Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

CASH DISPENSERS IN DOWNTOWN YEREVAN TO RESUME SERVICES NEXT WEEK

Noyan Tapan
Aug 18, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The transfer of ArmenTel company’s
cables at the crossroads of Yerevan’s Tigran the Great Avenue –
Khanjian Street, Vardanants – Khanjian Streets, Nalbandian – Alek
Manukian Streets in connection with the construction of underground
crossings at the indicated crossroads will be completed next week,
NT correspondent was informed by Hasmik Chutilian, PR Director of
ArmenTel.

According to Artur Hakobjanian, employee of Armenian Card company’s
technical unit, the servicing by nearly 110 cash dispensers located in
downtown Yerevan has been discontinued since August 15. H. Chutilian
said that the banks, whose management applied to ArmenTel with the
request to be provided other connection ways, have received such
communication and the opportunity for their cash dispensers to operate.

Until now the Armenian banks to have joined Armenian Card system have
provided 117,928 ArCa plastic cards which are serviced by 217 cash
dispensers and 1,296 POS terminals. As of late March 2007, there were
232,762 plastic cards in circulation in Armenia, including 104,216
ArCa cards. Operations of a total of 36 bln 233 mln drams (over 100.8
mln USD) were made with plastic cards in Armenia in the first half
of 2007, including operations of 12 bln 617 mln drams with ArCa cards.
From: Baghdasarian

THE POWER OF THESE WORDS
by Rick Salutin

Rabble.ca
Aug 17 2007
Canada

Essence of blogging. The challenge of the blogosphere leapt out in one
line of David Rees’s response to Michael Ignatieff’s recent recantation
of support for the Iraq war. Blogger Rees cited an Ignatieff passage on
how the noble expectations of war boosters failed to materialize, which
ended by saying war opponents "avoided all these mistakes." "Yeah,"
Rees blogged, "you’re right, they did.

Do you know why? Because they’re not retarded."

That’s it. The blogosphere is the schoolyard at recess-in the best
sense. The great equalizer, where kids who play the game and get ahead
in class, are cut down to size. A figure like Michael Ignatieff could
spend his life without hearing anyone blow him a raspberry-as opposed
to respectfully disagreeing, thereby affirming his gravitas.

It’s anti-respect for authority, the court jester, the kid in The
King’s New Clothes. It’s not telling truth to power: It’s telling
power to screw itself. This is the radical democratic element in
blogging: that possessors of power, including the power of opinion,
don’t necessarily merit their status at all. You cut them no slack
and what you say, or hiss, gets out there. The wielders of power are
not used to this treatment.

Suppose the anti-respect movement succeeded. Then what would replace
respectability? Is this a zero-sum game in which new opinionators
would just move into the positions from which the pompous asses and
"retards" were turfed? I find it distressing the extent to which this
kind of prestige seems on bloggers’ minds. You can see Daily Kos’s
founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga practically pee himself when he’s on
The Colbert Report. Perhaps he’s aware that people still spend far
more media time with TV and radio (70 per cent) than the Internet
(5 per cent). Sometimes the blogosphere feels like a reality show
called Who Wants To Be the Next Super Pundit?

I imagine a Kos-like response would be: Everybody gets to be the next
super pundit, we are about the democratic right of all to express
their views. I think this is less rebellious than it seems because
in the end it would merely replace the opinions of a few with the
opinions of many. The biggest problem, it seems to me, isn’t elitism
(which is a problem); it’s individualism.

IMHO, as they say, what’s missing from the discussion is the issue
of common sense versus individual opinion. A revolutionary change
would not replace a few opinions with more and different individual
views; it would arrive at opinions in a new, non-egocentric way, where
people could meet without previously developed, hard positions, and
work together on an issue. Such things happen, and they are usually
practically oriented: Should we go on strike? Should we change the
way things are done at the school?

So the key myth isn’t elitism, it’s individualism, the idea that some
lone genius will come up with the answers.

Cleansing the term: A U.S. general let the cat out of the bag this
week when he called massacres in Kurdish Iraq, ethnic cleansing and
"almost" genocide, as if the two are much the same. But ethnic
cleansing is far more widespread and ancient. In the sense of
transfer of identifiable populations, it’s almost coterminous with
modern history. Why move people if you want to kill them rather than
just rob them? (Unless you lack the death technology, in which case,
forced marches, as in the Armenian genocide, will accomplish both.)
Most partitions involve ethnic cleansing, as the UN knew when it
partitioned Palestine in 1947 and Britain did when it divided India
exactly 60 years ago. Iraq is being ethnically cleansed with two
million internal and two million external refugees; as Yugoslavia
was ethnically cleansed in the 1990s, with the collusion of NATO,
in the holy name of whatever it was called at the time. Maybe eliding
the two categories helps cover up the nature of these more ostensibly
respectable cases. They don’t deserve the fig leaf.

Originally published in The Globe and Mail, Rick Salutin’s column
appears every Friday.

–Boundary_(ID_TBD9Dojc8Dv5kqcajTu93w)–
From: Baghdasarian

OPENING NIGHT!

Wednesday, Sept 19

ORHAN PAMUK in conversation with Paul Holdengräber
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk received the 2006 Nobel
Prize in Literature.

p/index.cfm
From: Baghdasarian

L’ANNEE DE L’ARMENIE AU PROGRAMME MERCREDI

La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest, France
Edition Loir Et Cher
14 août 2007 mardi

Tradition oblige, dans le Festival de musique de Pontlevoy le 15
août, les voix sont a l’honneur. L’Armenie est au programme. Mourad
Amirkhanian, baryton-basse, grâce a cette tessiture très large chante
un repertoire très varie de l’opera a la melodie. Les premiers et
grands prix acquis dans les concours internationaux denotent de son
talent. Ne en Armenie c’est en France qu’il vient se perfectionner
a l ‘ecole normale de musique où a la Schola cantorum de Paris il
se distingue notamment avec un diplôme superieur de virtuosite. Au
piano Genc Tukici, qui a obtenu a l’ecole normale de Paris le diplôme
superieur de musique, le diplôme d’enseignement a l’unanimite et
une licence de concertiste, enseigne dans cette ecole. Compositeur,
soliste ou chambriste il se produit de la salle Gaveau au Camihall
de New York en passant par le Châtelet. Les voix du choeur Daron
complètent l’affiche. Une cinquantaine de choristes qui interprètent
les compositeurs contemporains mais aussi le repertoire classique.

Mercredi 15 août a 17 h a la chapelle : chants liturgiques armeniens.

A 20 h 30 au Manège des airs d’opera italiens et armeniens. Prix des
places 15 , gratuit pour les moins de 16 ans.

GRAPHIQUE: Mourad Amirkhanian baryton-basse chantera un repertoire
très varie de l’opera a la melodie demain mercredi.

–Boundary_(ID_CbR2KB3h+LUTlpsSqZsvBQ)- –
From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJAN EXPELS RUSSIAN JOURNALIST

ARMENPRESS
Aug 13 2007

BAKU, AUGUST 13, ARMENPRESS: Azerbaijani authorities have expelled a
Russian journalist working for Russian Rosbalt news agency. Russian
Interfax news agency quoted Azeri officials as saying that Yana
Amelina’s expulsion, however, was not ‘official."

Interfax said its sources refused to divulge, saying only that Yana
Amelina had spent 6 days in Azerbaijan, was arrested in the southern
Lenkoran and was flown to Baku.

"Before arriving in Azerbaijan the Russian journalist was in Armenia
and visisted the occupied and Armenian-controlled Azerbaijani regions,"
Interfax’s source said.

In Lenkoran the Russian journalist was supposed to study the problems
of the local Talysh people, who make the majority of population
in Azerbaijan’s southeastern parts. This, according to Interfax,
prompted officials in Baku to conclude that the Russian journalist
has an ‘anti-Azerbaijani" stance.

Talysh people represent the indigenous Iranian population of
Azerbaijan that distinguishes itself from the majority of inhabitants
of Azerbaijan who say they are of Turkic origin. The Talysh are
concentrated in the southeast of Azerbaijan near the border with Iran.

Because of the discriminative policy of Baku the majority of them
either have lost national consciousness, or are afraid to recognize
themselves openly as Talysh.

In the summer of 1993, amid a political destabilization, leaders of
Talysh national movement declared the establishment of the Talysh
Republic, but it existed for only two months and was suppressed by
Azeri power and security structures.

Ex-president of Talysh Republic Alikram Gummatov is still in
prison. Majority of the other national leaders, who managed to
flee, settled down in Russia, because the Talysh movement was
Russian-oriented from the beginning of the last century. However,
receiving no support from Moscow in 1993, a number of activists of
Talysh movement have changed their orientation towards Iran.
From: Baghdasarian

SEVERAL EVENTS ON IT SPHERE TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA IN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2007

arminfo
2007-08-14 13:35:00

A number of events dedicated to the development of Information
technologies will be held in Armenia in Sep-Oct, 2007. However,
the cycle of events will not be officially named ‘IT Month’ as in 2006.

As Executive Director of the Union of Companies of Information
Technologies Karen Vardanyan told ArmInfo, the fifth symposium of the
world organization ‘(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’
‘East-West: Design and Testing’ will be held in Yerevan Sep 7-10 within
the frames of the events. Along with it, he said, it is scheduled to
organize a week of SYNOPSYS during September. He also said that an
international conference with participation of different countries’
business-incubators will be organized during the events by the Fund
‘Incubator of Enterprises’.

Upon completion of the events, an exhibition on information and high
technologies Digitec 2007 will be held Sep 26-28 in K. Demirchyan’s
Sport-Concert Complex with participation of 50 local and 20 foreign
IT-companies against 50 in 2006 in whole. ‘We hope that this exhibition
will be the most representative among the similar forums in the South
Caucasus ‘, K. Vardanyan said. He added that a business-forum will be
held within the frames of the exhibition, during which representatives
of IT companies and other branches of economy, including agriculture,
trade and construction, will consider opportunities of more active
implementation and use of IT-solutions in the country.

‘The goal of the event is creation of a favourable environment for
cooperation of information and telecommunication companies and business
users and, thus, improvement of positions of Armenia’s IT-sector in
the international market’, K. Vardanyan said. The events are organized
by the Union of Companies of Information Technologies of Armenia and
the Fund ‘Incubator of Enterprises’.

By assessment of specialists, about 80% of production of Armenia’s
IT-sphere goes for export, 60% of which to the USA, 20% to Europe. The
volume of market of Armenia’s high technologies is estimated of $60-70
mln on average or 2% of GDP.
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA EXPORT LESS FRUIT AND VEGETABLE THIS YEAR

Panorama.am
15:43 13/08/2007

Armenia has exported 6 tones of greens, 186 tones of cherry, 194
tones of plum, 5 tones of peach and 875 tones of apricot to Russia
and other countries since August 10, agriculture ministry sources
told Panorama.am.

The ministry said "export of all vegetables and fruits has gone down,"
saying export of apricot and peach has specially decreased. To compare,
8700 tones of apricot, 31 tones of peach and other agricultural
products were exported from Armenia last year. Export of fruits
and vegetables has started since June and will still continue for
some sorts.
From: Baghdasarian

PROBLEM OF NORMALIZING ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS IS NOT ONLY IN RECOGNIZING GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.08.2007 14:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The major document that defines relations between
Armenia and Turkey is the Treaty of Sèvres, which nobody has denounced
yet, head of "Hay Dat" Office Giro Manoyan stated in Yerevan. He
said the Armenian-Turkish border must be shaped according to this
very document. It also determines the issues concerning establishing
diplomatic relations between the two countries. "Neither the Moscow
nor Kars Treaties are basic for us, since Armenian officials have
not undersigned them. The problem of normalizing Armenian-Turkish
relations is in Ankara, and the matter is not in recognizing the
Armenian Genocide, the problem is much wider. We should not ignore
the fact that there is a very tense political situation in Turkey now,
and the Army may interfere at any moment," Manoyan said.

The head of "Hay Dat" Office thinks that there are politicians in
Turkey who want to normalize relations with Armenia, but they meet
resistance from the General Staff and government. "Some time ago
Foreign Ministers of both countries Vartan Oskanian and Abdullah
Gul were going to sign an agreement on steps aimed at normalizing
relations. However, then the Turkish side refused from it.

Gul’s official representative stated in Yerevan that it is impossible,"
Giro Manoyan underscored adding recently the Turkish press expresses
regret that during Levon Ter-Petrossian’s presidency the sides missed
the opportunity to establish relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The Treaty of Sèvres was signed on 10 August 1920 between the Entente
who won the World War I and Germany and Turkey. The delegation from
the First Armenian Republic underlined the document. In the result,
when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came to power in Turkey Ankara refused
to ratify the document. Turkey closed the Armenian-Turkish border in
1993 because of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

–Boundary_(ID_Uh8zGb61OLxNh7I3J57ctQ)- –
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER GOES ON THREE-DAY VISIT TO ARAGATSOTN, LORI AND TAVUSH REGIONS

Noyan Tapan
Aug 3, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian prime minister Serge
Sargsian on August 3 went on a three-day visit to Aragatsotn, Lori
and Tavush regions.

While in Aragatsotn, Lori and Tavush, the prime minister will
familiarize himself with agricultural, gas supply network installation
and construction work and meet with local residents and heads of
a number of communities. He will also visit Vanadzor Chimprom CJSC
where he will hold a consultation on development programs of this
relaunched chemical complex with the participation of the company’s
management and officials.

NT was informed by the RA Government Information and PR Department
that during the visit, the prime minister will go to the Bagratashen
customs point, visit the antihail station in the village of Artashavan
in Aragatsotn region and participate in festivities on the occasion
of foundation of Koti (Tavush region) on August 5.
From: Baghdasarian

GAZPROMBANK MULLS OPENING OR BUYING BANK IN ARMENIA

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
August 2, 2007 Thursday 3:52 PM EET

Russia’s Gazprombank is considering opening a representative office
or buying a bank in Armenia, a banking source told Prime-Tass Thursday.

Gazprombank has stopped negotiations to buy a bank in Ukraine, the
source said.

The bank’s Deputy CEO Alexander Sobol said in February that Gazprombank
was considering acquiring a bank in Ukraine.

At present, Gazprombank has a stake in Belarus’ Belgazprombank and
owns a representative office in Beijing.

Gazprombank is the banking arm of Russia’s natural gas monopoly
Gazprom.
From: Baghdasarian