Author: Kalashian Nyrie

"ORANGE" TO START PROVIDING SERVICES FROM OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

Noyan Tapan
May 5, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 5, NOYAN TAPAN. The second operator of the mobile
communication market of Armenia French Orange projects to invest
75 million USD in the industry, told transport and communication
minister of Armenia Gurgen Sargsian to journalists. According to
him these investments will be made irrespectively of the situation
with the world economic and financial crisis. Currently, the company
implements design works, necessary equipment is installed, said the
minister . Mr. Sargsian also noted that the second operator of the
mobile communication market of Armenia will start providing services
from October-November of this year.

500 UPPER-CLASS STUDENTS TOOK LOYALTY OATH IN YEREVAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.05.2009 18:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Within the frames of "Let’s Swear" campaign launched
by "One Nation, One Culture " foundation, 500 upper-class students
today organized a march to Yerablur pantheon. Gathering near monument
to Vazgen Sargsyan, they took an oath of loyalty to national and
patriotic ideas.

The ceremony was attended by representatives from Defense Ministry,
Mayor’s Office of Yeravan and "One Nation, One Culture" foundation.

Then participants headed towards Yerablur pantheon, where they laid
flower wreaths on Vazgen Sargsyan’s tomb and paid respect to dead
freedom fighters.

"Let’s Swear", a campaign organized in Yerevan and regions of Armenia,
was initiated by "One Nation, One Culture" foundation in April-May 2009

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
[email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
May 7, 2009
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

OBAMA SEEKS 38% CUT IN AID TO ARMENIA

— Proposes Breaking Military Aid Parity Agreement in Favor of
Azerbaijan

WASHINGTON, DC ? Despite a 9% increase in overall foreign aid
spending, President Barack Obama today called for a 38% cut in aid
to Armenia, a 20% increase in aid to Azerbaijan, and the
abandonment of the longstanding Armenia-Azerbaijan military aid
parity agreement in favor of Baku, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

These figures, released today as part of the President’s Fiscal
Year (FY) 2010 budget, represent a sharp departure from the
President’s campaign commitments to maintain U.S. assistance to
Armenia and to foster its growth and development through aid and
trade. In January of 2008 and again only days before the November
election, the President said he would "help foster Armenia’s growth
and development through expanded trade and targeted aid," adding
that he will also, "strengthen the commercial, political, military,
developmental, and cultural relationships between the U.S. and
Armenian governments."

"President Obama, despite his promise to maintain U.S. assistance
to Armenia and his campaign commitment to help foster Armenia’s
growth and development, has called for a thirty-eight percent cut
in aid to Armenia," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the
ANCA. "His proposal to sharply reduce vitally needed assistance to
Armenia, even as he is increasing overall foreign aid spending, is
all the more disappointing in light of the urgent economic
challenges facing Armenia."

President Obama’s budget calls for $30 million in U.S. aid to
Armenia, down 38% from the FY09 allocation of $48 million. Under
his proposal, funding for Azerbaijan would increase 20% from $18.5
million to $22.12 million. The complete international affairs
budget proposed by the White House is $53,872,901.

In Foreign Military Finance spending, President Obama has requested
$4 million for Azerbaijan and only $3 million for Armenia, while
funds for International Military Education and Training (IMET)
represent an even starker break in the parity agreement struck
between Congress and the White House in 2001, with $900,000 being
proposed for Azerbaijan and $450,000 for Armenia.

The Foreign Operations Subcommittees of the House and Senate
Appropriation Committees will now review the President’s budget and
each draft their own versions of the FY 2010 foreign assistance
bill.

CLINTON DISCUSSES ENERGY, SECURITY WITH ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN

Focus News
May 6 2009
Bulgaria

Washington. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met separately Tuesday
with her counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on energy
security and the disputed Nagorny-Karabakh region, AFP reports.Clinton
met with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian early Tuesday,
and held talks later in the day with Azerbaijan’s lead diplomat
Elmar Mammadiarov.

