Author: Chmshkian Vicken

ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OFFERED PROPOSAL TO GEORGIA

Lragir
Aug 17 2007
Armenia

Armenia proposes founding an Armenian-Georgian university in
Javakheti, stated the minister of education and science Levon
Mkrtichyan in a news conference on August 17. He said they offered
this proposal to the Georgian government and they expect to make
arrangements during the visit of the Georgian minister of education
to Armenia in fall. Levon Mkrtichyan says Armenia had offered to
open a branch of an Armenian university in Georgia but the Georgian
party refused. Afterwards the Armenian party offered to found an
Armenian-Georgian university. According to the Armenian minister
of education and science, this practice is spread and accepted
in the world, and if Javakheti is viewed as a bridge between the
Armenian and Georgian relations, Georgia has no reason to reject
this proposal because similar universities are a form of expressing
friendly relations.

"If Georgia rejects this proposal, we have the right to ask why the
idea of an Armenian-Georgian university is rejected," says Levon
Mkrtichyan. During the visit of the Georgian minister of education
another issue will be raised – the problem of providing guidelines
on entrance to Armenian universities to Javakheti. Levon Mkrtichyan
says the Armenian government will finance, and only the consent of
the Georgian government if needed.

To facilitate the entrance exams for students from Javakheti,
the Armenian ministry of education and science has modified the
regulations of entrance exams for Diasporan students, eliminating
exams in Armenian.

SWINGING ADDIS
Rachel Aspden

New Statesman, UK
Aug 16 2007

Ethiopian pop was killed off by dictatorship, but left a rich and
eccentric legacy.

Ethiopian pop was born not in a smoky downtown nightclub, but in
the unpromisingly austere corridors of an Orthodox monastery. On
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1924, Ras Tafari – soon to become
the emperor Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lion of Judah – met
a marching band of young Armenians orphaned in the recent Ottoman
massacres. After a brief consultation with the Armenian Patriarch,
he shipped the "Arba Lijoch" ("Forty Kids") back to Addis Ababa and
installed them as the imperial band. Trumpets, trombones and military
music arrived, colliding with the traditional krar (lyre) and begena
(King David’s harp).

Unlike its West African cousins, the weird, haunted music that
resulted has remained largely unknown in the west. In the 1960s and
1970s, while Accra, Bamako and Dakar were turning out perfect R’n’B
pop songs, soul ballads and full-on psychedelia (collected on the
recent Luaka Bop CD Love’s a Real Thing: the Funky Fuzzy Sounds of
West Africa), Addis musicians were playing downbeat jazz overlaid
with the snake-charmer discordancies of traditional Ethiopian vocals.

The music’s eccentricity may have saved it from "nomad chic" or
"global fusion". Now, its undeserved obscurity is challenged by The
Very Best of Ethiopiques, the French collector Francis Falceto’s pick
of what was originally a 22-CD series of 1960s and 1970s Ethiopiana.

The story – or myth – traced on Ethiopiques is partly one of historical
accident. Mountainous, anciently Christian, fiercely insular and the
only nation in Africa to escape colonisation, Ethiopia has little in
common with its neighbours. Its adoption of 20th-century saxophone,
trumpet and guitar intruders was slow and suspicious. Independent
western-style groups were banned, but the emperor’s favourite Armenians
were allowed to train approved (and salaried) institutional ensembles:
the Imperial Bodyguard Band, the Army Band, the Police Band, the
Municipality Band and the Haile Selassie Theatre Band.

But not even Selassie could fend off American jazz, R’n’B and pop. By
the 1950s, the Imperial Bodyguard Band was moonlighting as a dapper,
tuxedo-clad, Glen Miller-style set-up. Then, in the mid-1960s, 6,000
US Peace Corps volunteers arrived bearing (besides more essential gear)
flares, miniskirts, guitars and Stax and Motown records.

Soldiers from the US army base at Asmara, now the capital of Eritrea,
lent out their records and played jazz in bars around town. As the
ageing emperor’s grip on power weakened, institutional musicians
skipped off after work to play new-style jazz, funk and soul in
the nightclubs of Addis. For a few years, for a few Ethiopians,
their capital swung. Then, in 1974, the Derg military dictatorship
closed the clubs, instituted a curfew that lasted 17 years, and killed
Ethiopian pop stone dead.

Ethiopiques’s tale of the rise and fall of Swinging Addis is an
exercise in nostalgia – a mind- set so Ethiopian, that it has given
its name to the country’s own version of the blues, tezeta. Mulatu
Astatqe’s "Tezeta", "Yekermo Sew", "Yekatit" and "Gubelye" are
tezeta with a jazz twist: slinky, skewed instrumentals punctuated
by mournful sax solos. Astatqe was the first Ethiopian musician to
train in the west (in New York, where he played in Harlem clubs),
and his "Ethiojazz" is the most polished and cinematic music of this
collection. It is also – uncoincidentally – the best known in the
west, after Jim Jarmusch used it on the soundtrack to his 2005 study
of one man and his past, Broken Flowers.

But the nostalgia of Ethiopiques is not simply atmospheric. Having
struggled their way out of the imperial-era institutional bands, the
country’s big stars faced, from the mid-1970s, censorship, intimidation
and exile. Falceto’s liner notes make sad reading: Girma Beyene "sank
into the limbo of the anonymous Ethiopian diaspora"; Bahta Gebre-Heywet
"gave up singing to become an accountant at the Ambassador Cinema" in
Addis; Ayalew Mesfin "left some years ago to try his luck in the USA";
Tewelde Redda "lives as a refugee in the Netherlands"; Muluqen Mellesse
"emigrated to the United States and abandoned his career to embrace
Pentecostalism". A few still scrape a living by playing at weddings
or the Ethiopian restaurants around Washington, DC, a shadow-world
described in Dinaw Mengestu’s recent novel Children of the Revolution.

The musical remains of their "golden age" (which Falceto estimates
consists of "500 seven inches and 30 LPs") are eccentrically varied.

Typically recorded with a couple of microphones in the clubs, they are
also rougher-edged than Astatqe’s urbane arabesques. Mahmoud Ahmed’s
"Atawurulegn Lela", "Fetsum Denq Ledj Nesh", "Metche New" and "Ere
Mela Mela" – the first Ethiopian song that Falceto released, in 1986
– are nasal, powerfully sung anthems. Alemayehu Eshete borrows his
grunts, snarls and chuckles from James Brown, while Getatchew Mekurya
translates old war cries into manically over blown saxophone solos on
"Shellela".

These are defiantly urban styles, but there are also traces of
Ethiopia’s traditional music, largely played by azmari, the slightly
disreputable minstrel class famed for its satirical wordplay and
skill with the krar. One of the best tracks on Ethiopiques is Tewelde
Redda’s Eritrean independence song "Milenu", a mesmeric mix of loping,
hitching beat, blurred bassline and a tangle of lyre and guitar. It’s
sunny and surprising, and a reminder that Ethiopia’s answer to western
music was more than picturesque melancholy.

"The Very Best of Ethiopiques" (Union Square/ Manteca) is out now.

IRAN TO LEAD CENTRAL ASIA

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Aug 15 2007

This week, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad kicks off a tour of
neighboring states in South and Central Asia with a trip that begins
in Kabul and ends in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in time to attend the next
summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Asia Times
Online reported.

With the security deterioration in Afghanistan, openly admitted to by
that country’s President Hamid Karzai on his recent trip to Washington,
and rising Islamic militancy in the region and in China’s western
autonomous region of Xinjiang, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a
key regional player that can be counted on by the SCO member states,
irrespective of China’s recent misgivings about Iran’s inclusion as
a full member.

In Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad will reiterate Iran’s good-neighborly
policy, perhaps much to the chagrin of US President George W Bush,
who openly disagreed with Karzai’s pro-Iran comments at their recent
joint press conference. With their porous 936-kilometer border, Iran
and Afghanistan are grappling with a growing menace of drug traffic
that exacts the lives of hundreds of Iranian law-enforcement agents
annually, in addition to the deadly resurgence of the Taliban who,
having regrouped in Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks on the
Afghan government and US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces
stationed in the war-ravaged country.

In Turkmenistan, the country’s new leader, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov,
is playing a balancing act between Iran and Russia, in contrast to his
predecessor, Sapamurat Niyazov, who was closely aligned with Iran and
signed a (hitherto undisclosed) military pact. Considered a welcome
departure from Niyazov’s cultic brand of politics, Berdimuhamedov
is keen on not antagonizing Moscow, tantalizing it with offers of
marketing his country’s abundant gas resources through a pipeline to
Russia. Already, Turkmenistan has entered an agreement with Iran for
the transit of its gas to Turkey and Europe.

Iran and Turkmenistan have similar perspectives on the hitherto
inconclusive marathon discussions on the division of the Caspian Sea.

Iran is weary of any undue shift in Turkmenistan’s foreign policy in
Russia’s favor at a delicate time when Iran-Russia relations have hit
a new low as a result of the nuclear row and Russia’s appeasement
of Washington’s demand to link the fate of the Russian-made power
plant in Bushehr to the nuclear crisis. With President Vladimir Putin
beginning to flex Russian military muscle on Georgia, and through
a joint military exercise with China, Iran’s concerns about a new
Russian militarism are unmistakable.

In Uzbekistan, home to a US military base, Iran seeks to enhance
economic cooperation in part by improving the transportation
corridor between the two countries. According to Iran’s ambassador
to Uzbekistan, trade between Iran and Uzbekistan in the first nine
months of 2006 reached US$450 million. About 70 joint ventures and
representative offices of big Iranian companies are operating in the
various sectors of the Uzbek economy. Iran is soliciting Tashkent’s
support on Iran’s nuclear program, and that is only one of several
reasons Tehran, always considering Uzbekistan a regional middleweight,
is keen on cultivating relations.

In the "near neighbor" Tajikistan, considered close to Iran’s heart
because of various cultural and historical connections, Tehran’s aim is
to build on the progress made as a result of the January visit by the
Tajik President Imomali Rahmonov, which paved the way for an expansion
of bilateral ties, eg agreements providing for Iranian assistance for
several Tajik infrastructure projects, including construction of the
Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power station and the Shahristan Tunnel.

In light of the continuing tensions between and among the Central
Asian states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan over scarce
water and arable land, Iran is a suitable mediator with a rather
shining record, seeing how it successfully brokered peace among the
Tajik warring factions during the mid-1990s. Unfortunately, to this
date, Iran’s conflict-management role, both in Tajikistan and in the
Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, have remained
largely unnoticed in the Western media’s coverage of Iran.

In Kazakhstan, Iran seeks to boost its oil and trade relations and to
do so partly by arranging sub-national, ie, region-to-region relations
through its Caspian provinces. Kazakhstan has an oil-swap agreement
with Iran, whereby every year some 1.2 million barrels of oil are
exported from Aktau, Kazakhstan, to Iran, which then transports this
oil to the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region.

Iran’s oil companies are active in Kazakh oil activities in the
Caspian Sea and, barring unforeseen developments, the two countries
can expand their trade even beyond the US$2 billion reported for 2006.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has expressed support for Iran’s
peaceful nuclear program and may even push aggressively for Iran’s
inclusion in the SCO, given Kazakhstan’s close yet not too close
relations with both China and Russia. Kazakhstan is averse toward
SCO’s evolution as a Warsaw Treaty-like organization, which is why
it has "sent a signal to Washington" by not allowing the Chinese
soldiers participating in the joint exercise to travel to Russia
through its territory.

In Kyrgyzstan, after a recent trip by Iran’s finance minister promising
the allocation of Iran’s 50 million euros ($66.67 million) credit for
joint development and industrial projects in Bishkek, Iran is looking
to expand ties in all domains, as part and parcel of it broader Central
Asian policy that includes the ambitious plans for a "new Silk Road"
connecting Iran and China through the region.

All five Central Asian states and Afghanistan are members of the
regional Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which has been a
forum for discussion among these states for trade and transportation
linkages among them. By more organically connecting Afghanistan to
Central Asia within the scope of its regionalist approach, Iran hopes
to see a certain geopolitical dividend emerge that may, in fact,
influence the SCO’s approach toward it.

A timely boost to the hitherto neglected aspect of Ahmadinejad’s
foreign policy, which has been understandably more preoccupied with
the volatile Persian Gulf and Iraq, his tour of the region will not
only reinforce Iran’s image as a pillar of cooperation and stability,
it will also indirectly help Iran’s Persian Gulf strategy, which has
met the resistance of Saudi Arabia (boycotting last week’s security
meeting on Iraq held in Damascus).

After all, Iran can also play transit route for the Arab states of
Persian Gulf seeking trade and investment in the landlocked Central
Asian states. That aside, geostrategically speaking, Iran eases
pressure on itself by getting more breathing space in this newly
independent region still grappling with the problems of state-making.

FIRE BRIGADE DISCOVERS BURNT FOOD AFTER EMERGENCY CALL

Panorama.am
15:28 14/08/2007

Fire started at a nearby gorge of Hrazdan stadium of Yerevan at night
today. One fire brigade left for the place of the accident after the
emergency call. The fire was put out at 02:39 a.m. The grass on the
space of two hundred square meters was burnt down. Another fire started
at 4th massive of Nor Nork community today resulting in extermination
of twenty square meters of garbage. Rescue Service say five fire
brigades were needed to put out the fire set out on the roof of 63
Movses Khornatsy 4th Lane. The brigade managed to put out the fire in
two hours. The fire destroyed 200 square meters of space on the roof.

Sixty outmoded tires burned by fire in the vicinity of 12/1 Tadevosyan
Street. Another emergency call was received on that fire started in
one of the apartments at Aigestan 9th street. The fire brigade found
out at the place of the incident that food left carelessly on the
gas oven was on fire.

RA PRESIDENT’S OPTIMISM "HAS TURNED MORE CAUTIOUS"

armradio.am
13.08.2007 16:57

RA President’s Spokesman Viktor Soghomonyan said in an interview
with Mediamax that the Armenian President’s optimism regarding the
perspectives of the Karabakh conflict solution "has become more
cautious."

Commenting on the current stage of negotiations and the statements
of official Baku that the process has entered a deadlock, Viktor
Soghomonyan noted, "In reality, it is very difficult to give a definite
evaluation to the current state of negotiations. I would prefer to
keep away from harsh formulations, especially considering that, as
a rule, the evaluations of the negotiation process by conflicting
sides are often subjective."

"In any case, the reality is that the talks have not yielded any
results thus far. For us the reasons of this situation are clear. It
is the destructive position of the Azerbaijani side, the illusions
that time can be turned back, history can be edited and there can be
a return to the situation of 1988.

The existence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is an irrefutable
fact and it cannot be a matter of dispute. For that very reason,
taking into consideration Azerbaijan’s obviously destructive way of
action, President Kocharyan has declared many times that he looks at
the perspectives of solution with cautious optimism. Unfortunately,
it seems that the President’s optimism has turned more cautious today,"
Viktor Soghomonyan said.

The President’s Spokesman also turned to the statements Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev made in the resent interview with "Express"
and "K" newspapers of Kazakhstan.

Ilham Aliyev had said, in part, that "the Armenian side is not sincere
in the negotiations, it tries to gain time and deceives the mediators"
and "if Armenia stops its occupation policy, our relations can improve,
and the Armenian people will get more from the cooperation with us
than the alms from abroad."

"Unfortunately, Aliyev’s political will and courage sufficed to come
forth with the recurrent tactless expressions only. Naturally, I’m
not going to comment on all of this. I will only say that there are
people who will take care of the future of Armenia and the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic.

Let Mr. Aliyev mind his own problems," Viktor Soghomonyan said.

Panorama.am

00:54 11/08/2007

Study of Foreign Languages to Change

"The study of foreign languages in Armenia has been
exhausted," states Levon Lazarian, Minister of
Education. By October, he says, amendments to the
study of foreign language will be published, so that
by next year examinations will be conducted in the
new, centralized method.

Concerning entrance examinations, Lazarian points out
that last year the competition in the engineering
field was very weak, but that this year, for example,
in the architectural university the competition in
engineering was quite high. According to him, high
competition is also expected in radio physics, while a
weaker field is expected in law.

The minister rated the examination process as
positive, adding that shortcomings would be taken care
of, especially in film production.

Source: Panorama.am

OUT OF EDUCATIONAL PLACES ALLOCATED TO YEREVAN ART ACADEMY, ONLY ONE – IN ART CRITICISM DEPARTMENT REMAINS VACANT

Noyan Tapan
Aug 09 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, NOYAN TAPAN. During entrance examinations at the
Yerevan State Art Academy (YSAA), grades of 12 examination works
were appealed against, which is fewer by 29 on last year, NT was
informed by the academy pro-rector Svetlana Gevorgian. At the same
time, according to her, the number of entrants to YSAA increased by
30 as compared with last year, making 212.

S. Gevorgian said that 38 free education places, 52 paid ones and
22 places without the right of delay were allocated to the academy
this year, with only one place (without the right of delay) in the
art criticism department remaing vacant.

YSAA pro-rector noted that most entrants applied to the units
of computer graphics, design, and clothes modelling. The number of
foreign entrants (mainly from Iran, Russia and the US) is increasing
year by year: this year 12 foreign entrants applied to the academy.

It was mentioned that 42 and 14 entrants respectively applied to YSAA
Gyumri and Dilijan branches. 3 free, 15 paid places and 8 places
without delay rights were allocated to the Gyumri branch; 6 paid
places and two places without delay right – to the Dilijan branch.

A UNIQUE SOUND-AND-LIGHT FOUNTAIN IN YEREVAN CENTRAL SQUARE TO BE PUT IN COMMISSION IN SEPTEMBER 2007

arminfo
2007-08-06 17:02:00

The state has invested 599mln AMD in the construction of the fountain
in Yerevan Republic Square.

Head of Yerevan Municipality Department for Construction and
Improvement told ArmInfo correspondent the construction will be
finished at the end of September 2007. The work is done in two
stages. The state budget 129mln AMD for implementation of the
first stage. Specific French equipment worth 470mln AMD is to be
purchased for the second stage. Architectural features of a unique
sound-and-light fountain and advanced technology will be applied. The
authors of the project are confident that the Republic Square fountain
will become one of the main sightseeing attractions in Yerevan.

ARMENIA IS THE ONLY THING THAT UNITES THE WHOLE NATION
By Gohar Gevorkian

AZG Armenian Daily
04/08/2007

Grikor Bandikian, who is in Armenia through AGBU YSI program,
believes so

"We were very much amazed when we learned that we too were going to
dance at the Youth Center. During the dance classes organized for us
we learned how to dance and today we were on stage. I don’t know how
we danced but we were trying hard to dance well", said Lia Sarkissian
from Los Angeles to "Azg" daily after the concert held a few days ago
at the Nor Nork Children’s Center. She arrived in Yerevan together with
17 youngsters aged 18-25 on June 30 within the framework of Armenian
General Benevolent Union’s (AGBU) Yerevan Summer Intern Program
(YSIP). The program, which is held for the first time, brought to
Armenia Armenian youngsters from America, Canada, Egypt and Romania.

AGBU also holds Summer Intern programs in New York and Paris, to
which Armenia joined this year. The program is unique in two senses:
first of all it gives a chance to the Armenians studying in different
educational institutions all over the world to increase their
professional experience. Secondly, it also returns them to their
roots. During the five-week program of AGBU, Armenian youngsters
from all over the world, who are still in Armenia these days, take
an internship program in the best organizations and enterprises
of our country; foreign ministry, National Assembly, Central Bank,
American University of Armenia, "EuroTerm" company, medical agency,
medical centers, Cafesjian Fund, "Sharm" enterprise, etc.

During the weekdays they work in the mentioned organizations and
companies in their fields, while in the evenings and weekends they
go sightseeing.

The interns also had the opportunity to get acquainted with the AGBU
Armenian programs. They visited the American University of Armenia,
Ultrasound Training Center founded together with the Heratsi Medical
University, participated in the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra
concert, and in the exhibition and concert organized by the Children’s
Center. They also learned about the devoted activities of AGBU in
Artsakh. The interns visited Karabakh and got acquainted with the AGBU
projects in Karabakh. They saw school #7 of Stepanakert reconstructed
by the AGBU, the building for war veterans, the chess school, visited
the Alex Manoogian monument on Alex Manoogian Street, were present
at the concert of Karabakh Chamber Orchestra, which functions in
Artsakh again thanks to AGBU. The Diaspora-Armenian youngsters also
got acquainted with the AGBU Repopulation Project visiting Norashen,
Bareshen and Jrakn villages of Hadrut region, which have been and
are being constructed by the AGBU.

Norashen is already populated. It also has a school and a
kindergarten. Jrakn is under construction. The interns met with the
NKR NA Speaker Ashot Ghulyan, with whom they had a long and very
useful conversation.

This summer intern program also includes classes of Armenian language,
dancing, history, as well as meetings with government members. Thanks
to these dance classes the interns too participated in the concert
organized in their honor in the Children’s Center. They also had the
opportunity to listen to the lectures of Ashot Melkonian, Director
of the History Institute, and Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Genocide
Museum. They were also received by Deputy Foreign Minister Armen
Bayburtian. Besides the classes and work the interns went sightseeing
too – Garni, Geghart, Sevan, Dilijan, Khor Virap.

"Experience proved that every event organized abroad, no matter how
good and effective it is, because it unites the Diaspora Armenians, the
events organized in Armenia give a completely different result. This
is a huge core of Armenianism. This is the first time we are doing
this program in Armenia and we had a great response – we had 17 young
applicants", said Ashot Ghazarian, Director of the AGBU Armenian
Representation, who added also that the program will continue. AGBU
is already constructing the Melkonian Center in Nork, which is a part
of a big educational program. Ashot Ghazarian is convinced that it
will be the best educational program for the Diasporans. The center
in Nork will have a hostel complex, educational building, classrooms,
to provide every condition for the Diaspora youngsters to participate
in the educational program.

AGBU Armenian Representation Director spoke about the Study Abroad
international education project, which helps the students go to other
countries, continue their study in their field in other universities
for one semester, and then come back and continue their education
in their own country. "Now we want to bring Armenian students
from different countries of the world to Armenia. We will find
corresponding educational programs for them in different universities
of Armenia. They will live in the mentioned center and also attend
classes of Armenian language, Armenian history, and get in touch
with Armenian culture. We did this summer intern program only for
the summer, and now we want to implement this program the whole year
round. The students will go to accredited universities, collect their
credits and return home. They will both spend a whole semester in
Armenia and not lose their credits", said the Representation director
and added that all the higher educational institutions of Armenia
have introduced the credit system of assessment being integrated to
the educational system of the Bologna agreement. "A few more years and
our whole educational system will pass to the credit system and we will
have all the mutual agreements and recognition", said the director.

This means that the credits of the students who will study one
semester in different universities of Armenia will be recognized by
the universities of their own countries. Ashot Ghazarian remembered
that once they have already done such a program in 1995-96 and today
we have a young Diasporan professional who, thanks to the AGBU project,
stayed in Armenia and now works here.

"Coming to Armenia through this program, they later search for
other ways of returning to homeland. This is the best way to bring
the Diaspora Armenians back to their roots and connect them with
Armenia. There’s no other more effective way", he said. Armenia should
be represented to them with its best sides, so that they feel proud
to be Armenians. "We have Diaspora-Armenia mutual responsibilities,
to help each other, and it’s important that they see the best of
Armenia and get linked to it", said Ashot Ghazarian.

Lia Sarkissian, who moved with her family to Los Angeles when she was
three, is now in Armenia within the framework of AGBU Summer Intern
program and spends it in the Karagyozian Clinic. "The impressions
are both good and bad, but I re-estimated everything here.

I am working in the medical field and there are differences between the
clinics. But at the same time I am proud to be given the opportunity to
participate in an internship program here. I cannot describe or fully
explain the emotions that I felt here in Armenia. Dancing united us,
Armenian group dancing. I will never forget these five weeks that I
spent here".

Lia promised to come to Armenia in every possible occasion.

Group coordinator Tamar Shahabian assured that the interns are
satisfied with the AGBU program and impressed with the trip. She
mentioned all the places that they’ve been to. "We were very well
received here. Now we understand deeper why we are patriotic.

There are difficulties here, but the interns want to come back again. I
myself am staying here".

The grandmother of Romanian-Armenian Louisa Tanasie is an
Armenian. Knowing only a few words in Armenian Louisa expresses
her wish to come to Armenia with her hands and poor Armenian, and
then adds in English, "I wanted to come to Armenia because I have
Armenian blood in me. I wanted to see Armenia and I am so happy that
I am here. I work at "EuroTerm". I will come back to Armenia again. I
learn Armenian words in an Armenian school in Romania. I learn dancing
too. Here we were received very well. I hope to come back again,
this time with my grandma".

Armen Keshishian from Los Angeles is on a "government job" in his
homeland. He works in the Foreign Ministry of Armenia. It’s his
third visit to Armenia and he highly estimates the progress of the
country. He also did not forget to thank the AGBU, for being the
participant of this program.

