Author: admin

States News Service
August 12, 2009 Wednesday

CORPS OF ENGINEERS JOINS TEAM TO REBUILD ARMENIA’S WATER SYSTEMS

WIESBADEN, Germany

The following information was released by the U.S. Army-Europe:

More than most people, Armenians value water.

In the late Bronze Age, the Assyrians dubbed Armenians Nairi, or the
people of the lakes and rivers. Every July, the country celebrates
National Water Splashing Day, called "Vardavar," when citizens douse
each other – sometimes total strangers – with bucketfuls of water. In
fact, one of the most popular sites in the country is Lake Sevan, one
of the largest high-altitude lakes in the world.

And yet clean water is scarce.

About 50 to 60 percent of clean water is lost due to breaks, leaks and
gaps in the country’s disjointed network of pipes. In the capital,
Yerevan, water flows from the tap only a few hours a day. The fear of
water contamination is real.

To combat this crisis, the Office of Defense Cooperation in Yerevan
teamed with the U.S European Command and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers to execute six fully functional, turnkey water systems
throughout the country as part of a single humanitarian assistance
project. Through EUCOM, ODC gained approval, funding and ultimately
the Corps of Engineers’ support for this mission.

"These are six separate projects that help six separate communities
throughout the country," said Charles Samuel, Caucasus Project Office
chief who is overseeing design and construction. "Together, they make
a statement that the U.S. values its friendship with Armenia and is
willing to help them in any way we can. I’m just happy to be a part of
the team making that happen."

In accordance with current host nation building standards and codes,
the $600,000 undertaking – collectively called the Renovation of
Public Water Supply System – seeks to partially or fully reconstruct
the existing water supply systems near the villages of Aghavnavank,
Antaramej, Karmir-Aghek, Sevkar, Ttou Jour and Vaghashen.

This includes disassembling, rehabilitating and constructing
reservoirs, fences, catch basins, wells and roughly 14 miles of
intercommunity pipelines to assist the villages, which have a combined
population of just over 9,000.

"We’re talking thousands of people who – some for the first time in
their lives – will now have clean, fresh water," said Samuel. "That,
to me, is a truly amazing contribution."

The project was introduced by CARD, the Center for Agribusiness and
Rural Development, a non-profit non-governmental organization
originally created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to solve
agricultural and irrigation problems in Armenia. Executing the project
is CESCO Co. Ltd., a construction and engineering services company
based in Yerevan.

According to Samuel, CESCO, which normally provides heating,
ventilation and air-conditioning services, is on target to deliver all
six projects by the end of the year- on time, on scope and on
budget. CESCO’s work also includes the design, delivery, installation,
renovation and connection of utilities.

"We’re really very pleased and impressed," Samuel said about CESCO’s
work. "Their ability to adroitly handle a variety of complicated water
problems in a variety of remote regions throughout an already remote
country is impressive, to say the least. It’s one of our greatest
success stories."

In addition to providing an adequate and sanitary water supply to the
people of the six remote communities in the mountainous and
seismically active regions of central Armenia, the water systems
create the potential for an enhanced local economy through increased
irrigation, improving the local’s capacity to help themselves.

"Building partner nation capacity is our watchword at EUCOM," said
Charles Brady, EUCOM humanitarian assistance program manager. "We are
fortunate to be able to contribute to an improvement in Armenia’s
ability to help people."

Recently, the World Bank, USAID and others financed millions of
dollars in water system rehabilitations in Armenia, said Maj. Edward
Keller, bilateral affairs officer with ODC. While these have led to
improved supply, quality and financial viability of the water
utilities, they have mostly focused on Yerevan.

"This water project extends EUCOM’s reach of assistance [to] these
villages," said Keller, who is serving as part of Kansas’ Army
National Guard’s State Partnership Program. "[We] have also been
active with renovations to schools and hospitals."

