Sunday 21 August 2016

Armenian News... A Topalian...Conflict OVER KARABAKH, US, ARMENIA & RUSSIA



For those who have TV access to live Premier Division Football 

games, Mkhitaryan is on the list to play for Manchester United 
tonight Friday with Pogba and Ibrahimovic also in the team..

(a must view for Arsenal supporters after tier team;s cracking start 
to the season   


Vestnik Kavkaza
Aug 18 2016
US prepare Caucasus bomb in Armenia for Russia 
Aug 18 

Now the United States use the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a tool 
for weakening Russia's positions in the South Caucasus in order to 
knock it out of the region and strengthen its influence, Director at 
the Institute of Contemporary Economics, chairman of the presidium 
of the political council of the party Rodina, Nikita Isaev, said in an 
interview with a Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent, adding that 
Washington spreads anti-sargsyan moods in the Armenian society. 

Above all, Nikita Isayev reminded that the US publicly declared that 
Armenia is the main place for the implementation of their policies in 
the Caucasus and the Middle East. "For this reason, the statement by 
the United States that they do not interfere in the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict due to presidential elections, the absorption of Europe through 
trade partnership missions in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, or due to the 
impossibility of losing gas corridors is a true bluff,'' he stressed, noting 
that the US embassy in Yerevan is still the second in the world 
in size and the number of employees. "The embassy was initially 
focused on the fight against Iran, which was then the main enemy 
of the US in the Middle East. Today 500 US diplomatic personnel 
continue to influence the entire map of the Middle East and the 
Caucasus. 

The interest of US, in addition to the economy, to remove Russia 
out of Armenia and Syria. Russia's presence in the South Caucasus 
is the 102nd base in Gyumri. It is reasonable for Washington to solve 
this matter, including possible hostilities with the location on its base 
in Armenia,’’ the expert told about US strategic interests in Armenia. 


RFE/RL 
Report Armenia Insists On Concessions From Azerbaijan For 
Karabakh Deal
August 18, 2016
Sargis Harutyunyan

Armenia deems it will be impossible to talk about a compromise
solution to the protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan
unless official Baku acknowledges the need for concessions.

Speaking to media after a government session on Thursday, Armenia's
Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian said: "So far, I have not
heard Baku speaking about any concessions. When Baku starts 
speaking about concessions, then it will be possible to talk about
compromises."

"It is a different matter that speaking about the negotiating process,
the Armenian sides - Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh - say that they 
are ready for compromises# But while Azerbaijan's position is getting
tougher, it is pointless for the Armenian sides to talk about any
concessions," the senior Armenian diplomat added.

Speculation about possible Armenian territorial concessions to
Azerbaijan as part of some sort of a compromise deal within the
framework of the internationally mediated negotiating process 
renewed after brief hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh in early April 
in which dozens of soldiers, as well as civilians, were killed on both 
sides.

So far, however, officials in Yerevan and Stepanakert have denied that
a possible withdrawal from a number of Karabakh-controlled districts
around Nagorno-Karabakh proper in exchange for some sort of status for
the disputed region is part of the negotiations where Russia, one of
the three chief negotiators along with the United States and France,
appears to have played first fiddle in recent months.

Addressing senior members of his government and leading
representatives of the Armenian society on August 1, President Serzh
Sarkisian categorically ruled out unilateral concessions in the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

"Karabakh will never be part of Azerbaijan. Never. I repeat once
again: it is out of the question," he stressed.

In a recent interview with the online newspaper of the French
Parliament, Karabakh leader Bako Sahakian, while advocating the idea
of "reasonable, fair and adequate" compromises as a way of settling
the conflict, insisted that such concessions should not "disrupt our
country's security and create opportunities for our adversary to
launch new attacks against us."

Sahakian's spokesman David Babayan later explained that the Karabakh
leader did not imply territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Kocharian also presented a clear
vision of the Armenian side of the possible compromise:
"Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be part of Azerbaijan; security guarantees
must be provided for the Karabakh state and people."

"As for details of how to achieve this, it is a different matter,
which is also conditioned by the position of our opponent. And its
position is very tough, so speaking about details in this case is
pointless," the senior Armenian diplomat said.

Kocharian stressed that Armenia is not empowered to talk about
Nagorno-Karabakh's territorial integrity. "For me or for any other
official of Armenia there is no notion of compromise or concession,
because these issues related to the settlement are mainly within the
competence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. In other words, not a
single Armenian official has the right to talk about them. It is
another matter that in the current situation, while the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is not fully involved in the negotiation
process, in order not to interrupt the process, Armenia participates
in it. But Armenia is not empowered to speak for Nagorno-Karabakh
either about its status or its territorial integrity," said the deputy
foreign minister.

According to Kocharian, no agreements around a Karabakh conflict
settlement were reached at recent Armenian-Azerbaijani talks in Vienna
and St. Petersburg. He stressed that during both meetings discussed
were ways to strengthen the ceasefire regime. 


Extract from
Fast Company
10 Affordable Cities To Live Abroad And Work For Yourself
Aug 18 2016

From Taipei to Yerevan, Armenia, these hubs are gaining in popularity
with self-employed travelers.

Arianna O'Dell
08.18.16 


From pristine beaches in Indonesia to picturesque mountains in
Armenia, more freelancers and entrepreneurs are escaping
fluorescent-lit cubicle life for less traditional "offices" overseas.
I've met them—and I am one myself.

You don't need to be 22 and living off a trust fund to make this
happen, either. Actually, it's the opposite: Money considerations are
a key reason for ditching North America. For me, living and working
abroad was the right financial decision to build and grow my marketing
agency. 

7. Yerevan, Armenia

Located in western Asia, Armenia is one of the world's oldest
inhabited places. Due to a recent economic upturn in Yerevan, the
streets are now filled with restaurants and cafes that are perfect for
working remotely.

Pour yourself a bottle of $4 Armenian pomegranate wine and snack on
Ararat Valley apricots as you discover a stunning city brimming with
UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

"Armenia is on the map for our work­-abroad plans," says Derek
Merdinyan of Video Igniter. "The low cost of travel and living
expenses helps our bottom line, and I get an excuse to visit the place
my great­-grandparents came from."


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The Times (London)
August 17 , 2016 Wednesday
The children who inspired Ransome's fictional Swallows 
lived in Syria, not the Lakes, 
reports 'Roger trained as a doctor in England before returning 
to Aleppo'
by Richard Spencer 

(Roger developed the nebuliser still prescribed for most asthmatics)

Could there be a more striking contrast than that between the world of Swallows and Amazons and the cinema where the original sailor siblings' family might have seen it if history had worked out differently? While Arthur Ransome's tale portrayed an idealised portrait of a typical English family holiday, the real-life models for John, Susan, Titty and the Boy Roger were anything but. They were on holiday, but from Aleppo, where their Syrian-Armenian family ran the biggest private hospital. 

Like so much of their beloved but benighted city, nothing now remains of the Altounyan Hospital. Its demolition long pre-dated the current conflict, but its street, where the city's al Zahra Cinema was subsequently built, is on the front line of the four-year battle for control between regime and rebels. The souq near by, where the children shopped, has been holed and burnt by shellfire. The barrel bombs of President Assad's forces have reduced the eastern suburbs to rubble, including many of its the country's hospitals; the other side, where theAltounyan family once lived, wilts under the rebels' hell-fire cannon. 

The true story of Taqui, Susan, Titty and Roger Altounyan is not a secret, but rather forgotten now. As the film is released, though, the competing visions of Ransome's golden 1928 summer and the present reality of the Altounyans' birthplace is nothing if not poignant.

The children's father, Ernest, and grandfather, Aram Assadour Altounyan, were doctors. Assadour, in flight from Ottoman pogroms against Christian Armenians, founded a hospital in his adoptive city. An anglophile, he sent Ernest to public school at Rugby, where he met the son of Ransome's mentor, the historian WG Collingwood. 

Ernest also met and married Collingwood's daughter Dora and took her back to Aleppo. It was on a holiday to their grandfather's home in Coniston that the children were taken up by Ransome, who, with Ernest, bought them two boats and taught them to sail. Two years later, he dedicated Swallows and Amazons to them. With the exception of Taqui, who became Captain John, he didn't even bother to change their names. The family, of course, became the distinctly more Anglo-Saxon Walkers, their father a Navy officer. 

After the holiday, the Altounyans returned to Aleppo. This being Syria, their story did not, alas, end there. As an adult, Taqui wrote two memoirs describing a romantic childhood amid the colourful bazaars of the east and the green hills of Coniston. Yet Barbara Altounyan, Roger's daughter and the last of the family to be born in the city, said that by the 1950s it was very different. 

Roger also trained as a doctor after the war, at the Middlesex Hospital, before returning to Aleppo. However, the precursor dictatorships to the current regime were already having their effect. The Altounyans, as a Christian family, were singled out. Public health broke down. Syria is famous for the Aleppo Button, or leishmaniasis, a disfiguring parasitic infection, once again all too common on children's faces. There were also outbreaks of dysentery and tapeworm; even young Altounyans suffered. 

In 1959, Ernest and his family were given 48 hours to leave. The hospital was nationalised, then torn down. 

Compared with present refugees, the Altounyans were lucky, with their British connections. Yet the days of Swallows and Amazons were gone; and part of their drive to fit in seems to have involved not standing out. Barbara's brother, Michael, lets a holiday cottage in Coniston.Asadour Guzelian, the Yorkshirebased photographer, is credited for many pictures of the Lakes. Titty, when she grew up, married a fellow Armenian in charge of the hospital's ice supply, Melkon Guzelian, and brought him to Britain with her. 

Some biographies of Roger do mention his first claim to fame (he became a leading asthma expert) but he didn't discuss the book when he taught his children to swim and sail the Lakes. Barbara remembers being taken to meet Ransome. "We had to stay still and sit on our hands," Barbara says. "Hard, for children brought up to climb trees." 

The difference between the fictional Swallows and the originals is not lost on her. "Of course they were not blond and blue-eyed," she says. "All the Altounyans were dark and swarthy." The film brings home how far away the Swallows' adventures seem from all our realities, as far off as Aleppo, although in their case under the carapace of Ransome's imagination, rather than war.

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