Armenian News...A Topalian... 10 editorials
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 7 2019
Paylan congratulates Christmas in Armenian at Turkish parliament
Turkish lawmaker of Armenian descent from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Garo Paylan has congratulated Christmas in Armenian while addressing the Turkish parliament – Majlis.
“Kristos tsnav yev haytnetsav, dzezi mezi mets avetis,” he said in Armenian, which is translated, “Christ is born and revealed, good tidings to us all!”
He also wished Merry Christmas on Twitter in three languages – Armenian, Turkish and English.
The Statesman, India
Jan 6 2019
100 Years Ago
On this day a century ago, these were some of the news items The Statesman readers got to read about India and the world.
Statesman News Service | New Delhi | January 6, 2019
THE ARMENIAN REPUBLIC
To The Editor Of The Statesman
SIR, – It may surprise your readers to know that Reuter’s latest information about Armenians of Ararat having formed an Independent Republic consisting of two million Caucasian Armenians, is a bit of state news. It may be that the Allied Powers have just given their formal recognition to this Republican Government. The Armenian forces of Caucasia under Generals Andranik, Bagratouni, Nazarbegoff, Perunian, after harassing the Turks, drove them out of Erivan District and in August last formed an Independent Republic, its capital being Erivan with M. Kajaznouni as their first President and M. Khatisian as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Maj.-General Silikian as Head of Erivan Forces. The fate of the Armenians in Turkish and Persian Armenia has yet to be decided at the Peace Conference when a new era may be expected to dawn upon the history of Armenia. That these three slices of Armenia, divided and ruled over so long by three different Governments, will eventually, be united and converted into one Independent Buffer State for the future peace of the world, in the writer’s strong conviction.
M.P.A.
Calcutta.
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 7 2019
‘Absolutely absurd’: Armenian expert reacts to Armenian documents leaked by the Anonymous
The Anonymous hacktivist group published days ago a batch of documents and invoices, which it says were the evidence of the UK state-funded Integrity Initiative project in Armenia, including a list of disloyal journalists, publications timetable, contacts' list and payment documents.
Among the leaked documents is a list of "activists in Armenia that contribute to Russian interests, propagandizing and promoting Russia’s official posture and intentions, while positioning themselves as ‘analysts’, ‘experts’, ‘politicians’".
Panorama.am turned to Johnny Melikyan, expert in Georgia whose name is in the list to comment on the documents.
“This is absolutely absurd. People in Armenia who helped the British organisation showed selective approach while preparing the report. It is totally illogic to accuse one for propagating for Russia based on the fact of working in the Slavonic University [in Yerevan]. The same is true linking the job at government-sponsored Noravank journal with Gazprom only for the fact that former PM Karen Karapetyan financed one issue of the magazine,” Melikyan told.
In his words no links of the articles that reportedly contribute to Russian propaganda are available.
“I am not prone to think this is a deliberate attempt to denigrate our experts and specialists who have worked hard for years to promote the Armenian interest,” Melikyan added.
Crime Russia
Jan 7 2019
German government notes increased activity of ‘Armenian mafia’ in country
This is stated in the response to the parliamentary request of the political party Alternative for Germany.
In response to the parliamentary request of the right and the third-largest Bundestag Party Alternative for Germany, the German government also mentioned the activities of representatives of the Armenian organized crime in the country, Vestnik Kavkaza reports.
The Federal Republic of Germany is considering OCGs consisting of ethnic Armenians in the wider context of Russian-Eurasian organized crime, the document says. At the same time, Armenian mafia structures rank 4th in the number of criminal cases initiated against them in the fight against representatives of the 'Russian-Eurasian' organized crime in 2017. The first three are occupied respectively by citizens of Russia, Germany itself, and Lithuania.
The government report also notes that the most active Armenian criminal groups are in the north and east of the country. In addition, the Government of Germany is aware of individual cases of cooperation between Armenian criminal groups and the Italian mafia, as previously reported by The CrimeRussia.
Recall that in early November 2018, Der Spiegel and the MDR television company, citing the report of the Federal Criminal Police Office, published the results of a joint investigative journalistic report on the activities of Armenian mafia structures in Germany. The materials are the result of a four-year investigation that began after a wide public response resonated in a shootout between two Armenian groups in Erfurt in 2014.
After this incident, the Federal Criminal Police Office, the German intelligence agency BND, separate German land police agencies and Europol launched an investigation called The FATIL project – Fight against thieves in law, because in the opinion of the German law enforcement officers representatives of the criminal Armenian elites control Armenian ethnic organized criminal groups of the federal state of Thuringia and other regions of the republic.
Armenian Ambassador to Germany Ashot Smbatyan, with whom the federal police department was not recommended to cooperate, was mentioned in the investigation report. The police report cited the possible merging of state and diplomatic structures of Armenia with thieves in law as the reason for such a mistrust, and the federal intelligence service of Germany allegedly personally suspected Smbatyan of smuggling and organizing illegal migration in 2008.
Ashot Smbatyan called these accusations absurd, demanded refutations from journalists and sued the TV channel. After that, the court of Berlin banned the newspaper Spiegel and the TV company Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk to distribute unreasonable statements about the Armenian ambassador to Germany. Representatives of the German public television, in turn, have already declared that they are ready for a full-fledged trial and will seek to lift the ban in court.
Emerging Europe
Jan 7 2019
Russia hikes gas prices for Armenia
Russia has raised the price it sells gas to Armenia by 10 per cent.
Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company will charge Armenia 165 US dollars per thousand cubic metres in 2019. The move follows a meeting on December 31 between Alexei Miller, the boss of Gazprom, and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian. The previous price had been 150 US dollars per thousand cubic meters. The price yes is a blow to the Armenian authorities, who had been confident of negotiating a freeze – or even reduction – in prices.
Despite the rise, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan nevertheless assured Armenians that prices for consumers would not rise. Gazprom’s Armenian subsidiary currently sells gas to consumers at the price of 300 US dollars per thousand cubic metres.
Armenia imports the vast majority of its gas from Russia. Its only other supplier is Iran.
News.am, Armenia
Jan 9 2019
Kazakh officials name reasons for Karaganda brawl
Kazakh officials revealed the reasons of mass brawl in Karaganda which involved ethnic Armenians.
Fourteen people, among them the visitors of “Ancient Rome” restaurant as well as owners and the staff, were involved in a scuffle, deputy minister of internal affairs Zhanay Suleymanov said.
“There were around 400 people in the restaurant, the owners included. At 4 a.m. the owners said that the restaurant is closing. This was a reason for the argument which turned into a scuffle,” he said.
According to official data, four people sustained stab wounds during the incident, one of them was killed, Tengrinews.kz reported.
“The visitors who were inside were pushed out of the restaurant. They called their friends, and over dozen of people came and started breaking into the restaurant. The owners and the staff had to take measures. This was the reason for a mass brawl,” he said.
The man killed was not in a restaurant at the moment when the argument broke out. He came upon the request of his friends. Eight people have been detained and arrested on suspicion of hooliganism and murder of a 23-year-old man. A search warrant has been issued for one of the suspects.
RFE/RL Report
Western Survey Notes Democratic Change In Armenia
January 09, 2019
Heghine Buniatian
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a London-based think-tank, has acknowledged “substantial mprovements” in Armenia in an annual report on the state of democracy around the world.
The EIU rated 167 countries and territories on five indicators, including civil liberties and electoral process and pluralism. The resulting Democracy Index again divided them into four categories: “full” and “flawed” democracies, “hybrid regimes” and “authoritarian regimes.”
“Armenia saw the most improvement among all ‘hybrid regime’ countries in eastern Europe in 2018, raising its score to 4.79, from 4.11 in 2017,” said the EIU. “This led to a jump in its ranking from 111 to 103.”
According to the survey, the democratic change resulted from last spring’s “velvet revolution” that toppled Armenia’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian, and brought protest leader Nikol Pashinian to power.
“Mr. Pashinian’s opposition coalition subsequently swept the Yerevan municipal election and won a staggering 70 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election in December 2018,” said the EIU. “These developments, and Mr. Pashinian’s subsequent anti-corruption campaign, improved the country’s scores for government accountability and transparency.”
“They also resulted in a vast improvement in citizens’ perception of corruption and confidence in the government and political parties,” it said.
Armenia’s Democracy Index score had barely changed in the previous years.
The South Caucasus state will have to score more than 6 in order to be classified by the EIU as a “flawed democracy” alongside the United States, France and 53 other nations. The EIU’s latestlist of 20 “full democracies” is topped by Norway, Iceland and Sweden.
Georgia and Turkey are 89th and 110th respectively in the EIU rankings, having been both again rated as “hybrid regimes.” Armenia’s two other neighbors, Azerbaijan and Iran, are far lower in the rankings and remain “authoritarian.”
In an explanatory note, the EIU said that “hybrid regimes” often have “serious weaknesses” in their political culture, functioning of government and political participation. “Corruption tends to be widespread and the rule of law is weak,” it added. “Civil society is weak. Typically, there is harassment of and pressure on journalists, and the judiciary is not independent.”
