Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARAVOT: GYUMRI AIRPORT AS INEXPENSIVE HUB

Tert.am
10.04.12

In its April 10 issue, the Aravot daily addressed the book entitled
“”Gyumri on the rise” by owner of the Shirak football club
Arman Sahakyan, who is running for parliament in a single-member
constituency.

The recently published book deals with the city’s development
prospects.

“Arman Sahakyan, who is among Armenia’s ten major taxpayers and is
running for parliament from Gyumri, has the other day published his
book on the city’s development prospects, ‘Gyumri on the rise’. Citing
statistical data, which show the highest-level poverty and emigration
in the Shirak region, the author cites a number of examples – Essen
(Germany), Ruse (Bulgaria), Kilkenny (Ireland) and others – to show the
ways of saving perishing Gyumri and putting an end to the atmosphere
of dispiritedness and hopelessness in the city.”

“Gyumri is not the only city facing such problems as destroyed
economy. It is better to adopt the experience of the cities that
succeeded in resolving them or develop alternative ways, procure
funds. Successful examples can be followed, with, of course, Gyumri’s
peculiarities considered,” says Mr Sahakyan.

Since the author places emphasis on tax benefits for investments in
the Gyumri textile industry, the newspaper inquired about his view of
capital investments in the city. This risky area is not so attractive
to investors. Is Arman Sahakyan going to make use of his contacts?

“Of course, I will. It is not enough, however. Favorable conditions
need to be created to attract investors. We are talking about textile
industry. Dozens of cities in Eastern Europe have free economic zones
for textile industry development. No businessman will come to Armenia,
to Gyumri, to work in worse conditions than in Bulgaria or Romania.

“That is we have no favorable conditions. Business and charity
are different things, and no western company is going to establish
production here. By favorable conditions I mean a free economic zone
in Gyumri. Developing Gyumri is a most difficult task, but it can be
accomplished with a coherent policy and specific targets set.

“Our task is to understand what kind of city Gyumri will be in ten
or twenty years. Of course, machine tool plants will not be put into
operation there, but we must reconsider ways of achieving our goals,”
Sahakyan says.

His book also deals with the issue of turning the Gyumri airport into
a hub airport. “I cited figures: passenger traffic showed a 1.7-fold
increase in 2011 as compared with 2010. It served 70,000 passengers,
but I consider it a small number. We can turn the Gyumri airport into
an inexpensive hub airport to serve domestic flights and 200,000
to 300,000 passengers, which, of course, will promote the city’s
development. The airport is being managed under a concession agreement
and is considered an ‘alternative airport.’ Our market is getting
more and more liberal, and the airport can be properly operated.”

Gyumri has all the preconditions for becoming an economically
developed city.

“They are the Gyumri residents themselves. Traditional education has
always been at a high level in Gyumri. The Gyumri population likes
education, particularly technical sciences. I think that an individual
is the greatest potential,” Sahakyan said.

Tourist development may prove profitable in Gyumri, which is one
of the rare cities with its old center and original architecture,
Sahakyan said.

“FIFTY MILLIGRAMS IS NOT ENOUGH”: A FILM BASED ON TRUE EVENTS

hetq
19:05, April 10, 2012

The support team of “Life without pain” campaign in collaboration with
Open Society Foundations-Armenia invites you to a film exhibition
called “Fifty milligrams is not enough” which tells Á story about a
boy with cancer. The film is based on true events.

The film screening will take place on 13 April 2012 at 6:00 PM in
Naregatsi Art Institute.

“Life without pain”campaign supported by different organizations,
individuals, care givers, patients and experts in the health system
will mobilize the Armenian public to raise awareness on the importance
of having access to adequate pain-relief for providing palliative
care services to patients in Armenia.

>From April to July, 2012 different activities are planned to engage
the public, government and other parties concerned in a dialogue on
the issue and inform the population on their rights.

According to the Needs assessment for Armenia on these particular
issues, almost 3600 patients need daily palliative care. However,
due to limited access to morphine for pain relief the patients with
life-threatening and chronic illness have to suffer from pain.

Group members of “Life without pain” campaign report that access to
opioids for pain-relief is essential for a quality palliative care
service. It can radically transform the lives of many people suffering
from fatal diseases in Armenia and release them from pain.

ARMENIAN OPPOSITION CALLS APARAN CITIZENS TO POLLING STATIONS (PHOTO)

news.am
April 10, 2012 | 17:48

YEREVAN.- The nation which was previously divided to Armenia and
Diaspora, is now divided to Armenia, Diaspora and those who left the
country to earn their living, opposition leader said.

Speaking at the opposition Armenian National Congress rally in Aparan,
Levon Ter-Petrosyan said the citizens of the town must come to polling
stations and vote to protect their children’s future.

The nation is fading away due to a group of cheaters, he said speaking
about the ruling regime.

The ANC opposition bloc kicked off its election campaign from
Aragatsotn region. ANC headed by first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan
comprises 18 parties and political forces.

ANC proportional list includes 119 names. It has also nominated MP
candidates with the majority election system.

HAK’S “THREAT”

06:28 pm | Today | Politics

The Armenian National Congress (HAK) is starting its election campaign
by warning the authorities what is expected to happen to them.

“Just wait until we come to power and then we’ll see where the current
or past authorities will be,” says economist Hrant Bagratyan.

HAK member Nikol Pashinyan reminded the citizens of Aparan that Serzh
Sargsyan seized power through bloodshed and that he wouldn’t get away
with that.

“Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan have to be aware that they won’t
get away with bloodshed. They will drown in the blood that they shed.”

HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan told the citizens of Aparan that the
country was on the verge of elimination and that children were growing
up without fathers.

“The country is vanishing from the face of the Earth due to a group
of assassins.”

According to the HAK leader, voters have to remember that these
authorities won’t win by distributing electoral bribes and that if
it did, it wouldn’t have been falsifying the elections since 1998.

He called on those who had already taken bribes to not feel obliged.

“Whoever took bribes should leave them aside and vote for whoever
they want to vote.”

STATE SENATE RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Genocide
8:29 AM, Apr 10, 2012

By Krister Rollins FILED UNDER
WCSH 6 News
WLBZ 2 News

AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) – Tuesday the Maine State Senate will
recognize the Armenia Genocide.

There’s a joint order on the docket that recognizes that in 1915 the
Ottoman Empire launched a campaign to wipe out the Armenia people…

Resulting in the death of more than 1.5 million people.

The resolution says that some survivors settled here in Maine and
they want to recognize those survivors’ contributions to our state,
and express sympathy for the families of those who died.

DISCOVERING THE FORGOTTEN HOLY LAND OVERLOOKED ARMENIA IS HOME TO A COMPLEX CULTURE AND SOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST RELIGIOUS SHRINES
Dennis K. Berman

Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:00

Rocks of Ages | The Monastery of Haghpat

The Armenian man let loose a single musical note. It ricocheted
between the 1,000-year-old stone walls of Haghpat Monastery, echoes
transforming his warm, lonely voice into a full symphony.

If time has a sound, it sounds like Haghpat, one of the world’s
greatest religious shrines-and also one of the least explored.

Every year, millions of tourists flock to the predictable splendours of
Rome and Jerusalem, filling the Vatican and the Old City. Armenia,
meanwhile, hosted fewer than 100,000 visitors in 2009. It’s
understandable: On first impression, this country of three million
on the Caucasus does not feel like a holy land.

Armenia’s cities are filled with grim industrial buildings. Hundreds
of miles of barbed wire separate it from Turkey, from whom it
is still awaiting an apology for a 1915 genocide. Relations with
neighbouring Azerbaijan, which claims territory within Armenia, remain
fractured. The bulk of Armenian tourists are, in fact, Armenians, who
scattered after World War I and through later years of economic decay.

Yet it is this tangle of histories and enmity that makes Armenia such
a compelling place to visit, as my wife and I learned when we spent a
week there last summer. Men roast giant pots of corn by the roadside;
Armani-clad hustlers share streets with farmers wearing thick,
Soviet-era suits. And magnificent, soot-stained monasteries like
Haghpat and Geghard, which was carved into the side of a mountain,
still preside atop green valleys.

Ancient archways at Haghpat

Perhaps fittingly, a fine airborne grit-and surprisingly friendly
gun-toting guards-welcomed us to Armenia’s north-eastern border
crossing with Georgia. We were driven by a 48-year-old former
architect who said he changed careers because there is no work to
be had designing new buildings. Old structures-abandoned Soviet
factories-still loom over the landscape.

But soon enough, crumbling concrete gave way to thick forest, spread
across a series of river valleys. The occasional ox cart appeared on
the uneven roads, slowing our progress. At a roadside restaurant, a few
dollars bought a lunch of fresh lamb, eggplant and hearth-baked bread.

The bucolic, shambolic setting only made the 10th-century Haghpat,
in the north-eastern corner of Armenia, feel all the more remarkable.

With its gilded and vaulted spaces, the Vatican implores its visitors
to be inspired. Haghpat doesn’t have to try so hard. It and sister
monastery Sanahin, which form a Unesco World Heritage site, are
little visited on Armenia’s back roads. At Sanahin, only a wizened
female caretaker was on site. (And down the hill was a memorial to
Artem Mikoyan, father of the Soviet MiG, complete with a fighter jet.)

>From the outside, Haghpat looks like a jumbled castle whose owners
keep randomly adding on wings and storerooms. About 500 years after
King Tiridates III made Christianity his nation’s official religion,
a monk named Nishan set upon a hillside near the modern-day town of
Alaverdi to build Haghpat. The main two-story sanctuary was begun in
967 and was finished 24 years later. In the centuries that followed,
descendants built scriptoria and belfries, refectories and mess halls,
chiselling many of their walls with fine crosses.

Haghpat’s monks formed a devotional, if paranoid, communal existence.

Their lives were short. Books and manuscripts were fiercely
protected. Invaders were so frequent that the windows were designed
as narrow slits, which today seem to concentrate the power of the
sunlight that beams through them.

Vendors outside Geghard monastery

Nishan named the place more suitably than he may have
imagined-“Haghpat” means “strong walls” in Armenia’s curled 36-letter
alphabet. The blackened stone walls have survived earthquakes and
sackings, Muslim invaders and atheist pedants, and convey fortitude
where little has managed to endure. In a country full of monasteries,
Haghpat, which outlasted the Cilicians, Egyptian Mameluks, Kurds,
Turks, Mongols, Ottomans, Persians and Russians, particularly inspires
simply because it is still here.

Inside, towering arches are caked with a patina of soot, mold and plain
old dirt. Birds roam throughout the many rooms, their tweets echoing
among the stones. The sparse walls once held a series of religious
murals and paintings. Most were scrubbed off by the Soviets, though
a few splashes of red and blue peek through the grime.

There are also tracks of soot from a set of flickering candles. It’s
as if you can see the centuries of invisible prayer that accumulated
with each lighted wick, making the ethereal into the tangible.

As we explored the complex, we trod on tombs and crypts laid down
century by century. Most feature the ancient Armenian script, surely
describing the pious and glamorous of the day. Some are simpler,
depicting only the most basic outline of an adult’s body-or a child’s.

To pray at Haghpat is to offer thanks for our short time here; to
know that our tombstones will one day be flooring; and to respect how
a rock arch can plant itself in the ground and not let go of the sky.

OPPOSITION ACKNOWLEDGES RPA MONOPOLY
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:46:09 – 10/04/2012

The idea of the abolition of the monopoly of the Republican Party
which the Armenian National Congress brought up seems reasonable and
realistic. Levon Zurabyan explained the cooperation with the coalition
party Prosperous Armenia in the joint campaign staff by the intention
to fight the Republican monopoly. Heritage and ARFD also joined this
initiative which brings up the issue of the necessity to end the
monopoly of the Republicans.

Zurabyan said that the main task should be destruction of the
Republican monopoly which rules both the election process and the
political and economic systems. It is possible to end monopoly only
by way of unification.

Evidently, the RPA is not likely to end monopoly. Moreover, it is
trying to reinforce the monopoly by assuming the responsibility of
holding fair elections. In his first election speech, Serzh Sargsyan
made it clear that the Republican Party is responsible for “free and
fair elections”, actually identifying the party with the state.

According to the laws and concept of elections, the ruling party is
responsible for the election as much as the other political forces
since the main principle of any elections must be equal opportunities.

What equal opportunities are concerned if one of the parties introduces
itself as the guarantor of the elections?

The state election commission, the law enforcement bodies and courts
which are not related to the ruling party are supposed to deal with
the fairness and freedom of elections. And if the Republican Party
dwells on guarantees, it commits the first fraud since it indicates
the use of the administrative resource.

It is clear that Serzh Sargsyan makes these speeches with the
understanding that he violates the law. But he keeps stating it to
show that he keeps the situation under control. He says so to scare
his competitors by indicating that the joint campaign staffs and
other measures are meaningless for the RPA is the sole “responsible”
for the elections.

The joint staff should state that Serzh Sargsyan breaks the law. it
needs to demand relevant bodies, and not the ruling party, to deal
with the organization of elections because if other parties recognize
the right of the Republicans to hold elections, the fight against
monopoly and for fair elections will make no sense.

TURKISH PUBLICIST CALLS FOR APOLOGIZING TO ARMENIANS

Tert.am
10.04.12

Turkey should apologize to the Armenians for the Genocide and seek
legislative measures towards providing financial redress, a Turkish
intellectual has claimed.

In a recent article published in Radikal daily, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a
renowned journalist and publicist says that holding Turkey accountable
for the1915 Genocide is no longer possible given that none of its
perpetrators is alive. Instead, he proposes that the country admit
and condemn the tragedy.

“Turkey can say, for instance. that the 1915 events constituted one of
the biggest tragedies against the mankind, and we admit the fact. We
condemn its organizer, the regime led by the Union and Progress party,
and apologize to our Armenian brothers, and their descendents,”
he says.

Considering apologies not enough, he then calls for exploring
possibilities of redress, proposing an individual, case-by-case
approach to the issue.

Cengiz claims that Turkey can easily negotiate and sign an
international document with the United States, EU and Armenia,
agreeing to give the Armenians compensation for their lost property
in the Ottoman Empire.

“By doing it, [Turkey] will cease cutting a humble figure. We need to
put aside the denial policy and take a sober approach to the tragedy
of the Armenians deported from the Ottoman Empire. We need, first of
all, to square accounts with ourselves and be decent. All the rest
is easy to overcome,” he concludes.

VALENTINA MATVIENKO: “IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND THE SETTLEMENT OF THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT IN A SHORT TIME”

APA
April 9 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Parvin Abbasov – APA. “Russia makes necessary efforts to find
the settlement of the Nagrono Karabakh conflict.

Several trilateral meetings of the Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian
presidents was held on the initiative of Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev and the settlement of the conflict was discussed,” said
Chairwoman of the Russian Council of Federation Valentina Matvienko
at a briefing following the meeting with the Speaker of Azerbaijani
Parliament Ogtay Asadov, APA reports.

She said that “it is impossible to find the settlement of the conflict
in a short time because Nagorno Karabakh conflict is very complicated.

But the work on this issue is based on the UN resolutions and the
norms of international law. The last meeting of the presidents in
Sochi was very effective. They signed a trilateral statement, which
will accelerate the settlement format.”

Valentina Matvienko also spoke about the parliament’s role in this
work: “This is a parliamentary diplomacy. I think that we must give
attention to the trilateral meetings of our intellectuals and cultural
workers. It is impossible to settle this conflict without confidence.

We must support the scientists and culture figures in their
confidence-building efforts.”

Chairwoman of the Russian Council of Federation said that the potential
of the OSCE Minsk Group didn’t end: “Russia took and will take an
active position as a mediator to find the settlement which will satisfy
all sides. Both sides must show good will and find peaceful settlement
versions. We are guided by the international law, UN resolutions and
the principles of territorial integrity of the countries and non-use
of force. I think that we will find the settlement if we are guided
by these principles, because this is a problem of not only the two
countries, but entire region.”

ALIYEV SIGNS A DECREE ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF OCCUPATION OF SHUSHA BY ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES

APA
April 9 2012
Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev the president of Azerbajan Republic signed a decree on
the 20th anniversary of occupation of Shusha by Armenian armed Forces.

Baku. Hafiz Haydarov-APA.According to the decree signed by the Head
of the State, appropriate ceremonies are considered to be held in in
Azerbaijan and abroad on the 20th anniversary of occupation of Shusha
city by Armenian armed forces, APA reports.

The Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan is
charged to prepare action plan and implement on the 20th anniversary
of occupation of Shusha city by Armed Forces of Armenia