"Azerbaijan has a very strategic location, one that is important
not only to their country, but really, regionally and globally,"
Clinton said as she greeted Mammadiarov at the State Department.

"And so they’re in a position to take increasing responsibility and
leadership on these important matters."

The leaders of the two countries – Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
and Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev – were to hold fresh talks at
a European summit this week in Prague, where the launch of an Eastern
Partnership project aimed to boost European Union ties with Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Observers have expressed hopes that recent moves to normalize
relations between Armenia and Turkey would help speed up the Karabakh
peace process.Armenia and Turkey last month announced a "roadmap"
for talks that could lead to normalizing ties and the opening of
their border.Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic links with
Armenia over its efforts to have Ottoman-era killings of Armenians
recognized as genocide.Azerbaijan has urged Turkey not to move forward
in talks with Armenia unless Yerevan agrees to withdraw its troops
from Karabakh.Backed by Armenia, ethnic Armenian separatists seized
control of Nagorny-Karabakh in the early 1990s, in a war that killed
nearly 30,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes.A
ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in 1994
but the dispute remains unresolved.

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL DEDICATED TO KOMITAS’ 140TH ANNIVERSARY

AZG Armenian Daily
06/05/2009

Culture

"Renaissance" international music festival of young music performers
dedicated to Komitas’ 140th anniversary is to be held on May 6-11 in
Gyumri with the blessing of the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians, His Holiness Garegin II and support of the First Lady
of the Republic of Armenia Rita Sargsian.

The festival is the continuation of the tradition initiated by Gyumri
branch of Komitas State Conservatory. The first music festival under
heading "Renaissance" was held in 2007, and the second one – in 2008.

RA Culture Ministry, Gyumri branch of Komitas State Conservatory,
and "Pyunik" Human Resources Development Fund are the organizers of
the festival.

About 700 young music performers from different regions of Armenia,
Artsakh, Georgia and Javakhk, as well as Russia, Turkmenistan, Iran,
Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Switzerland applied to participate in
the contest-festival.

The participants will rival in spheres of piano, stringed and wind
instruments, national musical instruments and vocals. Well-known art
critics and artists from Armenia, Georgia, Germany and Cyprus will
serve on the jury of the festival. Awards in different nominations
will be presented at the festival.

The ceremonial opening, finish and gala concert of the festival will
be held at Gyumri Vardan Achemian State Dramatic Theatre.

BRANDY PRODUCTION IN ARMENIA REDUCES BY 36,8% IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2009

ArmInfo
2009-05-04 11:00:00

Brandy production in Armenia has reduced by 36,8% – to 2339.4 thsd
liters in the first quarter 2009 is compared with the same period of
2008, Armenian National Statistics Service says.

Armenian Agriculture Ministry told ArmInfo, that reduction of
brandy production is connected with export decrease. The total
of 90% brandy out of the whole alcohol production of Armenia are
exported. Incidentally, brandy export has been always growing since
2007.

Specialists of the ministry said brandy export falling in the first
quarter 2009 is conditioned by the world economical crisis. Armenian
brandy was most of all exported to Russia and Ukraine where negative
consequences of the crisis led to reduction of brandy drinking.

According to the official statistics, in the first quarter 2009 vodka
and distilled beverages grew by 12,1% – up to 2649.5 thsd litres; wine
by 4% – up to 773.6 thsd litres; champaign – by 14,5% – up to 41.8
thsd litres. Beer production reduced by 14,3% – to 1165.7 thsd litres.

WHY NOT A ‘FULL, FRANK AND JUST ACKNOWLEDGMENT’?

by: Marie Cocco

The Oregonian
April 28, 2009 Tuesday
Portland, Oregon

TORTURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY H is interest, President Barack Obama
says, is "the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment
of the facts."

His topic was the delicate question of what to call the slaughter of
1.5 million ethnic Armenians at the hands of Turkey during World War
I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, a festering historical sore no
American president can genuinely hope to heal.

But Obama’s professed desire for a complete and just accounting
raises the question: If it’s good for the Armenians, why isn’t
it good for Americans? Why can’t we also have a "full, frank and
just acknowledgment" of the facts surrounding torture and other
moral horrors that were carried out in our name during the Bush
administration’s global war on terror?

History demands it.

Obama doesn’t want to bog his administration’s ambitious agenda down
in partisan recriminations over past practices. Fair enough. But it
does not follow that no official inquiry should be held. There is
more to find out, because much information is still being kept secret
–sometimes by the very perpetrators of the shameful practices, who
press on in the courts, for example, to attain what they hope will
be a permanent shroud.

A copious report by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary
Committee, released last month, provides a chilling compendium of
what we know, and what we don’t.

We do not officially know whether the "enhanced interrogation tactics"
used by the Bush administration were in fact criminal violations of
federal statutes prohibiting torture and war crimes. We do not know
what laws may have been broken through the use of "extraordinary
rendition." This was the practice of sweeping people up and
transferring them to secret CIA "black sites" or to countries –Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan, for example –where torture is
believed to be practiced.

We do not know how many people were jailed and interrogated in
this system. Estimates range from 100 to 150 to "several thousand
renditions of terror suspects," the judiciary report says. We don’t
know how a program of "rendition" that was occasionally used in prior
administrations to deliver a suspect to face prosecution in a country
where he was wanted on criminal charges metastasized into a global
sweep of those who were detained for interrogation. We do not know
what happened to "ghost" detainees held by the U.S. in Iraqi prisons
–prisoners who were never registered or identified and, for all we
know, disappeared.

We do not know the full extent of the warrantless wiretapping of
Americans that continues, in some form, to this day.

Sweeping this all aside in the interest of moving on isn’t a mark of
how mature our political system is. It is an indictment of it.

It acknowledges that we cannot withstand the clamor of television
talking heads –that somehow the distraction of their empty chatter
is as weighty in its consequence as the heinous acts that smear the
nation’s reputation. Do we really want to surrender to the purveyors
of partisan hot air? This is the ultimate capitulation. It shows
us to be so weak that we really should worry about how this act of
cowardice is perceived around the world.

We have a contemporary model for how to conduct a politically
sensitive inquiry properly, without undue theatrics and with respect
for classified information. It is the 9/11 commission, a sober and
thorough panel that explored systemic failures that preceded the
terrorist attacks and put to rest false claims –including the Bush
administration’s contention that Saddam Hussein somehow was behind
it. The panel operated outside the partisan hothouse of Congress,
yet drew freely on the expertise of those inside and outside the
government. Its final report became a best-seller, not because it
inflamed political passion but because it was unconventionally –and
thus, believably –dispassionate.

The Bush administration opposed the creation of the 9/11 commission,
then resisted with much force many of the panel’s requests for
information. In the end, determined lobbying by victims’ families and
their acumen at airing their demands in the media forced officialdom
to create the panel, and helped the commission surmount obstacles
that were placed in its way.

Now we have no tearful widows or orphaned children to plead on
television for a just accounting. But how we handle the grievances
of the voiceless and confront our own misdeeds is yet another measure
of our character. And yes, the whole world is watching.

ARMENIA TODAY NEWS AGENCY COORDINATOR ARGISHTI KIVIRYAN’S LIFE ATTEMPTED

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.04.2009 10:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Life of Armenian Today news agency coordinator
Argishti Kiviryan was attempted last night.

Kiviryan was assaulted at 5 am near his house. Unknown beat him
severely and shot into the head.

At the moment he is in the resuscitation department.

Details are not made public. Kiviryan’s associates link the incident
to Kiviryan’s professional activity.

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Interview by ARMAN GALOYAN

LRAGIR.AM
12:11:55 – 29/04/2009

Interview with parliamentary member of the Heritage faction Vardan
Khachatryan

– The ARF Dashnaktsutyun announced to leave to coalition and to
become opposition. How do you comment on this step of the ARF as a
representative of the only oppositional party in the National Assembly?

– They stated that they came to this decision because of the latest
events in the Armenian and Turkish relations. The ARF Dashnaktsutyun
is a political party which is directly connected to the Armenians
spread all over the world. To this extent, the lack of activity in
the process of the recognition of the Armenian genocide, and its stop
in some places could not but cause concern among our compatriots
abroad. And this fact could not but have its impact on the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun. The party has numerously stated that they may give
an immediate reaction to each concussion in this relation. In fact,
they left the governmental coalition and now, they are integrating
in the oppositional field. From this point of view, it should be
noted that their decision was not an easy one. But, nevertheless,
the situation obliged them to take such a step.

– Though, no one knows why, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun did not react
in such a strict way when Serge Sargsyan announced of setting up
a commission of historians to study the genocide issue, by which,
according to the opposition, he disputed the fact of genocide.

– The question on the historians may not have a serious executive
role and it may be viewed as a long lasting process. And, in this
case we face the problem of accepting the agreement of Kars, which,
of course, may destroy the basis of the Hay Dat.

– Do you consider possible cooperation with the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
in the oppositional field?

– It is not possible to say in politics that you will ever find
nothing in common to cooperate with any political force. Considering
that we are a national liberalistic force, and the ARF is a national
socialistic force, we have the same ideas concerning the national
questions that such declines of national values are unacceptable
within the foreign relations. As to the further cooperation in the
political field, we have not found any edges so far.

– The ruling coalition thinks that cooperation with the ARF is very
possible considering it constructive opposition. What do you think,
why the government is so excited about the ARF becoming opposition?

– It is the right of the government. If they think that bridges are not
burnt with the ARF yet and they may cooperate, let them cooperate. We
go on being opposition, we will be carrying out our projects. And only
time will show what the further actions of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun
will be in the oppositional field. Words are always relative, and
actions reveal the real stances.

– Among the society the ARF is not perceived as opposition yet and
there is opinion that this is a planned game.

– Nevertheless, their actions are to show everything. I would not
like to state beforehand that that entire is false, that they are not
opposition. One may always say different things but what they will do
will be clear in the nearest future. It is even stated in the Bible
that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

– What do you think will the ARF Dashnaktsutyun be able to be a
serious alternative for the Heritage and HAK?

– It is a little surprising for me when someone is considered a
rival for us. This competitiveness is expressed with concrete number
at the elections. Everyone states of having high percents, but the
real image is seen after the elections. I don’t mean the breaches and
mutations. Anyway, I consider a rival no one. The Heritage does its
work fairly. We have many examples of political figures who changed
their stances numerous times and they are destroyed now. And to
say that the government or the opposition is to be blamed for this
is absurd.

– Considering that the opposition was represented at the Mayor election
with one alliance and now there is another oppositional camp, what
impact will it have on the votes, will the ARF Dashnaktsutyun "seize"
votes from the opposition?

– I don’t agree with the expression "to seize votes". It is difficult
to say what the ARF will gain as opposition. The quality of their
action will play an important role here. Today, the Armenian National
Congress has very good image among the public. And that of the
Dashnaktsutyun is rather low comparing with the HAK. Whether they
will manage to equalize it is difficult to say.

The Langar Hall
April 24 2009

Genocidees Anonymous: Armenians and Sikhs

Posted by Mehmaan (Guest) in Human Rights, world news on 04 24th, 2009
Blogged: Amol Singh

On the night of April 24, 1915, over 200 of Constantinople’s Armenian
intellectual and civic leaders were taken from their homes and boarded
upon trains headed eastward toward the city of Ankara. What followed
over the next few months would be a concerted, systematic Ottoman
project meant to eradicate the Armenian identity. Millions of
Armenians, depicted by the state as dangerous Russian conspirators and
hazardous to the security of the Ottoman Empire, were uprooted from
their homes and marched across the Turkish desert. What transpired
over the course of that summer was the raping, pillaging, and
butchering of over a million people. Though the Ottoman forces might
have failed in the complete liquidation of a people, genocide served
as a near consolation prize.

As April 24th approaches, Armenians around the world will gather as
they have for the past 90+ years and demand that the Turkish state
take responsibility for its actions. This summer, as Sikhs also embark
on projects to mark the events of 1984, it seems hard to escape the
fact that we too, are becoming part of a global collective searching
for some sort of acceptance of the atrocities that have been done to
us. This sharing of spaces by the world’s downtrodden is allowing for
more nuanced perspectives of each atrocity. In this understanding, the
1915 Armenian genocide becomes not a yearlong campaign to annihilate
Armenia, but rather a set of events concurrent with a larger Ottoman
decades- long campaign meant to undermine Armenian existence. In this
sphere, Operation Blue Star becomes not a plan to rid Harimander Sahib
of radicals hijacking the Sikh identity, but rather another incident
in a set of systematic attacks on Sikh sovereignty by the Indian
Center.

In this mold, we are becoming participants in a unique Genocidees
Anonymous of sorts, where the recognition of our tragedies becomes
cast into a set of layered political demands.

As a Sikh friend stated recently, `We’re the Armenians looking for a
genocide, the Palestinians looking for a home, and the Tibetans
looking to practice our faith in the face of an intolerant
government¦’ This is nothing new for the quam. Our history can be
marked by stages where relentless attacks on Sikh autonomy have forced
us to assert and reassert our visions for social justice. The most
remarkable part of these assertions has been the universalization of
our demands for justice. Whether it was Guru Hargobind Ji rejecting
release from Gwalior kila (jail) because freedom did not mean freedom
if it those imprisoned alongside him would still languish while he
left or Bhai Kanhaiya giving water to those mandated to annihilate
anyone like him, a Sikh existence has meant an inherent demand for
engagement with the world.

As an undergraduate at what is considered to be a leading US
university, the interpretation of Sikhi many students including myself
have received through our work with the community, is an attack on
anything that deals with any engagement with the world around us. It
seems implausible to construct a vision of the world where we can
become active practitioners of the Sarbat da Bhalla yearned for in
ardaas, if we continue to view the world with utter and sheer
contempt. Over the past year, Sikhs attempting to engage with their
local communities have been likened to rapists and accused of
prostitution for holding turban tying days by professors considered to
be the voices of Sikh academia. We have been warned of associating
with Goray (white) Sikhs because they are practitioners of a falsified
version of Sikhi. Entire organizations have been critiqued and
undermined for offering `lightweight models of Sikhi’ without the
presentation of any alternative.

Any engagement they have had with the American populace at large has
been deemed conciliatory and thus subversive and dangerous. At first
glance, it seems easy to simply listen and subsequently ignore what we
believe to be a confined understanding of Sikhi. Yet at the point
where the collective investment of the Panth, through the work of
entire curriculums and organizations can become so easily undermined
by a terrified few, then we fear that the greater global challenges
that we as Sikhs feel mandated to engage in are placed in jeopardy.

A part of us still holds true to the conviction that the heroes of
Sikh lore we grew up with would be immune to this disease of
communalism. It seems almost nonsensical for us to think a Sikh
history whereupon Guru Tegh Bahadhur doesn’t faithfully march towards
Chandi Chowk because he is protecting the right of religious
expression, even if it is indirectly for the leaders of a faith who
through caste, have mandated one of the world’s most expansive forms
of subjugation. I fail to believe that the forces of the Dal Khalsa
would not march into Afghanistan if those taken were only Sikh
women. Our history is not littered with heroes who served faithfully
for an insular cause. Rather, we cherish those who looked at these
artificial societal veneers and used pen and sword to shatter them
beyond comprehension. To once again become the embodiment of what our
ancestors were, and to adopt the tragedies of the faceless and
powerless, we must learn to reject those within our panth who wish to
narrowly define what it means to be Sikh. Sikhi, in my humble opinion,
is not meant to be an expression of the insecurities toward the world
of a few, but rather a space so special that it elicits a response
that shakes the world’s oppressors toward justice.