Author: Badalian Vardan

MARATHON MAN
By BRIAN LEWIS
New York Post, NY
Sept 3 2004
September 3, 2004 — Sargis Sargsian dropped to his knees and
covered his moist eyes, overcome with a mixture of exhaustion and
emotion. He draped an Armenian flag over his shoulders and celebrated
the second-longest win in U.S. Open history — and the most dramatic
of this summer’s classic.
He had just upset two-time Olympic gold medallist Nicolas Massu 6-7
(8), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in a marathon that lasted five hours and
nine minutes, a tilt that saw the 10th-seeded Chilean lose first his
poise, then the hotly-contested match on Court 11.
“I lost the match and I’m so [peeved] about it,” Massu said. “I can’t
believe they…what happened on the court is too much. It’s too much
for five hours to believe in everything, to fight…to accept that
you lost the match. It’s difficult.”
It was the second-longest match ever at the U.S. Open, behind only
Stefan Edberg’s 6-7, 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 win over Michael Chang that
lasted five hours and 26 minutes in 1992.
Sargsian kept his cool, with his serve getting better and better as the
match went on. Meanwhile, Massu showed precious little sportsmanship or
Olympic spirit with an on-court tantrum. “I was too tired to notice,”
Sargsian said. “My legs were [going to give out], so I was just trying
to hold on.”
After spraying a return shot long, Massu dropped his racquet to the
court and yelled at it, as if it were to blame. He battered the U.S.
Open sign with his racquet and got warnings in the first two sets,
and lost a point, dropping the second set 6-4. In the fourth set, he
argued a call with chair umpire Carlos Ramos. He slammed his racquet
down so hard, it bounced up over his head.
Destroying a racquet is an automatic penalty, so Sargsian was awarded
the first game of the fifth set. Massu appealed to famed Wimbledon ref
Alan Mills — serving as Grand Slam ref — but his backhand deserted
him in the fifth set, and Sargsian went on earn a third-round date
with Paul Henri-Mathieu, who beat Taylor Dent.
“I didn’t lose the match because of that, but it’s hard to believe
this guy didn’t use his head. All the players throw the racquet,”
said Massu, who spent close to an hour after the match griping to
Open officials. “I play for five hours, I fight, and this guy comes
and gives me three warnings.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Coup Trial in African State Mirrors Novel
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
.c The Associated Press
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea (AP) – Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as
“The Dogs of War,” and set it here: A ragtag band of mercenaries,
recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a
mineral-rich, African backwater.
Forsyth – writing during a Cold War stay three decades ago on this
palm-lashed volcanic island capital – rechristened Equatorial Guinea
as “Zangoro” for the thriller, and put his soldiers of fortune in
quest of platinum, not oil.
Despite those broad variations, the basic plot is playing out again
here as a trial unfolds for 19 South Africans, Armenians and others
accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial
Guinea, Africa’s No. 3 oil producer.
Equatorial Guinea insists this time it is fact, not pulp fiction. The
country has been emboldened by the arrest in recent days of Mark
Thatcher in South Africa, and the Zimbabwe conviction of famed
Eton-educated mercenary Simon Mann in connection with the alleged coup
plot. It accuses Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister,
and his London friends of scheming to replace President Teodoro
Obiang’s 25-year-old regime with a puppet government.
Star witness Nick du Toit, a South African arms dealer, appears to be
“an intermediary between the mercenaries and the financiers,”
Attorney General Jose Olo Obono, who is leading the prosecution, told
reporters. Du Toit, who faces the death penalty for his role in the
plot, has cooperated with prosecutors.
For the elites in the novel, a coup has an allure beyond any
run-of-the-mill robbery.
“Knocking off a bank or an armored truck is merely crude. Knocking
off an entire republic has, I feel, a certain style,” Forsyth’s
coup-plotter, Sir James Mason, observes in the fictional version.
Prosecutors say the real coup plot fell apart in March, when security
forces in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, tipped off by South Africa’s
intelligence service, arrested 90 suspected mercenaries as they were
allegedly moving into position to seize power.
So far, prosecutors have built their entire case on the testimony of
du Toit – and skepticism that the Cold War- and apartheid-era veterans
he recruited came to this oil-rich nation for the fishing and
agriculture opportunities, as they claim.
Equatorial Guinea says du Toit was the advance man for Mann, the
plot’s alleged mastermind, and Mann’s alleged British associates –
including Thatcher, financier Eli Calil, and businessman Greg
Wales. Equatorial Guinea reportedly has filed a civil case against
alleged British backers in London, and says it is pursuing its own
international warrants against them.
Other evidence cited by Equatorial Guinea out of court – such as a
note sent out of prison by Mann, allegedly seeking help from Thatcher,
Calil and others – has yet to be introduced at the trial.
Some of the suspects say their confessions were obtained under
torture, which the U.S. State Department and others say is routine
here. One of the original 90 defendants, a German, died in his first
days of custody after what Amnesty International said was torture.
In court on Monday, South African Jose Cardoso testified that he was
physically abused – or “shocked” – and that interrogators invented
his confession. “Is it normal for statements to be taken as you’re
being taken to the torture room, to be tortured, as I was?” Cardoso
said, gesturing with chained hands.
Du Toit’s wife, Belinda, who is attending the trial, also claims he
was tortured. She shows a photo of her husband before he left South
Africa for Equatorial Guinea, looking trim, prosperous and
relaxed. The Nick du Toit testifying in chains is 60 pounds thinner,
his face gaunt, hair and beard shaggy, clothes hanging off him.
President Obiang, whose tiny nation of 500,000 pumps roughly $15
million in oil daily, has engaged European public-relations firms and
lawyers to advise him on the conduct of the trial. The British and
French lawyers, who refuse to be identified, are the ones who
intervened to let journalists watch the proceedings.
Obiang’s government faces deep suspicions over the impartiality of the
eventual verdicts in his country, which the International Bar
Association and others say is essentially an enterprise of Obiang’s
tribe, with a suppressed opposition and no independent radio or press.
Forsyth’s thriller, and its coincidentally overlapping plot, hangs
over the courtroom at times. Obono referred to du Toit as a “dog of
war” not only in the courtroom but in the criminal charges
themselves. In a 1988 coup attempt, mere possession of Forsyth’s book
was enough to net one soldier’s conviction here.
Diplomats and rights groups monitoring the trial daily cite the
suspected torture and shortcomings of the trial, which is being
translated from Spanish – the official language – for the Afrikaners,
Armenians and other foreigners on trial. Local defense lawyers,
compelled by the government to represent the 19, met their clients
only the day before the trial and complain of intimidation.
Du Toit is the only defendant facing the death penalty, and the
government has raised the prospect of a possible presidential pardon
for him. A member of Equatorial Guinea’s security services suggested a
different fate, however, approaching Belinda du Toit in court one day
and drawing a hand across his throat, she said.
In fiction, “The Dogs of War” ends disastrously for the mercenaries,
with their plot collapsed and mercenaries dead. Ultimately, Nick du
Toit believes the real-life end will be different.
“He believes he’s coming home,” his wife said.
08/30/04 13:53 EDT

