Author: Badalian Vardan

VMWARE SOFTWARE COMPANY TO INCREASE INVESTMENTS IN ARMENIA

16:28 27.09.2013

Sona Hakobyan
Public Radio of Armenia

The American VMware software company, which has an annual income of
$4.61 billion, plans to expand its activity in Armenia and increase
the number of employees.

One of the top three innovative companies in the world, the VMware
launched its activity in Armenia in 2010. There are currently 60
programmers working at the Armenian office.

The Armenian team participates in the elaboration of the software
package management systems.

According to Executive Vice President of Cloud Infrastructure and
Management Company Ragu Raguram, the Armenia-produced products are
used by hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide.

Vice President of Cloud Infrastructure Adrian Tudor assured they will
gradually increase the investments in the Armenian economy. He said
Armenia is attractive, because there are many skilled engineers here
and hailed the activity of the Armenian team.

“95% of our employees hold scientific degrees in Computer Science and
Engineering. Therefore, we’re satisfied with the work of our team,”
he said.

Although the Armenian market is not that big, the Vice President
hopes it will expand in the coming years. “We are working within
global economy, and we can say with confidence the goods produced
here are sold all over the world,” Ragu Raguram said.

DOLLAR “TUMBLES” IN ARMENIA

September 27, 2013 | 15:45

YEREVAN. – The American national currency’s average exchange rate,
against the Armenian dram (AMD), comprised AMD 405.62/$1 at NASDAQ
OMX Armenia stock exchange on Friday.

The aforesaid exchange rate is a 0.19-percent, or an AMD 0.77, drop
from the previous trading session on Thursday.

Friday’s sales totaled $7.85 million at the stock exchange.

At the cash foreign currency market of Armenia, the American dollar
is now bought at an exchange rate of AMD 404/$1, and it is sold at
AMD 406/$1.

A FASCINATING JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY: CLIMBING MOUNT ARARAT

Friday, September 27th, 2013

The group of climbers with Mt. Ararat in the background

BY ANNETTE MOSKOFIAN

Ararat is the place named in the Book of Genesis where Noah’s Ark
came to rest after the great flood (Genesis 8:4). Many explorers
for centuries came in search of the Ark, and I came in search
of rediscovering the realization of my dreams, my ideals and my
principles. It was a pilgrimage made to the most prominent symbol of
a nation held in captivity. Ararat is synonymous with the Armenian
national identity, and although it is under Turkish occupation and
a region inhabited mainly by Kurds its symbolism for Armenians,
standing 5137 meters high, is of utmost importance.

Our small group of four started this unbelievable journey on a hot
day in July from Kars, to the ancient ruins of Ani to Ararat, Van and
finally to Moush. Incidentally, my grandmother was a survivor of the
Genocide whose whole family of 100 were all massacred in Moush. I was
brought up with harrowing stories about her journey of survival and
about my courageous grandfather who was a Fedayi (freedom fighter) and
how never to trust the Turks or the Bolesheviks or any foreign power
for that matter. The ideals of “Free, Independent and United Armenia”
were the basis of my national education from childhood. Majority
of Armenians from the Diaspora are survivors or are grandchildren or
great-grandchildren of genocide survivors. We have all heard first-hand
about what happened to our families, but witnessing the devastation
in person is quite moving. I truly understood in this journey what
annihilation of a race means as the Turks systematically killed more
than 1.5 million Armenians and the subsequent Turkish rulers wiped
out any trace of a race, destroying historical churches, monuments,
towns and villages; my heritage, the land of my ancestors wiped out.

At the second camp: we proudly displayed the Armenian flag and,
for the first time ever, the ARF flag

Yet here was our group, used to the comfort of their homes in search
of their history and with a quest to conquer this harsh terrain. We
had a Hungarian friend also in our group who came to understand that
our taken path was nothing to do with a physical challenge. What
we learned on our ascent was indescribable; the mountain tested our
physical and mental strength, our character, dedication and conviction
to climb even higher. It was a journey full of contradictory feelings;
funny, sometimes hilarious, sad, painful, peaceful, exhausting, an
awe inspiring experience, each of us with our strengths and weaknesses
complementing the group’s collective efforts.

