Armenian News... A Topalian... - 9 editorials

Middle East Online

Feb 6 2019

Turkey slams France’s 'Armenian genocide' day plan 

Ankara - Turkey on Wednesday hit out at President Emmanuel Macron's announcement that France would make April 24 a "national day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide".

"We condemn and reject attempts by Macron, who is afflicted by political problems in his own country, to try and save the day by turning historical events into a political matter," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a statement after the French leader's announcement on Tuesday.

Macron said Tuesday: "France is, first and foremost, the country that knows how to look history in the face," during a speech to the Armenian community at a dinner in Paris.

Turkey and Armenia have long been at odds over the treatment of Armenians during World War I.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed during the war.

But Turkey - the Ottoman Empire's successor state - denies that the massacres, imprisonment and forced deportation of Armenians from 1915 amounted to a genocide.

"The claims of a so-called Armenian genocide have no legal basis at all, and go against historical realities. It is a political lie," Kalin said.

"No one can sully our history," the spokesman added.

The French president said he had previously informed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan of his decision.

France was one of the first major European nations to recognise the mass killings as "genocide". More than 20 other countries have followed suit.

Armenians commemorate the massacres on April 24 - the day in 1915 when thousands of Armenian intellectuals suspected of harbouring nationalist sentiment and being hostile to Ottoman rule were rounded up.

RFE/RL Report 

Israel Lifts Ban On ‘Suicide’ Drone Sales To Azerbaijan

February 05, 2019

Israel’s Defense Ministry has lifted its ban on exports to Azerbaijan of “kamikaze” drones that are manufactured by an Israeli company accused of hitting Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh with one of them in 2017.

According to Israeli media reports, the company, Aeronautics Defense Systems, was working on a potential $20 million deal with Baku when Azerbaijani officials asked its specialists to demonstrate its Orbiter 1K unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on Karabakh Armenian soldiers in the summer of 2017.

The reports said two Aeronautics employees refused to carry out the attack before two higher-ranking executives eventually agreed to do it. They said the drone did not directly hit their targets but two soldiers were injured in the attack.

Aeronautics' export license was suspended after a complaint was filed with the Israeli Defense Ministry. Israel’s Justice Ministry moved in August 2018 to charge the company’s chief executive, deputy CEO, and other employees with violating an Israeli law on security export controls. The company denied any wrongdoing.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the Defense Ministry returned the export license on Monday, leading the company to inform the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that the ban on Orbiter 1K sales to its “central customer ‘A'” has 

been lifted. “The company can continue to supply the UAV to the aforementioned customer as soon as possible,” Aeronautics said in a statement.

The ministry’s decision came three weeks after Aeronautics was purchased by another, state-owned Israeli defense company, Rafael, in a $231 million deal.

The Azerbaijani army heavily used similar suicide drones manufactured by another Israeli company during the April 2016 hostilities in Karabakh. Baku had bought the Harop drones as part of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed with Israeli arms manufacturers.

In 2012, Israeli defense officials confirmed a reported deal to provide the Azerbaijani military with more weapons worth a combined $1.6 billion. Those included, among other things, sophisticated anti-tank rockets which were also used by Azerbaijani forces in April 2016.

Armenia has long expressed concern at the Israeli-Azerbaijani arms deals, saying that they undermine international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict. 

A senior Armenian military official hailed in September 2017 the freeze of Orbiter 1K sales to Baku.

Commenting on the lifting of the Israeli ban on Tuesday, an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said: “We will raise this issue both in our bilateral meetings [with Israeli officials] and on multilateral platforms … We will keep 

telling our international partners that an arms race is extremely dangerous for our region.”

The “suicide” drone scandal was exposed by the Israeli press more than two weeks after Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi visited Yerevan in an apparent bid to improve his country’s frosty relationship with Armenia. Then Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November 2017.

Armenpress.am

5 February, 2019

Armenia to raise issue of Israel’s supply of military UAVs to Azerbaijan

The Armenian foreign ministry is planning to raise the issue of Israel’s UAV supply to Azerbaijan in different bilateral and multilateral platforms, foreign ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told a news conference today.

“The regional arms race issue has always been on our agenda, and we have and will continue raising about this issue, both during bilateral meetings and in multilateral arenas. This issue will be no exception,” she said.

According to her, international partners must be reminded that arms race in our region is highly dangerous.

The Israeli Defense Ministry has reinstated the export license of Aeronautics Ltd. – a defense company suspected of testing one of its suicide drones against the Armenian military for Azerbaijan in violation of Israeli law, allowing it to once again sell the unmanned ‘suicide’ aircraft. The incident took place when the company officials were in Azerbaijan to finalize a contract for the sale of its Orbiter 1K UAV when they were asked to strike the Armenian military position in 2017.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

RFE/RL Report

Armenian Government Unveils Economic Growth Targets

February 06, 2019

Armenia’s economy should grow by at least 5 percent annually and thereby “substantially” cut poverty in the country, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government said in its five-year policy program unveiled on Wednesday.

The 70-page program laying out the government’s priorities and policies was made public two months after Pashinian’s My Step alliance won snap parliamentary elections by a landslide. Speaking at a cabinet meeting in 

Yerevan, the premier said it will undergo minor “editorial” changes before being submitted to the Armenian parliament by the end of this week.

The document’s almost certain approval by the National Assembly will amount to a vote of confidence in the government. My Step holds a two-thirds majority in 

the parliament.

The program declares the government’s commitment to a “competitive and inclusive economy” primarily driven by hi-tech industries. It says the government will strive for this by significantly improving tax administration, 

easing business regulations, guaranteeing fair competition, attracting foreign investment and stimulating exports and innovation.

This, the document adds, should translate into an average GDP growth rate of at least 5 percent in 2019-2023. “At the same time, a considerably larger number of citizens should participate in economic development, and economic output created as a result of their work should be distributed more evenly,” it says.

Armenia’s former government set practically the same growth targets in its last five-year program drawn up in 2017. It pledged to reduce the official poverty rate, which stands at around 30 percent, by 12 percentage points by 2022.

Pashinian’s government is likewise promising “substantial” reductions in the poverty and unemployment rates. But it has set no specific targets.

Also, both the current and former government programs describe a steady and rapid increase in Armenian exports as the main engine of faster GDP growth.

Ever since he swept to power in May 2018, Pashinian has repeatedly promised to carry out an “economic revolution” that will significantly improve the lives of ordinary Armenians. He has said his government has already succeeded in practically eradicating corruption and breaking up economic monopolies that have long hampered the country’s development.

According to official statistics, Armenian economy grew by 7.5 percent in 2017. It was on course to expand by roughly 5.3 percent in 2018.

According to the latest World Bank projections, Armenian growth will slow to 4.3 percent in 2019 and accelerate slightly in the following years.

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 6 2019

Turkish FM holds consultations on Armenian Patriarch elections

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, representative of the Armenian Church at the Vatican and Shahe Ananyan, Director of the Inter-Church relations Department of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on Monday to discuss the election of the Istanbul Patriarch, which has been marred by government interference that has created tensions within the Patriarchate.

Agos first reported on the meeting, which was also Patriarchate’s Vicar-General Archbishop Aram Ateshian, who has been at the center of controversy for effectively carrying out the government’s wishes, Asbarez said. 

According to Agos, the Patriarchate issued a statement saying a “sincere” dialogue took place during the hour-long meeting, during which Cavusoglu said that the state was following the developments of the election closely, but urged patience by the church’s leadership.

“The minister received us very warmly and I made it clear that my goal was not to interfere from outside, but express our concerns and understand the ways we can be useful,” Archbishop Barsamian, who is the former Primate of Eastern Diocese, told Agos.

“The minister said that he also understands that it’s a problem and noted that the state also wants the Patriarchal elections to take place, but it was necessary to wait a little for that,” added Barsamian without specifying the reasons for the delay.

After the Istanbul Patriarch Archbishop Mesrop Mutafian was declared unable to carry out his duties due to illness, the Patriarchate’s religious council came up with a timetable to hold the elections. To facilitate this effort, Archbishop Karekin Bekjian was elected Locum Tenens of the Patriarchate. However, the Istanbul Governor’s office, acting on orders from Ankara, deemed the election unlawful and installed Ateshian as Vicar-General, prompting Bekjian’s retreat from his elected position.

Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has raised the issue of the election of a Patriarch in the legislature and has called for official Ankara to allow the Armenian community to carry out the elections on its own terms.

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 6 2019

Consul General: Only 14-15 thousand Armenians left from once a prosperous colony in Aleppo

Panorama.am’s exclusive interview with Armenia’s Consul General in Aleppo 

Armen Sargsyan

- Mr Sargsyan, the war that broke out in Syria in 2011 destroyed the country’s once-famous cities, including Aleppo. How is life going on today in Aleppo? Have the restoration works launched?

- The damages inflicted by the war are simply reaching alarming proportions in Syria. The human losses that are estimated at hundreds of thousands are especially irreversible. We should pay deep respects to the Syrian people who are overcoming a long-lasting and cruel war turmoil at the cost of great sacrifices, refusing to leave their country and remaining steadfast in their commitment to protecting it. Today, Syria enters a new period of post-war reconstruction and national consolidation. 