Boston Globe, MA
Aug 27 2004
American Jews and dual loyalty
By H.D.S. Greenway
CONSERVATIVE WRITERS David Frum and Richard Perle, in their book “An
End To Evil, How To Win The War On Terror,” spend the better part of
four pages confronting the charges that their agenda seems to many
like a “Zionist cabal.” They say that in interviews around the world
this question always comes up — “with beguiling directness” in the
Far East, “with excruciating awkwardness among Germans,” and with
“elegant sinuosity” from the British. Is there among neoconservatives,
many of whom are Jewish, a hidden motivation to make sure that
American foreign policy is good for Israel? The authors find such
suggestions insulting and anti-Semitic. But Tom Powers, in The New
York Review of Books, suggested: Why not admit openly that of course
the fate of Israel is much on their minds? “Anglophiles of yesteryear
did not apologize for arguing that it was in America’s best interest
to come to the aid of Britain in 1940, and Polish Americans did not
worry in silence about the fate of Lech Walesa. Complex loyalties are
a big part of the American style.”
Powers has a point. “Bundles for Britain” drives were big in American
East Coast cities in the early ’40s, while some Irish-Americans —
one remembers Colonel Robert McCormick’s Chicago Tribune — felt just
as strongly that the British did not deserve our bundles. No one
questions that Polish-Americans feel strongly about the old country,
and none complain about Irish-Americans today involving themselves in
the fate of Northern Ireland. Cuban-American passion for what happens
on their island is legendary, and could dramatically affect yet
another presidential election.
Lawrence Lowenthal of the American Jewish Committee told me that for
“decades and decades American Jews have been apprehensive about
charges of dual loyalty. The Pollard case made us very nervous.”
Jonathan Pollard was an American Jew caught spying for Israel and is
now serving a life sentence. “Pollard stepped over the line,”
Lowenthal said, but then so did Americans who ran guns for Irish
Republican Army.
When his family first came to America from Europe, Lowenthal said,
they wanted to put their past behind them. “Good riddance.” But all
that has changed; today’s Americans are no longer ashamed of ethnic
ties. Many Mexican-Americans are insisting on keeping their language
and culture. French-Canadians in the United States who once turned
their back on their French heritage are picking it up again.
Greek-Americans have a strong political lobby, so do Armenians,
although neither is as powerful as the pro-Israel lobby. The
congressional black caucus made its influence felt in sending the
Marines to Haiti in 1994, and black-Americans had a role in the
anti-apartheid cause in South Africa.
Duel citizenship is on the rise. Israel allows anyone Jewish to
become an Israeli. Ireland allows anyone who can prove he has an
Irish grandparent to apply for Irish citizenship, and “we certainly
experienced an enormous increase in applications over the last 10
years or so, ” says Isolde Moylan, the Irish consul in Boston.
In Perle’s case, much has been made of a paper that he and others,
including the Pentagon’s Douglas Feith, wrote some years ago for
Israel’s right-wing politician, Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for a
“New Strategy For Securing The Realm.” Their advice included getting
the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein as well as other moves
in the Middle East to increase Israel’s strategic position. But
Americans have written constitutions for foreign countries, soldiered
in foreign armies, and even served in foreign governments. Americans
who identify with a foreign country are not, and should not, be held
suspect. There is nothing un-American about wanting to link this
country’s foreign policy to that of Israel. Nor is it anti-Semitic to
disagree.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Lantos Champions Indies

Featured Player

Variety
July 19-25, 2004
Pg. 16
Film / International

By Cathy Dunkley

HOLLYWOOD – Robert Lantos is by his own admission an aberration.

One of the last of a dying breed of indie producers, he specializes in
financing projects via long-term relationships with such filmmakers as
Atom Egoyan, Istvan Szabo and David Cronenberg.

Moreover, he relishes making films that many would not care to take on –
like Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter” or Szabo’s “Sunshine.”

The downturn in the international presales market and the inherent
difficulty of getting any upscale arthouse pic financed at all have made
his life even more difficult.

But Lantos has managed to roll with the punches. While he can at first
come across as brash and impulsive, he can also be best described as
deeply literate and strategic in his thinking.

He has also used his position as an outsider to his advantage. A
Hungarian Jew by birth and the only son of Holocaust survivors, Lantos
grew up in Canada and broke into films in the 1970s, starting his own
distribution business with college friend Victor Loewy and a couple of
others while he was a student at McGill before becoming a producer.

“I’m not dependent on Hollywood, on one town or one system of financing
or one method of filmmaking. I’m genuinely independent of the rules and
regulations that run the way films get made in Hollywood,” Lantos says.

“But nothing is for free. I think it comes from never having been a
full-blown member of the Hollywood community. I am and always have been
an outsider in terms of relationships with the key players in town. I
know most of them, but we don’t go to each other’s barbecues.”

In recent years Lantos has continued his maverick ways and has had to
break the producer’s cardinal rule by investing his own money in his
projects via his own shingle Serendipity Point.

“I finance my projects through a combination of equity investments,
subsidy incentives and presales, but more often than not through my own
personal investment,” he explains.

