Author: Kajoyan Gevork

FOOD DETECTIVE: AT THE CROSSROADS OF ARMENIAN CUISINE
DAVID HAMMOND

Chicago Sun-Times

Dec 6 2011
IL

‘This tastes a lot like Greek food,” my wife murmured between
mouthfuls.

We were sitting in a candlelit booth at Sayat Nova, 157 E. Ohio.

Downtown Chicago’s only Armenian restaurant has been serving up
chickpea dip, stuffed grape leaves and kebabs since 1968.

Similarities between the cuisines of Greece and the former Armenian
Soviet Socialist Republic are understandable. In fact, ingredients
for Armenian recipes can be found all across Eastern Europe and
Western Asia.

Laura Kelley, author of The Silk Road Gourmet, says the food of
Armenia “goes way beyond kebabs” in large part because the country
is strategically located along the early Afro-Eurasian trading network.

“Because Armenia is between the Caspian and Black seas,” Kelley says,
“people were always coming and going; it was a huge crossroads of
East and West. Anyone coming into Europe along the Silk Road had to
do business with Armenia. So, there are a lot of foreign elements in
what we call Armenian cuisine.”

One recurring theme in Armenian food is the savory conjunction of
fruit and meat.

“We don’t usually do that in the United States, where fruit is often
only for dessert,” says Kelley.

Armenia was the first nation to declare Christianity its state
religion. With many fast days on the calendar, there are lots of
fruits, vegetables and fish in Armenian cooking. Though pork was
avoided by early Christians, Kelley says pig is eaten in Armenia
(as it is at Sayat Nova) without shame these days.

Kelley’s book includes an Armenian recipe for Skewered Pork with
Pomegranate. Rich meat and sweet-sour fruit mesh beautifully. As an
accompaniment, we prepared pilaf, common in Armenian, Turkish and
Persian cuisines.

“Armenia was ruled by others for centuries. We take such pride in
our national cuisines, but when you scratch the surface, you find an
incredible amalgam,” Kelley says.

To sample Armenian food, check out the Taste of Armenia at St. James
Armenian Church in Evanston; it’s held every August.

If you can’t wait, there’s Siunik Armenian Grill, which recently
opened at 1707 Chestnut Ave. in Glenview, effectively doubling the
number of Armenian restaurants in the Chicago area.

David Hammond is an Oak Park writer and contributor to WBEZ (91.5 FM)
and LTHForum.com.

AZERBAIJAN PLANTS FLAG IN DC LOBBYING SCENE
By Kevin Bogardus

The Hill

Dec 6 2011
DC

A new nonprofit supporting Azerbaijan is setting up shop in Washington
to provide a counterbalance to the Armenian-American lobby.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have clashed off and on since the 1990s over
Nagorno-Karabakh, an unrecognized territory in western Azerbaijan that
claims to be independent. The neighboring countries blame each other
for the conflict over the territory, and the U.S. has been pushing
for a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

Now the Azerbaijan America Alliance is coming to Washington in a bid
to make some influential friends.

The group hosted its coming-out party Tuesday night at the Reserve
Officers Association on Capitol Hill, holding a reception meant
to serve as an introduction to power players on Capitol Hill and
Embassy Row. Several lawmakers were expected to attend, along with
the ambassador for Azerbaijan to the United States.

Founded by Anar Mammadov, a young Azerbaijani businessman and son
of the country’s transportation minister, the Alliance hopes to
highlight the ties between Azerbaijan and the United States, whether
it’s through energy or national-security interests.

Mammadov told The Hill he loves his country and wants to do his duty
to help it.

“I think [the Alliance] can bring these two countries together,”
Mammadov said. “I think America is one of the biggest friends of
Azerbaijan.”

The one other individual listed in the leadership of the Alliance
is Khayal Sharifzade, the group’s chairman. Sharifzade is the former
CEO and chairman of the Bank of Azerbaijan.

Sharifzade is also a member of the board of directors of ZQAN
Holdings. Mammadov is founder, president and chairman of that company,
which is based in Baku, Azerbaijan, and has interests in oil and gas,
construction and telecommunications.

According to Justice Department records filed in May, the Alliance
signed a $2.4 million, yearlong contract with the lobby firm Fabiani &
Co. to conduct outreach in the United States. Jim Fabiani, a longtime
GOP lobbyist and former chairman and CEO of Cassidy & Associates,
is leading the effort.

The Azerbaijan group is playing catch-up with Armenia, which has had
a lobbying presence in Washington for decades.

Lobbyists for the Alliance will likely highlight that Azerbaijan is now
a member of the United Nations’ Security Council and is contributing
troops to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The nation, which is in the
Caucasus region on the Europe-Asia border, has a wealth of energy
resources, helping to provide oil and natural gas to Europe.

The country’s poor human-rights record could prevent the group from
gaining much traction, however. The State Department’s 2010 Human
Rights Report on Azerbaijan said the country has flawed elections,
allows arbitrary arrests for political reasons and restricts the press.

“Once again we’re seeing millions being spent by a foreign government
entity – in this case, the son of billionaire Azerbaijani Transport
Minister Ziya Mammadov – to whitewash his country’s abysmal
human-rights record and aggression against Karabakh and Armenia,”
said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National
Committee of America, in a statement.

Here in Washington, the Alliance will have an agenda to push.

One item will be lobbying on the Freedom Support Act, a 1992 law passed
by Congress to aid former Soviet provinces in their transition to
democracy. One provision of that law bans direct aid to the Azerbaijani
government, which the Alliance will work to reverse.

The Alliance is looking to expand and is advertising to hire
an executive director for the group. But once it settles down
in Washington, the group can expect a rough reception from its
Armenian-American counterparts.

“It doesn’t change the fact that the Azeri government continues to make
threats against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Bryan Ardouny,
executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

FORMER YEREVAN MAYOR KAREN KARAPETYAN APPOINTED THE FIRST VICE PRESIDENT OF GAZPROMBANK

Mediamax
Dec 6 2011
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Former Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan is appointed
the First Vice President of Gazprombank, one of the largest Russian
banks; spokesperson for “ArmRosGazprom” Shushan Sardaryan said this
in her interview to Mediamax.

Karen Karapetyan held the post of Yerevan Mayor from December 2010
up to October 2011. He headed “ArmRosGazprom” for about 10 years
before that.

Gazprombank has been on the list of top 3 largest Russian banks since
2003 by main financial indices.

“Areximbank- Gazprombank Group” CJSC, Gazprombank’s wholly owned
subsidiary, operates in Armenia.

GROUP OF ASPU STUDENTS VISIT THE PARLIAMENT

National Assembly of RA

Dec 6 2011
Armenia

On December 6 RA NA Acting Speaker Samvel Nikoyan within the framework
of the NA ~SOpen Lesson~T programme met with the students and lecturers
of different faculties of Kh. Abovyan Armenian State Pedagogical
University. Before the meeting the students followed the work of the
four-day sitting.

Welcoming the students~R visit to parliament, the NA Acting
Speaker presented the structure, authorities and functions of the
legislative body, the NA majoritarian and proportional electoral
systems, the peculiarities of the legislative activity. Stemming
from the circumstance that there were also students of the faculty
of journalism, he highlighted the journalist~Rs specialty. In this
context especially the journalist~Rs preparedness and professionalism
was evaluated. Mr Nikoyan urged the students to become skilled
specialists, to use the knowledge for the strengthening of the state,
be honest and decent citizens.

During the intimate and free talk the students and lecturers addressed
their questions to the NA acting Speaker, and exhaustive answers were
given to them.

At the end of the meeting Samvel Nikoyan expressed conviction that
the meetings with the students of the Pedagogical University would
be continuous.

AAA REPS., U.S. AMBASSADOR DISCUSS TO ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
December 6, 2011 – 21:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John
Heffern recently met with Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly)
Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian and Country Director Armina
Darbinian at the Assembly’s Yerevan office, reported the Assembly.

In a broad ranging discussion, Hovnanian underscored with the
Ambassador the need for ongoing U.S. support for Armenia and Artsakh,
and focused in particular on the importance of economic development.
Reviewing the positive and deepening U.S.-Armenia relations,
Hovnanian also expressed his concern about Turkey’s decades-long
blockade and its failure to live up to its commitment and establish
normal relations with Armenia as envisaged in the Protocols signed
between Armenia and Turkey in October 2009.

Hovnanian and Darbinian also conveyed the importance that Armenia
and the Armenian-American community attach to U.S. affirmation of
the Armenian Genocide.

“I very much appreciate the Ambassador’s readiness to work with the
Armenian Assembly and other like-minded organizations, especially his
receptivity for ways in which America can assist Armenia’s economic
development,” stated Assembly Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. “This is
critically important for the betterment of all Armenians,” Hovnanian
added.

WILL SERZH SARGSYAN MEET HIS CLASSMATE?

Elmira Arakelyan has traveled from Stepanakert to Yerevan to meet with
her classmate Serzh Sargsyan. Her son was killed on the frontline of
the Karabakhi-Azerbaijani border.

“I will ask Serzh to reveal my son’s murder as his classmate,” she told
“A1+”.

Elmira wrote a letter to her classmate more than a year ago. In
response, she received a call from the Artsakh President’s apparatus
telling her the following: “They asked me what happened. I told them
somebody had brutally killed my son. They told me to wait for another
call. I have been waiting for that call for a year and four months.”

Elmira’s son, Gabriel Arakelyan, according to the court’s conclusion,
was murdered by Vladimir Sakoyan, who had already been sentenced to
prison for two crimes. Elmira would like to know how the criminal
obtained a weapon and how he was sent to the frontline. She would
like her classmate to be concerned about the commander of her son’s
military unit.

“Instead of giving him a fine, he has been appointed head of the
Hadrud division for helping Moso kill my son,” she said.

Moso is Commander of the Karabakh Defense Army Movses Hakobyan. Elmira
also suspects him of being an accomplice in the murder and she will
never know why Movses Hakobyan had deprived her son of the ranking
of captain before the murder as long as she still hasn’t met with
Serzh Sargsyan.

CENTRAL BANK OF ARMENIA LEAVES REFINANCING RATE UNCHANGED AT 8%

/ARKA/
DECEMBER 6, 2011
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, December 6. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) Board
said today it has left its benchmark refinancing rate unchanged at 8%.

In a press release the CBA said inflation slowed in November as the
cost of food and other consumer goods eased. Consumer prices rose to
4.8 percent from a year earlier compared with 5.7 percent in October
Prices advanced 1.2 percent from the previous month.

The Board stated also the absence of external inflationary pressures
saying the anticipated global economic slowdown will not have a
tangible impact on food and raw commodities prices. It said this was
is in line with the basic forecasts about global economic trends as
spelled out in the Central Bank’s money and credit policy for the
4th quarter of 2011.

The Central Bank said it does not expect inflation risks to stem
from domestic economy and believes that the recorded and anticipated
developments at labor market and aggregate demand will have not a
significant impact on the inflationary environment.

The Central Bank believes that Armenia’s economy is developing in
line with anticipated trends fixed in the monetary policy program
for 2011 and the 12-month inflation rate is likely to be within the
projected 4% (± 1.5%) corridor. The last time the Central Bank changed
the refinancing rate was on September 6, 2011, when it reduced it
from 8.5% to 8%.

WHY HAS MP RUBEN HAYRAPETYAN BEGUN ATTENDING PARLIAMENT MEETINGS?

epress.am
12.07.2011

Following the change in the National Assembly’s leadership, Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK) MP Ruben Hayrapetyan has begun to more actively
fulfill his parliamentary duties.

Local daily Yerkir (“country”) attempted to find out, why the
change of heart? Was former parliamentary speaker Hovik Abrahamyan’s
resignation the reason, considering that at a recent press conference,
the MP advised reporters to recall the last time he was absent from
a parliamentary meeting.

“I told a riddle; I said, think when it’s been that I haven’t gone.

You yourselves have to analyze as to how long it’s been that I
haven’t gone and why I have begun going,” he said, adding, “You
guess – I don’t want to add anything else. If you pay attention,
you’ll see that in the last month I have been coming frequently and
I’ve participated in all the meetings.”

Asked whether he changed his mind and will be putting forth his
candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Hayrapetyan said he
is the type of person who “whatever comes out of his mouth, he does.”

BIDEN URGES TURKEY TO HONOR PROTOCOLS

Asbarez
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

Vice President Biden meets with Turkish President Abdullah Gul

Vice President Joe Biden pressed Turkey to unconditionally ratify its
Western-backed normalization agreements with Armenia “in the months
ahead” during a visit to Ankara and Istanbul that ended at the weekend.

A senior official from the administration of President Barack Obama
said the fate of the two Turkish-Armenian protocols signed in 2009 was
on the agenda of Biden’s talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and parliament speaker Cemil Cicek.

The official said that during a breakfast meeting with Cicek on Friday
Biden “applauded the fact that the protocols for normalization with
Armenia were back on the agenda of the [Turkish] parliament.” “And
he expressed his hope that the parliament will be able to act those
protocols in the months ahead,” the official told U.S. journalists
travelling with Biden.

The U.S. vice president met Gul later on Friday before travelling to
Istanbul for separate talks with Erdogan held on Sunday.

“On Armenia, he said to the prime minister what he had raised with
President Gul, as well, the hope that now that the protocols for
normalization were back on the agenda of the parliament that Turkey
would be able to move on those protocols in the months ahead,” the
Obama administration official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conveyed a similar message
to the Turkish government when she visited Istanbul last July.

The Turkish leaders and Erdogan in particular have repeatedly made
clear that the protocols will not be ratified by Turkey’s parliament
before a breakthrough in international efforts to resolve the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia rejects this precondition. President Serzh Sarkisian threatened
earlier this year to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the accord if
the Turks stick to the Karabakh linkage.

According to the Istanbul-based “Hurriyet Daily News” newspaper,
Biden told Gul that Ankara should “speed up the normalization process
with Armenia” if it wants the Obama administration to block further
resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

This warning attributed to Biden could be seized upon by Armenian
critics of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement who say it has helped
Ankara to thwart a broader international recognition of the Armenian
genocide.

They were already incensed when Biden claimed last year that Sarkisian
himself had asked the White House not to use the word genocide. Both
official Yerevan and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia denied Biden’s claim
videotaped by an Armenian-American activist.

Biden strongly supported Armenian genocide resolutions debated by
Congress when he was a member of the U.S. Senate.

ARMENIA SUPPORTS THE COMMON EFFORTS OF BRINGING PEACE TO AFGHANISTAN

armradi.am
06.12.2011 11:06

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian participated in
the international conference on Afghanistan’s future in the German
city of Bonn. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, Angela Merkel,
the Chancellor of Germany and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, sixty
Foreign Ministers and heads of international organizations, and more
than 1000 delegates from nearly 100 countries attended the Conference.

Speaking at the conference, Minister Nalbandian noted, in part:
“Today’s impressive presence at the conference speaks to the fact
that the distance is not a problem for our countries, no matter how
close or far they are, when it comes to supporting Afghanistan.

Armenia along with its partners came to Afghanistan to bring its
commensurate contribution to our common efforts to assist Afghanistan
to be in peace with itself, its neighbors, and the international
community, to prevent those destructive forces of terror that ravage
not only their own soil but at times spread far away as mercenaries.

We, in our region, experienced it and we know what it means.

It is evident that during this period we together put on record
achievements in bringing noticeable degree of security to the Afghan
land, succeeded to plant the seeds of future development of the Afghan
society. The positive dynamic is evident. But what should we do to
be more confident that this process is irreversible?

While looking how to address these challenges we have to be prepared
not only for the handover of the responsibility of security to
the Afghan authorities, but also to recommit ourselves in strong
partnership with Afghanistan beyond this handover.

We share the common goal of transforming Afghanistan in a way that
it will not serve as a source of constant concern to its neighbors
and far beyond, but become a positive factor, positive driving force
for the whole region.”

The participants of the Conference adopted a joint declaration
reaffirming the willingness of the international community to support
the establishment of stability, security and democracy in Afghanistan,
as well as the development and prosperity of the country.

Gratitude was expressed to the countries which bring their contribution
to the tackling of the problems Afghanistan faces.