"This is my third visit to Armenia and my impression is very good and
I’m happy, as I could imagine. We spend our time here, and we love
the people. Armenia is the only thing that unites the people. It’s
the only thing that is not divided into half-American, half-Lebanese,
half other things. This is purely Armenian, this is the country that
unites us all, the whole nation. I work at the Central Bank. I will
come to Armenia again", said Grikor Bandikian from Los Angeles.

Shushanik Ghaltakhchian, the AGBU YSIP coordinator from the Armenian
side, who was directly involved in the implementation of the program
finding jobs for the interns, believes that the program was a success.

Despite the differences of work style in Armenia and other countries
Shushanik Ghaltakhchian is sure that the interns got adjusted to the
jobs here better than they expected. "The biggest achievement of the
program is that most of these youngsters have decided to come back
to Armenia and this time not alone, with their families, grandmas,
sisters and other family members", said the program coordinator during
yesterday’s reception at the Folk Art Museum. The AGBU had organized
this event to thank all the employers of the interns. All the interns
participated in the event with their supervisors.

"It was a great pleasure for us to have two young men working with
us whom we loved very much and who’s leaving will be difficult for
us. They saw all the processes going on in our bank. They got in touch
with the bank employees and what is more important learned a lot about
Armenians", said Harutyun Poghossian, Head of Marketing and Quality
Department of ACBA Credit Agricol Bank. For Mary Ghazarian, Executive
Director of "EuroTerm" company, the AGBU offer was unexpected.

"Louisa perfectly substituted our employee who was on vacation. My
assessment of this project is very positive. Children from Diaspora
come to Armenia, get in touch with us and get acquainted with our
businesses", said the executive director.

ARMENIAN GDP GROWS BY 11.2% IN JANUARY-JUNE 2007 ON SAME MONTHS OF LAST YEAR

Noyan Tapan
Aug 3, 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia’s GDP grew by 11.2% in
January-June 2007 on the same months of last year and made 944 bln
845.7 mln drams (about 2 bln 631.3 mln USD). The index-deflator of
GDP made 4.9%.

The head of the National Statistical Service (NSS) of the RA Stepan
Mnatsakanian announced this at the August 3 press conference. According
to him, industrial production increased by 1.4% in the country in
January-June of this year on the same months of 2006 and made 327 bln
954.9 mln drams, industrial production without diamonds grew by 8.2%
to 325 bln 138 mln drams.

S. Mnatsakanian said that the gross agricultural output declined
by 1.9% to 127 bln 2.5 mln drams, construction – by 17.2% to 171 ln
420.6 mln drams, retail trade – by 11.4% to 364 bln 570.5 mln drams,
whereas services grew by 18.5% to 244 bln 812.7 mln drams.

In the words of the NSS head, Armenia’s foreign trade increased
by 36.5% on January-June of last year and made 1 bln 892 mln USD,
with exports growing by 20.5% to 527 mln USD, imports – by 43.9% to
1 bln 365 mln USD. Foreign trade without diamonds increased by 49.2%
to 1 bln 725.9 mln USD, exports – by 37.1% to 445.6 mln USD, imports –
by 53.9% to 1 bln 280.3 mln USD.

S. Mnatsakanian said that in the first half of 2007, 132,937 tourists
visited Armenia or by 36.3% more than in the same period of 2006,
and 172,297 tourists left Armenia (37.8% growth).

The speaker noted that consumer prices rose by 4.5% in January-June
2007 on the same months of 2006, while industrial production prices
grew by 0.3%.

Monetary incomes of the population grew by 25.2% in the indicated
period and made 853 bln 835.8 mln drams, while expenditures increased
by 23.7% to 838 bln 810.2 mln drams. The average monthly nominal
salary made 71.344 thousand drams (20.5% growth), the number of the
unemployed registered in Armenia made 84.7 thousand as of late June,
declining by 6% as compared with the respective index of last year.

S. Mnatsakianian said that the revenues and official transfers
of the RA state budget amounted to 244 bln 713.1 mln drams in the
first half of 2007, growing by 26.7% on the same period of last year,
while expenditures made 228 bln 192.4 mln drams, growing by 17.5%. The
balance of the population’s deposits with banks made 142 bln 691 mln
drams as of June 30, 2007, growing by 38.9% as compared with the same
day of last year.