Month: March 2007

VIVACELL ANNOUNCES OF UNDERTAKING LARGE-SCALE UPGRADES TO ITS NETWORK

Arminfo
2007-03-13 16:40:00

VivaCell announces that it is undertaking large-scale upgrades to
its network to enhance its services and capacity. As the Company’s
press-service told ArmInfo, due to the upgrading works, it is possible
that in the period from March till the mid of April, subscribers will
encounter short term difficulties when making and receiving calls,
and sending SMS.

In order to minimize to the greatest extent possible the inconveniences
to subscribers, the upgrade will be carried out during low traffic
period and after midnight.

Our customer care staff will always be at our subscribers’ service
to provide with any assistance which may be needed.

VivaCell seeks understanding of all subscribers for possible
inconveniences.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE STUDYING FRENCH REDUCES IN ARMENIA DURING RECENT TEN YEARS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 13 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. March 13-22 is stated the Francophonie
Week in Yerevan on the occasion of the International Day of
Francophonie. A number of events will be organized during these
days in Yerevan, with the efforts of the Embassy of France to the
RA and the "Aleanca Franceze" Armenian center of the Internation
Organization of Francophonie: French films will be shown at the
"Nairi" cinema, E.Rostan’s "The Romantics" play will be staged in
French at the State Hamazgayin (National) Theater, "Golden Word" and
"Golden Pen" linguistic games will be held at the French University of
Armenia, State Linguistic University after V. Brusov and Yerevan State
University. Similar events will be held in Gyumri as well. One-week
celebrations dedicated to the French language and French culture
on the occasion of the International Day of Francophonie marked on
March 20 will take place in the countries which are full members of
the International Francophonie Organization or have the observer’s
status. 55 countries are full members of the organization, other
13, including Armenia (from 2004), have the observer country’s
status. According to the "Aleanca Franceze" data, the per cent of
people studying French reduced in Armenia during the recent 10 years:
12% of people studying a foreign language in Armenia studies French,
and 80% studies English.

HILDA TCHOBOIAN: MAJORITY OF CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENCY IN FRANCE SHOWS PRO-ARMENIAN POSITION

Noyan Tapan
Mar 13 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. After the parliamentary and
presidential elections in France, with the efforts of Armenian
National Committee of Europe it will be possible to place the bill on
determining criminal liability for denial of Armenian Genocide on the
Senate’s agenda. Committee Chairwoman Hilda Tchoboian assured this at
the March 13 press conference. In her words, the majority of candidates
for presidency in France shows a pro-Armenian position in the above
mentioned issue. Meanwhile she stated that political figures’ conduct
before the elections often considerably differs from their policy
conducted after the elections. Nevertheless, in H. Tchoboian’s words,
they will pursue "development of wave of discussions related to the
Genocide." She also stated that the Armenian community of France is
against Turkey’s membership to European Union and will vote for the
candidates for presidency who are also against it. Aram Hambarian, Head
of Armenian National Committee of America, said that the Turks and the
U.S. State Department being under their pressure will do their best to
prevent adoption of Resolution N 116 condemning the Armenian Genocide
in U.S. House of Representatives. However, in A. Hambarian’s words,
they will hardly achieve their purpose. The Committee, in its turn,
will struggle to secure not withdrawing the word "genocide" from the
Resolution condemning Hrant Dink’s murder, as in A. Hambarian’s words,
"Dink and the Genocide are inseparably connected with each other."

"PROJECT C.U.R.E." CHARITY ORGANIZATION GIVES MEDICAL EQUIPMENT OF 1 MLN DOLLARS TO MARTAKERT REGIONAL HOSPITAL

Noyan Tapan
Mar 13 2007

STEPANAKERT, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. A number of programs are also
implemented in the health care spheres of the NKR regions of Martakert
and Hadrut, within the framework of the "Re-Birth of Artsakh" program
of the "Hayastan" (Armenia) All-Armenian Fund. As it is mentioned
in the message submitted to Noyan Tapan by the fund, the "Project
C.U.R.E." charity organization which gives medical equipment and
accessories to more than 100 countries, promised medical equipment
of 1 mln dollars to the regional hospital of Martakert. The promised
equipment was recently moved to the NKR and stored. Besides, three
ambulance cars were given to the Hadrut regional central hospital
under the patronage of the Los Angeles local body of the fund,
another car was given to the out-patient’s clinic of the village
of Togh, Hadrut, under the patronage of the Argentina local body
of the fund. The fund will also implement a program on fundamental
restoration of the Hadrut regional central hospital. The competition
for doing the works has already been announced.

BERNARD FASSIER AND ARKADY GHUKASIAH CONSIDER NECESSARY MAKING OSCE MISNK GROUP CO-CHAIRMEN’S AND NKR HEADS’ MEETINGS MORE FREQUENT

Noyan Tapan
Mar 12 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. OSCE Minsk Group French Co-Chairman
Bernard Fassier met on March 12 with President of the Republic
of Nagorno Karabakh Arkady Ghukasian. At the meeting held at the
NKR Permanent Representation to the RA, the sides discussed issues
relating to the present stage of the Karabakh conflict settlement
and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen’s proposals as well as complete
participation of Nagorno Karabakh in the negotiations process.