I began the journey at a stage in my life when I had started to
question my political convictions, the direction we were heading and
wondering where we had gone wrong, in search of answers and hoping that
the answer laid in the journey of this glorious mountain. I undertook
this challenge in the memory of my grandmother and grandfather who
were never able to return and be buried in their homeland. I found out
that our demands were just and took an oath to redirect my life. It
was a tough, rocky journey full of hardship; and so is the journey
ahead of us for the realization of our dreams and reaching the summit.

Why didn’t Obama invite President Ilham Aliyev to UN General Assembly?

15:51 26/09/2013 » REGION

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev didn’t take part in the 68th
session of UN General Assembly in New York on September 24 because he
had not allowed Thomas Melia, the delegation led by Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State to the country, `Musavat.com’ reports.

Aliyev met U.S. President Barack Obama at General Assembly meeting
session in 2010, on the eve of parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan.
This time, he lost the opportunity for an important meeting with Obama
on the eve of the presidential elections in the country.

As the site notes, on September 18 in Novruz Mammadov the head of the
foreign relations department of Azerbaijani Presidential
Administration paid went to U.S. with a secret visit. He, however,
failed to have meeting with Bill Burns, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State, and to agree on Ilham Aliyev’s visit to General Assembly. The
reason, according to the site, is in the rejection of the visit of
monitoring group led by Thomas Melia to Azerbaijan by official Baku.
The delegation was aimed at observing the presidential elections to be
held on October 9.

Official Baku refused saying that they had “limited time because of
the upcoming elections.” In reality, Melia’s visit was rejected
because of his harsh criticism of human rights violations in
Azerbaijan as well as his statements saying that by “the nomination
for a third term as president, Ilham Aliyev intercedes the “red line”.
“It seems that Washington couldn’t stand the visit rejection of his
senior official because of the “time limitation,” reads the site.

A source standing close to Western diplomatic circles in Baku told the
website that the main reason for Novruz Mamedov’s visit, was obtaining
consent for Ilham Aliyev’s visit to New York, as he had previously
stated that ” Ilham Aliyev’s election for a third term was agreed by
all major powers,” referring to the United States. As a proof, it was
enough just to meet Obama for a short time, but the White House
refused Aliyev. Novruz Mammadov’s silence following the visit to
Washington is evidence to this.

In this connection, Mehman Aliyev, the head of news agency “Trend”,
stated that in June of the current year delegation of U.S. senators
and congressmen led by Richard Lugar paid an official visit to Baku.
Lugar is known as Barack Obama’s “godfather.” After this visit the
wave of criticism against Azerbaijan of Western press subsided in
international press, international organizations and with the heads of
the Western states.

“I think agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and the West
played a role. I think that Ilham Aliyev had given some guarantees
regarding the reforms of the situation in country. And I think Novruz
Mammadov’s visit was a reminder for the authorities on these
guarantees,” Mehman Aliyev said.

Source: Panorama.am

Exhibition of Sergey Parajanov’s works to open in Vilnius

20:47, 28 September, 2013

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Culture of the
Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan will pay a visit to Vilnius (the
Republic of Lithuania) on October 2-4 to attend the opening ceremony
of the exhibition of works by Sergey Parajanov held within the
framework of the Lithuanian Chairmanship in the Council of Ministers
of the EU. “Armenpress” reports about this citing the official website
of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia.

Sergei Parajanov was born on January 9, 1924. He was Soviet Armenian
film director and artist who made significant contributions to the
Ukrainian, Armenian and Georgian cinema. He invented his own cinematic
style, which was totally out of step with the guiding principles of
socialist realism (the only sanctioned art style in the USSR). This,
combined with his controversial lifestyle and behaviour, led Soviet
authorities to repeatedly persecute and imprison him, and suppress his
films.

Although he started professional film-making in 1954, Parajanov later
disowned all the films he made before 1964 as “garbage”. After
directing Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (renamed Wild Horses of Fire
for most foreign distributions) Parajanov became something of an
international celebrity and simultaneously a target of attacks from
the system. Nearly all of his film projects and plans from 1965 to
1973 were banned, scrapped or closed by the Soviet film
administrations, both local (in Kyiv and Yerevan) and federal
(Goskino), almost without discussion, until he was finally arrested in
late 1973. He was imprisoned until 1977, despite a plethora of pleas
for pardon from various artists. Even after his release (he was
arrested for the third and last time in 1982) he was a persona non
grata in Soviet cinema. It was not until the mid-1980s, when the
political climate started to relax, that he could resume
directing. Still, it required the help of influential Georgian actor
Dodo Abashidze and other friends to have his last feature films
greenlighted. His health seriously weakened by four years in labor
camps and nine months in prison in Tbilisi, Parajanov died of lung
cancer in 1990, at a time when, after almost 20 years of suppression,
his films were being featured at foreign film festivals.

