Author: Andres-Papazian

CAVUSOGLU: OUR AIM WAS TO SET PACE SUB-COMMITTEE ON KARABAKH, AND WE DID IT

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 6, 2011 – 21:38 AMT 16:38 GMT

President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Azerbaijan to attend the World
Forum on Intercultural Dialogue.

Commenting on sittings of the PACE Sub-Committee on Nagorno Karabakh,
Cavusoglu told journalists: ~SMembers of the PACE Sub-Committee on
Nagorno Karabakh will determine themselves the sitting~Rs date and
issues that will be discussed.~T

He reminded about appointment of the sub-committee head and members:
~SOur aim was to set up this committee, and we did it. The task of
PACE is to support the conflict resolution. The OSCE Minsk Group keeps
on working on this issue. Our goal is not to interfere in it. Both
parties must trust each other. The Sub-Committee on Nagorno Karabakh
was set up with good intentions. PACE adopted the decision on its
establishment. The assembly members should also observe it and attend
the sittings. The Armenian side will make the decision on its sittings
attendance itself. We can~Rt make any decision on this issue.~T

Answering the question on opening of an international airport in
Stepanakert and Armenia~Rs plan to organize flights to this airport,
Cavusoglu said the Azerbaijani side can raise this issue during the
next session of PACE, if it wishes, APA reported.

From: A. Papazian

ANCA LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK MATTHEW BRYZA’S CONFIRMATION AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 6, 2011 – 20:34 AMT 15:34 GMT

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has launched a
campaign against Matthew Bryza’s final confirmation as U.S. Ambassador
to Azerbaijan.

“On January 27th, despite strong objections by Senators of his own
party and grave concerns expressed by the Armenian American community,
President Obama renominated Matt Bryza to serve a full term as U.S.
Ambassador to Azerbaijan,” ANCA said.

ANCA called on the Armenian-American community to urge Senators to
cut short Bryza’s time in Baku by blocking Senate approval of his
confirmation to a full term.

ANCA went on saying: “The public record has demonstrated his prolonged
indifference to the Azerbaijani destruction of the Armenian cemetery
in Djulfa, unusually close and controversial ties to Azerbaijani
government officials, a deeply troubling track record as a senior
diplomat dealing with the Caucasus, and persistent conflict of interest
issues related to the Caspian energy industry.

President Obama side-stepped Senate authority once by issuing a recess
appointment for Matt Bryza as U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. Tell
the Senate to reject the President’s strong-arm tactics and send an
Ambassador to Azerbaijan that reflects the views and values of the
American people.”

From: A. Papazian

PREMIERE OF “CUCARACHA” CARTOON IN YEREVAN TO TAKE PLACE ON APRIL 6

arminfo
Wednesday, April 6, 20:08

The premiere of the Armenian-Russian cartoon “Cucaracha” in Yerevan
will take place on April 6. The lead character of the cartoon is the
cockroach Boyt that lives in a flat in Moscow. The life of the insect
is calm and peaceful until he meets charming Lika and falls in love
with her.

At today’s press conference producer Vahe Sargsyan, said that La
Cucaracha is first of all a story about love and friendship. Sargsyan
explains the choice of the lead character the following way:
“Cockroaches are insects loved by almost nobody. We wanted to show
in the cartoon that they can be kind and friendly. We hope that after
seeing the cartoon children will understand that they should estimate
people not by their appearance, but by their deeds. I am sure that
from now on our junior spectators will try to first and foremost look
for good qualities in people”.

The premiere of “Cucaracha” took place in Moscow on March 24. Over the
past 2 weeks the cartoon received good response from the critics and
spectators. According to Sargsyan, over the first weekend the cartoon
collected about 1 mln USD, which became a surprise for the creators of
“Cucaracha”. The main success is that “Cucaracha” is the first Armenian
3D animation film: all the technical part of the work, except voice
recording session, was done in Armenia, at the Touch FX studio.

The budget of “Cucaracha” is 4.5 million USD. The work at the cartoon
lasted for over 3 years.

From: A. Papazian

REPRESENTATIVE OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS: THOSE WHO ARE NOT WITH US ARE AGAINST US

arminfo
Wednesday, April 6, 20:10

As a result of the attempts of Heritage and ARF Dashnaktsutyun
parties to burn all the bridges with the Armenian National Congress
they will find themselves in the political archive or will finally
become pro-governmental, David Shahnazaryan, a representative of the
Armenian National Congress (ANC), told journalists on Wednesday.

