Author: Ekmekjian Janet

ARMENIAN PUBLIC IS NOT AWARE OF TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN

ArmInfo
2010-03-30 20:30:00

ArmInfo. On Mar 30 2010 at 11:00 AM the press conference devoted to
outcomes presentation of "Child Trafficking Phenomenon in Armenia"
research took place in the big meeting room of European Union
Delegation to Armenia.

The press service of the European Commission Delegation to Armenia
reports that Mr.Raul de Luzenberger, Head of EU Delegation to Armenia,
Vice Minister of RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Filaret
Berikyan, Head of the International Organizations Department of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dzyunik Aghadjanyan spoke at the
conference.

The research was conducted in Oct-Dec 2009 by "Harmonic Society"
Armenian Association of Social Workers. Three targets groups were
researched in this study: first, children attending public schools
in urban and rural settlements, second, institutionalized children
aged 5-18 from 5 types of institutions of social and education nature
and third, general public. The third target group of the study is
general population.

Child trafficking as special form of trafficking became an issue
of concern in Armenia only in the recent years. A great progress in
combating trafficking phenomenon in Armenia has been recorded since
the formation of Interdepartmental Consulting Committee in 2002.

This report summarizes the results of the level of awareness among
children and the general public in Armenia on the issue of trafficking
within the social and legal context. This study is the content of "The
Prevention of Child Trafficking Phenomenon in Armenia" program jointly
implemented by "People in Need" Czech Non-Governmental Organization
and local "Hope and Help" NGO. The project is funded by the European
Union and Czech Government, totally in the amount of 448,454 EUR,
90% of which (403,609 EUR) is provided by EU.

The main driving force for the development of this project was the
concern about children found in the streets of Yerevan and other
settlements of Armenia (Gyumri, Vanadzor, etc.), which has been very
typical in terms of trafficking until recently.

Desk review of available relevant materials showed that the size and
the complexity of "street children" phenomenon has been constantly
changing in Armenia. The phenomenon of "street children" had a greater
increase in 2000 first performing as children begging (as a simple
mechanism to cope with poverty and starving). Gradually the phenomenon
decreased in sizes but became deeper and more complicated (with
different forms of children labor, cases of children prostitution etc).

"It is worth to mention that initially the term "street children"
was used in Armenia with certain precautions to its classical meaning
as the majority of those children had families and homes and returned
there after completion of "street activities,"" says Mira Antonyan,
the author of study.

It is interesting that during the realization of this study no specific
case was identified, though the research was not directly aiming at
it. Certainly, the street children are still under concern: at the
same time variety of cases about children’s street life were identified
throughout this study; however no specific cases were identified.

The results of the research may have a valuable contribution to
the policy development on strategic level in combating children
trafficking phenomenon.

People in Need (PIN) is a Czech organization that provides relief
aid and development assistance while working to defend human rights
and democratic freedom in Czech Republic as well as abroad. The
organization assists to human rights protection and implements programs
for social integration and development.

"Mobilized and empowered system of prevention of child trafficking in
Armenia through awareness raising, capacity building and networking"
project has for an aim to prevent the phenomenon of children
trafficking in RA (awareness, teaching, support). Strengthening of
children security in RA – cooperating with state and social structures.

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS MEET WITH ARMENIAN PRESIDENT AND FOREIGN MINISTER

APA
March 30 2010
Azerbaijan

Yerevan – APA. The co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov,
Bernard Fassier, Robert Bradtke and Personal Representative of OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk met with Armenian president Serzh
Sargsyan and foreign minister Edward Nalbandian.

APA reports that a number of issues concerning the process of
negotiations on the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict were
discussed during the meeting.

The co-chairs informed President and Foreign Minister about the
outcomes of their visit to the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Commenting on the Madrid principles Edward Nalbandian said Armenia
accepted these principles two years ago.

"Armenia accepted these principles as the basis of the negotiations
and we are committed to our position," he said.

Ankara Wants to Negotiate with Diasporan Armenians?

14:23 ¢ 26.03.10

During a CNN Turk program, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu,
in the process of normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations, expressed
willingness to initiate contacts also with representatives of the
Armenian Diaspora, reports Turkish daily Milliyet.

`It is not only with Armenia that we want to normalize our relations.
We want to tinitiate contacts also with Armenians living in the
Diaspora. At this point it would be wrong to group all Armenians on
the same plate and consider them as one whole entity. This should be
well understood. There will be Armenian communities that we will be
able to dialogue with … We should change their perceptions,’ said
the Turkish foreign minister.

Tert.am

The Film Stage
March 26 2010

[Review] Chloe

Posted on 26 March 2010 by Raffi Asdourian in Reviews

I hold Atom Egoyan in high esteem above most filmmakers, for a deeply
personal reason in that we share an Armenian heritage. As a filmmaker
myself, I look up to him as both a role model and established auteur
with an impressive body of work that has reflected themes of memory,
identity and perception that I often connect with. However I cannot
endorse his latest commercial effort Chloe, a paltry predictable
erotic thriller that despite its killer cast, falls victim to its own
conventions.When David (Liam Neeson) misses his flight back home to
his wife Catherine (Julianne Moore), it casts a shadow of doubt in her
mind about his fidelity. Matters grow worse as the next morning she
finds a text message from a female student on his cellphone. What’s a
successful working doctor to do? Test her husbands fidelity by hiring
a call girl to seduce him of course. A call girl that conveniently
sells tricks near Dr. Catherine’s private medical office and who she
then encounters randomly in the restroom of an upscale restaurant.
This of course is where the titular character Chloe (Amanda Seyfried)
comes into the picture, along with unintended consequences for the
repressed Catherine who suddenly finds herself in a rabbit hole of
sexual intrigue.

The script penned by Erin Cressida Wilson, the mind behind Secretary
and Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, is actually a remake of
a 2003 French film by Anne Fontaine called Nathalie. It also marks the
first of his 13 features that Egoyan hasn’t written himself. So you
combine the facet of a remake and a script that has not been
thoroughly combed for plot problems by the director and you have a
recipe for an extremely foreseeable fate.

Perhaps this is why the film feels a bit detached from Egoyan’s
normally restrained storytelling, as the narrative progresses it
becomes painfully obvious what’s going on. The element of mystery and
intrigue vanish within the early stages of the relationship between
Chloe and Catherine, and does little to go beyond the typical cliches
of the genre. While the ensemble cast is impressive, Seyfried’s
attempt as an enigmatic prostitute with emotional baggage is laughable
at best, and seems like a weak attempt by the producers to alleviate
her from the typical tween roles we associate her (Mean Girls, Dear
John). Despite trying to give her edgy dark material, the only allure
mainstream audiences are left with is a brief glimpse of her nude
body. There is also a kind of vapidness in her eyes that makes every
scene she’s in feel empty and soulless. It doesn’t work and she is the
biggest pitfall of the film.

Moore is the one anchor of the film, if there is any, but even she is
forced to make decisions that feel overtly silly and illogical,
occasionally making you want to fist palm your forehead. Neeson is
severely underused and barely has any screen time to make much impact
in the film, except for a few moments of erotic flashback that are
just too awkward to be plausible. It’s feels like the the characters
are nothing more than puppets caught in a merry go round of lies. And
while Egoyan’s style is still definitely in tact, with echoes of his
previous films Exotica and The Adjuster, the ambiguous nature of Chloe
leaves the viewer feeling hollow.

Chloe is a film mired down by the predictable formula established by
the likes of Fatal Attraction, while aspiring to be something more
meaningful than it is. It feels at times that Egoyan sorely wanted to
create a layered Hitchcock masterpiece but never seems to hit the
ground running. There is a cool visual motif of mirrors and shooting
through windows to touch on the reflective nature of the characters
but all that falls to the wayside. Ultimately, all you are left with
are calculable plot devices, twists and turns that are as cliche as
the late night erotic thrillers that probably inspired the original
film.

5 out of 10

e/

DECLARATION ON THE RESULTS OF THE ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN INTER-PARLIAMENTARY SESSION SIGNED

68/lang/en
2010-03-24

YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS: Reception was organized at the Armenian
Embassy to Russia March 23 in honor of the Armenian Parliamentary
delegation, which is on a working visit to Moscow.

Moscow correspondent of Armenpress reports that the Armenian
parliamentarians, who were in Moscow, their Russian counterparts,
journalists, diplomats and embassy officials were present at the
reception at the ambassador’s invitation.

RA Ambassador to Russia Oleg Yesayan addressed a welcome speech and
presented to the guests the current level of the Armenian-Russian
relations and the prospects of further development. The ambassador
emphasized the importance of the inter-parliamentary cooperation
between the two states and wished the parliamentarians harmonic,
well-managed and coordinated joint activities, which will be to the
benefit of the two countries and peoples.

Nikolay Ryzhkov and Aram Safaryan, co-chairmen of the Armenian-Russian
inter-parliamentary commission, addressed speeches as well.

After the formal reception a declaration on the results of the 18th
Armenian-Russian inter-parliamentary session was signed.

H. DEMOYAN: THE THINGS WILL FLARE UP TILL APRIL 24

Aysor, Armenia
March 25 2010

The process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide will get more
active ahead of April 24, predicted Director of the Armenian Genocide
Museum Institute Hayk Demoyan.

"There will be countries that will recognize the Genocide which will
also depend on the ratification process of the Armenian – Turkish
protocols," the speaker explained.

"There exists an international policy where, unfortunately, all
the questions, as well as ours become tools for solving concrete
issues. I am sure that the formulation of the Genocide shouldn’t
become an object for the political manipulations," H. Demoyan noticed.

EBRD OPENS A $10 MILLION CREDIT LINE TO AMERIABANK TO SUPPORT REAL ECONOMY SECTOR

ArmInfo
22.03.2010

ArmInfo. The EBRD is boosting further the availability of financing
for the real economy sector in Armenia with a new $10 million credit
line to Ameriabank for on-lending to small and medium-sized (SMEs)
private enterprises, Ameriabank told ArmInfo.

Ameriabank is the sixth largest bank in Armenia by total assets
and among the top three fastest growing banks in the country. It is
owned by "TDA Holdings Limited", an investment company affiliated
with Troika Dialog, a leading Russian investment banking group.

The EBRD credit line will enable Ameriabank to develop further its
SME lending activities and meet the high demand for financing from
local companies, which continue to face limited access to funding.

"Supporting the growth of small and medium companies is one of the
EBRD’s key priorities in Armenia. The new loan offered to Ameriabank
will facilitate the access of local enterprises to much-needed
financing", said EBRD President, Thomas Mirow.

"We are pleased to continue our cooperation with the EBRD. The new
financing provided to Ameriabank will help us address the increasingly
high demand for financing among small and medium businesses in
Armenia and will contribute to further growth and revitalization
of the Armenian economy", said the General Director of Ameriabank,
Artak Hanesyan. Earlier this month the EBRD provided another $10
million co-financing line to Ameriabank to support the development
of medium-sized businesses.

Since the beginning of its operations in Armenia, the EBRD has
committed over $393 million to the country in 77 projects in the
financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy sectors. Ranking of
the Armenian Banking System prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing
Information (ArmInfo) says Ameriabank doubled credit portfolio in
2009 to 67.8 billion drams (4th position) or 65.5% of assets. In
2009 Ameriabank ensured 1.5 billion drams profit (4th position). TDA
Holdings Limited, the affiliated company of Troika Dialog, is the
majority shareholder of Ameriabank (99.99%).

ARMAN KIRAKOSIAN: TURKISH AUTHORITIES CONTINUE BEING GUIDED BY OTTOMAN EMPIRE’S SYSTEM OF VALUES

Noyan Tapan
March 22, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, NOYAN TAPAN. "I am sorry that on the threshold of
the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide committed in Ottoman
Empire the authorities of the Republic of Turkey speaking about
deportations of Armenians continue being guided by not European but
Ottoman Empire’s system of values." RA Deputy Foreign Minister Arman
Kirakosian declared it commenting upon Turkish Prime Minister’s London
statement at Armenpress’ request.

According to A. Kirakosian, speaking about Armenians who allegedly
appeared in a hard condition and came to Turkey Erdogan forgets
millions of Turkish migrants who left for various countries of the
world to earn their living.

THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO TURKISH AMBASSADOR

J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service
March 19 2010

Earlier this week, the Turkish Ambassador Oguz Ozge addressed the
Capital Jewish Forum in Canberra and spoke of the 1915 Armenian
genocide. The Armenian community has responded to his remarks.J-Wire
would like to establish two points before publishing the response.

1. Comments published on this site may have been moderated by
J-Wire but they do not necessarily reflect J-Wire’s viewpoint. We
are strictly a news service and do not publish op-eds although we
may publish articles written by highly-informed writers.

2. We are a Jewish Australian and New Zealand news website. The
Turkish-Armenian issue is not within our topic boundaries. We
publish the Armenian response purely as an act of responsible
journalism offering a level playing field to those with opposing
views. Any further comments on this issue should be addressed to a
more appropriate forum.

The response from the Armenian community:

from Varant Meguerditchian

President

Armenian National Committee of Australia Inc

We write to you in reference to the recently posted article ‘Turkish
Ambassador speaks to Canberra group’. The article primarily touches
upon a visit by members of the CJF to the Turkish Embassy in Canberra
whereby the members of the Jewish Community were introduced to
aspects of Turkish culture. The article also includes the denial of
the Armenian Genocide in a speech delivered by the Turkish Ambassador
to those present at the reception.

We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming
the Armenian Genocide but it is hundreds of independent scholars,
who have no affiliations with governments, and whose work spans many
countries and nationalities and the course of decades. The scholarly
evidence reveals the following:

On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young Turk
government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its
Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority population. More
than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing,
starvation, torture, and forced death marches. Another million fled
into permanent exile. Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from
its homeland of 2,500 years.

The Armenian Genocide is corroborated by the international scholarly,
legal, and human rights community:

1) Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, when he coined the term genocide
in 1944, cited the Turkish extermination of the Armenians and the
Nazi extermination of the Jews as defining examples of what he meant
by genocide.

2) The killings of the Armenians is genocide as defined by the 1948
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide.

3) In 1997 the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an
organization of theworld’s foremost experts on genocide, unanimously
passed a formal resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide.

4) 126 leading scholars of the Holocaust including Elie Wiesel and
Yehuda Bauer placed a statement in the New York Times in June 2000
declaring the "incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide" and urging
western democracies to acknowledge it.

5) The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem), the
Institute for the Study of Genocide (NYC) have affirmed the historical
fact of the Armenian Genocide.

6) Leading texts in the international law of genocide such as William
A. Schabas’s Genocide in International Law (Cambridge University Press,
2000) cite the Armenian Genocide as a precursor to the Holocaust and
as a precedent for the law on crimes against humanity.

7) Lead Genocide Scholars in Australia including Prof. Colin Tatz,
Prof. Robert Manne, Dr. Paul Bartrop and Dr. Donna-Lee Frieze have
studied and produced scholarly works affirming the historical reality
of the Armenian Genocide. The Australian Institute for Holocaust and
Genocide Studies based at the University of NSW, Shalom College is
each year, host to an ‘Armenian Genocide Commemorative Lecture’.

an-community-responds-to-turkish-ambassador/8099

RUSSIAN CHURCH TO CONTINUE KARABAKH PEACE EFFORTS – PATRIARCH

RIA Novosti
March 18, 2010
Etchmiadzin

The Russian Orthodox Church will continue its efforts to peacefully
settle the Nagorny Karabakh problem, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and
All Russia said Thursday.

Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian region in Azerbaijan, has had
de facto independence since a brutal war between the South Caucasus
neighbors in the early 1990s, and the two remain bitter foes despite
ongoing peace efforts.

"Churches carry their peacekeeping message to where our brothers and
sisters suffer, to where there is danger of bloodshed," Kirill told
journalists in the residence of the head of the Armenian Apostolic
Church in the city of Etchmiadzin.

"The church should not link its peacekeeping message to any political
or pragmatic aims," he said while winding up his three-day visit
to Armenia.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since the war in
early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides.

Karabakh has since remained under Armenian control. Baku has fiercely
opposed any decision on Karabakh that could be interpreted as giving
the region independence from Azerbaijan.

The Russian patriarch urged the soonest possible resolution of
Armenia’s problems with Azerbaijan and Turkey, adding that "keeping
the fire of hatred is a path to nowhere."

Patriarch Kirill on Wednesday paid tribute to the victims of the
Armenian genocide, laying flowers at a memorial in Yerevan.

Turkey has always refused to recognize the killings of an estimated
1.5 million Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire in
1915 as an act of genocide. A number of countries have recognized
the killings in Armenia as the first genocide of the 20th century.