Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN LEADERS AGREE ON PLANS OF FUTURE MEETINGS

15:05 12/03/2015 >> POLITICS

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Thursday had a phone conversation
with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin discussed the key matters of
Armenian-Russian partnership and exchanged views on further development
of integration processes as part of Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian
Economic Union, the Armenian President’s press service reported.

Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin discussed issues related
to peaceful nuclear energy and oil and gas industry.

They agreed on the plans of their future meetings as part of their
joint participation in the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide and the 70th anniversary of the Victory in
the Great Patriotic War.

‘1915’: THE FIRST FILM OF THE CENTENNIAL

Lora Sarı 03.05.2015 10:24
CULTURE AND ARTS

‘1915’, a US-produced psychological thriller about the Genocide, will
be released across the USA on April 22. Co-written and co-directed
by Garin Hovannisian and Alec Mouhibian, the film features Simon
Abkarian, Angela Sarafyan, Sam Page, Nikolai Kinski and Jim Piddock
in its leading roles.

The film takes place within a single day, and its press release
summarizes its plot thus: “In 2015, exactly 100 years after the
Armenian Genocide, a theatre director named Simon is staging a play at
Los Angeles Theatre to honor the victims of that tragedy – a horrifying
crime forgotten and denied for an entire century. But as protesters
surround his theatre, and a series of mysterious accidents spread panic
among his actors, we realize that Simon’s mission is more controversial
than we think – and the ghosts of the past are everywhere.”

Garin Hovannisian, who co-wrote and co-produced ‘1915’ with Alec
Mouhibian, also has a book of short stories titled ‘Family of
Shadows’ and his articles and short stories have been published in
the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. As for Alec Mouhibian,
in addition to writing for Slate and The Weekly Standard, he also
recently starred in the docudrama ‘Heal America’. The duo founded
Bloodvine Media, the production company of ‘1915’ and say the
following regarding their first feature film: “Our movie takes place
one hundred years after 1915, on the other side of the world. It is
about denial: what happens when the past is ignored; what happens when
it is confronted. With the centennial of the Armenian Genocide upon us,
we are ready to face the past together.” The film is now preparing to
make its voice heard on social media with the hashtag #EndYourDenial
and adds that it aims to shed light not only on the Armenian Genocide,
but all the genocides of the previous century.

Soundtrack by Tankian

In the film, Simon Abkarian, an Armenian actor from France, plays
the Simon character. We most recently saw Abkarian in Fatih Akın’s
‘The Cut’, and Abkarian’s other roles include the 2006 James Bond film
‘Casino Royale’ and Atom Egoyan’s ‘Ararat’. The films other actors
include the Yerevan-born Angela Sarafyan of ‘Twilight’ fame and Sam
Page, who stars in the Golden Globe-winning series ‘House of Cards’.

Serj Tankian, Grammy-Award winning musician and the vocalist of System
of a Down, composed the soundtrack of ‘1915’. Commenting on the film,
Tankian said, “This film has elements of trauma, ambiguity and magic,”
and added that he had created a musical score reflecting the spirit
of the film.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS: ARF-D SHARES COMMON APPROACHES WITH REPUBLICAN

15:29 * 12.03.15

An opposition lawmaker from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D) says their political force’s
approaches to the constitutional reforms coincide, in major part,
with the positions proposed by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

At a news conference on Thursday, Artsvik Minasyan confirmed the report
that President Serzh Sargsyan recently had a meeting with the party
to introduce the government-proposed package and hear their opinions
and objections.

Minasyan said he sees that the opinions largely converge on political
and economic issues and proposals concerning the local government,
the judiciary and a joint political system representing both the
political majority and the opposition.

Minasyan said he finds the proposed clauses justified enough to be
addressed in future. “The timeframes and the phases of the core text’s
elaboration will be clear thereafter,” he noted.

The opposition MP was concerned to note that constitutional reforms are
often considered in their integrity, without a further insight into
details. “A central point is the change of the government system,
that is, [the proposal for] parliamentary elections based on the
100% proportional representation system. There is no objection here,
just debates to consider the timeframes,” he said, adding that the
process has yet to be finalized.

