Month: September 2013

MINISTRY EXPECTS 245 THOUSAND TONS OF GRAPES TO BE HARVESTED THIS YEAR

24 thousand tons of grapes were purchased this year by 16 organizations
at the price of 145 AMD a kilogram in the Ararat Valley and at 135
AMD in Tavush province of Armenia, Aysor.am was informed by Deputy
Minister of Agriculture Robert Makarian.

According to him, demand for grapes amounts to 170 thousand tons this
year as compared with 157 thousand tons last year.

There are 17,415 officially registered vineyards in Armenia, 15,720
of which are fruit-bearing.

Agriculture Ministry expects 245 thousand tons of grapes to be
harvested this year – the same amount as in 2012.

From: Baghdasarian

YEREVAN BUSINESS FAIR TO ASSIST SYRIAN-ARMENIANS

10:18, September 20, 2013

The “Countries Under the Same Roof” festival kicks off today at
Yerevan’s Northern Avenue.

Running until Sunday, aims to showcase Armenian manufactured goods
by bringing together import/export companies and local producers.

Also on hand will be diapora Armenian investors and representatives
from foreign embassies and consulates based in Armenia.

The bulk of the proceeds will be earmarked towards assisting
Syrian-Armenians.

CHURCH LEADERS DISCUSS SYRIA DEVELOPMENTS

September 20, 2013 | 13:56

The World Council of Churches (WCC) organized a meeting to discuss
of the churches in effectively moving all parties in Syria towards
a peace agreement

The meeting was held on Wednesday at the Ecumenical Institute in
Bossey, Switzerland.

The meeting was attended by representatives of U.S., Russia, France,
Germany, England, Syria and Iraq as well as representative of Holy
Etchmiadzin Archbishop T. Vigen Aykazyan and head of Armenian diocese
of Syria, bishop Armash Nalbandian, Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
press service reported.

Church leaders have called a political solution the only way towards
peace in Syria, says the statement posted on the WCC officialwebsite.

A communique issued at the end of the meeting said, “Churches must
continue to raise their voice in their congregations, in their
societies and with their governments. We must strengthen the public
outcry so that those in power will protect the common interest of
humanity.”

It adds, “We believe there can be no military solution to the crisis
in Syria. It is time for the international community to assume its
responsibility to end the violence and initiate a political process
that brings peace for all the people of Syria.”

From: A. Papazian

OPENING CEREMONY OF ARMENIAN EMBASSY HELD IN VATICAN

Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome hosted the opening ceremony of the
Armenian Embassy in the Holy See, a reception on the occasion of the
22nd anniversary of Armenia’s independence, and the exhibition entitled
“Saint Gregory the Illuminator: Common Heritage of Christianity”.

“Today is a symbolic day. Armenia, which was the first country to
declare Christianity as its state religion, is opening its embassy
in the Holy See. When I served as Armenia’s nonresident ambassador
to the Vatican (pluralistically), I was constantly thinking of the
day when our two states would open their diplomatic missions and
appoint resident ambassadors to Yerevan and the Vatican. Today we are
proceeding along that path. I congratulate us all and wish success
to Ambassador Mikael Minasian in his mission aimed at strengthening
and deepening relations between Armenia and the Vatican,” Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated at the opening ceremony.

“Our relations have deep historical roots. Christian faith became the
basis of these special relations. Great figures such as St. Nerses
Shnorhali, Mkhitar Sebastatsi and many others made their contribution
to the deepening of our ties. It is symbolic that the official opening
of the Armenian diplomatic mission coincides with an anniversary
of Armenia’s national holiday. With the restoration of Armenia’s
independence, our relations with the Holy See have gained renewed
impetus for two decades already,” the foreign minister said.

He reminded those present that in March of this year Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II attended
the enthronement of Pope Francis. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
visited the Holy See and met with Pope Benedict XVI in December 2011.

“We keep in our memory the historical visit of Pope John Paul II to
Armenia in 2001 when Armenia marked the 1700 anniversary of adoption
of Christianity. Armenia highly appreciates the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by the Holy See in 2000,” Edward Nalbandian said.