It was bilaterally emphasized that it is necessary to make more
frequent meetings among the OSCE Minsk Group Ch-Chairmen and the heads
of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. As Noyan Tapan was informed by
the NKR Permanent Representation to the RA, ideas were exchanged
concerning the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and
Azerbaijan to take place in Geneva on March 14. Georgi Petrosian,
the NKR Minister of Foreign Affairs and Karlen Avetisian, the NKR
Permanent Representative to the RA participated in the meeting.

OSCE CO-CHAIRS DISCUSS MEETING OF AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS

Today, Azerbaijan
March 13 2007

Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza (US), Bernard Fassier
(France) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), mediators in the settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, met in Geneva.

Yuri Merzlyakov told the APA that French co-chair Bernard Fassier
informed the co-chairs of his latest visit to the region.

The co-chairs also discussed the meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian
Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan, which is to
be held in Geneva on Wednesday.

Merzlyakov noted that the co-chairs are preparing for the meeting.

Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers will have the next round
of negotiations for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with
the participation of the co-chairs.

URL: Turkish diplomats
have been unsuccessful in mustering broad community support against
the non-binding resolution proposed by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who
is Jewish and has a large Armenian constituency. A number of Holocaust
scholars have labeled the massacres, carried out by Ottoman-era Turks,
as a genocide and have called it a precursor to the Holocaust. Ovadya
said such considerations were best left to historians, but claimed
that politically the resolution would harm relations between the
United States and its closest Muslim ally.

NATO-ARMENIA COOPERATION TO INCLUDE SCIENTIFIC-CULTURAL SPHERES, TOO

Noyan Tapan
Mar 13 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Issues related to cooperation
between Armenia and NATO, in particular, within the framework
of Individual Partnership Actions Plan (IPAP), were discussed
at the March 13 meeting of RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian with
the delegation headed by Jean Fournet, NATO Assistant Secretary
General for Public Diplomacy. According to the report provided
to Noyan Tapan from RA NA Public Relations Department, during
the meeting they attached importance to IPAP in the respect of
further deepening and development of relations with NATO. It was
mentioned that this document takes cooperation out of just military
or security framework. In this connection J. Fournet stated that he
had meetings at RA National Academy of Sciences and plans to develop
program Science for Peace, which is to contribute to establishment of
scientific and cultural dialogue. He said that expert centers work in
NATO member-countries. These centers have the goal to study cultures
of another countries and to establish cultural contacts connecting
different countries through culture. Expressing confidence that
cooperation with RA National Academy of Sciences and with another
structures will be successful, T. Torosian stated that the Armenian
parliament will be also involved in this by deepening NA-NATO contacts,
which are the important part of RA-NATO cooperation.

YOUTH RADIO OF JAVAKHK RE-STARTS ITS BROADCAST

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 13 2007

AKHALKALAK, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Youth Radio of
Javakhk re-started its activity on March 12. It stopped broadcast from
October 1, 2006, 12 days before the elections of local self-government
bodies, because of failed set. According to Javakhk-Info, during the
initial period the Youth Radio will broadcast its "Good Morning,
Javakhk," "Evening Peal" programs and "Javakhk News" information
program. And it will pass to its 24-hours volume of broadcast in
one month. To recap, the Youth Radio of Javakhk has functioned from
April, 2002. During the 4 years it made its broadcast radius 45 km,
owing to what 70% of the population of the regions of Ninotsminda
and Akhalkalak got possibility to listen to it.

‘CAMP DARFUR’ EXHIBIT SHOWS EFFECTS OF GENOCIDE
Article by Julia Parmley, AS ’07 Photos by Sarah Simon

UDaily, DE
University of Delaware
nocide031307.html
March 13 2007

2 p.m., March 13, 2007–On March 7, the Rodney Room of Perkins Student
Center was transformed into a refugee camp. Five canvas tents formed
a semicircle in the small room, with signs identifying the genocide
and the date it took place. The last tent represented Darfur, with
the date "now" and a death toll of 400,000 and counting.

>>From 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Students, faculty and staff were exposed to the
effects of genocide at Camp Darfur, a traveling interactive awareness
and education exhibit funded by the grassroots community Stop Genocide
Now. The all-day event was part of Smyth residence hall’s first annual
"Hunger and Homelessness Week," from March 5-10. Smyth Hall is a
part of UD’s Central Complex, whose residence curriculum is based
upon the concept of service learning.

Slide shows of refugee victims and an iTunes video about Darfur were
projected on the walls and information about the event and others
throughout the week also were available at information tables.

Junior Amanda Carl, exhibit organizer and resident assistant in Smyth
Hall, said she learned about Camp Darfur after attending workshops
about Darfur advocacy at the National Student Campaign against Hunger
and Homelessness Conference in Los Angeles in October 2006. She
contacted Stop Genocide Now and Gabriel Stauring, co-founder of Stop
Genocide Now, came to UD with the exhibit, which he takes to high
schools, universities and institutions around the country.

"I thought that Camp Darfur would be so amazing to have here at
Delaware," Carl said. "It would really impact people and really state
a message."

The exhibit took two hours and 15 volunteers to set up, Carl said,
adding she hopes the impact last for a long time.

"I hope people realize that Darfur is not the only genocide that
happened," she said. "There were many before it, and we’ve seemed to
not learn our lesson. There is an issue going on in Darfur, there is
a problem and we need to take action. We need to do our part, being
the largest group of people registered to vote in the United States,
to make change."

Stauring first set up Camp Darfur in April 2006 in Los Angeles. For
five days, 50 people, including his wife and two children, lived in 15
tents as refugees. The impact of the exhibit was so strong, Stauring
said, he began to travel with the camp around the United States.

Stauring does not ask for payment but accepts donations to keep the
exhibit going. For events in California, Stauring said he rents a
van to store 10 tents, but ships tents and stores them in luggage
for other locations.

Stauring said the exhibit makes an impact by placing Darfur in its
historical context. "You first see Armenia in 1915, then you walk
through to the Holocaust in 1938, Cambodia in 1975 and Rwanda in 1994,"
Stauring said. "You see it’s a series of genocides where the world
has failed. Right now we have a chance to do something about one that
is going on right now. Darfur is not history, it is something that
is going on today. It gives it the urgency that it needs."

Stauring said he first became involved with Stop Genocide Now in 2004,
and his commitment to the organization has steadily increased.

Stauring used to volunteer at the organization while working full time
doing in-home counseling for abused children and their families, but
a fellowship now allows Stauring to devote all his time to Camp Darfur.

Stauring’s commitment to Darfur also intensified with his trip to
refugee camps. In 2006 and 2007, Stauring traveled to the border of
Chad, visiting Darfur survivors and documenting his trip with photos
that are exhibited in Camp Darfur. "A year ago was somewhat safe,"
Stauring said. "I was able to see the camps running full force with
all the AID [Agency for International Development] workers and the
international aid getting in there."

Stauring was advised not to come back in 2007, as the Darfur violence
was now moving into Chad. Most of the AID workers were pulled out
of the camps, Stauring said, and refugees were not safe in their
own camps. "I could see the physical conditions getting worse and
the morale situation of the people as well," he said. "They had less
hope, now being four years that some of them have been there. I meet
some people that had just arrived as new refugees. The exact same
thing that happened four years ago, that has continued to happen,
is happening right now."

Although the U.S. government declared Darfur a genocide more than two
years ago, Stauring said the steps to protect civilians as mandated
by international law have not happened. The international community
must come together for the first time in history and do something
about an ongoing genocide as it’s happening, Stauring said, and not
just wait until it’s over and feel sorry about it.

"I think we just have to move from talk into actual action," he said.

"I really think if our government would make it a priority and put
pressure on other governments to act, that that would change the
situation. There are a lot of us raising awareness around the country,
but it’s going to take a lot more so our leaders know enough of us
care about it."

Stauring said international relations with Sudan and other countries
makes Darfur a very complex situation, but it is innocent civilians
who are suffering. "The people in the camps I visit are mostly women
and children, and they’re not a part of that complexity, they’re just
the ones that are suffering. I really think that’s what we have to
address. It’s just regular families that are suffering, so we have
to do whatever it takes to protect them," he said.

The world would want to stop the Holocaust if it was happening today,
Stauring said, and there is a chance to stop Darfur now. "I think
it’s very easy for many to say Africa has too many problems," he
said. "By seeing the history of genocide, you can see that it can
happen anywhere. It’s not about color, it’s not about where it’s
happening, it can happen anyplace. For the first time, I think we
have to make ‘never again’ mean something."

Senior Sarahanne Blake said she was struck by what she learned at
Camp Darfur. "It’s very eye-opening," Blake said. "I guess I didn’t
realize there were so many genocides in the last century and how huge
they were. You don’t really hear about them."

Camp Darfur at UD was sponsored by Amnesty International, Uganda
Untold and Student Anti-Genocide Coalition (STAND).

For more information on Camp Darfur, visit
[ e] or e-mail
[[email protected]].

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NUMBER OF INTERNAL TOURISTS GROWS BY 14% IN ARMENIA IN 2006 ON PREVIOUS YEAR

Noyan Tapan
Mar 13 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, NOYAN TAPAN. In 2006, 307,973 internal tourists
(Armenian residents) stayed at collective and individual tourist
lodgings in Armenia, which is by 14% more than in 2005. According
to the RA National Statistical Service, rest and recreation was
the purpose of 43.9% of internal tourists (135,246 in 2006 against
116,373 in 2005), treatment – for 10.7% (33,106 in 2006 against 28,097
in 2005), while 26.5% of internal tourists were on a business trip
(81,566 in 2006 against 72,804 in 2005).