That was the case for his newest pic, his latest collaboration with
Egoyan, the most recent in a relationship that spans 13 years.

“Where the Truth Lies” will star Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon and marks
the first time Egoyan has directed a pic not based on his original
script. Pic will start shooting this August in Toronto, L.A. and London.

It was also the case for the Annette Bening / Jeremy Irons starrer
“Being Julia,” which opens the Toronto Film Fest in September.

Falling into place

Unlike most of his pics, “Julia” came together quickly by Lantos
standards. It was only about three years from its inception to the start
of shooting – usually his pics take anything from five to seven years
before they get made.

“I truly have to fall in love with a project to make it. ‘Like’ is not
enough. Take Egoyan’s ‘Ararat.'”

When Lantos was introducing Egoyan, who was being honored at the
Armenian Community Center in Toronto, Lantos pledged in front of the
crowd to back Egoyan if he ever chose to tell the story of his own people.

Lantos battled to find financing for the $11 million “Ararat,” which
focuses on the Armenian genocide. Though both he and distributor Miramax
lost money on the pic, it was a decision he stands by.

“I had no alternative but to stand by the pledge I made that day. My
only concern was let’s make it as good as possible.”

But it’s not all a case of passion vs. business.

When he was still a film student in Montreal, Lantos made his first
foray into the distribution biz with Loewy but then became a producer.

Alliance godfather

After producing his first pic “L’Ange et la femme” at age 26 and “In
Praise of Older Women” at age 27, he co-founded Alliance Communications
in 1985 with Loewy. He remained chairman and CEO until 1998, when he
sold his controlling interest after the company merged with rival
Atlantis to for Alliance Atlantis Communications.

In 2003 he acquired a 50% stake in North American distributor ThinkFilm
after he was freed from a non-compete clause from Alliance and became
chairman.

“I have a fondness for the distribution business, it’s part of my
roots,” he explains. “But I also think there is opportunity in the
marketplace in the U.S. and Canada for nonstudio-owned specialty
distributors. We’re not the only ones who are doing it, but I see the
gap ever widening as the traditional players pay less and less attention
to it.”

Lantos is currently in the process of closing an equity deal for
ThinkFilm to add cash to its coffers.

Looking forward, Lantos says he will spend his time and energy building
ThinkFilm – “it’s part of the five-year plan,” he says – and continuing
to make films.

“As a filmmaker, I’m just going to continue to make one film a year
based on my heart. If my films find and please people and deliver
something of value, that gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”

Photo captions on pg. 16:
– Personal Projects: Lantos has a long relationship with Atom Egoyan,
shown above shooting labor of love “Ararat.”
– Toronto-Bound: Annette Bening stars in “Being Julia,” a Serendipity
Point pic that opens the Canadian fest.

In the Shadow of Moscow
Armenia Rebuilt by its Diaspora
Le Monde diplomatique
January 2004
By Vicken Cheterian
If you had been in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, last summer, you
wouldn’t have been able to visit any museums, since they were shut for
restoration; city streets and pavements were closed while being
rebuilt. Thanks to a generous donation from the US-Armenian
billionaire, Kirk Kerkorian, the city has been given a new look. Since
2001 Ker kor ian, owner of MGM studios in Hollywood and hotels in Las
Vegas, has allocated $170m for roads and housing in this vulnerable
earthquake region. Money has been lent to small businesses and to
provide employment for 20,000 people. The sum is a third of the annual
national budget.
Gerard Cafesjian, another US-Armenian, is spending $25m to renovate
the Cascade, a complex of stairways and workshops linking central
Yerevan with the Monument district, where he plans to build a modern
art museum (1). The diaspora is starting to return to Armenia, and its
activities make a difference. The population of Armenia is 3.8 million
but there are twice that many in the diaspora, with major
concentrations in Russia, the US, Georgia, France, Iran and
Lebanon. After the earthquake of 1988, which killed more than 25,000
and destroyed a third of the industrial potential, the diaspora sent
immediate massive aid. In the past two years investments have replaced
aid, supporting economic activities from software companies to hi-tech
medicine.
Politically, relations between Armenia and its diaspora are
complex. Traditional political parties from the diaspora have
influence in the country, for example the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Tashnaktsoutyun) and the Liberal Democratic party
(Ramgavars), which have branches and media. But there are major
divergences and misunderstandings.
In 1988, at the beginning of the popular movement in Armenia, the
diaspora parties called for calm, in tacit support for the Soviet
authorities. With their traditional fear of their Turkish neighbour,
the Armenian parties thought that the weakening of the Soviet
(Russian) power in Armenia would expose the country to a Turkish
threat.
After the Soviet collapse, Armenians from Marseille, Cairo or Boston
came to Armenia and suffered from culture shock. They wanted to invest
but did not understand the subtleties of Soviet bureaucracy, the new
rules of a wild market economy, or the corruption or rela tivity of
the laws. Many lost their investments within months. The
disappointment was so great that some started talking of taking refuge
elsewhere. To make matters worse, the first president, Levon
Ter-Petrossian, did not appreciate the presence of organised diaspora
organisations in Armenia. In December 1994 a number of Tashnak
activists were arrested, their media closed and party activities
abolished. With Robert Kocharian’s accession in 1999, relations
improved: the activists were released and the Tashnaktsoutyun became a
junior partner in the government. It now has three ministers.
To change things, the Armenian state organised two major conferences
in 1999 and 2002, inviting the diaspora to invest. The current foreign
minister, Vartan Oskanian, born in Syria and US-educated, played a key
role in both (2). A number of organisations actively lobby for the
Armenian cause, increasing the importance of this tiny nation
internationally. The Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian
National Committee of America, two powerful lobby groups in
Washington, are struggling for the recognition of the genocide of 1915
and for a favourable US policy towards Armenia.
Recently Aram Abrahamian, an Armenian-Russian oligarch, launched the
World Organisation of Armenians with the direct blessing of President
Vladimir Putin of Russia. In Yerevan they fear this is another
manoeuvre by the Kremlin to increase its influence, not just on
Armenia, but on worldwide Armenian communities. Other analysts think
that, in this period of Duma elections, Putin is interested in winning
the favours of 2.5 million Russian citizens of Armenian origin (3).
The enormous effort by the diaspora to support Armenia has taken funds
away from its community organisation just as its identity was starting
to change under pressure from new migration trends and in a decade of
globalisation. This has weakened traditional Armenian community
structures, such as the parties, church and schools (4). Though the
overall influence of the diaspora is increasing in Armenia, its impact
on political, social and economic decision-making remains limited.
Vicken Cheterian is a journalist in Yerevan.
NOTES
(1) See
(2) The Armenian foreign ministry and its policy were influenced by
the diaspora. The first foreign minister was US-Armenian Raffi
Hovannesian, son of the famous historian Richard Hovannesian. After
his resignation in 1992, foreign policy was mainly the domain of the
presidential adviser, political scientist Gerard Libaridian, born in
Lebanon and later a US resident.
(3) See Sophie Lambroschini, “Russia: Putin Plays To Armenian
Diaspora, But For What Purpose?” RFE/RL, Prague, 13 October 2003.
(4) There are 390 Armenian schools outside Armenia, according to
ArmenPress, Yerevan, 20 November 2003.

ArmenPress
Aug 16 2004
MAMEDIAOROV TO FOCUS ON KARABAKH CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN MOSCOW
BAKU, AUGUST 16, ARMENPRESS: In an interview to Azeri Zerkalo,
Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mamediarov said before his visit to
Russia that the important issue to be raised there will concern to
the role of Russia as a mediator for Karabakh conflict and a chair of
OSCE Minsk Group. The next group of questions will relate to economic
ties between the two countries. The sides will also refer to Caspian
Sea issues.
According to Mamediarov, Russia plays a decisive role in Karabakh
conflict resolution. Azerbaijan thinks that unless the conflict is
resolved there will be no stability in the region. “Therefore we
think that politically stable and economically strong Caucasus is in
the interests of all countries which have their stake in the region,”
he said. He also said that relations with Armenia are deeper though
Russia has strong economic interests in Azerbaijan. “If Russia were
interested in conflict resolution, peace would be sooner achieved in
the region,” Mamediarov said.
Zerkalo daily asked about recent talks especially at the military
level saying that negotiations are in deadlock and military force
should be used to liberate the lands, to which Mamediarov answered, ”
we are talking at the level of foreign ministry and not ministry of
defense. As a foreign minister I would to that last point insist on
peaceful regulation of the conflict.”

