Author: Andres-Papazian

SARGSYAN HOPES RF MEDIATION ON KARABAKH YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS

ITAR-TASS
Nov 17 2010
Russia

MOSCOW, November 17 (Itar-Tass) — Armenia is grateful to Russia for
its mediatory efforts towards the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem and hopes that that they will soon be concluded with positive
results, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at the meeting with
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin.

“I would like to thank you for your efforts. Russia has always played
an important role in the Caucasus. I hope your efforts will soon be
concluded with positive results,” Sargsyan said.

“We also want this very much,” Medvedev answered.

Sargsyan assured the Russian president that “Armenia is striving for
peace and stability in the Caucasus, and this precisely is the reason
for its efforts in the quest for a peaceful and lasting solution of
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.”

Regarding bilateral relations, the presidents agreed that they have
a privileged character, which applies also to contacts of the leaders
of the two states.

Medvedev pointed out that he meets very often with his Armenian
counterpart, so that they have an opportunity to “synchronize
watches on bilateral questions, on regional problems, to talk on the
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and outline guides for the future.”

Sargsyan recalled that a number of important arrangements had been made
during Medvedev’s state visit in August. “We have then agreed to meet
in late autumn to sum up the implementation of these arrangements,”
Sargsyan said.

From: A. Papazian

UNESCO DECLARES KHACHKARS PART OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

news.am
Nov 18 2010
Armenia

On November 17, UNESCO declared Armenian khachkars (cross-stones)
part of its Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The decision was made at today’s session of the Intergovernmental
Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,
Armenian Culture Ministry press service informed NEWS.am.

Armenia’s nomination titled “Armenian cross-stones art. Symbolism
and craftsmanship of Khachkars” presented history of the Armenian
khachkars, their essence and modern developments.

Interestingly, in the course of the meeting, Azerbaijan’s
representative demanded that the title of the Armenian application
should be changed. He claimed that art of cross-stones belonged not
only to Armenians but also Caucasian Albanians, alleged predecessors
of Azerbaijanis. He also called Armenia an occupant and accused it
of distorting historical facts. On the initiative of the Azerbaijani
government UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova received 143 letters
calling not to approve nomination presented by Armenia. However,
after long and heated debates, intergovernmental committee ignored
Azerbaijani claims an approved Armenian nomination (Armenian
cross-stones art. Symbolism and craftsmanship of Khachkars).

From: A. Papazian

ARONIAN LEADS BY 1 1/2 POINTS IN WORLD BLITZ

Chessbase News
Nov 17 2010
Germany

Levon Aronian started the second day with a loss and a draw. After
that came seven wins, two draws and a loss, to put him way ahead on
the scoresheet. But two losses in the final rounds, one against his
closest rival Magnus Carlsen, brought the Armenian uberflieger crashing
down to earth – still a point and a half ahead of the field! You can
watch the action in five hours of streaming video.

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The World Blitz Championship is being held from 16 to 18 November
at the GUM Department Store on Red Square in Moscow. It is a double
round robin with twenty players, eight of whom are participants of
the Tal Memorial, with others who qualified from the 2010 Aeroflot
tournament and seeded players. Starting time is 15:00h local (=
13:00h CET; 07:00 a.m. NY), the rate of play three minutes for all
the moves plus a two second increment per move. There is live game
coverage and video on the official site.

Second day: Aronian takes the lead Levon Aronian, Armenian uberflieger
[from the German “Uberflieger”, high-flyer, as in zugzwang, zeitnot and
schadenfreude], started the second day with a loss to Vladimir Kramnik,
and then a draw to Maxim Vachier-Lagrave. After that came seven wins,
two draws and a loss, to put him way ahead on the scoresheet. But two
losses in the final rounds, against his closest rival Magnus Carlsen
and against Rauf Mamedov brought Levon crashing down to earth –
still a point and a half ahead of the field!

Magnus Carlsen started with a win (against Mamedyarov) and then two
losses (to Savchenko and Eljanov) and had just 3½ points from the
first nine games of the day. After that he picked up three wins –
against Aronian and the two rival “kids” Vachier and Caruana – to
finish in second place with 17/28 points. That’s a full point ahead
of the rest of the field. In his chess blog Magnus wrote: “My head
more or less went on strike today. A head functioning at half speed
doesn’t work too well in a blitz tournament. Oddly several of the other
players with plus scores from day one seemed to play below par as well,
and I managed to stay in contention for tournament victory despite
a poor 7/14 and 50% score. Looking forward to an exiting finish.”

Teimour Radjabov started with two wins, against Eljanov and Grischuk,
and scored a total of eight points from 14 games, which included
a 20th round black win against Aronian and a 27th round win over
Kramnik. He shared equal 3-5 with 16.0/28 points.

Ian Nepomniachtchi, just twenty years old, started with two wins,
beat amongst others Kramnik, Svidler, Mamedyarov and scored 8½/14
ton land on the 3-5th berth.

Vladimir Kramnik started with two wins, against Aronian and Mamedov
and had 4½ out of the first five games. Then came two losses (to
Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura) and later on three more to Karjakin,
Svidler and Radjabov. But a final round win against Mamedyarov kept
him within striking distance of the leaders.

Hikaru Nakamura, the secret favourite with a disappointing start
yesterday, scored one point in the first three games, but then found
his pace and took full points from Magnus Carlsen (sweet revenge
for the round one game), Kramnik, Mamedyarov and Eljanov to climb to
place six on the table.

Boris Gelfand started with an incredible 1.0 points from the first
seven games on day two, but then won an even more incredible 6½ from
the next seven. Did anyone spot what he took or did after the first
half of play?

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was doing okay, keeping an eye on the leaders
with 4½ points in the first eight games, but then suffered a premium
train wreck with six consecutive losses to descend from place three
to place eight. Wonder what he did after round 22…

View standings at

From: A. Papazian

KREMLIN: MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN

Kremlin.ru
Nov 17 2010

The presidents of Russia and Armenia discussed prospects for developing
bilateral relations, the regional agenda, and ways to settle the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

* * *

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr President,

I am very happy to see you. You and I meet frequently and regularly.

We have a privileged level of communication between our leaders and
our nations. We meet at just about every international gathering in
order to discuss current events bilaterally. In addition, you come
to visit us, and recently, I went to Armenia on a major visit. These
are opportunities to touch base in all areas, including bilateral
issues and regional issues. It is, of course, also an opportunity
to discuss settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and set out
a roadmap for the future. And so, welcome!

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA SERZH SARGSYAN: Thank you, Mr President!

I am very happy to be having this meeting. Indeed, these regular
meetings allow us to jointly discuss and coordinate the main issues
in our multifaceted cooperation.

It is my pleasure to note that our strategic partnership is developing
steadily, and political consultations are continuing at all levels.

The documents that were signed during your state visit have given
our relations new momentum. During that meeting, we agreed to meet at
the end of autumn to sum up the results of implementing our agreements.

I would like to once again affirm that Armenia seeks peace and
stability in the Caucasus, and this drives our efforts to find a
peaceful, long-term solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. I would
like to thank you for your efforts; they are very important. Russia
has always played a positive role in the Caucasus, and we very much
hope that your efforts will soon bring positive results.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: We would also very much like that. We will work on it.

From: A. Papazian

MICROSOFT INNOVATION CENTER READY BEFORE END OF 2010

news.am
Nov 18 2010
Armenia

The Microsoft innovation center will be ready before the end of this
year, Grigor Barseghyan, Director of the Microsoft office in Armenia,
told NEWS.am. The center will be operating at the State Architectural
University and occupy an area of 500 sq. meters.

“The center was created in the territory of university to be available
to the students. However, employees of IT companies and independent
experts can participate in the activities of the center as well. It
will be free for everyone,” Barseghyan said. He also noted that new
Microsoft projects, as well as solutions of other leading IT companies
will be presented.

Besides, the center will also perform educational function. “Basics
of successful business development, management, marketing and other
disciplines will be taught. It will contribute to development of the
present companies and creation of new ones,” Director of the Microsoft
office stressed.

The Microsoft innovation center is created as a result of cooperation
of the Armenian government, U.S. Agency for International Development,
Enterprise Incubator Foundation, Microsoft RA. The project is estimated
at $2.5 m.

According to Grigor Barseghyan, the project will be financed for 3
years, later it will pay its way.

Microsoft has over 80 innovation centers in more than 80 countries,
whereas the created center is first in the South Caucasus.

From: A. Papazian

PRIME MINISTER VLADIMIR PUTIN MEETS WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN

premier.gov.ru
Nov 17 2010

Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Sargsyan, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. I know
that you have come here to attend festivities, but I’m happy to have
this opportunity to meet with you and discuss the development of our
relations, above all in the economy.