These humanitarian assistance projects, Keller added, were started by
Lt. Col. Doug Peterson and Maj. Michael McCullough, both ODC chiefs
and former EUCOM staff officers who assisted EUCOM in building
friendships and positive relationships.

"It is great to be associated with such superb leaders who understand
how to carry out EUCOM’s strategy," said Brady. "I can’t say enough
about how important the ODC chiefs and their teams are in carrying out
DoD’s equities in the AOR and in particular the HA [humanitarian
assistance] projects."

The Renovation of Public Water Supply System project is one of several
the Europe District is executing in the south Caucasus. Other projects
include a $1.1 million renovation of a forensics lab in Yerevan as
part of the Department of State’s International Narcotics and Law
Enforcement program, and two high school construction projects in
poverty-stricken regions of Azerbaijan, valued at about $1.3 million.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are both U.S. coalition partners that have
allowed unconditional use of their airspace for support to operations
in Afghanistan. Both countries have sent troops to support overseas
contingency operations in Kosovo and Iraq, with Azerbaijan being the
first Muslim nation to do so.

WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 17, 2009 Monday

NAGORNO KARABAKH: IF TOMORROW BRINGS WAR

by Stanislav Tarasov

DOES AZERBAIJAN’S BELLIGERENT RHETORIC AIM AT ELEVATING KARABAKH TO A
FULL-PLEDGED PLAYER STATUS?; A discussion of Azeri-Armenian exchange
with regard to Karabakh

After Azerbaijan and Armenia signed, with Moscow’s mediation, the
Meindorf declaration on November 2, 2008, many thought the
belligerents made serious peaceful steps toward each other. The
declaration charges both sides to refrain from using force in regards
of each other to settle the Karabakh conflict.

A feeling persisted the participants would settle some minor issues
soon, and sign a peace agreement. It appears they are back to square
one. In all appearances Azerbaijan is back to their MO of the
pre-Caucasus crisis period. Why?

One, under the pressure from them a decision was made to replace
co-chairmen of the OCSE Minks group, which in essence paralyzed
it. Second, pugnacious notes have sounded in Azeri president Ilkham
Aliev’s speeches. Soon after the Aliev-Sargsyan summit in Moscow,
Aliev said the following at the expanded session of the Azeri
government in July 2009: "Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be
restored, and all occupied territories cleared of the aggressors. I
hope the Armenian side takes this into account, so the issue might be
resolved shortly".

Azeri ambassador in Russia Polad Bul-bul ogly introduced a new term
that is unique in its political overtones when he threatened to have
the Nagorno-Karabakh returned through "compelling Armenia for
peace". The ambassador explained that was a possible course of events
in case Russia’s effort to settle the situation turned out "utterly
fruitless", and the negotiation stalled.

Russia is not the only country to provide mediation in the Karabakh
settlement. The U.S., France and Turkey are also active
participants. Ankara made an attempt to work out the situation in
their own way, but Baku opposed Turkey’s initiatives.

Azerbaijan wants to take advantage of the efforts by President
Medvedev to mediate in the conflict in order to use them as a pretext
to start military confrontation with Armenia. Then the turn of the
events will be as the CSTO general-secretary had predicted: "When
speaking of war, it should be understood that CSTO is a collective
security organization, and that Article 4 of the treaty says an
aggression against one member country shall be construed as aggression
against all of them. That is the starting point. Everything else is
essentially words that are mainly capable of doing harm in a complex
situation like the Karabakh settlement". Still, Bordzhyuta expressed
hope renewed Azeri-Armenian dialogue would allow to finally resolve
the issue in a peaceful manner.

A source within the Azeri defense ministry was quick to respond to
this statenent by Bordzhyuta, saying "Zerbajian, unlike Armenia, never
had any incursion plans against the sovereignty and the integrity of
her neighbors. So there will be no military aggression by Azerbaijan
that would allow Yerevan to drag the CSTO countries into the conflict,
and then hide behind their backs. In case of necessity, and should
negotiations to have Armenia voluntarily liberate the Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan it now illegally occupies, provide futile, our
army will further the task of restoring the sovereignty of the
temporarily uncontrollable twenty per cent of our country’s own
territory".