GARNIK ISAGULYAN: SERZH SARGSYAN HAS DONE ME MORE FAVORS BUT I HANDED IN MY RESIGNATION

20:17 | March 11,2015 | Politics

Serzh Sargsyan has done me more favors than to anyone else, but I
have handed in my resignation since I disagreed with some of his
decisions and actions, which, I believe, contradicted our national
interests, Chairman of the National Security Party Garnik Isagulyan
told Aravot.am.

Speaking about the session of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK)
which became fatal for the party and its leader Gagik Tsarukyan,
Mr Isagulyan said Tsarukyan had simply spoken about the pending
constitutional amendments saying his party would vote against them
and urge people to say ‘no’ to the amendments.

When Aravot.am reminded Mr Isagulyan that Gagik Tsarukyan had also
warned the government that a single careless action or word would be
enough for them for taking people to the street, the chairman of the
National Security Party said, “Look, how scared the authorities got!”

“We all know Gagik Tsarukyan very well. I have shared bread with him
on several occasions. Once I told him, “Mr Tsarukyan, when you sit
at table, you speak freely and fluently.” But when that man takes
a microphone in his hands, something happens to him as is the case
with people who have fear enclosed spaces or heights.

“He [Tsarukyan] said the constitutional amendments aimed to ensure
the reproduction of the authorities and they would fight against them
with all legal methods. Did the authorities fear legal methods?” said
Garnik Isagulyan.

ARMENIA IS ALSO INTERESTED IN SUKHUMI-TBILISI RAILWAY RESUMPTION – LAVROV

17:54 11/03/2015 >> SOCIETY

Moscow will support resuming railway traffic between Sukhumi and
Tbilisi, but the final decision should be made in Georgia and Abkhazia,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday after talks
with his Abkhazian counterpart Vyacheslav Chirikba, TASS reported.

“The Russian side is ready for such consultations, considering that the
Russian Railways company is operating part of the Abkhazian railroad
in accordance with inter-state agreements,” Lavrov said.

“However, the final decision should be made by the direct participants
in the process — Abkhazia and Georgia,” he added. “Armenia is
interested in this as well,” the minister noted.

Talking about ensuring control over border between Russia and Abkhazia,
Chirikba said that it is important to ease border crossing between
the two countries. “Our aim is to ensure the most convenient regime
of border crossing,” Chirikba said. “We are not talking about opening
the border, we need to make it transparent, so that people can freely
cross the border on foot or by car,” the minister added.

“This process cannot move forward without simultaneously strengthening
the Abkhazian-Georgian border along the Ingur River,” Chirikba said.

Source: Panorama.am

GEORGE CLOONEY JOINS HUMANITARIAN LEADERS TO LAUNCH NEW GLOBAL PRIZE AS PART OF 100 LIVES INITIATIVE (VIDEO)

11:02, 11 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

George Clooney joined humanitarian leaders to launch a new global
prize, the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, as part of the 100
LIVES initiative.

Mr. Clooney and 100 LIVES co-founder Ruben Vardanyan discussed their
goals to combat genocide and explained how apathy–one of the biggest
challenges to addressing the issue–must be confronted by real and
sustained awareness:

“We really want people to get involved with 100 LIVES,” said Clooney,
“to celebrate those that overcome adversity and give back to others,
just as the Armenian community is doing in this centenary year.”

“The humanity, generosity, strength and sacrifice shown by those
who saved so many Armenians compels us to tell these stories,”
added Vardanyan. “Now is the time to shine a light on those most
extraordinary lives, to build on the lessons they teach us, and to
express our gratitude for what they did.”

The Aurora Prize will be given to those who put themselves at risk and
enable others to survive and thrive. Its annual grant of $1 million
will be awarded to a recipient who will, in turn, present it to the
organization identified as the inspiration for their action. Mr.

Clooney will award the inaugural Prize at a ceremony in Yerevan,
Armenia on 24 April, 2016.