Arminfo, Armenia
Jan 8 2019
Emmanuil Mkrtchyan
Armenia entered the list of 10 most "vicious" countries of the world according to Bloomberg
ArmInfo.Agency Bloomberg has published a ranking of countries according to the degree of depravity of their inhabitants. Citizens' propensity for an "immoral lifestyle" was determined on the basis of a combination of data on the amount of alcohol consumed, cigarettes, drugs, and on gambling losses from GDP. Zambia turned out to be the most innocent country in the world, but Armenia, entering the top ten of the most "vicious", settled in the "honorable" fourth place in the ranking.
As the site fototelegraf.ru quotes Bloomberg, Armenia is on this list mainly because of the gambling of its inhabitants. In terms of losses from gambling as a percentage of GDP, the country is in second place and second only to the Philippines. The third place was taken by Australia, as the Australians are the most indifferent to ecstasy in the world. Also Australia is the 3rd in the world in terms of gambling losses and amphetamine use.
Slovenia ranked second. As the authors of the report write, Slovenia seems to be on this list quite by accident. This country does not lead (and is not even among the top three) in any of the indicators. Apparently, the people of Slovenia adhere to the principle of "a little bit of everything", thanks to which they are in second place in the most vicious countries of the world.
The Czech Republic was the most "vicious" country of the world. Moreover, the population's love was not so much about beer and absinthe (Czech Republic is only 4th in alcohol consumption), but also on drugs - here the Czechs were in second place after successfully escaping the top ten of the United States. Oddly enough, it is the Czech Republic that occupies the first place in the world in cannabis consumption. At the same time, the Netherlands did not even enter the top ten in terms of this indicator.
To note, after Armenia, Bulgaria is in fifth place. It was the most smoking country in the world. This is an average of 2,822 cigarettes per year per adult inhabitant of the country. Spain ranked sixth. This beautiful country, known to the whole world for its wine, is denigrated by the residents' addiction not to it at all, but to cocaine - here the Spaniards have the highest indicator. The authors suspect that Ibiza Island, famous for its nightclubs, plays a significant role in this story. Remarkably, Colombia, known as one of the main producers and suppliers of cocaine in the world, according to Bloomberg, practically does not consume it.
Residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina - the country located on the seventh place - consume the least alcohol from all the countries on this list. And least of all in the world, according to Bloomberg, they drink in Lebanon. The place in this list of Bosnia and Herzegovina has mainly provided residents with addiction to smoking and gambling.
The opinion that Russia, in the eyes of Bloomberg analysts, has been tarnished by the addiction to vodka does not correspond to reality. Russia, which is on the 8th place in the ranking, occupies only a modest 6th place in the world in alcohol consumption, the 3rd in cigarette consumption and the 2nd after the United States in opioid use. But in Russia, according to Bloomberg, now there are almost no losses from gambling - here, along with El Salvador and Guatemala, is the lowest in the world.
Belarus, which took the 9th place, should be to be included in the top 10 most "vicious" countries of the world to its deeply drunk citizens. It turns out that Belarusians drink a lot - according to Bloomberg - the most in the world! In the top three for this indicator, they were residents of Ukraine and Estonia.
Greece, closing the rating of "viciousness" was the second in the world in the number of cigarettes consumed. In the other vicious categories, its indicators are not too remarkable.
To note, the new authorities of Armenia intend to put an end to the vicious effects of gambling on the people of the country and on its economy. Almost half of the country's GDP growth is in the service sector, where gambling reigns. The new head of government, Nikol Pashinyan, noted a steadfast intention to put an end to this vicious phenomenon.
8 January 2019
Diaspora Ministry: To Be or Not to Be
A diaspora is a scattered population, whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale, resulting from involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories.
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Much has been said in the past few weeks about the impending closure of the Diaspora Ministry—among others—proposed by Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as part of an effort to streamline government operations.
The unilateral decision to dissolve the ministry and fold its mission into other government institutions, without consulting with entities in the Diaspora is shortsighted and misguided at best. Perhaps such a discourse would yield the same conclusion. But without it, we will never know.
On the other hand, proclamations by political parties, groups and some Diaspora communities opposing this move by simply emphasizing the strategic importance of the Diaspora to the homeland, and not venturing beyond rhetoric to propose new mechanisms that can further Homeland-Diaspora relations is also unproductive.
Let’s agree that since its inception in 2008, the Diaspora Ministry not only has been ineffective, but also a failure all because its mission was never clearly outlined. The ministry, with its omnipresent minister, became the distributor of medals and honors to various Diaspora organizations and individuals and the organizer of several programs that were always touted as successes despite a lack of metrics and evaluations. Most of the accolades that were showered by the ministry were paid for by the recipient individuals or organizations.
This writer and this newspaper have consistently criticized the activities of the ministry, due, for the most part, to the minister’s declarations and actions, which not only have not served to advance Homeland-Diaspora relations, but have also, in some cases, deterred Diasporans from engaging with the ministry.
The core of the issue lies in the fact that neither those who decreed the creation of the ministry, nor the ministers who were running it completely understood what a diaspora really is and treated the ministry as an entity that organized behemoth events, such as the four Armenia-Diaspora conference and the biennial gatherings of press representatives, none of which provided a forum to address the gist of the Diaspora-Armenia relations. Instead all of the aforementioned events became shows (if not a circus) where the Diaspora Minister would not only dictate the terms of discussion, but would also direct the participants to applaud—or not—statements and actions. These Soviet-style pep rallies served as benchmarks for the ministry’s existence and the perpetuation of a bureaucracy at the expense of the taxpayer.
A diaspora is a scattered population, whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale, resulting from involuntary mass dispersions of a population from its indigenous territories. As such, a diaspora is a political entity. Thus, a ministry that is tasked with addressing issues related to a diaspora, must also operate in a manner that encompasses the political narrative that comes with the reality of dispersion.
From the onset, the Diaspora Ministry never took time to research the experiences of other nations with large diasporas (Israel, Ireland and Italy come to mind) and to adapt or adopt some of those experiences that have had a positive impact in buttressing diaspora communities for the enhancement and strengthening of the homeland.
Instead, it relied on the Diaspora Armenians inherent affinity toward the homeland, without understanding the genesis of that “love for country above all else” sentiment. For example, an astute Diaspora minister would never tell Armenians who did not speak Armenian that they weren’t true Armenians. Nor, for that matter, a Diaspora minister would profess that those without an “ian” or a “yan” at the end of their last names were not actual Armenians.
After last spring’s popular movement toppled the regime, a new Diaspora Minister was appointed. In July, during a luncheon welcoming him to Los Angeles, I asked the minister whether there were efforts to teach Diaspora history in Armenian schools, basing my inquiry on the notion that the lay—or a new generation—Armenian might not possess the knowledge of what exactly is a diaspora. The minister’s response was no. But that could be a good start—educating people in Armenia about the Diaspora and the struggles to remain Armenian in foreign lands where they sought refuge. Similarly, such education in the Diasporan communities, could embolden Diasporan Armenians to find their unique role, that is not always tied to financial contributions, in the advancement of the homeland.
In dealing with the post-regime change diaspora ministry, it was encouraging to hear that part of the plans the ministry had was to study other diasporic experiences and to apply the necessary elements to the work of the ministry. This approach could be done with or without a ministry, but it is a step that could yield better results.
At the same time, the Diaspora Ministry is definitely not the entity that is to organize the Diaspora, as has been whispered in some circles. A government entity that does not know or possibly fully grasp the nuances of each community, cannot, in reality, be tasked with organizing it. It can, however, serve as an asset to advance the aspirations of each community.
The announcement about the dissolution of the Diaspora Ministry has also emboldened certain individuals who have aspirations of leading Diasporan structures to renew old debates about establishing a Diasporan “government” to lead the Diaspora. It should be clear that the closure of the Diaspora Ministry is not creating vacuum for new people to fill, but rather it has brought about an opportunity to succinctly address the multi-layered aspects in order to optimize Homeland-Diaspora relation.
While closing ministries to streamline the government might be a good solution, the new government must consider the human toll of displacing hundreds if not thousands of employees who—rightly or wrongly—have been working in these structures. Before guaranteeing their alternate employment, the mass closure of the ministry could wreak havoc on the society. One simply needs to look at the consequences the closure of the federal government has had on the lives of Americans in the past several weeks.
The fate of the Diaspora Ministry, or the broader issue of Homeland-Diaspora relations, must be decided collectively. Perhaps before taking any steps, the new government can hold consultations with the Diaspora organization, through its diplomatic missions, to gain a better understanding of how best to address this issue, at the center of which rest the more than 8 million Armenians living in the Diaspora.
News.am, Armenia
Jan 9 2019
Ethnic Armenian among sailors captured by pirates in Benin
Six Russian sailors, among them one ethnic Armenian, were captured by pirates in Benin's territorial waters in the Gulf of Guinea on January 2.
The citizens of Russia – Andry Ivanov, Anderey Svitin, Alexander Simonov, Igor Teleshin, Roman Ivanov and Andronik Grigoryan – have been captured by pirates, Russia's Federal News Agency reported.
The owner of the vessel is holding talks to free Russian nationals.
According to preliminary reports, 20 Russian, two Georgian and four Ukrainian nationals were on the vessel.
No comments:
Post a Comment