Author: Kalashian Nyrie

SOUTH OSSETIA VOTES FOR INDEPENDENCE
Al-Jazeera, Qatar
Nov 13 2006
Voters in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia have
overwhelmingly backed its independence.
Preliminary results indicate 99 per cent of people voted “yes” to
independence, while in a presidential poll 96 per cent supported
Eduard Kokoity, the current South Ossetian leader, Bela Pliyeva,
the head of the election commission, said.
South Ossetia’s leadership has described the referendum as a first
step towards international acceptance.
No country is expected to recognise the result of Sunday’s vote,
although Russia has given de facto backing to the South Ossetian
leadership and urged Georgia to accept the outcome.
Konstantin Zatulin, a member of Russia’s parliament who was in
Tshkhinvali to observe the referendum, said: “We need to move towards
recognising reality.”
Disputed regions
“South Ossetia is a reality, like Transdnestr, Abkhazia and Nagorny
Karabakh,” he added, referring to other disputed former Soviet regions.
Only 55,000 people were elligible to vote in the referendum
Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, has repeatedly rejected South Ossetia’s
calls for independence and accused Moscow of trying to annex both
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region.
No independent international monitors observed the polling, which
has been widely criticised.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the secretary-general of the Nato military
alliance, said “such actions serve no purpose other than to exacerbate
tensions in the South Caucasus region”.
‘Unhelpful and unfair’
The head of the 46-nation Council of Europe called the referendum
“unnecessary, unhelpful and unfair”.
“The results will not be recognised by the international community,
the vote did nothing to bring forward the search for a peaceful
political solution,” Terry Davis, the secretary general of the human
rights organisation, said.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called
it “counterproductive”.
Election officials said more than 90 per cent of the 55,000
eligible voters turned out for the the second vote on the province’s
independence since 1992.
South Ossetia declared independence after a war with Georgian forces
in 1991-1992 that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced tens
of thousands.

ARMENIAN CHURCH IN SWANSEA CELEBRATES 50 YEARS
By Teri Maddox
News-Democrat
Belleville News-Democrat, IL
Nov 12 2006
Lisa Bedian drives more than 100 miles round trip to attend services
at Holy Virgin Mary and Shoghagat Armenian Church in Swansea.
She was married by its Armenian Orthodox priest last weekend.
“It’s very important to me personally to keep the Armenian culture
and traditions alive,” said Bedian, 49, of St. Charles, Mo., the
granddaughter of Armenian immigrants. “Armenia was the first country
to adopt Christianity (as its national religion) in 301 A.D.”
The church is celebrating its 50th anniversary today with a 10
a.m. service and Divine Liturgy by Archbishop Khajag Barsamian of
the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America.
The service will be followed by a 1 p.m. banquet at the Sheraton Four
Points Hotel in Fairview Heights.
Many church members are descendants of people who survived or died in
what some historians call an “Armenian genocide” that peaked during
World War I, when Armenia was ruled by Ottoman Turks. Hundreds of
thousands of non-Muslims were killed.
“My mother was a survivor,” said 50th anniversary committee chairwoman
Zabelle Vartanian, 65, of Belleville. “My father was already (in the
United States).”
Vartanian’s parents were founding members of the church, organized in
East St. Louis in 1956. The Swansea building was consecrated in 1978.
Today, the church has about 100 members from throughout the St. Louis
region. That includes recent Armenian immigrants escaping political
unrest and religious persecution in Azerbaijan.
“For the Armenian community, this church is a lifeline,” said
Vartanian, a school counselor. “It’s our religious home. It’s our
cultural home.”
The church is led by the Rev. Abraham Ohanesian, who commutes from
Detroit two weekends a month.
“I fly in on Saturday and visit families, take care of issues and
get the altar ready for the Sunday service,” he said.
On Saturday evening, the church dedicated a khachkar (stone cross).
It will be surrounded by a memorial garden, where people can meditate
and remember genocide victims.
The 6-by-3-foot cross was handcarved in Armenia out of native stone.
“It’s a true piece of art,” Vartanian said. “It’s gorgeous.”
Holy Virgin Mary and Shoghagat Armenian Church is at 400 Huntwood
Road in Swansea, near Wolf Branch schools. Today’s celebration will
include remarks by U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello. For more information,
call Vartanian at 398-4302.

Armenpress
VIKTOR DALAKIAN STILL UNDECIDED WHICH PARTY TO JOIN
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Once an outspoken
opposition parliament member Viktor Dalakian, who
later was condemned by some of his fellows from the
major opposition Ardarutyun (Justice) alliance for
defecting the bloc, said today he was still uncertain
about which of tens of political parties to join for
contesting the next year’s parliamentary elections.
He said he was also swinging whether to run for
parliament from a single-mandate constituency or from
a party ticket. The Armenian media used to speculate
that after defecting from Ardarutyun Dalakian would
join a new party called Prosperous Armenia, founded by
a millionaire businessman and parliament member Gagik
Tsarukian, which is said to be harboring far-reaching
political ambitions.
Some newspapers even claimed that Dalakian would
top the list of its candidates for the 2007
parliamentary election. In a recent interview Dalakian
confirmed these rumors saying nothing can be ruled out
in politics. Speaking today to journalists Dalakian
said he had still a lot of time ahead to decide which
party to join.
“The Prosperous Armenia is a new force in Armenia’s
political landscape with no record of contesting any
national election and therefore it cannot be termed
either a pro-government force or an opposition force,”
he said.
In further remarks Dalakian argued that, ‘being in
opposition to the incumbent power does not necessarily
mean to criticize the government; it means also
cooperation with it on a variety of issues.”
As a forecast Dalakian said those forces which
would emerge as winners of the next year polls would
predetermine the outcome of presidential election,
slated for 2008. He also was pessimistic about
opposition’s chances to unite and contest the
parliament as one force, saying he could already see
numerous potential opposition contenders for
presidency.
He then welcomed a Constitutional Court ruling this
week to make presence of judges in Central Election
Commission and territorial election commissions
unconstitutional.

LIBRARY AFTER HRAYR MAROUKHIAN OPENS
By Ruzan Poghosian
AZG Armenian Daily
09/11/2006
According to the Press Service of ARFD, the official ceremony of
opening the Library after Hrayr Maroukhian took place at the ARFD
Bureau’s “Christapor Mikaelian” Center, recently. The representatives
of the party’s bureau, the party branches from Armenia and Artsakh,
ARFD members of RA National Assembly and state officials were present
at the library’s opening ceremony.
The library functioned from this March based on the amount of books
allocated to the library from Athens.
Later, the library received more books from the office in Lebanon. The
Library also inherited the large private book collections of
Ed. Hovhannisian and Art. Tsatourian.
“In the course of the last month the library was enriched by the
exclusive private book collection of Maroukhian, that includes many
valuable books of social, political, philosophical, critical, legal,
national and cultural importance, as well as over 3000 books in
Armenian and English. At present, over 5000 books are registered at
the library. Comrade Hrayr had both high political and organizational
skills and rich worldview in the issues of political, public and
ideological importance. He loved books and he was a good reader. His
private library was the mirror of his personality. A large part of
his library included the works by the Russian classic writers and
those of the modern European Literature,” Albert Atchemian, member
of the ARFD Bureau stated.
The wife and the younger daughter of Maroukhian were also present at
the opening ceremony of the library.