The Prize’s Selection Committee will feature Mr. Clooney alongside
human rights luminaries including Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and
Oscar Arias, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary
Robinson; UN Secretary-General Advisor on Genocide, Gareth Evans;
respected human rights activist Hina Jilani; and Vartan Gregorian,
President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

SHARMAZANOV: TURKEY CONTINUES ITS TRADITIONAL POLICY OF DENIALISM

13:29 11/03/2015 >> SOCIETY

On March 10, Deputy Speaker of Armenian National Assembly Edward
Sharmazanov took part in the conference, titled “Crime of Genocide:
Legal and Political Aspects,” at Charles University in Prague, where
he delivered a speech-lecture, the parliament’s press service reported.

Together with the professors, lecturers and students, Ahmet Necati
Bigali, Ambassador of Turkey to the Czech Republic, accompanied by
the employees of the Embassy, attended the speech-lecture.

The text of his speech is below.

“Dear Academicians, Deans, Professors, Students, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The centennial of the Armenian Genocide is only a month away.

One and a half million Armenians fell prey to a crime that would find
its proper name decades later. As you might know, the term “genocide”
was first used in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar of
Jewish origin. With this term Lemkin wanted to describe the atrocities
committed against Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915.

As far back as in 1911, at the congress of the Ittihat ve Terakki in
Thessaloniki a decision was made to murder the Armenians living in the
Ottoman Turkey. The indigenous Christian population, in particular
Armenian nation, was the main obstacle on the way to implement the
Young Turks’ pan-Turkic plans. The Turks insist as if all this had
not been planned beforehand – both Armenians and Turks became victims
of deportation during WWI.

When WWI erupted, the government of the Young Turks, hoping to
maintain the remains of the weakened Ottoman Empire, adopted the
ideology of Pan-Turkism.

On 24 April 1915 the arrest and massacres of 600 Armenian
intellectuals, members of the Ottoman parliament, as well as public
figures marked the beginning of a crime which was initially planned and
implemented at the state level by Ottoman Turkey, and which is known to
the history of humankind as the first genocide of the 20th century. The
crime aimed at depriving Armenians of their homeland. The massacres
and ethnic cleansing were aimed at the extermination of Armenians,
as well as the destruction of the millennia-old Armenian heritage.

Dear attendees,

I would also like to remind you that on May 24, 1915, the Triple
Entente (Great Britain, France and Russia) gave a joint declaration to
the Ottoman government on the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire
and personal responsibility of the members of the Turkish government.

This declaration was the first official document adopted in the
20th century which considered that the members of the Ottoman Turkey
government were responsible both collectively and in person for the
offences and crimes committed by them.

Dear friends,

In 1919 the courts-martial of the Ottoman Turkey sentenced minister
of war Enver Pasha, interior minister Talaat Pasha, minister of the
navy Jemal Pasha, minister of education Nazim Pasha and others to
death by recognizing them guilty of organizing and carrying out the
Armenian massacres.

The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is not the endpoint – it
is just the end of one phase. The centennial will sum up a historical
period and will herald a new phase in the fight for restoration
of justice, which will be reinforced with new methods of struggle
against denialism.

Today 22 countries throughout the world have already recognized
the Armenian Genocide. In 1965 Uruguay became the first country to
recognize it. Quite recently South Dakota became the 43rd US state
which officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian
Genocide was recognized by such organizations as the Council of Europe,
European Parliament, several UN committees, the World Church Council,
etc. A few days ago the European People’s Party passed a resolution
condemning the Armenian Genocide and the fact of the deprivation of
the Armenian people of its homeland by calling on Turkey to accept
the history and recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Unfortunately, Turkey continues its traditional policy of denialism.

Dear attendees,

We strongly believe that only the recognition and condemnation can
prevent the recurrence of such crimes in the future. As it is justly
mentioned in the resolution of the European People’s Party on the
Armenian Genocide, the denial of the genocide, attempts to avoid
responsibility and forget or justify the committed crimes need to
be condemned, since they are qualified as an on-going crime and a
tendency to encourage new genocides.

Had the Armenian Genocide been recognized and condemned, perhaps the
Holocaust might not have occurred. I believe that you might recall
the famous statement by Adolph Hitler in the 1930s, when he declared:
“Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”

The recognition of the Armenian Genocide is in the interests of
all those countries, which consider themselves to be democrats and
proponents of the defence of human rights. In this fight we should
say no to denialism, no to genocides, no to any crime against humanity

Thank you for your kind attention.”

