Author: Frangulian Shushan

THE ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA MR. SERGE SARGSYAN ON THE OCCASION OF THE 18TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

President.am
Sept 21 2009
Armenia

Your Holiness,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Compatriots,

I cordially congratulate you on occasion of the 18th anniversary of
Armenia’s independence.

This is a holiday all the generations of the Armenian nation coveted
and sensed deep in their hearts. I emphasize: all the generations
without exception.

No matter where the battle was fought: at the River Aratsani, in the
fields of Avarayr or Dzirav, on the strongholds of Cilicia, under
the walls of Van, at Sardarapat or at Shushi, we were guided by the
same vision.

Regardless of whether we decorated manuscripts in monastic cells, or
casted letters of Mashtots to print books and journals from Vienna
to Calcutta, and from Echmiadzin to Venice, we were guided by the
same vision.

No matter whether the Armenian was a successful merchant whose private
fleet ranged the oceans, or a hungry and humiliated exile immolated
in the Der Zor Desert, he was guided by the same vision.

No matter how much territory we occupied on the world map, and even
when altogether swept away from the map, we were nevertheless guided
by the same vision: the vision of Independent Armenia that epitomizes
freedom, human and national dignity and, ultimately, the right and
historical ability to create good and beauty.

That is what makes this holiday great, precious and sacred for us.

Dear Compatriots,

This day 18 years ago, during the all-national referendum, millions of
hands reached out to ballot boxes to say "YES". Thereafter, we joined
hands to withstand big and small hardships, we overcame and continue
to overcame big and small challenges. However, the main choice is
already made. From now on independence is our fortune and destiny,
our onus and responsibility, our weapon and instrument, our might
and right, from now on, irrevocable and eternal.

What does Armenia preach after having reemerged on the international
political arena? Pure and simple concepts: peace, stability, good
neighborly relations, multilateral economic and other kinds of
cooperation in all spheres. We have been sufficiently patient and
wise to take that approach even towards those who for years have
attempted and still attempt to hinder our progress by all kinds of
blockades and Armenophobic propaganda.

What does Armenia preach to its offspring all over the world after
having resurrected from the genocidal hell? Pure and simple concepts:
unity, collective will and effort, the state’s determination to pursue
and protect the interests and goals of Armenians, filial love of and
dedication to the homeland of all Armenians, and a happy possibility
to build up the Armenia of our dreams by joint efforts. And Armenia
says them: "Welcome back to native home."

What does Armenia preach to its multinational citizens after
having delivered itself from the clutches of all types of tyrannies,
caliphates and empires? Pure and simple concepts: liberty, democracy,
a rule-of-law state, civil society, and the European system of values.

It also says that economic and other crises are transient, but homeland
is everlasting. Armenia’s able and hard-working citizens also can and
will overcome these obstacles on our way. We are grateful for the aid
provided nowadays to Armenia, however, our century-long experience
prompts us that the foundation of wellbeing is one’s own work.

What does Armenia preach to the ones who menace us with war? Pure and
simple concepts: we have more than once crossed swords with great and
powerful nations that once upon a time mastered the fate of the world,
but nowadays are mentioned only in history textbooks. And we say:
"We want no war, but we are ready for victory"; at the same time we
point out to the possibility of peaceful and political settlement of
the Artsakh problem.

Dear Compatriots,

I once again congratulate all of us on occasion of the great
holiday. The well-established, enhanced and virile Armenian state is
now a reality.

It is a faithful and loyal to its word ally for its allies, dependable
and loyal to its word partner for its partners, an opponent arguing
with weighty arguments against its opponents.

But above all, it is a sunlit land inhabited by hearty people for
its friends and guests.

It exists and will last as long as the sun shines, and will get
powerful enough to become the embodiment of the vision our great ones
from Khorenatsi to Tumanian, and from Komitas to Aram Khachaturian had.

Long live independence expressed and achieved by all-national will!

Long live the Republic of Armenia!

ITAR-TASS , Russia
Sept 20 2009

Tskhinval mounts mil parade on anniversary of republic’s proclamation

20.09.2009, 16.28

TSKHINVAL, September 20 (ITAR-TASS) – Tskhinval staged a military
parade on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the proclamation of
the South Ossetian Republic. The parade involved units of the Defence
Ministry, the Border Service of the State Security Committee and South
Ossetian commandos.

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity hailed the troops. He recalled
events that happened 19 years ago when `the Republic of South Ossetia
was proclaimed by the will of people’. `Born on September 20, 1990,
during grim days of armed confrontation, Republic Day became a turning
point in the latest history of our people.

`South Ossetia launched into a new life, the start of which was marked
by a chain of tragic and heroic events,’ the president emphasized.

Kokoity noted that `the very logic of events at the end of the 1980s
when Georgian nationalist forces unleashed an act of armed aggression
against peaceful Ossetian population, prodded South Ossetian people to
take the only correct decision on turning the autonomous region into a
republic’.

Along with the South Ossetian president, head of the breakaway
Dniester Republic Igor Smirnov, the Nagorno-Karabakh foreign minister,
the Nicaraguan ambassador to Russia and delegation members from
subjects of the Russian Federation hailed parade members from stands.

Festivities will continue on Sunday with a show of records and
achievements, a gala concert and fireworks.

ARMENIAN MEDIA OUTLETS ON ERECTING MEMORIAL OF ARMENIAN "GENOCIDE" IN ISRAELI CITY ARE FALSE

Trend
Sept 16 2009
Azerbaijan

The Armenian media outlets that the first memorial to victims of a
fictional Armenian "genocide" will be erected in the Israeli town of
Petach Tikva does not reflect reality,the official representative
of the City Hall of Petach Tikva, Hezy Hakak told Trend News over
telephone.

"This information is not true," said Hakak.

On Wednesday, PanARMENIAN.Net reported that the municipal authorities
of Petach Tikva agreed to erect a memorial for the victims of the
1915 Armenian "genocide".

Despite the fact that the issue of the Armenian "genocide" was
several times put on the agenda of the Israeli parliament, but the
Knesset rejected it. The Israeli government also does not recognize
the so-called Armenian "genocide" fact.

GEGAM KACHERIAN PAINTINGS AT ROSAMUND FELSEN GALLERY

Los Angeles Times
Sept 18 2009

There is something wonderfully peculiar about the paintings of Gegam
Kacherian, but it’s difficult to pinpoint just what it is. Each of the
15 works in his second solo show at Rosamund Felsen Gallery begins
in a reasonable, even orthodox manner with an aerial view of a city
skyline, or else the billowing clouds of a turbulent sky-scape. He
has a knack for spatial atmospherics and most of these scenes would
make for very handsome compositions in their own right. Over these,
however, he layers a whirling miscellany of fantastical imagery:
animals, figures, flora, architecture, and various totemic objects,
all wound in ectoplasmic strands of abstract pigment.

It is a view of the physical world splattered with flashes of
mystical consciousness. Horses gallop through the clouds; a man in
a bowler hat rides on the back of an owl; snake-like tendrils weave
in and out of free floating Modernist buildings. There are elephants,
horses, leopards, lions, panda bears, swans, owls, and a rhinoceros. A
female dancer in ceremonial dress makes several seemingly auspicious
appearances.

The peculiarity lies less in the surrealistic quality of the imagery,
however, than in the rather kooky formal and pictorial dynamics. The
landscapes are lavishly rendered and highly dimensional, stretching
miles, it seems, beyond the surface of the canvas. The overlaid
imagery hovers resolutely in the foreground, as if cast across the
surface of a window, leaving the middle-ground awkwardly vacant.

The landscapes, moreover, are massive; the surface imagery is quite
small and generally all out of scale: a tiny horse, an enormous owl,
etc. The clouds are full-bodied and lush; the abstract elements as
slight and wispy as feathers. The skies hearken back to 19th century
traditions of the sublime — Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran —
while the foreground imagery suggests contemporary fantasy illustration
with a splash of Salvador Dalí. The abstract flourishes seem to have
no precedent at all.

Given all of this, as well as the highly charged, often downright
psychedelic palette, these could — perhaps should — have been
frightfully ugly paintings: gaudy, awkward, excessively cluttered
and chaotic.

But they’re not. They’re enchanting: visually ravishing, filled with
strange and beguiling narratives, and — a rare quality indeed —
utterly distinctive. Kacherian, who lives in Los Angeles but studied
art in the early 1980s in his home country of Armenia, adheres to
the idioms of contemporary painting — this is not "outsider art" —
without conforming to any particular ideology, which leaves the work
feeling both relevant and fresh. One could imagine aligning it with
various camps of L.A. quasi-Surrealism (Jim Shaw, Sharon Ellis or
Nancy Jackson), but ultimately it demands to be read on its own terms.

GORKY IN LOWELL, A LIFE IN ABSTRACT

The Sun
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
September 17, 2009 Thursday
Massachusetts

Sep. 17–LOWELL — Like other artists on the rise, Arshile Gorky
dabbled in a variety of media and emulated contemporary artistic
greats. In Gorky’s case, his media ranged from crayon and pen and
ink to collage, oils, and even a sculpture or two. Paul Cezanne and
Pablo Picasso were the masters whose work he modeled.

Born Bosdanig Monoog Adoian, he assumed the name Gorky after the
Russian novelist. Art lovers can now discover 28 never-before or
rarely-seen works by Gorky at the Whistler House Museum of Art.

Drawings and Paintings by Arshile Gorky, the Mina Boehm Metzger
Collection opened with fanfare Sunday at a festive reception for
patrons in Whistler Park, adjacent to the museum, then continued in
the Parker Gallery, where the paintings, drawings, and a rare stone
sculpture were unveiled.

It opened to the public yesterday and runs through Nov. 7. A reception
is Saturday, 2-4 p.m.

Gorky, an Armenia native, born in 1904, survived the genocide by
the Ottoman Turks and held his mother in his arms as she died of
starvation. He immigrated to America in 1920 and embarked on a career
as an artist. His work was always tinged by an enduring sadness caused
by the tragedies he’d endured. Yet, he went on to become known as the
Father of American Abstract Expressionism, influencing many artists,
including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

"Gorky was an indisputable pioneer in American modern art," said
board member Sara Bogosian, who has chaired the Gorky-Mina Boehm
Metzger committee and done intense research into his art and life. The
collection is significant since it presents many of his earlier works
and traces his progression as an artist.

He and Metzger knew each other in New York in the 1930s, where she
studied with him, became his patron and collected these works.

The collection is a significant addition to the WHMA, which owns his
"Park Street Church, Boston (1924)," one of Gorky’s few remaining
works of that time. Catherine O’Donnell Murphy donated it to the
museum in 1976.

It was that contribution that sparked interest by owners of the Metzger
collection to see if the Whistler House would permanently house it.

"This wonderful collection is placed permanently on loan with us in
part because of her gift," said Whistler House Executive Director
Michael Lally.

Five years in the works, the acquisition involved trips to Connecticut
to see the collection, contracts, grants, restoration, conservation
and installation.

"This is an incredible moment for the Whistler House and the city of
Lowell," said board co-president Ryan Dunn.

But its significance is more far-reaching, said Melissa Kerr of the
Arshile Gorky Foundation.

"Historically, it is unusual to see original works from an early
patron in one place. Having the collection here is a wonderful asset
for art historians and students," she said.

Once the exhibit closes, Gorky works will be on view continuously in
a gallery in the main house.

ANKARA MAY DELAY PROTOCOL RATIFICATION ON ACCOUNT OF OPPOSITION’S DISSATISFACTION

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.09.2009 12:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Both Armenia and Turkey have unequivocal approach
to Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. Turkish political forces’ approach
is based on the given party’s ideology, Turkish Studies expert Ruben
Melkonyan told a press conference in Yerevan. "Turkish FM Ahmet
Davutoglu has already met with several political forces. Meetings
clearly showed that party leaders mainly have negative attitude to
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement and border opening," expert said.

In his opinion, Turkish leadership is secretly elaborating the next
scenario, i.e. it is delaying Protocol ratification on account of
opposition’s dissatisfaction. "Ankara may suspend the process unless
it sees positive signs in Karabakh process. Ruling AKP party makes
up majority in Parliament so ratification should be no problem. But I
don’t rule out the possibility that some AKP members will make tough
statements to hamper ratification process," Melkonyan stressed.

PROTOCOLS NOT HAMPER INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.09.2009 20:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "We are for normalizing relations with Turkey and we
will actively participate in parliamentary hearings on the matter,"
Aram Safaryan , secretary of the Prosperous Armenia parliamentary
faction told a briefing in the RA parliament today.

According to him, not the Armenian-Turkish Protocols impede the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the process of
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide , but those
political circles in Turkey and Azerbaijan, seeking to link
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations with those issues. "One
thing is clear: normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations cannot
be at the cost of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide
and the Nagorno-Karabakh problem," Aram Safaryan concluded.

ARDSHININVESTBANK AND MONEYGRAM HANDS IN CERTIFICATES FOR TRIP TICKETS TO THREE CLIENTS

ArmInfo
2009-09-18 16:12:00

ArmInfo. Ardshinivestbank and MoneyGram international money transfer
system handed in certificates for trip tickets to three clients within
the frames of their joint summer action.

As Ardshininvetsbank Chairman of the Board Nerses Karamanukyan said
at today’s certificate handing in ceremony, the winners, selected
by draw on September 11, will be enabled to go on a journey to the
country they choose, on the bank-provided funds of $1.5 thousand
each. Anahit Harutyunyan from Armavir, Ripsik Torosyan from Gyumri
and Anania Gabikyan from Yerevan have become winners of the draw with
participation of 570 clients, who carried out transfers to the sum
exceeding 400 Euro through MoneyGram system from June 10 to August 31.

Along with it, N. Karamanukyan said that the initiative of the draw
belongs to MoneyGram system with which the bank has been cooperating
since 2003, and the volume of money transfers via this system is
growing from year to year.

"If this volume in the beginning of our cooperation made up about
$300,000, now it makes up $2 mln monthly", he emphasized.

MoneyGram Marketing manager for CIS and Israel Andrey Afanasyev told
ArmInfo that Ardshininvestbank is one of the system’s partners. "We
are very pleased with cooperation with Ardshininvestbank which makes
sufficient efforts to continuously increase the system’s turnovers
in the country", he emphasized.

Head of Ardshininvestbank’s Private Transfer Department Tigran
Shahinyan told ArmInfo that the bank’s money transfers as of September
1, 2009, exceeded $90 mln, and the bank intends to assure $150-180
mln of private transfers till late 2009, against $200 in 2008.

Ardshininvestbank carries out money transfers also through other
international payment systems, in particular, Contact, MoneyGram,
Migom, Fast Mail, IntelExpress, RIA and the Russian Promsvyazbank,
Sotsgorbank, Forabank and Sberbank. At present, 80% of the bank’s
total money transfer turnover falls on CIS, the rest part –
on the USA and Europe. On the branch network, Ardshininvestbank
takes the second place in the banking system of Armenia having 55
branches, 13 of which are in Yerevan, 36 – in the regions and 6 –
in the NKR. The bank has also a representation in Paris. "Business
Investment Center" LTD with 86,82% equity share and International
Financial Corporation (IFC) with 10% equity share are the majority
shareholders of Ardshininvestbank. In 2008, the bank was awarded an
international quality standard certificate ISO 9001:2000.

SERZH SARGSYAN AND ILHAM ALIYEV TO MEET IN KISHINEV ON OCTOBER 10

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.09.2009 23:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During UN General Assembly’s 64th session to be
held in New York, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia),
Bernard Fassier (France) and Robert Bradtke (US), as well as personal
representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Anjey Kasprchik will meet
with Azeri and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mamedyarov and Edward
Nalbandyan.

Parties are expected to discuss prospects for Armenian and Azeri
President’s upcoming meeting. According to Russian Co-Chair Yuri
Merzlyakov, Presidents have expressed consent for the meeting but
there’s no final agreement yet. The meeting is scheduled for October
10 during the CIS Summit in Kishinev.

GOVERNMENT’S ANTI-CRISIS PROGRAM TO PRODUCE RESULT IN LAST QUARTER OF 2009, RA PM SAYS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
16.09.2009 13:31 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The government’s anti-crisis program will produce
results in the last quarter of 2009, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan said.

"The anti-crisis program developed was assessed highly by
international experts. Supply increase helped development of
infrastructures. Backbone enterprises enlisted state guarantees while
SMEs were granted loan privileges," he said. "31 000 SMB companies
are enjoying tax benefits. 20 000 of them use fixed returns."

The PM also said that forecasts for economy development in 2010-2011
are also important for the government.