USA Today
Aug 14 2004
Daily Preview of Olympics 2004
Boxing
Light welterweight Rock Allen got a bye into the second round of the
141-pound competition, so the sole American boxer in action on Sunday
will be 152-pound welterweight Vanes Martirosyan, who takes on
Benamar Meskine of Algeria at 7:45 a.m. ET. Just 18, Martirosyan was
born in Armenia and moved to the U.S. when he was 4.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VISA REGIME BETWEEN RUSSIA, ARMENIA SIMPLIFIED
YEREVAN, AUGUST 12. ARMINFO. The RA Government approved draft
amendments to the protocol on visa regime between Armenia and Russia,
which considerably simplified this procedure, Levon Amirjanyan, Head
of the Legal Affairs Department, RA Foreign Office, told a news
briefing.
According to him, this is the Russian side’s initiative. The Russian
side proposed bringing the current agreements to conformity with
international standards and reducing the number of documents necessary
to get a visa.

armeniannow.com
August 13, 2004
Preserving Gyumri: Museums show life during the city’s glory days
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporterIn the center of Gyumri, next to the Museum of National
Architecture and the Mercurov Museum, is the city’s “visit card”.
“Every Gyumretsi brings his visitors to this museum.,” says a guide at
Dzitoghtsonts Tun. This exceptional visit card is also a subject of our
pride.”
>From Gyumri’s glory days . . .
Once home to Gyumri’s richest family, the Dzitoghtsians, the museum is a
look at life from about 1830 to the 1920s, when Gyumri was a Caucasus jewel.
“Dzitoghtsians were Gyumri’s richest family and had a beer factory, springs,
bath-houses,” says 75 year old Axniv Movsesyan, who, like many residents,
knows the museum’s history well.
The family emigrated from the Western Armenia village of Dzitogh and, in
1872 built their home, which shared a yard with the home of Greek sculptor
Sergei Mercurov’s father, Feodor, whose family owned businesses in Baku,
Tbilisi and Western Armenia (modern Turkey).
Following the Mercurovs from Western Armenia, about 40 Greek families
settled in the southern section of Gyumri around 1830.
In 1984, the Mercurov and Dizitoghtsian homes were made museums and part of
the Armenian State and National Museum of Ethnography. This year they
celebrate their 20 th anniversaries.
After the 1988 earthquake that destroyed most of Gyumri, eight families
moved into the museums. But even during that time, exhibitions were held in
the parts of the homes that were not temporary shelter.
“The hearth of a culture had to continue to breath and live,” says the
manager of the Dzitogtsants Tun, Sona Harutuinyan.
In 1997, Dzitogtsants Tun reopened, through the financial support of London
Armenian Vache Manukian. And, last year, US billionaire Kirk Kirkorian’s
Lincy Fund financed renovation of the Mercurov. The Armenian Government also
allocated five million drams (about $1 million).
19th century elegant living
The manager says the museums conform to European standards, after being
renovated of their “communist influence”.
A combined tour of the museums gives visitors a taste of Gyumri when it was
grand (and when it was called Aleksandrapol, named after the wife of Nikolai
I).
The exhibits, about 1900 of them, prove that Gyumri was one of the most
important Caucasus trade and craft centers. There were approximately 100
crafts made in the city and the names of the streets and districts came from
craft names.
Hasmik tells that trade people were divided into 4 groups: Bazazes- who were
dealing with fabric trade, Ardars- with adornment, Alafs- with the
agriculture trade and Dukhances- alcohol trade.
In the museum you also can see the house wares of Gyumri’s middle and upper
classes.
Homes of the rich differed by arches, and Hasmik says that theatrical plays
took place in those home. The place in front of arches provided a background
for various scenes.
With plenty to show of Gyumri’s past, Haroutinyan complains that the many
exhibits are only a small portion of what could be shown in the museums.
Instruments for craft making, for example, are only depicted through
photographs.
“When in 1997 we were reopened, Shirak marzpet Ararat Gomtsian and Minister
of the Culture said to me, that Gyumir doesn’t have a gallery and that it is
necessary to put crafts away and show pictures,” says Haroutuinian.
She describes with pain how different craft instruments and other very
valuable things are locked for 7 years because there’s no proper place for
display. The tools of stone cutters, black smiths, carpet makers, tin
smiths, dress makers – the basic occupations of the period – are not on
display.
Inside Mercurov
“Today we closed such important things for Gyumri history and I am afraid
that when we take them out in the future they will be destroyed,” she says.
Haroutinyan also worries about the heating system in the museum. She says
that 19th century paintings by Aivazovski, Garzoo, Sarian, Minas, Sureniants
are frozen in very cold winters and vice versa in summer.
She says, too, that 30 air conditioners installed during the Lincy
renovation ruined the historical/cultural value of the buildings.
I was against that air conditioners, because we can’t pay so much for
electricity,” Haroutuinyan says. “We need 1 million drams a month for about
six months to heat the building in winter. And 1 million drams is our budget
for the entire year. These air conditioners are something artificial.”