“Today the ANC is the only political force in Armenia associated
with such a notion as opposition. The same cannot be said about
the Heritage and ARF Dashnaktsutyun parties, which simply have no
political future, and their attempt to burn all bridges with the ANC
will lead to them to marginalization. Today more than ever Armenia has
a single opposition in the person of the ANC, and there are political
and public elements coming out against the ANC. And the fact that
these parties occupy our floor in the political field will bring no
success to them. The ANC has undoubtedly monopolized the oppositional
field, and the whole criticism is directed against the ANC. Therefore,
they should not burn all bridges with the ANC, but in the long run,
it is for them to decide”, said Shahnazaryan.

At the same time, Shahnazaryan once again expressed confidence that
snap elections in Armenia are inevitable, which is implied by the
current tense socio-economic situation in the country. The politician
stressed that the public considers that the hard socio-economic
situation can be changed only by means of political changes. In
addition, only the ANC actually dictates the domestic political agenda
in the country against the background of the focus of the superpowers’
attention on the domestic political situation.

Shahnazaryan pointed out that the upcoming rally of the opposition
on April 8 will be very important, but did not specify the topics of
speeches of the rally participants.

From: A. Papazian

KAPAN’S LIBRARIES RECONSTRUCTED

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 6, 2011
KAPAN

KAPAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS: Kapan municipality started reconstruction
of libraries of the town. First the library of Davit-Bek district was
reconstructed and put into exploitation. The library has 350 readers,
before the reconstruction the building of the library was in desperate
condition and was at the edge of closing. There are more than 17 000
units of book in the library. About 2,5 million AMD was spent for
its reconstruction.

Currently, the municipality has started reconstruction and upgrading
of library on Hunan Avetisyan street.

“The library of the Davit-Bek district is the first one but the works
will be of continuative nature,” mayor Arthur Atayan said.

From: A. Papazian

9,073 CARATS OF DIAMONDS PRODUCED IN ARMENIA IN JAN-FEB 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 5, 2011 – 15:48 AMT 10:48 GMT

9,073 carats of diamonds were produced in Armenia in January-February
2011 against 7,740 carats during the same period in 2010 (17.2%
growth).

According to the National Statistical Service, 54.9kg of jewelry
was produced during the reporting period against 77.1kg in 2010. The
slump in the industry was 28.8% in January-February 2011 compared to
the same period in 2010.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FORCE KARABAKH TO RENOUNCE INDEPENDENCE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 5, 2011 – 16:33 AMT 11:33 GMT

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated that it is impossible to
force Nagorno Karabakh to renounce independence.

“The people of Nagorno Karabakh, who have exercised their right to
self-determination since the collapse of the Soviet Union, cannot have
future as part of Azerbaijan. They have protected their fatherland in
the cruel war unleashed against them, and it is impossible to force
Karabakh to renounce independence,” Sargsyan told a press conference
during his visit to Serbia.

Sargsyan and his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic agreed that there
is no alternative to a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict,
while threats and use of force are unacceptable.

According to Sargsyan, the Serbian President has displayed the same
approach towards Kosovo, saying that Serbia will never recognize
Kosovo but will refrain from hostilities.

From: A. Papazian

SECRET ORGANIZATION WAS TASKED TO COMBAT ‘ARMENIAN SEPARATISM’

asbarez
Monday, April 4th, 2011

ISTANBUL–A clandestine intelligence organization operating within
Turkey’s police structure reportedly was assigned to combat “Armenian
separatism,” according to cables release by Wikileaks, reported the
whistleblower Web site’s Turkish partner, Taraf on Monday.

The cable, titled “A rare look at Turkish Military Intelligence: Iraq,
PKK worries, paranoia, anti-NATO campaign,” was dispatched on Dec. 21,
2004, by Robert Deutsch, then-defense attaché at the US Embassy in
Ankara, reported the Hurrieyt Daily News, quoting Taraf.

Deutsch spoke to an unnamed Turkish source described as someone “who
has experience on intelligence and security analysis” and “someone who
worked for 12 years at military intelligence and has given lectures at
the police academy in the past.” The source offered a report based on
talks with 40 operatives of the secret organization, known as JÄ°TEM,
as well as fieldwork in southeastern Anatolia.

The state reportedly assigned JÄ°TEM to combat “Armenian separatism”
in Southeast Anatolia, according to the cable. The order surprised
many JÄ°TEM officers, according to the unnamed source speaking to
Deutsch, given that only “a handful of Armenians [were known] to
remain in southeastern Anatolia.”

It was explained, however, that many Armenians changed their names
and hid their identities both willingly and by force during the events
of 1915, meaning that there was a continuing, though hidden, Armenian
presence throughout Southeast Anatolia that was worrying the state.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN BLOGGERS CRITICIZE TASHIR 2011 ARMENIAN MUSIC AWARDS CEREMONY

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 4, 2011 – 19:38 AMT 14:38 GMT

Armenian bloggers criticized Tashir 2011 Armenian Music Awards ceremony
held at Moscow’s State Kremlin Palace on April 3, labeling it as a
“shoddy ceremony” and “complete fiasco.”

It is noteworthy that live broadcasting of the ceremony by Armenia TV
channel was interrupted, since host of the ceremony Garik Martirosyan
decided to tell a joke, in which Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
was mentioned.

Armenia TV channel interrupted the ceremony in the middle of the joke
and started broadcasting a piece of television series, what has caused
indignation of audience.

Besides, bloggers strictly criticized the “benevolence” of President of
Tashir group of companies Samvel Karapetyan, who presented Armenian and
foreign singers, artists, showmen and socialites with apartments in
Moscow and Yerevan. Specifically, the fact that Russia’s “It girl”
Kseniya Sobchak was presented with an apartment in Yerevan was
considered by bloggers to be unacceptable.

From: A. Papazian

ALMOST ALL MUSEUMS IN YEREVAN LACK FUNDS AND ATTENTION
Sona Khachatryan

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 3, 2011

Local residents almost ceased going to museums, with exception for
schoolchildren and students.

There are over 30 museums in Yerevan, most of them being under
guardianship of the Armenian Ministry of Culture and National Academy
of Sciences and almost all of them lacking funds and attention. Low
salaries force employees quit.

The oldest museum of Yerevan is the Museum of History founded in 1919.

The museum features 400.000 exhibits, 45% of them being coins; 35%
are archeological artifacts as well as maps, household items, etc. A
separate hall dedicated to the history of Urartu opened in 2011. Like
in the soviet times, the museum presents its displays at various
international exhibitions. The biggest collection was conveyed to
Paris in 2007, in the framework of the Year of Armenia in France.

However, it’s painful that the museum doesn’t enjoy popularity among
the Armenian population. 34.126 people visited it throughout 2010,
majority of them to gaze at the oldest shoe that was found in Areni
cave. 5832 of them were schoolchildren. The number of foreign visitors
totaled 7595, what evidences of poor awareness of tourists about
the local museums. According deputy director of the museum Ivetta
Lazarian, it is explained by absence of cooperation between the
museum and travel agents, lack of booklets and ads in the airports.

The Museum Institute of the Ancient Manuscripts, Matenadaran, is
more lucky. It features about 17.300 manuscripts, of which 2904 are
in foreign languages (Russian, Assyrian, Georgian, Arabic and even
Ethiopic) and the rest are Armenian. At that, almost all of them
are original. There are also plenty of books on history, geography,
medicine, law and music. According to statistical data, about 55.300
people visited Matenadaran last year.

“Matenadaran is extremely popular among tourists. Each year, we
see queues of tourists from April to November, that is why we asked
Armenian schools to organize excursions during the other months,”
the museum deputy director said.

A new building under construction is expected to host laboratories,
restoration school and a center while the old building will have
exhibition halls only. The opening is scheduled for September 21,
Armenia’s Independence Day.

Both museums are operating under the auspices of the government,
which annually allocates funds to cover the expenditures. Besides,
the museums get profit from the sale of tickets, which cost from AMD
500 to 1000 ($1.3 -$2.5). A souvenir shop at Matenadaran sells balsams
and ointments prepared by recipes inscribed on the ancient manuscripts.

Thanks to this, the museum is able to organize temporary exhibitions,
various events and publish catalogues and scientific works.

On the whole, museum employees are displeased with the number of
visitors. Local residents almost ceased going to museums, with
exception for schoolchildren and students. Adults allege being busy
or complain about the high price for tickets. However, almost all of
Yerevan museums work at weekends. As to prices… each museum offers
free entry one day per week.

From: A. Papazian