Month: November 2009

HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN: WORK OF EU CONSULTANT IN RA NA TO CONTRIBUTE TO ARMENIA’S EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 20:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ November 16 Armenia’s National Assembly speaker
Hovik Abrahamyan received the Head of European Commission delegation to
Armenia, Ambassador Raul de Lutzenberger, Head of EU advisory group,
Rolf Behnke and a member of the same team, Adviser to NA Speaker of
Armenia Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa.

During the meeting Hovik Abrahamyan welcomed the initiative the
Armenian President to establish the advisory group of EU. Attaching
special importance to cooperation between the EU and Armenia, RA NA
speaker expressed hope that the work of the European Union consultant
in the National Assembly of Armenia will contribute to Armenia’s
European integration, as well as deepen the cooperation between RA
National Assembly and the Council of Europe.

The parties also discussed issues related to the EU adviser at the
National Assembly of Armenia, press office of the National Assembly
of Armenia reports.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

4TH TRADITIONAL MEMORIAL OF VACHIK MKRTCHYAN FINISHED

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 20:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 4th Traditional Memorial, dedicated to the memory
of an international master of sports in boxing Vachik Lazarian,
finished. The tournament was attended by 122 boxers of 16-17 years
from all regions of Armenia. As the general secretary of the Memorial
Narek Vardanyan told PanARMENIAN.Net following boxers in 11 weight
classes won victories:

w/c 48 Koryun Sogomonyan w/c 51 Narek Apkaryan w/c 54 Hovhannes
Bochkov w/c 57 Dzhonik Tonoyan w/c 60 Hrayr Matevosyan w/c 64 Arthur
Kirajyan w/c 69 Hayk Khachatryan w/c 75 Sergey Tovmasyan w/c 81 Vache
Gabrielyan w/c 91 Gor Margaryan w/c 91 Vakhtang Lazarian.

ARMENIA’S PRESIDENT AWARDED MIKHAIL SHVYDKOI WITH MEDAL OF MOVSES KHORENATSI

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 20:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan met with
representatives of a number of Russian television companies currently
in Yerevan within the framework of Days of Russia’s television. The
Russia’s delegation is headed by President of the "Academy of Russia’s
television" Foundation, special representative of the President of
Russia on international cultural cooperation, Ambassador-at-Large
Mikhail Shvydkoi.

Welcoming the guests and attaching importance to Days of
Russia’s television in Yerevan, Serge Sargsyan mentioned that the
Armenian-Russia strategic partnership, requires attention in various
fields.

"We attach great importance to the deepening of our relations in the
humanitarian sphere. Armenia-Russia relations require daily attention.

The world is changing rapidly, people with new thinking is increasingly
influencing public opinion and, therefore, our task is to remember
our past and pass it all to our new generations, " the Armenian
president said.

Serzh Sargsyan emphasized the role of the media, particularly
television. He stressed that the three Russian channels available
to the Armenian audience that includes a great influence and
responsibility.

Representatives of Russia television presented the results of
the discussions with their Armenian counterparts, in particular,
the possibility of establishing cooperative programs, training of
Armenian specialists at Russian television stations, workshops.

"For his contribution to the development of Armenian-Russian cultural
relations Serzh Sargsyan awarded Mikhail Shvydkoi with the Medal of
Movses Khorenatsi to, press service of the Armenian President reports.

ARONYAN HOLDS FIRM POSITION IN QUICK CHESS GAME TOURNAMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 21:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Moscow hosts Fourth Tal Memorial Championship from
November 4 to 18. Fourth robin tournament of XXI category has already
came to end. The second round – world quick game championship –
will last from November 16 to 18.

There are 22 chess players participating in championship, including
Armenian grand master Levon Aronyan. On the first day of tournament,
Aronyan played 8 games, with 4 victories, 2 defeats and 2 draws,
Russian Chess Federation’s official Web site reports. All other
matches are under way.

Levon Aronyan – Boris Gelfand (Israel) 1:0 Aronyan – Dmitry Yakovenko
(Russia) 1:0 Aronyan – Peter Leko (Hungary) 1:0 Aronyan – Vasily
Ivanchuk (Ukraine) 0:1 Aronyan – Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 0:1 Aronyan
– Alexandra Kostenyuk (Russia) 1:0 Aronyan – Yevgeni Baraev 1/2-1/2

UNIBANK DOUBLES TIME DEPOSITS’ VOLUME

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.11.2009 21:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As of the end of October 2009, Unibank’s time
deposit volume increased almost twice, exceeding AMD 76,26 billion,
the bank’s press service reported. Within the period indicated,
individual deposits’ volume reached AMD 50 billion, allowing Unibank
to keep lead position on banking deposits’ market.

Legal entities’ time deposits volume also registered significant
increase in 2009. Compared with January-October 2008, the volume grew
by 5,4 times to comprise AMD 26, 67 billion by the end of October 2009.

Unibank’s personal deposits’ range includes: Deposit Stability,
Deposit Unistream-Express, Deposit Uni-Champion, Standard Time
Deposits, Deposit UNI – accumulative, Privileged Call Deposit,
with AMD and foreign currency deposits offered at 10% and 9% annual
interest rate correspondingly.

ARMENIAN CHURCH OF ST. HRIPSIME IN YALTA MARKS 100 YEARS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 11:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A solemn event dedicated to 100 anniversary of the
Armenian St. Hripsime Church on November 22, 2009 in Yalta.

Head of Ukrainian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop
Grigoris Buniatyan will serve festive liturgy.

A concert of with "Ararat" ensemble is scheduled, Analitika.at.ua
reports.

St. Hripsime Church was built between 1909 and 1917 per sample of
the temple, located in Echmiadzin, and is one of the significant
monuments of Armenian architecture in the Crimea.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DELAY IN PROTOCOLS RATIFICATION PROCESS BY TURKEY IS NORMAL OCCURRENCE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 11:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Normalization of the Armenia-Turkey relations without
progress in the Karabakh settlement can harm Ankara’s relations with
Baku, states the report of Chatham House "Turkey, Russia and the
Caucasus: the common and conflicting interests".

According to the report, the war in August of 2008 adversely affected
the Armenian economy and therefore opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border, closed by Turkey in 1993, may be useful either for Armenia
or Georgia.

Chatham House believes that Turkey put forward preconditions for
Armenia to open the border: abandoning international recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and settlement of the Karabakh conflict on
terms favorable to Azerbaijan.

"After the August events Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan initiated
the start of "football diplomacy", resulted in signed protocols on
the establishment of the Armenia-Turkey diplomatic relations. This
initiative, contrary to some expectations, did not lead to Moscow’s
resistance, " the report said.

The report focuses also on Russian-Turkish relations. "Moscow supports
the Kurds and the Turks of Cyprus, where Russia can create an offshore
zone. British experts believe that the Russian-Turkish relations
correspond to overall political picture of the region.

According to Chatham House, despite current concerns, normalization
of Armenia-Turkey relations would unlikely lead to the weakening of
relations between Russia and Armenia, and on the other hand, cooling
of relations between Ankara and Baku.

British experts treated as normal the delay caused by Turkey of
the ratification of Armenian-Turkish Protocols. "Delays could have
serious consequences, since the Armenian authorities threatened to
abandon the process of reconciliation, if the protocol ratification
process is delayed," the report of Chatham House says.

IRAN TO HAVE ENOUGH URANIUM FOR A NUCLEAR WARHEAD BY 2011

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 12:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iranian technicians have moved highly sophisticated
technical equipment into a previously secret uranium enrichment site
in preparation for starting it up in 2011, the International Atomic
Energy Agency said in a new report Monday.

The report offered no estimate of the new plant’s capabilities but
a senior international official familiar with the watchdog agency’s
work in Iran said that it appeared designed to produce about a ton
of enriched uranium a year.

The official, as well as analysts, said that would be enough for
a nuclear warhead but too little to fuel the nearly finished plant
at the southern port of Bushehr and other civilian reactors Iran is
planning to bring online in the coming years.

"It won’t (even) be able to produce a reactor’s worth of fuel every
90 years, but it will be able to produce one bomb a year," said Ivan
Oelrich, vice president of the Strategic Security Program of the
Federation of American Scientist. "It does look strange."

The IAEA also noted that Iran’s enrichment at the Natanz site –
revealed by dissidents in 2002 and under agency monitoring – was
stagnating, with output remaining at mid-2009 levels.

The report did not offer a reason. But the official suggested that
nuclear experts previously working at Natanz could now be preoccupied
with putting the finishing touches on the newly discovered site,
called Fordo, near the holy city of Qom.

As early as three years ago, Iranian officials had announced that
immediate plans for the Natanz site were to install about 8,000
enriching centrifuges, and Monday’s report suggested that Tehran had
reached that goal.

The seven-page report – the latest IAEA summary of what it knows about
Iran – said that as of Nov. 2, about 8,600 centrifuges had been set
up but only about 4,000 were enriching – or 600 less than in September.

Still, the official said output had been steady since June with
about 100 kilograms – 220 pounds – of enriched uranium being produced
a month.

The report said that Natanz had churned out close to 4,000 pounds of
low-enriched, or nuclear fuel-grade uranium by Nov. 2 – close to the
amount considered by experts that would be needed for two nuclear
weapons, AP reported.

ARONIAN DEFEATS MAMMADYAROV IN BLITZ GAME

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 12:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian defeated Boris
Gelfand (Israel), Dmitry Yakovenko (Russia), Peter Leko (Hungary),
Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Shahriyar Mammadyarov (Azerbaijan)
and Vladislav Tkachev (Russia). He sustained 5 defeats and made a
draw in 3 games. Presently, Aronian is the 10th with 7.5 points.

Viswanathan Anand (India) is leading the tournament with 12 points. He
is followed by Magnus Karlsen (Norway, 10) and Anatoly Karpov
(Russia, 9).

RA PM JOINS REPUBLICAN PARTY OF ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
17.11.2009 12:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan has joined
the Republican Party of Armenia.

"With a majority vote, Tigran Sargsyan was accepted to the party on
November 16," RPA spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov told PanARMENIAN.Net.