Author: Kajoyan Gevork

THE COLLECTION OF “ZVARTNOTS” MUSEUM-RESERVE ADDED WITH 100 NEW FINDINGS

12:11 . 19/04

On the occasion of the International Day for Monuments and Sites, Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan yesterday visited “Zvartnots” Historical and
Cultural Museum-Reserve, familiarized himself with the new materials
added to the museum’s collection and with the newly-installed artistic
light and sound system.

In the result of excavations, the museums collection was added
with 100 new findings. The museum displays exceptional documentary
materials, archive photos, documents, valuable works, and monographs
are exhibited in the museum on the excavation in the territory of the
monument carried out during different years. The permanent display
organized in three galleries consists of archaeological, historical
and architectural sections, displaying valuable testimonies of
Armenian historians dating back to VII-XIII centuries telling about
Zvartnots temple.

18mln AMD have been spent for adding the museum collection, of which
2.5m has been allocated from the state budget and the other part by
the Historic and Cultural Reserve-Museums and Historic Environment
Preservation Service state non-commercial organization.

11.8mln AMD have been invested for the night illumination: the ten
million has been allocated by Electric Network of Armenia company
as donation and 1.8m the Historic and Cultural Reserve-Museums and
Historic Environment Preservation Service state non-trade organization.

GERMANY TO PROVIDE 40 MILLION EUROS TO ARMENIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPHERE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

ARMENPRESS
APRIL 20, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: Germany’s state-owned development
bank is likely to provide support of 40 million Euros to Armenia for
implementation of programs in the sphere of renewable energy.

As Armenpress reports citing , this is the next
round of the program launched in 2007: in the first round 24 million
Euros had been provided for development of the sphere of water energy.

OBAMA DOESN’T HAVE TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE TO EARN MY TRUST – EXPERT

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 20, 2012 – 14:10 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Pronunciation of the word “Genocide” by the U.S.
President Barack Obama doesn’t reaffirm the historical fact of
Genocide, director of the Regional Studies Center said.

“I’m a U.S. Democratic Party member. However, it doesn’t matter whether
Obama will pronounce the word “genocide” or not; I know it happened,”
Richard Giragosian said, adding that U.S. recognition is a mere issue
of morality.

“We must be ready for Turkish recognition of the Armenian Genocide;
we must be ready to set forth our demands,” the expert said, calling
on Turkey to come to terms with its past to determine its future.

LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY BUILDING WILL BE SOLD TO DIASPORA ARMENIAN? – NEWSPAPER

news.am
April 20, 2012 | 06:28

YEREVAN. – According to some rumors, Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan is
behind the dismissal of Yerevan State Linguistic University Rector
Suren Zolyan, and it is Sargsyan who is inflaming the conflict
between Zolyan and Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan,
Yerkir daily writes.

“Even though Minister Armen Ashotyan today denied that
the LinguisticUniversity will join the [ArmenianState]
PedagogicalUniversity, we made new discoveries concerning this deal.

According to our information, there is a preliminary arrangement on
the purchase of the University building with a Diaspora Armenian
businessman who wishes to open a hotel at this building,” Yerkir
writes.

YEREVAN TO HOST GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION CONCERT

TERT.AM
18.04.12

Ahead of the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Nayiri
string quartet is planning a commemoration concert at the Yerevan
State Chamber Theatre.

The program entitled 100 Concerts Dedicated to the Genocide Martyrs
will feature Haydn’s quartet, The Seven Last Word of Jesus Christ (op
51). The soloists include Tigran Matevosyan (violin), Gayane Kakoyan
(second violin), Armen Torosyan (alt), Vahan Grigoryan (cello).

The concert will start at 8:oo pm on April 23.

EXPERTS PRAISE RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN INTERACTION FORMAT

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 18 2012
Russia

Moscow has recently hosted a video conference with Yerevan to discuss
political forces involved in parliament polls, campaign favourites
and their effect on Russian-Armenian relations.

Alexander Markarov, Director of the Armenian branch of the Institute
for CIS States, said that none of the parties running for parliament
has plans to scrap cooperation with Russia, CIS or CSTO. The
campaign is peculiar for stress on domestic political problems,
socio-economic development, with less attention to foreign policy
and even the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A lot of attention is paid
to employment problems.

Alexander Krylov, senior scientist of the IWEIR of the RAS, President
of the Science Society of Caucasus Studiers, agreed that no dramatic
changes in relations with Russia should be expected. However, there
are escalation tendencies due to the situation in Iran, Afghanistan,
Greater Middle East, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh.

There were proposals to replace Russian security guarantees with
alternate ones, including what was mentioned in 2008.

Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of the Caucasus Institute, said that
the elections would not affect Russian-Azerbaijani relations. There
are no pro-western or pro-Russian tendencies in political parties.

Iskandaryan denied possibilities of political parties formed as
projects of foreign states. All parties have contacts with foreign
partners and position themselves as Armenian, based on domestic
realities. Calling Armenia an arena of Obama’s, Putin’s or Sarkozy’s
projects is a pointless and primitive idea, he concludes.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, BELARUSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DISCUSS NUCLEAR COOPERATION

Vestnik Kavkaza
April 16 2012
Russia

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has met Belarusian Foreign Minister
Sergey Martynov, NEWS.am reports.

Martynov is on a visit to Belarus. The sides agreed to develop ties
and expand cooperation, activate efforts in building up economic
relations. Sargsyan and Martynov approve exchange of experience and
development of cooperation in engineering, high-tech, science and
education and nuclear energy.

Armenia and Belarus are both members of the CSTO. Sargsyan and Martynov
emphasized mutually beneficial cooperation in international structures.

DISTANT CIVIL WAR LEADS TO NEW ARMENIAN RESTAURANT DOWNTOWN
By Damien Jaques

OnMilwaukee.com

April 16 2012

Senior Contributing Editor

Few new restaurants sprout in Milwaukee as a direct result of a civil
war. Few Wisconsinites get married to a soundtrack of artillery fire
in the distance.

But those are the roots of Arin Bert Coffee & Grill, which recently
opened in a Downtown storefront that over several decades has housed
Finch’s Corned Beef, Five Dollar Deli, Philly Way, Wingz and Amazon
Pizza. The address is 222 W. Wells St.

Arin Bert has two identities. It is a coffee shop serving a complete
line of Alterra products, baked goods, frappes, smoothies and Italian
sodas. It is also an Armenian restaurant that serves traditional
cuisine from the Caucasus Mountains.

Owner Joseph Seifert says his closest Armenian competitor is in
Glenview, Ill.

Named after a famous Armenian fortress the arch-enemy Turks never
conquered, the informal Arin Bert features counter service. Beef, pork
and chicken are ground or chunked, placed on skewers and grilled before
being served as platters ($7.95 to $8.95) or in wraps ($5.95 to $6.50).

Platters come with sauce, two sides, rice pilaf or fries, and an
Armenian flat bread called lavash. The sides include hummus, tabouli,
carrot salad, potato-beet salad, pickled cabbage, and a warm red bean
adjiga (paste). Wraps are accompanied by hummus, rice, sumac onion
and sauce.

Falafel is also offered as a platter ($6.25) and wrap ($4.75). Ton,
an Armenian style yogurt drink with salt and mint, is on the menu. Arin
Bert opens at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and a breakfast wrap
of eggs, cheese and cucumbers is available in the morning.

Authentic desserts made on the premises include baklava and drunken
cherry chocolate torte. Armenian baklava substitutes rose water or
orange blossom water for honey, resulting in a less sweet pastry. The
drunken cherry chocolate torte is dense but light.

Seifert is a Muskego native and attorney with a compelling story. Not
knowing a word of Russian, he moved to Moscow in 1990 after Mikhail
Gorbachev opened the Soviet Union to private enterprise.

“I was young and daring,” he recently explained while having lunch
at Arin Bert. “I was looking for business opportunities.”

Joined by a partner, he opened a cosmetics factory, but when the
partner was assassinated in 1993, Seifert knew his Russian adventure
would be coming to a close. “The mob was out of control, and it was
getting too dangerous to do business there,” he said.

Seifert had fallen in love with an Armenian woman from the old Soviet
republic of Georgia while he was in Moscow, and the two married in
Georgia while a civil war was being fought around them. Manuchak
Seifert came to the U.S. with her new husband. She is a registered
nurse at Froedtert Hospital.

Meanwhile, her family was caught in a war zone, and the fighting
took the lives of more than 150 of her relatives. At one point,
Joseph Seifert traveled back to Georgia to bring Manuchak’s then
11-year-old niece to the safety of the U.S.

The Seiferts were eventually able to move the niece’s entire family –
Manuchak’s brother, sister-in-law and nephew – to Milwaukee, and that
is how Arin Bert Coffee & Grill came to be.

Joseph knew restaurant management, having owned a supper club in
Mosinee before he moved to Moscow. Manuchak’s family included an
aunt who was a famous Armenian pastry chef, and her brother, Razmik
Kalenjian, had kitchen experience.

When the storefront below Joseph’s law office in the Century Building
became vacant, he saw an opportunity to set his Armenian in-laws up
in the restaurant business. Razmik, his wife Susana and their two
children, now adults, are all involved in Arin Bert.

The original plan was to operate just the Armenian grill, but the
Century Building owner suggested to Seifert that the neighborhood
needed a coffee shop, and the adjacent retail space was also vacant. A
dividing wall was removed, and Arin Bert’s concept was expanded.

About 55 can be seated indoors, and a few tables are placed on the
sidewalk in pleasant weather. Seifert said he and his brother-in-law
are partners in the venture, and they plan to eventually offer Downtown
food delivery.

Arin Bert is open to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. A Sunday
Armenian brunch may be added in the future. A website is under
construction.

EDUCATION MINISTER DISCREDITS REPUBLICAN PARTY OF ARMENIA – UNIVERSITY FORMER CHANCELLOR

NEWS.AM
April 18, 2012 | 17:48

YEREVAN. – Yerevan State Linguistic University Chancellor Suren Zolyan,
who on the order of Armenia’s Minister of Education and Science Armen
Ashotyan, was dismissed from his post on Tuesday, claims that he would
not like to politicize the issue. However, the policy leads to it and
Zolyan sees this tendency, he said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The YSLU prepares a letter for the PM and the court. To note, the
University has already appealed to the court for the first strict
reprimand released by the minister.

“More likely Ashotyan fears for not preserving his post after the
elections. Hence, he discredits his party, the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia (RPA), by trying to dismiss me from the post,” Zolyan said.

The Minister released twice strict reprimands against the Chancellor,
as the latter disobeyed Ashotyan’s orders by participating for a
session, which the Minister had considered to be inappropriate.

WHY ARE THEY OFFENDING OSKANIAN?

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 13:02:18 – 18/04/2012

Prosperous Armenia member, former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian’s
criticism is responded sharply by the Republicans, Moreover,
Republicans use harsh wording about the former minister in their
interviews and Facebook posts.

Today we asked Vartan Oskanian to comment on the reason of this
situation. “I don’t know, please ask them to comment,” said Oskanian.

He added that he criticized and will criticize all the negative
phenomena he sees around. According to Oskanian, there has been no
reasonable response to any of his ideas, only insult. “I will respond
only when their statements are perceived seriously by the society,”
he noted.