Author: Babajanian Karo

VIVACELL-MTS AND SYNOPSYS ARMENIA CONTINUE SUCCESSFUL COOPERATION WITH EUROPEAN REGIONAL ACADEMY

YEREVAN, September 11. / ARKA /. VivaCell-MTS and the European Regional
Academy (ERA) announced today the opening of the new 4th educational
lab at ERA, in frames of the joint educational program of Synopsys
Armenia, VivaCell-MTS and ERA.

Three years ago the parties took the first steps in order to
implement what was envisioned under the trilateral agreement on the
establishment of joint educational program aimed at preparation of
ICT specialists. In the past four years, VivaCell-MTS invested 108.8
million AMD in total for the establishment of four educational labs.

Synopsys Armenia granted comprehensive educational packages of
Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. In frames of the project
Synopsys also provided educational resources such as customized
curricula, educational design kits (EDKs) and interoperable design
kits (iPDKs) for 90-nanometer (nm) and 32/28-nm technologies. These
kits enable state-of-the-art IC design in an educational environment.

“VivaCell-MTS looks at the future with the eyes of the young
generation. We see what our youngsters expect and we help them reach
their goals. Education is the main and proper tool for a fruitful
sustainable growth, and we have consistently and continuously backed
up all forms of educations and relevant programs and we will keep on
doing so. The healthier our education is the brighter our future will
be,” noted VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian.

Using a successful and proven educational model of cooperation,
the program makes it possible to provide Armenia’s labor market
with industry-ready graduates, who have the required knowledge and
practical skills to quickly become productive in the industry.

According to the educational model by Synopsys Armenia, after acquiring
a basic education in the 2nd year of Bachelor program, top-performing
students are selected to participate in the program.

The selection of students is made by leading Synopsys and VivaCell-MTS
technical experts and first-rate professors of the Academy. This
is the second year that bachelor students with specialization
in “Micro-Electronic Circuitry and Systems of the Communication
Facilities” graduate from the ERA. The best undergraduate students
now have an opportunity to continue their education pursuing master’s
degree.

“This program is a successful example of a trilateral cooperation for
the preparation of professionals with state of the art knowledge and
skills in Information Technologies and Telecommunications’ sphere”,
Synopsys Armenia director Hovik Musayelyan said. “The availability
of high quality and up-to-date professionals is one of the main
prerequisites for the development of the ICT in Armenia.”

“The cooperation between Synopsys and ERA is developing and enlarging
continuously”, said Vazgen Melikyan, an honorable scientist of RA,
the director of the Synopsys Armenia Educational Department and
head of ERA’s Microelectronic Circuits and Systems of Communication
Facilities Chair. “To keep the program up to date, we constantly adjust
the curriculum and infrastructures to address current industry needs
and requirements.”

“The unique initiative which is the result of University – business
cooperation gives an incredible opportunity to the students of ERA to
improve their professional knowledge, to earn practical skills during
the years of study, become competitive in the constantly changing
sphere of Microelectronic circuits and systems of Telecommunications”,
– says Arman Avagyan, the ERA rector.

Owing to VivaCell-MTS financial support, the laboratory premise will
be adapted to educational needs and standards and will be equipped
with computers. VivaCell-MTS financial support will also cover the
salaries and other remuneration of instructors. -0-

GAGIK TSARUKYAN WORKING TO ESTABLISH ARMENIA-CHINA ECONOMIC TIES

14:23, 05.09.2014

Prosperous Armenia leader said he is ready to be a guarantor for
Chinese investments in Armenia.

During his meetings in China, Gagik Tsarukyan said he is ready to
become a guarantor for Chinese partners to make investments in any
areas in Armenia.

He is ready to do his best to make Armenia attractive for foreign
investors, Tsarukyan said at a meeting with Chinese businessmen.

For their part, Chinese entrepreneurs said they are interested in
Armenia and are ready to present precise projects and initiatives in
the near future.

Tsarukyan informed about his plans to hold Armenia-China economic
forum during which Chinese businessmen will have a chance to get
familiarized with Armenia’s business environment and get answers to
their questions on the ground.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

OSCE MINSK GROUP TO TALK OVER ARMENIA’S WITHDRAWAL FROM AZERBAIJANI LANDS

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 10 2014

10 September 2014, 15:10 (GMT+05:00)

By Sabina Ahmadova – Trend:

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs will visit Azerbaijan next week and the
withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories
will be the main topic of discussions, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov said on Sept.10.

He made the remarks during the joint press conference with Serbia’s
First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic in Baku.

French President Francois Hollande has put forward a proposal to
arrange a meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents.

Currently, the date and program of the meeting are being fixed,
according to the minister.

Mammadyarov emphasized the need to start discussions on the peace
agreement to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
and pointed out the necessity of withdrawal of Armenian armed forces
from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.

He went on to add that it is expected to hold meetings with Minsk
Group co-chairs, as well as with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian during the UN General Assembly session in New York.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a
result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

JORDAN’S AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

Petra News Agency- Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Sept 10 2014

Amman, Sept.10 (Petra) — Jordan’s Ambassador to Armenia, Mohammed
Balker, yesterday presented his credentials to the President of
the Republic Armenia of Serzh Sargsyan as a non-resident accredited
ambassador to Armenia.

The ambassador conveyed the greetings and good wishes of His Majesty
King Abdullah II to president Sargsyan and the people of Armenia
as well as the King’s keenness to cement bilateral relations in
all fields.

Sargayan also asked the newly appointed ambassador to convey his
greetings to King Abdullah and his appreciation of pivotal role played
by the King to enhance stability in the Middle East.

//Petra//MF 10/9/2014 – 03:59:03 PM

THIS DAY IN JEWISH HISTORY / POET WHO WROTE ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS BORN

September 10, 2014

HAARETZ – September 10, 1890 is the birthdate of Franz Werfel,
the Prague-born Jewish poet, dramatist and novelist, whose most
acclaimed work, the 1933 “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” about the
Armenian genocide, was widely read as a warning about the Nazi rise
to power and the murderous threat it posed to the Jews.

Franz Werfel was the first of three children of Rudolf Werfel and the
former Albine Kussi. Rudolf owned a successful glove manufacturing
firm in the Bohemian capital. Franz was largely raised by a Catholic
governess called Barbara, who took him to visit both church and
synagogue. Franz developed an early affinity to Catholicism, setting
up his own altar at home while still a child, and in general was
fascinated by the religious experience.

Werfel attended a school run by the ecumenically minded Catholic
Piarist order, where a rabbi was invited in to give Jewish boys
instruction for their bar mitzvah. That was followed by gymnasium in
Prague, during which time he already befriended Franz Kafka and Max
Brod, hanging out with them and other German-language writers at the
Arco Cafe.

In 1911, at age 21, Werfel published his first book, a poetry
collection called “Weltfreund” (The World Lover), which included such
open-hearted lines as “My only wish is to be related to you, O Man!”

That same year, he began his period of obligatory service in the
Austro-Hungarian army.

After the army, Werfel moved to Leipzig, where he began working as an
editor of avant-garde literature for the German publisher Kurt Wolff.

He now became acquainted with such writers as Martin Buber, Else
Lasker-Schuller and Rainer-Maria Rilke, and was involved in organizing
pacifist activities.

Pacifist or not, Werfel was called up to service in World War I, and
was sent to the Russian front as a telephone operator, which left
him with ample time for writing. In 1917, the army transferred him
to its press bureau, recalling him to Vienna.

‘Bow-legged Jew with bulging lips’

It was in 1918 that Werfel met Alma Mahler, the femme-fatale widow of
composer Gustav Mahler and former lover of painter Oskar Kokoschka. At
the time she was married to architect Walter Gropius, who was off in
the war.

