Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Exhibition of ancient Armenian manuscripts of Matenadaran opened in Lebanon

2010-04-03 10:12:00

ArmInfo. A solemn ceremony of Matenadaran manuscripts opening was held
in UNESCO hall, Beirut, in the frames of closing events "Beirut as the
world book capital 2009", Armenian Foreign Ministry informed ArmInfo.

Armenian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashot Kocharyan delivered a welcoming
speech, emphasizing Armenian-Lebanese cultural cooperation and
presenting information about Matenadaran. He also expressed gratitude
to Lebanese Ministry of Culture for the assistance. A representative
from Lebanese Ministry of Culture, chief coordinator of "Beirut as the
world book capital 2009" project Leila Barakat welcomed participation
of Armenia in the event, signifying the role of Armenian community of
the country’s life. Lebanese politicians, priests, ministers and
parliamentarians of Armenian origin, figures
of culture and journalists were also present at the exhibition.

World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
April 2, 2010

Rate of Armenian Price Surge Eases in March

BYLINE: Venla Sipila

The latest inflation data from the Armenian National Statistical
Service testify to still high but somewhat easing price pressures.
Indeed, March saw consumer prices soar by 8.8% year-on-year (y/y),
after annual gains of 9.4% and 7.0% had been posted in February and
January, respectively. In particular, food prices gained 6.9% y/y,
while prices of non-food items soared by 14.3% y/y, and the cost of
services rose by 10.6% y/y. Compared to February, Armenian consumer
prices in March increased by 0.8%, with pressures from all the three
key categories relatively similar. Over 2009 as a whole, Armenian
consumer prices rose by an average rate of 3.4%, with inflation
pressures strengthening towards the end of the year (seeArmenia: 5
January 2010:).

Significance:Armenian inflation is still running far above the upper
limit of the government’s target range of 4% +/- 1.5 percentage
points. The recent intensification of inflation to a large extent is
the result of dram depreciation, which has a direct impact on import
costs. Then again, looking forward, the rising import prices will
suppress imports, and this is exactly why a flexible exchange rate is
needed at present in Armenia, which still has a wide external
financing gap. In addition, a flexible exchange rate will also help in
inflation control, when, eventually, foreign currency inflows are
likely to recover. The persistently high inflation may prompt the
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) to lift interest rates further, even if
the importance of the policy interest rate as an effective polity tool
in Armenia remains limited. Armenian inflation may reaccelerate again
in the next months. This is mainly because the price of natural gas
for Armenian consumers will be lifted by 37.5% from 1 April, taking
the retail cost to 132 dram per cubic metre (cm) from 96 cm.
ArmRosgazprom, which imports and distributes Russian gas in Armenia,
is increasing the retail price due to an increase to US$180/1,000 cm
from US$154/1,000 cm in the Russian gas import price.

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN TRADE IN JAN.-FEB. 2010 GROWS BY 22.5% TO $625.2 MILLION

ARKA
Apr 1, 2010

YEREVAN, April 1, /ARKA/. Armenia’s foreign trade in Jan.-Feb. 2010
grew by 22.5% year-on-year to some 235.5 billion Drams in current
prices or $625.2 million, the National Statistical Service reported.

It said exports rose by 53.5% or 46 billion Drams ($121.4 million),
while imports grew by 16.8% to 189,7 billion Drams ($503.8 million).

The negative trade balance totaled 143.7 billion Drams ($382.4
million).

According to the official figures, export of non-precious metals and
items rose by 53% year-on-year to

$46.3 million, export of mining industry goods rose by 4.3 times to
$33.2 million, export of precious and semi-precious stones, metals
and items fell by 9.2% to $15 million and export of finished foods
grew by 25% to $14.7 million.

Import of machines, equipment and devices grew by 87.4% year-on-year
to $100.1 million, import of mining equipment grew by 27.4% to $97.4
million, import of overland, aerial and water vehicles rose by 11.5%
to $57.2 million, import of finished foods fell by 0.3% to $42.3
million and import of non-precious metals and items fell by 14.4%
to $31.3 million. In 2009 Jan.-Feb. Armenia’s foreign trade totaled
$510.2 million.

