Author: Andres-Papazian

YEREVAN HOSTED FORUM OF ARMENIAN JEWELERS’ INTERNATIONAL UNION

news.am
Sept 22 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Armenian capital city launched forum of International union
of Armenian jewelers. Armenian deputy PM, Minister of Territorial
Administration Armen Gevorgyan, deputy Minister of Diaspora Stepan
Petrosyan, as well as heads of jewelry manufacturing enterprises from
Armenia and abroad participated in the forum.

Deputy PM stated the importance of jewelry industry for the Armenian
economy, as well as an integral component in social values of the
Armenian people.

“Our people transformed the noble profession into high art putting
in it all their skills,” deputy PM said.

Head of the Department of Industry Policy at the Armenian Ministry
of Economy, Hayk Mirzoyan said that Armenia had adopted a law on free
economic zones. After the procedure of their management is established,
jewelry companies can also work there.

“For example, in Gyumri city specialists of design of Italian Institute
of architecture will cooperate with the representatives of the jewelry
industry,” Mirzoyan stated.

From: A. Papazian

FASTER DIGITIZING, MORE EQUIPMENT AND STAFF AT ARMENIA’S ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT MUSEUM

news.am
Sept 22 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Digitizing process at Matenadaran (Armenian ancient
manuscript museum) will accelerate, Matenadaran will soon receive new
digitizing equipment, Matenadaran Director’s advisor Gurgen Gasparyan
told Armenian News-NEWS.am. In his words, this equipment, which is
fairly expensive, will be acquired through benefactors. According to
Gasparyan, more employees will be hired for Matenadaran’s digitizing
department, which will now have 15 instead of just the current 6 staff
members. Quality equipment and more personnel will enable faster and
better-quality digitizing.

“At present, approximately 2,000 manuscripts are digitized, but there
are a total of 17,000,” Gasparyan said, adding that, on the average,
one employee digitizes around 500 stills per day, and 80,000 per year.

Digitizing at Matenadaran had begun in early 2008. As Armenian
News-NEWS.am reported earlier, digitized material can be read on
computers at the reading room of Matenadaran’s new building.

From: A. Papazian

MINISTER: AZERBAIJAN SHOWS HIGH STABILITY IN CRISIS PHENOMENA CONDITIONS IN GLOBAL ECONOMY

Trend
Sept 22 2011
Azerbaijan

As of Sept.1, Azerbaijani strategic currency reserves exceeded $40
billion, which is eight times more than the country’s external debt,
Azerbaijan’s Economic Development Minister Shahin Mustafayev said at
a meeting of chairmen and an annual meeting of the Tariffs/Pricing
Committee of the Energy Regulators Regional Association (ERRA) in
Baku on Thursday.

“Given conditions of the crisis phenomena continuing in the world’s
markets, Azerbaijan shows high stability,” Mustafayev said. “So as of
Sept.1 the ratio of external debt to GDP has reached seven percent,”
he added.

He said that over the past ten years, GDP in the non-oil sector
grew by 2.8 times, while GDP as a whole by four times. “This means
that today 70 percent of the economy of the South Caucasus countries
accounts for Azerbaijan’s economy,” Mustafayev said.

He said that the income of Azerbaijan’s population grew 6.3 times
in ten years, while the poverty rate decreased by 5.4 times, from 49
percent to 9.1 percent.

“The country’s proven hydrocarbon reserves give grounds for confirming
that Azerbaijan will continue to play an important role in energy
security in the global economy,” Mustafayev emphasized.

Azerbaijan attaches a great deal of importance to regional and global
cooperation.

“Pipelines exporting oil and gas from Azerbaijan bring together
many countries in the region. If looking at the map, communication
lines do not pass through only one country [Armenia]. The reason is
Armenia’s unconstructive position in the negotiation process in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Mustafayev said.

The ERRA, which includes the Azerbaijani Tariff Council, unites similar
structures of Central Europe, Eurasia, and the U.S. The association
was established in 2001.

The Association’s tasks include support for regulatory organizations in
member countries, facilitating experience and information exchange,
and increasing research and the level of practical knowledge in
educational and practical spheres.

From: A. Papazian

MONITORING OF AZERBAIJANI-ARMENIAN CONTACT LINE PASSES OFF PEACEFULLY

news.az
Sept 22 2011
Azerbaijan

No incidents were recorded during the latest OSCE monitoring of the
ceasefire between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.

Hristo Hristov and Marius Puodziunas, field assistants of the
personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, conducted
the monitoring on the Azerbaijani side of the contact line near
the village of Garakhanbayli in Fizuli District on 22 September,
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry press service reports.

Imre Palatinus, coordinator of the office of the personal
representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, and field assistant
Antal Herdic conducted the monitoring on the side of the contact line
controlled by Armenian forces.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been
regularly monitoring the situation on the contact line between Armenian
and Azerbaijani troops, since a cease-fire was signed in the war over
Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN-ISRAELI RELATIONS BASED NOT ONLY ON COMMON FATES – ISRAELI MP

news.am
Sept 22 2011
Armenia

TEL AVIV. – Israeli MP Rabbi Michael Ben-Ari has congratulated the
people of Armenia on the occasion of 20th anniversary of independence.

“I cordially congratulate the Armenian people on the 20th anniversary
of Independence of the Republic of Armenia. I wish you success
and prosperity, security and strength of spirit to preserve the
independence forever, despite all the problems and threats our people
face in shaky and unstable regions of the world,” reads the letter
of the MP, sent to the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

Israeli MP expressed hope that relations between Armenia and
Israel are based not only on the common fate, marked by disasters –
the Holocaust of Jewish people during Nazi regime and the Turkish
Genocide of Armenians, and not only on the willingness to help each
other in times of natural disasters – as it was after the earthquake
in Armenia in 1988, but also on mutual understanding on development
of nation states and the protection of national interests.

From: A. Papazian

NUMBER OF PEOPLE DESIRING TO LEARN ARMENIAN INCREASED SHARPLY IN TURKEY

news.am
Sept 22 2011
Armenia

KAYSERI. – Turkish Erciyes University last year opened new department
on the Armenian language and literature. This year the department
had great interest among applicants.

Vice rector stated that Armenian language and literature and Jewish
language and literature departments registered sharp increase of
applicants as compared to last year, Turkish Sondakika reports. 12
applicants out of 15 have already been admitted in the university
program. Last year only 6 students have been admitted at the program.

Vice rector believed that no applicant would desire to study at those
departments after Armenian-Turkish and Israeli-Turkish relations
were deteriorated. However, just the contrary happened. Turkey has
business and cultural relations set with Armenia and Israel, which
will help their graduates to find job in those spheres.

Armenian and Jewish departments opened last year at Erciyes University
and are unique among Turkish universities.

The vice-rector had stated earlier that they aim to have specialists
working in Armenian archives and fighting against Armenian theses.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIAN MFA: ELECTIONS IN ARTSAKH CANNOT INFLUENCE ON PROCESS OF PEACEFUL NEGOTIATIONS

Panorama
Sept 22 2011
Armenia

Alexander Lukashevich, the official representative of Russian
Foreign Ministry, released a statement on NKR local self-government
institutions elections, which were held on September 18.

“Russia having close relations with the co-chairing stated of Minsk
Group – USA and France, puts forth efforts to resolve the conflict
of Nagorno-Karabakh. We’ll continue to support the Azerbaijani and
Armenian sides to materialize the soonest resolution of the conflict,”
reads the statement.

Russian Foreign Ministry statement posted on the official website of
the ministry says that Russia confirms the principles of territorial
integrity and non-use of force.

“We think that the elections held in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot influence
on the process of peaceful negotiations,” reads the statement.

From: A. Papazian

ANCA-WR TO BESTOW LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD TO KEN KHACHIGIAN

AZG DAILY
23-09-2011

The Armenian National Committee of America ~V Western Region has
announced that Ken Khachigian will receive the Lifetime Achievement
Award at the 2011 ANCA-WR Annual Banquet for his decades of work as
an American campaign strategist, political speechwriter and attorney.

Ronald Reagan became the first sitting U.S. president to properly
characterize the Armenian Genocide while Khachigian was his
speechwriter.

Khachigian is best remembered for his tenure as speechwriter in the
Nixon and Reagan administrations. He has served as an advisor in nine
presidential campaigns. In addition to his work on the Nixon, Reagan,
and Bush-Quayle campaigns, he most recently served as a senior advisor
to the presidential campaigns of Bob Dole in 1996; John McCain in 2000;
and Fred Thompson in 2008.

In 1970, after graduating from law school, he climbed the White
House ranks during his tenure in the Nixon administration, going from
staff assistant to Deputy Special Assistant to the President within
six years. In 1974, after the Nixon administration had collapsed
in the Watergate scandal, he joined President Nixon at his private
California residence to help compose his memoirs and to conduct
research for Nixon~Rs interview with David Frost. It was a landmark
event that became the subject of the 2008 film ~QFrost/Nixon,~R in
which Khachigian was portrayed by actor Gabriel Jarret.

Following his work in the Nixon administration, Khachigian joined
Ronald Reagan~Rs 1980 presidential campaign. By 1981, he was named
chief speechwriter and special consultant to the President. Within
the first 100 days, Khachigian wrote Reagan~Rs inaugural address,
his three main economic speeches, and the welcoming address to the
hostages held during the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran.

Although he resigned after six months to return to the private
sector, he would continue to write many of the major political and
policy speeches throughout the President~Rs two terms, including the
1984 nomination acceptance speech, the 1985 remarks at the former
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, and the 1988 Republican
National Convention farewell address.

It was during the speech at Bergen-Belsen that Reagan famously
declared, “~E we can and must pledge: Never again,” and the address
is widely regarded as the greatest throughout his career. Khachigian
also penned the 1981 “Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust”

Proclamation in which Reagan recognized and properly characterized
the Armenian Genocide.

Khachigian has been active in California elections since the early
1980s, and is known among politicos and pundits as “the lion of
California GOP politics.” Prominent political commentator Bob Novak has
written that Khachigian is “perhaps the state~Rs premier Republican
strategist and wordsmith.” He is widely quoted in state and national
publications, has appeared on prominent cable and network television
programs and frequently lectures before businesses and associations
on government affairs and politics.

“With this award, we are recognizing Ken Khachigian for his invaluable
contribution to Hai Tahd and American politics throughout the last 40
years,” said ANCA-WR Chairman Andrew Kzirian. “Among his many other
achievements, Khachigian proved that the pen is mightier than the
sword, succeeding in bringing the history of the Armenian people and
most importantly the truth of the Armenian Genocide to the mainstream
public consciousness.”

During the 1982 and 1986 California gubernatorial campaigns,
Khachigian was senior advisor and principal strategist for Governor
George Deukmejian. He also served as campaign chairman, campaign
manager and senior consultant to Dan Lungren for his two victories as
Attorney General. Khachigian counseled Pete Wilson in his winning U.S.

Senate and gubernatorial campaigns; in 1998, he guided the successful
statewide retention election of California Supreme Court Justice
Ming Chin.

Khachigian completed his undergraduate education at the University of
California, Santa Barbara in political science in 1966, and received
his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1969. He is currently
a senior partner in the Orange County, California law office of
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, and a member of the Government
Relations and Natural Resources departments. His practice includes a
range of high-level environmental and government relations matters,
particularly where legal, government and public issues intersect.

Currently, he serves on the boards of the California Council for
Environmental and Economic Balance; the California Chamber of
Commerce; the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation; the
UCSB Foundation; and Campaigns & Elections Magazine.

He and his wife, Meredith Khachigian, serve on the board of directors
of the Armenian Eye Care Project, which has helped thousands of
Armenians restore and maintain their vision through prevention
and early intervention programs. They have two daughters: Merissa
Khachigian, who serves as the Director of State Government Affairs
at Oracle; and Kristy Khachigian, who is the Director of Executive
Education at TechAmerica.

The Armenian National Committee of America-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

THEATER REVIEW: GOLDEN THREAD PREMIERES NIGHT OVER ERZINGA
By Ken Bullock

Berkeley Daily Planet
Sept 21 2011
CA

Golden Thread Productions is one of the important Bay Area theater
companies that has a very specific mission–to explore the culture
and identity, or identities, of Middle Easterners and Middle Eastern
Americans. For the past decade and a half, since Torange Yeghiazarian
founded the troupe, Golden Thread’s brought plays from and about the
Middle East in all its diversity to stages throughout the Bay Area,
including its annual ReOrient festival of short plays, as well as
storytelling shows to schoolchildren.

Night Over Erzinga, the premiere of a new play at the South Side
Theatre (Magic Theatre, Fort Mason) in San Francisco by Adriana Sevahn
Nichols about refugees from the Armenian genocide coming to America
and what they and their descendants face, by both remembering and
forgetting the past, is the first event in a collaborative National
New Plays Initiative between Golden Thread, Silk Road Theatre Project
(Chicago) and the Lark Play Development Center (New York), Middle
East America.

An excellent cast–Natalie Ammanian, Neva Marie Hutchinson, Terry Lamb,
Sarita Ocon, Lawrence Radecker, Juliet Tanner and Brian Trybom–with
the unusually clarity of Hafiz Karmali’s direction has brought life to
a mixed perspective of immigrants trying to escape the past, to find
themselves … assisted by Penka Kouneva’s unusual original music,
by designers Mikiko Uesugi (scenery), Jim Cave (lighting), Michelle
Mulholland (costumes) and Mitchell Greenhill (sound).

This is in many ways an exemplary production, bringing out the best
in an ambitious, sometimes problematic script. The first part deals
with refugees trying to bury the past in an effort to create a future
for themselves, a dream on the terms of the society they’ve fled to,
and the emotional price, the cultural emptiness their self-repression
begets. The second part follows–at first in a way almost like a
satiric burlesque of the first part–the American-born daughter
of the Armenian couple who met in Massachusetts in the first part,
who’s fled the last vestige of her family and cultural identity to
perform as a dancer, marrying a Latino, another refugee coming from
a more traditional, family-oriented culture. The action is never
quite chronological, following instead the logic of dreams, memory,
simple association from time to time.

There’s deft role-switching by all the actors, Trybom and Tanner in
particular, to portray three generations and more of uprootedness
and striving for a new life, a new identity. The story touches on
hardship and the atrocities of the past mainly through stories that
finally get told and the evidence of emotional and mental turmoil,
from unexamined habits that determine a life and its attitudes to
the delusions of mental collapse.

The play ends with a dreamlike scene around a wishing tree–a good
alternate title!–its branches tied with cloths signifying wishes. On
opening night, Yeghiazarian unveiled a commissioned Tree Of Life,
to honor ancestors and future generations, by Bay Area artist Thomas
Sepe that will remain in the lobby through the run of the show,
to which audiences may tie their wishes.

The production is one of the most lucid I’ve seen recently on a Bay
Area stage. Karmali–himself a muslim of the Aga Khan’s sect–and his
players of various backgrounds illuminate the refugees’ experience,
show their inner lives and point to both the difference of cultural
origins and the improvisatory experiment of American assimilation,
revealing good and bad in the roots and in the results … A triumph
of live theater in bringing out inner strengths and transforming
occasional awkwardnesses in the play, creating unforgettable
dramatic–and, yes, comic–images of immigrant heritage, of our
common heritage.

From: A. Papazian

PATRICK FIORI: ARMENIA IN MY VEINS

news.am
Sept 21 2011
Armenia

Famous French singer of Armenian descent Patrick Fiori attended
the evening in Marseilles Palais Pharo on the 20th anniversary of
Independence of the Republic of Armenia. In this regard, he gave an
interview to French La Provence newspaper, which is offered below by
Armenian News – NEWS.am:

– Why participate in this event? Duty or pleasure?

Patrick Fiori: Because Armenia is in my veins. Half of my body,
half of my blood belongs to this wonderful people.

– You are both of Corsican and Armenian origins, two powerful nations.

To which culture do you feel closest?

P.F.: Both. I received, I think, a very good education, both on the
side of Corsica and the Armenian side. I’m crazy fan of my father
and I know how this commitment of mine is important to him.

– Not a slight preference anyway?

PF: I do not compare. These are, admittedly, two strong people and each
of them give something to me. I speak about strength of character,
truthfulness that is there in both cases, franchise. These are real
people on both sides and that’s what touches me the most.

– Does the younger generation have a new way to express itself?

PF: Well, the youth wants to do things anyway. There is also
solidarity. The Armenian community was very helpful when I started
my career. It assisted me so that I can do my job according to all
rules of the art. It would me my great pleasure to thank them.

– Why did you choose Fiori as artist name and did not take your
Armenian surname?

PF: Because I ran into the same problem every time: I saw my name
spelled in extravagant ways. Chouchaian is not that complicated! It
pained me greatly to see my name crippled. I have not made the decision
on my own. I went to my father and told him: “You know Fiori, it’s
easier.” He said, “Do what you want”. He understood me very well.

From: A. Papazian