Author: Kalashian Nyrie

ARMENIA LOOKS TO EXTERNAL FINANCING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF OIL PRODUCT PIPELINE FROM IRAN

World Market Research Centre
Global Insight
November 11, 2009

Armenian minister for energy and natural resources Armen Moysisian
has said that Russia’s Gazprom is planning to finance 10% of the
cost of construction for an oil products pipeline that will connect
northern Iran to southern Armenia. Moysisian told Interfax that the
Russian gas giant will participate in the financing of the pipeline,
which is planned to link Tebriz in north-eastern Iran with Yeraskh in
southern Armenia, via its stake in ArmRosGazprom, the Russian-Armenian
venture that controls Armenia’s gas pipeline network. Moysisian said
that most of the financing for the estimated $250US-milion pipeline
will be provided by Iran.

Significance:Construction of the Armenian section of the oil products
pipeline, which will deliver gasoline (petrol) and diesel fuel to
Armenia from an oil processing plant in Tebriz, is expected to get
under way before the end of 2009, according to an Interfax report.

Moysisian said that the Armenia plans to build a storage terminal
in Yeraskh as well, from which the country can distribute oil
products throughout Armenia. Iran is itself struggling with a
domestic production capacity shortage in its refinery sector and
is reliant on imports to meet its demand, but at the same time it
is keen to develop long-term energy supply deals with neighbouring
states where possible, in order to counter its deepening isolation
given international sanctions. Armenia will not be allowed to buy
fuel at Iran’s heavily subsidised domestic prices.

ARMENIAN SEISMOLOGISTS RECORDED EARTHQUAKE AT 3.5 MAGNITUDE IN IRAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
13.11.2009 10:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Yesterday, at 20:36 local time on the territory
of Iran, in 19-km north-west of Hoy, an earthquake with 3.5. points
magnitude was recorded. As the National Service of Seismic Protection
of Armenia told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the force of the earthquake
in the epicenter was 5 points.

PRESS RELEASE
THE ARMENIA FUND
Governmental Building 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund newly constructed school revitalizes Spitakashen

Yerevan, November 11, 2009 – The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has built and
furnished a school in Spitakashen, a border village in Artsakh’s Martuni
Region. The construction and furnishing with a price tag of close to
200?460?000 AMD was co-financed by the fund’s Toronto affiliate and the
government of Artsakh.

The official inauguration of the school will take place in May 2010
conditioned by the visit of the sponsors and benefactors.

Attending the opening ceremony were Nagorno-Karabakh minister of education
Vladik Khachatryan, head of the Martuni administration Lyudmila Azizyan,
Hayastan Fund Executive Director Ara Vardanyan, Deputy Director Ararat
Khlghatyan, principal of the school Shiraz Hayrapetyan, mayor of Spitakashen
Armen Khachatryan, residents of the Spitakashen.

The new building is immediately well distinguished within the rural
landscape background. In a few weeks the school will receive its 74 pupils
with its well-equipped and heated classrooms, well-lit library, beautiful
events hall, and a large playground. The school designed for 130 students,
and if necessary, will accommodate students from close-by villages.

"School construction is a major development goal of the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund, which has already built more than 200 kindergartens and
schools throughout Artsakh and Armenia, and today this list was replenished
with a new project. I hope that down the years, these children will
contribute their knowledge to the welfare of our homeland", said Ara
Vardanyan, the Fund’s Executive Director.

"The old school built in 1935 had become not only terribly unsafe for
students and teachers but it also lacked almost all the elementary
facilities. In order to enter the school, the pupils had to pass through the
cultural center located on the ground floor of the building. Today 74
students are able to attend a wonderfully appointed and comfortable school,
a fact that will have the added benefit of raising the overall quality of
education", said the school’s principal Shiraz Hayrapetyan addressing his
words of gratitude to the Artsakh Government and Fund’s Toronto affiliate.

We would note that the funds for the construction and furnishing of the
school were gathered due to several meetings and fundraising events
conducted by the Fund’s Toronto affiliate. Among those events was a six-day
bike ride jointly organized by the Toronto and USA Western Region affiliates
in this September resulting in $50?000, which, like the previous year,
benefited the construction of the school in Spitakashen village. This is
already the fifth school sponsored by the Toronto affiliate. Before this
they have financed the construction of schools in the villages Verin
Horatagh and Mataghis of Martakert Region, Shosh village of Askeran Region
as well as physico-mathematical school in Stepanakert.

Spitakashen was the site of another major development project in 2008, when
the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, with financing from its Argentinean
affiliate, ended the village’s longstanding potable-water crisis by building
a water-distribution system thus providing 110 families with round the clock
drinking water.

Hayastan All Armenian Fund

KLIMKO IS ADMIRED BY THE NEW PROJECT OF "ARKA"

ARKA
Nov 9, 2009

YEREVAN, November 9. /ARKA/. Igor Klimko, General Director of
telecommunication company "ArmenTel" (brand Beeline) said that he
is admired by the new financial-banking portal of news agency "ARKA"
–

"I think that the presented sites are one of the most professional
and interesting news and analytical sites in Armenia", said Klimko
during the presentation of As part of its strategy
to develop Internet-based businesses ARKA news agency has launched
in October, 2009 new projects at , ,
The financial-banking portal www.armbanks aspires to
become the leading Internet edition in Armenia covering the country’s
financial and banking sectors.

Apart from on-line information the portal offers also analytical
research, exclusive stories and information about banks, insurance
and credit organizations, their comparative financial indices as well
as statistical data. New services-on-line conferences and on-line
consultations will be available to customers as well. The website
has a credit calculator and hard currency converter. In addition to
all of this, thanks to state-of-the-art technologies the visitors of
the website can listen to economic news of ARKA news agency.

Visitors to website may learn the latest news from
Armenia’s stock market, to look through the results of shares and
government bonds trading, to read comments and opinions of experts
and participants of the market. The website will
allow to monitor the situation of the Armenian economy, to be well
informed about the government anti-crisis steps. Visitors may offer
their recommendations and comments on various government decisions,
designed and passed to take the country out of the crisis.

OSCE MISSION HOLDS PLAN MONITORING ON NKR AND AZERI ARMED FORCES CONTACT-LINE ON NOVEMBER 10

Noyan Tapan
Nov 10, 2009

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 10, NOYAN TAPAN. In accordance with the agreement
reached with the NKR authorities in advance, the OSCE mission, on
November 10, held a plan monitoring on the NKR and Azeri armed forces
contact-line near the populated area of Horadiz.

>From positions of the NKR defence army the monitoring mission was
headed by Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej
Kasprzyk. Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office Peter Key (Great Britain), Irzhi Aberle (Czech
Republic), and Zhaslan Nurtazin (Kazakhstan) were included in the
monitoring group.

According to the NKR Foreign Ministry Press Service, no violations
of the cease-fire regime were fixed during the monitoring.

Representatives of the NKR Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry will
accompany the monitoring mission on the part of NKR.

RA FOREIGN MINISTER TO PAY TWO-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO SWITZERLAND

Noyan Tapan
Nov 9, 2009

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, NOYAN TAPAN. RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
will pay an official visit to Switzerland between November 10 to
11. According to RA Foreign Ministry Press and Information Department,
bilateral documents will be signed during the visit.

ARMENIAN GUITAR-2009 FESTIVAL STARTS IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.11.2009 19:25 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The festival "Armenian Guitar-2009" started in
the Yerevan Academic Theater after Gabriel Sundukyan. According
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the 5-hour-long concert was opened by the
"Dogma" group and guitarist Henry Grigorian.

The first such a large-scale festival present the public perfomances of
13 guitarists and other musical instrument players, who will perform
the own work each and will participate in 4 jam sessions – dialogues
of guitarists. Each jam session will involve three guitarists.

May Lian (Yuri Mayilyan) (Russia) will perform in the first part of
the concert with other guitarists, Dave Martoun (Canada) will play
in the second part.

Music of different genres: jazz, rock, jazz-rock, blues, fusion,
metal, as well as progressive music will be brought to the festival.

"I thank the organizers of the festival, as they have done a great job,
gathering so many talented guitarists. I really hope the festival
will become a platform for promoting electric guitar, Armenia does
not have a school of electric guitar, but the demand is obvious,
" lyricist Gisane Palian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

ISRAEL IS NOT A TOLERANT SOCIETY: US STATE DEPARTMENT

press tv
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:43:41 GMT

Israel drastically fails to meet all requirements of a tolerant
pluralistic society, according to a US State Department report issued
on Saturday.

The report, written by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor,
indicates that Israel is discriminating against Muslims, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, Christians, women, Bedouins, and even Reform Jews, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Sunday.

Israel does not treat ethnic groups on equal terms and also does not
show any respect toward certain holy sites and other historic sites,
the document added.

It went on to say that although a 1967 Israeli law calls for the
protection of all holy sites in Jerusalem Al-Quds, the Israeli
government does not show due respect toward non-Jewish sites and does
not even officially recognize non-Jewish sites as holy places.

In addition, as Israel is neglecting several Muslim and Christian
holy sites, they are subject to exploitation by Israeli authorities
and real estate entrepreneurs, the report noted.

MORE PRODUCTIVE TIES SEEN BETWEEN ATHENS, ANKARA
Chris Loutradis

Hurriyet Daily News
Nov 6 2009
Turkey

Turkey and Greece have appeared to enter a new era of friendlier and
more productive bilateral relations after the Turkish prime minister’s
letter to his Greek counterpart and a senior Turkish official’s visit
to Athens was received warmly.

In his letter to Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his will to solve all the
open disputes between the two nations. A few days after the letter,
Turkish State Minister and Chief Negotiator for EU talks, Egemen
BagıÅ~_, paid a visit to Athens. During his consultations, Papandreou
told BagıÅ~_ that his government welcomed Erdogan’s letter and said
he was ready to work together on the Aegean and Cyprus disputes.

In his letter, Erdogan expressed his belief that issues between Greece
and Turkey could be solved via an honest and in-depth dialogue between
the two parties, according to a Greek diplomatic source who asked to
remain anonymous. "Erdogan made some very progressive suggestions with
regard to the Cyprus issue and the Aegean disputes, which will cause
very interesting reactions from both sides if they are published,"
the source said. The Turkish prime minister went on to reaffirm his
stance that Turkey "wants zero-problems with neighbors."

According to the same source, Papandreou has already planned the basic
guidelines of his reply, and because he is solely engaged in writing
the response, evidences his interest in the progress of Greece-Turkey
relations. The Greek prime minister was also expected to voice his
support for Erdogan’s efforts to comply with EU directives and to
accept Erdogan’s suggestion for a high-level council of cooperation
in which all major issues that arise between both nations will be
discussed.

Clear proof

According to Greek experts in Greece-Turkey relations, Prime Minister
Erdogan’s letter is clear proof that the Turkish prime minister wants
to send a strong, clear signal to the EU that he is willing to solve
all the open disputes with Greece.

"Turkey and Greece share a common fate and a common future," BagıÅ~_
said at an event organized by the International Center for Black
Sea Studies and attended by Greek Prime Minister Papandreou. The
Greek audience responded with satisfaction when BagıÅ~_ said,
"A new era has started in the relations of the two countries, with
the government of Papandreou willing to build a peaceful future
with Turkey." The minister added that during this period, Erdogan’s
government is demolishing taboos of Turkish society by solving the
Kurdish issue and by dealing with open disputes with Armenia. "It is
time to discuss Greece, too," BagıÅ~_ added.

On the thorny issue of Cyprus, BagıÅ~_ said Turkey would support any
solution agreed on by the leaders of the two sides of the island. He
praised the efforts of Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat
and Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, and stressed that
Greece and Turkey should support the two presidents as their "term
is limited and because we do not know who will govern next."

Perhaps more worryingly was a question raised by a participant
who asked about the presence of the Turkish Army on the war-divided
island. BagıÅ~_ said the Turkish Army protects the safety of Turkish
Cypriots and it will not withdraw unless other armies withdrew as well.

PRIME MINISTER RECEIVED REPRESENTATIVES OF ARMENIAN AID UNION (AAU)

NKR Government Information and
Public Relations Department
November 05, 2009

Today, NKR Prime Minister received the representatives of Armenian
Aid Union, among them Vicki Marashlyan, Zhirayr Pechekyan and
Margarita Taranyan. During the meeting various issues concerning the
charitable programmes being implemented in the spheres of education
and healthcare by AAU, as well as those concerning the arrangements
envisaged towards the 100 th anniversary of the organization were
discussed. The Chairman of the AAU Executive Commission Mrs Marashlyan
noted that the organization tries to continue its programmes in spite
of the existent difficulties caused by the world international crisis,
because the implementation of charitable projects in NKR is one of
the most important issues of the organization. Zhirayr Pechekyan
presented some information about the plans of the forthcoming year,
particularly, the organization is intended to pay for the education
of one student from the Republic in Lebanon since 2010.

During the meeting the Prime Minister informed the guests about the
Government’s intention to open several modern infant schools, as well
as to take measures towards improving the state in the sphere. The
Prime Minister added that the Government is ready to support the fund
in overcoming the difficulties arising during the implementation of
its programmes.

NKR Minister of Education and Science V.Khachatryan and representative
of the ARF Central Committee of Artsakh D.Ishkhanyan partook in
the meeting.