Author: Chatinian Lara

ITERA INTERNATIONAL ENERGY NO LONGER ARMROSGASPROM’S SHAREHOLDER

ARKA
March 23, 2009

YEREVAN, March 23. /ARKA/. Itera International Energy has sold its
2,800,000 nominal equities of ArmRosgasprom CJSC to Garsprom, press
office of ArmRosgasprom reported on Monday.

The equities make 4.45% of ArmRosgasprom’s authorized capital.

The transaction was registered in Central Depository of Armenia on
March 12.

ArmRosgasprom’s press office refrained from more detailed comments
on the matter.

ArmRosgasprom enjoys the sole right to import and distribute Russian
natural gas in Armenia.

Russia conveys natural gas to Armenia through Georgia’s territory.

ArmRosgasprom was established in 1997. Gasprom holds 80% of the
company’s shares.

The remaining 20% belongs to Armenian Government.

SOUTH CAUCASUS RAILWAYS SPEEDS UP OVERHAUL

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.03.2009 19:49 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For coordinated organization of repair works on
South Caucasian Railway link, South Caucasian Railway CJSC resolved
to set up "breaks", announcing full motion dwells at specific railway
territories. The project involves capital repair of 5,4 km on the
main line to be completed by Apr. 10, South Caucasian Railway CJSC
Track Maintenance Service Head Ahot Unusyan reported.

Over 925 km of Kanakert line was recently completed. Completion of
1000 km of Arteni lines repair is due by Mar. 23.

According to Ashot Unusyan, upon recovery works completion at
territories specified, Arteni-Aragats line repair will be launched. The
territories specified had not been repaired for over 20 years, so
their state can be defined as highly unsatisfactory.

Over 3000 wooden ties and 10 switch tie sets were replaced at Vanadzor
line, 2600 wooden ties and 8 switch tie sets at Gyumri line, 420
bridge sleepers were replaced on metal bridges.

PR Newswire (press release)
March 18 2009

Pacifica Institute to Give Californians A Taste of Anatolia

LOS ANGELES, March 17 /PRNewswire/ — The first Anatolian Cultures and
Food Festival celebrating the architecture, crafts and food of that
region (modern day Turkey) will run April 2nd to 5th 2009 at the
Orange County Fairgrounds. The event has a unique focus on the
multi-cultural heritage of Anatolia, showcasing the Ottomans,
Hittites, Armenians and other civilizations.

Los Angeles-based Pacifica Institute is the main sponsor of the
festival and plans to make this an annual fixture in California. Other
participants are the California Turkish American Chamber of Commerce
(CATA) and the Organization of Istanbul Armenians (OIA).

"We want to provide a full sensory experience of the history of this
region," said festival coordinator Kemal Gur. "Visitors will literally
eat the foods, see the sights and hear the sounds that an ordinary
Byzantine or Ottoman citizen experienced thousands of years ago."

The festival will showcase five major cities and 11 arches including a
reconstruction of the Trojan Horse. The sets were constructed in
Istanbul over a six-month period by a team of 50 carpenters, under the
guidance of historians and archeologists. They used 60 tons of steel,
20,000 square meters of vinyl and other materials to recreate
landmarks such as Rumi’s Museum in Konya.

Each set will also feature 3D graphics and photographs, along with
documents translated from manuscripts. During the festival artisans
will demonstrate regional crafts, ranging from filigree to weaving.

There will also be nightly live concerts, featuring virtuoso Omer
Faruk Tekbilek and his ensemble of Turkish, Greek and Armenian
musicians, as well as the Whirling Dervishes, folk dancers and an
Ottoman marching band. At more than 90 booths reminiscent of
Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar festivalgoers will savor authentic foods and
purchase crafts.

There will also be a children’s area where puppet theater and fairy
tale performances will run on two stages.

For additional information visit , contact
Elif Cercel or Atilla Kahveci at [email protected] or call
(310) 208 7290.

Pacifica Institute was founded in 2003 by the Turkish-American
community of California as a non-profit organization. Its mission is
to promote cross-cultural awareness by organizing festivals,
conferences, panels, public forums and art performances as a way to
bring people together from different communities and ethnic
backgrounds.