Aleppo is one of the cities that has suffered most of human and material losses as a result of the war. Today, live has got back to normal in Aleppo: shops and public catering facilities are being opened, with vigorous activity observed in almost every aspect of life. The government provides financial support for the construction and restoration of educational institutions and the buildings of strategic importance from its scarce resources. The security level is also on the rise due to consistent efforts.

- Aleppo was famous for its large Armenian community established after 1915. Due to the war, Armenians became refugees again, with some of them returning to Armenia. How is the Armenian community in Aleppo and other Syrian cities today? How many Armenians have left in Aleppo? Do you possess some data? 

- Yes, the war has also left its mark on Aleppo Armenians. Today, only 14-15 thousand Armenians have left in Aleppo from once a prosperous mother colony with a strong national identity, sparing no effort in an attempt to preserve the community's image and the viability of community structures.

We can underline with joy that the national life of the community is restoring and entering a new course: cultural events are often held, the consulate-community-partnership and the willingness to organize and implement joint events are on a new higher level. Quarterly visits are paid to mainly Latakia and Kessab, where consular receptions are organized to assist the local Armenians in various consular issues. 

- Are there cases when Armenians return to Syria under conditions of a relative peace following the ceasefire?

- Of course, there are such cases. There are people who return mostly for selling their property and settling themselves in Armenia permanently. There are also cases of permanent resettlement in Aleppo, but the number of returnees is still small. It is noteworthy that a part of Aleppo Armenians looks at their homeland, and many Armenians in Aleppo see their future in Armenia. However, those who want to re-establish themselves in Aleppo are few. We are committed to ensuring the humanitarian needs of our compatriots returning to Aleppo within our abilities.

- Throughout the Syrian war, the Armenian diplomatic representations in Syria were among the few that continued to operate. What does it mean to be a diplomat and to work under a war? 

- Throughout the war, by the decision of the Armenian leadership, the Armenian Embassy in Damascus and the Armenian Consulate General in Aleppo have been working and continue to work with an emergency regime, sharing all the hardships of the war.

Up to present, the only diplomatic representation in Aleppo is the Consulate General of Armenia, which is highly appreciated by the Syrian people. For Aleppo Armenians, the activity of the Consulate General is also of great moral-psychological importance for the simple reason that it ensures a link between the Motherland and its authentic presence in Aleppo.

I would like to present in short the Consulate’s activity in humanitarian aid anddeliveries to Aleppo. In these years, the Armenian government has dispatched humanitarian aid to Syria six times – the last in July 2018. The staff of the Armenian Consulate General in Aleppo has always assumed the full responsibility for assistance receiving, registration, paperwork and provision of transport means for delivery to Aleppo, as soon as it arrives at Latakia.

Amid today’s complicated military-political conditions, assuming such a responsibility is highly risky. This is how the Armenian diplomats work in war zones. Naturally, the work schedule is complex and inclusive, and apart from high level professionalism it is also necessary to be vigilant, realizing the seriousness of the situation and the consequences of reckless steps.

- What programs do the Consulate General currently have and what are its priority targets?

- The activities of the Consulate in this respect are extremely variable and largely depend on the domestic political developments. In general, as in the previous years, in 2019 as well the Consulate will push ahead with its practice of multifunctional work.

Interview by Anna Mkrtchyan  

Arminfo, Armenia

Feb 6 2019

Alexandr Avanesov

Six educational institutions of Yerevan will be completely demolished  and new ones will be built

Six educational institutions of Yerevan will be completely demolished and built new ones. This decision was made at a government meeting on February 6.

Presenting the draft decision, Minister of Territorial Administration  and Development of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan stressed  that within the framework of the seismic resistance-improving  program, financed by the Asian Development Bank, it is envisaged to  strengthen buildings of about 400 schools.  ADB provided $ 88.5  million for the project. At this stage, 46 of the most vulnerable  educational institutions were selected. Studies conducted by  international experts showed that there is a need to demolish 6  schools in Yerevan and to build new ones in their place that can  withstand an earthquake of up to 9 points. Yerevan Basic School N18,  Yerevan Heratsi High School, Yerevan Hakob Kojoyan Educational  Complex, Yerevan School N6, Yerevan School N116 and Yerevan School  N95 are among these schools. The Minister stressed that the  construction of 6 new schools will begin this year.

Pointing to the importance of implementing the program, Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan, at the same time, expressed dissatisfaction  with the pace of construction. According to him, the program started  in 2015, and so far little has been done in this direction. "One  thing is surprising: funding exists, schools are known, and the  project is dragged out. At this rate we will not be able to solve the  task for a long time," the head of government stressed, also calling  for greater control over the quality of construction work. "It is  considered that if it is a question of state construction, then it is  possible to do the work of the tap-off, and it is important that the  control over the quality of construction and the efficient use of  financial resources be up to the mark," said Nikol Pashinyan.

The Minister of Finance of the Republic of Armenia Atom Janjughazyan  agreed with this, who noted that $ 60 million of credit funds had not  yet been used. For the same reason, there are no deductions from the  state budget in the form of co-financing in the amount of $ 18.5  million.

Earlier, ArmInfo reported that the project is being implemented on  credit resources of the Asian Development Bank. The total cost of the  program is estimated at $ 107 million, of which $ 88.5 million will  be provided by ADB, and $ 18.5 million - by the RA government. In  total, 46 schools are involved in the program, of which 20 have  already begun construction work. Schools are selected on the basis of  research conducted by a specially created working group, and approved  last July by an interdepartmental commission. To note, on November  12, 2015, the Armenian government approved a loan agreement signed  with October 19, 2015 with the Asian Development Bank in the amount  of $ 85.5 million to increase the seismic safety of schools. Loan  servicing payments must be made every six months. The interest rate  is 2% per annum, the repayment period is 25 years, of which 5 years  is a grace period.

In total, over the period from 2015 to 2030, more than 400 schools  that will meet modern standards, including seismic resistance, will  be built or rehabilitated and modernized within the framework of the  large loan program of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The total  cost of this ADB program is $ 617 mill

Panorama, Armenia

Feb 5 2019

New skiing lifts in Tsakhkadzor resort at extreme heights

Armenia is getting popular not only as a tourism destination during the summer season but also in winter. MIR TV station has prepared a reportage about Armenia’s Tsakhkadzor resort town where visitors hold new levels of adrenaline and extreme skiing experience.

The reporter reminds that Tsakhkadzor is just 60km far from capital Yerevan and the resort’s lift network rises to the top of the Teghenis mountain at over 2800 metres, while the terrain up here is steep, offering some seriously challenging skiing. 

As the source says, the resort offers skiing and snowboarding, usually at prices well below those in Western Europe.

The skiing season that usually lasts until the end of February in Tsakhkadzor, offers options also for beginners and children at specially designed terrains, the source said. 

The Guardian (London)

February 4, 2019 

Beast on the Moon review - portrait of a marriage and a massacre

Finborough, London Richard Kalinoski's deeply touching play is about the fraught relationship between two escapees of the Armenian genocide living in 1920s Milwaukee

by Michael Billington

Star Rating: 3 stars of 5

Drama can tackle big subjects obliquely. That is certainly the case with Richard Kalinoski's play - first seen in America in 1995 and since produced in more than 20 countries - which has only four characters but is haunted by the memory of Turkey's systematic elimination of 1.5 million Armenians. I found its portrait of an immigrant marriage deeply touching, while wishing it told us more about the Armenian genocide of the 1910s and early 1920s.

Kalinoski sets the action in 1920s Milwaukee, where Aram, a young Armenian photographer who has miraculously survived the mass killings, meets his 15-year-old bride, Seta, who is a similarly orphaned refugee. Aram behaves like a traditional patriarch but Seta is too spirited and inquisitive to be a submissive consort. The marriage is also shadowed by Seta's inability to bear children. If the relationship is saved, it is through Seta's temporary adoption of a 12-year-old street kid, Vincent, who is in flight from persecution at a Catholic orphanage.

You can't fault the play, in Jelena Budimir's production, as a story of a relationship. George Jovanovic as Aram has exactly the right withdrawn testiness and his eyes, as Seta observes, are "a mountain of sadness". Zarima McDermott is highly impressive as Seta, mixing sparkiness and anxiety in just the right proportion. There is a fine moment when she counters Aram's use of Proverbs to justify male dominance with biblical quotations asserting the exact opposite. Hayward B Morse also doubles effectively as a beneficent narrator and the boy who becomes a surrogate son.

The play, however, raises nagging questions. It condemns the pursuit of Vincent by a pederastic priest while scarcely raising an eyebrow at Aram's marriage to a 15-year-old girl. It also leaves to the end an explanation of how Aram survived the slaughter, and the reason why his cherished family photo has no faces. The play performs a public service in reminding us of the Armenian slaughter which, to this day, Turkey refuses to call a genocide. In focusing so fixedly on an intimate relationship, however, it relegates the horrors of history to a backdrop.

At the Finborough theatre, London, until 23 February.