100 YEARS LATER IN NEW YORK: #BEARMENIAN, #BEALIVE

Society | March 11, 2015 09:52
exclusive

The ceremony of the official launch of 100 LIVES initiative founded
by Ruben Vardanyan, Noubar Afeyan and Vartan Gregorian was held on
March 10 evening at Harold Pratt House in New York.

In his speech, Ruben Vardanyan recalled that “100 years ago a group of
well-off Americans gathered not too far away from here, at Plaza Hotel,
in order to allocate funds for hundreds of thousands of forgotten
Armenians who were faced with death.”

It should not be ruled out that Harold Pratt, American oilman
and philanthropist who headed the Council on Foreign Relations in
1923-1939 and bequeathed his house to this organization, could also
be among those Americans.

On March 10, one of the most influential American “think-tanks” let
the 100 Lives initiative have his private residence and a certain
“link of times” can be observed in here. After the Armenian Genocide
in 1915, Americans – both wealthy and ordinary citizens – raised over
USD 100 million or USD 2.5 billion in today’s monetary terms.

Noubar Afeyan, George Clooney, Ruben Vardanyan and Vartan Gregorian

Photo: Edelman

Vartan Gregorian said that holding the event in New York is symbolic
for a bunch of reasons. “This is the city of Henry Morgenthau, who was
among the first to raise his voice in defense of Armenians. The New
York Times, which gave a detailed chronicle of what the Armenians had
to go through, is being published in this city. The UN Headquarters
– an organization the mission which mission is to prevent human
rights violations and crimes against humanity – is located in this
city. And it’s exactly in New York that the Catholics, Protestants
and Jews, democrats and republicans raised funds for the Near East
Relief Foundation and raised over USD 100 million to help Armenians,
while initially they were planning to raise merely 100 thousand,”
noted Vartan Gregorian.

Idea and founders of 100 LIVES initiative

In his interview to Mediamax published on March 10, one of the three
founders of 100 LIVES initiative Ruben Vardanyan gave quite a detailed
account of the initiative’s idea.

According to him, the project is based on the link between the past,
present and future. The first element is remembrance of the past. 100
LIVES initiative will help digitize millions of pages of archive
materials not only in Armenia but also in the Diaspora. Besides, the
initiative collects personal stories of Armenian Genocide survivors
and those who stretched out a helping hand to them.

The second element of 100 LIVES initiative is Aurora Annual Global
Humanitarian Award.

Ruben Vardanyan and George Clooney

Photo: Edelman

The third element embodying the future is gratitude through special
projects. In particular, 100 scholarships will be offered for children
from Arab countries to study at UWC Dilijan College. Ruben Vardanyan’s
interview presents this vision in details.

“Resilience, fortitude and gratitude are characteristics peculiar to
Armenians. However, these traits are common to all the people, not only
us. We developed the concept of #BeArmenian #BeAlive to encapsulate
the strength of the human spirit – not just for Armenians, but for
everyone,” commented another Co-Founder of 100 LIVES initiative,
popular American venture capitalist, scholar and philanthropist
Noubar Afeyan.

Former President of the New York Public Library, 12th President of
Carnegie Corporation of New York Vartan Gregorian is one of the most
respected Armenians in the U.S. and around the world. He is the third
Co-Founder of the 100 LIVES initiative.

“There are a small number of survivors of the Armenian Genocide
left with us. It is crucial that we ensure that, as we approach the
centennial, we take this opportunity to leave a lasting imprint of
what happened a century ago onto the world’s collective conscience,”
remarked Vartan Gregorian.

Family stories and the global award

“My sister Marina and I would not be born had our grandfather, who lost
his parents in Western Armenia, not appeared in the orphanage founded
by American missionaries,” said Ruben Vardanyan at the ceremony. He
recalled that the number of the Armenian population reduced to half
a million after the Genocide and today, 100 years later, there are
around 10 million Armenians in various corners of the world.

Noubar Afeyan said that his grandfather Petros was rescued by German
officers working on the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway.

“Amazingly, even though the German authorities were backing the
government of the Young Turks, there were people among the German
military who saved Armenians,” he noted.

Ruben Vardanyan and George Clooney

Photo: Getty / Mike Coppola

Along with hundreds and thousands of stories of the rescue of Armenians
this story inspired the initiators of the project to launch Aurora
Annual Humanitarian Prize for Awakening Humanity within the 100 LIVES
initiative. The annual grant of USD 1 million will be awarded in
Yerevan to people and organizations who presently struggle against
blatant atrocities and injustice.

The Jury is impressive. It is co-chaired by Hollywood actor and
Oscar-winning actor George Clooney and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner, former President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias,
former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, former President of
Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson,
UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights
Defenders Hina Jilani and President of Carnegie Corporation Vartan
Gregorian will also serve on the Prize’s Selection Committee.

The inaugural Prize will be awarded at a ceremony with the
participation of Elie Wiesel and George Clooney to be held in Yerevan,
Armenia on April 24, 2016.

Arshaluys-Aurora

The prize is named after Arshaluys Mardikyan, who after the Armenian
Genocide and wanderings around the world appeared in the U.S. and
took the name Aurora Mardiganian. She wrote a book called “Ravished
Armenia”, which presents those dreadful events. This book was taken
as a basis for the movie in which Aurora starred. For many years this
movie was a crowd-puller in the U.S., and it played an enormous role
in raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide.

Arshaluys was 14 when in summer of 1915 the wave of massacres and
deportation also reached the province of Kharberd where her birthplace
– Chmshkatsag village – was located. Surviving the massacres and
going through all the horrors of the Armenian Genocide Arshaluys
moved to Tiflis, then to Saint-Petersburg. She then moved to Norway
and following it, to New York, U.S. It’s where she started to put
down the story of her life.

The film contains episodes showing naked Armenian girls nailed to
crosses. However, almost 70 years later Mardiganian revealed to film
historian Anthony Slide that reality was way more dreadful:

“The Turks took the clothes off the girls. They made them bend down,
and after raping them, they made them sit on the pointed wood, through
the vagina. That’s the way they killed – the Turks. Americans have
made it a more civilized way. They can’t show such terrible things.”

According to unconfirmed information, exactly Arshaluys-Aurora’s
story prompted the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation
to publish “The Diary of a Young Girl” (also known as “The Diary of
Anne Frank”), which the Jewish girl kept from 1942 to 1944, during
the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Presently millions of people know the name Anne Frank and her diary
was included in UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2008, while
Aurora died alone in Los Angeles in 1994. They say her body lay
in the morgue for several months and after that she was buried in
a common grave… The prize named after Aurora Mardiganian, which
will be awarded in Yerevan annually, is an exceptional opportunity
to honor the memory of the girl who went through unspeakable horrors.

Elie Wiesel and Forty Days of Musa Dagh

86-year-old Elie Wiesel ranked the 11th in Jerusalem Post’s annual
rating of the 50 Most Influential Jews of 2014.

Born in Romania and having lost his parents and sister in Auschwitz
concentration camp, Elie Wiesel went to Paris after liberation, from
where he later moved to the U.S. where he became a popular writer
and public figure.

Elie Wiesel lectured at the universities of Yale, Boston and
Georgetown, chaired the U.S. President’s Commission on the Holocaust,
and in 1980-1986, Elie Wiesel was the Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Council.

Amal and George Clooney, Veronika Zonabend and Ruben Vardanyan

Photo: Edelman

In May 2014, the solemn opening of the first Holocaust Education Center
in Romania opened in Sighet, the birthplace of the Nobel Laureate.

“I have personally witnessed the devastation that genocide wreaks,
which sadly continues today,” said Elie Wiesel. “But I also recognize
the resilience of the human spirit,” he continued. “We must remember
and honor the remarkable efforts of those saviors who intervened a
century ago to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.”

In his introduction to the 1986 French edition of Franz Werfel’s Forty
Days of Musa Dagh Elie Wiesel described the brutalities committed
by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian minority as “the first
genocide of the 20th century.” In 2000, he joined 125 Holocaust
scholars in signing a joint declaration affirming that the Armenian
Genocide was an incontestable historical fact and called on Western
governments to likewise recognize it as such.