According to him, the opening of Armenian embassy bears evidence of
the high level of close friendly relations between Armenia and the
Holy See and of the wish to further deepen these ties.

WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP: ROMAN AMOYAN WINS BRONZE

Armenian Greco-Roman style wrestler Roman Amoyan (55 kg) won a bronze
medal of the 2013 Senior Wrestling World Championship.

He defeated American Spenser Mango in a match for the third place.

It is Armenia’s first medial in Greco-Roman competitions. Earlier
Armenia’s freestyle wrestler Davit Safaryan (66 kg) won gold.

LECTURE SHEDS LIGHT ON AITNAB LEGACY

Friday, September 20th, 2013

Umit Kurt during his presentation

BY HASMIK PILIPOSYAN

Aintabtsi Hayer, miatsek! (Armenians of Aintab, Unite!)

The Ararat Eskijian Museum wore the image of Old Aintab on Sunday,
September 15 as fifty or more true Aintabtsis and supporters gathered
to hear a lecture by Umit Kurt, PhD candidate in the department of
History at Clark University. The lecture, titled The Emergence of the
New Wealthy Class Between 1915-1922: The Seizure of Armenian Property
by Local Elites in Aintab, focused on the importance of acquiring
Armenian wealth and material possessions to the local Kurds and Turks
in Aintab before and during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. To what
extent did the lust for Armenian property act as a motive for the
killings? Kurt described a “link between the role of stolen Armenian
assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which
makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process”. The fate
of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and
Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.

Material rewards were given for collaboration at the regional level.

In Kurt’s words, “the large distribution of Armenian property provided
a useful incentive that strongly reinforced Armenian hatred and
other political and personal issues.” Besides the local elites, many
other state companies were also involved in the seizure of Armenian
properties including auction houses, property assessors, trustees, and
transportation companies in support of Turkish anti-Armenian policies
in Aintab. The opportunities for success and growth facilitated the
removal of Armenians, whereas the effects of the loss of properties
to the victims were demoralizing and stigmatizing. Additionally,
the deportation of Armenians to the Syrian Desert proved effective in
separating them from their properties as they were made not to return.

A new local wealthy class emerged and prospered through the obtainment
of Armenian wealth and property.

After the lecture, Umit Kurt displayed a short film called My Father’s
Aintab and old and recent images of the Armenian quarter in Aintab.

The evening followed with a Q&A session where one of the audience
members asked Umit why he chose to research the destruction of Aintab’s
Armenians and their properties. As a native of Aintab, when Umit was
younger, he did not know about the presence of Armenians or about
the Armenian quarter in Aintab. When one of his friends invited him
to a unique coffee shop to meet, Umit’s life and interests changed
forever. When he reached the coffee shop, he first noticed the
intricately carved, monumental front door of the coffee shop and was
amazed at the internal beauty and homey design, which contained every
feature of an Armenian home. He asked the owner, who was Turkish,
to show him around the place and the upstairs section composed of
many rooms aesthetically extrinsic to Umit’s eyes. Umit noticed
the numbers “1894” (when the first Hamidian massacres took place)
on the wall and asked about the previous owner. The man replied,
“I don’t know, Armenians were here.” Later, he discovered that a man
named Nazaret Agha of the Kimia family owned the house, before it
became a coffee shop. It became the groundbreaking point in his life
where he sought out to research the history of the Aintab Armenians
and in the meanwhile, also write his own story.

Umit Kurt is of Kurdish descent maternally, but is not certain of his
father’s side. He is a PhD candidate at Clark University and student
of Taner Akcam, a prominent scholar on the Armenian Genocide. During
the Q&A session, Umit was asked if he received any objections or had
been tried for “insulting Turkishness”, in which he responded that
he has not yet encountered any objections from the Turkish government
regarding his research on the stolen Armenian properties. In the last
minutes, Umit Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He said,
“I don’t work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to reckon
their own historical wrongdoings.”