AUTHORITIES TRY TO ISOLATE ARMENIAN PUBLIC FROM ARTSAKH PROBLEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.04.2010 17:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ By preventing the Sardarapat group from holding a
public discussion over the problem of liberated territories around
Nagorno Karabakh scheduled on April 1 at the Tekeyan center, the
Armenian authorities seek to isolate the Armenian public from any
discussion of the Artsakh problem, an Armenian film director Tigran
Khzmalyan told a news conference in Yerevan today.

According Khzmalyan, Sardarapat movement condemns this conduct of
authorities, when such issues relating to national security are
not discussed in the wide community, but solved through "night
negotiations" and pressure of other countries.

According to Khzmalyan, the idea of preserving the liberated
territories should unite the Armenian people. Any bargaining over the
liberated territories around Nagorno Karabakh should be considered
as treason. "These territories have been acquired by the blood of
our soldiers and are not subject to diplomatic bargaining. To cede
any region from the liberated territories will destroy the entire
defensive system of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, which could result
in the resumption of hostilities by Azerbaijan, " he said.

TIGRAN SARGSYAN: ARMENIA ENTERS HIGH INFLATION PERIOD

PanARMENIAN.Net
01.04.2010 14:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that
the RA government is concerned over inflation, however, it is a result
of expanded monetary-credit and tax-budgetary policy implemented by
the RA government and Central Bank.

"We have entered a high inflation period. 0.8% inflation was recorded
in Armenia in March as compared with February, and this is not a bad
index," Mr. Sargsyan told a government session on April 1. He added
that the annual inflation index reached 8.8%. According to forecasts
for 2010, inflation will make 7%.

With respect to this, the PM voiced confidence that the Armenian
government and Central Bank will manage to restrain the inflation
pressures and the figure will decrease by the yearend.

According to Mr. Sargsyan, Armenia and the International Monetary
Fund have agreed with respect to the inflation suppression that the
macroeconomic indexes will have an insignificant impact on inflation
in 2010. "Moreover, if we manage to preserve the same level of tax
collection as recorded in the first quarter, it will allow suppressing
inflation in the country," he said.

MARANCI TO TALK ON ‘EXCAVATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF ZVARTNOTS’

29/maranci-to-talk-on-%e2%80%98excavation-and-reco nstruction-of-zvartnots%e2%80%99/
Mon, Mar 29 2010

On April 14, Maranci will present "Rock, Paper, Scissors: The
Excavation and Reconstruction of Zvartnots."

WATERTOWN, Mass.-Zvartnots, perhaps more than any other medieval
church, has become an icon of Armenian identity, the subject of
countless representations in miniature, and the inspiration and
namesake of the airport terminal of Yerevan. Yet what is really known
about this church?

On April 14, the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) will
feature a presentation by ALMA Research Fellow Dr. Christina Maranci,
the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan. Her
talk, titled "Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Excavation and Reconstruction
of Zvartnots," will consider the initial excavations at the site, the
participation of T’oros T’oramanian, and the scholarly controversies
surrounding its original appearance.

Maranci is the Dadian Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art at Tufts
University. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in the
department of art and archaeology in 1998. Her 2001 book, Medieval
Armenian Architecture: Constructions of Race and Nation, explores
the role of Josef Strzygowski in the field of medieval Armenian
architecture.

This free public program will take place at 7 p.m. in the museum’s
Contemporary Art Gallery (3rd floor), on 65 Main St. in Watertown. A
reception will follow.

ARMENIANS ARE NOT AS POOR AS TO DEPEND ON US

Hurriyet Daily News
March 31 2010
Turkey

There is an urban legend existing for some time.

According to that, Armenia is so poor that it wants the borders to
Turkey to open as soon as possible. This way either they can leave
for Turkey easily or improve their quality of life with an increase
in trade.

This legend may have been true to some extent in the 1990s.

