Author: Felekian Ara

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

"WE CONTINUE TO LIVE WITH THE VISION OF 28 MAY AND REJECT ALL OTHER
SOLUTIONS THAT DMAGE OUR JUST CAUSE" SAID HIS HOLINESS ARAM I

On Sunday 31 May 2009, the Armenian Community in Lebanon celebrated at the
Catholicosate in Anterlias the anniversary of the First Armenian Republic 28
May 1918, and the victory of the Battle of Sardarabad. This day was also the
feast of the name of Catholicos Aram I.

His Holiness Aram I presided over the thanksgiving liturgy; and the memorial
ceremony praying for the soldiers who died during the battle of Sardarabad
to stop Turkey from conquering the last portion of historical Armenian land
and destroying the Armenian Nation. The battle took place 24-26 May 1918,
and was part of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I.

At the end of the liturgy the procession headed by His Holiness Aram I went
to the Main Hall of the Catholicosate for a ceremony of thanksgiving and
praise. Mr. Sarkis Guiragossian, a member of the Faculty of the Seminary
spoke of the battle and its meaning for the Armenian Nation today. He spoke
of the legacy of the First President of Armenia Aram Manoukian and the
meaning that legacy has taken through the Spiritual Guidance of His Holiness
Aram I.

At the end of the ceremony, Catholicos Aram I paid tribute to Sardarabad
heroes and referred to the difficult struggle of the Armenian people both in
the past and the present. He said that the victory of 28 May 1918 was the
result of national unity. He urged Armenians everywhere to make unity and
consensus the basis of all decisions that will affect the destiny of the
nation, and reject any offer that will damage it. Celebrations ended by the
community members presenting their good wishes to His Holiness Aram I and
receiving his blessings.

##
View the photos here:
tos/Photos386.htm
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMAVIA AIR COMPANY OFFERS FLIGHT VARIETY TO SOME CITIES

ArmInfo
2009-06-01 15:26:00

ArmInfo.Armavia Air Company offers a flight variety to Almaty, Minsk,
Tel Aviv, and Vienna.

Armavia press-service told ArmInfo the company offers the following
flights: Yerevan-Tbilisi then Tbilisi-Almaty, Tbilisi-Minsk,
Tbilisi-Tel Aviv and Tbilisi-Vienna.

The passengers will avoid problems with connection and time since
Armavia makes regular flights Yerevan-Tbilisi every day in the morning
and evening.

What was taking place in Malatia-Sebastia community was not an election
but real anarchy: Armenian National Congress

2009-05-31 21:32:00

ArmInfo. The authorities have proved once again that they are
criminals by organizing criminalized elections. What was taking place
in Malatia-Sebastia community was not an election but real anarchy,
the coordinator of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Levon Zurabyan
said while summing up the results of today’s elections into the
Council of Elders of Yerevan.

Voters were bribed on a mass scale. "They brought lots of people from
the country and forced them to vote instead of Yerevan residents. Lots
of people, mostly, proxies of ANC and Heritage party, were beaten in
Malatia-Sebastia community. Anushavan Nikogossyan, proxy of Heritage
party, was even kidnapped," Zurabyan said. He is sure that the violence
will be continued during the count.

Spokesman of ANC Arman Musinyan said that lots of soldiers were
involved in the voting, particularly, servicemen from Nagorno-
Karabakh. "It was a well-organized action. 99% of the violations were
aimed against ANC," Musinyan said. "We had lawyers at all polling
stations and they are presently drafting complaints. For the moment, we
don’t know if the violations organized by the regime will be enough for
it to steal our victory. But we believe that we will win," Musinyan
said.

"ROAD MAP" IMPLEMENTATION INSEPARABLE FROM KARABAKH PROBLEM: FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OF ARMENIA

Today.Az
s/52655.html
May 29 2009
Azerbaijan

"The implementation of the "road map" widely discussed among political
scientists is inseparable from the Karabakh problem", said Zhirayr
Liparityan, former adviser to the first Armenian President on National
Security Affairs, professor of the University of Michigan professor
and historian, while interviewed by Liberty radio.

"This link still exists though, as far as we know, this issue is not
mentioned in the latest "road map". However, it does not mean that
the link has disappeared", considers Liparityan.

"In general, the willingness to hold bilateral negotiations with Turkey
is a politically correct approach, which was used by the governing
administrations of Armenia. Yet it is still early to assess the latest
achievements in this direction since there are no results", he said.