MANAS BOUJIKIAN TO RECEIVE ANCA-WR LEGACY AWARD

Friday, September 20th, 2013

Manas Boujikian (left) with ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, ANCA-WR
Board Co-Chairperson Chris Gouldjian and ANCA National Board member
Raffi Hamparian

GLENDALE-Entrepreneur, mentor and life-long ANCA activist Manas
Boujikian will be honored with the ANCA-WR Legacy Award at its Annual
Banquet on Saturday, November 30, at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in the
heart of Hollywood.

The honor is among the organization’s highest awards and is being
granted to Boujikian for more than 30 years of leadership and
philanthropy. Boujikian has and continues to advance HyeTad-from
getting talented young Armenian Americans started in government,
politics and journalism to educating the American media and public
about the Armenian Cause to leveraging the tremendous energy of
hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

Boujikian was born in Kessab, Syria, in 1932 to Hagop and Bayzar
Boujikian-one of five children. The Boujikian family migrated to the
United States in 1954 where Boujikian earned his B.S. in Mechanical
Engineering from the California State University, Los Angeles
and continued with graduate courses at the University of Southern
California and the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently,
Manas lives in Torrance with his wife of more than 55 years, Donalee.

Manas and Donalee are proud parents, grandparents and
great-grandparents.

By education and trade, Boujikian is an engineer and farmer. However,
his true passion resides in helping sustain the growth of Armenian
advocacy. In 2009, Boujikian completed his $400,000 pledge to the
ANCA Endowment Fund, marking yet another philanthropic milestone in
his life-long commitment to ensuring that the collective voice and
common aspirations of Armenian Americans are heard and respected in
the nation’s capital. Boujikian also served several terms as an ANCA
National Board Member beginning in 1983.

“Our ANCA-WR Board of Directors unanimously voted to bestow this year’s
Legacy Award to such a well-deserving activist as Manas Boujikian,”
said Nora Hovsepian, ANCA-WR Board of Director Co-Chair.

“He has been an unwavering, staunch and deeply committed ANCA leader
and supporter over a period of decades, both on the regional level as
well as on the national level. We are proud of all he has accomplished
and very grateful for his continued activism on behalf of the Armenian
Cause, to which we are all so dedicated.”

This year, the ANCA-WR Annual Banquet will take place on Saturday,
November 30 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom, the site of the Oscar’s
Governors Ball. The catering for the event will be provided exclusively
by world-renowned chef and personality Wolfgang Puck, who is devising a
menu specifically for the ANCA-WR. The banquet will be bookended by the
prestigious ANCA Grassroots Conference, which in 2011 attracted more
than 600 activists from around the country. Individuals interested
in attending the ANCA-Western Region Annual Banquet and Grassroots
Conference are encouraged to contact the ANCA-WR office at (818)
500-1918.

The Armenian National Committee – Western Region is the largest and
most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization
in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network
of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United
States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR
advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad
range of issues.

From: A. Papazian

ENFORCERS IN BAKU DETAINED A CITIZEN WHO HELPED ARMENIAN REFUGEES FROM AZERBAIJAN TO RESUME DOCUMENTS

20:20 20/09/2013 ” LAW

Recently officers of Azerbaijani MNS detained a Baku resident Aliullu
Ahmedaga oglu Jebrailov and his son. The detainees were brought to
criminal liability in connection with the preparation of documents
in favor of the Russian citizens of Armenian origin who once, in
Soviet era, lived in then Soviet Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani news agency
“Vesti.az” reports.

It is reported that Azerbaijani citizen Jebrailov Aliulla Ahmedaga
oglu, born in 1957, for the reason mentioned above “was in criminal
conspiracy with his son” and Russian citizens living in the North
Caucasus since 2000.

Azerbaijani MNS claims that Aliulla Jebrailov is Armenian from his
mother side. At present he is accused of preparing “false” service
record and other documents attesting the active professional activity
of the Armenians once living in Soviet Azerbaijan.

Aliulla Jebrailov is a member of an organization called “The Assembly
of the Azerbaijani peoples.”