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Novinite.com, Bulgaria
March 21 2009

Turkey Starts Armenian, Kurdish Language Radio Channels
World | March 21, 2009, Saturday

Turkey’s state radio and TV corporation TRT is going to start an
Armenian-language channel.

The news has been reported by the Hurriyet Daily News, which also
reminds that on Wednesday Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, said TRT would launch a radio station broadcasting in
Turkish.

The radio channels in Armenian and Kurdish are expected to start in
two or three months.

The move signifies the recent thaw in Armenia-Turkey relations. Even
though Armenia wants Turkey to recognize the 1915-1922 Armenian
genocide, whose existence Turkey adamantly denies, Armenia also would
like to see a normalization of the relations with its Turkish
neighbor, BGNES points out citing a recent statement of Armenian Prime
Minister, Tigran Sarkisian.

Some 50 000 ethnic Armenians currently live in Turkey, and most of
them are in the country’s largest city of Istanbul.

Turkey has recently stepped up with a program to boost the cultural
rights of the Kurdish minority including by launching a 24-hour TV
channel in Kurdish, TRT-6.

‘I WISH THE AZERBAIJANI PEOPLE THE LIBERATION OF AZERBAIJAN’S OCCUPIED LANDS ON NOVRUZ:’ NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATE

Trend
March 20 2009
Azerbaijan

Iranian Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi congratulated the people
of Azerbaijan on Novruz Bayram.

The Azerbaijanis are a peace-loving people and heroic nation, Ebadi
told Trend News.

Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003.

"I hope the people feel even better with springtime’s arrival,"
Ebari said.

Ebadi said the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a
tough situation for the Azerbaijani people. He said Nagorno-Karabakh is
a beautiful region with splendid nature, and the Azerbaijani people’s
zeal to liberate their lands will never fail.

Ebadi said he hopes the conflict will be resolved peacefully.

"People wish the best to their relatives and friends on Novruz. I wish
the Azerbaijani people the liberation of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-occupied
lands," Ebadi said.

ARMENIA EXPECTING A $50 MILLION CREDIT FROM WORLD BANK IN EARLY APRIL 2009

ArmInfo
2009-03-19 12:51:00

ArmInfo. Armenia expects a $50 million credit from World Bank in
early April 2009, Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan said at
the government Thursday.

He said the credit agreement with the WB has already undergone all
the officially procedures and was approved by the Armenian Parliament
Wednesday.

‘We think Armenia will receive $50 million from the World Bank within
two weeks’, the premier said. It is an anti-crisis program. The
funds will be provided to the Central Bank and then placed with
local commercial banks for onlending to SMEs. T. Sargsyan said the
government will exert efforts to find additional funds for onlending
SMEs. ‘I think that demand for borrowed funds will be higher than
the proposed $50 million. We have already agreed with international
organizations for increase of crediting’, the premier said. He said
that in current conditions operative implementation of the program
is very important. ‘We should follow that these funds placed with
commercial banks within a short period of time’, the premier said.

To recall, Central Bank of Armenia and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development [IBRD], part of the WB, signed a credit
agreement for $50 million on February 26. The greatest part of the
funds will be onlent to small and medium-sized enterprises. However,
the agreement implies also crediting in terms of US dollars. The
program will involve the enterprises whose annual turnover does not
exceed 500 million drams ($1.3 million). The credit is provided for
26,5 years, 5- year grace period and 4% annual interest.

IRAN-ARMENIA RAILWAY IMPORTANT FOR THE REGION

The Messenger
March 17 2009
Georgia

While meeting the Iranian Foreign Minister on March 11 Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian stated that the Iran-Armenia railway
construction would be important not for the two countries alone but
the entire region. Iran and Armenia are cooperating in different areas
including transportation, energy supplies and road construction which
stimulate the implementation of new projects. Today there are different
projects being negotiated such as the construction of railways between
the two countries and the building of a hydro electro power station
on the river Araks and terminal for oil products in Armenia.

Armenian Parliament Speaker Ovik Abramian has stated that Armenia’s
losses during the Georgian-Russian war would have been much greater
if not for Iran’s support. The Speaker added that Iran has always
been a good neighbour of Armenia.

TO VISIT ARMENIA TOURISTS TO PAY 5 TIMES LESS STATE TAX THAN EARLIER

ArmInfo
2009-03-16 14:18:00

ArmInfo. Today Armenian parliament made alterations and amendments
to the law ‘On state tax’ in the first reading.

As Armenian Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsyan said, the law will
resolve two problems. First, the state tax on getting visa for 21
days will be reduced from the [resent 15thsd drams to 3thsd. This
will make it possible to activate the tourist business and attract
additional number of tourists to the country. The second problem is
regarding definition and giving of "stars" to hotels. It is envisaged
to fix the state tax for the hotels which have ‘stars’. Those which
have 3 stars will pay less than others with mote stars.

This will make hotels of the republic available for foreign tourists.

Moreover, tourism will grow by 3-5%.

ESTABLISHING RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA TURKEY CHOOSES THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE: LOCAL EXPERT

ArmInfo
2009-03-16 14:14:00

ArmInfo. Turkey has chosen the path of least resistance denying the
Genocide and does not allow any other country to recognize it at
the same time establishing its relations with Armenia independently,
Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, the local political expert told ArmInfo.

‘Given the fact that one of the preconditions of Turkey’s admission
to the EU is normalization of relations with Armenia, Turkey is
establishing good-neighbored relations with Armenia automatically
lifting the problem of genocide recognition at least for the
transitional period of joining the EU’, he said.

The expert does not share the certain sense of euphoria among Armenian
citizens for establishment of relations between Yerevan and Ankara. ‘I
don’t think this new wave of Armenian-Turkish relations is a reason
for such euphoria. Let’s remember Garegin Nzhdeh and his great phrase
"Turks are masters in imitating friendship". I think it is the very
situation now’, he said.

‘Turkey simply needs improving relations with Armenia or at least
creating such visibility for several reasons. First, Turkey wants to
prevent recognition of Armenian Genocide by a number of states. They
will have a new triumph card since Turkey is launching negotiations
with Armenia for establishment of diplomatic relations and declares
that recognition of Armenian Genocide by a third country will have a
negative impact of Armenia-Turkey relations. The logic is not clear,
of course. However, it works’, the expert says.

Fresno Bee, CA
March 12 2009

Armenian population numbers are a chilling reminder of genocide

Thursday, Mar. 12, 2009 E-Mail

A chilling bit of new evidence has emerged in the controversy over the
Armenian genocide, and it comes from an unlikely source: the records
of the man who was in charge of the deportation of tens of thousands
of Armenians during World War I, when the genocide began.

A book published in Turkey in January quotes records left by Mehmed
Talat, the Ottoman Empire’s interior minister during that period. By
the numbers, the population of Armenians in the empire fell
dramatically in 1915-1916, from just under 1.3 million to a little
more than 280,000. Almost 1 million people simply disappeared from the
records.

The modern-day Turkish government, as always, has little to say about
the figures beyond its standard line about there being a war on, and
the Armenians were treacherously supporting Russia, the Ottomans’
ancient enemy.

As always, that story doesn’t wash. The armed opposition of a tiny
handful of Armenians doesn’t explain the Ottomans’ perceived need to
deport, starve and kill some 1.5 million people, many thousands of
them old men, women and children.

This revelation will add new fuel to the campaign for official
American recognition of the genocide. April 24, the traditional day
marking the beginning of the genocide, is coming up, and with it a
renewed effort to put the American government on record acknowledging
those awful events.

To that end, a group of congressmen who’ve lobbied hard for genocide
recognition has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, calling on
him to fulfill his earlier support, as a senator and presidential
candidate, for American recognition of the genocide. The group is led
by Rep. George Radanovich — a co-author of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution — and includes Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, Mark Kirk,
R-Ill., and Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

There will be considerable pressure brought to bear on Obama to
continue the denial of the Armenian genocide that has characterized
presidents of both parties for decades. The argument has been that the
U.S. relationship with Turkey would be threatened by recognizing the
historical fact of the genocide, given the Turks’ intransigence on the
subject.

It’s time for that to end.

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