Iranian-Armenian relations

[Chubs]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Iran nuclear deal framework announced

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/world/iran-nuclear-talks/index.html

Great news for the region, and for Armenia as well. Iran's economy has massive potential for growth and expansion, and we are bound to see the benefits of that. This is specially the case when it comes to the Iran-Armenia Railway. I hope they reach a final agreement quickly, and Iran regains its economic influence immediately.

This is good news, because low oil prices have hit Iran's economy, GDP wise, hard.

[Mher]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Armenia Hails Tentative Deal On Iran’s Nuclear Program

Armenia swiftly welcomed late on Thursday a framework agreement to curb neighboring Iran’s controversial nuclear program which was reached by the Islamic Republic and world powers during marathon negotiations in Switzerland.

“That will contribute to the strengthening of stability and cooperation in the region,” Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in a statement. “This serious progress in the process of solving the Iranian nuclear issue shows that even the most complex problems can be settled through negotiations.”

The tentative agreement cleared the way for a comprehensive deal which Iran, the United States, the European Union, Russia and China aim to conclude by June 30. Such a deal would lead to a gradual lifting of crippling international sanctions imposed on Tehran because of what the West sees as Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
IRAN-NUCLEAR/IRAN-NUCLEAR/

The sanction relief would not only increase Iran’s vital oil revenues but also facilitate its commercial ties with other nations, including Armenia. Successive Armenian governments have maintained warm relations with the Islamic regime in Tehran, reflecting their landlocked country’s unresolved conflicts and closed borders with two other Muslim neighbors: Azerbaijan and Turkey.

For over two decades Iran as well as Georgia have been Armenia’s sole conduits to the outside world. Armenia also imports natural gas and limited amounts of other fuel from Iran and hopes to significantly boost electricity exports to the Islamic Republic in the coming years.

The Western sanctions have long hampered the implementation of large-scale Armenian-Iranian energy projects. In particular, the Armenian government has had to impose serious restrictions on cash operations between Armenian and Iranian banks. Officials have blamed these curbs for a delay in the construction of a big hydroelectric plant on the Arax river marking the Armenian-Iranian border and a new power transmission line connecting the two countries.

An Iranian diplomat said in December that the easing of the sanctions, which already began in 2014, bodes well for the launch of these projects. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s chief negotiator in the nuclear talks concluded in Lausanne, spoke of further progress towards their implementation when he visited Yerevan in January. Zarif also sounded optimistic about chances of a far-reaching nuclear settlement between Iran and the world powers.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26936026.html

[Mher]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Nuclear deal could unleash Iran’s economy

After decades of crippling sanctions, a reform-minded government is ready for growth
April 27, 2015 2:00AM ET



After almost 15 years of intermittent negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 group of six major world powers have reached a framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

The deal couldn’t have come soon enough for the Iranian economy, which has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations. At the same time, state oil revenues are shrinking every day, and unemployment and inflation have soared to levels not seen since the catastrophic Iraq-Iran War of the 1980s. Since 2010, sanctions have specifically targeted Iran’s central bank, leading to rapid currency devaluation and near-zero rates of economic growth. Living standards for the working class and low-income Iranians are abysmal, with many unable even to purchase basic medicine.

The nuclear deal clears the path for the end of sanctions and the emergence of a dynamic Iranian economy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose Cabinet includes more graduates of prestigious American Ph.D. programs than President Barack Obama’s, is committed to reforming the economy and taking a leadership role in the developing world.
Where Iran stands now

Compared with other developing countries, especially considering the damage of war and sanctions, Iran performs decently on measures of human development. Its average life expectancy increased dramatically, from 54 in 1980 to 74 in 2012; 98 percent of 15-to-24-year-olds are literate; and according to the United Nations, Iran’s overall human development index has improved by 67 percent in the last decade.

Despite sanctions, Iran is one of the world’s top 20 economies. For the first decade of the 21st century, annual growth rates hovered around 5 percent, sometimes reaching as high as 7 percent. The 2010 round of sanctions were devastating, but the government has recently announced the return of positive growth. According to an International Monetary Fund forecast, the Iranian economy will grow 2 percent in 2015, an impressive reversal from the 5 percent contraction that occurred in 2012.
Iran may soon be recognized as one of the world’s most promising economies of the 21st century.

Iran, which invests more in scientific research than any other Middle Eastern nation, has seen rapid growth in its high-tech sector. Its elite technical universities are ranked among the top in the world. Sharif University of Technology — Iran’s MIT — was hailed by a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford as the the finest university in the world preparing undergraduate electrical engineers. Iran also stands among the leading countries in cutting-edge sciences such as stem cell research and nanotechnology.

While the Iranian economy is still largely dependent on oil exports, it has also seen significant industrial development. In 2009, Iran’s auto industry became the 11th largest in the world, producing more than 1.4 million vehicles (more than the United Kingdom or Italy). Auto is the second-largest sector, after oil, and offers vast employment opportunities to young workers in Iran. The country boasts significant development in high-tech industries such as machinery, automotive, steel, petrochemicals and medical technology.
What should Iran do next?

How can Iran make the most of its postsanction economic opportunities? The single most important step is to move away from dependence on energy exports and toward growth in labor-intensive industries. Since Iran’s oil reserves will eventually be depleted, it is crucial to identify alternative sources of revenue.

But even if the oil never runs out, oil dependence exposes the economy to the risks of a constantly fluctuating market. Last April a barrel of oil cost almost $100, but the price now hovers around $40. This turbulence makes long-term development planning susceptible to uncertainty and risk. Furthermore, modern refineries are highly technology intensive, so they do not generate many employment opportunities, nor do they provide learning-by-doing training for the workforce in those industries.

In short, an expansion in exports of the nonoil sectors such as manufacturing will allow Iran to adopt the growth model that the East Asian “tigers” such as South Korea and China followed. If Rouhani can keep the nuclear deal on course and implement new economic policies, Iran may soon be recognized as one of the world’s most promising economies of the 21st century.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/4/nuclear-deal-could-unleash-irans-economy.html

[Mher]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

First Christian football captain in Iran as Rouhani puts focus on minorities



As Iran’s national football team prepared to head to the World Cup last year, Andranik Teymourian stood next to his teammates while they lined up to kiss the holy Islamic book, the Qur’an, as part of the farewell ceremony.

Athough he is not a Muslim, the Iranian Armenian didn’t want to rock the boat and so performed the ritual for travellers, which is a quintessential part of Iranian culture. The cleric holding up the Qur’an could hardly disguise his amusement at the scene.

The 32-year-old midfielder, known as Ando – or Samurai, due to his hairstyle – is not shy of showing his Christianity, often crossing himself on the field. In April, Teymourian, who has played for Bolton Wanderers and Fulham, became the first Christian to lead Iran’s football team as its permanent captain.

“I’m happy that as a Christian I play in a Muslim team,” he said in a recent interview. “I have Armenian roots but I hold the Iranian passport and I’m proud of that, I hold my flag high. I hope I can enhance the good reputation of Armenian people in Iran.”

Ethnic Armenians make up the majority of Iran’s estimated 300,000 Christians. Armenians are fully integrated in Iranian society, from the musician Loris Tjeknavorian to Sombat Hacoupian, who founded one of the country’s most famous men’s clothing brands and is now a household name.

Although Islam is Iran’s official religion, it recognises Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians as accepted religious minorities. They are permitted their house of worship and usual religious services, and have reserved seats in the Iranian parliament. In a country where alcohol and pigmeat are forbidden, Christians are allowed to distil booze and eat pork.

There are at least 600 churches in Iran, including the sixth-century St Mary Church of Tabriz, mentioned by Marco Polo in his travel book. The adjacent province of West Azerbaijan boasts the ancient St Thaddeus Monastery, a Unesco world heritage site.
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When Hassan Rouhani came to power in 2013, he appointed Ali Younesi, a former intelligence minister, to serve as his special assistant in minorities’ affairs. It was the first time such a position had been created.

Significant improvements have since been made but many big challenges remain.

In April, as Iran’s northern neighbour, Armenia, commemorated the centenary of the 1915 genocide, the Iranian government, which is usually nervous about public gatherings, took a rare decision to allow Iranian Armenians to stage a protest in front of the Turkish embassy in Tehran.

The official attitude towards other minorities has also changed. In February, Younesi announced that Jewish students officially no longer had to go to school on Saturdays, the sabbath day in the Hebrew calendar. Iranian school weeks run from Saturday to Thursday, and Friday is the end of the Iranian week.

“There are numerous reasons why my family left Iran in 1987, but an important one was the decision by the Iranian government that year not to officially recognise the holy sabbath as a religious day off for Jewish students,” an Iranian-Israeli, Meir Javedanfar, blogged recently as he hailed the new decision.

Rouhani’s administration has tried to revamp Iran’s image, especially concerning the official attitude towards the country’s Jewish community, after it was badly tarnished under his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was notorious for his Holocaust denials and antisemitic tirades.

Rouhani took Iran’s sole Jewish MP to New York with his entourage in his first visit to the UN general assembly. He has since condemned the mass killings of Jews by the Nazis as crime against humanity, tweeted a Rosh Hashanah blessing for Jewish new year, and honoured Iranian Jewish soldiers who lost their lives in the eight-year war against Iraq in the 1980s.

Since his appointment, Younesi – who is a Muslim cleric – has visited synagogues and churches across the country. According to the reformist Shargh daily, he said after one of those visits in the city of Shiraz: “Iran belongs to all Iranians from any ethnic or religious groups and all of them have a right to live peacefully along other citizens.” He was also quoted as saying: “No one is allowed to suppress or infringe the rights of any minority groups. We all have equal rights.”

The government last year donated nearly half a million dollars to Tehran’s Jewish hospital. But hardliners, who are strongly opposed to such conciliatory moves, have not remained quiet. Instead, they have held Holocaust denial cartoon competitions in the capital.

Iran is believed to have the largest Jewish population in the Middle East after Israel. But the country’s Jewish population slumped after the Islamic revolution, when many Iranian Jews emigrated to Israel or other countries.

In spite of animosity between Iran and Israel, Iranians are the least antisemitic people in the Middle East, according to the latest poll by the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL). However, although Iranian Jews are free to practise their faith like other minorities, some report feeling like second-class citizens.

The situation of Zoroastrianism is much better. Iranians were Zoroastrians before Islam arrived in Iran and the country’s culture is a mixture of Islamic and Zoroastrian traditions. Many traditions survive from those ancient times, such as Nowruz, or Persian new year, which is a holy day for Zoroastrians but also the most important holiday for millions of Iranian Muslims.

Amid improvements, one notable exception is the Baha’i faith, which is still banned and its followers persecuted and even imprisoned.

Those in jail include Faran Hesami, a Bahá’í mother of a four-year-old, who was arrested for teaching members of the community in Iran who are banned from university because of their religious affiliation. Seven Bahá’í leaders have been imprisoned for the past seven years, each serving 20-year sentences.

“Some 100 Bahá’ís are wrongly imprisoned solely because of their religious beliefs, thousands more are excluded from higher education, and the Bahá’í community as a whole is discriminated against in employment and prevented from freely assembling for worship and community activities,” said Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the UN in Geneva.

Iran also remains highly sensitive towards the issue of conversion. Muslims who convert to other religions risk being arrested. More than 90 are behind bars, includuing pastor Saeed Abedini, who holds an Iranian American citizenship. Muslims whose denominations are not accepted by Iran, such as Gonabadi dervishes, face persecution, with many of their members in jail.

Rouhani is trying to improve the situation of ethnic groups. Earlier this year, Iran unveiled the first book in Kurdish language to be officially taught in schools in the country’s Kurdistan region. However, widespread persecution persists against Arab, Kurdish and Azeri activists.

In December 2013, in a rare example of a politician from a minority group being promoted in Shia-dominated Iran, a Sunni woman, Samieh Baluchzehi, who belongs to the country’s Baluchi ethnic minority, was chosen as the mayor of a provincial city.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/01/first-christian-football-captain-in-iran-as-rouhani-puts-focus-on-minorities

About Ando: About ten years back, I heard from a family member of his that Ando was actually actively trying to see his options for playing for Armenia, despite the fact that at the time Armenia was ranked in the 100s and Iran was a top 20 team headed to the World Cup. However he said that Armenia FA wasn't very proactive, and didn't show a whole lot of interest or urgency, and that there wasn't that whole system of recruiting Diasporan players that exists today

[Shant03]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

About Ando: About ten years back, I heard from a family member of his that Ando was actually actively trying to see his options for playing for Armenia, despite the fact that at the time Armenia was ranked in the 100s and Iran was a top 40 team headed to the World Cup. However he said that Armenia FA wasn't very proactive, and didn't show a whole lot of interest or urgency, and that there wasn't that whole system of recruiting Diasporan players that exists today

I heard this as well, I believe Yuro changed that by heading to Armenia. Wow I cannot wait until June 13th, I'll be at the game in Hrazdan!!

[Mher]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

I heard this as well, I believe Yuro changed that by heading to Armenia. Wow I cannot wait until June 13th, I'll be at the game in Hrazdan!!

yepp, the 2011-12 team's success, specially Yuras, began making the team an appealing option for future Diasporans. But I must say even Yura was originally seeking to play for the US national team, and only once that didn't work out he opted for Armenia. Same would go for Aras and Andonian, who would be on Holland's and France's team if they had been given the option. But we'll take it, you can't expect too much from athletes. its embarrassing but most of our national team don't even sing the national anthem at the start of games.

I'll be at the game on the 13th too! haha I land in Yerevan on the night of 12th, hopefully we'll meet there, I'll be with the Birthright group, maybe you know people from there. This campaign has been too painful to discuss or even think about, but I'm just hoping for a few good results, to create momentum, and improve the seeding going into the World Cup qualification that starts next year.

Btw the game is in Republican Stadium, and not Hrazdan which makes no sense to me. I guess they thought with the string of bad results for the past year enough people won't be motivated to show up, and the 50,000 stadium will look empty.

[Shant03]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

yepp, the 2011-12 team's success, specially Yuras, began making the team an appealing option for future Diasporans. But I must say even Yura was originally seeking to play for the US national team, and only once that didn't work out he opted for Armenia. Same would go for Aras and Andonian, who would be on Holland's and France's team if they had been given the option. But we'll take it, you can't expect too much from athletes. its embarrassing but most of our national team don't even sing the national anthem at the start of games.

I'll be at the game on the 13th too! haha I land in Yerevan on the night of 12th, hopefully we'll meet there, I'll be with the Birthright group, maybe you know people from there. This campaign has been too painful to discuss or even think about, but I'm just hoping for a few good results, to create momentum, and improve the seeding going into the World Cup qualification that starts next year.

Btw the game is in Republican Stadium, and not Hrazdan which makes no sense to me. I guess they thought with the string of bad results for the past year enough people won't be motivated to show up, and the 50,000 stadium will look empty.

Dude!!! We're on the same flight! I'll buy us a round! I can't believe it's not at Hrazdan... even some websites are confused.Tell me about it.. last time it was Malta, this time it was Albania.

http://www.sportsevents365.com/event/?q=eq,198755

http://eventful.com/events/armenia-vs-portugal-uefa-euro-2016-qualifying-/E0-001-083031712-4

[Haykakan]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

I am glad you guys are going to Hayastan. I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.

[Shant03]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

By the way tell me about this Birthright trip, i've vaguely heard about it on facebook from a few contacts I have but don't know much about it.

I am glad you guys are going to Hayastan. I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.

Thank you, hoysov next time you can join us!

[Mher]

Re: Iranian-Armenian relations

Dude!!! We're on the same flight! I'll buy us a round! I can't believe it's not at Hrazdan... even some websites are confused.Tell me about it.. last time it was Malta, this time it was Albania.

lol no way man? From Los Angeles through Russia? that's awesome. lol Moscow should be fun with an American passport with the current animosity

Yeah I've seen that too, but I'm almost certain its in Sargsyan, I hope I'm wrong though

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/qualifiers/season=2016/teams/team=57419/matches/index.html

I am glad you guys are going to Hayastan. I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.

Thank you man, teghet dadark