Author: Kalashian Nyrie

A1+
| 18:25:45 | 22-09-2005 | Politics |
ARMEN RUSTAMYAN COMMENTING ON UPCOMING REFERENDUM
`I am not against the stepwise settlement if Nagorno Karabakh’s status will
be determined at the initial stage’, Chairman of the Parliamentary
Commission for Foreign Issues Armen Rustamyan stated today in the National
Press Club.
Armen Rustamyan shares the position Armenia holds. If the Karabakh issue is
included in the UN agenda, Armenia will abandon the negotiation process,
which, in his words, does not exist at present. `All we have is meetings and
consultations’, he noted.
When asked whether the failure of the referendum on constitutional
amendments can tell on the Karabakh settlement Armen Rustamyan said, `We
should not mix the referendum with the authorities-opposition relations.’
When commenting on the possible postponement of the referendum he said, `If
we come to conclusion that the atmosphere is not proper for conducting a
referendum we can postpone it.’
At the same time he considers `not a bad document is awaiting the
referendum.’ `If some political forces wish to use the referendum as an
instrument to change the power their attempts will be doomed to failure,
since no European structure will approve such a transformation’, he resumed.

Daily Post (Liverpool)
September 21, 2005, Wednesday
BUSINESS PROFILE: HOW I ATTRACTED £1.8M THROUGH MY HOTEL DOOR;
DAVID JONES FINDS HOW MANAGER MARK GULESSARIAN HAS HELPED AN
ANGLESEY
by DAVID JONES
MARK Gulessarian knew all about the attractions of Anglesey from the
days when he holidayed there with his family.
He went on to work in hotel management in towns across the UK and
Europe. But when he saw an advert for a job running the Treaddur Bay
Hotel on the the island it immediately caught his eye.
“I saw this post in Anglesey advertised in a trade magazine and I
knew the area because as children we came to Rhosneigr on holiday for
about 15 years,” he says.
“And I knew Trearddur Bay, although I didn’t know the hotel. So I
came down and looked at the hotel and liked it.”
Gulessarian says he was attracted to the job, not just because of the
beautiful location and quality of life, but also because the hotel
was run by a privately-owned company and its two directors “came
across as genuine, and with a keen desire for the operation to
succeed at a higher level than it was”.
He moved to the Trearddur Bay Hotel as general manager in 1995 and
over the course of the past decade has doubled the hotel’s turnover
to £1.8m.
The business is part of Longford Hotels Ltd, owned by Manchesterbased
brothers Christopher and Richard Lees-Jones who have family links
with the Anglesey and Caernarfon areas. Richard is chairman of the J
W Lees brewing group and Christopher vice-chairman. Christopher is
chairman of Longford Hotels, whose registered office is at Trearddur
Bay, and Richard is a director of the group.
The 42-bedroom Trearddur Bay Hotel, two miles from Holyhead, trades
strongly in the leisure market from Easter to September and is
developing its business markets thanks to a new £1.1m conference and
banqueting centre, called the Canalfan Penrhos Centre, opened earlier
this year.
It is that development, supported with an EU Objective 1 grant of
£287,000 to retain and create jobs in the area, which is enabling the
hotel to look both east and west for new business.
“When I put together the business plan for the new banqueting and
conference centre we looked at the opportunities in Ireland,”
explains Gulessarian.
“Dublin has become very expensive for the day delegate. So we will be
looking to put together a package with Stena that will bring
delegates over here, give them a conference and overnight
accommodation at the hotel and get them back home at a rate cheaper
than the £120 day delegate rate in Dublin.
“We are also looking for business opportunities within the UK. We
have a natural corridor along the A55 to Cheshire, Merseyside,
Lancashire and Manchester and have identified conference organisers
and bluechip companies who use conference facilities.”
While new business opportunities further afield are being targeted,
the Anglesey-based business community continues to be an important
part of the hotel’s client base.
“Our local business clients are the RAF, Stena, Anglesey Aluminium,
BNFL and Holyhead Boatyard.”
All those businesses, in their own ways, have helped with the
economic regeneration of Anglesey over the past few decades. Stena
has, for instance, developed Holyhead port into a major European
