Author: Kajoyan Gevork

ARMENIAN CARPET WEAVING TO DISCUSS IN YEREVAN

18:47, 7 November, 2013

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Armenia on November 20-22 will hold an international
conference entitled “Armenian Loop: traditions of carpet weaving” in
Yerevan which is devoted to the issues on the study of the Armenian
carpet weaving culture. Armenpress was informed from the Ministry of
Culture that within the conference the participants will touch upon
the issues on the study and typology of the Armenian carpet weaving
culture, traditional and modern carpets, modern technologies for
carpet repair and other subjects.

Prominent experts from the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain,
Poland, Austria, Lebanon, Armenia and Nagorno- Karabakh Republic will
participate in the conference. Operating companies in carpet weaving
will also be present at the conference.

GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA DOES NOTHING TO PROTECT INTERNET USERS

Rapid development of information technologies in Armenia and wide
penetration of Internet into our everyday lives besides doubtless
advantages has become a source of new danger called “information
threats.” Problems in this field have grown global. Therefore, focusing
on information security has become a vital necessity for Armenia. Vice
President of Internet Society of Armenia Grigory Saghyan speaks of
the problem of virtual aggression in Armenia and the measures to meet
challenges in the field in an interview with ArmInfo.

by Gayane Isahakyan

Thursday, November 7, 18:10

Mr. Saghyan, Azerbaijan is behind 73% of web-hackings in Armenia,
according to the survey conducted by K Gasparyan, expert in cyber
security. Turkey’ share in total web hackings in Armenia is 5%,
another 4% of hackings come from Germany. It is not news. Why don’t
these trends change over time?

This is because the government does nothing to protect users. The idea
of information security is certainly distorted in the post-Soviet
countries. It is usually connected with the content. In Armenia,
information security comes down to the fight against anti-Armenian
propaganda, while information security implies uninterrupted operation
of the network, first of all, and prevention and liquidation of
the consequences of software attacks and a range of other technical
measures. A comprehensive program is needed to constantly upgrade
the qualification of Internet users through teaching how to install
anti-virus programs and avoid using unlicensed software. We have
introduced such initiative. The program should involve public
organizations, secondary and higher educational establishments.

Armenian IT-experts say the Law On Personal Data needs updating. Why?

The law “On personal data” is rather liberal and needs updating.

There is no relevant regulatory body in Armenia.

The persons and structures, which deal with updating of personal data,
must be controlled in some way. Moreover, the acting legislation
does not foresee requirements for these persons. This is necessary
for maximal safety and for ruling out information leak.

Internet Society recommends Armenian users to use strong
cryptography…

Internet Society public organization recommends Armenian users to
usenamely PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

It is a very good free program used in message encryption and
e-signatures. Strong cryptography helps protecting users against
hacking and penetrations by cyber swindlers. However, it creates
problems for the law-enforcers, as they fail to decode messages
operatively when investigation of crimes necessitates sanctioned
bugging of messages. Expediency of strong cryptography is still a
subject of debates in the world. Some countries have banned strong
cryptography, but criminals often ignore bans while ordinary citizens
are more prone to cyber-attacks and penetrations.

I’d like to add that when issuing new IT cards, the Government of
Armenia implies that every user will receive an e-signature from the
E-Governance Infrastructure Implementation Unit (EKENG). It will cost
them 5,000-7,000 drams a year.

Meanwhile, some other questions arise i.e. will citizens of Armenia
use exclusively this system or will they be able to have also other
systems? If we are obliged to use to use only this system, this
function must be laid on a state organization and not a CJSC.

According to a survey conducted at the request of Internet Society of
Armenia among 1,474 internet users all over Armenia, 27.7% of website
owners in Armenia prefer hosting providers from the United States,
26.1% Russians, 20% Europeans, 15.4% locals. Only 7.7% have own or
corporate websites. Why foreign hosting is preferred in Armenia?

Foreign hostings are safer. Local hosting providers spread
anti-governmental and anti-oligarchic articles and are therefore
controlled by the police, while foreign hosting providers have higher
capacities and require proofs to give access to their materials. In
addition, possibilities of local hosting providers are restricted.

According to the same survey, 32% of Armenians use the Armenian
language in the Internet. 28% use English, 26% use Russian. Does it
mean that many users just know no foreign language?

“This mostly means that 32% of our Internet users do not speak any
other languages. But if we don’t have enough specialists to ensure
the translation of the world’s intellectual legacy into Armenian,
we have to choose between English and Russian as a second language.

IT-development in Armenia necessitated creation of .hay domain
extension? When it will be available?

It will take us four years to create .hay domain extension (in Armenian
letters). It will be an important step for Internet in Armenia. This
project is being discussed with the public. We have not yet received
any negative response but we yet have to consult with all concerned
parties.