In 1984, the slow thaw within the Soviet Union spurred Parajanov to
resume his passion for cinema. With the encouragement of various
Georgian intellectuals, he created the multi-award-winning film Legend
of Suram Fortress, based on a novella by Daniel Chonkadze, his first
return to cinema since Sayat Nova fifteen years earlier. In 1988,
Parajanov made another multi-award-winning film, Ashik Kerib, based on
a story by Mikhail Lermontov. Parajanov dedicated the film to his
close friend Andrei Tarkovsky and “to all the children of the world”.
Parajanov then immersed himself in a project that ultimately proved
too monumental for his failing health. He died of cancer in Yerevan,
Armenia, on July 20, 1990, aged 66, leaving this final work, The
Confession, unfinished. It survives in its original negative as
Parajanov: The Last Spring, assembled by his close friend Mikhail
Vartanov in 1992. Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra, Francesco Rosi,
Alberto Moravia, Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni and Bernardo
Bertolucci were among those who publicly mourned his death. A telegram
that came to Russia read”The world of cinema has lost a magician”.

The Parajanov-Vartanov Institute was established in Hollywood in 2010
to study, preserve and promote the artistic legacies of Sergei
Parajanov and Mikhail Vartanov.

Caroline Cox attends opening of Gurgen Margaryan monument in Yerevan
(video, phootos)

16:26 – 28.09.13

Baroness Caroline Cox, a cross back-bencher of the British House of
Lords and the chair of the British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary
Group, attended on Saturday the opening of a monument-bust to Gurgen
Margaryan, the Armenian officer who was brutally murdered by an
Azerbaijani serviceman in Budapest in 2004.

The baroness spoke of her recent jubilee visit to Nagorno-Karabakh
(Artsakh) after the ceremony, expressing her love for the country and
its people.

The baroness said that she very much appreciates the heroism of the
Artsakh people who stood up for the defense of their country’s during
the historic battle in the 1990s and continue to date to build their
homeland based on the principles of democracy and equality.

Ms Cox told reporters that the beautiful buildings, which she saw in
Karabakh in the course of her 80th visit, convinced her yet another
time that the Armenians always manage to rise from the ashes in
difficult times to create real beauty.

Ms Cox expressed her criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities’ hostile
policies towards Artsakh. The baroness said that the country’s
decision to declare an axe-killer a hero is very dangerous in terms of
breeding an increased feeling of hatred in the younger generation.

Speaking of the tragic incident with Margaryan, the baroness pointed
out to two facts which she said should never be forgotten in the
course of history: that the Armenian officer was murdered while
asleep, and that the Azerbaijani authorities pardoned and gave a
hero’s welcome to the axe-killer years later.

As for Hungary’s decision to extradite Ramil Safarov, Cox said the
Hungarian court had issued a worthy ruling in time, by sentencing him
to life.

The Baroness noted that Azerbaijan, which had promised that Safarov
would continue serving his sentence at home upon his return, lost
trust on the international arena after glorifying the criminal.

As for Azerbaijan’s decision to blacklist the baroness following her
visit to Artsakh, Ms Cox considered the move very ridiculous, saying
that it only increases her feeling of pride.

Public sector salaries to surge by 40 percent from next July

YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. Pensions in Armenia will rise by 15
percent from January 1, 2014 and the public sector salaries will grow
by 40 percent from next July, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said
today after the extraordinary Cabinet session.

Head of government staff Vache Gabrielyan presented a draft law “On
wages,” which envisages introduction of the pay scale. According to
him, the bill provides for adjustment of public sector salaries with
the level of the minimum wage.

According to official statistics, the average nominal public sector
wage in July 2013 stood at 127,200 drams, an increase of 8% compared
to the same period last year.

Labor and social affairs minister Artem Asatryan presented a new
procedure for calculating pensions in 2014. He said the size of an
average labor pension will increase by 15%. However, more than
111,900 retirees will see their pensions rise by 25 %, 93,000 senior
citizens’ pensions will rise by 20% and only a small group of
pensioners, whose pensions are more than 70,000 drams will see them
grow by 3 %.

Asatryan also added that the minimum pension in Armenia in 2014 will
be 18,200 drams.
According to official statistics, the average pension at the end of
2012 was 29,689 drams. ($ 1 – 405.86 drams). -0-

– See more at:

Armenian civic initiative forms alternative commission on public
transport fare issue

September 28, 2013 | 13:57

YEREVAN. – The first discussion of the public commission, which will
be formed by the civic initiative – and which will examine the public
transport problems – will be held on Friday, October 4.

Ani Kaghinyan, who is one of the persons behind the aforesaid
initiative, stated abovementioned during a press conference on
Saturday.

She informed that independent experts, and representatives from
Armenia’s state-run institutions, international institutions, and
embassies in Armenia will be invited to take part in the activities of
this commission.

`The commission, which [capital city Yerevan Mayor] Taron Margaryan
had formed yesterday [i.e., Friday], included Henrik Navasardyan. My
friends are staging a sit-in for sixty consecutive days so that he
would be dismissed, but Taron Margaryan allows himself to include
criminal Henrik Navasardyan in the commission. It is unlawful from the
very beginning. The civic initiative finds that this commission is not
a normal commission,’ Kaghinyan said.

The civic initiative boycotts the aforementioned commission and
stresses that a large cross-section of the society is not represented
in it.

To note, a group of activists – who had started a sit-in on July 26 – have
several demands, which include the dismissals of Municipality
Transport Department Chief Henrik Navasardyan and Yerevan Trans
Company Director Misak Hambardzumyan.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the Yerevan Municipality
recent decision to increase the public transport fares in the city had
brought about outbursts, several groups were formed in the social
networks, and the initiatives were staging protests and distributing
pamphlets against this decision. In addition, the Free Car initiative
was launched, along the lines of which Armenia’s numerous well-known
personalities, MPs, and ordinary residents were providing – with their
own vehicles – free transportation to the people.

And on July 25, Mayor Taron Margaryan suspended the decision on the
fare hike; but the wave of the aforesaid movement is still alive. The
activists demand that the persons, who made the decision on raising
the transport fares, be brought to account, and those officials, who
used violence against and cursed at the activists, be punished.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

Armenia included in EU honey exporters list

September 28, 2013 – 14:59 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia will start exporting honey to Europe in
2012, with preparatory works currently in their final stage.

As of the EU resolution 2013/422, Armenia was included in the list of
countries allowed to export honey, with the move to promote
development of apiculture.

In 2012, honey production in Armenia dropped by 10 times, to total 100
tons, the situation prompted by climatic conditions.

The National Beekeepers’ Association chair Telman Nazaryan is
confident that Armenia and Artsakh have territories to be used for
apiculture development with a relevant program in progress.

As he noted, a number of medicines based on apiculture products are
being manufactured in Armenia, further warning against fake honey and
honey-based products.

VTB bank (Armenia) joins MasterCard as acquirer and issuer

YEREVAN, September 28. / ARKA /. VTB Bank (Armenia) said today it has
joined the MasterCard international payment system as an Acquirer and
Issuer, which will allow it to issue MasterCard cards and service them
via its ATM network and also carry out merchant acquiring.

The Bank offers the following multi-currency cards – Cirrus / Maestro,
MasterCard Standard and Gold. These cards are accepted by all branches
of the bank, its ATMs, retail and POS- terminals of VTB Bank (Armenia)
and other banks both in Armenia and abroad.

A MasterCard holder, like holders of other banking cards issued by VTB
Bank (Armenia) may have four accounts in Armenian drams, US Dollars,
Russian rubles and euros. Money can be added to the accounts through
900 TelCell payment terminals in Yerevan and the regions of Armenia.
Cards can be obtained from the 28th of September in all branches of
the Bank.

VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO Yuri Gusev was quoted as saying in a press
release that joining the international payment system MasterCard
reflects the bank’s commitment to promote the development of the
internal system of cashless payments in order to increase their share
in the total amount of payments for goods and services. MasterCard
unites 22,000 financial institutions in 210 countries and has a
uniform discount system.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is also a full member of the international payment
system VISA International. It has 280,000 Visa card holders, more than
any other local bank. VTB Bank (Armenia) is also a serving member of
the local Armenian ArCa payment system.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is owned fully by Russian financial group VTB.
The Bank runs 67 branches, more than any other local bank inArmenia.
-0-

15:14 28.09.2013