Author: Kalantarian Kevo

MADRID PRINCIPLES ASSUME OUTBREAK OF NEW WAR IN KARABAKH-ARMENIAN POLITICIAN

news.am
Aug 18, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – Madrid Principles on Karabakh conflict resolution are
an anti-Armenian document. The adoption of this document by Armenia
will inevitably lead to a new war, member of Hunchakian party Vahan
Shirkhanyan told a press conference on Thursday.

He stressed in this regard the positions of the Armenia’s ruling
coalition and oppositional Armenian National Congress are identical.

“Both the authorities and the ANC expressed their agreement with
Madrid Principles. The ANC has introduced some changes, but they are
insignificant. Nobody is ready to choose another way and reject this
vicious document.”

Referring to the question why Azerbaijan makes every effort to
refuse a final approval of Madrid Principles, Shirkhanyan explained
by the provision on Nagorno-Karabakh’s status. “They want everything
at once, whereas Madrid principles provides for granting status to
Nagorno-Karabakh out of Azerbaijan’s control,” he said.

HUNGER STRIKE IN NUBARASHEN PENITENTIARY

Lragir.am

18/08/2011

Emil Verdyan, life prisoner at Nubarashen penitentiary, went on hunger
strike on August 16, demanding proper review of life sentences.

Upon the May 23, 2011 amendments to the Criminal Code of Armenia, the
ultimate sentence was set 20 years, instead of the previous 15. For
life prisoners, this is commutation and should have retrospective
force, some lawyers claim.

If life prisoners were sentenced now, they could have been sentenced,
for example, in 20 years. In this regard, their cases need to be
reviewed.

Some life prisoners applied to court. The courts formally examined
their cases but they were confined to imitation, and sentences were
not changed. Emil Verdyan has not received a response yet but he
thinks the same will repeat.

Other life prisoners may join Verdyan. Note that Verdyan appealed to
transfer him to a solitary cell, as required by the rules.

THEY’LL PROCLAIM THEIR MISTRESSES AND HORSES AS MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
ARMAN GALOYAN

Lragir.am

18/08/2011

Interview with Karapet Rubinyan, ex-deputy speaker of the National
Assembly

To ground illegitimacy of the National Assembly, the Armenian
National Congress published a list of 76 members of parliament who run
businesses, notwithstanding Article 65 of the Constitution. Meanwhile,
MPs say they are shareholders, and have handed over their business for
accredited management, and deny managing their businesses personally.

Is this a breach of the Constitution?

Violations are obvious, the society can see that these members of
parliament do not take part in the meetings of parliament. The society
can also see that they don’t have the wits to hide from television and
press what new business projects they launch and what business meetings
they have. By the way, they had better not deny running businesses
because thereby they also prove themselves to be liars, as well as
annihilate the last justifying circumstance for their absenteeism.

Mr. Rubinyan, an MP is not the executive director of the company he
owns, another person is. It turns out that they don’t run a business
personally, documents justify them.

It’s clear cheating. They know that no government agency is going
to check and prove the opposite. I’ll give an example how tax bodies
handle businessmen-common mortals. The businessman who owns a company
but is not a legal employee of his company is fined as soon as they
find him in the office of his company. He works there illegally,
the formulation is. I mean, if they wish, they fight, even if it
takes transgressing.

Meanwhile, a similar breach by a member of parliament is already a
matter of national security, without exaggeration, and besides the tax
bodies, the National Security Service and the Police and Prosecutor’s
Office should handle it. Meanwhile, it only worries the press and
the opposition.

Every time the Congress accuses the authorities for one unlawfulness
or another, the first response is: so was in your time, and it began
when you were in government. Anyway, I wonder if similar things were
observed when you were in government.

I’m not denying there were such things. Not for justifying, I should
just say that those were the first years following the enforcement of
this constitutional provision, and monopolization and oligarchy which
cause the state to decay were not matters of national security yet.

What do you think will follow up the publication of the abovementioned
information?

A government which seeks to get the confidence of people, a legitimate
government would have set to fight this phenomenon even without the
publication of this list. It makes no sense to expect anything from
the president administration, which does not separate its personal
and national interests, and the bandits surrounding it. It is hardly
possible, all they will do is some formal events. Most probably they
will pledge that entry of oligarchs to the parliament will not be
“willful”. It’s all lies. Either we will rid of this criminal regime
or we will witness a modification of the same phenomenon. Don’t you
know instances when they proclaimed their children, mistresses or
horses as members of parliament?

THE CREATIVE SPACE: MAKING DESIGNERS NOT CLOTHES
Elissar Harati

NowLebanon

Aug 17, 2011

Carmen Havatian, a charismatic and self-assertive 22 year old, points
to her newly designed silk dress with pride. The young Lebanese
Armenian stylist has dreamed of becoming a fashion designer ever
since she can remember, but fashion schools are rare and pricey in
Lebanon, and she never had the financial means to foot the bill. After
graduating from high school, Havatian worked as a shopkeeper for a
year, scrimping and saving in the hope that she could one day afford
an education in fashion design.

Her efforts were in vain: “I couldn’t afford to go to fashion school.

ESMOD (L’Ecole Superieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode, a French
fashion school with branches throughout the world), the best school
in the country, costs $10,000 per year.” Havatian eventually decided
to enroll in the Lebanese University to study graphic design. “It’s
still close to fashion design,” she says with a wink.

This summer, Havatian’s luck changed when she was presented with an
extraordinary opportunity: “My aunt, who works for an NGO, heard of
a young woman looking for students interested in studying fashion
design for free,” she recalls.

The young woman was Sarah Hermez, a graduate of Parsons design school
in New York. Hermez recently initiated The Creative Space, a socially
responsible fashion project that aims to inspire and empower budding
designers by providing free courses.

The search for students who aspired to a career in fashion design but
lacked the means to invest in specialized training took over a month.

Hermez scouted the country from North to South: “I gathered potential
candidates through networks at orphanages, Palestinian camps and NGOs,”
she told NOW Extra. The main selection criteria were commitment and
dedication, as students would have to forego their summer vacation
to attend classes five days a week, for two months, in a rented space
at Saifi Urban Gardens in Mar Mikhael.

Certain parents were reluctant to let their children leave their
neighborhood: “Have the classes in the refugee camp!” said one
Palestinian family. But Hermez was unwilling to compromise. “The
classes had to take place on relatively neutral ground because the
objective of the project is to break barriers,” she explains.

Hermez finally chose five students aged between 16 and 22 from various
cultural backgrounds: Eman Aswad, Baraa Al Abdullah, Nurhan Abdullatif,
Sophie Youssef and Carmen Havatian.

Classes began in June. Caroline Simonelli, a renowned Lebanese-American
designer and Hermez’s former professor at Parsons, flew into Beirut
from New York to offer her expertise and assist in leading the
workshop.

The classroom was a large alcove in an old building. One wall was
covered with a mood board, a collage of haute couture pictures and
sketches. The vibe was relaxed and casual, and the mood was bright.

Hermez did not impose a curriculum or strict rules. Students recorded
their experience in a personal journal and were encouraged to share
their thoughts in class on a daily basis. This facilitated a more
horizontal teaching approach.

“I wanted to break away from the traditional student-teacher
relationship and create a collaborative environment,” Hermez says.

“The students voiced what they were pleased or discontented with,
and we adapted the direction of the class accordingly. I learned from
[my students] just as much as they learned from me.”

Hermez’s unconventional teaching method created close bonds between
students, enabling them to transcend cultural divides. Together with
technical skills, the young women gained invaluable social awareness.

Sophie, a Lebanese student from Jezzine, said: “This is the first time
I have made friends who are Palestinian, or Muslim for that matter.”

Carmen, who lives in Bourj Hammoud, echoed her classmate: “I didn’t
know that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon was so
bad and that they didn’t have the right to work.”

Each student designed about 5 dresses, which together form a
consistently elegant feminine collection. 33 dresses will be displayed
and sold in a silent auction at Saifi Urban Gardens this August 17th,
18th, and 19th. The highest bidders will be contacted for a customized
fitting at the end of the third day of the exhibition.

The Creative Space is a pilot project that aims to become a permanent,
sustainable free educational space for aspiring fashion designers.

The project will generate income for students, who receive a portion of
dress sales. All remaining profits will go towards running the school.

This is just the beginning for Eman, Baraa, Nurhan, Sophie, and Carmen,
who hope to one day make a name for themselves in the fashion world. If
the exhibition succeeds in attracting sponsors, the young women will
have the opportunity to further their education, and Hermez will be
able to reach out to more participants.

In the meantime, Carmen and Sophie plan to return to their graphic
design studies in September. Nurhan, who left education after the
Brevet (ninth grade exam), is thinking of taking English courses at
home in Sabra. Simonelli is going back to teach at Parsons in New York.

The Creative Space’s exhibition opens at Saifi Urban Gardens in Mar
Mikhael at 9pm tonight, and will run through the 18th and 19th of
August from from noon to 7pm. For more information on the project,
visit []

FIRST AID SERVICE FREE OF CHARGE IN ARMENIA

news.am
Aug 17, 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – First aid service is free of charge in Armenia. If doctors
demand money or their behavior is disrespectful, a compliant can be
filed, said director of First Aid service Taguhi Stepanyan.

Stepanyan recalled the cases when their employees were dismissed for
medical malpractice.

Receiving a call, an ambulance car should arrive in 7-12 minutes, she
told journalists. Stepanyan said 88 new ambulance cars were introduced
in Armenia after the first aid service was modernized. Doctors,
nurses and drivers of ambulance cars underwent trainings.

ARMENIA MOST FAVORABLE CAUCASIAN COUNTRY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA

news.am
Aug 17, 2011
Armenia

Armenia is recognized the most favorable country for development of
media among the Caucasian states, says the Media Sustainability Index
(MSI) report issued by IREX experts.

The IREX experts gave Armenia 2.09 score, the highest score among the
South Caucasian states. Azerbaijan’s score is 1.65, whereas Georgia’s
is 1.85.

The report says three major developments in 2010 significantly impacted
Armenia’s media sector and received a lot of attention by the MSI
panelists. Among them is decriminalization of defamation, blog launched
by Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and increasing influence of online
periodicals, citizen journalists, and social networking platforms.

“The last development incited tangible changes in a number of cases.

To name a few, plans to demolish the summer hall of a downtown movie
theater were revoked; amendments to the country’s maternity-leave
laws limiting maternity welfare payments were abandoned; and
several teachers were forced to resign after videos of their
beating schoolchildren were widely circulated online. Perhaps the
most unexpected event of the past year, the forced resignation of
the Yerevan mayor following rumors that he beat an officer in the
president’s protocol department, could also be partly attributed to
online media and the blogger community, which heavily covered the
incident prior to the resignation,” the report says.

The experts also mention country’s gradual digitalization process
which is scheduled to be completed by 2015.

INVESTMENTS EXPECTED IN EREBUNI MUSEUM

Tert.am
17.08.11

Serious investments will be made in Yerevan’s Erebuni Museum, the
Yerevan Municipality decided at a meeting on Wednesday headed by
Yerevan Mayor Karen Karapetyan.

The project is expected to guarantee the return of investment to be
made in Erebuni Museum.

Part of the project is the reconstruction of the reserve area of
Erebuni, organization of plays, creation of rest areas and illumination
of the reserve area.

Presenting the Municipality’s views on the improvement of the sector,
Karen Karapetyan said that the libraries, museums, musical schools,
and theaters that are under the auspices of the municipality, should
have clear-cut development plans.

SERJ TANKIAN JOINS “ARMENIAN BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY”

ARMENPRESS
August 17, 2011
YEREVAN

Famous songwriter and lead singer of “System of a Down” rock band Serj
Tankian has released a public-service video announcement dedicated to
activity of “Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry” (ABMDR) benevolent
foundation. The video is a sequence of shots presenting foundation’s
activity, accompanied with Tankian’s call to join the range of the
registered donors.

“The watching of the clip will take you only 30 seconds,” the video
says. “Only within 30 seconds you can help somebody like you to be
born anew, to live, to love again, to play and to smile. Joining
“Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry”, you make a big step toward
saving Armenians’ lives. When you are registered as a donor, you also
become a member of a large family, who has already saved lives in the
whole world. But we still need just your help. Only Armenian donor
can save his/her compatriot’s life… only in 30 seconds,” video runs.

Commenting on the release of the clip, chairperson of the foundation
Frida Jordan addressed her words of gratitude and pride to Tankian
for supporting the humanitarian action, calling him “a good example
for Armenian youth”.

Serj Tankian’s clip is now available at the website of “Armenian Bone
Marrow Donor Registry” (www. Abmdr.am), and will soon be placed at
“YouTube” and other sites too.

During singer’s August 15 civil meeting all wishers had the opportunity
of following Tankian’s example and giving blood immediately after the
meeting. Donors of bone marrow are not paid contrary to blood donors.

“Only 18-50 year old people can become donors of bone marrow and only
once in life. People ever infected with yellow jaundice cannot become
donors. Donors must not have health problems,” Manager of “Armenian
Bone Marrow Donor Registry” Gohar Malkhasyan told Armenpress, adding
that few people know that becoming a donor of marrow does not harm
donor’s health.

The ABMDR was founded in 1999 as an independent, non-governmental,
not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to ensure that every
ethnic Armenian struck with a life threatening blood-related illness
is able to find hope for long-term survival through the identification
of a genetically suitable bone marrow match.

The ABMDR is a member of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA)
and Bone Marrow Donor Worldwide (BMDW) sharing its database information
with other registries around the world. In January 2008, ABMDR became
a member of National Marrow Donor Program – NMDP.

Armenia is the only state in post-soviet territory to have bone marrow
donor registry.

NATURE MINISTRY SENDS TEAM TO INVESTIGATE HETQ FINDINGS

hetq
12:40, August 18, 2011

Based on Hetq coverage regarding continuing illegal tree felling in
the Lorout forest management district (Illegal Logging Continues in
Armenia’s “Unprotected” Forests), the Ministry of Nature Protection has
stated that an investigative team has been organized at the directive
of Minister Aram Harutyunyan.

The Ministry states that the team has been in the area of the
reported illegal felling for the past two days and that details of
their findings will be made public upon their return.

HARVARD TO HOST LECTURE ON ARMENIAN MERCHANTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
August 18, 2011 – 10:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Dr. Sebouh D. Aslanian, the newly appointed Richard
Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, established by the
Armenian Educational Foundation at UCLA, will speak on September 14 at
Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies.

Aslanian’s lecture, “From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean:
The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa,”
will draw on his recently published book of the same name, issued by
the University of California Press.

Drawing on a rich trove of documents, including correspondence not seen
for 300 years, Aslanian’s groundbreaking study From the Indian Ocean
to the Mediterranean explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable
global trade network operated by Armenian silk merchants from a small
outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is
now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements
that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco.

Aslanian brings to light the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the
New Julfans, the effects of long-distance trade on the organization
of community life, the ethos of trust and cooperation that existed
among merchants, and the importance of information networks and
communication in the operation of early modern mercantile communities.