Thursday 29 October 2015

Armenian News...A Topalian...The highlight of this blog...[Westminster Abbey Holy Martyrs Service, 28 October 2015:




Impressive service, wonderful choir, excellent documentation, first-class 
sermon by the Catholicos - but our hopes with the Bishop of London 
were not realised when he used the phrases "Medz Yeghern", "the 
Catastrophe" and once "Crime against Humanity" (presumably 
because it's in the May 1915 Statement). 
Listen to the recording in the link in following report.] 

armradio.am 
SERVICE AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY REMEMBERS THE LIVES OF 
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MARTYRS - PHOTOS
29 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of
Armenia, HRH The Prince of Wales, and His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, attended a Special Service
to celebrate the lives of the newly-sainted Armenian Martyrs of 1915 at
Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 28th October 2015. The National Anthem
of the United Kingdom and that of the Republic of Armenia were sung.

In his Bidding, the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John
Hall, said: 'Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' He said,
'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' And the Lord said, 'What
have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from
the ground!

'The ancient account in the holy Bible of Cain killing his brother
Abel rings down through the centuries and generations. The blood of
countless men, women and children, split through crimes of passion and
of hate, intercommunal rivalry, civil conflict and warfare continues
to cry out to God from the ground. And the blood continues to be spilt.

'This evening we call to mind the killing of innocent Armenians a
hundred years ago. With sorrow we remember so much blood spilt. With
thanksgiving we celebrate the Holy Martyrs and ask for their prayers.

With longing we pray for peace and reconciliation between peoples
divided.'

The Reverend Professor Vernon White, Canon in Residence read Hebrews 4:
14-16 and His Grace Bishop Hovakim Manukian, Primate of the Armenian
Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland, read St Mark 10: 35-45.

The Address was given by The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dr
Richard Chartres KCVO, Bishop of London.

Prayers were led by the Reverend Christopher Stoltz, Minor Canon
and Precentor of Westminster, and read by Baroness Cox; Shakeh Major
Tchilingirian, mother of a great-grandchild of survivors from Cilicia;
Ellen Adamian, great-granddaughter of survivors from Moush and Sassoun;
His Excellency Dr Armen Sarkissian, Ambassador of the Republic of
Armenia to the Court of St James's, former Prime Minister of Armenia
(1996-1997) grandson of survivors from Erzerum and Alashkert; and
the Reverend Professor Vernon White, Canon in Residence.

At the invitation of the Dean, the Bishop of London, representing
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Catholicos of All Armenians,
pronounced the Blessing.

The service was sung by the St Yeghiche Armenian Church Choir,
directed by Aris Nadirian. Music during the service was accompanied
by Arthur Bovikyn, Organist, St Yeghiche Armenian Church. Music before
and after the service was played by Martin Ford, Assistant Organist.

Click on the link in order to listen 
CO-CHAIRS CROSS THE LINE OF CONTACT ON FOOT
27 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

On October 27, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the
authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission
conducted a monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed
forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the Martakert-Tartar road
section, with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen.

The monitoring was led by the Personal Representative of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

>From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was
conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and Jiri Aberle
(Czech Republic).

>From the opposite side of the line of contact, the monitoring was
conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and staff member of
the Office Peter Svedberg.

During the monitoring, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen and the
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office crossed the
Line of Contact from the NKR side to Azerbaijan's territory.

However, at the end of the monitoring shots fired from submachine
guns from the Azerbaijani side were registered.

>From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by
representatives of the NKR Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. 


LAND TITLE OF ARMENIAN ORPHANAGE KAMP ARMEN IN 
ISTANBUL RETURNED
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 27 2015


The land title of the iconic Armenian orphanage Kamp Armen has been
given back to an Armenian protestant church foundation, daily Agos
has reported.

The process of returning the real estate deed for Kamp Armen, located
in the Tuzla district of Istanbul, has been completed, the lawyer
of GedikpaÅ~_a Armenian Protestant Church Foundation Sebu Aslangil
has announced.

Fatih Ulusoy, the land owner, had initially tried to demolish Kamp
Armen in May but later the controversial plan was shelved as Ulusoy
said he would donate it to the Armenian community.

The demolition efforts, which began on May 6, received widespread
attention once the news broke on social media. Later that day, the
demolition was stopped when many people, including activists and
leading figures from the Armenian community, rushed to the area to
protest the demolition work.

The protesters, along with Nor Zartonk, a non-governmental Armenian
initiative, and Kamp Armen Solidarity group, held a vigil for days
to halt the camp's demolition.

The Turkish state expropriated Kamp Armen in 1987, following the 1980
military coup, based on a 1936 bill preventing minority foundations
from acquiring property.

Although the Turkish government signed a historic decree in 2011 to
return property taken away from minority foundations, the camp was
left out, along with hundreds of other properties.

However, the process of returning the land title began with the help
of initiatives of Armenian civil societies and politicians, as well
as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Built in 1962 by the GedikpaÅ~_a Armenian Protestant Church, Kamp
Armen had hosted a number of children, including the slain journalist
Hrank Dink and his wife Rakel Dink, from various parts of Anatolia
over the years.


RFE/RL Report
U.S. Wants Armenian-Azeri Summit In 2015
Sargis Harutyunyan
26.10.2015


The chief U.S. negotiator in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process on
Monday urged the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to meet before
the end of this year and defuse mounting tensions in the Karabakh
conflict zone.

James Warlick, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, also called
on the conflicting parties to stop using mortars and other heavy
weapons in ceasefire violations along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
and the "line of contact" around Karabakh.

"What we need to do is to stop that," he told reporters in
Yerevan. "Quite frankly, I would like to see a commitment from the
sides not to use heavy weapons because they are so dangerous. There is
also the risk of escalation in using these weapons."

Warlick said that growing use of such weapons by the warring sides in
recent months has already resulted in a "considerable escalation" of
the situation on the frontlines. More than a dozen soldiers and
civilians from both sides were killed in the most recent upsurge of
fighting there last month.

Responding to that escalation, Warlick and the two other Minsk Group
co-chairs representing Russia and France renewed their calls for the
parties to set up a mechanism for international investigations of
truce violations. Unlike Baku, Yerevan and Karabakh's leadership have
repeatedly backed the idea.

"We do need to have an investigative mechanism," emphasized
Warlick. He insisted that it "has not been rejected in Baku."

Warlick met the press in the Armenian capital at the start of the
co-chairs' latest round of regional shuttle diplomacy. They held talks
with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
later in the day and will travel to Stepanakert and Baku later this
week.

The mediating troika has spent the last few months trying to arrange a
fresh meeting between Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham
Aliyev which they think could revive the stalled peace process.

"We do not yet have a date [for the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit] but
we do want to discuss dates with the presidents," Warlick said. "I
believe that you have a referendum [on changes to Armenia's
constitution] coming up in early December. I think it would need to
take place after that referendum but, I hope, before the end of the
year."

"Given the level of violence and given the issues under discussion,
now is the time for another meeting," added the envoy. 


arminfo.am 
BRITISH EXPERT: KARABAKH IS BECOMING ANOTHER LINK IN 
A CHAIN OF DISORDER STRETCHING FROM UKRAINE TO SYRIA
by David Stepanyan
October 28, 12:54

Nagorno-Karabakh, the former Soviet Union's oldest and most dangerous
conflict, is waking up again. The 1994 ceasefire between Armenia and
Azerbaijan is under severe strain. Where there was occasional sniper
fire two years ago, mortars are now being fired. Rockets are raining
down on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the ceasefire line east
of Karabakh itself. There have been around a dozen casualties in the
last week, writes Thomas de Waal, a senior associate at the Carnegie
Endowment, expert on the unresolved conflicts of the South Caucasus,
in his article "Losing control in the Caucasus."

"But the leaders in both Baku and Yerevan are digging themselves into
warlike positions that they will find hard to give up.

This is not about the "hand of Russia" - although Russia's behavior
is not helping. The danger of the Caucasus is that no one is fully
in charge and that Karabakh is becoming another link in a chain of
disorder stretching from Ukraine to Syria, in which Russia meddles
but is not fully in charge," de Waal writes.

According to the expert, since the very beginning of 1994, Moscow
has Russia never had a controlling hand. Since then the unresolved
conflict has stunted development both in Armenia and Azerbaijan,
yet neither is prepared to make the painful compromises that will
lead to peace. "For the semi-democratic leaders of Armenia and the
authoritarian ones of Azerbaijan, regime survival is the absolute
priority. They fear change and periodically find it useful to play the
"Karabakh card" to rally the nation round the flag," he writes.

In the last two years, de Waal writes, President Ilham Aliev has
turned Azerbaijan into the most authoritarian state in wider Europe,
while upping his bellicose rhetoric and publicly calling Armenians
"fascists" and "terrorists." On September 26, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan escalated his own political rhetoric by dropping his previous
position of public ambiguity and categorically declared Karabakh an
"inseparable part of Armenia," he writes.

According to him, Moscow has also periodically used the conflict to
win tactical advantages over both Armenia and Azerbaijan and to keep a
foothold in the South Caucasus. "More recently, Russia has reinforced
its long-term alliance with Armenia, signing a new lease on the Gyumri
military base that lasts until 2044 and inviting Yerevan into the
Eurasian Union. Simultaneously, it has grown closer to Azerbaijan
and has started to sell the country heavy weaponry," Tom de Waal writes. 


RFE/RL Report
Russia `Not Against' New EU-Armenia Deal
Emil Danielyan
26.10.2015

Russia does not object to Armenia's intention to deepen its relations
with the European Union through a new comprehensive political and
economic agreement, according to a senior Russian official.

The planned deal is meant to serve as a substitute for an Association
Agreement which Armenia and the EU nearly finalized two years
ago. President Serzh Sarkisian unexpectedly precluded its signing when
he announced in September 2013 his decision to make his country part
of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The volte-face is
thought to have resulted from strong Russian pressure.

Yerevan and Brussels subsequently began exploring the possibility of
negotiating a less ambitious accord that would not contradict
Armenia's membership commitments to the EEU. On October 13, the EU
formally authorized its executive body, the European Commission, to
launch such negotiations.

"I think that [the planned EU-Armenia accord] does not contradict
partnership with the Russian Federation," Vasily Nebenzya, a Russian
deputy foreign ministry, was quoted by the RIA Novosti agency as
saying in Yerevan late last week. "We ourselves developed relations
with the EU until the EU stopped wanting to develop relations with us
in their entirety."

"Other Eurasian Union partners of ours also have cooperation
agreements with the EU. We not only do not impede but we actually
welcome that," he said.

Nebenzya stressed that Armenia is "well aware" that closer ties with
the EU must not run counter to its EEU obligations. In particular, the
ex-Soviet states aligned in the Russian-led union are not allowed to
cut separate free trade deals with other states or blocs. They are
bound by uniform import duties and a number of other commercial
regulations.

The ill-fated Association Agreement was incompatible with membership
in the EEU because it envisaged Armenia's inclusion in a "deep and
comprehensive free trade area" with the EU.

Armenian officials said that the planned alternative accord with the
EU will contain many other economic provisions of the Association
Agreement not relating to trade tariffs. A senior European Commission
official, Luc Devigne, confirmed this when he visited Yerevan on
October 16 for talks with the Armenian government. He said Yerevan is
specifically ready to adopt EU regulations on business competition,
government procurements and food safety.


RFE/RL Report
Armenian Agricultural Exports Up In 2015
Emil Danielyan
26.10.2015


Exports of Armenian fruits and vegetables have soared by almost 70
percent in physical terms this year despite an economic recession in
Russia, their main market, Armenia's Ministry of Agriculture said on
Monday.

Statistical data released by the ministry shows particularly sharp
year-on-year increases in shipments abroad of fresh vegetables carried
out since the beginning of 2015. In particular, Armenia exported 4,600
metric tons of tomatoes and cucumbers, compared with only 370 tons in
the same period of 2014. The ministry also reported a more than
fivefold rise in exports of cabbage totaling 9,400 tons in
January-October 2015.

There were also sizable gains in deliveries of other major Armenian
crops such as grapes and apricots. The Ministry of Agriculture put the
total volume of fruit and vegetable exports at 64,800 tons, up from
38,550 tons in January-October 2014. It said that 84 percent of them
went to Russia, up from 34 percent in the year-earlier period.

Russia received more Armenian agricultural products despite last
year's sharp depreciation of its national currency, the ruble, which
significantly reduced the dollar-denominated monetary value of many
Armenian products sold in the Russian market. Export-oriented Armenian
manufacturers of brandy and wine were hit particularly hard. Many of
them have cut back or even suspended their sales in Russia over the
past year.

This explains why overall Armenian exports to Russia fell by 30
percent to about $130 million in January-August 2015.

The weaker ruble's impact on exporters of fresh agricultural produce
appears to have been far less severe, however. According to Armenia's
National Statistical Service (NSS), their combined export revenue rose
by 65 percent to $29 million in January-August 2015. The figure does
not cover large amounts of grapes and other produce harvested in the
autumn.

Officials in Yerevan will likely link this data with Armenia's recent
accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU). Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetian said in June that EEU
membership paved the way for "large-scale" Armenian agricultural
exports to Russia.

Those exporters appear to have been helped by a Russian ban on food
imports from the United States and Europe which was imposed last year
in retaliation for Western economic sanctions.

The increased exports were also made possible by favorable weather
conditions that translated into bumper harvests of many crops,
including wheat. NSS figures show that agriculture is currently the
fastest growing sector of the Armenian economy, having expanded by
over 11 percent in January-September 2015.


RFE/RL Report
Syrian Refugee Influx Seen As Economic Boon For Armenia
Harry Tamrazian
26.10.2015


Armenia's economy could and should benefit from thousands of ethnic
Armenians from Syria who have taken refuge in their ancestral homeland
in recent years, a senior United Nations official said over the
weekend.

"We should also mention the influx of Syrian Armenians that have come
over the last couple of years," Bradley Busetto, the head of the UN
office in Yerevan, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) as he
commented on the country's grave demographic challenges.

"Something like 17,000 Syrian Armenians are now here," Busetto said in
an interview. "The UN has provided a lot of support to them # with
shelter, rental subsidies, job training."

"It's only anecdotal evidence but I would say that the influx of
Syrian Armenians has brought in, to some extent, an economic impetus,
an entrepreneurial spirit," he said.

Syria was home to up to 80,000 Armenians, most of them descendants of
survivors of the 1915 genocide in Ottoman Turkey, before the outbreak
of the bloody civil there four years ago. Most of them have fled the
war-ravaged Arab country since then. The once thriving and
predominantly middle-class community currently numbers only an
estimated 15,000 members.

Many Syrian Armenian refugees are struggling make ends meet in
Armenia, a low-income country that has long suffered from high
unemployment. Some of them have used their entrepreneurial experiences
in Syria to launch their own businesses.

The number of cafes, restaurants, shops and other small businesses
owned by Syrian Armenians has visibly increased in Yerevan in the last
couple of years. Some of their owners have complained of a lack of
government assistance and heavy-handed tax administration.

arka.am 
ARMENIA RECONFIRMS ITS INTENTION TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR 
ENERGY, PRESIDENT
27 October 2015

YEREVAN, October 27. Armenia reconfirms its intention to
develop nuclear energy, president Serzh Sargsyan said Tuesday at
the opening of the 14th meeting of the Nuclear Safety Advisory Group
under the Armenian president.

He recalled that in 2014 Russia and Armenia signed an agreement for
extending the service life of the second unit of the Armenian nuclear
power plant. The service life of the second unit expires in September
2016, but the agreement provides for extending its operation for 10
years until September 2026.

President Sargsyan also recalled that November 5 marks the 20th
anniversary of the re-start of the second unit of the Armenian NPP
after six years of conservation.

"It is a unique experience with an unprecedented amount of repair work
done with the use of a variety of original engineering solutions,"
Sargsyan said.

According to him, more than 1,400 measures have been implemented
since 1996 to improve the facility's safety.

The president also thanked the IAEA, the governments of the United
States, Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, France, Italy and the
European Commission for technical assistance in the improvement of
the safety of the nuclear power plant.

President Sargsyan had a meeting today with Adolf Birkhofer, the
chairman of the Nuclear Safety Advisory Group to discuss the work
carried out for increasing the safe operation of the plant and the
government's plan to extend its service life until 2026.

The Advisory Group was set up in 1996. Its main objective is to help
improve the safe operation of the facility.

The Armenian Metsamor nuclear power plant is located some 30 kilometers
west of Yerevan. It was built in the 1970s but was closed following
a devastating earthquake in 1988. One of its two VVER 440-V230
light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995.

Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant
to replace the aging facility. The new plant is supposed to operate
at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor
currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. But
the government has yet to attract funding for the project that was
estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as much as
$5 billion. 


armradio.am
ARMENIA CLIMBS TO 35TH IN 2016 DOING BUSINESS REPORT
28 Oct 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Armenia is among the top performers in Europe and Central Asia (ECA)
- as it ranks 35 out of 189 economies compared to 38 in the previous
year in the 2016 Doing Business Report released by the World Bank.

Armenia's neighbors in the region are ranked as follows: Georgia -
24th, Turkey - 55th, Azerbaijan - 63rd, Iran - 118th.

Armenia's partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Russia and Belarus
are placed 51st and 44threspectively, Kazakhstan is 41st, Kyrgyzstan
is 67th.

Armenia's improvement in the ranking is largely attributable to the
three reforms it implemented in the areas of Dealing with Construction
Permits (DwCP), Trading across Borders and Enforcing Contracts

Armenia is among the 26 economies at the global level that implemented
3 or more reforms. That's only 14% of economies worldwide

Armenia made a jump of nearly two points in its DTF score from DB15
to DB16. To put things in perspective, the average improvement in
DTF score in ECA economies was less than 1.

Armenia made dealing with construction permits easier by exempting
lower risk projects from requirements for approval of the architectural
drawings by an independent expert and for technical supervision of
the construction.

Armenia reduced the time and cost for documentary and border
compliance for trade with the Russian Federation by joining the
Eurasian Economic Union.

As a result, the time for import border compliance was reduced from
approximately 50 hours to 3 hours. The ranking for Armenia on the
indicator has also improved from 58 to 29.

Armenia made enforcing contracts easier through a new law requiring
that cases be assigned to judges randomly, and through a fully
automated system, in courts throughout the country.

Armenia sets some of best practices worldwide in Starting a Business
(rank of 5 out of 189 economies), and registering property (14).

On Starting a Business, it takes only 3 days for an entrepreneur in
Yerevan to incorporate - the same time as in Denmark.

On Registering Property, it takes only 7 days to register a property
transfer compared to 48 days on average at the global level

There are areas for improvement in Armenia, notably in the areas of
Getting Electricity (rank of 99) and Resolving Insolvency (rank of 71).

On Getting Electricity, for instance, it takes 180 days to obtain
a new connection. In contrast, it takes an average of 119 days in
ECA economies.

This year's Doing Business report completes a two-year effort to
expand benchmarks that measure the quality of regulation, as well as
efficiency of the business regulatory framework, in order to better
capture realities on the ground. For example, in addition to the steps,
time and cost to build a warehouse, the Dealing with Construction
Permits indicator, through its Building Quality Control index,
assesses whether safety mechanisms are in place. In this area, Armenia
underperforms compared to the region when it comes to good practices
in construction regulation, quality controls and safety mechanisms.

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