Armenian News...A Topalian...[do read the last article on the Armenian nose!]

Extract from Speech by Kenneth Gibson, Scottish National Party
at the Scottish Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 
We should remember that while the Holocaust was unique in terms 

of its industrial nature and in many other aspects, right up to the 

present day we know of many other genocides of the last century: 

the Armenian genocide , the Ukrainian Holodomor, the appalling 

genocide in Cambodia and, of course, we all know about Darfur. 

Darfur, Rwanda and, I believe, much of what is happening today in 

Syria, can be termed genocide —certainly in relation to the Yazidi 

population. 

RFE/RL Report 

PACE Rejects One Pro-Azeri Resolution, Approves Another
26.01.2016

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) on Tuesday 

voted down a draft resolution demanding the unconditional restoration of
Azerbaijan's "full sovereignty" over Nagorno-Karabakh and
Armenian-controlled districts surrounding it.

Still, the Strasbourg-based assembly went on to adopt another
controversial text that deplores "the occupation by Armenia of
Nagorno-Karabakh and other adjacent areas of Azerbaijan."
The two resolutions were approved by the PACE's standing committees

on political and social affairs in November. They were welcomed by
Azerbaijan but strongly condemned by Armenia and Karabakh's
Armenian-backed leadership.

The pro-Azerbaijani documents also prompted serious concern from 

the U.S., Russian and French mediators trying to broker a comprise
solution to the Karabakh conflict. In a statement released late last
week, the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group again warned 

the PACE against "undermining" their peace efforts.

Following a heated debate in Strasbourg, the PACE narrowly 

rejected the more important of the proposed resolutions that 

was drafted by Robert Walter, a recently retired British lawmaker

known for his strong support for the Azerbaijani government.

Walter's text called for a peaceful settlement that would start with
"the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces and other irregular armed
forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of
Azerbaijan" and "the establishment of full sovereignty of Azerbaijan
in these territories." It said that the OSCE Minsk Group should
"consider reviewing its approach to the resolution of the conflict"
accordingly.

The three mediating powers have been seeking a very different
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord. Their Basic Principles of a
Karabakh settlement envisage an internationally recognised 

referendum in which Karabakh's predominantly Armenian population 

would apparently be able to reaffirm the territory's de facto secession 

from Azerbaijan.

The other resolution, approved by the PACE over strong Armenian
objections, accuses Armenia of "deliberately depriving" Azerbaijani
farmers of water flowing from the Sarsang reservoir in northern
Karabakh. It says that this "environmental aggression" necessitates
"the immediate withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the region
concerned."

Several Armenian and other members of the PACE tried unsuccessfully to
have the assembly remove or change these wordings.

Milica Markovic, the Bosnian author of the resolution, did not 

visit Armenia, Sarsang or other parts of Karabakh before drafting
it. "Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to undertake a
visit to Armenia, owing to the lack of cooperation of the Armenian
delegation," she said during the debate.

In a statement issued later on Tuesday, the Armenian delegation at the
PACE praised the Council of Europe body for blocking Walter's
resolution but criticized it for approving the other "one-sided"
document. Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian
likewise charged that Markovic's resolution "pours water on the mill
of Azerbaijani propaganda aimed at undermining the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace process."

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, for its part, welcomed the passage
of Markovic's resolution, saying that it could help to "eliminate the
consequences of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan." According to
Azerbaijani news agencies, the ministry spokesman, Hikmet Hajiyev,
also said Baku "regrets" the PACE's failure to approve Walter's
resolution. 

RFE/RL Report
Armenia `Continuing' Military Buildup
Sargis Harutyunyan
26.01.2016

Armenia is continuing to acquire "long-range and precision-guided"
weapons for its armed forces thanks to its close military ties with
Russia, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said on Tuesday.

"Within the framework of a relevant [Russian-Armenian] agreement
signed in 2013, we are ensuring their development through the
acquisition of modern and compatible weaponry, military hardware and
long-range and precision-guided systems," he told a news
conference. "All that is going according to plan."

Ohanian gave no details of those acquisitions that were apparently
discussed last week in Yerevan at a meeting of a Russian-Armenian
intergovernmental commission on bilateral "military-technical
cooperation."

The four-day meeting was co-chaired by Konstantin Biryulin, the deputy
head of a Russian government agency overseeing arms deals with foreign
states, and Armenian Deputy Defense Minister Alik Mirzabekian.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said that the meeting discussed, among
other things, Russian arms supplies. But it reported no concrete
agreements to that effect.

In June 2015, the Russian government provided Yerevan with a $200
million loan that will be spent on the purchase of more Russian-made
weapons for the Armenian army. Shortly afterwards, a Russian official
revealed that the two sides are negotiating on the delivery of
advanced Russian Iskander-M missiles to the Armenian army.

With a firing range of up to 500 kilometers, the Iskander-M systems
would have significant implications for the military balance in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They would make Azerbaijan's vital oil and
gas infrastructure even more vulnerable to Armenian missile strikes in
the event of a renewed war for Karabakh.

Russia has not exported such missiles to any foreign state so
far. Ohanian and other Armenian military officials have been reluctant
comment on the possible Iskander-M deal.

Ohanian on Tuesday did not deny media claims that the Russian-Armenian
commission also discussed the possibility of supplying Armenia with
advanced Russian Su-30 fighter jets. But he declined to elaborate.

Armenia's modest Air Force currently consists of more than a dozen
older and less sophisticated Su-25 jets that are designed for
air-to-ground missions.

Ohanian reportedly thanked Russia for its "huge" military assistance
to Armenia when he met with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu in
Moscow late last month. The two men signed an agreed nt on the

creation of a new Russian-Armenian air defense system.


armradio.am 

FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2016: ARMENIA & KARABAKH RANKED 

AS 'PARTLY FREE'
27 Jan 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Freedom House ranks Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh as "partly free"
in its Freedom in the World 2016 report.

Armenia's neighbors Georgia and Turkey are also 'partly free,' while
Azerbaijan and Iran are ranked as 'not free.'

Armenia's partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia, Belarus
and Kazakhstan are listed among 'not free' countries. Kyrgyzstan is
ranked as 'partly free.'

Freedom in the World is an annual global report on political rights
and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive
texts for each country and a select group of related and disputed
territories. The 2016 edition covers developments in 195 countries
and 15 territories from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015.

Freedom in the World assesses the real-world rights and freedoms
enjoyed by individuals, rather than governments or government
performance per se. Political rights and civil liberties can be
affected by both state and nonstate actors, including insurgents and
other armed groups. 

armenianow.com
NEITHER PROGRESS, NOR REGRESSION: ARMENIA MAKING 

NO HEADWAY IN TI'S CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX
27.01.16
Alina Nikoghosyan

Armenia has placed 95 among 168 countries by Corruption Perceptions
Index (CPI) 2015, falling by one position over its standing in 2014,
Varuzhan Hoktanyan, the Executive Director of the Transparency
International Anticorruption Center, said on Wednesday.

Armenia's Corruption Perception Index 2015 on a scale from 0 to 100
was rated at 35. Last year it was 37.

According to Hoktanyan, this year the World Bank was not among the
six sources, which were used to determine Armenia's CPI. That is why
Armenia has not registered regression by two points.

"We can conclude that since 2003 neither progress nor regression
has been registered in Armenia [in terms of the CPI]. Among former
Communist countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have a better
result. Comparing to us, our neighboring countries, Turkey and
Georgia, are in better condition, while Azerbaijan and Iran are in
worse positions," Hoktanyan said.

Georgia is 48th in the rankings, Turkey - 66th, Azerbaijan and Russia
share the 119th rank, and Iran is 130th. The least corrupt countries
are Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The most corrupt are Somalia, North
Korea and Afghanistan.

According to Hoktanyan, compared to previous years, in 2015, more
and more countries have made progress rather than retreat.

The CPI is based on expert assessments and data from surveys
by independent institutions, covering issues such as access to
information, bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public
procurement, and the application of anti-corruption laws. 

EVERYBODY NOSE: THE ARMENIAN FEATURE YOU SIMPLY 

CAN'T AVOID
The Calvert Journal
Jan 25 2016

Emil Babayan
Adorning the face of many an Armenian celebrity and, some say,
a measure of worth, the sizeable schnozz is at once a source of
national pride and shame. Emil Babayan noses around Armenia's most
distinctive trait

The Armenians, like all other nations, must have their own "shtick"
-- but what is it? Some think it could be the famous Armenian brandy
so beloved of Winston Churchill, but this, after all, is really a
cultural borrowing from France. Other Armenians argue for the duduk,
an ancient musical instrument firmly rooted in Armenian folklore. But
then, variants of the duduk can be found throughout the Caucasus,
Middle East and the Balkans. So it doesn't quite make the grade --
and nor, similarly, do Mount Ararat, apricots, and many other things
Armenians regard as national symbols. Is it really possible that a
people with more than two thousand years of history has no calling
card of its own? Of course not -- the answer is right under our nose.

The Armenian nose is a unique phenomenon. Anthropologists have
ascertained that its mean length is 58mm -- second worldwide only to
the Kurds. But it isn't just the length that's boast-worthy. Large,
meaty, expressive, the Armenian schnozz takes up fully half the
Armenian face. When an Armenian with a truly Armenian nose is angry,
the lightning rod of his nose conducts electric wrath down from
the storm-clouds of his eyebrows. But if that Armenian's in a good
mood -- and even more so if he's in the throes of laughter -- his
grinning nose will sprawl across his entire face, exuding positivity
and friendliness. The Armenian nose is no less capable of expressing
astonishment, admiration, expectancy, fear, resolve -- and any other
emotion.

What's more, the nose is a staple of all kinds of jokes --
corrosive or otherwise -- in Armenian society. Armenians endowed with
particularly impressive noses are often nicknamed Nose as children --
an uncomplicated yet meaningful sobriquet that usually remains theirs
for life. In a word, the Armenian nose is a multifunctional tool for
communicating with the outside world, and its uses are myriad.

Fact is, Armenians love their noses. It's what helps them nose
out their compatriots when abroad, be it face-to-face or in the
flash-flicker of a TV image. "Look, wifey, that's an Armenian!" my
granddad would often exclaim, jabbing a finger at the television.

"Come off it!" Granny would reply. "Can't you see? His nose isn't
Armenian at all... That's a Georgian right there!" Thus would my
grandfather and grandmother start an animated conversation of an
evening, with other family members, guests and even neighbours quick
to join in.

"Even among Armenians themselves, a genuine Armenian nose isn't
something you encounter very often. But it's a nose you'd never see
gracing the face of a Georgian, a Greek, an Arab, a Jew, or anyone
else." So writes Amayak Ter-Abramyants of the Armenian nose. "It's
monumental. It's unique: just like, say, Altai deer or coelacanth
fish. It's a genuine national treasure, and a direct legacy of
ancient Urartu: aquiline, shovel-shaped, expansive as a flag, with
black hairs bristling from the nostrils," he continues.

In Armenia, you can pick up Armenian-nose-shaped souvenirs.

So important are noses to Armenians that a Nose Monument has even
been erected in the centre of Yerevan. "Let's meet by the Nose
Monument and take a stroll," you might say. The sculpture's become
a tourist favourite. Admittedly, it's not a monument to the facial
feature per se, but a bronze humoresque dedicated to Arno Babajanian,
the celebrated Soviet-era Armenian composer and owner of a nose that
was great in every sense. Unveiled 12 years ago, the "Nose Monument"
moniker, invented by Yerevanians for the sake of convenience, has
stuck. By emphasising a certain aspect of Babajanian's facial anatomy,
sculptor David Bejanyan simultaneously pointed up his nationality ,
something that was downplayed by any means possible in the Soviet
period. He achieved this with the help of the Armenian nose.

Armenia boasts not one, but dozens of Nose Monuments. They tell us
stories about actor Frunzik Mkrtchyan, chess grandmaster Tigran
Petrosian, poet Yeghishe Charents, composer Arno Babajanyan, and
many other worthy Armenian sons. They tell us the story of the nation
itself, allowing us to peruse the light as well as the dark pages of
its soul. The Armenian nose is more than merely a nose.

The Armenian nose is generally a Good Thing, but it's not for
everyone. On one hand, this facial feature has become an integral
element of the Armenian national character, an idiosyncratic marker of
Armenia. As Amayak Ter-Abramyants notes, "It's brandished with pride
and importance, the way all smaller nations brandish their national
banners. And it often juts out from under dense canopies of eyebrows,
interlocking at its bridge and sitting atop sad black eyes awash with
the pain of the Genocide, with longing for a lost Ararat, and with
awareness of an irresolvable historico-geographical impasse." At the
same time, it would seem to be consistent with today's global fashion
trends, which favour all things "outsize" and "maxi". But the fashion
industry has got bogged down somewhere in the middle stretches of the
human body, and is yet to scale nose-level heights. This is a problem,
because the Armenian nose begets many a complex, especially among
the fairer half of the nation. Eager to comply with contemporary
standards of beauty, Armenian women (predominantly young ones) are
resorting ever more frequently to rhinoplasty. Demand, of course,
begets supply, which is why Yerevan and other towns are witnessing
a proliferation of clinics where professional nasal plastic surgeons
offer specialised services to potential clients.

To popularise rhinoplasty in Armenia, a competition entitled The
Most Armenian Nose was devised and launched in the early 2000s by
the plastic surgery department of the Kanaker-Zeytun Medical Centre
in the north of Yerevan. Held eight times between 2004 and 2011,
the winner got a free nose job and the silver and bronze medallists
serious discounts. The competition is no more: these days, takers
are a dime a dozen without it.

The result is a multiplier effect: strong domestic demand stimulates
the rapid development of the industry, and this, in turn, attracts
people from beyond the country's borders. Today anyone can visit
Armenia and get themselves a new nose. Foreign clients must fork out
in the region of $1300-$1500 for the procedure, more than Armenian
citizens, but compared to European and North American markets, these
are very affordable prices. This fully-fledged medical tourism has
been made possible by the power of the Armenian nose.

"Armenia is an up-and-coming regional centre for rhinoplasty, and
indeed for facial aesthetic surgery in general," says plastic surgeon
Karen Danielyan, founder of The Most Armenian Nose competition. "The
country's leading clinics, based predominantly in Yerevan, serve up to
500 clients monthly, a third of them women. I can name ten to twelve
of these institutions off the top of my head -- they're springing up
like mushrooms after the rain." The number of operations, Danielyan
says, is growing by 10-15% annually. "500 people a month is close to
the official number, but things aren't as clear-cut as that. Nasal
surgery is a very personal matter, and many clients don't want to
"spell out" the fact that they've had a nose job. Sometimes nasal
operations are performed under the guise of other, unrelated services.

You might never have even gone to the doctor, in fact, and yet you've
somehow got yourself a new nose." Danielyan's own private practice is
patronised by people from all over the world, from as far afield as
Argentina and South Africa. No less than 80% of his clients are from
abroad, of which around a third are ethnic Armenians. The majority
of this clientele hails from Russia and the United States, followed
by Ukraine, various EU countries, and others.

Culture, fashion, tourism, surgery, show business, journalism,
everyday conversations -- in Armenia, all of these are linked, in
one way or another, to the Armenian nose. Not only has it become
a routine component of existence, it has integrated itself into the
national identity of the people. Sometimes it's an anecdote, sometimes
a joke, sometimes a story, sometimes a topic for an article -- but
it's invariably something intimate and sincere, something that's in
plain view of everyone and seldom goes unnoticed.



Makes countless thousands mourn!”