I went to Yerevan a few times in the 90s and I indeed encountered
a very poor Armenia. The only place to stay was the Yerevan Hotel
where mice ran in the corridor. The streets and buildings were in a
bad shape and the quality of life really bad.

With independence in 1992 it slowly started to change and today the
improvement in Yerevan has really stunned me.

In place of the ruinous Yerevan Hotel there is now a Marriott and
the number of hotels in the city has increased to 10.

Streets have been repaved. Cobblestone pavement or trolley rails
cutting into tires have been replaced with streets looking new
and clean.

Shopping alleys with their glamorous lights and foreign brands reflect
people’s purchasing power. The abundance of restaurants, casinos and
nightclubs has stunned me. Previously the number of movie theaters
not exceeding two or three in this capitol of 1.5 million now has a
very colorful nightlife.

Don’t get me wrong.

Based on what I wrote in the beginning please don’t think that Armenia
has become rich and people are living a gorgeous life now. What I
am trying to say is that there is no poverty anymore. To describe
Armenia’s general situation it would be more correct to say "they
are living a moderate lifestyle."

I wanted to draw your attention to what I hear quite often here. In
case the borders are kept closed, Armenians will continue living the
way they used to live for the past 17 years and they are not willing
to do anything to provide for the opening of the borders.

In return if the borders are opened Armenia will get rid of an embargo
and life will become easier. The country will not become rich over
night, but life will be easier in many ways. If there won’t be any
consent and borders remain closed, then Armenia still won’t die of
poverty. Let’s not forget that the opening of borders and lifting of
an embargo will support the Armenians morally in negotiations with
Azerbaijan. Turkey would seem to support Armenia, even if not as much
as Azerbaijan, which is not something to be ignored.

That is why the dispute over borders creates excitement as well as an
"It’s not the end of the world" attitude.

Opening borders will also benefit Turkey

To tell the truth, no one knows how much the opening of borders
will contribute to Armenia’s economy. Some research shows that the
contribution will be moderate to high level, based on investments
and trade traffic. But we should not forget that not only Armenia
will benefit from this contingency, but also Turkey.

– Armenia, through Turkey, will be able to open up to Middle Eastern
and European markets. It will be able to increase the export of goods
and import goods cheaper compared to present conditions.

– With the opening of borders tourism from Europe and the Armenian
community in Turkey will increase.

– Armenia will be able to sell electricity to Turkey.

– It will also be able to use Turkey’s Black Sea and Mediterranean
ports to spread trade.

– Armenia will become a country through which energy lines will run.

– Turkey will also encounter important benefits from the opening
of the borders. Regions like Van and Kars will revive in trade and
tourism. Goods of Turkish origin will be cheaper in the Armenian
market due to short cuts in transportation currently transportation
is via Iran and Georgia which makes import quite expensive.

– More importantly Turkey will reach Middle Eastern markets easier.

Currently transportation takes too long.

Nobody imagines a life without genocide or the aftermath

The Armenians are so focused on and linked their hopes to Turkey
accepting the genocide so much so that they turned it into their
lifestyle and when one day Turkey finally accepts it you’d think the
world stopped spinning.

When talking to students I asked: "What would you do if Turkey accepted
genocide? Would they then ask for territory or compensation?"

They were stunned and didn’t know how to respond.

Genocide has become part of their life so much so that they can’t
think of a world in which genocide is an issue any more.

When asking the same question to academics and formal authorities I
realized that the aftermath of genocide has never been considered.

It’s interesting but a belief exists in the lines of "Other countries
may accept, but it’s hard to make the Turks accept it." When digging
deeper you’ll find two factors. One is that behind these genocide
allegations there is no territorial claim but beneficiaries who
lost their homes and still hold on to the title deed could sue for
compensation. However this issue also seems to far-fetched. Another
factor is that even if the protocols were approved in parliament the
realization of the historians’ commission in respect to genocide
issues would encounter such deep resistance that it would make it
almost impossible.

It’s not going to be easy.

It seems very difficult for the Armenian society to ignore a possible
suspicion brought about by historians who will pick a subject to
pieces which the Armenians are sure the world has already accepted.

n=armenians-are-not-as-poor-as-to-depend-on-us-201 0-03-31

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN APPOINTS NEW AMBASADORS TO ROMANIA, KUWAIT

2 010/03/30 | 15:36

society

On March 29, RoA President Serzh Sargsyan appointed Hamlet Gasbaryan
as Armenia’s new Ambassador to Romania, replacing Yeghishe Sargsyan.

The same day, President Sargsyan appointed Fadei Charchoghlyan to
replace Vahagn Melikyan as Armenia’s Ambassador to Kuwait.

INTRIGUE DEVOURS TIME

7342.html
11:42:34 – 30/03/2010

Governments would replace each other faster than day and night in
a so-called normal country if it had to cope with at least half of
the internal problems that Armenia is facing. In Armenia, despite
a great number of grave internal problems which tend to aggravate
and crystallize rather than be solved, an almost strange situation
has occurred when all the subjects of the Armenian political sphere
place their "hopes" for change in the country on the Karabakh issue.

Alongside with this, it is visible to almost all the subjects that the
degree of indifference of the society towards the NKR issue is the
greatest by far. So, what is the "expectation" to achieve change in
Armenia through the NKR issue based on if the situation becomes tense?

Perhaps, there is no ground for optimism in connection with arousing
activeness in the society at some point in the escalation of the NKR
conflict, because if the possibility of such activeness were more or
less tangible, some political forces would have already expressed their
abilities in this connection, considering that it is already stated
clearly that Armenia is ready to yield the liberated territories in
return for the status of Karabakh.

In the meantime, the subjects of the political sphere are waiting,
which is evidence that they are not reliant on the society’s activeness
at all. After all, if the efforts to get the society active about
primary social problems fail, it will be hardly possible to make
the society active regarding an issue in a short period, which for
already a decade and a half almost the entire political palette
presents as the cause of serious social and economic problems,
obstacle to overall development.

So what is the hope of all those people who relate the "expectations"
for change to the NKR issue? Perhaps the hope is the intrigues. The
intrigue strategy is encoded in almost all the players of the Armenian
political field. It is not accidental that the unprecedented for
independent Armenia movement of the society, even the movement of 2008
relied on intrigues as a guarantee of success. The policy of dividing
the government system part by part is meant, which was conducted by
Levon Ter-Petrosyan on Square of Liberty. And Levon Ter-Petrosyan
perhaps knows best the Armenian government system and its tactical
traditions which have already crystallized into psychology.

Consequently, if he also relied on this strategy, it means that he
did not see other tactical means of achieving success.

The problem is that enriching themselves with such codes for years on,
in the political sphere of Armenia intrigue has become an objective
reality, drawing a vicious circle, intrigue leads to intrigue, outside
which the path leads nowhere, and taking that path to reach somewhere
takes so much time that Armenia does not even have half of it.

This is the psychology that has to confront home and foreign
challenges. Meanwhile the controversy and tragicness of the situation
is that challenges offer comfort for the psychology of intrigues, and
the lack of challenge causes discomfort and anxiety. It is a paradox
– the Armenian political system must fight a phenomenon on which it
feeds morally, politically and materially. Perhaps this paradox is the
reason, which by the way, has become a regular state, that mentioning,
perceiving and resisting challenges in Armenia resembles the situation
when cold water harms all patients but they are thirsty, and water
is harmful to them but at the same time the only way of staying alive.

HAKOB BADALYAN

NKR INTERESTED IN EXPANSION OF "SAVE THE CHILDREN" ACTIVITIES

news.am
March 30 2010
Armenia

March 30, Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan met with Tom Tauras
"Save the Children" organization’s Area Director for Middle East and
Eurasia and country director in Armenia Irina Saghoyan.

The sides discussed the issues related to the activities carried
out by the organization in Artsakh and cooperation prospects, NKR
presidential information department informed NEWS.am.

The President noted that Karabakhi authorities are interested in
expansion of "Save the Children" activities in the republic and will
render their assistance in any possible way.