Author: Emil Lazarian

AZERI DEFENCE MINISTER, US MEDIATOR DISCUSS KARABAKH
Azeri press Agency
4 Oct 06
3 October, Baku: Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev received
the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, yesterday [2
October], a source at the Defence Ministry has told APA. Abiyev said
that the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks over the Karabakh settlement,
which have been continuing for many years, were fruitless. He said
that the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group yielded no positive
results so far. The defence minister said that the non-resolution
of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was a major obstacle to the
development of strategic Azerbaijani-US relations and recalled that
Azerbaijani territories were occupied by Armenia.
“Yerevan should understand that the policy conducted by Armenia is
putting it on the edge of a precipice. Armenia is on the sidelines
from all regional economic projects. Azerbaijan is developing in
the economic sphere and increasing its military capacity. Armenia’s
destructive position, the occupation of our territories and the
presence of unregistered arms and ammunition in these territories
urge us to do this. We again state that Azerbaijan will not cede an
inch of its territories. The conflict should be resolved within the
framework of international laws and territorial integrity of the
states. Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity by other
means if the peace talks yield no results,” Abiyev said.
Bryza said that Azerbaijan was ahead of Armenia in all spheres and
called on Azerbaijan to be patient. The co-chair informed the minister
about his activities and added that along with co-chairmanship in the
OSCE Minsk group, he was also involved in Europe’s energy security and
the development of US-Azerbaijani friendly relations. He said that
Azerbaijan was an important country to the USA and it supported the
USA in the fight against international terrorism. Bryza said that
the international community supported a solution to the conflict
through talks.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RANKINGS OF FOURTH-GRADERS’ SKILLS
Raleigh News & Observer
Scripps Howard News Service
October 04, 2006, Wednesday 12:13 PM EST
Few Americans know the rankings by their formal name, but most people
know that the math skills of children from the United States don’t
stack up well when compared with other countries.
The rankings are called TIMSS – Trends in International Mathematics
and Science Study, and they are published every four years out of
Boston College.
Rankings of fourth-graders’ skills in 2003, the most recent year
available, produced the following results:
1. Singapore
2. Hong Kong
3. Japan
4. Chinese Taipei
5. Belgium-Flemish
6. Netherlands
7. Latvia
8. Lithuania
9. Russian Federation
10. England
11. Hungary
12. United States
13. Cyprus
14. Republic of Moldova
15. Italy
16. Austria
17. New Zealand
18. Scotland
19. Slovenia
20. Armenia
21. Norway
22. Iran
23. Philippines
24. Morocco
25. Tunisia
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, )
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OH, BROTHER, WHAT A PAIR OF MUSICIANS
Fresno Bee (California)
September 29, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
This piano recital is a family affair. Brother-and-sister team Gianeh
and Ovanes Arakelyan will perform 6 p.m. Sunday in the Concert Hall
at California State University, Fresno, in a concert that will include
works by Bach, Liszt, Khachaturian and Gershwin, among others.
The Arakelyans graduated from the University of Southern California
and won two gold medals at the 2004 World Championships of Performing
Arts in Hollywood performing Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance.” They have
performed in Carnegie Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the John
Anson Ford Amphitheatre and other prestigious venues.
The concert is sponsored by the Armenian Museum of Fresno. Details:
(559) 243-5880.

JAVAKHK WAITING FOR CHANGES BUT NOTHING HAPPENS
PanARMENIAN.Net
05.10.2006 13:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “The situation in Samtskhe Javakhetia is
quiet. However, those who leave Javakhk to earn money become
Russia citizens and never come back. People awaited problems with
bank transfers over the tension of the Russian-Georgian relations
but everything is all right. Everyone is waiting for changes, but
nothing happens,” editor of hos.am e-newspaper Armen Grigoryan told
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, the election to the local
self-government started October 5 but one can hardly make out the
situation.
Two parties – United National Movement and Industry Will Save
Georgia (opposition), -as well as candidates by majority lists run
in Akhalkalaki. “The opposition stands little chance for victory,
though it’s my personal opinion. The administrative pressure is
strongly felt,” Grigoryan said. “Though several servicemen from the
62nd military base were in Tbilisi at the period on the “espionage
scandal”, none of them was arrested,” he added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER ENDS VISIT TO GREECE
Armenpress
Oct 05 2006
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS: Armenian defense ministry said
minister Serzh Sarkisian and other senior army officers who were
visiting Greece, attended on October 3 the official opening ceremony
of the 14-th Defender International exhibition.
A spokesman for Armenian defense ministry, Seyran Shahsuvarian, said
Sarkisian visited the pavilion of the joint Armenian-Greek company
LT Pirakla, which is a subsidiary of Greek EBO-Pirakla company and
spoke to its chief executives.
