Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

"MAN AND NATURE" EXHIBITION TO BE OPENED IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
June 5 2007

YEREVAN, June 4. /ARKA/. A contest-exhibition "Man and Nature"
organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Armenian public
Relations Association (APRA) is to open at the State Nature Museum
of Armenia on June 5.

APRA reported that among the exhibits will be 51 works by talented
children aged 7-9, 10-13, and 14-16 from Yerevan orphanages. The jury
selected the children in the first round of the contest.

WWF Armenia instituted prizes in the category "Best Painting" for
each age group. All the participants will receive certificates and
incentive prizes. APRA and the RA Ministry of Nature Protection
instituted prizes as well. The RA Minister of Nature Protection
and representatives of the Ra Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs,
Ministry of Education and Science, as well as of the National Institute
of Education, international and ecological NGOs have been invited to
the exhibition.
From: Baghdasarian

PRESS RELEASE
Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

June 4, 2007
____________________

USAID CHOSES THE FUND FOR ARMENIAN RELIEF (FAR) FOR THIRD RECONSTRUCTION
PROJECT IN ARMENIA

The water comes every day, but not all day for the 100,000 Armenians who
live in the city of Artashat and its 27 surrounding villages. Through
Armenia’s water system, the villages generally only receive drinkable water
for a couple hours a day.

The problem is the water system in that part of Armenia, south of Yerevan,
is more than 40 years old. Installed by Soviet technicians, the iron and
steel pipes have corroded and cracked. It is estimated that 80% of the
water sent through the system is lost to leaks. That’s why the system can’t
meet the needs of the residents.

While the government of Armenia has been very active the past couple of
years in improving the water system in Armenia and modernizing its
management, pockets of population, such as the residents around Artashat,
are still without reliable water sources.

Now, thanks to the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) and a two-year, $3.1 million contract, the Fund for Armenian Relief
(FAR), will begin work this May on an ambitious plan to repair and
reconstruct the region’s water system. This is the third contract USAID has
awarded to FAR in the past five years.

"We are glad to be part of the team that will help improve the quality of
life for so many Armenian families," said Garnik Nanagoulian, Executive
Director of FAR. "We’re also pleased USAID has recognized the success FAR
has had with the other contracts we have been awarded. We take very
seriously our responsibility to both the people of Armenia and the people of
America who fund these works."

PART OF A LARGER EFFORT

This USAID contract is just the latest of a multi-party effort to improve
Armenia’s water supply infrastructure and modernize the management of the
nation’s water company. The Armenian government has spent the past six
years revamping its water system, aiming to establish a
commercially-oriented, efficient water company.

In support of the government’s reform initiatives, the World Bank has
provided $23 million to Armenia’s water supply system. Through World Bank
financing, a French company, SAUR, was chosen to manage the nation’s water
system. Working together, the Armenian government, World Bank, and SAUR
have already accomplished much. However, much remains to be done to set
Armenia’s water utilities on the path to long-term solvency while providing
high-quality water and sanitation services.

USAID has been supporting the commercialization of Armenia’s water system
since 2003. It has provided funding for purchase of water meters and
supported the installation of filters for water meters. USAID has also
provided computers, accounting software, and training to strengthen the
financial management capacity and integrity of Armenia’s water system
operation.

HELPING ARTASHAT

Rehabilitating the water treatment facility in the Garni area that provides
water to Artashat and neighboring communities is outside the scope of work
being undertaken with the World Bank financing. That is why USAID, in
collaboration with FAR, is stepping up.

The region’s drinking water comes from water sources around Garni, while its
non-potable water is produced by 13 deep wells located closer to Artashat.
The water is pumped throughout the region.

Under the contract awarded to FAR on May 10, 2007, USAID aims to provide a
continuous, uninterrupted supply of safe drinking water to residents in the
town of Artashat and 27 surrounding villages by May 2009. FAR will also
undertake efforts to reduce energy consumption by increasing the volume of
water delivered by gravity flow systems, rather than pumps. The third part
of the contract covers plans to improve the quality of the water and the
water system infrastructure in Garni.

"This is an excellent example of various government and non-governmental
organizations coming together to fix a real problem, to improve the life of
thousands of families," Nanagoulian said.

— 6/4/07

E-mail photo available upon request.

