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WB VICE-PRESIDENT: ARMENIA’S ECONOMY CONTINUES SERIOUS GROWTH

ARKA News Agency
Dec 14 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, December 14. /ARKA/. In 2007 Armenia’s economy continues
serious growth, said World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central
Asia Shigeo Katsu.

He said that Armenia’s economy develops very well. "The prospects of
development of Armenia’s economy are quite positive, but it does not
mean that we should be satisfied. There are various challenges that
should be overcome by tense work," Katsu said.

He pointed out that "the growth of economy is accompanies by definite
pressures."

"In recent years Armenia has managed to attract supplementary means
for the economy, which led to definite pressures in revaluation of
dram and rise in prices for some products," he said.

In this connection he pointed out that the world trends of rise in
prices for oil product and foodstuff certainly influenced Armenia.

According to the Armenian National Statistical Service, the economic
growth in Armenia in January-October totaled 13.3% as compared to
the same period last year.

5.1% inflation is recorded in Armenia in November 2007 as related
to December 2006. Only in November the prices of the consumer market
rose by 2.1%, which was accounted for by seasonal changes in prices
for provisions. In November prices for foodstuff (including alcoholic
beverages and tobacco goods) rose by 3%, for non-food – 1.2%, and
tariffs for services – 0.9%.

CAA agent Peretzian set to retire
Dealmaker to become full-time theater director

Daily Variety
December 13, 2007
By MICHAEL FLEMING

After 38 years of dealmaking, CAA agent Michael Peretzian is leaving
the tenpercentery biz at year’s end to become a full-time theater
director.

Peretzian, who began his career in the WMA mailroom before rising to
agent, spent the last eight years at CAA and reps directors and
writers including Anthony Minghella, Christopher Hampton, John Madden,
Zach Helm, Jeremy Brock, Peter Hedges and Alexander Dinelaris.

He starts his directing career quickly thanks to those clients.
Minghella asked him to direct "Cigarettes and Chocolate," a radio play
he wrote, and Hampton has invited Peretzian to direct a revival of his
play "Tales From Hollywood."

First up, mostly likely, will be "Red Dog Howls," a play by Dinelaris
that concerns the Armenian genocide of 1915 and a young man who thinks
he’s Greek until he discovers a letter his late father wrote to his
grandmother, who hid their Armenian origins.

Kathleen Chalfant ("Angels in America," "Wit") has agreed to play the
woman with a secret. Peretzian hopes to find an L.A. theater to bring
the play to the stage next year.

"Michael’s eye for talent and passion for great art poise him for a
wonderful career ahead as a stage director," said CAA partner and
managing director David O’Connor.

Before he became an agent, Peretzian’s background was in legit. He
studied for seven years at UCLA and taught graduate courses at the
Pasadena Playhouse. When it went bankrupt, he decided to make money
and found his way to the WMA mailroom. An assignment to walk a Steve
McQueen royalty check over to the actor’s accountant sealed his plans.

"I peeked, and saw that it was for over a million dollars, just for
the second year’s worth of profits on ‘Bullitt,’" Peretzian
said. "That check opened my eyes to possibilities."

Before long, Peretzian made money, but found himself empty: "I woke up
one day and felt dead inside," he said. "I realized the last time I
was really excited and passionate was when I was doing theater."

Moonlighting as a director, Peretzian kept it secret until it became
impossible. The cover was first blown when he was asked to direct a
local version of Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Shadow Box." First,
he had to ask the playwright, Michael Cristofer — his client.

"He responds by saying, ‘My agent wants to direct my play?,’ "
Peretzian recalled.

After Peretzian was named best director by the L.A. Drama Critics for
the Hugh Leonard play "A Life," WMA found out but kept him on. The
pedigree made the agent a magnet for playwright clients like Beth
Henley, Mark Medoff, Jon Robin Baitz and Minghella.

A move to CAA left little time to direct, and Peretzian finally made a
hard choice.

"I turned 66 in May, and after 38 years, it wasn’t as exciting
anymore," Peretzian said. "It felt like time to move on, and when I
told my clients, they said, you must do this."

KOMITAS STATE QUARTET WILL MEET ITS FANS
By Susanna Margarian

AZG Armenian Daily
13/12/2007

On December 11, members of Komitas State Quartet met the journalists
to inform them about their concert the next day in Komitas House of
Chamber Music. The concert is dedicated to well-known violoncellist
Sargis Aslamazian’s 110th anniversary of birthday.

The musicians, in Deputy Minister Karine Khodikian’s company, touched
upon their coming performances of the next two weeks. They also told
about their past successes and the new changes. They presented their
new audio-CD, the 4th for this generation of the Quartet.

Deputy Minister Karine Khodikian mentioned that this time the members
of the Quartet would be awarded with gold medals by the Ministry
of Culture.

Art director, the 1st violinist of Komitas State Quartet Eduard
Tadevosian presented the history of the work of Sargis Aslamazian.

The concert has a little melancholy as the 2nd violin of the Quartet
Suren Hakhnasarian will play with the Quartet for the last time. He
is going to leave for Moscow to join his family after 7 years. He
will continue his work in Moscow.

Eduard Tadevosian spoke about their 10-12 concerts in the provinces
of Armenia, also their benevolent performances.

ACCOUNT SUBMITTED

A1+
[04:37 pm] 12 December, 2007

Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarkissian had a number of high-level
meetings in Brussels and Strasbourg. His visit was concluded with
a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Foreign Relations Benita
Ferrero-Waldner. Mrs. Waldner noted that Armenia is efficiently
accomplishing the Action Plan of the European Neighborhood Policy. She
welcomed the considerable progress in this direction. The interlocutors
touched upon the latest developments in the Karabakh settlement
process, the presidential elections and regional issues.

The Armenian PM rendered Mrs. Waldner an account of the ENP Action
Plan. The further partnership with Armenia will be considered after
considering the submitted account, Mrs. Waldner said.

The Armenian premier summed up his visit to Brussels and Strasbourg
in an interview with reports. Speaking about expectations, Serzh
Sarkissian underlined that the policy of European integration has
been and still remains one Armenia’s priorities. We anticipate the
assistance of European structures on the way of implementation of
democratic and structural reforms.

SARGIS ASATRYAN ABOUT HIS PROGRAMS ON FINANCIAL CAPITAL

Panorama.am
14:45 12/12/2007

Sargis Asatryan, who ceased to be the chairman of the Armenian Youth
Party by the party assembly decision of December 2, intends to continue
his "political and reporting" career. By saying a reporting career,
he means that he was the reporter of "Burg" TV series for 6 years
on one of the Armenian TV companies that stopped the air in March,
last year. Asatryan says he is going to resume the program in the
course of the next year slightly changing its format.

In terms of politics, his programs are very ambitious, as he said. He
plans to initiate an "extensive political force" that will gain the
"absolute majority" during the next parliamentary elections. The
Armenian Youth Party is going also to submit a suggestion to the
newly elected president on building a "financial and youth city"
that will enable to shift the financial capacities focused in Yerevan
to another place in the course of 10-15 years. For that reason, they
anticipate that 150 ha land will be donated to them on Yerevan-Gyumri
highway. "This program will connect two big cities. It will be a
financial capital and investment and financial streams will flow
there," Asatryan said without detailing who will finance that big
project.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS SHOULD BE RESTORED TO INCREASE EMPLOYMENT OF YOUTH, HRANUSH HAKOBIAN CONSIDERS

Noyan Tapan
Dec 12 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Dozens of higher educational
institutions functioning in Armenia have a great number of graduates
every year, but their main part fails to find a proper job. Arsen
Ghazarian, the Chairman of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen
(Employers) of Armenia, said at the December 12 press conference. He
said that today on the one hand, there are thousands of unemployed
young people and, on the other hand, great lack of specialists,
especially in the economic sphere. According to A. Ghazarian, the
UMB(E)A for the third year its trying to clarify the level of youth’s
employment, to confront the local and international experience,
and to find some solutions.

Hranush Hakobian, the Chairwoman of the RA NA Standing Committee for
Education, Culture and Youth Affairs, said that the issue should be
considered from two aspects: employment of youth in conditions of
market economy and in conditions of globalized world. In her words,
young people living in villages and those living in towns should be
also differentiated for opening the respective jobs for them. As the
deputy evaluated, the university-employer-job contact does not operate
today. "Industrial and vocational educational institutions should
be restored and fully-fledged specialists should pass retraining to
improve the situation," H. Hakobian said.

SELF-DETERMINATION OF KARABAKH ARMENIANS ONLY POSSIBLE WITHIN AZERBAIJAN’S FRAMEWORK

Russia & CIS General Newswire
December 10, 2007 Monday 7:29 PM MSK

Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has protested against
a statement by Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian that the
latest, internationally-mediated situation of the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement is based on the right of nations to self- determination
and Nagorno-Karabakh’s secession from Azerbaijan.

"Oskanian’s statement regarding the right to self-determination is
un-professional and far from reality," Azimov said.

"We hope they understand that when it is said that the conflict must
be resolved peacefully, they shouldn’t expect Azerbaijan to put up
with the prospect of losing of part of its territory. This would be
crazy," the diplomat said.

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS TO START FROM DECEMBER 24
Translated by L.H.

AZG Armenian Daily #229
12/12/2007

Social

>From December 24 of 2007 to January 6 of 2008 winter holidays of
Armenian schoolchildren of 3rd to 11th grades of secondary schools
is announced.

The schools that haven’t used autumn holidays (from October 29 to
November 4) and will not use the spring holidays of 2008 (March 17-23)
will have longer winter holidays – until January 20.

Winter holidays of 1st and 2nd grades will be longer for two weeks.

CAMPAIGN DEDICATED TO 60th ANNIVERSARY OF UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAUNCHED

Noyan Tapan
Dec 11, 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. On December 10, that is on the Human
Rights day, the 40 students, who participated in the Human Rights
School special course titled "Human Rights as Universal Development
Agents of the Modern Society" received certificates on the occasion of
the completion of this course in Yerevan. The students participated
also in special presentations on The Role of Human Rights in the
Armenian Society and Armenia’s representation in Human rights councils,
committees, sub-committees of International Organizations, as well as
the UN Human Rights documents and their role in Armenia. According to
the information provided to Noyan Tapan, the course was organized by
UN Department of Public Information in collaboration with the Valeri
Brusov Yerevan State Linguistic University.

In the words of Mr. Valeri Tkatchouk, the representative of the UN
Department of Public Information, the World campaign devoted to the
60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is
officially launched today.

Ecumenical News International / 10 December 2007

Iraq church has ‘new martyrs’, says Baghdad archbishop

By Stephen Brown

Geneva, 10 December (ENI)–Christians are fleeing Iraq and
Christianity risks disappearing from the country, says a senior Baghdad
archbishop, reiterating appeals made recently to Western churches to
intercede with their governments about the plight of the Iraqis.

"We do have the courage of faith, the outpouring of love, but because
of the war, you see death and destruction, the manifestation of evil.
Our people are lacking hope, and so they are leaving," said Archbishop
Avak V. Asadourian of the Armenian Church of Iraq in an interview
with Ecumenical News International on 10 December.

He was interviewed in Geneva following a service at the headquarters
of the World Council of Churches, at which he said the four years since
the US-led invasion had been "the most difficult by far" of his 28-year
ministry in Iraq. Asadourian was attending a WCC meeting centred on
accompanying churches in conflict situations.

Young people "are faced each day with death and destruction, they are
faced each day with being kidnapped or facing the agony of having a
loved one who is kidnapped", the prelate told worshippers at the
service.

Despite the hardships, Asadourian, who leads the Council of the Heads
of the Churches in Baghdad, said the faith of the Christians in Iraq,
who are estimated to account for less than 3 per cent of the country’s
27.5 million people, has not wavered, although many reports have said
their numbers have dwindled.

"On the contrary, we have been steadfast in our faith," said the
archbishop. He recounted how a Syrian Orthodox priest had been
decapitated in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, apparently for refusing
to "adopt another religion". In the same city, a Chaldean priest and his
three assistants were shot dead in June this year a few metres from
their church.

"We have new martyrs in the church in Iraq," said Asadourian. "I know
of no one incident in the last four years where priests have converted to
another religion because they have been threatened," the archbishop
stated, adding the same was true for lay people. "So in Iraq the faith of
your brothers and sisters in Christ is strong enough to face martyrdom."

Nevertheless, "we are faced with the problem of the lack of hope," the
archbishop said in his sermon. "Unless the churches in Iraq can open
small windows if hope then I am afraid that Christianity will face a
slow demise not only in Iraq but in the entire region where Jesus Christ
lived and worked," he said

"I pray that the churches in the West will be strong enough to have a
say in the corridors of power to remind those in power what they
promised for Iraq and that it is high time that the promise is fulfilled,"
the archbishop told ENI. "We ask for peace, not only for Christians,
but for the entire Iraqi people, be they Muslim, Christian or adherents
of other religions."

In his interview, Asadourian noted that the churches in Iraq had faced a
conflict situation since 1980, with the outbreak of the war between Iran
and Iraq, in which many young Christian men enlisted in the army had
been killed. "After that came the Kuwait war – and what ensued after
that was the 13 year long embargo, which in itself was a war," said
Asadourian. "Then we had the 2003 war – and after the cessation of
hostilities, we have this, the war against terrorism taking place in the
entire country."