Author: Andres-Papazian

ANC-GLENDALE CONGRATULATES NEWLY-ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS

ASBAREZ
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
ANC-Glendale

GLENDALE-The Armenian National Committee of Glendale issued a statement
congratulating the newly elected officials to various city officers,
after the April 5 Glendale municipal election results were finalized
Thursday by the City Clerk’s office. Below is the statement:

The Armenian National Committee of Glendale would like to congratulate
all the newly elected public officials including Councilmembers Rafi
Manoukian and Dave Weaver; Glendale Unified School District Board of
Education Members Nayiri Nahabedian and Mary Boger; Glendale Community
College Trustees Vahe Peroomian and Tony Tartaglia.

We are confident and hopeful that the incumbents to office along with
the new members of our city government will set a high ethical bar,
a new unified tone for the rest of the city to follow and work side
by side to represent all of the richly diverse residents of Glendale.

Additionally, we would like to extend our gratitude to all candidates
who participated in Glendale’s Municipal Elections in hopes of
bringing fresh ideas and improvements to our city. It takes courage,
commitment and personal sacrifice to run for any civic service and
their dedication to the betterment of our city is truly commendable.

Finally, we would like to thank Glendale City Clerk, Ardy Kassakhian
who once again went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that
all segments of the Glendale community were properly informed and
participated in the electoral process, as well as, the 25,337 citizens
who exercised their right to vote on Election Day. It is our hope that
fellow Glendalians will follow in their footsteps in future elections.

The Armenian National Committee Glendale Chapter stands ready to
work with our elected officials, city’s institutions and citizens’
groups toward unifying our jewel city and working toward the common
goal of building bridges and bettering the City of Glendale.

From: A. Papazian

65% OF ARMENIA’S POPULATION LIVE BELOW POVERTY LINE TODAY

arminfo
Wednesday, April 20, 15:56

65% of Armenia’s population live below the poverty line, Armenian
MP from ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party, Vice Chairman of the Armenian
Parliamentary Commission for Financial-Credit and Budget Issues,
Artsvik Minasyan, said on Wednesday.

To measure the poverty, the minimal budget of life can be applied,
he said. The structure of this budget is specified in the bill on
amendments to the Law “On the minimal consumer basket and minimal
consumer budget”. This bill prepared by the ARFD parliamentarians
has been considered by parliament for already 3.5 years, and its
discussion was regularly postponed.

The bill fixes the structure and the amount of the minimal consumer
basket. Minasyan recalled that the specified law was adopted in 2004.

The structure of the minimal basket was to be fixed in a separate
law, before the adoption of which this function has been laid on the
government for three years (i.e. before 2007). After the relevant
bill had failed to be adopted, ARFD prepared this bill in 2007.

“Any social policy will suffer from halfness without this law, as
there is no starting point to be guided by when elaborating social
measures”, said Minasyan.

The parliamentary hearings on the bill brought together three
ministers, which is an unprecedented case in the parliamentary
practice, said Minasyan.

“Actually, the government stated in practice that it is not ready to
keep its pre-election promises. We think that it is reprehensible at
least: one should either refuse these promises or publicly announce
the inability to keep them”, he said.

To recall, at present the minimal salary in Armenia fixed by the law
is almost twice as low as the specified threshold – 32,500 AMD.

According to Minasyan, the arguments about insufficiency of budget
funds are groundless, and the ARFD faction pointed out at least 3
sources of their replenishment: improving the taxation of the ore
mining field, which is capable to bring 70 bln AMD to the state budget;
measures for inflation neutralization, which may bring 80 bln AMD;
and “the most obvious resource” is the shadow economy, which makes
up 48-50% in the republic.

From: A. Papazian

MIKHAIL BAGDASAROV: IN THE BEGINNING THE RUSSIAN COMPANY INSPIRED NO CONFIDENCE TO US

arminfo
Tuesday, April 19, 21:16

“In the beginning the Russian company inspired no confidence to us,
however, after 3-year tests and surveys we made sure that the Russian
planes meet all standards”, said the owner of the Armenian national
air carrier Armavia, Mikhail Bagdasarov, during the presentation of the
first aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100. He added that Armavia will acquire
the second Sukhoi Superjet in June 2011, and if the company likes the
given model, it will acquire three more planes in a year. “The Sukhoi
Superjet has big chances to occupy its place without disturbing the
large aircraft construction companies”, stressed Bagdasarov.

He said that the planes are mostly expected to make flights to Russia
and Ukraine. To note, on April 19 the presentation ceremony of a
Sukhoi Superjet 100 SN 95007 to the Armenian national air carrier
Armavia took place. The liner is named after the first spaceman
Yuri Gagarin. Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergey
Naryshkin was present at the ceremony.

From: A. Papazian

DISCUSSION ON “COMPETITION RULES ON HORIZONTAL AGREEMENTS” IN YEREVAN

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: A proper coverage has a great impact
on the efficiency of the state’s measures, directed to the economic
competition and its protection. A roundtable discussion on the EU
“Competition Rules on Horizontal Agreements” was conducted today
within the framework of the EU “Strengthening the Enforcement of
Competition and State Aid Legislation in Armenia” twinning project,
which kicked off today in Yerevan.

According to Ashot Iskandaryan, member of the RA State Commission for
Protection of Economic Competitiveness (SCPEC RA), the information
by journalists often becomes a source for the commission for making
some studies in markets and conduct examinations. He added that the
project will last 2 years and will be implemented in association with
the SCPEC RA.

Ashot Iskandaryan says the issues, involved in the program, are mainly
connected with the mechanisms of the state aid and organization of
economic competitiveness. The limits, issues of the sphere and the
legislative acts for the regulation of the process will be discussed.

Kurt Schkotman, deputy chairman of the SCPEC of Germany, presented
the subsidiarity, market correspondence principles and the
functions of the economic competition: the resources, promotion
to technology development, adaptation flexibility, allocation of
profits, satisfaction of consumers an the oversight of economic and
political power.

From: A. Papazian

SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN: CAVUSHOGLU FAILED BECOME PACE REPRESENTATIVE

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: The activity of Mevlut Cavushoglu
shows that he failed to become PACE representative, but remained
just representative of Turkey, deputy foreign minister Shavarsh
Kocharyan said speaking to Armenpress. He said Cavushoglu just uses
the establishment for the implementation of his goals. “And his goals
are obvious”, Shavarsh Kocharyan noted.

During the PACE spring sitting the chairman Cavushoglu, using his
authority deprived the Armenian parliamentarians of the opportunity
to address questions to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

From: A. Papazian

YEREVAN HOSTED PREMIERE SCREENING OF “WE’LL MEET AGAIN, GUYS” DOCUMENTARY

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 20, 2011 – 18:45 AMT 13:45 GMT

Yerevan hosted premiere screening of “We’ll Meet Again, Guys”
documentary by Anna Babayan.

The film is about participants of the Karabakh war – singer David
Amalyan, art director of Karin dance group Gagik Ginosyan and doctor
Karen Tonoyan.

They tell about challenges and feelings during the war. Documentary
scenes of battles in Karabakh are used in the film.

Babayan said the film was created in summer of 2010 during two months.

Possibly, the film will participate in It’s Me annual youth film
festival

Participants of the Karabakh war, mothers of fallen soldiers, as well
as leader of Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian and member of the party
Anahit Bakhshyan attended the film screening.

From: A. Papazian

PHILIP GORDON: THREATS TO TAKE OUT A CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT ARE UNACCEPTABLE

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: Threats to take out a civilian aircraft
are unacceptable, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gorgon said at
a news conference in Washington, asked to comment on the statement
of Azerbaijan to shoot down the civilian airplanes in Stepanakert.

“We had heard such threats and, very quickly and clearly, made clear
our view that threats to take out a civilian aircraft there and in
any other context are unacceptable and really shouldn’t be issued”,
he said, noting that after the statements about the unacceptability
it became clear that Azerbaijan had no intention of doing so.

He also said very often when they meet with Turkish counterparts and
the Secretary meets with her Turkish counterpart, the question of
Turkey/Armenia comes up, because it is very important to them. “There
have been efforts over the past several years to improve that
relationship, which we’ve made clear we strongly support. Those
efforts have recently stalled, which we’ve made clear we regret
because we believe it’s in the interest of both countries to continue
the normalization process, reestablish relations, and have friendly
relations and open trade from which both countries would benefit. So
we continue to strongly support direct dialogue between the two
countries and normalization of their relationship. And we bring it
up very frequently with our counterparts on both sides”, he said.

From: A. Papazian

PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN CONGRATULATES VAHAGN STAMBOLTSYAN, ORGAN PLAYER, ON 80TH ANNIVERSARY

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS: RA President Serzh Sargsyan had today
a telephone talk with Vahagn Stamboltsyan, organ player, USSR Honored
Artist and RA People’s Artist.

The presidential press service told Armenpress that the head of the
state congratulated the talented organist for his great investment
in the preservation and spreading of the Armenian spiritual music
and wished strong health and all the success on his 80th anniversary.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA’S WEIGHTLIFTING FEDERATION TO APPEAL TURKS’ GOLD

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: Armenia’s Weightlifting Federation is
planning to officially apply to the World Weightlifting Federation to
appeal the omitting of the obvious violation at the European Cup in
Kazan by Turkish athlete Selim Yacgi who while lifting the bar could
not stand straight, an official from the Armenian Federation reported.

As a result of mistake of the referees, Armenian weightlifter Arayik
Mirzoyan, who lifted the same weight without violations, received
silver. The European Weightlifting Federation refused to satisfy the
appeal of the Armenian side, but the World Federation is to study
the fact.

From: A. Papazian

PM TIGRAN SARGSYAN PAYS WORKING VISIT TO SHIRAK MARZ

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2011
YEREVAN

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan paid today an official visit
to the community of Berdashen, Shirak Marz, got acquainted with
the construction works of “Arpi Lake” national park’s hotel and
administrative building and met the residents of Berdashen.

An official from the information and PR department of the RA Government
told Armenpress that the “Eco-Region’s Nature Conservation in South
Caucasus: Creation of Protected Areas in Javakhk Region of Armenia
(Ashotsk)” program is aimed developing the ecotourism, preserving
the unique biodiversity of Shirak-Javakhk plateau’s areas along
the borders with Georgia and Turkey, at the same time promoting the
stable community development in Shirak Marz through the creation of
“Arpi Lake” national park, implementation of a community development
program (14 target communities) in the national park’s protected zone
and promoting the cooperation between Armenia and Georgia.

The program budget makes 2.2 million euros. The community of Berdashen,
Ashotsk was involved in the program of “Management of Communities’
Agricultural Resources and Competitiveness”. The program will define
the necessary events for the pasture improvement. Speaking on the
programs of the region at today’s briefing, the prime minister said
the cattle-breeding development is a priority.

According to the prime minister, for making the pastures more
accessible, the pastures should be provided with irrigation water and
roads should be constructed. Tigran Sargsyan says the specialists,
who work on this program, state that the profits will increase by at
least 20% in the result of the program’s implementation.

“The community will be secured with agricultural equipments, the
costs of which will be co-financed by the state with 50%. All the
farms of the community entered into the cooperative and are ready to
make investments. If we create such an economic basis for villagers,
their profits will increase every year,” Tigran Sargsyan said.

From: A. Papazian