ARMENIA SELLING MORE INFRASTRUCTURE, INDUSTRY TO RUSSIA
By Vladimir Socor
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Nov 7 2006
In his November 6 news conference, Armenia’s de facto strongman and
presidential aspirant Serge Sarkisian welcomed the just-consummated
purchase of the Armentel telecommunications company by the Russian
giant Vympelcom. Sarkisian is defense minister as well as secretary
of the national security council (supervising the security agencies),
and concurrently the head of the Armenian side in the Armenia-Russia
Economic Cooperation Commission, thus also in charge of Armenia’s
economic relations with Russia. “I don’t see any risk at all in the
growth of Russian capital in our country,” Sarkisian averred (Interfax,
November 6).
Indeed he has, along with his long-time political ally President
Robert Kocharian, overseen the process of transferring Armenia’s
infrastructure and industrial assets to Russian interests. On October
31-November 1 in Moscow, Kocharian finalized the handover of the
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and the Hrazdan electricity generating
plant’s fifth power bloc, the leading unit in the country, to
Gazprom in return for temporary price relief on Russian gas (see EDM,
November 3). Low-priced gas is only a recent rationale for selling
infrastructure assets to Russia. In 2002-2005, the rationale was debt
relief. Kocharian and Sarkisian oversaw the transfer of state-owned
industries to Russia in debt-for-assets swaps.
Vympelcom announced on November 3 in Moscow the purchase of a 90%
stake in Armentel from the Greek owner, Hellenic Telecommunications
(OTE). Vympelcom is paying $ 434 million in cash and assumes an
additional $ 52 million in OTE debt. OTE had bought Armentel from the
Armenian government in 1997 for $142.5 million and invested a reported
$300 million in it since then. Armentel currently has a 40% to 50%
share of Armenia’s mobile telephone market and operates the country’s
fixed-line telephony network. The Armenian government retains a 10%
stake in Armentel. According to government data (Arminfo, November 3),
Armentel has until now been Armenia’s second-largest taxpayer.
During Kocharian’s Moscow visit last week, Russia’s Comstar
Telesystems announced the acquisition of Armenia’s telecommunications
company CallNet and its subsidiary, the Internet service provider
Cornet. The fast-growing Callnet and Cornet comprise the second-largest
telecommunications group in Armenia. The Russian Comstar is acquiring
a 75% stake in that group for an as yet undisclosed price, with an
option to purchase the remaining 25%.
Also during Kocharian’s visit, Russia’s state-owned Foreign Trade Bank
(Vneshtorgbank) announced its intention to acquire the remaining 30%
of shares in what used to be Armenia’s Savings Bank. The Vneshtorgbank
had in 2004 acquired 70% of the shares in that bank, which became
Vneshtorgbank Armenia. The tycoon Mikhail Bagdasarov owns the
remaining 30% and is negotiating the sale to the Russian Vneshtorgbank
(Kommersant, SKRIN Market and Corporate News, October 30-31).
On the eve of Kocharian’s Moscow visit, Sarkisian presided over the
ceremony marking the completion of the ArmenAl plant’s overhaul by
Russian Aluminum (RusAl). The Yerevan-based ArmenAl, a major producer
of aluminum foil, idled in the 1990s, was acquired in 2002 by RusAl,
which two years later subcontracted the overhaul to Germany’s Achenbach
firm for $80 million (RFE/RL Armenia Report, Armenpress, October 26).
In September of this year, the Russian state-owned Inter-RAO UES
(a subsidiary of Russia’s Unified Energy Systems state monopoly)
completed the acquisition of the Electricity Networks of Armenia in
full ownership from the British-based Midland Holdings. Apart from
the transmission networks, Russia’s UES owns and operates some 80%
percent of Armenia’s electricity generation capacities and is the
financial manager of Armenia’s Nuclear Power Plant.
During his meeting with Kocharian in the Kremlin on October 31,
Russian President Vladimir Putin professed to feel that the level of
Russian investment in Armenia is too low, “strangely and shamefully”
so. Widely cited in Armenia, this remark seems disingenuous on
several counts. Russia is by far the largest investor overall in
post-Soviet Armenia. Putin’s estimation apparently did not include the
transactions-in-progress that are being finalized now. Unlike Western
investors, Russian ones are focusing on Armenia’s strategic assets
and infrastructure as the economic basis for political influence and
control. Putin’s remark seems designed to goad official Yerevan into
selling more assets to Russian interests, in which case Yerevan would
have to start scraping the bottom of the assets barrel.
(Noyan Tapan, Mediamax, PanArmenianNet, Armenpress, November 1-6)

HE DOES NOT GIVE ELECTION BRIBE, HE SHARES WHAT HE HAS
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006
The leader of the People’s Party Tigran Karapetyan stated November
3 that the political sphere of Armenia is in a disorder. He made
this statement at the Pastark Club, where Tigran Karapetyan answered
the questions of news reporters. He says that for three years now he
has been prompting to the opposition to meet with people, whereas it
keeps to its traditional style. Tigran Karapetyan says people cannot
see the ideas the oppositionists like to discuss in their offices.
“They think that someone does not let them work. Do work,” says
Tigran Karapetyan. He works, for instance, and “people see and
help him, the People’s Party helps for four years.” The leader of
this political party says other political parties have adopted this
style of work. Perhaps, it is apparent in the case of the Bargavach
Hayastan Party, and it is interesting whether Tigran Karapetyan
considers Bargavach Hayastan an ally or an opponent.
“Neither ally nor rival. I have a positive approach because one of our
approaches is that we must share everything with people. If a political
party wants to act besides words, it is welcome. After all, I think,
the greatest political figure ever was Jesus Christ, who first gave
food then preached, healed then said his word,” says Tigran Karapetyan,
stating that a political unit must prove it has social direction and
show that he wants to come to power to solve the problems of people
not to rob people. And Tigran Karapetyan does not consider his own
way of solving social and cultural problems as election bribe.
“If you aid, if you are a benefactor or you work to have a good
reputation, it is not election bribe. Although some people may think
so because they do not do the same, they spare their money, and others
do, it is clear that they will not like it because this context may
arouse certain attitudes,” says the president of ALM Holding. He
says the election bribe is barter, when you give something and demand
something in return. “If it is so, it appears that if I lay a wreath
at Yerablur, I give election bribe to freedom fighters to win them
over. This is my life, I live for my beliefs, not for someone, I live
and I want to be useful to my people. This cannot be considered as
election bribe because we choose the most elderly people, the people
who, God forbid, may not be with us tomorrow, or who are sick and
confined to bed,” explains Tigran Karapetyan. Besides knowing what is
not election bribe, he knows what election bribe is. “It is what they
keep in their “hatchback” and distribute on the last day,” says the
head of ALM adding that others are accumulating today to distribute
on the last day. Karapetyan has been distributing for four years.

IRAN, RUSSIA DISCUSS RESTORING RAILWAY LINKS
Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Nov 2 2006
Moscow, Nov — A high ranking Russian delegation headed by Vladimir
Yakunin will be in Tehran within 4-6 November to discuss restoring
linkage between the two countries’ railways, said a Russian railway
spokesman on Thursday.
The source underscored the importance of construction of a north-south
international transport railway and said the Russian delegation would
put forth the issue of re-linking the two railway systems which has
been cut following Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict over Karabakh region.
The source added that in this respect the construction of a new
Ghazvin-Rasht-Astara railway would be necessary and Russia is intent
on contributing to constructing and modernizing Iran’s railway
infrastructure.
Iranians and Russians are also to exchange views on ways and means
of providing security measures for Russian made locomotives and wagon.
Russia has also expressed readiness to teach Iranian specialists in
its expert railway school.

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO THE SQUARE
est/504/20061031/13711330.html
Oct 31 2006
We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought
me to this spot in a small Italian town not far from our home in
Rome. I wondered why.
Look down, Elsa,¡Father said. I gathered all my courage and looked
down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the
crisscross1 of twisting, turning streets leading to the square.
See, my dear, Father said gently. There is more than one way to the
square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you
want to go by one road, try another.¡±
Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my
mother to do something about the awful lunches that were served at
school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches
were as bad as I said.
When I turned to Father for help, he would not interfere.
Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By
the time we reached home, I had a plan.
At school the next day, I secretly poured my luncheon soup into a
bottle and brought it home. Then I talked the cook into serving it
to Mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed2 one
spoonful3 and sputtered4, The cook must have gone mad!¡Quickly I told
what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the
matter of lunches at school the next day!
In the years that followed I often remembered the lesson Father
taught me. I knew where I wanted to go in life. I wanted to be a
fashion designer. And on the way to my first small success I found
the road blocked. What could I do? Accept the roadblock5 and fail£¿Or
use imagination and wits to find another road to my goal£¿
I had come to Paris, the center of the world of fashion, with my
sketches6. But none of the famous fashion designers seemed interested
in buying them. Then one day I met a friend who was wearing a very
beautiful sweater. It was plain in color, but it had a lovely and
unusual stitch7.
Did you knit8 that sweater?¡I asked her.
No,¡she answered. It was done by a woman here in Paris.¡±
What an interesting stitch!¡I continued.
My friend had an explanation. The woman her name is Mrs.
Vidian¡ªtold me she learned the stitch in Armenia, her native
country.¡±
Suddenly I pictured a daring design knitted into such a sweater.
Then an even more daring idea came to me. Why not open my own house
of fashion? Why not design, make and sell clothes from the house of
Schiaparelli9! I would do it, and I would begin with a sweater.
I drew a bold black and white butterfly pattern and took it to
Mrs. Vidian. She knitted it into a sweater. The result, I thought, was
wonderful. Then came the test. I wore the sweater to a luncheon which
people in the fashion business would attend. To my great pleasure,
the sweater was noticed. In fact, the representative of a large New
York store wanted 40 sweaters to be ready in two weeks. I accepted
the order and walked out on a cloud of happiness.
My cloud disappeared suddenly, however, when I stood in front of
Mrs. Vidian. But it took me almost a week to knit that one sweater,¡±
she said. Forty sweaters in two weeks? It is not possible!¡±
I was crushed to be so close to success and then to be blocked!
Sadly I walked away. All at once I stopped short. There must be
another way. This stitch did take special skill. But surely there
must be other Armenian women in Paris who knew how to do it.
I went back to Mrs. Vidian and explained my plan. She really didn’t
think it would work, but she agreed to help.
We were like detectives10, Mrs. Vidian and I. We put ourselves on the
trail11 of any Armenians who lived in Paris. One friend led us to
another. At last we tracked down 20 women, each of whom could knit
the special stitch. Two weeks later the sweaters were finished. And
the first shipment from the new house of Schiaparelli was on its way
to the United States!
–Boundary_(ID_KYa0q59fPXfjXZvbAmVp8g)–

ARMENIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADER TO VOTE AGAINST ELECTION CODE DESPITE OF “POSITIVE ELEMENTS”
Panorama.am
14:46 31/10/06
Shavarsh Kocharyan, leader of Armenian Democratic Party and a deputy
of National Assembly, said the Election Code is a necessary but not
sufficient condition for free and fair elections. He said in 1991
we had the fairest elections under the conditions of the worst
election code. He also said the present Election Code “has many
positive elements,” but he is going to vote “against” because of
its shortcomings.
Kocharyan believes that by keeping to majoritarian vote we render our
support to authoritarian system. He said countries like Azerbaijan
prefer majoritarian systems. The deputy also sees problems in formation
of committees. Kocharyan supports 50/50 rate, i.e., if the chairman
is pro-government representative, the secretary and the deputy must
be from opposition.
Kocharyan thinks using envelopes is a good idea but he says the law
does not provide all the details of its use. He said the law does not
require not to make notes on the envelopes, so the voters can make
notes and the envelope will not be considered invalid.

GREAT SILK ROAD REEMERGING?
By Nana Petrosian
AZG Armenian Daily
31/10/2006
The Great Silk Road functioned 2000 years ago and still can function
today. The CIS member states are looking to restoring it. This issue
was discussed at the session of the council coordinating transport
communication in CIS countries. The routs of the Great Silk Road pass
through 40 European and Asian states.
Russia’s transport minister Igor Levitin said that projects of
organizing corridors for goods transportation from China to Europe
are being elaborated jointly with Ukraine. During the upcoming 5
years transportation corridors of the Great Silk Road passing through
Kazakhstan are going to be restored, transport minister of the country
Serik Akhmetov assured.