On the same the Armenian delegation visited the Hellenic Land Force
Academy and met with Armenian cadets studying there. The delegation
also visited Greece’s National Military Museum. An arrangement was
reached to hold in it in 2007 an exhibition devoted to Armenian
armed forces.
On October 4 Serzh Sarkisian was received by his Greek counterpart
Evangelos Meimarakis. Both men discussed a wide scope of bilateral
relations and reached arrangements on expansion of bilateral
cooperation in military education and peace-keeping operations areas.
The Armenian minister was also welcomed by the Armenian embassy in
Athens and met with members of the Greek Armenian community. The
Armenian minister awarded Hrant Basmajian, chairman of the Union of
Friends of Armenia and Karabakh the Armenian military medal. At the
end of the visit Sarkisian met with local journalists for a news
conference.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US CO-CHAIR OF OSCE MG URGES AZERBAIJAN TO BE PATIENT
ARMINFO News Agency
October 4, 2006 Wednesday
During a meeting with Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev the US
co-chair of the OSCE MG Matthew Bryza urged Azerbaijan to be patient.
AzerTag reports Bryza to say that Azerbaijan surpasses in Armenia in
all spheres and to urge the country to wait a little bit more. Bryza
said that, besides being the OSCE MG co-chair, he is also responsible
for the resolution of other conflicts in the region, for energy
security in Europe and the development of friendly relations between
the US and Azerbaijan. He said that Azerbaijan is important for
the US and Washington highly appreciates the country’s political
and economic achievements. Bryza thanked the Azeri authorities for
active support in the US’ anti-terror activities. He said that the
international community wants the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be
resolved through peace talks.
In his turn, Abiyev said that the talks are ineffective and that
the OSCE MG’s activities have not given positive results yet. He
said that the key obstacle to the further development of Azeri-US
strategic relations is the unsettled state of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Abiyev pointed out that “Armenia has occupied Azeri lands.
Azerbaijan will not yield a single inch of its land. The conflict
must be resolved in line with the international law and territorial
integrity principle. If the peace talks give no result, Azerbaijan
will restore its territorial integrity on its own.”
AzerTag does not specify if Bryza called for patience in response
to this phrase but gives the phrases exactly in this sequence, which
suggests a certain conclusion.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VYACHESLAV IVANKOV CLAIMS MINISTERIAL POST IN ARMENIA: ARMENIAN MP
ARMINFO News Agency
October 4, 2006 Wednesday
The well-known Russian criminal figure Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed
Yaponchik, has recently arrived in Armenia to realize his political
plans, Armenian parliamentarian Hmayak Hovhanissyan said in the
Armenian parliament, Wednesday.
He said V. Ivankov enjoyed a high level reception in the country,
which allows one to think that Yaponchik’s proposal was accepted.
That is, Ivankov intends to occupy a ministerial post after the
parliamentary elections in Armenia in the one of the ruling parties
known with its criminal authorities with various nicknames, the
parliamentarian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA WILL GO ON CONCESSIONS IN KARABAKH ISSUE ONLY SUBJECT TO REFERENDUM FOR STATUS OF NAGORNY KARABAKH
ARMINFO News Agency
October 4, 2006 Wednesday
Even if the Armenian party goes on a territorial concession in the
Karabakh issue, it will be only in exchange for a referendum for the
status of Nagorny Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
told journalists.
“We shall go on a concession only if all the steps in the package on
settlement of Karabakh conflict are clear for the Armenian party. It is
also important for Armenia that Nagorny Karabakh has an international
status before the referendum, he said. Let it be a status of an
administrative unit having direct ties with international structures
guaranteeing its security and not the status of an unrecognized
republic, the premier said.
As regards the UN Resolution “On the Situation in the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan,” the premier said this document contains
sound title contradicting to the position of Armenia. However, it
plays no key role in the settlement of Karabakh problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REBEL WITH A CAUSE AND A SIMPLE STRATEGY
by Peter Koven, Financial Post
National Post’s Financial Post & FP Investing (Canada)
October 4, 2006 Wednesday
Toronto Edition
George Armoyan is a tenant. Housing prices in Toronto are outlandish,
he says, so there’s no sense in buying. So each month he hands over
a rent cheque to his landlord, who happens to live next door: Ted
Rogers, CEO of Rogers Communications Inc.
This relationship, however, doesn’t mean the pair would get along in
a boardroom.
Mr. Armoyan has made a name for himself investing in some of the
worst income trusts on the market. Despite his attraction to the ugly,
there’s only two things that turn him off a company, both of which are
trademarks of Mr. Rogers: long-term debt and multiple-voting shares.
“Most of these income trusts, for the people selling them [in initial
public offerings], to get a higher price, they’re trying to put
long-term debt in with the idea that you don’t have to amortize,
you don’t have to pay for it,” he says.
“And when you do that — as my late grandmother put it — ‘Ultimately,
son, the ice will melt and the shit will come out.'”
In just a few short years, Mr. Armoyan has emerged as the foremost
activist investor in the income trust sector. His strategy is simple:
Buy minority stakes of up to 20% in troubled companies, primarily
trusts that have cut distributions. Start a dialogue with management,
get on the board, and do whatever is necessary to boost shareholder
value. He makes the investments through Clarke Inc., a publically
traded company and until recently private holding company Geosam
Investments.
His success speaks for itself. Whenever he reveals his latest target
company, that firm’s unit price inevitably jumps as other investors
follow him in. They like having a hands-on investor like Mr. Armoyan
in their corner.
And they have been following him a lot lately. In the past couple of
months, Mr. Armoyan has gone on a spending spree, buying stakes in a
wide variety of troubled companies that share little in common other
than that few other investors wanted to touch them until Mr. Armoyan
got involved.
“In just the last while, because there’s been so many failures, so
many cuts in distributions, quite a lot of people have lost faith in
the income trust, especially the business trust,” he says.
Mr. Armoyan isn’t necessarily a fan of the income trust structure —
he believes most of these companies should never have gone public
as trusts in the first place, and thinks the sector’s accounting
practices are a joke. But as trusts slash their distributions and
investors turn sour on them, he sees huge opportunities.
Entertainment One is a good example. The wholesale DVD and CD
distributor suspended its monthly distributions in June amid concerns
that it would violate its debt covenants.
As the units plunged and other investors bailed out, Mr. Armoyan
and his team of analysts sat down and took a look. He did the math
and couldn’t understand why the units would be down more than 80%
when the company was doing something he approved of: paying down debt.
“I”m not looking for the distribution. I’m looking for the
fundamentals. If a company stops distributions for the purpose
of paying their debt, that’s fine. That’s building equity for the
unitholders as far as I’m concerned.”
His investment has paid off already. Last week, Entertainment One
said it received an unsolicited takeover proposal, and has hired an
investment bank to evaluate a possible sale.
The units shot up 14%. He bought more of it.
Since he buys stakes in so many genuinely troubled companies,
Mr. Armoyan anticipates that some of his investments aren’t going to
pay off. There’s already a stand-out disaster: Hip Interactive Corp.,
a video game maker that declared bankruptcy last year. He was on the
board for less than a month, but was quickly appalled by the practices
of the company and its board.
But the successes greatly outweigh the failures. One of his biggest
triumphs was at Clarke, a Halifax-based trucking company. He bought
into Clarke in 2002, four years after it went public. In that time,
the shares had lost about half their value while management raised
their salaries. He ousted management, but then took another step and
appointed himself as CEO. Why do that? “I guess it was just easy to
get control of.” Clarke shares have been on a steadily upward trend
ever since.
Mr. Armoyan is of Armenian descent and was born in Syria. He immigrated
to Halifax when he was a teenager and studied civil engineering
at Dalhousie.
He never got around to earning an MBA but goes to Harvard every year
for about a week as part of an executive program. Once there, he works
on case studies non-stop with 150 other executives from more than 30
different companies. He likes it because it shows him how people with
different cultural backgrounds can approach the same problem. The
Harvard experience can also guide his own investing strategy.
“I like to see what the theme of the year is. Last year it was real
estate. A few years ago it was the Internet. So usually, by the time
Harvard professors get to some cases and they start doing it, that
means it’s time to get the hell out of that business.”
[email protected]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S 15TH INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION OPENED IN CANADA
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 4 2006
Under the Auspices of His Eminence, Archbishop Khajag Hagopian,
Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Divine Liturgy was served
at the Bon Pasteur Catholic Church in Laval in celebration of the
feast of Sourp Kevork on October 1, 2006.
The special service brought together clergy members of different
denominations, as well multi-level politicians and representatives
of several local organizations, which was followed by a minute of
silence and prayer for the victims of the overpass collapse in Laval.
A special banquet for the feast of Sourp Kevork in tribute to Laval’s
Sourp Kevork Armenian Apostolic Church was also held the previous
evening at the Armenian community centre in Laval.
After the special ceremony, His Eminence also joined other community
members at the opening of an exhibition “Voice of the Caravans,”
featuring the works of Canadian Armenian artist, Perouz Seferian.
The exhibit was held in honour of Armenia’s 15th Independence
anniversary and was organized by Armenia’s Embassy in Canada, in
collaboration with Canadian Armenian organizations, held at the
Armenian General Benevolent Union’s centre in Montreal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress