The Caucasus press review (August 19-25)

By Vestnik Kavkaza

The "Azerbaijan" newspaper informs that the representative office of the Republic in the United Nations handed over an address from Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In the letter, which will be presented to the General Assembly and the Security Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan informed about the actions of the Armenian leadership, which, under cover of the ceasefire, is continuing its efforts to illegally change the demographic, cultural and physical character of the occupied region.

The appeal says that the Armenian authorities, in violation of international law, particularly the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council on the withdrawal of troops from the occupied territories, continue to build on them objects for housing and economic purposes, and change the names of settlements, as well as placing Armenian refugees from Syria in these territories.

According to some data, already 24 families have been settled in Lachin, 7 families in the Zangelan region and 27 in the Kelbajar region, and there is evidence that in the near future it is planned to place an additional 18 families there. "These facts show the true intentions of Armenia, which is using the tragic events in Syria to consolidate its occupation of Azerbaijani territories," the Minister said. According to him, abusing the process of negotiating and implementing the illegal activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Armenia is trying to impose a policy of fait accompli.

Previously, Mammadyarov continues, at Azerbaijan's initiative, two missions of the OSCE Minsk Group to have visited the occupied territories have recorded a number of violations of international humanitarian law and principles; however, as we can see, in spite of this the position of the international community, including the urgent calls on the part of the OSCE Minsk Group on the termination of illegal actions, could not prevent the government of Armenia from conducting destructive policies.

Currently, Armenia continues to ignore the opinion of the international community, because, as the minister said, attempts to hold political talks yield no results, and the status quo can lead to unpredictable consequences, the full responsibility for which rests with Armenia.

Mammadyarov, addressing the UN Secretary General, called for urgent action to curb illegal activities in Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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The presidential elections in Georgia will be held in just over two months, and the country's election race is in full swing. Candidates for the presidency, according to the Georgian Times issued in Tbilisi, already number thirty-four, of which only two are officially registered so far - the leader of the opposition Labor Party Shalva Natelashvili and Michael (Gela) Saluashvili, promoted by an initiative group.

The executive director of the coalition "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia", Armaz Ahvledian,i suggested that the current presidential election in its form and content will be unprecedented in the modern history of Georgia. More specifically in this regard, political expert Hatuna Lagazidze said: "In this situation, when there is no obvious leader among the presidential candidates and the candidate of the ruling political force in the presidential election comes with a low starting rating, which is unprecedented, it can be said that today we have an unusually competitive environment."

Talking about the candidate of the party in power, Georgi Margvelashvili, the publication reminds that Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said before the nomination that his partner has all the qualities to be a good president, such as level of education and creativity: "He is a good manager, practitioner, analyst, expert, and he is experienced in politics. In a crisis, Georgi acts uniquely; when I have any trouble, I call Georgi. I have two or three such people with whom I can talk about problems."

However, the author writes, many in Georgia remembered Margvelashvili’s self-description: "I am like clay, and I will take the form you want." Another weak point of the candidate can be a lack of clarity with his family situation; previously divorced, he had to justify himself because he did not immediately speak about his relationship with the Georgian actress Maka Chichua.

However, Hatuna Lagazidze believes that Margvelashvili has an advantage in the chances for the presidency, though not an entirely convincing one, and he needs serious promotion in order to win the elections. In a situation where the authorities do not use government resources, and there is no clearly-defined leader, and there are a lot of people in society who do not have a favorite candidate, there is a great chance provided to the current Defense Minister Irakli Alasania, whose participation in the elections of October 27 is not being ruled out by political observers. In the case of his participation he can get votes both from the candidate of the government and from any other candidate, including David Bakradze, nominated by Saakashvili's party.

But the expert admits that if Alasaniya is nominated as a candidate, of course, he will not be the candidate of the ruling powers, but rather an opposition candidate. In that case, he would have to resign his position and explain the reasons. The reasons, as she believes, may be, for example, delaying the process of justice and the failure of the promises given to the people by the ruling power. "I do not know what he dares to do, but now Alasaniya has a serious chance of becoming president,” the expert says.

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Employees of the school system of South Ossetia meet the new academic year with innovations aimed at improving the quality of education. According to the newspaper "South Ossetia", the head of the department of pre-school, general and further education of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic, Nina Dzhioyeva, the Ministry in May approved a new national standard of primary education, which will be introduced in stages. It consists of three groups of requirements - structure of the educational program, conditions for its implementation and results of the development of educational material. According to the head of the department, the new standard requires an entirely new approach to teaching, in the first place from the teacher. Previously, a teacher imparted ready knowledge and skills, but now his main goal is to motivate a child to new knowledge, and knowledge is not given as a finished product but teaching children to think, to extract the necessary information and to apply this knowledge in practice. The student must be able to live in the information space and use modern technology. For example, along with the study of the alphabet, children should use a keyboard and computer. Therefore, the main task now is to pay attention to the training of teaching staff working in accordance with the new requirements. According to Dzhioyeva, to this end many teachers have been trained in Vladikavkaz, and it is planned to continue to work on the preparation of human resources. The final implementation of the new national standard should happen before 2016.

In the new academic year, the plans of secondary schools of the republic in 5th and 6th grades have introduced a new discipline "Fundamentals of Ossetian dance", and a textbook is due to be published. Dzhioyeva also reported that in the educational institutions of the country work is continuing to gradually shift to learning by the Concept of Multicultural Educational Program. The program is designed according to national circumstances, provides knowledge about ethnic identity, traditions and culture, and contributes to a personality with a national identity.

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According to the Azerbaijani newspaper "Caspian", in the country in anticipation of the new school year the commission for early admission to the first year of middle school of children with special abilities started functioning. In Baku alone, 3788 applications were received. Out of the 1,868 children who went to the interview on August 20, 975 gifted children have been taken in the first grade early. Commission for early admission of gifted children in the early grades has been operating since August 5 at a school in the Nasimi district of Baku. In each of these commissions there is an elementary school teacher, a doctor, a psychologist and method specialists. Interviews are conducted with the participation of parents. To ensure complete objectivity and transparency, video recordings are also made.

The Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan in July this year approved new rules for admission to the school of gifted children who will turn 6 years old between September 16 to December 31. Those who were engaged in a pre-school group are taken in the first class of the institution on a non-competitive basis on the recommendation of the head of the institution.

According to the rules, the testing is carried out for 15-20 minutes in the language in which the student will be studying. To identify the mental abilities of the child, he will be asked four questions, and each question will be evaluated on a five-point scale. In order to be accepted into the school, the child must score 15 points. The selection will last until September 10.

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The last two weeks of August is the off season in the political life of Armenia. However, according to the newspaper "New Era", the Armenian segment of the social network Facebook, blogs and forums which who took on the mission of the defense of civil rights and public interest are still active. The newspaper cites top network scandals over the past two weeks.

First place, according to the newspaper, was deservedly given to the Armenian Police, the officers of which, besides constant clashes with protesters against fee increases for transport by members of the civil initiative "We pay 100 drams", fell in much more sensitive situations. For example, in early August, the deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Mushskoye police department of the city of Gyumri, Grayr Kalashyan, and a senior officer of the same department, Artak Baghdasaryan, tried to rob a jewellery store.

The byword among bloggers is the phrase of deputy police chief of Yerevan Valery Osipyan, repeated several times in the presence of the media and cameras, "Abduction is unlawful deprivation of life."

The second "place of pride" due to the epistolary creative activity of the head of the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Nurhan Manukyan, is given to the clergy. The author says that the letter in which the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II is accused of almost all the deadly sins, including the fact that he was allegedly "more interested in external and material issues," was quoted many times.

The three leaders, according to the author, were closed by the "favorite" of the virtual audience, a businessman and MP Samvel Aleksanyan, owner of the chain of supermarkets "Yerevan City" and the central market of Yerevan. Aleksanyan has previously participated in several scandals, including in connection with the collapse of the roof of the market as a result of construction work. The newspaper writes that now on Facebook a special page has opened, the creators of which accuse Aleksanyan of counterfeiting alcohol and encouraging foreign citizens to break the bottles of booze after drinking, "so that they were not collected and filled with fake vodka, which then is sold at a crazy price ."

The author notes that the representatives of the Armenian blogosphere could not help finding a place for a theme saving for any "stagnation" – Azerbaijan. They discussed the "blacklist" of persons who visited Nagorno-Karabakh without the sanction of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry being declared personae non grata, and the fate of prisoner of war Hagop Indzhigulyan, and electoral processes in Azerbaijan, debate over which was spurred by the statement of the Armenian President at a meeting of the youth gathering "Baze 2013" that for Armenia the victory of Ilham Aliyev would be beneficial.