Mahler, who was 11 years Werfel’s senior, was quite openly
anti-Semitic, referring to him as a “fat, bow-legged Jew with bulging
lips,” but she was also in love with him, and their relationship
continued for the rest of Werfel’s life.

When Mahler became pregnant with Werfel’s child, Gropius granted her
a divorce. She had the baby but it died within a year of birth, due to
Werfel’s “degenerate seed,” as Mahler had it. She refused to marry him
until 1929, and then only after he had appeared before a state clerk
and “resigned” from the Jewish community, though he never converted.

Werfel was introduced to the Armenian saga by a chance meeting in
Damascus, and the result was a best-selling novel about the Turks’
1915 campaign against the Armenians. He described the book to audiences
as telling how “one of the oldest and most venerable peoples of the
world has been destroyed, murdered, almost exterminated … by their
own countrymen.”

Not surprisingly, “The Forty Days” was one of the first books consigned
to the bonfires by the Nazis, and Werfel’s application to join the
Third Reich’s Organization of German Authors was rejected.

Werfel and Mahler fled Austria after the Anschluss, in 1938, and after
being given shelter briefly at the Catholic Sanctuary in Lourdes,
they were smuggled out of Europe with other writers by the American
journalist-rescuer Varian Fry.

Resettled in Southern California, Werfel made good on a promise to
write about St. Bernadette of Lourdes if he escaped from Europe alive,
producing the novel “The Song of Bernadette” in 1941, which was remade
as a hit film two years later.

Werfel’s last years were taken up with writing a number of works
dealing with religion, in particular the tension that existed until
his death between his Jewish background and his spiritual affinity for
Catholicism. Much to the frustration of his wife, he never did convert.

Franz Werfel died on August 26, 1945, at the age of 54. Alma Mahler
passed away in 1964.

HAARETZ

APA, Azerbaijan
Sept 6 2014

ICRC employees meet with Azerbaijani citizens taken hostage by Armenians

[ 06 September 2014 19:52 ]

Baku – APA. Employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross
have visited Azerbaijani citizens taken hostage by Armenians on the
frontline, Ilaha Huseynova, head of the public relations department of
the ICRC Baku Office, told APA.

According to him, an information has been delivered from him to his family.

Quoting “press service of the Defense Ministry” of the “so-called
Nagorno Karabakh republic”, Armenian press released information that
Azerbaijani citizen Javid Mammadov was taken hostage by Armenian
soldiers in the Verin Chayli direction.

Russian citizen Dilgam Asgarov and Azerbaijani citizen Shahbaz Guliyev
were taken hostage in Kalbajar and the other Azerbaijani citizen Hasan
Hasanov was killed by the Armenian soldiers.

Hasanov was buried in Nagorno Karabakh.

APA, Azerbaijan
Sept 6 2014

ICRC confirms hostage-taking of Azerbaijani citizen by Armenians

[ 06 September 2014 16:03 ]

Baku. Ramiz Mikayiloglu – APA. The International Committee of the Red
Cross has confirmed hostage-taking of an Azerbaijani citizen by
Armenians on the frontline, Ilaha Huseynova, head of the public
relations department of the ICRC Baku Office, told APA.

According to her, ICRC Nagoro Karabakh office has been informed about
hostage-taking of Azerbaijani citizen. She noted that the ICRC will
meet with that citizen in accordance with its mandate.

Quoting “press service of the Defense Ministry” of the “so-called
Nagorno Karabakh republic”, Armenian press released information that
Azerbaijani citizen Javid Mammadov was taken hostage by Armenian
soldiers in the Ashagi Chayli direction.

Armenians also stated that they informed the International Committee
of the Red Cross about it.

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Sept 7 2014

Armenian church on Akdamar Island hosts fifth service

VAN

The fifth annual Divine Liturgy on the Akdamar Island’s famous
10th-century church was held on Sept. 7, with the participation of
Christians from Turkey and around the world.

The church was reopened to occasional prayers in 2010 after a hiatus
of nearly 100 years.

Turkish authorities restored the church on Lake Van between 2005 and
2007 before opening it as a museum. The Divine Liturgy was celebrated
there for the first time in 95 years in 2010.

The Divine Liturgy was held at the historic Surp Haç (Holy Cross)
Church with the acting head of the Armenian Patriarchate in Turkey,
Aram Ateþyan.

This year, Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew and the spiritual leader
of Turkey’s Syriac community, Yusuf Çetin, also participated in the
service for the first time.

Ateþyan said this year they prayed for those who lost their lives in
wars, especially in the Middle East.

“Our message is about peace in the country and in the world,” he said.
“We pray for the salvation of the souls of those who lost their lives
in the wars in Syria, Iraq and Gaza. We will beg to God for people
living together, regardless of religion, race or sects. Unfortunately
people are being killed in the name of religions and sects. I think
that does not suit well to any of the religions,” he added.

Gevaþ Mayor Sinan Hakan hosted a “Peace Lunch” in the center of the
district after the service.

“Gevaþ is a significant center for Christianity and Islam. As locals
of Gevaþ, we want our guests to feel at home while they are here as
part of the ceremony. They are not strangers to us. There was a
tradition of living together with them for thousands of years. We want
to revitalize that here on the day,” said Hakan.

September/07/2014

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Sept 8 2014

Search for causes of USSR disintegration in Karabakh -1

8 September 2014 – 12:33pm

By Peter Lyukimson, Israel, Kuryer N28-32, June 1992

The feature story “Nagorno-Karabakh: chronicles of a conflict. Notes
of a Jew from Baku” was written in 1992, soon after the author moved
to Israel. It was published in a Russian-language newspaper in Israel
called Kuryer. Those were the times when the tone in the cultural and
the public life of the Russian-speaking community of Israel was set by
the Moscow and Saint Petersburg clerisy. It had a big impact on the
attitude of Israeli society towards the events on the territory of the
former USSR. They sympathized with Armenia in its conflict with
Azerbaijan. As it turned out, most Israelis knew nothing about the
origin of the conflict or the truth about its development. The
position of the Jewish clerisy in the issue was formed based only on
publications in the central Soviet and partly in the Western press,
which were not always impartial. To be precise, most of them were made
from explicit lies and misinformation, some on semi-truths that are
sometimes even worse than obvious lies, because they gain trust.

It all inspired me to write “Notes of a Jew from Baku.” Of course, I
was not an ordinary “Jew from Baku.” It just so happened that my
career as a journalist coincided with the conflict around
Nagorno-Karabakh, I was involuntarily in the center of events, spent a
lot of time moving, meeting refugees, inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh
and so on. All the impressions of the four years (1988-1991) were
reflected in the story. Certainly, I did not know that much then, I
could not know. In over two decades, there were certainly many
documents declassified, many new testimonies appeared, many events
happened, so it cannot be considered a full and absolutely impartial
chronical of the conflict, I do not insist that myself.

As I discovered, the feature story was published by an Azerbaijani
paper the same year, then a brochure was published, it can be found in
the catalogue of the Central Library of Azerbaijan. I hope to get hold
of it someday…

For every Azerbaijani, Karabakh today is the same as Jerusalem for
Jews, the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius and Yasnaya Polyana for
Russians, Versailles and the Bois de Boulogne for the French…

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians had a happy life on the territory
of all Azerbaijan; newspapers and books in the Armenian language were
published, Armenian schools were open in Karabakh, Baku, Khanlar and
other districts of the republic with at least a small Armenian
population; an Armenian section existed in any large library of
Azerbaijan… Regarding the economy of the NKAO, the rate of its
development was ahead of the average in the republic, consequently,
the NKAO turned into a rich region. All the authorities were solely
Armenians, Armenians were chairing village councils even in
Azerbaijani villages of the NKAO. There could be no discrimination
against the Armenian population in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani population faced overt pressure from authorities of
the autonomous region… Every year, thousands of families of
Azerbaijanis were moving from the NKAO to other districts of the
republic. By 1985, 123,000 Armenians and 37,000 Azerbaijanis were
living in the region; when the Karabakh Khanate joined Russia, the
region had only 90,000 inhabitants, 4,331 of them Armenians. The same
year (1985), Armenians removed the inscription 150 from the memorial
built in Mardakert for the 150th anniversary of the settlement of
Armenians in Karabakh.

It is Karabakh where the origins of the separatism that eroded the
“unbreakable union” hide. The strikes in Karabakh became the beginning
of the economic crisis the former Union is in, they were declared
right in that period when the first, careful economic reforms produced
the first results – in 1987, the fall in the rate of growth of
national income was halted for the first time in 1.5 years.

The events started with the decision made at another Armenian National
Congress in Paris held in 1987 to use the democratic reforms in the
USSR to fulfil “the fair demands of the Armenian people” for “reunion”
of the NKAO with Armenia. The same year, in Paris, Gorbachev’s
economic advisor Abel Aganbegyan met officials of the Armenian
diaspora in France, after which he was in a hurry for an interview
with French newspapers, in which he said that Karabakh, located in the
north-east of the republic, had become Armenian. Abel Aganbegyan said:
“As an economist, I believe that it is connected closer with Armenia
than Azerbaijan. I made a proposal for it. I hope that the problem
will find a solution in the context of Perestroika and democracy.” At
the same time, the Armenian and the All-Union press started publishing
articles by Armenian publicists with a message that the Azerbaijanis
were alien people of the Trans-Caucasus without historical origins or
their own culture and all the territory had been Armenian from the
very beginning. Some of the authors were even trying to declare
Azerbaijan’s greatest poet Nizami Ganjavi to be an Armenian.

The peak of anti-Azerbaijani “hysteria” was achieved in 1987 after
publication of Armenian poet Silva Kaputikyan’s poem “Friendship of
Peoples,” urging readers to repeat the path of “glorious Andranik” and
move through Azerbaijani villages with a “Berdan rifle and winding
sheet.”

Soon after, many copies of Zori Balayan’s “Hearth” were published,
depicting Karabakh as the “hearth” of the Armenian nation. The book
criticizes the Azerbaijanis for… breeding too fast, so it was
recommended to sterilize Azerbaijani women as a preventive measure.

Azerbaijan figured that it should respond. Dozens of historians and
literature critics – from skilled to amateurs – wrote reviews of the
book but the Azerbaijani authorities prohibited publishing anything on
the topic, under the pretext that such publications can cause “a
divide between the brotherly Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples…”

And there, in Stepanakert, started protests with demands to adjoin the
NKAO to Armenia, backed in Yerevan. The protests consisted of only a
few hundred people but, in just a few days, they grew to tens of
thousands. The demands and slogans in Yerevan and Stepanakert were
surprisingly familiar: it is time to rectify “Stalin’s mistake” and
reunite the people of the NKAO and their “Mother Armenia.” After the
Armenian demonstrations of 1987 going through Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh, Moscow was confused…

To be continued

Foreign Minister visits Tsitsernakaberd – Photos

12:26, 8 September, 2014

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian
Kurz has paid tribute to the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide
in Tsitsernakaberd Memorial. As “Armenpress” reports, Sebastian Kurz
laid flowers and bowed before the Eternal Flame perpetuating the
memory of 15 million innocent victims. He also watered the fir tree
planted in 2010 by former Austrian Foreign Minister Michael
Spindelegger.

The Austrian Foreign Minister also talked and took photo with Austrian
tourists visited Tsitsernakaberd, after which he hurried to the
meeting with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia Edward
Nalbandyan.

(c) 2009 ARMENPRESS.am