Author: Dabaghian Diana

JAVAKHK ARMENIANS MEET WITH US EMBASSY OFFICIALS

A-Info Press
Monday March 30, 2009

AKHLKALAK (A-Info)–Officials from the US Embassy in Georgia,
who were visiting the region Thursday met with the director of the
A-Info News Agency Artak Gabrielyan who briefed the delegation on
issues concerning the Armenian community of Samtskh-Javakhketi and
discussed the community’s expectations from the Georgian authorities.

The delegation consisted of deputy advisor for the US Embassy
Kent Langdon, political desk staffers Joy Davis-Kischener and Mago
Chokoberidze and Daniel Renna, a political staffer at the US Embassy
in Armenia.

During the visit, the US delegation met with Akhalkalak regional
council members and discussed issues of concern to the region, as
well as issues related to Javakhk Armenians.

At a separate meeting with Gabrielyan and board members from the
Political Development Center, an NGO operating in Javakh, the two
sides further discussed issues of concern to the Armenian community
in Samtskhe-Javakhk and Kvemo-Kartili regions, where Armenians are
a predominant majority.

After making a brief presentation about the activities of A-Info,
Gabrielyan told the US delegation about the disparities in the public
education system in Javakhk as well as the numerous calls for fair
representation within local and regional governmental bodies.

Gabrielyan outlined that the community has appealed to the
federal authorities to declare Armenian an official language in
the region and as such further the educational opportunities of the
population. Gabrielyan also discussed the continuous appeals by the
community to create an Armenian-Georgian state university in the area.

Also discussed were the federal authorities’ refusal to clearly define
the role of the regional and local governments and the inclusion of
Armenian representatives in those bodies.

Gabrielyan expressed concern about a Georgian government plan to
resettle Meskheti Turks in the Samtskhe-Javakhk territory.

Anahit Jamgochyan, the Director of the Political Development Center,
told the US delegation that in an area where 97 percent of the
population in Armenian, a significant portion of issues such as
administration and judicial cases can be better resolved if Armenian
were recognized as an official language in the region.

GERMANY HAILS STEPS FOR ARMENIAN-TURKISH RECONCILIATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.03.2009 13:49 GMT+04:00

Germany hails the steps taken for normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations, German senior official said.

"I will be glad if Armenian-Turkish talks result in opening of the
common border. Security and stability in the Caucasus is a priority
for the European Union," Gernot Erler, Minister of State at the German
Federal Foreign Office, said during a joint news conference with RA
Ambassador to Germany Karine Ghazinyan.

He also said that publics both in Armenia and Azerbaijan should be
prepared for compromise.

For her part, Ambassador Ghazinyan agreed that normalization of
relations between neighbor states can be achieved through dialogue.

CENTRAL HOSTS DISCUSSION ON GENOCIDE
By Rob Siebert

TheDoings-ClarendonHills.com
http://www.p ioneerlocal.com/clarendonhills/news/1496118,ch-gen ocide-032609-s1.article
March 26 3009
Illinois

Six individuals gathered in the Hinsdale Central High School auditorium
March 19 to discuss something they all had in common.

Either their ancestors, or they themselves had witnessed genocide
and seen massive amounts of bloodshed.

Sponsored by the school’s social studies department, Central’s
"2009 Genocide Forum" brought together five men and one woman who
witnessed the horrific violence or aftermath surrounding genocides
in Cambodia, Armenia, World War II, Rwanda and Darfur to discuss the
tragedies. There was also someone who spoke about the slaughter of
Indians in America.

"You are the future," Holocaust survivor and Chicago resident Magda
Brown said. "You are the ones who will carry on, and you will have
to know that these tragedies cannot be repeated."

Michael Tuslime, a Fulbright scholar from Rwanda who is pursuing his
master’s degree at Northern Illinois University, was not in his home
country during the massive killing that took place in 1994. He did
however, return in 1995, and witnessed the aftermath first hand.

"I think the most horrible thing was just to see the bodies float
down on the rivers," Tuslime said.