As for the internal political situation in Armenia, Liparityan
expressed bewilderment that the internal policy of the authorities
contradicts to their foreign policy. "Armenian National Congress,
headed by first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian should
be the main ally of the authorities in the successful settlement
of both problems. Who else is able to support such a policy? The
authorities are trying to conduct successful foreign policy in terms
of suppression of political forces or the forces that might provide
this support from within.

I do not understand these differences", concluded the former adviser
to the President of Armenia.

BEELINE SUBSCRIBERS NUMBER DECREASES IN ARMENIA

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
29.05.2009 18:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Open Joint Stock Company Vimpel-Communications
(VimpelCom) today announced its financial and operating results for
the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

First quarter 2009 financial and operating highlights are: Net
operating revenues reached 66.8 billion Russian rubles, an increase of
30.7% versus 1Q08 and a decrease of 4.1% versus 4Q08; OIBDA reached
32.2 billion rubles, an increase of 5.0% versus 4Q08; Consolidated
OIBDA margin improved to 48.1% from 44.0% reported in the 4Q08;
Operating income reached 19.3 billion rubles, an increase of 239.5%
versus 4Q08; Net loss amounted to 8.5 billion rubles due to a 23.6
billion ruble foreign exchange loss; Mobile subscribers increased by
1.7 million versus 4Q08, reaching 62.7 million.

Commenting on the performance of the Company, Boris Nemsic, Chief
Executive Officer of VimpelCom, said, "During the first quarter of
2009 the economies of Russia and the CIS countries went through a
period of intense macroeconomic turmoil with a significant decline in
overall business confidence, rapid currency devaluations, a drop in
industrial production and rising unemployment. Despite the unfavorable
macroeconomic conditions and usual seasonal slowdown, we managed
to deliver strong quarterly results with revenues of 66.8 billion
rubles and OIBDA of 32.2 billion rubles with a healthy OIBDA margin
of over 48%. The relatively minor impact of the economic environment
on the operational side of our business reconfirms our belief in the
resilience of the telecom industry. During the quarter we increased
the number of active mobile subscribers from 61.0 million to 62.7
million. Our residential broadband business grew ahead of our initial
expectations. In the fixed-line corporate segment we observed good
performance with revenues increasing by 5% quarter-on-quarter."

The set of measures that were implemented at the beginning of the
macroeconomic uncertainty has started to bear fruit. Integration
synergies and a focus on cost-control, coupled with the usual seasonal
effect, yielded a consolidated OIBDA margin of over 48%, a 5% increase
in OIBDA quarter-on-quarter.

The cash flow from operations increased by 34% over the previous
quarter and amounted to 28.0 billion rubles, which equals US$826
million at the average exchange rate of 33.93 RUR/USD, the company’s
press office reported.

Meanwhile, the number of Beeline subscribers in Armenia has decreased
by 7.5%, totaling 481 thousand against 520 thousand in the first
quarter of 2008.

ARBITRARY RULE

A1+
02:50 pm | May 27, 2009

"Aghvan-like behaviour", President of Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates
Ruben Sahakian said about Armenian judges’ posture.

Recently, Judge Mnatsakan Martirosian took a disciplinary proceedings
against advocates Liparit Simonian, Melania Arustamian, Hovik Arsenian,
Stepan Voskanian and Varduhy Elbakian. Ruben Sahakian considers
Mnatsakan Martirosian’s step as an "arbitrary rule."

The Advocates’ Chamber is going to dismiss the proceedings against
the advocates.

Remind that on March 17 Mnatsakan Martirosian decided to apply to
the Chamber to take a disciplinary proceedings against the advocates.

The Chamber of Advocates plans to appeal to the Council of Justice
to institute a disciplinary proceedings against the judge of Kentron
and Nork-Marash District Court Mnatasakan Martirosian though Ruben
Sahakian is sure no proceedings will be taken against the judge.

The Chamber also plans to set up a quick response group. The group will
render assistance to advocates who have been subjected to arbitrary
treatment by judges.

ARMENIAN DEVELOPMENT AGENCY COUNCIL DISCUSSES EXPORT PROMOTION ISSUES

/ARKA/
May 27, 2009
YEREVAN

The Council of the Armenian Development Agency (ADA) discussed
issues on promotion of export of domestic goods, the government press
service reported.

The Council considered export issues, including the program of
measures for studying new markets, at its Tuesday meeting presided
over by Armenian Premier Tigran Sargsyan. According to the program,
support is to be provided to enterprises with export potential and
external markets are to be studied for raising the competitiveness
of domestic goods, says the report.

ADA Executive Director Robert Harutiunyan presented the quarterly
report about agency’s performance and reported on how the instructions
given at the last Council meeting are carried out. Targets, expected
results and responsible persons are set in the program for 2009,
he said.

Council members also considered evaluation criteria for works carried
out by ADA, modernization and development of IT sector, annual
ArmTech high technologies forum, preparations for participation in
world Shanghai Expo – 2009 exhibitions and other issues.

VTB BANK (ARMENIA) CONNECTS 18 REGIONAL BRANCHES TO ON-LINE SYSTEM

/ARKA/
May 28, 2009
YEREVAN

The VTB Bank (Armenia) has connected 18 of its regional branches to
the on-line system. The bank’s press service reports that the bank,
which has the largest number of branches (78), is successfully
implementing an on-line program in the country.

The bank is actively working on schedule, connecting two or three
branches to the on-line system daily. "Thus the bank is consistently
implementing a target program of upgrading the quality of services
and a bank communication policy on the bases of modern technologies,"
says the press-release.

The VTB Bank CJSC (Armsavingsbank until June 20, 2006) joined the VTB
Group in April 2004. The VTB Bank is sole owner of the VTB Bank CJSC
(Armenia).

As of March 31, 2009, the assets of the VTB Bank (Armenia) totaled
105.8bln AMD, liabilities 81.9bln AMD, total capital 23.9bln AMD,
and authorized capital 13.8bln AMD.

As of May 26, 2009, 40 of the bank’s branches were connected to the
on-line system: 31 in Yerevan, two in Hrazdan, and one branch is each
of the towns of Vedi, Artashat, Masis, Echmiadzin, Gavar, Martuni,
Vardenis, Dilijan, Yeghegnadzor, Jermuk, Vaik, Sisian, Goris, Meghri,
Kapan and Charentsavan.

IF FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE’S MISSION FAILS, ZHARANGUTIUN TO ASSUME IT

Noyan Tapan
May 27, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. If the activity of the experts’
fact-finding committee on study of the March 1 events fails,
Zharangutiun (Heritage) party will continue that work. As RA NA
Zharangutiun faction head Armen Martirosian stated on May 27, the
party has proper political will for it.

In his words, in spite of many obstacles faced by the fact-finding
committee, committee’s activity can be assessed as positive, as it
did much work, in particular, disclosed the death circumstances of
Police officer Hamlet Tadevosian.

Touching upon committee head Vahe Stepanian’s resignation and
his statement that he tried to counteract to divergencies between
pro-governmental and opposition representatives, A. Martirosian
said that if the authorities wished it the cases would have
been disclosed. It means that power representatives’ goal in the
committee was to hinder that disclosure, which called forth the
divergencies. "That is why the authorities try to suspend fact-finding
committee’s work," A. Martirosian said.

According to A. Martirosian, if fact-finding committee’s activity
is suspended, the Zharangutiun representative will publicize all
facts disclosed by the committee. He reminded that according to RA
President’s order on creating the fact-finding committee, committee’s
facts are considered secret until the end of committee’s activity.

FIVE PERCENT RISE

A1+
11:16 am | May 26, 2009

Society

Citizens of Armenia have started taking the metro more often and proof
of that are the numbers of passengers at the Yerevan metro and the
"A1+" surveys.

The majority of citizens that participated in the survey said that
they take the metro and according to statistics, there is a 5% rise
of metro transportation compared to last year.

"I started taking the metro when there was traffic and road
reconstruction in the city," said citizen Artur, while Armen said
that he prefers the metro over automobiles.

"I take the metro to stay away from the heat and getting into
traffic. It is too bad that I can’t take the metro everywhere."

Student Christine says that she takes the metro because it is cheap
and high-quality.

As the news service of the metro told "A1+", the current 50 drams
for metro tickets is not expected to change anytime soon.

As for tidiness and functioning of train wagons, the news service
told us that "passengers are in good hands." They also said that the
ten wagons are cleaned and go through technical checks every day and
that although they are trying to get new train wagons, they need at
least a million dollars for that.