Author: Chavushian

CRUNCH GOES COMMERCIAL
By Hubble Smith, [email protected]

Las Vegas Review – Journal
Oct. 08, 2008
NV

Industrial real estate markets search for stability amid frozen
financing, rising vacancy

Andy Armenian of Vegas Valley Commercial, right, on Tuesday shows a
North Las Vegas warehouse to prospective buyers Peter Mayr-Mautner,
center, Bernard Kiel, back, and broker Danielle Steffen. Industrial
vacancy reached 9.2 percent during the third quarter, up from 8.6
percent in the previous quarter, Grubb & Ellis reported.

Photos by Jason Bean/Review-Journal

Broker Andy Armenian of Vegas Valley Commercial on Tuesday stands
inside one of his listed warehouses in North Las Vegas. Photo

Housing isn’t the only real estate market being crushed by the tidal
wave on Wall Street.

The credit crisis is now having a greater effect on commercial real
estate than the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, a September
report from the DLA Piper global law firm shows.

Andy Armenian, owner and broker of Vegas Valley Commercial, sees this
unfolding daily in Las Vegas. His firm represents the seller of a
29,900-square-foot industrial building at 4080 N. Pecos Road that’s
been reduced to $3.5 million, or about $117 a square foot.

Two years ago, investors would have grabbed that property for $145 to
$150 a square foot with a down payment of 5 percent to 10 percent,
Armenian said; now they’ve got to come up with 20 percent to 25
percent down to get a loan.

It’s a sign of the times as commercial markets search for
stabilization, local observers said.

"You’re going to see sales prices dropping and properties pulled off
the market because they can’t get their price," Jeff Barton of Grubb
& Ellis said. "Also, who’s going to lend right now? We’ve got to get
a true valuation on the sales side and we’ve got to see what happens
with the banks, if they get comfortable with lending again."

The industrial market in Las Vegas, once driven by demand for big-box
distribution and warehouse space, has changed drastically in the last
two years.

Industrial vacancy reached 9.2 percent during the third quarter, up
from 8.6 percent in the previous quarter and 5.9 percent a year ago,
Grubb & Ellis reported. Average annual asking rent ranged from $6.71
a square foot for warehouse and distribution space to $12.45 a square
foot for research and development space.

Landlords no longer have the upper hand in setting rental rates,
Barton said. They’re offering rent concessions and increasing tenant
improvement allowances to upward of $50 a square foot.

For the first time in eight years, industrial construction fell below
1 million square feet in Las Vegas.

Most developers are waiting for evidenced demand for space,
stabilization of rental rates and a reduction in land prices before
venturing back into the market, Barton said.

Lack of available financing remains the chief concern of respondents
to DLA’s September survey on the state of the market.

"Frustrated with the ongoing credit crisis that continues to reshape
the financial markets, real estate executives are expressing a new
record level of bearish sentiment as they continue to be reminded
of the cyclical nature of the industry after nearly a decade of
prosperity," the report said.

Before the collapse of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., American
International Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., the majority of
survey respondents said that the savings and loan crisis was the event
that had the greatest impact on the real estate industry in the past
20 years.

That sentiment changed after Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy. Eighty
percent of respondents do not believe that these events signal the
bottom of the cycle, nor do they see it as the "first sign of light
at the end of the credit crisis tunnel."

Las Vegas’ industrial market has not been immune to the economic
downturn, Donna Alderson of CB Richard Ellis said.

Net absorption, or the total amount of space leased, fell to 18,400
square feet during the quarter. The airport, Henderson and northwest
submarkets show negative year-to-date absorption.

Average monthly lease rates dropped to 73 cents a square foot, down
3 cents from the previous quarter and down 6 cents from a year ago,
CB Richard Ellis reported.

Major companies continue to move into Southern Nevada with its
attractive tax structure, Alderson said. Amazon.com took 142,000 square
feet for a plant in North Las Vegas that will create more than 300
jobs and RC Willey Home Furnishings leased another 45,000 square feet.

The local commercial real estate market’s condition is not all doom
and gloom. Forbes.com ranked Las Vegas among the top 10 U.S. cities
for commercial investment.

"In the commercial real estate market, we are seeing moderate demand
for rental apartment complexes while office buildings continue hurting
for the next year," Armenian said. "In the industrial sector, new
construction has considerably slowed and generally we expect the
market to stabilize during third and fourth quarter of 2009."

SOPRANO REMEMBERS GENOCIDE IN SONG
By Timothy Mangan, [email protected]

OCRegister
Monday, October 6, 2008
CA

Review: Canadian-Armenian singer Isabel Bayrakdarian performs in O.C.

The Orange County Register

Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian’s concert, Sunday evening in Segerstrom
Concert Hall, was not a garden variety singing recital. The event was
part of her "Remembrance" tour, dedicated to "all victims of genocide,"
and supported in part by the International Institute for Genocide
and Human Rights Studies. As such, the concert had a somber side,
to be sure, but the subject of genocide served mostly as subtext
rather than as explicit musical material.

It was also an expression of national pride. The music of Gomidas
Vartabed (1869-1935) served as the focal point. Regarded as Armenia’s
national composer, Gomidas was a priest, composer, choirmaster and
ethnomusicologist, trained in the West, who codified and clarified
Armenia’s sacred and folk music, much in the manner that Bartok did
in Hungary. Bayrakdarian has just released an album (on Nonesuch)
of his songs, seldom heard here, but apparently well known and loved
by the Armenians in Sunday’s audience.

The project has obviously been a labor of love for the soprano. Born in
Lebanon to Armenian parents, but raised in Canada (she is a Canadian
citizen), Bayrakdarian became interested in this music during a
recent visit to her homeland. Her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian,
arranged some of the material, and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra,
conducted by Anne Manson, is taking part in the tour.

Gomidas’s songs predate the Armenian genocide of 1915. In that
year, the composer was deported to Cankiri, but, partly through the
intercession of an American ambassador, was released. He never did
recover from the experience, though, and never did compose again,
dying in a mental institution in Paris.

His folk songs heard here have a special tang and
simplicity. Typically, the vocal line is long and ornate, decorated
with jumping rhythms and quick-turning filigree, and the accompaniment
is simple but evocative. Many of them have a haunting, mysterious
quality.

Bayrakdarian, who made a charming Susannah in a recent production of
"The Marriage of Figaro" at L.A. Opera, and who sings on many of the
world’s big operatic stages these days, performed them with disarming
sincerity. Most of the time, she pared down her silvery soprano to
fit the intimate scope of the music, but she also had her operatic
chops in reserve, resonating at peaks. She stressed the long line
above all else, using vibrato sparely, suppressing self-serving nuance.

Gomidas’ "Without a Home" and "The Crane," among others, expressed the
sad side of folk music, slow and yearning numbers bearing witness to
hard peasant life. But there were love songs and children’s songs,
too, playful and sunny. Bayrakdarian negotiated the acrobatics in
these latter pieces with lively grace. Kradjian’s string orchestra
arrangements of the piano accompaniments were models of restraint
and good taste, while also atmospherically resonant.

To a couple of these songs, Kradjian added an Armenian folk instrument,
the duduk (played by Hampic Djabourian), a double reed woodwind
that sounds a little like a crumhorn crossed with a soft, muted
trumpet. Lovely. He also arranged Ravel’s "Deux melodies hebraïques"
for strings and voice in aptly acidic style.

Kradjian performed several of Gomidas’s dances for piano, folk pieces
that revealed the Western influences of Chopin and Bach, delicate
things that he played with a light touch.

Manson and the Manitobans added Bartok’s "Romanian Folk Dances,"
several of the Op. 11 "Greek Dances" by Nikos Skalkottas (a pupil
of Schoenberg), and the spiky "Variations on a Moravian Folksong"
from the Partita for Strings by Gideon Klein, who wrote them shortly
before his death in a German concentration camp. Manson led the solid,
polished orchestra in robust and committed performances.

–Boundary_(ID_O21TiLqZnXPGUi1C+2zL /g)–

THE RIGHTS STUFF
Victoria Prais

The Lawyer
6-Oct-2008
UK

Victoria Prais travelled to Armenia to train newly qualified judges
on the ins and outs of Article 5 of the European Convention on
Human Rights – and found encouraging signs that the legislation
is making an impact In June this year I was invited by the Council
of Europe to train Armenian judges in criminal procedure under the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and related extradition
issues. The training was to be co-sponsored by the Association of
­Armenian Judges.

I was both nervous and excited about going to Armenia. I had no real
prior ­expectations of what the country would be like and indeed
whether it would be safe.

I had worked in Kosovo for the UN ­peacekeeping mission and was used
to life in a tough environment. But I was pleasantly surprised to
feel entirely safe walking around the city on my own. The cityscape
is what you might expect to find of an ex-­Soviet republic: grand
marbled buildings, an aptly named Republic Square and imposing statues
of famous Armenians. The people, however, were wonderfully warm and
­hospitable.

Armenia is a constitutional republic with a population of approximately
3.2m. I arrived following a turbulent six months for the country. The
new president, Serge Sarkisian, was inaugurated on 9 April ­following
presidential elections. Post-­election violence in March had earlier
led to a 20-day state of emergency being declared.

Armenia joined the Council of Europe in January 2001 and ratified the
ECHR in April 2002. My remit was to train a group of first-instance
judges on the general ­principles of Article 5 of the ECHR, which
provides for the right to liberty and ­security of person. The judges
had been recently appointed and their knowledge of the ECHR ranged
from non-existent to fairly competent.

My training focused on such issues as the lawfulness of detention, the
right to bail and the provision of safeguards for those in detention. I
delivered the training alongside the head of the international law
department from the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, who
focused on ­extradition issues under Article 5.

There is a three-tier court system in ­Armenia, introduced on 1
January this year, that includes courts of first instance, the Court
of Appeal (criminal and civil), the Court of Cassation (similar to
the House of Lords) and a specialist economic court.

I soon discovered, as the training ­progressed, that some of
the current ­practices and procedures fell far short of being
compliant with Article 5. Pre-trial detention, for example, is a real
problem. The law provides that a suspect may not be detained for more
than 12 months, but some defendants were in pre-trial detention for
three or more years.

Convictions in absentia also raised ­problems for the judiciary. Some
30 per cent of detainees are, in fact, fugitives and wanted
persons. Such convictions are not per se inconsistent with Article
5 and do not conflict with the provisions of the ECHR. The judges
expressed concern, ­however, that making a decision to detain a
fugitive in his or her absence breached the terms of Article 5. We
examined the case law from the European Court of Human Rights for
guidance.

I was greatly encouraged by the judges’ enthusiasm. I found them on
the whole to be interested and receptive to the training and they were
keen to understand the general principles and jurisprudence of the
ECHR. I was asked many probing questions on both ECHR jurisprudence
and the ­implementation of Article 5 in the UK.

My second talk focused on Article 5, ­control orders and terrorism
– my current area of specialisation at the Treasury ­Solicitor’s
Department. The judges were particularly interested to know how they
could implement the principles into their own domestic legislation
so as to be ­compliant with the ECHR.

So what is the future for the Armenian legal system? Changes do
need to be made to ensure compliance with European human rights
standards. These changes will not happen overnight and progress will
be incremental and take time. But the will is there to forge ahead
and the human rights discourse has started.

Victoria Prais is a lawyer at the Treasury Solicitor’s Department
specialising in ­terrorism and national security cases

–Boundary_(ID_XWC38K41oATvOPGgPV6mUg)–

RECURRENT SHIFT OF ARMENIAN PEACEKEEPERS TO RETURN FROM IRAQ

armradio.am
06.10.2008 16:52

On October 7 the solemn ceremony of welcoming the last shift of
peacekeepers carrying out activity within the stabilization forces in
Iraq will take place at Zvartnots Airport in presence of the senior
Officer staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, Spokesman
for the Ministry of Defense, Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan informed.

PRODUCTIVE AND POSITIVE

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Oct 2008
Armenia

American side estimates the meeting between Armenian President Serge
Sargsyan and the US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as productive
and positive, especially in terms of the discussion of bilateral and
regional topics. Spokesman to the State Secretariat Shon McCormack
estimated Armenian ` Turkish ` Azerbaijani trilateral meeting in New
York as a positive step. `We must estimate the discussions on the
topics of US-Armenia bilateral relations, Armenian-Turkish relations,
and Yerevan-Ankara-Baku trilateral touches, which took place in New
York, between Armenian President Serge Sargsyan and US Secretary of
State Condoleeza Rice as productive and positive. In general
Armenian-American relations develop steadily, on good grounds.

Armenia -Turkey- Azerbaijan trilateral meeting is a positive step
tended to the settlement of the issues faced by Caucasus,’ Shon
McCormack said.

SARGSYAN, LAVROV DISCUSS KARABAKH PROCESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.10.2008 16:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met Friday with
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss bilateral relations,
recent developments in the Caucasus, efforts for establishment of
regional stability and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
process, the RA leader’s press office told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The Armenian President made special mention of developing strategic
cooperation between Armenia and Russia.

CANADIAN COMMUNITIES UNITE TO REMEMBER VICTIMS OF CRIMES OF COMMUNISM
[email protected]

Observatorul
S aturday, Oct 04, 2008
Canada

Representatives from Canada’s ethno-cultural communities have created
a non-profit organization, Tribute to Liberty, to establish a memorial
in Ottawa to the Victims of the Crimes of Communism.

"Because of this project Canadians will have an opportunity to learn
about the Crimes of Communism, and how they have affected the lives
of so many Canadians. Public awareness is very low in terms of the
huge number of Canadians who have suffered under Communism in the
countries they came from, and this memorial will change that," says
Philip Leong, Tribute to Liberty Board Chair.

"Ambassadors and their delegates from 14 countries have written to
the Prime Minister calling for the creation of a memorial," says
Leong. "We hope to build on that broad international endorsement with
comparable support from Canadians coast to coast to coast."

Proponents of the project are engaging with representatives from a
range of communities in Canada including Afghan, Armenian, Chinese,
Cuban, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Mennonite, Polish, Russian, Slovakian, Tibetan, Ukrainian and
Vietnamese, among others.

The members of the Tribute to Liberty Board of Directors are Philip
Leong, Chair; Alide Forstmanis, Treasurer; Reet Marten-Sehr, Secretary;
Alexandra Chyczij; and Wladyslaw Lizon.

FROM REVOLUTION TO REFORMS
Armen Tsaturyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
03 Oct 2008
Armenia

Armenian National Congress Changes Its Strategy

If we try to thoroughly study the strategy used by the camp headed
by Levon Ter-Petrosyan during the recent two months, then we will
definitely record their course of action.

It is well known that after February 19 Presidential elections
the strategy of the various political forces gathered around Levon
Ter-Petrosyan was aimed at staging "colored revolution" and after
the tragic events of March 1 it became more evident.

But after the post-election "storm and attack", very noteworthy changes
took place in this political camp. Whole spring and summer of 2008,
was a period of "indefinite expectations" for Levon’s followers.

They were trying to convince themselves and their supporters that
the regress of the "pan-national movement" is temporary. Immediately
after the hot summer people will return from holidays, they will over
again start complaining from the "criminal administration" and the
movement will become more powerful. Which is why, after closing the
spring-summer season of the demonstrations Levon Ter-Petrosyan and
his followers promised fiery autumn.

But autumn came, September is over and it was really fiery, but in
terms of not internal but external political events. And during the
whole period the opposition, which=2 0was trying to transform from
"pan-national movement" to "Armenian National Congress" and its
leader, was evidently controlling the activeness of their most active
supporters, reasoning it by the external political processes taking
place in the region that could have allegedly harmed our country’s
interests.

But everyone knows that during the 8 years of his power the before
mentioned circle of the political figures have many times demonstrated
classical examples of the violation of national interests.

Which means the problem is quite different. Ter-Petrosyan and the
Congress formed by the latter were trying to gain time, waiting for
the failure of the new authorities. Which is why they postponed the
rally of September 5, under the plea of the visit of Turkish President
Abdullah Gyul to Yerevan, allegedly not to harm the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations.

But the period of not harming national interests is also over. Armenian
National Congress postponed the demonstration of September 12; they
decided to hold it on September 15, because Yerevan municipality
endowed to hold meetings that day.

Our modern revolutionaries, who were accustomed to holding illegal
meetings manifested restraint and didn’t take any illegal step on
September 15.

Judging from all Levon Ter-Petrosyan was getting prepared for a
long-term political struggle. Substituting the discredited name
"Armenian Pan Na tional Movement" by "Armenian National Congress" our
ex-president intentionally moves forward the strategy of squeezing like
a sponge all the parties that have joint the congress. Representatives
of different parties and whole parties become members of the congress;
as a consequence many active representatives of "Nor Jamanakner"
and "People’s Party of Armenia" gradually but consistently leave
their parties.

The slogan of becoming a "long-term political factor" presumes, strong
and united party with lots of members, based on the political platform
of Armenian Pan National Movement. This means Ter-Petrosyan already
recorded for himself the end of the post election "storm and attack",
which is why the newly established congress slowly but consistently
gets prepared for the next parliamentary elections.

The main obstacle for the final clarification of the reformist
political guideline was the issue of the release of the detained. This
issue also seems to find its solution.

Thus during the recent weeks noteworthy and prospective processes take
place in Armenia’s political life. The period of the post-election
developments comes to a close, which was prolonged only due to the
summer holidays. And radical opposition slowly but consistently
substitutes its revolutionary course of action by reformism.

SCHULWEIS SELECTED FOR L.A. COUNTY HUMANITARIAN AWARD
By Brad A. Greenberg

The Jewish Journal of greater L.A
October 1, 2008
CA

Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino will be
honored Oct. 23 with the John Allen Buggs Humanitarian Award, given
out annually by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

Schulweis, who will receive the prize during the John Anson Ford
Human Relations Awards luncheon, is best known today for delivering
a Rosh Hashanah sermon four years ago that laid the groundwork for
his human-rights organization, Jewish World Watch, which has been a
leading voice in fighting the genocide in Darfur.

"In as much as God created every human being, every race, every
color in his image, then they are His children and they are our
brothers and sisters," the 83-year-old rabbi said recently in a brief
interview. "We have an obligation to care for them, to heal their sick,
to feed their hungry and to lift up their fallen."

Schulweis came to Valley Beth Shalom in 1970 and has long been one
of the most influential rabbis in the country. Throughout the years
he has pushed for broader recognition of the Armenian genocide,
and in 1986 he started the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous,
which provides financial support to non-Jews who helped endangered
Jews during the Holocaust but now find themselves in need.

"Rabbi Schulweis has been the spokesperson for our greatest moral
causes," L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. "And
he has never ceased to remind us that silence in the face of genocide
is inexcusable, and rhetoric without action is unacceptable."

SERZH SARGSYAN: WE HAVE MUCH TO DO BUT IN ORDER TO DO IT WE NEED OUR CENTURIES-OLD VALUES

ArmInfo
2008-10-02 18:20:00

ArmInfo. We have much to do – to develop our economy, to strengthen
our statehood, to ensure our security – but in order to do it we need
out centuries-old values, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said
in his address to his people and parliament today.

We need scientists who will discover new mysteries of the universe but
we also need scientists who will share their knowledge and experience
with their colleagues as this generosity will help us to discover
new sources of energy. We need constructors who can build bridges and
roads but we also need constructors who build roads bypassing forests
because they know that tomorrow their daughters and sons may want to
walk there some day. We need qualified doctors but we also doctors
who can feel compassion for those who they treat.

Sargsyan pointed out that education in Armenia had to be based
on national values. Our teachers must follow the values they
propagate. Transfer of national values must be the basis of our
education system.