According to a survey conducted by the Society, 22.7% of website
owners in Armenia prefer .am, 22.3% .com, 17.4% .ru, 8.6% .net, 7.8%
.org, 6.2% .info, 5.2% .biz and 4.7% .co.

Thank you.

WE WELCOME ARMENIA’S DECISION TO JOIN CUSTOMS UNION – RUSSIAN OFFICIAL

November 06, 2013 | 15:18

YEREVAN. – The majority of Armenia’s population is for the country’s
signing the document on Customs Union accession.

Nikolai Ryzhkov, Co-Chairman of the Russian-Armenian Commission on
Interparliamentary Cooperation and Chairman of the Russian Commission
on Natural Monopolies, stated the aforesaid at Wednesday’s press
conference in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan.

“Sooner or later, Armenia will become a member in the Customs Union,
where each country will assume responsibility.

“You shall not lose the strategic partner and friend [in Russia],
and Russia shall not lose its historical friend and strategic ally
[in Armenia],” Ryzhkov stressed.

The Russian official added that some people in Armenia have set their
sights on the West hoping to join the European Union.

“But there are so many restrictions there, and we welcome Armenia’s
decision to join the Customs Union,” Nikolai Ryzhkov stated.

ISLAMIZED ARMENIANS VOICE THEIR 100 YEARS IN ‘PURGATORY’

Hurriyet Daily news, Turkey
Nov 6 2013

ISTANBUL – Hurriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioglu

Muslim Armenians say they are left in between “in a purgatory,”
saying they are accepted by neither Turkey nor the Armenian Patriarch
and community.

Gathering at a conference titled “Islamized Armenians” held at
Istanbul’s Bogazici University, members of the community gave details
about their lives, mostly spent hiding their identities in the eastern
and southeastern provinces of Turkey.

“They ask what we have gone through and I answer, ‘What haven’t we
gone through?’ All through our lives we have been in purgatory,”
said one of the participants, identified as Sadık from Adıyaman.

The feeling of not being accepted by different cultures in society
has defined their lives, Sadık added. “I was staying at a boarding
school, and the other kids called me ‘infidel.’ I didn’t know what
this meant, I just thought they didn’t like me,” he said.

Berfin, a 23-year-old who is studying the question of Muslim Armenians
for her Master’s degree at Oxford University, said her identity was
also problematic abroad.

“When I applied to a student dormitory in France, they asked me for a
baptism document, and they did not accept me when I couldn’t provide
one. Yes, Christian Armenians have had huge problems, too, but they
went on to live their identities in one way or another. We have had
to live on through 100 years of silent desperation,” Berfin said.

Another participant, only identified as H.T., said Muslim Armenians
were trying to practice Christian practices in their homes but were
trying to behave as Muslims outside.

“We said, ‘Living is resisting,’ and so we stayed on our feet.

Whatever we did, we were called infidels. Now the Christian Armenians
don’t accept us either, so we are left in between,” H.T. said, adding
that they were still trying to hide their identities today.

Responding to a question on renowned Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, who was killed in Istanbul in 2007, H.T. said, “Yes, we fear.”

One of Dink’s lawyers, Cem Halavurt, also attended the conference. He
said that he personally did not fear revealing his identity, but
also thought the Armenian Patriarch and other Istanbul Armenians were
right to act with prudence.

“There is still a taboo of missionaries in this country. Even the
slightest step by the Patriarch could be seen as a missionary act,”
Halavurt said.

November/06/2013

QUEBEC, STORNOWAY TALK LOCAL DIAMOND PROCESSING SPINOFFS

Regina Leader-Post, Canada
Nov 6 2013

By Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post November 5, 2013

MONTREAL – In a small office in downtown Montreal, a band of
Armenian-raised gem cutters is chomping at the bit to get their hands
on Quebec-made diamonds.

Whether they get their way depends on how hard the Parti Quebecois
government pushes for a Quebec-based secondary sector spun off from
mining – and how much the miners push back. It’s a situation that
highlights a familiar predicament in Canada: We’re really good at
pulling commodities from the ground. But processing them here is
often a complex negotiation that ends in failure.

Melisende Diamonds Ltd. is a six-person diamond polishing crew
operating on Montreal’s precious-metal row on Cathcart Street. They
were part of a group of about 60 Armenians who settled in Yellowknife
when the government of the NorthWest Territories hatched the
territory’s diamond processing industry by mandating the two diamond
producers active there to set aside 10% of their output for local
cutting and polishing.

Related

The effort fizzled out. Of four diamond processing plants started
in Yellowknife, only one is still operating. And so the Melisende
workers came to Montreal.

Right now, the Montreal operation buys most of its rough diamonds from
Africa, which it then polishes here for resale. But it hopes Quebec
will negotiate a deal with Stornoway Diamond Corp. that would force
the Montreal-based company to save a portion of its planned output
for local industry.

Reserving just 10% of Stornoway’s production volume would create 100
jobs for cutters and polishers alone, said Melisende president Harry
Ohanessian. He said Melisende is willing to teach Quebecers how to
cut diamonds to create a local cutting base.

“We’re all waiting for this,” Mr. Ohanessian said in an interview
Tuesday, adding the key element of any agreement is asking Stornoway
to provide bigger and higher-grade diamonds, not just lower-quality
smaller stones. He argues the NWT’s processing effort was crippled
by the lower-calibre of diamonds being provided to the cutters by
the mines, which wasn’t good enough to make up for higher operating
costs in Yellowknife.

Negotiations between the Quebec government and Stornoway continue and
“all options” are on the table including mandating a dedicated volume
for local processors, Quebec Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet
told reporters at Stornoway’s head office Tuesday. “Our desire is to
create jobs in Quebec. So now we’re at the stage of examining which
stage of processing has the most opportunity for job creation.”

Stornoway management has been cool generally to the idea of trying
to create local diamond polishing centres in Canada, saying the
cost-sensitive business has not been shown to be viable in high-wage
economies. Much of the world’s diamond cutting is done in developing
countries such as India, where pay is typically several times less
than in North America. Ontario has a polishing operation fuelled by
dedicated output from De Beers’ Victor mine in northeastern Ontario,
but it is small and staffed with foreign workers.

The value-added created by Renard’s diamond output doesn’t necessarily
lie in diamond polishing, said Stornoway CEO Matt Manson. It could
also be generated by starting an industry around jewellery design
and branding.

“Our ethos is to make sure there’s as much wealth creation [from
our mine] as possible… But the most important thing for us [as a
miner] is to sell the diamonds into a free market to maximize price,”
Mr. Manson said. “That means selling them through the existing rough
diamond market in Antwerp, Belgium to the maximum bidder.”

Stornoway’s Renard diamond project in northern Quebec will mine 16
million carats a year worth $4-billion over an initial 11-year mine
life, according to company projections. The miner is in talks with
lenders and potential equity investors for the $800-million it needs
to build the operation.

PETITION WANTS WHITE HOUSE TO DISPLAY RUG MADE BY ARMENIAN REFUGEE ORPHANS

Glendale News Press, CA
Nov 5 2013

October 31, 2013

Armenian refugee orphans wove this rug, pictured, in… (Courtesy
of Asbarez…)

A petition on Whitehouse.gov is urging President Barack Obama to
display a rug woven by Armenian orphans at a refugee camp in 1920. The
tapestry was donated to President Calvin Coolidge in 1925, as a gift to
thank Americans for their humanitarian support following World War I.

The carpet has remained in storage and was expected to make its debut
on Dec. 16 during a Smithsonian event and book launch for Hagop Martin
Deranian’s “President Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug.” On
Sept. 12, the Smithsonian scholar who helped plan the event canceled
the display, explaining that the White House decided to no longer
loan the carpet, according to the Washington Post.

Armenian National Convention officials in Washington, D.C. have sent
out an action alert, asking activists to pressure the White House
House to make the orphan rug available to the public and press Turkey
to recognize the Armenian genocide, said Talar Malakian, Armenian
National Committee Executive Director in Glendale.

GUERILLA TACTICS NEEDED – ACTIVIST

19:38 ~U 06.11.13

In an interview with Tert.am, Garegin Chukaszyan, a Preparliament
Secretariat member, explained the reasons why the Preparliament did
not join “Shant Harutyunyan’s revolution” whereas the Preparliament
member Zhirair Sefilyan complained about the Armenian ex-president
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s not making radical steps.

The events showed that struggle on the front line is doomed to failure,
and a guerrilla tactics is needed. It requires time until the people
become increasingly convinced of their ability to gain victories. A
number of minor victories will develop into a major victory.

“I am sure that struggle similar to that waged by Shant Harutyunyan is
inspiring considerable sections of our population. On the other hand,
we are aware of the necessity for pressing the oligarchic system. I
know that this criminal and oligarchic system hired instigators to
show the struggle was doomed to failure and they would own everything.

But I am sure that yesterday’s events assured people of the need to
get rid of this declining system,” Chukaszyan said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

ARMENIA’S PRESIDENT RECEIVES DELEGATION LED BY AUSTRIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

18:35, 6 November, 2013

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Today the President of the Republic
of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received the members of the delegation
of Austria’s Constitutional Court led by the president of the
Constitutional Court of Austria Gerhart Holzinger. Armenpress was
informed from the Department for Mass Media and Public Relations of
the President’s office of the Republic of Armenia that President Serzh
Sargsyan welcomed the members of the delegation in our country. Serzh
Sargsyan underscored that such high level visits give opportunities
to comprehensively hold discussions upon the present day issues on the
justice systems of the countries, the opportunities of overcoming them
and achievements in the area, as well as realization of experiment
exchange.

The President of the Republic of Armenia stressed the importance of
the further deepening and widening of the cooperation with Austria
in different areas, including justice, taking into consideration the
fact that Austria passed a great way especially in that area and can
be helpful by the accumulated rich experience.

The president of the Constitutional Court of Austria Gerhart Holzinger
pointed out that Austria attaches great importance to the relations
with the Constitutional Courts of the other countries of Europe and
is glad for the opportunity of close and efficient cooperation with
the partners of the Constitutional Court of Armenia.

RUSSIA TO PROVIDE CREDIT FOR ANPP RE-EQUIPMENT

18:42 06/11/2013 ” ECONOMY

Russia plans to provide a credit to Armenia for the re-equipment of
the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP), according to the Secretary
of the Armenian Presidential Council on Nuclear Energy Safety.

“The amount of the credit is currently under discussion,” Vahram
Petrosyan told reporters in Yerevan.

“The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant has been re-equipped in the course
of many years, and now corresponds to the international standards.

Further measures will be taken to raise the safety level of the ANPP,”
Petrosyan said.

Chairman of the Council Adolf Birkhofer, for his part, highlighted
the importance of Armenian-Russian cooperation in nuclear energy area.

“Safety of the ANPP is in the focus of people’s attention – which is
why it operates up to this day,” he noted.

Source: Panorama.am

PRESS RELEASE
United Nations Development Programme / Armenia
14 Petros Adamyan St., Yerevan 0010
Contact: Mr. Hovhannes Sarajyan, Communications Associate
Tel: +37460 530000
E-mail: [email protected]
Web site:

UNDP and AMAA Address Youth Employment Challenges in Armenia

Yerevan, 05 November 2013 – Capitalizing on the successful partnership
and joint achievements in increasing youth employability, today
Bradley Busetto, UNDP Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident
Representative in Armenia, and Harout Nercessian, Armenia
Representative of Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA),
signed an agreement to further continue the Youth Career Trail (YCT)
project. Former beneficiaries of the YCT were also present at the
signing ceremony, who shared with participants their experiences and
ideas on further expansion of the initiative.

YCT is a paid internship program, which offers young professionals an
opportunity to be involved for the first time in employment relevant
to their education, and to gain valuable work experience and practical
knowledge to become more competitive in their access to the labor
market. It provides educated but unemployed youth (fresh graduates)
with a first paid career-related work experience to prepare and
position them for future employment.

It is estimated that about 60 interns – between the ages of 19 and 25
(inclusive), who hold at least Bachelor’s degree and have a good
academic record – will accomplish a 6-month internship program during
the next year.

“Our partnership with AMAA has a proven track record, as since 2012,
together with AMAA, we managed to facilitate the successful transition
of unemployed youth into workforce by provision of direct employment
opportunities through internships. This project is an excellent
example of cooperation between the donors, public and private sectors
with strong potential for further development and expansion for the
sake of Armenian youth,” said Bradley Busetto, UN Resident
Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Armenia, The AMAA
cosponsors the YCT because it believes that youth employment in
Armenia is a major development priority and can highly contribute to
the economic growth and solve some of employment challenges that youth
are facing in the country. The AMAA is a non-profit organization that
supports underprivileged people in 24 countries. The AMAA was
established in 1918 in the U.S.A.

“The AMAA started its Armenia operations with the distribution of
relief supplies and medical programs. This was essential in those
‘dark years’ of the early 1990’s when Armenia was experiencing severe
economic conditions, and shortages of basic life necessities. In
recent years, through various educational and development programs,
the AMAA has been focusing on helping people earn their own living, be
self-sufficient and thus preserve their dignity. The YCT program is an
important part of this strategy. We greatly value our partnership with
the UNDP,” said Harout Nercessian AMAA Armenia Representative.

During 2007-2013, UNDP in Armenia implemented four rounds of the YCT
initiative, which turned to be popular and of high demand among both
the university graduates and employers. In total, around 180 fresh
graduates passed the YCT internship in Yerevan and 6 regions of
Armenia and around 50 percent of the interns were offered permanent
employment by the host organizations at the end of their internships.

***

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build
nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of
growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground
in 177 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and
local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. UNDP
in Armenia has been established in March 1993 and supports the
government to reach national development priorities and the Millennium
Development Goals by 2015.