IN AUGUST COMMERCIAL BANKS OF ARMENIA WILL BE ABLE TO ALLOCATE 650
CREDITS UNDER SMALL AND MIDDLE-SIZED BUSINESS MICROCREDITING PROGRAM
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9. ARMINFO. German-Armenian Fund forecasts that in
August of the current year commercial banks of Armenia will be able to
issue 650 credits worth a total of 3.0 mln euro. Senior Banking
Advisor to GAF and the German “Internationale Projekt Consult GmbH”
(IPC) firm Garik Khachatrian told ARMINFO. According to him, during
its activities in Armenia, the GAF has allocated 13,000 credits worth
a total of 80.8 mln euro, out of which 4,500 credits worth a total of
20.4 mln were placed in Jan-July of the current year. 507 credits
worth a total of 3.3 mln euro were issued to borrowers in July of this
year.
By Aug 1, 2004 GAF’s current credit portfolio had included 6,000
credits worth a total of 24.1 mln euro. Credits are distributed as
follows: trade 52.4%, production 26.2%, service sector 12.2%,
agriculture 9% and construction – 0.2%. As regards the number of
credits allocated to individual sectors, the situation is as follows:
trade sector 45.8%, the agriculture 31.7%, industrial sector – 13%,
service sector – 9.4% and construction – 0.1%.
One borrower can receive up to 33 mln drams for a period of up to
three years. Credits are repaid by monthly instalments. The annual
interest rates are 24% and 19% for the trade and production sectors
respectively. However, if a borrower has a good credit history and
applies for re-crediting, the annual interest rates can be reduced to
19% and 15% respectively. At the end of 2003 GAF has given the
partner-banks an opportunity for providing the borrowers with
microcredits by express-credits. At the end of 2003 GAF gave an
opportunity to partner-banks for giving microcredits to borrowers by
express-credits.
The GAF was founded by the Armenian and German Government in 1998
under an agreement on financial cooperation in supporting small and
middle-sized businesses in Armenia. The GAF launched the program in
September 1999. Among the GAF’s partners in the program are the
“Anelik Bank,” Armeconombank, ACBA, “Converse Bank” and
INECOBANK. Also, the GAF has its divisions in Lori region (town of
Vanadzor), Kotayk region (town of Abovian), Ararat (Artashat), Armavir
(Echmiadzin), Aragatsotn (Ashtarak), Vayots Dzor
(Yeghegnadzor). Credits are also allocated in Tavush and Shirak
regions.
According to the data of GAF, 144 credits worth a total of 1.4 mln
euro were allocated in Sept-Dec, 1999 under the program, in 2000 – 868
credits worth 4.1 mln euro, in 2001 – 1,238 credits worth 8.4 mln euro
and in 2002 – 2,470 credits worth 20 mln euro and 3,796 credits worth
a total of 26.4 mln euro were issued in 2003.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress