Yerevan to host symposium on Armenian carpet-making
May 15, 2013 | 09:52
YEREVAN. – The Ministry of Culture of Armenia will hold a symposium,
titled `Armenian Knot,’ in capital city Yerevan, from November 20 to
22.
The event will be devoted to the key issues in the study of the
traditions of Armenian carpet-making.
All interested individuals and organizations of this domain may attend
this conference.
News from Armenia – NEWS.am
Armenia’s marriage-divorce ratio worsens
May 15, 2013 | 14:22
YEREVAN. – The balance between marriages and divorces in Armenia is
getting worse, National Statistical Service official Karine Kuyumjyan
stated during a press conference on Wednesday.
She noted that 4,591 marriages and 897 divorces were registered in the
country in the first quarter of this year.
In line with the 2011 census data, a total of 763,600 households were
registered in Armenia, as compared to 779,400 households in 2001.
Kuyumjyan also informed that the number of marriages in the country
dropped by 1.6 percent, whereas that of the divorces grew by 11.5
percent, as compared to the first quarter of 2012.
News from Armenia – NEWS.am
PAP could have found its place in opposition field if it wanted – Heritage rep
12:50 – 15.05.13
Prosperous Armenia party leader’s grounding that his party has no need
to become opposition for 3-4 such parties already existing, is not
convincing for the Heritage party political secretary Styopa Safaryan.
`It is not the reason at all. Prosperous Armenia is a party of big
capital which yes, in a country like Armenia, cannot become an
opposition. And the real reason of it is that not the big number of
opposition parties. It is just the matter of ideological field: the
ANC is in the extreme right liberation field, Heritage is in right
central liberal field and the PAP could have found its place if it
wanted,’ Safaryan said, speaking to Tert.am.
PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan stated about it speaking to reporters after
the ceremony of consecration of the newly-built St John the Baptist
Church, in case when Vartan Oskanian, N1 in the party’s Yerevan City
Council list, few days ago referred in his Facebook page to the
political situation created in Armenia and noted that at the September
sitting of the parliament the PAP should change its political status
and declare itself an opposition.
Referring to this, Safaryan advised to consider it a pre-election
statement aimed at attracting opposition electorate and as far as the
elections ended this issue does not exist anymore, Gagik Tsarukyan
gave a final response on where they are.
Safaryan said all should once again be convinced that the PAP cannot
be an opposition party.
Asked about the statement of the Armenian National Congress party
leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the party’s first congress that Gagik
Tsarukyan is being cut from Serzh Sargsyan, Safaryan said he does not
know whether Ter-Petrosyan was mistaken or made wrong calculations or
it was beneficial for all.
Safaryan registered that all played against the people which he said
was a big plot in the period of elections.
Armenian News – Tert.am
Economie
Le prix du gaz va augmenter en Arménie
La société de distribution de gaz national de l’Arménie a évoqué mardi
une augmentation significative du coût du gaz naturel russe importé
dans le pays et a demandé aux autorités de réévaluer les prix pour les
consommateurs domestiques.
L’opérateur ArmRosGazprom a formellement demandé que la Commission des
services publics de réglementation (PSRC) lui permette d’augmenter le
prix du gaz pour les ménages. (il passerait de 132 000 à 221 000 drams
(532 $) par millier de mètres cubes). Il a déclaré que le tarif pour
les entreprises industrielles et autres consommateurs d’entreprise
devrait également augmenter en conséquence.
« Notre demande présentée à la Commission repose sur des calculs
économiques et propose des tarifs raisonnables », a indiqué le
porte-parole de ARG, Shushan Sardarian. Le prix officiellement déclaré
du gaz livré en Arménie par Gazprom s’élevait à 180 $ par millier de
mètres cubes jusqu’à maintenant. Son prix réel semble avoir
considérablement augmenté l’année dernière.
Le service des douanes arménien a déclaré en octobre que ARG, dont 80%
est détenu par Gazprom, a importé 304,6 millions de mètres cubes de
gaz russe pour une valeur de 74,4 millions $ au troisième trimestre de
2012. Cela s’est traduit par un prix du gaz d’environ de 244 $ par
millier de mètres cubes.
Certains observateurs ont émis l’hypothèse que le gouvernement
arménien veillait à ce que les consommateurs arméniens ne soient pas
affectés par la hausse des prix jusqu’en 2013, avant l’élection
présidentielle. Le ministre de l’Energie, Armen Movsisian et ses
adjoints, ont nié ces allégations, affirmant que le gouvernement
continue de négocier avec Gazprom sur un nouveau tarif du gaz.
Les hausses de prix demandées par ARG pourraient durement toucher les
Arméniens qui ont déjà du mal à payer leurs factures de gaz. Le gaz
naturel est utilisé pour produire environ un tiers de l’électricité de
l’Arménie. Le prix de l’électricité pourrait également augmenter. En
outre, la mesure impopulaire pourrait affecter le coût du transport en
commun : tous les bus de banlieue et les minibus dans le pays
fonctionnent au gaz liquéfié.
Sardarian a fait valoir que les prix actuels sont restés inchangés au
cours des trois dernières années, malgré l’inflation et une
dépréciation du dram arménien.
mercredi 15 mai 2013,
Laetitia ©armenews.com
Military expert: There will be no war until Azerbaijan has a
qualitative advantage
14:30 14/05/2013 » SOCIETY
Despite bellicose statements by Baku, military operations are unlikely
to resume at the current stage because the Azerbaijani army is not yet
ready for it, military expert David Jamalyan told today’s news
conference.
`Azerbaijan spends huge sums on army but this is not enough because it
does not ensure quality,’ the military expert said.
`There will be no war until Azerbaijan has a qualitative advantage,’ he added.
At the same time, Jamalyan noted that Artsakh Defense Army has become
mobile and efficiently managed.
`Structural changes were made in the Defense Army recently, with
special brigades set up to transfer the fighting to enemy territory if
necessary,’ he said.
Source: Panorama.am
Portland Book Review
May 11 2013
All the Light There Was
You Will Not Be Able to Put This Book Down!
Reviewed by Seniye Groff
All the Light There Was
By Nancy Kricorian
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
$24.00, 384 pages
5*
All the Light There Was, by Nancy Kricorian, takes on a common topic
(the Nazi occupation of Paris) but with the unique twist of
representing the Armenian immigrant experience.
In this novel the reader meets Maral Pegorian, an innocent 14-year-old
girl living in 1940s Paris. Maral lives in a cramped apartment with
her family, like many Armenians and Jews in her neighborhood. She soon
loses school friends and neighbors as the Jews are rounded up. Those
left in the neighborhood are fearful and hungry, but not too scared to
fight back in their own little ways – by hiding a Jewish child,
spreading pamphlets or showing up for rallies. Maral experiences death
firsthand, as well as her first love. When the boy she loves, Zaven,
is imprisoned with his brother, Maral is distraught as the families
grieve. When World War II is over, those who have survived have their
own losses to deal with as they try to resume `normal’ life.
`This once was the land of baguettes and butter. Now it’s the land of turnips.’
Kricorian’s tale is based on real history and gives the reader a
glimpse of the Armenian experience in 1940s Paris. As you read this
descriptive tale, your stomach will ache with hunger and you will be
convinced that Maral’s nightmares are your own. This reviewer could
not put this book down. Once she started reading, the story was
immersive as quicksand!
APA, Azerbaijan
May 14 2013
Azerbaijani Embassy sends letter to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and
Inter TV on provocative television story
[ 14 May 2013 13:47 ]
Baku. Shamil Alibeyli – APA. Azerbaijani Embassy in Ukraine vowed a
strong response to the film broadcasted by Inter TV channel about
Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenia and its description
as an independent state.
Azerbaijani Embassy in Ukraine told APA that they have sent letters to
both Inter TV channel and Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to clear up the
question. The letter says that Ukraine officially recognizes the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the broadcast of such a film
is a faulty action: `The channel has made a big mistake by
broadcasting the film that distorts the truth. The letter asked for a
meeting in this regard. Now the Embassy is waiting for the reply.
During the meeting, the Inter channel will be required to retrieve the
mistake by broadcasting film about the Karabakh realities, its history
and geography.’
EBRD has invested about 620 million euros in Armenia
YEREVAN, May 14. / ARKA /. The European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD) has invested about 620 million euros in various
projects in Armenia since its inception here in 1992, head of EBRD
Yerevan Office Valeriu Razlog said today at a special event marking
EBRD’s 10th anniversary in Armenia. He said about half of the amount
– some 310 million euros- were channeled into financing the banking
sector.
Another 25% of the EBRD’s investments went to finance the transport
sector, in particular, the modernization of Yerevan airport and
customs points, 15% were used to finance a string of projects in the
energy sector, in particular in the field of renewable energy,
including support to 25 small hydropower plants, as well as the
transportation and distribution of electricity.
According to Razlog, the remaining 10% of the total investment were
allocated to private and municipal sectors, in particular, for
reconstruction of the Yerevan metro, water system, as well as to the
food industry. The EBRD is one of the largest investors in Armenia.-0-
How is Diaspora Ministry solving Syrian Armenians’ problems? – newspaper
May 14, 2013 | 07:44
YEREVAN. – An official told 169 Zham daily that he has found himself
in an unpleasant situation by renting his apartment to a
Syrian-Armenian family, the daily reports.
`The Syrian-Armenian family refused to pay the pre-determined amount,
and when he demanded that they vacate the apartment, the
Syrian-Armenian family applied to the Ministry of Diaspora. They
called him from there and warned that if he does not leave this family
alone, they will publicize his name as a nation traitor and a soulless
person who wants to evict people in misfortune from his apartment. The
official informed that he may lose his job, and that is why he decided
to anonymously complain.
If the problem of one or several families is solved in this way,
hundreds of other [such] families could be deprived of the opportunity
to find housing [in Armenia], since the proprietors now avoid renting
real estate to Syrian Armenians,’ 168 Zham writes.
News from Armenia – NEWS.am
Russell to Speak on `Animal Style in Art: From Scythia to Aghtamar’
May 14, 2013
BELMONT, Mass. – On Thurs., May 30, Dr. James R. Russell, Mashtots
Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, will give an
illustrated lecture entitled, `The Animal Style in Art: From Scythia
to Aghtamar to Modern Russian Literature,’ at the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont. The lecture will
be given in honor of the 90th birthday of Prof. Nina G. Garsoian, the
Avedissian Professor Emerita of Armenian History and Civilization at
Columbia University and the director of the `Revue des Etudes
Armeniennes’ in Paris.
Built in AD 920, the Church of the Holy Cross on Aghtamar island in
Lake Van famously features a spectacular bas-relief sculptural program
on its outer walls, where we find antic animals strikingly reminiscent
of images from Scythian art, wrought in gold, of the ancient world.
The impression one takes away from Scythian art is of the pleasure of
movement, the beauty of the kinetic body. And if one recalls that much
of this art was meant to be portable, often to adorn a rider and his
mount, it is understandable that it celebrated the galloping horse,
the swooping falcon, the hare or stag in full flight.
If the Animal Style, which endured for many centuries past the
Classical age, found its way from gold to stone, with perhaps a quick
stopover in Sasanian Iran, it is surely at home in Armenia. Tracing
the imagery of Scythia and Aghtamar’s Church of the Holy Cross and
following it into Russian art and literature, Russell will pursue the
meanings and repercussions of this pattern of animal imagery, in
visual art and in the written word.
Russell has been the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard
since 1992. His books include Bosphorus Nights: The Complete Lyric
Poems of Bedros Tourian, Armenian and Iranian Studies, The Book of
Flowers, An Armenian Epic: The Heroes of Kasht, Zoroastrianism in
Armenia, and Hovhannes Tlkurantsi and the Medieval Armenian Lyric
Tradition.
Garsoian received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1943 and her M.A.
and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1946 and 1958, respectively, in
Byzantine, Near Eastern, and Armenian history. Garsoian was the first
female dean of the Graduate School at Princeton University and a
two-term trustee of the Ford Foundation.
The talk begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 617-489-1610
or e-mail [email protected].