Russia has long been Armenia’s leading trade and economic partner,
and I will not spend much time talking about our trade. It stands at
a good level. Unfortunately, it declined a bit in 2009 as a result of
the crisis, but it has been recovering rapidly. Even in 2009, Russian
direct investment in Armenia’s economy increased, and currently stands
at about USD 3 billion, USD 2.8 billion to be exact. It means that
in 2009 it increased by USD 500 million. Last summer, in June if I’m
not mistaken, we also issued an additional government loan of USD 500
million to Armenia. We hope that this loan helped and was received in
good time in order to create stability in the social sphere and the
economy. Russia’s largest companies are working actively in Armenia’s
market. And we are thankful to you and the Armenian government for
creating favourable conditions for this work and for this cooperation.

I’m glad to see you here. Welcome!

Serzh Sargsyan: Thank you, Mr Putin. I, too, am glad to have this
chance to meet today. I am pleased to say that the Armenian-Russian
strategic partnership is developing stably. Russia remains Armenia’s
leading trade and economic partner. You correctly noted that our
bilateral trade has risen 12% this year. Last year we received over
500 million in investments. This year we receive investments, too. Our
long-standing economic ties are also reinforced by the projects that
we are currently implementing. I’m referring to the construction of a
new unit at the Metsamorskaya nuclear power plant and the modernisation
and expansion of our railway system. There have been large, long-term
investments in the communications sector. We are developing very well.

I would like to thank you once again for granting us the government
loan. Without this money, we probably would not have been able to
recover this year. And we have been recovering this year. At the same
time, just like Russia, our agriculture has been facing hard times
due to the weather. While our industrial growth is about 10%, we are
experiencing a decline of between 17% and 18% in agriculture. But we
sincerely hope that in cooperation with Russia – seeing as our main
enterprises are either joint ventures with Russia or funded entirely
by Russian capital – we will recover from the crisis. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Sargsyan, while we are also experiencing serious
difficulties in our agricultural industry this year due to the weather,
we have nevertheless responded to the call of our Armenian friends
and delivered 1,000 tonnes of wheat seeds to Armenia this September
so that fields can be sowed in time and yield a good harvest next
year. We are prepared to continue our cooperation in this area.

We are aware of Armenia’s needs and will continue coordinating all
these issuesl.

Serzh Sargsyan: Thank you very much.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIA READY TO ASSIST ARMENIA IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

People’s Daily Online
Nov 18 2010
China

Russia is ready for more cooperation with Armenia, including economic
aid, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said here on Wednesday
during his meeting with visiting Armenian President Serge Sargisyan.

“We know what Armenia needs and will coordinate all the questions,”
Putin was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

The prime minister also recalled that Russia had invested in this
trans-Caucasian republic some 2.8 billion U.S. dollars and opened a
credit of 500 million dollars in 2009, adding that Russia supplied
Armenia with 1,000 tons of seed after Yerevan’s request in 2010.

Putin mentioned that many Russian companies now work in Armenian
market due to favorable conditions that was created by the Armenian
government for them.

Sargisyan appreciated their bilateral ties, adding the trade between
the two countries rose 12 percent this year compared with 2009.

Currently, Russia is building new reactor at the Armenian nuclear
power station and modernizing its railroads.

From: A. Papazian

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE: PELOSI HOPED TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GEOCIDE

Glendale News Press
,0,1353365,full.story
Nov 18 2010
CA

This year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated she would do everything
in her power to bring to a vote the legislation recognizing the
Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915.

But Pelosi’s power is much diminished since the Nov. 2 election
swept Republicans into the majority in the House. On Wednesday, she
became House minority leader. Advocates for the genocide legislation
acknowledge there is work to do if they are to see the controversial
resolution pass.

This week, Armenian National Committee of America Chairman Aram
Hamparian praised Pelosi for having championed the resolution.

“John Boehner has not,” Hamparian said, referring to the Ohio
Republican who will be Speaker of the House when the 112th Congress
convenes in January. “He doesn’t have that same record.”

But Hamparian was quick to say that many Republicans, including likely
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy
(R-Bakersfield), support the resolution.

“We’ve always been fortunate as a community to have friends on both
sides of the aisle,” Hamparian said.

The legislation by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) has stalled because of
opposition from Turkey, whose leaders see the resolution as divisive
and who say its passage would strain U.S. diplomatic relations with
an important regional ally.

On Wednesday, Schiff said support for the measure has been bipartisan,
though it has been much stronger on the Democratic side of the aisle.

He added that he is seeking to lock down more support.

“We will move the resolution forward just as soon as we’re confident
we have the votes,” he said.

If that doesn’t happen during the current lame-duck session, Schiff
said he would reintroduce the resolution in the new Congress.

He said the United States needs to acknowledge the genocide in order
to have the moral authority to act or speak out when other atrocities
occur around the globe. In addition, he said survivors are still
among us.

Time is also of the essence as survivors of the atrocities continue
to grow older, he said.

“There is a sense of urgency about recognition of the genocide in
their lifetime,” Schiff said.

While the resolution is largely symbolic, Hamparian has said it has
implications for the long-term future of Armenia. At a Sept. 16 ANC
banquet in Glendale, Hamparian said the point of the resolution is
not merely to seek the truth for the truth’s sake.

“We are seeking truth for the sake of justice,” he said. “We are
seeking justice for the sake of security.”

Hamparian said his organization also is working on U.S.-Armenia issues
other than the genocide recognition resolution.

One is America’s diplomacy in the region and specifically President
Obama’s nomination of Matthew Bryza to be the U.S. ambassador to
Azerbaijan, an uneasy neighbor of Armenia.

Hamparian said Bryza ~W a deputy assistant secretary of state from
2005 to 2009 who oversaw American oil interests in the Black and
Caspian seas as well as policy in the contested region of Karabakh ~W
is the wrong man for the job. Bryza has ties to Turkey and is accused
by Armenian supporters of being too close to Azerbaijan.

In September, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Robert Menendez
(D- N.J.) blocked Senate confirmation of Bryza’s nomination. The
nomination expires at the end of the year, and Hamparian said he
would like to see Obama tap another candidate for the post in 2011.

“If the president nominated an ambassador that did not have all this
baggage, that would offer a fresh start,” Hamparian said.

Hamparian also said his organization is working with the office of
the U.S. Trade Representative and Treasury Department to gain new
tax and trade treaties with Armenia, paving the way for increased
commerce between the nations.

“Right now, U.S. and Armenia talk about aid,” he said. “There is no
ongoing dialogue on trade, and there needs to be. Today there is $200
million in U.S.-Armenian trade. There is no reason we can’t reach $1
billion in five years.”

Burbank and Glendale: a tally of two cities

Burbank is a little more liberal than Glendale, but not as liberal
as nearby parts of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.

Those are the rough lessons from the Nov. 2 election, according to
preliminary results from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s
office. The results have not yet been certified, though that is
expected by the end of the month.

In the 43rd Assembly District race between Democrat Mike Gatto and
Republican Sunder Ramani, Glendale went for Gatto 59% to 41%, while
Burbank went for Gatto 60% to 40%. Overall, Gatto won 66% to 34%,
which means he found his greatest level of support in Silver Lake
and environs.

Burbank voters favored Proposition 19, the failed marijuana
legalization initiative, by a slim margin, 50.4% to 49.6%. Glendale
voters just said no, 57% to 43%.

In a statewide race that remains undecided, Burbank voters favored
Democratic attorney general candidate Kamala Harris by just 79 votes
out of nearly 25,000 cast. Glendale favored her Republican rival, L.A.

County District Atty. Steve Cooley, 49% to 44%.

One anomaly was the 29th Congressional District race, where Rep. Adam
Schiff (D-Burbank) easily won re-election over GOP rival John Colbert.

Glendale went for Schiff 61% to 36%, Burbank 59% to 37%.

—

The Glendale Democratic Club holds its quarterly meeting at 7 p.m.

today at the Pacific Community Center, 501 S. Pacific Ave. Non-members
are welcome.

From: A. Papazian

SYRIAN CULTURAL GARDEN MORE THAN 80 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer

Plain Dealer
Nov 18 2010
Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — It often takes years, even decades for an ethnic
community to muster the money and the resources to build a cultural
garden in Rockefeller Park. The Syrian-American community may have
set a new example of perseverance.

Masons and landscapers are busily at work on a Syrian Cultural Garden
— 81 years after the community was awarded its garden site.

“That’s probably some kind of record,” said Cleveland State University
historian Mark Tebeau.

11 Share 4 Comments The coming garden, first proposed in 1929,
is notable for more than its timetable. It will become the first
Arab-American garden in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, which represent
the ethnic and cultural groups of Northeast Ohio in a two-mile garden
chain following Doan Brook.

Designers promise pan-Arab features in the finished garden, scheduled
to be dedicated in May.

A Syrian garden is further evidence of what observers call the
“reflowering” of the cultural gardens. The landmark chain is enjoying
renewed interest and investment after decades of inactivity.

In September, the Armenian community dedicated the 26th cultural
garden, raising a distinctive representation of the Armenian alphabet
at the north end of Martin Luther King Drive.

In the last five years, the gardens have welcomed the Indian,
Latvian, Azerbaijan and Serbian communities. The Croatian and Albanian
communities have garden plans in the works.