In his video message to the participants of March 10 ceremony, Elie
Wiesel said that “Armenians were the first victims of mass killings
later qualified as genocide”. Speaking about the 100 LIVES initiative
he underlined that “the history refers to not only the past, but also
to the present and the future.”

George Clooney and “Incirlik” U.S. air base

George Clooney stated at the ceremony that he is honored to be
associated with 100 LIVES as it shares a common mission with his
foundation, Not On Our Watch, to focus global attention on the impact
of genocide as well as putting resources towards ending mass atrocities
around the world. “It should weigh heavily on all of us that genocide
still takes place today,” said George Clooney.

George Clooney

Photo: Getty / Mike Coppola

Not On Our Watch was founded by George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt,
and other celebrities. In 2008, the Foundation donated USD 500 000
to the World Food Program (WFP) of the UN to feed hundreds of people
in Darfur, Sudan. Prior to that, Not On Our Watch raised over AMD 9
million for Darfur. George Clooney became an anti-genocide activist
in Sudan after shooting the documentary on the crisis in Sudan in 2007.

Telling about how he started taking interest in the history of Armenia
a few years ago, George Clooney subtly hinted that some American
senators advised him not to forget U.S. interests in Turkey. “This
is how I learned that we have Incirlik Air Base in Turkey”, said
Clooney smiling.

Speaking about the Armenian Genocide in 1915, the actor stressed:
“The fact the term “genocide” was introduced several decades after
those horrible events doesn’t mean they didn’t take place!”

George Clooney also told those present that his wife Amal
Alamuddin-Clooney who defended Armenia’s interests as a third country
in Dogu Perincek v Switzerland case, didn’t know about his husband’s
joint plans with Ruben Vardanyan until recently. “After the court
hearing, many Armenians in Los Angeles confessed to me that they
would like to kiss my wife,” smiled the Oscar-winning actor.

Ara Tadevosyan New York

ECONOMIC GROWTH DIFFICULT, BUT POSSIBLE TO ENSURE – GAREGIN NUSHIKYAN

20:26 * 11.03.15

Lower key economic indicators throughout last year and released
data are evidence that economic growth will be difficult – but
not impossible – to ensure, Garegin Nushikyan, an MP of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and member of the Standing Committee
on Economic Affairs, told Tert.am.

Armenia’s government planned 4.2% economic growth for 2015. The
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) forecasts 04%-2% economic growth. The
World Bank forecasts 3% economic growth for Armenia.

“It is too early to make any forecasts. Just two months have passed,
and it is wrong to base forecasts on a decrease in money transfers
alone, given the fact that the situation in Russia is stabilizing as
well,” Mr Nushikyan said.

The CBA reports a 41.08% decrease in money transfers to Armenia this
January as compared with last January, with a 60% general decrease
registered.

The situation is critical, but Armenia is not the only factor.

“The government is doing its best. There is a crisis, but not only
here, but also in the entire region, throughout the world, in Europe
– and not only economic crisis, but also a political crisis. We are
going through hard times, and I think the government is doing its
best for us to cope with the situation with credit,” Mr Nushikyan said.

Speaking of the instruments, he mentioned amendments to Armenia’s laws.

“We have adopted quite a good bill on turnover tax. I think it
will enable small businesses to intensify their activities. For big
businesses we adopted a bill on profit tax. I think it will promote
exports.”

Asked about prospects of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Mr
Nushikyan said that the problem has nothing in common with the EEU. It
has to do with the economic situation in Russia.

“We are well aware of the economic situation in Russia. And our
products are not competitive there. So Armenia’s membership in the
EEU has nothing in common with it.”

CONCERT DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL HELD IN LEBANON

21:20, 11 March, 2015

YEREVAN, 11 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The State Youth Orchestra of Armenia,
led by artistic director and principal conductor Sergey Smbatyan,
gave a concert dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide in
Beirut. As the Department of Press, Information and Public Relations
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia reports
to “Armenpress”, the concert was part of the Al Bustan International
Festival, which is being held with the support of the Embassy of the
Republic of Armenia in Lebanon.

Among those attending the concert were Armenia’s Ambassador to
Lebanon Ashot Kocharyan, public and political figures, diplomats,
intellectuals, as well as artists and journalists.