Wednesday 23 October 2019

Armenian News... A Topalian 8 editorials

19 October 2019
Turkish Authorities Ban Hrant Dink Foundation Conference

ISTANBUL—An international conference on “Social, Cultural and Economic History of Kayseri and the Region,” which was set to take place at the Hrant Dink Foundation’s Havak Hall from October 18 to 19, has been banned.

Initially, the conference was organized to take place in Kayseri, Turkey, yet was banned due to the interference of the local government. Consequently, the Hrant Dink Foundation’s Board of the Directors made the decision to move the conference to Istanbul.

As conference organizers were patiently waiting for the start of the conference, and speakers from Turkey and all around the world had already arrived in Istanbul, when, on Thursday, October 17 an official notice was delivered by the Sisli District Government to the foundation – the conference was banned from taking place in Kayseri. However, the notice does not mention any justification for the decision made.

The foundation released a statement explaining their decision to move the conference to Istanbul. The full statement is available below:

“The conference on ‘Social, Cultural and Economic History of Kayseri and the Region’, to take place at the Hrant Dink Foundation’s Havak Hall on October 18-19, has been banned!

As has been closely followed by the public, the conference had been initially planned to take place in Kayseri, yet was banned due to the interference of the Kayseri Governorship. Upon this development, the Board of the Directors of our Foundation decided to hold the conference in Istanbul.

At a time when all the preparations have been made, all speakers from Turkey and all around the world have already arrived in Istanbul for the conference to take place tomorrow; today on October 17th, Thursday at 17:08, an official notice of ban was given by the Sisli District Governorship to the Foundation, which does not mention any justification for the ban decision.

We regret to announce that the conference on ‘Social, Cultural and Economic History of Kayseri and the Region’, which was supposed to take place in light of the valuable scientific contributions by numerous scholars from Turkey and abroad, has been banned.”


Panorama, Armenia
Oct 21 2019
Editorial office of Armenian magazine in France comes under attack

The editorial office of the French-language Nouvelles d’Arménie magazine covering Armenian news from France and around the world has come under attack.

According to the magazine, the intruders broke the door of the office on Sunday, 20 October to steal three computers and video cameras with confidential data.

The editorial staff of the magazine consistently addresses the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, criminalization of denialism  and, at present, the protection of the Kurds from Turkish aggression.

Armenia's Ambassador to France Hasmik Tolmajian has strongly condemned the attack as "a serious infringement of freedom of speech and republican values."


Panorama, Armenia
Oct 21 2019
Archbishop Garegin Bekchyan calls for boycott of the elections of new Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople

Archbishop Garegin Bekchyan, one of the candidates for the new Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, issued a letter addressed to Bishop Sahak Mashalian, the locum tenens of Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate.

According to the report by Ermenihaber, Archbishop Bekchyan informed in his letter about his decision to withdraw his candidacy for the post given the violation of the rights of other candidates amid the Turkish government growing interference in the elections.

In the letter, Bekchyan, who once served as locum tenens of the Patriarchate, next called on all candidates to boycott the elections in solidarity of those whose rights had been violated.

The development came after Turkish authorities issued guidelines for the election of a new patriarch for the Armenian Apostolic Church. The guidelines included a new condition that would preclude clerics serving outside of Turkey from participating in the election and severely restrict the number of individuals eligible to stand for election.

The election for Patriarch is scheduled to take place on December 11, 2019.


Armenpress.am
18 October 2019
Armenia elected to United Nations Human Rights Council with 144 supporting votes

Armenia has been elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) with 144 supporting votes.

“Armenia is elected to UNHRC for 2020-2022 - with 144 votes - a strong testimony of recognition by international community of our democratic transformation and substantial progress in protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms”, PM Nikol Pashinyan tweeted.

In turn, Armenian FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said: “Great result! Big thank you to all our supporters, UN member states for the trust! Committed to work hard and cooperating with all our partners in promoting the human rights agenda.”

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

19 October 2019
Toxic Waste Leaks From Armenian Copper Mine in Kapan

A senior government official accused Armenia’s largest mining company on Thursday of trying to cover up a toxic waste spill that contaminated a river flowing through the southeastern town of Kapan.

The accident was reported near a “tailings” dump of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) early in the morning. Officials said that a leaky pipe connecting the dump with ZCMC’s ore-processing facilities sent a stream of industrial waste flowing into the already polluted Voghji river.

According to Levon Petrosyan, the head of the regional branch of the state Inspectorate Body on Environment Protection and Natural Resources, the pipe was swiftly replaced by ZCMC workers sent to the site. “The river is still brown,” Petrosyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in the afternoon.

He said his agency took water and soil samples from the contaminated area and sent them to Yerevan for detailed examination.

ZCMC said that the leak lasted for up to 40 minutes. Minister for Emergency Situations Felix Tsolakyan blasted the company during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan which discussed the accident.

“They kept things secret and didn’t [immediately] say that such an accident happened,” claimed Tsolakyan. “The [ZCMC] bosses didn’t say that and carried out quick repairs.”

“I don’t know what he meant by ‘kept secret,’” Petrosyan said when asked to comment on Tsolakyan’s claims. “All I can say is that when our inspectors heard the alert and went there the pipe was already replaced.”

Environment Protection Minister Erik Grigoryan told reporters that authorities are now ascertaining the damage inflicted on the environment. He complained that Armenian environmental legislation sets “ridiculously” small fines for mining firms violating it and must be toughened significantly.

Faulty and old tailings dumps are thought to be a key source of environmental damage caused by the Armenian mining industry which generates more than 40 percent of the country’s exports.
ZCMC, which is nominally controlled by the German metals group Cronimet, is the sector’s largest enterprise employing more than 4,000 people. It is also Armenia’s number one corporate taxpayer.


Belfast Telegraph
Oct 19 2019
Lord Darzi named chairman of Aurora Prize selection panel
 
Speaking in Yerevan, Armenia, the peer said the appointment is a ‘great honour’.
 
A member of the House of Lords has been appointed chairman of an international humanitarian award committee, taking over from George Clooney.
 
Independent peer Lord Darzi was named chair of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee in Yerevan, Armenia.
 
Academy-award winning actor and director Clooney will stay on as its honorary co-chairman, sharing the position with peace and human rights activist Benjamin Ferencz.
 
These amazing people celebrated by the Aurora Prize don’t do what they do for recognition. They risk their lives helping others because that’s the way they are Lord Darzi
 
Lord Darzi joined the Aurora Prize Selection Committee in September 2017, and is director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.
 
The annual 1.1 million US dollar (£840,000) prize is granted to a person carrying out humanitarian work by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviours.
 
Speaking at the Aurora Forum, Lord Darzi said: “Being appointed chair of Aurora Prize Selection Committee is a great honour and responsibility.
 
“I’m grateful and excited to continue working with my fellow members of the selection committee in this new capacity.

“Our selection committee is comprised of a select group of outstanding humanitarians, human rights activists and former heads of state.

“Aurora greatly benefits from their experience and knowledge.

“Aurora celebrates the champions, those who risk their lives helping others in a time of crises, at a time of war, at a time of all the major challenges facing us on earth.

“These amazing people, celebrated by the Aurora Prize, don’t do what they do for recognition. They risk their lives helping others because that’s the way they are.”

Other members of the committee include Nobel laureates Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee, and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.

In July, former health minister Lord Darzi resigned the Labour whip, saying that as an Armenian descendant of a survivor of the Armenian genocide, he has zero-tolerance for anti-Semitism.



Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 18 2019
Nicolas Aznavour and family move to Armenia


Nicolas Aznavour, the legendary Charles Aznavour’s son, has moved to Armenia with wife Kristina Sarkisyan and their son, Armenpress reports.

Aznavour’s wife confirmed the news to reporters in Gyumri within the framework of the Auroa Forum events.

“We have moved to Armenia and live here,” she said.

Nicolas added that Gyumri is of special importance to their family.

“This is not our first time here,” he said.

Irish Examiner, Ireland
Oct 18 2019
As Ryanair launches flights to Armenia, here’s why it deserves to be your next holiday destination

As Ryanair launches flights to Armenia, here’s why it deserves to be your next holiday destination
By Press Association

In a time when we’re constantly seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-track destinations, it’s a mystery why Armenia has remained so long beneath the radar. A jewel of the Caucasus (a mountainous region wedged between Russia and Iran), Armenia has long been neglected by mass market tourists, more through lack of awareness than lack of inclination.

Now, budget airline Ryanair is hoping to help put it on the map. Two new routes to Armenia will begin in January 2020, from Milan Bergamo and Rome Ciampino, while another two will commence sometime in the summer, from Berlin Schönefeld and Memmingen Airport in Bavaria.

Here’s why Armenia deserves a spot on your bucket list, Ryanair or no…

1. It has magnificent monasteries

If you had to sum up Armenia in one image, it would be a remote, rickety old church perched precariously on a picturesque, rocky mountainside. The first nation ever to adopt Christianity as its state religion (c. 300 AD), it’s no surprise the country is littered with historic monasteries, many of them carefully constructed atop extremely insecure-seeming foundations.

Touring these stony sanctuaries is an ideal way to sample the brutal beauty of the Armenian landscape, as several key sites lie at the end of a hike.

Best in show are the Geghard Monastery – a UNESCO-listed attraction partially carved from the mountainside – and the reddish-brown Noravank Monastery, which blends into the surrounding cliffs as the evening light begins to fade.

2. The capital architecture is impressive

A vibrant, historic capital that wears its Eurasian heritage proudly on its sleeve, Armenia’s capital Yerevan is absolutely loaded with guidebook-worthy architecture. There’s the Blue Mosque – actually a dazzling array of blues, yellows, greens and pinks – and the effortlessly grand parliament building, an elevated, neo-classical masterpiece with three distinct wings.

Even the modern architecture manages to look generations-old. Consider the Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator, only consecrated in 2001, which is covered in geometric arches and turrets.

The city is otherwise best known for its bar scene, and a smattering of restaurants and cafes serving up traditional Armenian cuisine. It’s one of the only place in the country where locals really understand any English – and even then, sporadically – so be sure to grab a phrasebook before heading further afield.

3. The wonderful wildlife

A photogenic mixture of mountains and forests, Armenia’s rich biodiversity covers everything from miniature hedgehogs to large Eurasian bears, contained within the country’s four designated national parks. For peak natural beauty, swing by Lake Sevan, one of the world’s largest alpine lakes.

Armenia is particularly fruitful for birdwatchers. A vulture’s paradise, eagle-eyed visitors will spot bearded vultures, griffon vultures, black vultures and more, while pelicans populate the lakes, and multi-coloured bee-eaters can be seen flitting through the trees.

4. The Armenian Genocide Memorial

Commemorating the victims of the Armenian Genocide – the mass slaughter of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1922 – the memorial features at its centre an eternal flame of remembrance, beside a row of trees planted by visiting foreign leaders.

The extent of the massacre is still not fully known – estimates vary from 700,000 to nearly 2 million – and Turkish authorities still refuse to acknowledge the severity of the bloodshed. The monument makes for essential, if harrowing viewing.

5. The Wings of Tatev

Officially the longest cable car on Earth (well, the longest “non-stop double-track” cable car), Wings of Tatev soars above Vorotan Gorge, connecting the village of Halidzor with the mountainside monastery of Tatev, 5.7km away.

Half-church half-fortress, Tatev has at varying times been a bishopric, a university, and a stronghold, and can trace its lineage all the way back to the 9th century. Variously plundered by the Persians, the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, the Russians, and a series of earthquakes, it’s nothing short of a miracle that the monastery still stands.

The cable car takes 30 passengers per cabin, so there’s still plenty of room to rush from side-to-side and capture every inch of forest and undulating hill. A not-for-profit enterprise, every dram goes into the upkeep of the monastery.


Beloit Bulletin
Oct 20 2019
‘Our water is our gold‘: Armenians blockade controversial mine

In the mountains of Armenia, a previously bucolic spa town is home to a goldmine locals say threatens the country‘s biggest source of freshwater, and with it, an entire ecosystem.

Jermuk in southwest Armenia has long been renowned for its hot springs, soothing mineral water treatments and impressive waterfalls. But since mining company Lydian International moved in on a gold deposit upstream from the spa town on Mount Amulsar, it has become famous for something else.

Since June 2018, protestors have gathered from across Armenia to oppose a mine they say is fouling their land and water. Manned day and night, their blockade has succeeded in completely halting construction.

A year on, Armenia‘s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan — still fresh to power following last year‘s “Velvet Revolution” — is coming under increasing pressure to pick sides.

On one side, a popular protest movement sees the mine as a symbol of the corrupt regime it has just overthrown; on the other is a company — registered in the UK tax haven of Jersey — responsible for Armenia‘s biggest foreign investment.

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Polluting lakes and pasture

Before construction of the Amulsar mine even began, Lydian relied on the notoriously corrupt government at the time to clear farmland. Locals say they were given a choice between selling the pastures they relied on for a living, and having them expropriated.

“Villagers don‘t know where to send their cows, or their sheep, so they have to stop agriculture,” Jermuk resident Aharon Arsenyan, who has been resisting the company since 2012, told DW.

Once the diggers arrived in 2017, locals say things got worse. Whenever the wind picked up, “there was dust,” Arsenyan says. “Every time. We have never seen — never! — such amounts of dust.”

The landscape around Mount Amulsar in southwest Armenia, which locals say is at risk from a polluting goldmine

As construction progressed, residents of Jermuk and the nearby village of Gndevaz say dark, muddy water ran from their faucets. A local fish farm, meanwhile, reported the unusual death of hundreds of their fish.

Others say the farmland they hadn‘t been forced to give up wasn‘t productive anymore, as cattle refused to eat the dust-covered grass or drink contaminated water.

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Contradictory assessments

The biggest controversy, though, is over what might happen if the mine actually starts operating, and whether Armenia‘s biggest source of freshwater will be safe.

Arsenyan calls his hometown “the capital of water.” Jermuk — and the mine — sit on the source of the Arpa and Vorotan rivers, which in turn feed Lake Sevan. The lake supplies much of the Armenian population with drinking water, and many with fish.

The entire country of Armenia is peppered with small fountains called pulpulaks. People rely on them for fresh, clean drinking water, and they’re especially beloved during Vardavar, the country’s water festival

“The entire ecosystem of the country depends on it,” Arpine Galfayan, a Yerevan resident and member of activist group Armenian Environmental Front (AEF), told DW.

According to , published in 2016, waste water discharge would be minimal and treated to comply with water quality standards. Other disruption — noise, dust, pollution — would also be kept to manageable levels. The company said it would offset any remaining environmental damage by helping fund a new national park.

But when it approached Armenian-American geochemical engineer Harout Bronozian as a potential investor in the project, he had doubts — and commissioned his own environmental assessment.

Bronozian‘s consultants said Lydian had hugely underestimated the environmental impact of the project, which would almost certainly contaminate Lake Sevan and other water sources — with chemicals including arsenic and cyanide — for centuries to come, risking both aquatic life and human health.

A , meanwhile, found that the project could potentially infringe on the habitat of endangered species such as the vanishingly rare Caucasian leopard. It called Lydian‘s promised park “a very negative example of biodiversity offsetting,” and said the mine failed to comply with Armenian and European environmental regulations.

The mine could encroach on the habitat of the exceedingly rare Caucasian leopard

‘Water is our gold‘

Galfayan says although locals were concerned as soon as the company appeared more than a decade ago, few dared speak out. According to the AEF, members of government were among Lydian‘s shareholders, and since state forces shot at a crowd protesting over disputed elections in 2008, there had been an atmosphere of fear and oppression.

In April 2018, all that changed. Armenians took to the streets after then president Serzh Sargsyan tried to install himself for another term. Promising to bring an end to corruption, opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan won the country‘s first democratic elections and took prime ministerial office in May 2018.

Energized by this victory for public protest, residents of Jermuk and the surrounding villages began their blockade of the mine. Around the country “our water is our gold” became the slogan for the new frontline in the popular war on corruption. Each time Lydian tried a new legal mechanism to pressure government into breaking the blockade, a steady stream of vehicles arrived with reinforcements from around the country.

A high stakes game

Pashinyan‘s government, however, failed to either revoke the license his predecessors issued Lydian, or to effectively clear the blockades, saying a fresh audit was needed to decide whether the mine should be allowed to operate.

Environmentalist Aharon Arsenyan speaks at an anti-mining rally

All this has hit Lydian where it hurts. In 2018, it of over $42 million (€37 million), and total losses of over $136 million, warning “there is a risk that the company will be in default under its agreements” to shareholders.

In March, Lydian submitted notice to the Armenian government that it planned to sue the government through corporate courts if the situation was not resolved. Rumours circulated in local media that the company could try to claim losses of $2 billion, or almost two thirds of Armenia‘s state budget.

Then in July, the government‘s own environmental impact assessment was finally published, finding that the mine was safe. In the weeks since, Pashinyan has shifted position more than once, between assuring Armenians the mine is safe and casting doubts on the government‘s own positive environmental assessment of the project. 

On September 7, the prime minister convened a meeting with both activists and Lydian‘s interim, CEO Edward Sellers, who said the company would allow independent monitoring of the site. Two days later Pashinyan took to social media to ask protestors to clear the blockade. 

Galfayan said protestors would not only continue the blockade but were also planning a wider campaign of civil disobedience, including marches on the capital. “This is a matter of life and justice for us,” she said. “We are definitely fighting back.”

Meanwhile, Jean Blaylock, of campaign group Global Justice Now told DW the international corporate court process is so secretive, it‘s possible Lydian may have already launched its case.

“Corporate courts are a perfect tool for transnational corporations to bully governments,” Blaylock said, adding that, “the payouts can be huge, the arbitrators take a very narrow perspective, and altogether it is a massive pressure on governments to back down.”

Lydian did not respond to DW‘s request for comment on criticisms of its operations, or whether it was going ahead with corporate court proceedings.

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