NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS TO LAST FROM DECEMBER 25 TO JANUARY 13 IN ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.12.2009 19:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ New Year celebrations will last from December 25
to January 13 in Armenia, with fireworks, decorations and festive
events to mark the coming year.
As Yerevan Mayor’s Office reported, this year, celebrative events
were sponsored by organizations and benefactors.
NATIONAL SECURITY SERVOCE TO REGULATE ACTIVITIES OF EMBASSIES AND CONSULATES
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.12.2009 19:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In its Tuesday session, Armenia’s National Security
Service (NSS) considered 4 documents concerning the activities of
embassies and consulates operating in Armenia, NSS Secretary Arthur
Baghdasaryan said.
The documents establish an action plan for diplomatic representations,
he told journalists in Yerevan. "At the end of each working day,
NSS will convene discussions to introduce Armenia’s foreign policy
priorities and Foreign Ministry’s accomplishments," Baghdasaryan said.
TIGRAN SARGSYAN AWARDED POWER ENGINEERS
news.am
Dec 22 2009
Armenia
December 22, 2009 RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan presented RA
Energy Ministry staff medals and citations on the occasion of Power
Engineer’s Day, as well as the completion of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
construction, RA Governmental Information and PR Department informed
NEWS.am.
Tigran Sargsyan touched upon the achievements in the energy field
and outlined: "The system faces tough challenges, such as building
of new NPP power unit, that will bring dramatic changes to the energy
sector both economically and politically, as well as the construction
of TPP coming to an end and other projects."
Highly appreciating power engineers’ endeavors, Sargsyan assured
that RA Government will constantly assist the implementation of
all programs.
ARMENIAN MENTALITY DIFFERS WITH SETTING UP THE DESIRED FOR THE REALITY, ANALYST
news.az
Dec 22 2009
Azerbaijan
Fikret Sadikhov "Armenians always want to set up the desired for the
reality and this is a feature of their mentality.
Yet by voting for the principle of nations for the self-determination
in UN Azerbaijan has reiterated respect to basic principles of
international law. However, this does not mean that Armenians can
create their state formation everywhere they live. By doing do they
would just disfigure the political map of the world", said Fikret
Sadikhov, political scientist and professor of the Western University.
"Azerbaijan accepts Madrid principles and respects international law
that clearly fixes three main principles – territorial integrity,
rights of nations for self-determination and nonuse of force.
Azerbaijan respects all these three principles of international law
which cannot be said about Armenia. By voting for this resolution in
UN, we have recognized the right of nations for self-determination
but within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
and Armenia is aware of our position. We did not support separatism
and we will never support it. Thus, if Armenians want to spread lie,
they have come to the wrong door", the political scientist said.
OSCE YEREVAN OFFICE HONORS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS WITH CERTIFICATES
armradio.am
22.12.2009 18:03
Representatives of non-governmental organizations, Aarhus Centres
and municipal governments were awarded certificates for their work to
protect the environment at a conference organized by the OSCE Office
in Yerevan today to summarize the achievements and encourage further
success in the field.
The event that brought together representatives of civil society,
government, business and the cultural community aimed to raise
awareness on environmental matters and highlight the OSCE Office’s
work in the field.
Certificate recipients included: Aarhus Centres in Yerevan, Gyumri,
Hrazdan, Goris and Kapan supporting the implementation of the
Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation
in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters;
the environmental NGOs Ecolur and Khazer; the Mayor of the southern
city of Kajaran, and a representative of the Human Rights Defender’s
Office dealing with ecological rights.
"The involvement of all stakeholders and increased efforts of the
government and the community are vital in promoting ‘green democracy’
said the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Sergey
Kapinos emphasizing the achievement in promoting the civil society
co-operation with the Ministries of Nature Protection and Territorial
Administration under the auspices of the Office. "The certificates
are worthy acknowledgments of the progress that have been achieved
so far, and we are going to continue our efforts in this direction,"
Amalia Hambartsumyan, the Head of Khazer NGO that promotes
environmental awareness and education in Armenia, added:
"Civil activism is very important and we consider the support from
the state and international organizations instrumental in finding
lasting solutions to today’s environmental challenges."
Armenian Minister of Nature Protection and Human Rights Defender were
present at the event.
ARMENIAN MINISTRY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS SPENT ITS BUDGET INEFFICIENTLY
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.12.2009 18:10 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian NA Control Chamber held a meeting chaired
by Ishkhan Zakaryan on December 22. Deputy Head of 7th department of
Control Chamber Mr. Tovmasyan made a report on results of inspection
of RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs’s spending.
According to Mr. Tovmasyan, budget resources were spent by the
ministry inefficiently and with gross violations. He particularly
stressed the program of ensuring alumni of orphanages with apartments.
According to Mr. Tovmasyan, the program suffered a complete fiasco.
Tovmasyan reported that in 2009 the budget allocated AMD 301 million
for housing of orphanages’ alumni of Armenia. AMD 124 million were
returned to the budget and the entire program collapsed.
Answering journalists’ questions Ishkhan Zakaryan noted that the
Board of Control Chamber did not make yet make a decision to send
the factual materials to the Prosecutor office.
ARMENIAN PRESIDENT: ARMENIA AND KAZAKHSTAN ARE CSTO ALLIES
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
21.12.2009 17:34 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia and Kazakhstan are allies in the frameworks
of Collective Security Treaty Organization, and that explains
everything, according to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Alliance
presupposing mutual obligations in case of unilateral threats is the
highest level of interstate cooperation in international practice,
he told Kazinform in an interview. "We dynamically develop cooperation
by way of creating rapid reaction forces, developing legal-contractual
bases and conducting large-scale joint trainings," Serzh Sargsyan said.
At that, he noted that countries do not make full use of their economic
development potential. "In the long run, we should encourage contacts
between our business communities, creating favorable conditions for
mutual cooperation," Armenia’s top leader stressed.
PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
HIS HOLINESS ARAM I EXTENDS CONDOLENCES TO PRESIDENT BASHAR AL ASSAD
His Grace Bishop Shahan Sarkissian transmitted personally the message of
condolences of His Holiness Aram I to President Bashar Al Assad of Syria for
the loss of his younger brother. Majed Hafez Al Assad died in Damascus of a
chronicle illness. After thanking Bishop Shahan, the President asked him to
transmit his warm greetings to Catholicos Aram I.
##
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.
Science Letter
December 8, 2009
ASTROPHYSICS;
Reports from V.G. Gurzadyan and co-researchers add new data to
research in astrophysics
"The power spectrum is obtained for the Kolmogorov stochasticity
parameter map for WMAP’s cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation
temperature datasets," investigators in Yerevan, Armenia report (see
also Astrophysics).
"The interest for CMB Kolmogorov map is that it can carry direct
information about voids in the matter distribution, so that the
correlations in the distribution of voids have to be reflected in the
power spectrum. Although limited by the angular resolution of the
WMAP, this analysis shows the possibility of acquiring this crucial
information via CMB maps," wrote V.G. Gurzadyan and colleagues.
The researchers concluded: "Even the already obtained behavior, some
of which is absent in the simulated maps, can influence the
development of views on the void correlations at the large-scale web
formation."
Gurzadyan and colleagues published their study in Astronomy &
Astrophysics (The power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background
Kolmogorov maps: possible clue to correlation of voids. Astronomy &
Astrophysics, 2009;506(3):L37-L40).
For additional information, contact V.G. Gurzadyan, Yerevan Physics
Institute, Yerevan 375036, Armenia.
The publisher of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics can be contacted
at: EDP Sciences S a, 17, Avenue du Hoggar, PA Courtaboeuf, BP 112,
F-91944 les Ulis Cedex a, France.
CONGRESS DECISION TO ALLOCATE $8 MILLION TO KARABAKH A GREAT MISTAKE
Leyla Tagiyeva
news.az
Dec 18 2009
Azerbaijan
Mark Katz News.Az interviews Mark N. Katz, Professor of Government
and Politics at George Mason University (USA).
How would you comment decision of Congress about allocation of 8
million dollars to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2010? I’ll remind that there
is a great protest in Baku and Azeri Diaspora of U.S. about that.
The decision by Congress to allocate $8 million to Nagorno-Karabakh
was a great mistake. Up to now, the U.S. Government has been careful
not to take any steps indicating that it recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Obama Administration should have acted to forestall this. Now there
is a serious problem in US-Azeri relations at a time when Washington
very much wants good relations with Baku.
U.S. always supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
don’t recognize Karabagh as independent state. Does the decision of
Congress mean that there are changes in U.S. approach to the settlement
of the conflict?
In my view, the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government has not changed
its policy toward Nagorno-Karabakh. This move by Congress, though,
could be seen as a change, but as the U.S. Embassy in Baku stated,
this money will not be used to support the Karabakh government, but
for humanitarian purposes. The Embassy is clearly attempting to limit
the damage to U.S.-Azeri relations caused by Congress.
Armenian separatist say that U.S. (after Kosovo) and Russia (after
Abkhazia and Sought Ossetia) must recognize the independence of so
called "Nagorno-Karabagh Republic". Do you see any similarities or
links between these conflicts?
The recognition of secession is always an exceptional circumstance,
not the norm. The recognition of Kosovo’s secession by many countries
(and of Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s by just a few) does not
necessitate the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by anyone.
U.S. and Russia (the two main co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk group,
dealing with Karabagh conflict) still have many problems in bilateral
relations. Does in make problem in U.S.-Russia peace-keeping
cooperation in Karabagh issue?
The fact that America and Russia have many differences clearly does
not help them in resolving the Karabakh issue. Still, Russian-American
relations have improved somewhat since President Obama came to office.
Even if Russia and America completely agreed upon the Karabakh issue,
though, will not necessarily lead to its resolution. Azerbaijan and
Armenia must also agree.
What kind of influence had a war between Russia and Georgia on
Karabagh conflict?
This is a very interesting question. Before the 2008 Russia-Georgia
War, Moscow seemed more focused on isolating Azerbaijan. Since the
August 2008 War, though, Moscow has focused more on isolating Georgia
and has consequently been much friendlier to Azerbaijan.