John Low, executive director of the Mitchell Museum of the American
Indian in Evanston, and a Potawatomi Indian, said that for the last
500 years the American Indian experience has mostly been about survival
in strategic accommodations.

But in spite of their obvious role in the widespread elimination
of countless Indians over the past few centuries, Low said it may
be difficult for Americans to see the truth amongst the bloodshed,
be it that of Indians or other races.

"Americans don’t want to think about themselves or their ancestors
partaking in genocide," Low said.

However, Low emphasized that for America, hope lies within the
spreading of truth and knowledge about the tragedies that befell
his ancestors.

"I don’t believe there can be any healing without information,"
Low said.

In terms of America’s role in stopping genocides in other countries,
Greg Bedian, a member of the Armenian National Committee and co-founder
of the Genocide Education Network of Illinois, said that one of the
keys to stopping a massive genocide is to see where one is brewing
early, and then to act quickly. He cited that the Rwandan genocide
took place in only 100 days.

"This has to be done prior to the catastrophe starting, not after
it’s already begun," Bedian said.

However, the panel said the true power may not lie with government,
but with individuals. "Don’t be silent," Brown said. "Because that’s
what happened in Europe. People were silent."

Tuslime said that many survivors of the Rwandan genocide would not
have lived through the horror they faced if they had not been given
food or water by strangers who were simply of good conscience.

"We all want to leave things for the government and U.N. forces,"
Tuslime said. "But I think as individuals we can make a difference."

IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMS OF UNIRESO INSURANCE COMPANY AND GEGAMET MINING COMPANY PROCEEDS ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE

Noyan Tapan
March 24, 2009

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, NOYAN TAPAN. The implementation of the programs
of Unireso insurance company and Gegamet mining company proceeds
according to the schedule. Responding to NT correspondent’s questions,
the Director of the programs’ initiator Uniinvest company, Chairman
of the Board of Unibank (Armenia) and Chairman of the bank’s founder
Uniastrum Bank (Russia) Gagik Zakarian said that Unireso will start
functioning soon.

In his words, everything is ready for Unireso’s work, and 2 million
dollars has been invested. The major programs and the conditions of
service provision by their company are now being developed.

It was mentioned that in the initial period Unireso will be engaged
in insurance of cars, real estate and equipment, and it also plans
to provide life and health insurance services starting from 2010.

G. Zakarian said that about 30% of equipment for Gegamet has been
purchased.

Mining work and the plant to be built are now being designed, and
the licences and permissions necessary for the company’s activity
are being received from the respective Armenian bodies.

"I think that the operation of the mine and construction of the plant
will begin in the summer of 2009," he noted.

To recap, in November 2008 it was announced that the indicated programs
would be launched.

G. Zakarian and the founder of Reso-Garantia insurance company (Russia)
Sergei Sarkisov are the founders of Unireso. According to G. Zakarian,
it is envisaged increasing Unireso’s authorized capital to 10 million
dollars in the next 2-3 years.

The cost of Gegamet invetsment program makes 25 million dollars. It
is being jointly implemented by Uniastrum Bank, Unibank, Metta Group
(Armenia) and Torront Holdings Limited (Great Britain). The investment
project includes operation of iron-chromium mines in Shorzha and Jil,
construction of an ore mining and processing enterprise, as well as
of a fire-brick plant with an annual capacity of 20 million bricks a
year, a plant for cement additives (with an annual capacity of 150
thousand tons), a chromium concentrate plant (with a capacity of
50 thousand tons), and an iron chromium plant (with a capacity of
20 thousand tons). G. Zakarian considered it possible that gold and
platinum will be extracted from ores of the mines. It is planned to
create 500 jobs as a result of implementation of Gegamet’s programs.

ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY WON’T PARTICIPATE IN COUNCIL OF ELDERS ELECTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2009 18:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yerevan needs a Mayor capable of returning true face
to the city, Armenian Democratic Party Leader Aram Sargsyan told a
news conference. "We gave close consideration to the Draft Law on Local
Government in Yerevan and submitted our remarks to RA Parliament. Yet
legislative authorities chose to oversee our suggestions. Under
imperfect legislation in this particular sphere, ADP thought it best
to refrain from participation in Mayoral elections."

"ADP will not cast votes if unsatisfied with the candidates’ election
programs. Nominated parties spend significant funds on election
campaigns, but time will come when election program will matter more,"
Aram Sargsyan emphasized.

ADP Leader refused to comment on Heritage decision to recall their
participation in Mayoral elections, deeming public discussion of
other parties’ steps politically incorrect.

President: Armenian authorities have no right to blame global crisis
for own faults

YEREVAN, March 23. /ARKA/. Armenian authorities have no right to blame
the global crisis for own mistakes and faults, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said on Friday while discussing the crisis with
political parties’ leaders.

`The crisis is not only the government’s problem. Crisis is our common
problem. Crisis is not our fault. It is not an Armenian phenomenon. If
we don’t resist the crisis with joint efforts, the crisis will strike
hard at the whole community. It is not reasonable to leave the
government alone with this problem’, the president said.

He said that there is no remedy for that.

Sargsyan said that this is his second meeting with political
activists.

At his first meeting, they discussed ways to settle Karabakh problem.

The president said that the global crisis has affected all countries,
and `Armenia and its economy are not isolated islands, and the crisis
impacts us as well’.

He stressed the importance of such meetings saying that the discussion
can produce particular results.

The head of state said that developed countries resorted to
extraordinary measures, which were considered unacceptable before the
crisis.

`Unfortunately, nobody has invented a remedy. It is clear that things
force Armenian Government to take extraordinary steps. The premier and
member of the Government are constantly informing the community about
that’, he said adding that Armenians are good at finding unusual
solutions to unusual problems.

Sargsyan thinks that time has come to use creative capacity of the nation.
M.V.-0—

ORINATS YERKIR PARTY NOMINATES 101 CANDIDATES FOR YEREVAN MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF ELDERS

PanARMENIAN.Net
21.03.2009 21:02 GMT+04:00

Orinats Yerkir party has nominated 101 candidates for the post of
Mayor of Yerevan and the Council of Elders.

The slate topped by Heghine Bisharyan will be submitted to the Central
Election Committee on March 22.

"Our party is the winner in all elections," the party’s spokesperson
Susanna Abrahamyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

She also informed that the election program and the party’s slogans
will be made public in the near future.

RA GOVERNMENT SHOULD STRENGTHEN COUNTRY’S IMMUNITY

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2009 21:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During RA Presidential Conference attended by
RA Political Parties Leaders, Tigran Sarsyan stated, that anti
crisis program has developed 3 primary directions aimed at social
package support. "Social program implementation will help decrease
difficulties that disadvantaged representatives of our society have to
face. First of all we need to control price raise for goods of first
necessity. This can help control the situation in other spheres too."

The Armenian Government has to strengthen country’s immunity, which
requires the development of country’s infrastructure and promotion of
small and medium-size business. We have to work to decrease shadow
economy, strengthen tax system and provide transparency of major
business. The government has to lend a helping hand to organizations
who suffered under world financial crisis and need support," Tigrn
Sargsyan stated.

UNTFHS PROJECT TO BE IMPLEMENTED IN ARMENIA

A1+
04:13 pm | March 20, 2009

Economy

With the support of the Government of Japan and the United Nations
Trust Fund for Human Security in New York, assistance totalling USD
2,484,900.00 has been extended to the United Nations Agencies in
Armenia i.e. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
– the lead co-ordination agency of the project, United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation (UNIDO) for the realisation of ‘Sustainable
Livelihood for Socially Vulnerable Refugees, Internally Displaced
and Local Families’ project in Armenia.

The objective of the above project, which was initiated and submitted
to UNTFHS for funding by UNHCR, is to assist, through a UN system
wide effort, vulnerable families in the identified communities in
Gegharkunik and Kotayk marzes in reducing poverty by providing social
housing, increasing their self-sustainability through income generation
by supporting farming activities and start-up businesses and access to
energy services. The UNTFHS project will contribute to the enhancing
of living conditions, accessibility of quality health care services,
improving educational opportunities as well as building the capacity
of direct beneficiaries and self-government bodies.

As the financial agreements of the project have already been signed
with all UNTFHS project participating Agencies, the implementation of
this project will start on 1 April 2009 to be completed in two years
to secure the livelihoods and dignity in the lives of vulnerable
communities in Armenia – crucial, particularly in the current
financial crisis.

Classical Music: The Compact Collection

The Independent – United Kingdom
Jul 26, 2004

Rob Cowan

POISED SOMEWHERE along the misty outskirts of 20th-century music is
Karol Szymanowski, gentle lone wolf, dreamer and aesthete, someone who
could conjure chords of transcendent beauty and suspend radiant
melodies above them. A brand new four-disc set of Szymanowski’s
Complete Songs for Voice and Piano (Channel Classics CCS 19398 *****o)
takes us from sombre early pieces inspired by German Romanticism to
various songs from texts by the Persian poet Hafiz and Szymanowski’s
Polish compatriots.

Spending just a minute or two in the hypnotic company of, say, “The
Song of the Wave” from the six Songs of the Fairy Princess (CD 4,
track 5), with its darkly luminous harmonies, its echoes of Debussy
and aromatic hints of the East, should be enough to convert anyone. Or
the three sombre lullabies, where listening is more like eavesdropping
on a profoundly private brand of reverie. Soprano Iwona Sobotka holds
us enthralled, just as tenor Piotr Beczala, soprano Juliana Gondek and
mezzo Urszula Kryger had done on the first three discs. And yet so
often the multi-shaded pianistic backdrops hold the most treasurable
surprises, which is why pianist Reinild Mees is surely the real star
of the show.

In the case of a programme of English Folk Songs arranged by Benjamin
Britten (476 1973 *****o), newly reissued as part of Decca’s “The
British Music Collection”, the singer-pianist partnership is
symbiotic, Peter Pears’ every phrase either mirrored or anticipated by
the composer-arranger. These are miracles of subtle recreation,
whether among the dark spectres that accompany “The Last Rose of
Summer” or the lofty nostalgia of “Tom Bowling”. The recordings date
from 1959 and 1961, which surprised me, given that a number of the
tracks sound suspiciously like mono, but the overall quality is very
good and the performances are truly unforgettable.

Less familiar than Pears and Britten, but equally absorbing, is a
brand new budget-price four-disc collection of lieder, songs, arias
and duets featuring the legendary Armenian mezzo-soprano Zara
Dolukhanova (Guild GHCD 2281/4 *****o), who premiered (alongside
soprano Nina Dorliac) Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Folk Poetry”. The
voice has a full-bodied, sensuous quality, especially suited to
Schumann and Strauss (sung in Russian) and some notably dramatic
renditions of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

There’s agile Mozart with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under Barshai,
a whole host of rarities and, perhaps most memorable of all, a
recording of Ravel’s “Kaddish”, performed in biblical Aramaic and sung
with such burning intensity that it sounds like spontaneous
prayer. Purchase should be mandatory for that one track alone, but
there are plenty of others to savour alongside it, not least a moving
sequence of “arie antiche”. Good transfers, and the sort of
comprehensive annotation that helps bring these great singers to life.

Though I’d hazard a guess that the biggest seller among new vocal
issues and reissues will be Volume 4 of Naxos’s Jussi Bjorling
Collection (8.110788 *****9), and not just because of Bjorling’s
trumpeting tenor. Alongside arias by Gounod, Massenet, Donizetti,
Puccini, Mascagni and others is a series of duets with baritone Robert
Merrill which includes one of the most popular operatic recordings of
all time, justly so given the perfect matching of timbres in “Au fond
du temple saint” from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers. The transfer is
slightly hard, but at a fiver only the most fastidious sound buffs are
likely to complain.