“Based on the information gathered by the investigating authorities
a criminal case was filed against Jebrailov Aliulla Ahmedaga oglu
and his son Jebrailov Huseynaga Aliulla oglu. They were found guilty
by the verdict of the Court of Sabunchinski District of Baku based
on 310 and 320.1 articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. The
sentencing decision against them was accepted in accordance with the
above mentioned articles,” “Vesti.az” wrote.

According to the last pre-conflict population census in the territory
of Soviet Azerbaijan there were more than 475,000 Armenians living
there in 1979. During the pogroms and ethnic cleansing arranged by
the Azerbaijani nationalists in 1988-1990, almost all Armenians of
Azerbaijan SSR were driven out from their homes (except the Armenians
of Nagorno-Karabakh, where Azerbaijan failed to expel the Armenian
population). Many Armenian refugees didn’t manage to take the documents
with them and the state structures of Azerbaijan did not respond to
quiries related to citizens of Armenian origin.

Source: Panorama.am

ARMENIA TO FOCUS ON DEVELOPING PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY EXPORTS

IHS Global Insight
September 19, 2013

Kavita Rainova

The Armenian government is looking to simplify the procedures for
granting licences to enterprises within healthcare with the aim of
simplifying the process of starting a business as well as reducing
bureaucracy, reportsYerkramas, citing the director of the country’s
National Centre for Legislation Regulation, Armen Egiazaryan.

Furthermore, pharmaceutical industry is among the industries included
in the country’s strategies for export-oriented industry development;
these are the strategies, as reported by the source, which have
contributed to the increase of Armenia’s pharmaceutical exports. In
the period from January to May, exports grew 41.8% year-on-year (y/y)
to AMD963 million (USD2.35 million), with exports to the Commonwealth
Independent States (CIS) increasing by 86% y/y AMD632 million.

Pharmaceutical production increased 29.4% y/y to AMD1.9 billion.

Significance:Growth in pharmaceutical production follows the previously
reported 5.3% y/y increase for the period from January to September
2013. At the time, around 50% of the country’s pharmaceutical
production was exported. In terms of developing exports, the
government’s plan to implement good manufacturing practice (GMP)
standards reflects this aim, given that the implementation of the
latter would enable Armenian products to access the European market,
thereby helping to further boost pharmaceutical exports. Although
the standards were expected to be implemented this year, it remains
unclear whether or not they have indeed been implemented (seeArmenia:
7 November 2012:). Nonetheless, the current development potentially
points to the government’s continuing intent to enable and support
the country’s pharmaceutical exports.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA INDEPENDENCE DAY STATEMENT BY THE HONOURABLE JIM KARYGIANNIS

Canadian Government News
September 19, 2013 Thursday

Ottawa

Office of the MP Jim karygiannis, Canadian Government has issued the
following news release:

Armenia Independence Day Statement by the Honourable Jim Karygiannis,
Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to
members of the Canadian Armenian community on the occasion of Armenia
Independence Day.

In Armenia, Independence Day is an official holiday that commemorates
the establishment of the Republic of Armenia on September 21, 1991,
after seventy years of Soviet rule.

In 1936, Armenia became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union
known as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and remained so until
the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s. In September
1991, Armenians went to the polls and over 99 percent of voters
approved the republic’s commitment to independence. On September
21st, immediately following the referendum, Armenia declared full
independence and became the Republic of Armenia.

Armenians mark Independence Day with festivals that feature the
Armenian national anthem, time-honoured songs and music and dancers
in national costumes celebrating the local traditions of Armenia.

As a Member of Parliament, for many years I have worked closely with
the Armenian Diaspora in Canada on issues important to the community –
most notably, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In 2004, the
Parliament of Canada voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Two
years later, the Armenian Genocide was officially recognized by the
Government of Canada. I continue to work with the community with
respect to the importance of Canada establishing an Embassy in Yerevan.

In 2012, I visited Armenia and discussed issues of concern with
government officials. I also traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh, where
I led a Canadian delegation of International Election Observers to
observe the Presidential Election in Artsakh.

Canada has attracted, and continues to attract, people from all over
the world to her shores. We will continue to work together to build
our nation and enhance our international reputation.

For further information please visit:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress