
cartoons lampooning people and events in depictions that may be
considered extreme to wake people up who otherwise would be very
content to live with the status quo.

The truth is that world-wide humanity is complacent and unmoved by 

the most extreme horrors humanity can imagine.  We remained silent 

in the face of the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian Holocaust, the 

genocide in Rwanda, and we remained silent about the need to 

educate girls until Malala was short in the head.  I consider that 

extreme.  Is it not extreme pain to suffer from starvation, from dislocation 

and being one of the 52 million refugees looking for a safe place to live?  

Is it not extreme cold for the homeless right here in many North American
cities?

Satirists are doing the world a service by using their pens to draw
not what the eye sees on paper but drawing our attention to serious
issues affecting all of us, sometimes far away and sometimes in our
backyard, and provoking us in extremis because otherwise we, as human
beings, would not react in a manner that would move us to act on these
issues.  The satirists who depict religious figures do so in the
extreme because religion fails, time and again, to be self-critical.
Any religion that tolerates any form of murder, for any reason
whatsoever, needs to be self-critical and do whatever needs to be done
to re-interpret their "sacred" texts to completely obliterate any
interpretation of a "sacred" text that can even hint at condoning
murder.  Texts are sacred when the truth they advocate is for the
betterment of our world and for the betterment of humanity.  No
culture is sacred. No religious culture is sacred.  The sacred reality
we must uphold and never stop defending is the dignity of each human
being.  Our dignity is our extreme expression of who we are as human
beings.  The massacre in Paris tries to deny our need to look
ourselves in the mirror and recognize ourselves for who we really are.


Ha'aretz, Israel
Jan 8 2015
Israel won't recognize Armenian genocide, says ambassador
Diplomat in Azerbaijan expresses hope to improve relations with 

Turkey.

Israel does not plan to recognize the Armenian genocide perpetrated by
Turkey, Rafael Harpaz, Israel's ambassador to Azerbaijan, told Azeri
website Trend.

"Israel is a democratic country, everybody has two opinions, not one
opinion," Harpaz said. "The government has a very clear opinion."

He said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had made Israel's policy clear.

Harpaz told Trend he hoped Israel's troubled relations with Turkey
would improve.

"There are enough common interests and issues in the world for us to
cooperate," Harpaz reportedly said. "I would like to take an example
of Turkish Airlines. Turkish Airlines is the biggest foreign airline
which is active in Israel. Istanbul is the biggest hub for Israelis.
The same goes for tourism, trade which is up. We hope that our
political relations with Turkey will improve."

Harpaz has served as Israel's ambassador to Azerbaijan since 2012.

armradio.am
Emails reveal Ankara colluded with French judge to defeat 

Genocide denial measure
08 Jan 2015

Documents recently published by Nouvelles d'Armenie magazine reveal a
collusion between a member of the French Constitutional Council and a
former Turkish foreign minister at the time the highest judicial body
in France was discussing the law criminalizing the denial of the
Armenian Genocide, Asbarez reports.

In December of the 2011, both houses of the French parliament approved
a measuring, which would criminalize the denial of the Armenian
Genocide in France through prison terms and fines. The bill was then
referred to the French Constitutional Council, the country's highest
judicial body, which deemed the measure unconstitutional. The
criminalization of Genocide denial was supported by then president
Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as the current French President Francois
Hollande, who at the time was vying for the presidency.

In the most recent issue of Nouvelle d'Armenie an article entitled,
"Constitutional Council: The dangerous connections of Hubert Haenel,"
reveals email communications between Haenel, a former French Senator
and 2010 appointee to the Constitutional Council with a former Turkish
foreign minister turned Turkish lobbyist Yasar Yakis, in which the
latter expresses his contentment that the Genocide criminalization
measure was now on Haenel's desk, who would be influential to overturn
the measure, which was sponsored by French Senator Valerie Boyer.

The exchange between the court member, who is also a member of a
pro-Turkish group known as the Bosphorus Institute, and the Turkish
official were part of a Yahoo discussion thread.

The first of the exchanges took place on February 1, 2012 when Yakis
writes to Haenel: "My dear and great friend, [...] I could not help but
share my joy with great friends of Turkey. I think this tide has
turned and the case is now in your good hands."

Later that same day, Haenel responds to Yakis: "Like you, I share this
relief. We have 30 days to decide, the die has been cast."

The most egregious email communications took place on February 28,
2012 when Haenel writes to Yakis saying, Haenel wrote Yakis: "The
decision of the Constitutional Council will be public today at 5 p.m.
You will be satisfied," to which Yakis reponds: "Since it's you who
are telling me, I don't think I'll be disappointed."

CCAF Demands Haenel's Resignation
The Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF)
issued an announcement condemning the exchange and calling for
Haenel's resignation for his own failure to act within the parameters
of the French Constitution.

"This correspondence reveals a complicity that borders on collusion
between the high-ranking official of the [French] Republic and the
representative of a foreign state about the 'Boyer law,' legislation
passed by the National Assembly and Senate and invalidated by the
Constitutional Council," the CCAF said in its statement.

"The CCAF denounces the pressure being place on a top French
Magistrate by the President of the France-Turkey Parliamentary Group
in Ankara. The organization is also outraged by the attention that was
given him by Mr. Haenel, who in two separate messages on the one hands
tries to reassure him about the fate of this law, and also informes
him about the Constitutional Council decision prior to its
announcement. This goes counter to the provision of confidentiality,
discretion and impartiality that is stipulated in Article 3 [of the
French judicial law] as approved on Nov. 7, 1958," explained the CCAF
announcement.

The CCAF also called on the authorities of France to open an
investigation into the matter and called for Haenel's resignation from
the bench. 

hetq.am 

Wife of Armenia's Control Service Head Gets $200K in Loans Without Any
Declared Income
Grisha Balasanyan
January 8, 2015
How does one obtain over US$200,000 in loans without having any
official income to show?

Well, in Armenia, is doesn't hurt to be married to Sargis Grigoryan,
who heads the Control Service of Armenia's Prime Minister.

Despite the fact that Armineh Kocharyan, Grigoryan's wife, never
worked in 2013 and declared no financial revenues, she was able to
receive three substantial bank loans - US$50,000, US$30,000 and 41
million AMD (US$86,320).

Naturally, the question arises as to how she convinced the banks to
advance her credit given her lack of declared revenue. Or, perhaps,
she's just concealed her financial assets from public scrutiny and the
banks know this to be the case.

So much for the financial transparency heralded by the government when
President  Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree to form a Commission on
Ethics of  High-Level Officials on January 9, 2012. At the time,
Sargsyan proclaimed that the Commission's mission would be to increase
social trust toward public institutions in the country, create a
system of good governance, as well as make high-level officials'
activities more transparent and public.

Needless to say, the Commission has yet to reveal anything about top
officials that would engender such public trust. To be fair, according
to the law the Commission's powers are somewhat restricted and, even
if it wanted to, the body doesn't have the teeth to carry out its
stated mission.

In countries where they are serious about following the money trails
of top government officials, the loans obtained by Armineh Kocharyan
would have raised a few red flags; but not in Armenia.

Whereas banks require village farmers seeking much smaller loans to
put up substantial collateral (houses, property, etc.) and have 3-5
individuals sign as loan guarantors, Kocharyan received those loans in
2013 and another 40 million AMD ($84,000) in 2012, showing no
financial revenues.

Now, let's get back to her husband Sargis Grigoryan, who's headed the
Control Service since 2003, and his financial dealings.

In 2010, he declared 250,000 Euros and 4 million AMD in cash assets.
By the end of2011, those figures had changed to 100,000 Euros and 6
million AMD. By the way, his only declared income that year was 4.420
million AMD in salary.

Where Grigoryan obtained the 250,000 Euros in the first place and what
happened to the 150,000 Euros in the course of one year is anyone's
guess.

Evidently, Armenia's Ethics Committee isn't losing any sleep over the matter.


Silk Road Reporters
Jan 9 2015
Armenian Earthquake Victims Still Await Housing, 26 Years Later
Published by John C. K. DalyJanuary 9, 2015

When a major earthquake strikes, it can garner a lot of attention in
the days and weeks that follow before the world refocuses on a newer
tragedy.

At 11:41 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1988, a 6.8 Richter scale earthquake struck
the northern part of the then Soviet Republic of Armenia. Within 30
seconds the Spitak earthquake, also called the Leninakan and Gyumri
earthquake destroyed the small city of Spitak, while the nearby cities
of Leninakan, capital of Shirak province (later renamed Gyumri) and
Kirovakan (later renamed Vanadzor) sustained a lot of damage as well.
Major infrastructure including electricity, natural gas lines, roads,
railways, water systems, schools and hospitals were either completely
destroyed or severely damaged. Four minutes later, a 5.8-magnitude
aftershock tremor struck nearby, collapsing buildings that had
survived the first quake, tearing an eight-mile rupture in the ground,
several feet wide in places. In Leninakan, with nearly 300,000
residents, about 80 percent of the buildings were either heavily
damaged or completely destroyed.

According to official figures, 19,000 people were injured and at least
25,000 were killed - according to other sources, there were up to
150,000 injuries and deaths in all and 514,000 people were left
homeless. The earthquake also destroyed about 40 percent of the
Armenian SSR's industrial infrastructure. Gyumri was an important
Soviet industrial town, especially for textile production. In summing
up the regional impact of the earthquake Armenian State Building
Committee official Iuri S. Mkhitarian stated that 342 villages were
damaged and another 58 were destroyed, while 130 factories were
wrecked and 170,000 people were out of work.

Archeologists had concluded that the Gyumri region was the oldest in
Armenia, with excavations in the old part of the city uncovering a
settlement dating back to 3000 B.C. The tremor was history repeating
itself, as in 1926 Gyumri, renamed Leninakan two years earlier in
honor of the founder of the Soviet state who had died two years
before, suffered an earthquake which destroyed many of its significant
buildings, including the Greek church of Saint George.

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Civil Defense, Major-General Nikolai
Dmitrievich Tarakanov, who two years earlier had directed relief
efforts at Chernobyl and was now sent to Armenia to oversee recovery
efforts declared, "Spitak proved to be much more terrible than
Chernobyl."

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who was in New York on his first day
of meetings with Reagan and Bush at the time the earthquake struck,
quickly returned to the Soviet Union once the scale of the disaster
became apparent, and shortly thereafter formally asked for American
and international help, the first Soviet request for U.S. assistance
since World War II. Eventually 113 countries sent substantial amounts
of humanitarian aid to the Soviet Union in the form of rescue
equipment, search teams and medical supplies, and private donations
and assistance from non-governmental organizations also played a
substantial role in the international effort.

Gorbachev subsequently set aside 5 billion rubles (about $8 billion)
in funds for recovery efforts that analysts believed would exceed the
cleanup bill for the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. In 1989 the Soviet
Union issued a 3 ruble coin commemorating the anniversary of the
tragedy.

But regional politics also played a role in impacting relief efforts.
Gorbachev visited the earthquake zone and left the disaster area angry
that locals were repeatedly asking him about freedom for
Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians instead of focusing solely on relief
efforts. Relief efforts were slowed by the fact that because of
conflict the Azeris had closed their border with Armenia, which
remains shuttered to this day.

In Gyumri today, according to the Armenian "Depop2Repop" Repopulation
Project, there are 4,300 homeless families living in the same shelters
and makeshift houses they were forced into after the earthquake 26
years ago, with government authorities recognizing only 430 families
as eligible for apartments while, according to official information,
almost half of the population in Gyumri lives in poverty. Since
disaster struck more than two decades ago, Gyumri has lost 150,000
inhabitants, most of them as immigrants to Russia.

Depop2Repop founder and chairman Vahan Kololian declared, "Let's turn
our energies to rebuilding Gyumri and the entire Shirak region," while
Depop2Repop coordinating director Kamo Mailyan noted, "It is our
intention to invite a group of action-oriented Armenian civil leaders
and organizations from the diaspora to compose a Steering Committee to
establish a multi-disciplined approach to rebuilding Gyumri: urban
renewal; attracting industry, with a focus on fabrics, wool, and
textiles; rejuvenating cultural sites; and increasing tourism."

It is a poignant commentary on the priorities of the current Armenian
government that Gyumri's homeless inhabitants a quarter century after
a natural disaster must turn to their more prosperous compatriots in
the global Armenia diaspora to alleviate their plight.