That is exactly the repetition of the "Caucasus crisis" scenario,
which resulted in Tskhinval and Sukhum, not recognized by either
Tbilisi or Moscow previously, becoming subjects of the international
law as more than participants in the conflict settlement issues. So it
appears the desire to make Karabakh a full-fledged participant in the
settlement is the core of the belligerent rhetoric by Azerbaijan.

That is exactly what the U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk group
Matthew Bryza suggested when he said it was not possible to settle the
Karabakh issue without Karabakh, as it all revolved around the will of
its people. Then it might become possible to agree with a viewpoint by
some of the observers, who said Azerbaijan was attempting to turn the
bilateral Azeri-Armenian talks into something different, and moving on
to a multi-staged political combination, possible involving military
action somewhere in between.

In case there is a military flareup in Karabakh, it is unlikely the
West, having a number of pending projects in the energy networks of
the area, will let Azerbaijan blow it to the wind. Action will ensue,
and that may be what analyst Makhir Kainak, formerly of Turkey
intelligence, hinted at, when he said that "no settlement in the
Karabakh issue was an obstacle in Turkey’s policies in the Caucasus".

A for Moscow, prime minister Putin said during a recent visit of
Ankara they did not want "any conflict at all in the Southern
Caucasus". That says a lot.

All that is left is to wait and see, whether Baku will dare to sweep
the express desires by Moscow, Ankara and Washington under a rug. If
they don’t words of a possible military solution to the conflict will
largely remain words.

Source: Rossiyskie vesti, 1 30, August 14 – 20, 2009, EV

AZERIS ARE FAR FROM BEING BIBLIOPHILES

News.am
16:36 / 08/20/2009

Azeris are no more interested in books. Aliaga Jafarov, "Akademkniga"
store manager told 1news.az that the purchase interest of readers
reduced compared to last years. Overall, the bookselling decreased
for 30-35%.

"I have no clue what are the reasons for this, hopefully this situation
is urgent only for our store. My colleagues have recently complained
about the same problem and tried to find the way out," Jafarov said.

About 70% of all books published in Azerbaijan are sold in
"Akademkniga" store, excluding literature from Dubai, Russia and Iran.

"I work in this field for 30 years and cannot explain the decline of
reading interest particularly, and in books on the whole, especially
among young people," the manager concluded.

FIDE GRAND PRIX: THREE LEADING PLAYERS REMAIN IN THE SAME POSITIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.08.2009 10:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the 10 round of 5th FIDE Grand Prix series
tournament, all matches proved effective, except those played by
tournament leaders Peter Leko, Vasily Ivanchuk and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

Despite drawn matches and victory over Dmitry Yakovenko, Levon
Aronyan who has earned 6 points shares the 4th-5th positions with
Evgeny Alekseev (Russia). Armenian grand master falls behind Leko,
Ivanchuk and Kasimdzhanov by 0.5 points.

Another drawn game was that between Leko and Armenian grand master
Vladimir Hakobyan, such result being the eighth for the latter.

Levon Aronyan will compete against Vladimir Hakobyan in the 11th round
due on August 21. In the last two rounds, Aronyan will meet with the
undefeated Hungarian player and Ernesto Inarkiev representing Russia.

Results for 10th round:

Leko Peter – Akopian Vladimir 1/2
Aronian Levon – Jakovenko Dmitry 1-0
Inarkiev Ernesto – Bacrot Etienne 1-0
Ivanchuk Vassily – Karjakin Sergey 1/2
Alekseev Evgeny – Eljanov Pavel 1-0
Cheparinov Ivan – Gelfand Boris 0-1
Kamsky Gata – Kasimdzhanov Rustam 1/2.

Standing:

1. Ivanchuk, Vassily 6
2. Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 6
3. Leko, Peter 6
4. Aronian, Levon 6
5. Alekseev, Evgeny 6
6. Karjakin, Sergey 5
7. Gelfand, Boris 5
8. Eljanov, Pavel 5
9. Bacrot, Etienne 5
10. Jakovenko, Dmitry 4
11. Akopian, Vladimir 4
12. Kamsky, Gata 4
13. Cheparinov, Ivan 3
14. Inarkiev, Ernesto 2.

NORTH AMERICAN PRELATES HOLD MEETING IN MONTREAL

Asbarez
0/north-american-prelates-hold-meeting-in-montreal /
Aug 20, 2009

MONTREAL-The prelates of the Eastern and Western Prelacies of the
United States, Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan and Archbishop Moushegh
Mardirossian, held consecutive meetings with Canadian Prelate
Archbishop Khajag Hagopian on August 19 and 20.

During the meetings, the prelates planned projects related to the
spiritual, administrative, financial, and organizational aspects of the
prelacies. They also prepared reports on all of the churches of the
North American prelacies, with regards to the different communities
and services each church offers, from meeting the spiritual needs of
its members to Christian education.

The prelates also discussed common worries and issues, as well as new
methods of improving communication and dialogue between the Prelacies.

The issues and projects outlined during these sessions will be further
examined during the next World Assembly Catholicosate of the Great
House of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, in November of this year.

COAF NEXTGEN TO HOST "GATSBY AT THE BOWERY" SEPT. 10

oaf-nextgen-to-host–gatsby-at-the-bowery–sept–1 0
Thursday August 20, 2009

New York – The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) has announced Gatsby at
the Bowery, a fundraising event hosted by COAF NextGen, a new group
formed to educate and involve the next generation of philanthropists
in COAF’s work in rural Armenia.

The event, which includes an open bar, passed hors d’oeuvres, a raffle,
and 1920s-themed entertainment, will take place at The Bowery Hotel
Terrace on Thursday, Sept. 10 from 8 to 11 p.m. The net proceeds from
the event will benefit children and youth in rural Armenia.

Founded in 2000, the Children of Armenia Fund is an independent,
nonprofit, nongovernmental (501)(c)(3) organization. COAF seeks to
reverse the impoverished conditions affecting significant numbers of
Armenia’s children by revitalizing Armenia’s villages and implementing
projects that provide immediate and sustainable benefits to children
and youth.

Since its founding, the Children of Armenia Fund’s activities have
focused on revitalizing rural Armenia, with a comprehensive approach
to addressing the critical needs of children together with economic
development activities which enable people to acquire the necessary
tools to help themselves. COAF’s partnerships with UNDP, USAID
and the World Bank, along with many other local and international
organizations, have allowed us to effectively channel financial
resources where they are needed most.

Tickets are offered at two levels of support, the higher level
including a signed limited-edition photograph taken in one of COAF’s
villages by acclaimed photographer Hrair Hawk Khatcherian. Admission
prices will increase after August 28.

STONE GARDEN’ PUBLISHER ANNOUNCES MILESTONE SALES OF 20,000 BOOKS

Asbarez
e2%80%98stone-garden%e2%80%99-publisher-announces- milestone-sales-of-20000-books/
Aug 18, 2009

LOS ANGELES-The publishers of Armenia’s first commercial travel guide
reached a milestone in August with the news that they have sold 20,000
Armenia-subject books since the company’s founding in 1999.

The publisher, Stone Garden Productions, specializes in Armenia books
and photography, and has released titles such as "The Stone Garden
Guide: Armenia and Karabagh" (2006); "Edge of Time: Traveling in
Armenia and Karabagh" (2001) and "Out of Stone (1999)."

The 20,000-book milestone happens to coincide with the company’s
ten-year anniversary. Author-photographers Robert Kurkjian, Ph D
and Matthew Karanian, Esq., founded Stone Garden Productions in 1999
after they had each lived and worked in Armenia for five years.

Bedros Safarian, the company’s business manager, says that
he’s thrilled with the achievement, and is excited about future
projects. "The Armenia market is very small, and to have sold 20,000
copies to the community is an outstanding achievement."

Sales are not limited to the Armenian-American community,
however. According to Karanian, the company’s co-founder, non-Armenians
throughout the world have purchased their books. "We’ve shipped books
to every continent except Antarctica," says Karanian.

And their Armenia titles have been promoted on an array of media
ranging from Rick Steves on National Public Radio to publications
such as CNN Traveller, Geographical, and Photo District News. Their
Armenia photographs have been exhibited at prominent venues including
at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, at Los Angeles City
Hall and at private galleries in New York, and Washington, DC.

Kurkjian and Karanian got their start with the hard cover art
photography book "Out of Stone." The art book retailed for $55
in 1999, and the after-market price for a good used copy has today
quadrupled to more than $200. The author-photographers launched Stone
Garden Productions as a publishing company that would be dedicated
to portraying Armenian subjects that a larger commercial publisher
might not consider.

In 2001, Stone Garden Productions became the first publisher
to release a stand-alone commercial travel guide to Armenia and
Karabagh. The current version of the travel guide, "The Stone Garden
Guide: Armenia and Karabagh," is a best selling title and winner of
three national book awards. It is one of the only guides to strongly
promote environmental conservation.

Stone Garden Productions plans to publish a new art photography
book on Armenia and Karabagh, in addition to its numerous ongoing
photography projects. To learn more about the company, visit
To purchase a postpaid copy of
their latest travel guide to Armenia, send $24.95 to Stone Garden
Productions, PO Box 7758; Northridge, CA 91327. Postage is free to
addresses in the US. Shipping outside the US is $10.

THE GOAL IS NOT THE POST

y&pid=14950
16:58:45 – 18/08/2009

Interview By Siranuish Papyan

Ara Petrosyan, artist, member of the Art Lab, has had the show "Spatial
Expansion", participated in the show "Resistance" following March 1.

In your opinion, what is the intelligentsia and what is the civil
stance of the intelligentsia today?

First of all, I should say that I do not accept and understand the term
"intelligentsia". I read this question in your interviews and I tried
to answer it. I think this is nonsense we inherited from totalitarian
systems, such as Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union. And we must rid
of this nonsense as soon as possible. I will try to explain why it
is nonsense. When we say intelligentsia, the impression is that the
society has a class which is self-sufficient, which has bright thoughts
and clean hands, but the reality is different. There is no such class
as the intelligentsia in Armenia or elsewhere. Certainly, there are
people who have the ability to think but there are such people in
every sphere of life. There are a lot of people who think they have
the right to be called the intelligentsia but these people do not
have independent thinking, the ability, wish and "risk" to express
ideas. And the only reason to call these people the intelligentsia
is their university diplomas or degrees which have no importance to
me. For me as a citizen their civil stance is interesting. I measure
a person with this measurement. If you want to make sure whether
the given person is intelligentsia or not, you should recall the
public speeches of the person over the past year. For me, there is
only one measurement of the intelligentsia, the civil stance which
is expressed publicly. If the given person has not expressed publicly
their opinion on March 1, the political prisoners, other urgent issues,
that kind of the intelligentsia does not exist for me. In this sense,
there is no term "the intelligentsia", or there are no people who
deserve being called the intelligentsia, people with ideas.

When you say public speeches of the past year, do you mean after
March 1? Did it become clear to you after March 1 that there is no
such class at that moment?

Simply after March 1 everything became clear. Generally, I think March
1 was the de facto establishment of the modern history of Armenia, the
third republic, and the society decided that after this establishment
it is possible to see how the person behaved. I do not mean that the
person should have stood beside me in the rallies and marches. The
problem is the stance of that person because if he thinks that he has
a stance and he thinks that what he is saying is important to someone,
he must say what happened in reality. And we all know what happened,
how it happened.

What happened on March 1?

To put it figuratively, March 1 was the end of tolerance because the
elections of 2008 were not the first rigged elections. There had been
rigged elections in 1995, 1998, but March 1 was the end of tolerating
falsehood which had been lasting since 1995.

You say since 1995 but at that time Levon Ter-Petrosyan was in office,
and now it is the continuation of the mechanism he set up. Do you
believe that if Levon Ter-Petrosyan comes to power, this problem will
be solved, and the elections will be free?

First of all, a person cannot be crossed out if that person makes
a mistake. To err is human, and those who do nothing do not err. If
you remember, Levon Ter-Petrosyan marked his return to politics by
apologizing to people. It means in the past ten years this person
re-evaluated what he did, and in what he did there are more good
things than bad things. I admit that those elections were rigged, and
by the way I was among the persons who attacked the National Assembly.

Does it mean that if this government apologizes several years later,
we are ready to forgive them?

I am not ready. The only thing I was displeased with this man was
the elections of 1996, which I forgave him because he admitted his
mistake. Levon Ter-Petrosyan said I had fetched them, and I am here to
clear them away. I want to be the tool in this process of clearing. And
this government cannot be forgiven for March 1.

Do you believe in early presidential elections?

Nothing should be ruled out, and I think everything is headed for
it, there will be early elections. Six months earlier or later does
not matter. At least I am convinced that the person who took up the
presidential office in the presidential election 2008 will not remain
till the end of his term as provided by the Constitution.

Why, because he has no power?

No, there is physical power but time shows that it can have the effect
of a boomerang. The problem is resources, the world felt what kind
of a person it deals with and is playing the game. Now that all the
internal resources have expired, and he is trying to fill in the gap
through outside forces, he fails.

Do you think that if Levon Ter-Petrosyan comes to power, a lot of
problems of our society will be solved?

Even if you have smashed the egg, you must be careful to make an
omelet, smashing the egg is not enough. Of course, there will be
a psychological wakening because the grain and the chaff have been
separated, and now the chaff cannot reach its aim and continue what
it fought against. Simply it is necessary to keep the finger on the
"remote controller" and uproot all the authoritarian inclinations
which are typical of all the countries, especially young states.

Now the Armenian National Congress seems to have adopted the
Constitutional way, and on this way the society seems to be
disappointed, they say the ANC is growing weaker. What is your opinion
as someone inside? Is it true?

No, the ANC is not weakening, simply as Ter-Petrosyan said in one of
the rallies, it is not important to stand up, it is important to stay
on foot. When you go to those rallies and marches, you think it will be
followed by a stage of actions, and you are disappointed when you are
told the next rally is in four months. However, time showed that this
is the right way rather than illogical, meaningless confrontation. I
think Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s advantage is that he teaches the so-called
"hotheaded" ones (and I am one of them) that one must be patient,
and the goal now is not to seize the post, the goal is to have an
irretrievable victory. In other words, to rule out further attempts at
ruling out authoritarianism in Armenia. Many people say after February
26 Ter-Petrosyan should have taken the post but I think that Levon was
right to avoid clashes. If we forget that there would have been more
victims, victory won in that way would be the victory of violence,
and it would not lead the society anywhere. And next time people would
again gather at 26 Baghramyan Street and we would appear in circle,
the mop would take the chair every time, meanwhile the goal is not
to seize the chair but to be elected to that chair.

And the ANC is not weakening, it is slowly and heavily moving on.

AZERI COMMUNITY LEADER IN UAE MISREPRESENTS FACTS RELATED TO THE ARMENIANS

Panorama.am
17:24 19/08/2009

In a rather strange interview with Day.AZ Azeri information website,
Mr. Samir Iman, the head of the Azerbaijani community in the United
Arab Emirates, dedicated more than half of his time to talk about
the Armenian community (instead of talking about his own community),
providing details about the number of Armenians in the country,
where they meet and what they do, where they originally come from
and at what level is their knowledge of Arabic language, etc.

Following this introduction Mr. Iman expressed his view that "despite
the relatively large number of Armenians, they cannot do anything
openly or stage any propaganda … we can say that the Armenian
diaspora in the UAE is dead and is hardly felt here".

He claimed that the Armenians "took advantage" of Turkish President
Abdullah Gul’s visit to Yerevan last year and published an article in
a well known daily in Dubai (Gulf News), in which they said Azerbaijan
"imposed a blockade on Karabakh and wanted to occupy it". Following
his intensive efforts the same newspaper, he claimed, published a
new article in which the Azeri positions were emphasized.

Mr. Iman concluded his interview stating that he has been busy during
the last two years distributing in the UAE and in other Gulf countries
an anti-Armenian book and another book glorifying Azeri ex-leader
Hayder Aliev.

Azad-Hye Middle East Armenian Website has tried to locate the above
two articles in the newspaper’s online archives, but was not able to
find anything of the kind.

First of all the Armenian presence in the UAE goes back to the fifties
of the last century. Six of the ten big companies in the early years
in Abu Dhabi (in the 1960s) were managed by Armenians. The first
licences in the industrial area in the Emirate of Sharjah were issued
to Armenian-owned companies. This is aside from numerous Armenians
who served as managers of trading companies, banks, chief engineers,
chief accountants, financial advisors as well as in other economic
disciplines throughout the Emirates.

The status of the Armenians in the UAE has improved even more
during the last decades. There is a permanent Armenian Church with
community center in Sharjah and another one to be built in Abu
Dhabi soon. Hundreds of Armenian children continue to attend weekly
lessons in Armenian language and civilization. Many organizations
function. According to Azad-Hye the total number of Armenian events
during 2008 was about 92, excluding the regular church ceremonies. The
Armenian annual ball is one of the most known social events in Dubai.

In 2008, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of organized community
life, the Council of the Armenian Community in the Northern Emirates
(Dubai, Sharjah, etc) has published a well documented book, in which
details were given about the presence of the Armenians in the country
and the progress of the community until recent times.

For over twenty years the Abu Dhabi Cultural Association has
been arranging different mega cultural activities at least twice
a year. These include famous Armenian orchestras from Armenia,
quartets and small musical groups from Armenia, Europe and several
Arab countries where Armenians live, as well as exhibitions of works
of Armenian painters and sculptors.

Since 2000 the Armenian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has been arranging yearly
Armenian cultural weeks with the participation of specially invited
individuals and groups from Armenia.

Azad-Hye website has covered thousands of topics since its
establishment in 2003, with more than 60 thousand monthly visitors. It
has contributors in several countries and an online Armenian radio
station.

It is obvious that Mr. Iman wants to please his single-sided readers
and score well with his government, but his attempts and analytical
exercises are so naive that at a certain point they can embarrass or,
to be more precise, mislead the Azeris. A quick reading of the above
basic facts reveals how shallow the pool of information Mr. Iman
commands.

GEORGIA – SOUTH CAUCASIAN PRIORITY OF U.S.

News.am
20:57 / 08/19/2009

Georgia is the first county where to the new U.S. Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Tina Kaidanov will make her first South Caucasus
regional visit in September 2009. Georgian Vice Speaker of Parliament
Paata Davitaia has already met with Kaidanov in U.S and informed
that U.S. Diplomat will meet both with Georgian authorities and
the opposition.

"We have discussed situation in the conflict zones as well as
consequences of Russia’s agression. The 2-hour meeting was primarily
focused on analysis of situation in internal policy. Kaidanov declared
U.S. draws much attention to development democracy in Georgia and
keeps an eye on upgrading its electoral code," stated Davitaia.

"The stronger democracy in Georgia the bigger U.S. support," he
pointed out.