“We haven’t seen this volume of work and investment since the 1930s,
easily,” said Tebeau, who is researching a book on the cultural
gardens, which were founded in 1926 to promote peace and brotherhood
in an immigrant city.

Tebeau said the revival has been aided by new, less ambitious garden
designs that allow smaller ethnic communities to join the tradition.

Others credit fresh immigrants, rising cultural pride, and the fact
that joining the cultural gardens is still a mark of having made it
in America.

That desire must have existed in the late 1920s, when Syrian immigrants
hailed from a Greater Syria, which included today’s Lebanon.

No one is sure why the Syrian garden was never built, but the idea
was resurrected in 2004. Leaders of AACCESS Ohio, an Arab-American
social service agency, discovered the garden plot while researching
Arab immigration to the area. They organized youth to clear the site of
litter and debris and began building interest in the Syrian community,
which numbers a few thousand people in Northeast Ohio.

Eventually, some of the community’s leading professionals took up
the crusade, forming committees for fundraising and planning.

Four of the garden leaders were in Rockefeller Park Saturday morning,
consulting with the contractor and surveying the vision taking shape
beneath a shady hillside on MLK Drive just north of Superior Avenue.

“It’s just going to be beautiful,” said Dr. Adnan Mourany, the chief
of surgery at St. John Medical Center and the president of the Syrian
garden committee.

He and his fellow gardeners — Jamil Dayeh, Dr. Wael Khoury and
Bassam Khawam — said they expect the garden to be as illuminating
to Arab-Americans as it is to the larger community as it reflects
Syrian history and culture.

For the design, they reached to the Middle East and held a contest
among architecture students at the University of Damascus. Dayeh,
a Westlake engineer from Syria, blended the top student proposals
and shaped a $250,000 project.

Islamic, Christian and Roman designs course through a garden whose
elements span Syrian history — no small feat.

“We have one of the oldest histories in the world,” Dayeh noted.

Entering the garden from the stone stairs descending from East
Boulevard, visitors will walk through Syrian arches into a Roman-style
amphitheater reminiscent of the ancient amphitheater of Basra. An
Arabic-style fountain will bubble in the middle. Plantings will
include Damascus roses and cedars of Lebanon.

>>From MLK, passing motorists will see water and stonework illuminated
at night.

The gardeners envision a place for concerts, weddings, education —
and celebration.

The region’s early Syrian-Americans possessed the pluck and pride
to pitch a cultural garden. Eight decades later, a new immigrant
generation is willing and able to finish the job.

Learn more about the project at

From: A. Papazian

UNRECORDED METEORITE CRATER FOUND ON MOUNT ARARAT?

MIT Technology Review

Nov 18 2010

The discovery of an unrecorded crater raises the possibility that
the biblical mountain was struck by a meteorite, say physicists

kfc 11/18/2010

Mount Ararat is an ancient, isolated volcano in eastern Turkey near the
borders with Iran and Armenia. According to the Bible, the mountain
is the final resting place of Noah’s Ark. Many an expedition has
tried and failed to find the Ark’s remains.

The northern and western slopes of the mountain are closed to public
so how two physicists gained access is anybody’s guess. However, today
Vahe Gurzadyan from the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia and Sverre
Aarseth from the University of Cambridge in the UK, publish an account
of a remarkable discovery they made while walking in the region.

At an altitude of 2100 metre, at coordinates 39Ë~Z 47′ 30″N, 44Ë~Z 14′
40″E, they found a well-preserved and previously unrecorded crater
some 70 metres across. (Google Earth is of little use. The resolution
of the imagery at this location is poor.) That’s a decent size for a
crater that has gone unnoticed for so long (although new craters of
this kind of size do turn up from time to time.)

The question of course is how this crater was formed. One possibility
is that the crater is volcanic. But Gurzadyan and Aarseth raise
another: that it is the result of a meteorite impact. They rule out
a glacial origin on the grounds that 2100 metres is well below the
glacier line.

Gurzadyan and Aarseth publish their account with the intention of
attracting interest so that the crater can be properly classified.

New craters are important because they help determine how heavily
the Earth has been bombarded in the past. And while small craters are
far more numerous than big ones on other bodies in the Solar System,
the opposite is true on Earth because small ones tend to be eroded
away more quickly.

Interestingly, the crater wasn’t their only discovery during their
trip. Because the region is closed, it is virtually unexplored.

Gurzadyan and Aarseth say they also stumbled across the remains of
a 5th or 6th century Armenian basilica that is unknown to experts.

Sounds like an adventure in the making for anybody with the time and
inclination to go. (And with the necessary permits, of course.)

From: A. Papazian