Month: April 2007

IRANIAN FIRST VP FELICITATES NEW ARMENIAN PREMIER

IranMania, Iran
April 13 2007

LONDON, April 13 (IranMania) – First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi
felicitated new Armenian Premier Serzh Sarkissian on taking the office,
IRNA reported.

He also extended felicitations to the Armenian government and Armenian
nation on the new appointment.

Davoudi said that it is expected that through collective cooperation
of Iran and Armenia, the current level of cooperation would further
broaden in all grounds.

Former Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, leader of the
ruling Republican party died of a heart attack last month.

GEORGIA EYES IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE ý

PRESS TV, Iran
April 13 2007

The recently launched Iran-Armenia gas pipeline has drawn the interest
of Georgia to explore the possibilities of joining in on the plan.

Immediately after the pipeline was inaugurated in March, the Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili made a "private" trip to Armenia
described by governmental sources as "only for skiing".

Saakashvili’s trip included discussions with Armenian President Robert
Kocharian, in which the foreign ministers of the two countries were
also later involved.

Armenian media sources have speculated that the transfer of Iranian
gas from Armenia to Georgia was a very likely topic on the agenda.

Although no statement was issued on the nature of talks, Armenian
political analysts have rejected the notion that the trip was merely
for "relaxation", according to Armenia Now Online weekly’s website.

"Rather, they link Saakashvili’s visit, at least indirectly, to the
opening of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline."

The remarks by Shavarsh Kocharian who heads the National Democratic
Party at the Armenian Parliament further testify that the pipeline
must have been a main topic of talks.

"If the two countries’ leaders met, it is impossible that such a
serious issue as the gas pipeline should not have been touched upon,"
Shavarsh has said.

Further, economist Eduard Aghajanov emphasizes that Georgia’s desire to
reduce its dependence on Russia for gas supplies could have prompted
Saakashvili to explore import possibilities with Armenian officials,
as he has done already with the leadership of Armenia’s neighbor,
Azerbaijan.

"If there is a possibility to receive gas from a third source, then
a reasonable politician would not miss that opportunity by any means,
not to remain hanging on Russian gas," Aghajanov has said.

Currently, Georgia receives some 2.3 million cubic meters per day
come from Azerbaijan.

Iran currently delivers a daily volume of 10 million cubic meters of
natural gas to Armenia. The agreement is signed for 20 years. For each
cubic meter of Iranian gas, Armenia is to deliver 3 kWh of electricity
to Iran.

The idea for Georgia to import Iranian gas via the Iran-Armenia
pipeline is not a new one. Former foreign minister Salome Zourabichvili
raised the issue during an official visit to Yerevan in 2004.

Iran provided emergency supplies during Georgia’s January 2006
gas crisis.

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AZERBAIJANI AND TURKISH DIASPORAS TO PROTEST AGAINST ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 13 2007

Azerbaijani and Turkish Diaspora organizations intend to hold a series
of protests against ‘Armenian genocide’ campaigns supported by Armenian
lobby in the US, Oya Bain, chairman of Assembly of Turkish American
Associations told APA’s US bureau.

Azerbaijani and Turkish Diaspora organizations are going to hold a
huge demonstration in the New-York’s Time Square as well as outside
Armenian Embassy in US on April 22.

The protest rallies are aimed to draw attention to the atrocities
committed by Armenian armed forces in Anatolia, Turkey in the beginning
of last century and in Nagorno-Karabakh province of Azerbaijan in
the end of the 20th century. Special posters and photos will be
demonstrated in the rally. The demonstrations are to bring together
about 1000 participants.

TAKING A CHARMING JOURNEY TO ARMENIA
Susan Walker

Toronto Star, Canada
April 13 2007

Journey to Armenia

Starring Ariane Ascaride, Gerard Meylan and Marcel Bluwal. Written
and directed by Robert Guediguian. 125 minutes. At Canada Square. PG

A postcard picture of Mount Ararat, seen repeatedly, carries the
undercurrent of pride, homesickness and mourning that runs through
Journey to Armenia.

Barsam (Marcel Bluwal), an elderly Armenian-born man, lives in
Marseilles. His daughter Anna (Ariane Ascaride) is a doctor, who
sits him down after examining him and insists he must go in for
heart surgery.

"Stop calling me Mr. Barsam," he says. "I’m your father." And by the
way, "I would have loved to teach you something before I disappear."

He means die.

The next day he does disappear and the trail leads to Armenia. In
this tiny country, Barsam intends to live out his final days. Anna
packs her bags and flies to Yerevan, the Armenian capital. She is
expecting to get help locating her papa from a family friend, the
moustachioed Sarkis Arabian (Simon Abkarian).

Incredibly petite, shod in tall stiletto sandals, Anna plunges
intrepidly into Armenian society. She is introduced to Yervanth
(Gerard Meylan), sometimes known as General. He can help find Barsam
and also keep Anna out of trouble.

Through Anna’s days in the Yerevan and in the Caucasian mountains,
a beautiful country with a rich culture is revealed. There are some
indelible characters in this light-hearted film, not least the old
white-haired driver who takes Anna about, stopping occasionally to
fetch a hubcap that falls off his car.

Without angst or melodrama, director Robert Guediguian has made a
film that gives nationalism a good name.

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ARMENIA’S GEGHARD MEAT PROCESSING FACTORY FINED AMD 500THS

Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 13 2007

YEREVAN, April 12. /ARKA/. Armenia’s "Geghard" Meat Processing Factory
was fined a total of AMD 500ths ($1,360).

During its meeting on April 11, the State Commission on the Protection
of Economic Competition (SCPEC) made a decision to fine the factory
500 times of the basic rate for providing inadequate and contradicting
information.

While studying the meat food market of Armenia, the Commission’s task
group by receiving and comparing information from different sources
discovered that the dominating factory on the market presented
inadequate information.

Particularly, the prices mentioned in the invoices and figures of
expenditure for raw materials provided by the company contradict each
other, and none of these sources is reliable.

According to the Commission’s decision, during 10 days the companies
must present documents confirming fine payment.

The State Commission on the Protection of Economic Competition was
formed on January 13, 2001 and has been operating according to the
Law "On Protecting Economic Competition" adopted by the National
Assembly on November 6, 2000. The law’s main objective is to protect
and encourage economic competition, provide necessary environment
for fair competition, contribute to development of entrepreneurship
and protect consumers’ rights.

"UNIBANK" PRESENTED THE FIRST CASH-IN NCR CASH-MACHINE IN ARMENIA

MediaMax Agency, Armenia
April 13 2007

Yerevan, April 13 /Mediamax/. "Unibank" presented today the first
cash-in NCR cash-machine in Armenia, which has the function of
inserting cash U.S. dollars, euro, Russian rubles, and in the nearest
future – Armenian drams.

Mediamax reports that the Director of the Plastic Cards Department
of "Unibank" Mesrop Hakopian stated during the presentation today
that the new cash machine provides the customer the opportunity to
replenish his/her account, realize operations on currency exchange
both with the help of the card, and without it. The new cash machine
also gives the opportunity to pay the communal services bills.

In the cash-in cash machine, 18-degree security level is implemented,
which excludes the possibility of inserting counterfeit currency.

In the nearest future the cash-in machines will join the system
of E-card-banking, which will allow repaying the received credits,
pay the interests.

Gradually, the functions of the cash-in machine will be implemented
in all the cash machines of "Unibank".

Today, the bank has 31 cash machines, by the end of the year the
number of the cash machines is planned to reach 60.

As of march 31 of 2007, the number of cards, issued by "Unibank"
makes 17 532, 14 944 of which Visa, 2 588 – ArCa.

Have I got a church for you: JOURNEY TO ARMENIA
Chris Knight, National Post

National Post, Canada
April 13 2007

FILM REVIEW

French-born director Robert Guediguian returns to his Armenian roots by
making his first film in the former Soviet republic, still undergoing
an uneasy and painful transition to a post-communist economy. Standing
in for the director is Guediguian regular Ariane Ascaride as Anna, a
cardiologist from Marseilles who tells her father that he is dying and
needs surgery. Miffed and/or scared, the old man decamps for his native
land, even though he hasn’t set foot there since the 1950s. Anna,
on the advice of her husband as well as her dad’s backgammon-playing
chums at the Armenian cultural centre, sets out to find him.

After a rare non-mocking use of the plane-flying-over-a-map effect
(useful if, like me, you have only a vague notion of where to
find Armenia, nestled among Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran),
Anna finds herself in the country of her father and forefathers. A
friendly old man pops up from behind the plants in her hotel lobby
and offers to be her chauffeur. Another gives her a helicopter tour
of the countryside, pointing out that this is where God dropped all
the rocks He scooped out of France when He was making the world.

(Armenia, as the film also teaches, was the first officially Christian
nation, in AD 301, so visitors hear a lot of similar metaphors and
are invited to visit the many fine churches.)

Through meetings with an endless succession of patriots and viewing
endless images of Mount Ararat (a Turkish peak, but claimed hopefully
by Armenia), Anna starts to absorb the language, gets a haircut and
manicure in the local style and, wouldn’t you know, starts to feel
more Armenian by the minute. She’s helped along by her various guides
who keep asking, "C’mon, don’t you feel just a little Armenian? Here,
let me show you another church …"

The patriotism is stirring and the landscapes starkly beautiful, but
one can only hear heart-pounding speeches that begin "this is my home"
so many times before the repetition starts to dull. Anna meets and
helps an opportunistic hairdresser/ exotic dancer/smuggler out of a
tight spot (who knew a Marseilles heart doctor would also be such a
sharpshooter?) before narrowing her paternal search down to a remote
mountain village.

Your connection to this slightly over structured road movie may well
depend on how far back and in what direction your own roots travel.

As a rough guide, let’s assume Atom Egoyan should form the front of
the line at the Canada Square theatre tonight. We’ll leave it to you
to determine how far back you belong.

Rating 2

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RALLY IN AKHALKALAKI FOR ARMENIAN LANGUAGE STATUS

Civil Georgia, Georgia
April 13 2007

Akhalkalaki-based Virk and Javakhk organizations held a protest
rally on April 13 demanding that Armenian be made the second official
language in Samtskhe-Javakheti. The region is predominantly populated
by ethnic Armenians.

The protesters want special status for local languages in non-ethnic
Georgian majority regions.

The rally lasted for an hour.

10 SPORTSMEN TO REPRESENT ARMENIA IN EUROPE WEIGHTLIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Noyan Tapan
Apr 13 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The Europe Weightlifting Championship
will start on April 16, in the city of Strasbourg, France.

Arsen Tamrazian (62 kg), Tigran Martirosian (69 kg), Ara Khachatrian
and Gevorg Davtian (both 77 kilograms), Rafik Chakhoyan (105 kg,
all of them from Gyumri), Ara Melkonian (85 kg, Yerevan) and Artur
Babayan (105 kg, Vanadzor) will represent Armenia.

Meline Daluzian (69 kg), Nazik Avdalian (75 kg, both of them from
Gyumri) and Hripsime Khurshudian (above 75 kg, Kasakh) will represent
Armenia in the ladies’ tournament.

A SENTIMENTAL TRAVELOGUE – JOURNEY TO ARMENIA
Rick Groen

Globe and Mail, Canada
April 13 2007

**½

Directed by Robert Guediguian

Written by Robert Guediguian, Ariane Ascaride and Marie Desplechin
Starring Ariane Ascaride and Gerard Meylan

Classification: NA

The first cliche appears early: Anna is a cardiologist who knows
everything about the heart’s mechanics and nothing of its poetry. A
cold fish, spawned in the port of Marseilles and French to the bone,
she has a tense relationship with her Armenian-born father and no
relationship at all with her ethnic heritage. So when dad, ailing and
in his 11th hour, secretly flies back to his homeland, cliche No. 2
isn’t long in following: Getting on a plane to track him down, Anna
"returns" to a country she has never seen, to a culture she doesn’t
know, to a language she doesn’t speak; and there, seeking her father,
she finds, yes, her own true self.

But if this roots saga is trite at the centre, Journey to Armenia
does manage to find considerable interest at the edges of the frame.

Shooting on location in Yerevan and its vicinity, with the snow-capped
peak of Mount Ararat shimmering elusively in the misted background,
director Robert Guediguian lets his camera rove over the sights
while the script delves into the sociology. Consequently, what the
film lacks in credible drama it makes up as a crisp travelogue —
pack it with your Frommer’s and you’ll be good to go.

Indeed, when Anna (Ariane Ascaride) disembarks, she’s immediately
surrounded by a host of guides, all of them eager to show off the
different hues of a poor but proud country. And a country, like so
many these days, in a state of confused flux, having traded in the
closed fist of communism for the callous hand of business run riot.

"It’s all business," says one shady entrepreneur, explaining a market
as black as the profiteers who run it, a place where everything from
warplanes to prescription medicine has a price — and those who can’t
pay must do without.

So much for Armenia’s perils, but what of its pride? Well, a
white-haired chauffeur drives Anna to the food stalls for a taste
of the cuisine, on to a hair salon for a spot of female bonding,
and finally to a medieval church for a peek into the past. Then a
handsome war hero (Gerard Meylan) commandeers a helicopter for an
aerial trek over "the land of stones," alighting long enough to tour
an even older temple to early Christianity. "Don’t you feel just a
bit Armenian here?" he asks. In response, Anna’s hard heart reveals
a few vulnerable cracks, and darned if some long-lost feelings don’t
begin to settle in.

So does the contrived plot, unfortunately. At this point, it introduces
a bit of hokum involving a pretty young stripper and an especially
deadly capitalist, leading to gunplay in the streets and the unlikely
revelation that Doctor Anna is as adept with a pistol as she is with
a scalpel.

Happily, the contrivance over, we’re soon back on the sentimental
journey, off to a remote village for the climactic father/daughter
reunion. Anti-climactic, actually. The meeting scene feels rushed,
inadvertently understated, and the story’s long wick burns down onto
wet powder — Anna has her revelation, but it’s an epiphany without
a pop.

Yet isn’t that always the way with trips. You arrive with time as
your friend, meandering here, tarrying there, and then the clock
turns brutal and the ending gets rushed. Journey to Armenia is a
travelogue that even mimics a traveller’s bad habits. Still, with
stuff to learn and sights to see, there’s no disputing the value of
the experience, which brings us to the final cliche: Travel is an
education in itself. Hop aboard, mes amis.

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