PHOTO CAPTION: On May 16, 2007 in Yerevan, Armenia, USAID/Armenia
Contracting Officer David Brown (left) signed the $3.1 million USAID
contract awarding the Artashat Water Supply System Rehabilitation Program to
the Fund for Armenian Relief, represented by Deputy Manager Karen Sargsyan
(right).
From: Baghdasarian

The burden of history

May 17th 2007
>From The Economist print edition

Its newest members offer the European Union some history lessons

JAVIER SOLANA, the European Union’s top foreign-policy honcho, recently
offered a neat turn of phrase to explain the importance that Europeans
attach to the past. Ponder the phrase "that’s history", and what it implies
on either side of the Atlantic, he suggested. When Americans say something
is "history", they mean it is no longer relevant. When Europeans say the
same thing, "they usually mean the opposite".

Is this mere wordplay? If only. History lies at the heart of many disputes
that are causing such angst in today’s EU. Thorny topics include Russia’s
bullying of small Baltic states, fierce rows in such countries as Poland and
Romania over how far to probe communist-era collaboration, not to mention
the stand-off between Greeks and Turks in Cyprus. Some of these historical
quarrels are unfamiliar to western Europeans, and they are often highly
inconvenient to boot. Small wonder that a few longer-established union
members are handling the arrival of their newer colleagues rather badly.

The EU used to know where it stood on history-it was best kept simple, and
in the past. In the early decades, history was about one big thing: the
second world war, and the grand project of Franco-German reconciliation.
>From the outset, the EU was partly meant to make war unthinkable inside
Europe. But over the years that miracle of continental forgiveness has
ossified into something more inflexible, even smug. Just as pioneering
Eurocrats toiled to create single European markets in widgets or wheat,
their political masters crafted something approaching an approved single
European history (challenged only in awkward-squad Britain, where the war
was a matter of national pride). This history portrayed a smooth moral
progression from nationalism and conflict (bad) to the sunny uplands of
compromise, dialogue and border-free brotherhood (good).

Enlargement is now challenging all this-especially the recent expansion to
27 countries, including ten former communist ones. The clumsy reactions of
old EU members are partly to do with ignorance. Enlargement has introduced
lots of alien grievances, sending old Brussels hands scurrying to their
encyclopedias to mug up on the 1920 Treaty of Trianon (hated in Hungary) and
Carinthian plebiscite (it makes Slovenes fume). But less forgivably, some of
the insensitivity of older club members carries a whiff of moral
superiority, a sense that it is un-European (not to mention uncouth) to bear
historical grudges.

European politicians have always been quick to use post-war reconciliation
as a cudgel to pre-empt further debate. This can get pretty shameless. Josep
Borrell, then president of the European Parliament, once dismissed
campaigners against the parliament’s nonsensical monthly trek from Brussels
to Strasbourg, because they were Swedish: how could Swedes understand that
Strasbourg, a much fought-over border city, symbolised Franco-German
reconciliation, he asked. This "historic dimension" was lost on a country
that "did not participate" in the second world war (though nor did Mr
Borrell’s-he is from Spain).

Lofty talk of European brotherhood also conceals the fact that, even among
the founder members of the club, there are deep differences about how to
reconcile societies with their past. At one end is the German model of swift
and repeated repentance. Other countries took much longer to break with
post-war silence and myth-making (France springs to mind). Still others
moved on from dictatorship to democracy via pacts of national amnesia that
are only now being challenged (think of Spain). It is striking that French
politicians have been vocal critics of the Polish government over its recent
(admittedly cack-handed) project to cleanse public life of former
collaborators. German politicians, with their tradition of purgative
truth-telling, have been more muted.

In victory, defeat
Above all, the authorised version of European history has floundered in the
face of new members for whom the second world war is not the end of any
debate, but a starting-point for new rows. The EU now has a fistful of
ex-communist countries for whom, as one Brussels official puts it,
"Strasbourg is not a symbol, and 1945 is not a magic year". When Polish
politicians mention Auschwitz, it is often to complain about it being called
a "Polish death camp", rather than the wording they feel is correct: a Nazi
death camp located in Poland. The latest row between Estonia and Russia
concerns the relocation of a Soviet war monument from the centre of Tallinn.
Earlier this year, the Baltics led an unsuccessful push to add Stalin’s
crimes to an EU directive covering Holocaust denial.

This is not to say that the newcomers inevitably have right on their side.
Some nasty anti-Semites lurk within Polish politics. The Baltics mis-timed
their push for recognition of Stalin’s crimes: a directive about racism and
xenophobia was the wrong vehicle. But that is no excuse for the impatient
eye-rolling with which newcomers are often greeted when they air historical
grievances. (During a discussion of Estonia’s war-memorial row, the German
ambassador to the EU observed cheerfully that Berlin was still home to
Soviet war monuments, and even sculptures of Lenin, as if that was
comparable.)

It matters that the EU has a tin ear for some of its members’ historical
memories. It is, at the least, bad manners-not to mention bad tactics when
dealing with Russian assertiveness. In future, history may matter still
more, assuming that the union follows strategic logic and enlarges once more
to take in new members from the Balkans (and perhaps Turkey, even if that is
a lot further off). These are rough neighbourhoods, where history can still
get people killed. If the EU does not learn to listen to and understand
different views of the past, it may find itself stumbling when confronting
future conflicts inside and outside the union. And that would be an historic
mistake.
From: Baghdasarian

JACK KEVORKIAN TO BE FREED FROM JAIL

ArmRadio.am
01.06.2007 13:50

Jack Kevorkian, the man known as Dr Death for helping the terminally
ill to die, is due to be released from prison in the US state of
Michigan.

Kevorkian was convicted in 1999 of the murder by injection of
terminally ill Thomas Youk. A video of him dying was broadcast on
television.

Kevorkian, 79, has served eight years of a 10-25 year sentence.

He has pledged not to counsel people on suicide but says he will
continue to fight for the right to euthanasia.The elderly former
pathologist insists that patients living in pain have the right to die.

Kevorkian won parole after an appeal based on his own failing health.
From: Baghdasarian

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN ARMENIA ARE NOT FULLY PROTECTED YET, CONSIDER SPECIALISTS

Noyan Tapan
Jun 01 2007

YEREVAN, JUNE 1, NOYAN TAPAN. Though there is much progress in the
shpere of the children’s rights protection, there is still a lot
to be done in this sense. This opinion was expressed during the
press-conference on May 31 by Sheldon Yet, Armenian representative
of the UN Children’s Fund. In his words, in this sphere there are
both satisfying indices and those causing anxiety.

Thus, the infant mortality under 5 has reduced, but at the same time
the number of kindergartens, as well as the children, attending them,
has reduced sharply, too.

S. Yet noted that Armenia has joined almost all the conventions and
declarations, concerning the children’s rights protection. But, in
his words, it is of great importance that these laws become valid
and are not just written on papers.

In the words of Varuzhan Sedrakian, Chairman of RA Children’s
Association, in Armenia it is necessary to create institution
of children’s rights defender and separate judicial system for
children. And according to Tatevik Davtian, chief staff specialist of
RA Ombudsman, such institution is of no necessity in our country. In
her words, measures should be taken to improve the activities of the
already existing institutions (Children’s Rights Protection centers in
municipalities and regional councils, national committee for child’s
rights, bodies of guardianship and trusteeship).

In T. Davtian’s words, in Armenia children’s rights are not fully
protected yet, as there are still beggar, vagrant children, who are
deprived of parental care in the country.
From: Baghdasarian

ONLY 100% SMOKE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS CAN ADEQUATELY PROTECT FROM DANGERS OF SECOND-HAND SMOKE

ArmInfo
2007-05-31 19:32:00

There is no safe level of human exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke,
and only 100% smoke-free environments can adequately protect from
dangers of second-hand smoke, UN Resident Coordinator Ms. Consuelo
Vidal said at a press conference dedicated to the World No Tobacco Day.

"There is no doubt: breathing second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) is very
dangerous to our health. It causes cancer, as well as many serious
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in children and adults,
often leading to premature death," she emphasized. Tobacco is the
second major cause of death in the world. It is well known that half
the people who smoke regularly today – about 650 mln people – will
eventually be killed by tobacco, C.Vidal said. Equally alarming is the
fact that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die
each year from diseases caused by breathing second-hand tobacco smoke.

According to the World Health Organization, half the children of
the world -about 700 mln – breath tobacco smoke, she added. The SHS
consequences result in not only expenses on medical treatment, but
also economic losses for enterprises. It also decreases the working
efficiency, C.Vidal pointed out.

The UN Resident Coordinator also congratulated Armenia on the
adoption of a law on prohibition of smoking and expressed hope that
its implementation will contribute to saving human lives.
From: Baghdasarian

LAST CAR CONVOY LEAVES RUSSIAN BASE IN AKHALKALAKI, GEORGIA

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 30 2007

TBILISI, May 30 (Itar-Tass) – The last, fifth for this year, car
convoy left on Wednesday Russia’s military base in Akhalkalaki
(southern Georgia), and is heading for Russia’s military base in
Gyumri (Armenia), a top military from the Russian base in Akhalkalaki
told Tass.

The convoy includes six cars, 11 trucks, an ambulance, a fire engine,
a tow car and a tractor. The convoy also withdraws equipment.

The bulk of hardware and equipment has been withdrawn from Georgia
last year, part of it to Russia and part to Armenia. The first in 2006
car convoy left Akhalkalaki for Gyumri on April 13. On May 17 and 24,
two trains moved military hardware and equipment to Russia.

The remaining military staying at the Akhalkalaki base will be moved
to the Russian base in Batumi in June. The base will be closed before
July 1, and its facilities will be handed over to Georgia.

As for the base in Batumi, it will be closed before October 1, 2008.

Its withdrawal will continue this year, when nine trains will take
military hardware to Russia and four to Armenia.
From: Baghdasarian

RA MFA: AZERI MEDIA MEANS DISTORTED WORDS OF OSCE MG CO-CHAIRS

PanARMENIAN.Net
29.05.2007 14:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I strongly doubt that the OSCE MG Co-Chairs on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement stated in Baku as if Armenia must
"free the 7 regions" and "Nagorno Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s integral
part"," RA MFA Acting Spokesman Vladimir Karapetyan stated to the
PanARMENIAN.Net journalist. He said nothing similar might happen
proceeding from what Bernard Fassier and Yuri Merzlyakov were speaking
after meeting with the leadership of Armenia. "The Co-Chairs are well
aware of their mandate, in which they cannot make statements that
actually predetermine results of talks. And similar statements, which
Azeri media spread, speak namely about that," Karapetyan underlined.

APA agency cited Yuri Merzlyakov’s statement that, "the OSCE MG
recognizes Nagorno Karabakh as a component part of Azerbaijan". And
Azeri press assures as if Bernard Fassier stated that "It is necessary
to decide what must be done first. I think for the beginning it is
easier to free the 7 regions and after that to start discussions of
those issues, which directly concern Karabakh".
From: Baghdasarian

EDWARD NALBANDIAN: RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS FIRST OF ALL NECESSARY FOR TURKEY

armradio.am
29.05.2007 14:22

If Turkey wants to join the big European family, the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide is necessary, first of all, for Turkey, Armenian
Ambassador to France Edward Nalbandian told ArmInfo correspondent.

The Ambassador underlined not only the importance of recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, but also that of all other genocides that occurred
because of dictatorship. "Phenomena like genocide should be fought
on the international level and with joint efforts of the peoples
subjected to genocide. For its part, the recognition of genocides
leads to more responsibility towards the history of own country
and hope for pardon of the heirs of genocide victims," declared the
Ambassador, adding that the "Armenian issue" has become a harsh one
for Turkey. In this connection the Ambassador quoted the Chairwoman
of the European Armenian Federation Hilda Tchoboyan as saying that
"only in case of recognition of eth Armenian Genocide Turley will be
viewed as candidate for EU membership."
From: Baghdasarian

SUSPECTED BYELORUSSIAN CITIZEN ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH ARMENIAN CITIZEN’S MURDER IN MOSCOW

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.05.2007 19:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A suspected Byelorussian citizen is arrested
in Moscow in connection with Armenian citizen Aharon Tigranyan’s
murder. The body of 30-year-old Aharont Tigranyan was discovered
yesterday near the entrance of №15 house on the Rudnevka street.

According to medical examination A. Tigranyan died in the result of
plural knife wounds. The police has filed a criminal case. Aharon and
Ashot Tigranyans lived in the above-mentioned house, RFE RL reports. A
source in Moscow Eastern Prosecutor’s Office informed Aharon Tigranyan
and the Byelorussian suspect had a quarrel before the incident.
From: Baghdasarian