transport hub, while Anglesey Aluminium has provided well-paid jobs
for almost 600 people through longterm power supply contracts with
Wylfa nuclear power station. But with the atomic plant earmarked for
closure in 2010, the smelter must devise an alternative energy
strategy or face possible closure.
Gulessarian said: “The Objective 1 programme has made a difference to
the island’s economy, not so much in GDP which has not risen,
although that is a problem afflicting Wales as a whole, not just
Anglesey.
“But I sense there is a buzz about Anglesey these days and a lot more
positive voices around.
“Ty Mawr Industrial Estate at Holyhead is on the point of going
ahead, and we have seen a lot of out-of-town retail development at
Penrhos,” he said. Tourism continues to be one of the island’s key
wealth generators. Gulessarian, trade director with the Tourism
Partnership North Wales and Anglesey Tourism Association chairman,
says: “I think tourism is probably the single biggest industry on the
island. Stena has been successful in attracting large cruise ships to
Holyhead this year, and that did give us some day visitors to the
hotel.
“There is also a plan to establish an airlink from RAF Valley to
Swansea and Cardiff by September 2006.
“There will be four return flights a day, opening opportunities for
both the business and tourism markets.
“But we must look at the wider picture. Valley to Stansted and Valley
to Dublin are the other opportunities.
“There are operating issues that need to be resolved with the RAF
because Valley is an exceptionally busy base and they have concerns
about the numbers of movements they can handle.”
The hotel is now in a position to be able to cater in a much more
comprehensive way. It can cater for a business breakfast, training
event or dinner for anything between 10 and 160 delegates.
Outside the traditional holiday period, more than 80% of the guests
staying at the hotel are business visitors, while on Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays that swings back to the leisure market with
short breaks.
Gulessarian says the all-year round room occupancy rate is 72%,
significantly higher than the Wales average.
“We now have 58 employees, of which 42 are full-time,” he says.
“Since we opened the new conference centre, we have already created
five full-time jobs, and that figure is set to rise to 11 by the time
we have rolled out the facilities and developed them to their full
potential.
“The centre was two and a half years in the planning and development,
but I can see it generating income in the region of £250,000 a year.”
Of Armenian extraction – his grandfather settled in Manchester to
work in the clothing trade – Gulessarian graduated from the Blackpool
Hotel School in 1980 with an HND in hotel management and catering
administration, before following what he describes as a traditional
trainee management scheme in the Southport, Manchester and Liverpool
areas.
A move to Switzerland enabled him to broaden his experience before he
returned to the UK as general manager with a hotel just outside
Swindon.
A spell with Trust House Forte gained him corporate experience before
he moved to Pontefract to become operations director in charge of
four hotels and four public hotels. From there, Anglesey beckoned.
He says: “Career opportunities are better now than when I joined the
industry. Then, it was long and unsocial hours and not particularly
well paid. Today there is a strong career structure available to our
employees
question.
ANSWER
Age 49 this week Hometown Northwich Now resident Trearddur Bay
Marital status Married, with three daughters Interests Golf, motor
racing Unfulfilled ambition To own and operate his own hospitality
business Personal business philosophy: Exceed guest expectations and
deliver quality
GRAPHIC: Mark Gulessarian is attracting trade from Ireland with
Treaddur Bay’s new banqueting facilities Picture: GERALLT RADCLIFFE

How Turkey fails its Kurds
By Jonathan Power International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005
BUCUK TEPE, Turkey This is the edge of tomorrow’s Europe, at least if Turkey
gets its way. A desolate mud-built village, close to the Syrian border,
reduced to rubble by the Turkish Army when it was battling the rebels of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is slowly being repopulated by a brave
few.
The families are understandably nervous. The PKK has recently restarted its
insurgency, breaking a five-year truce, angry with the government’s slow
delivery on its promises to allow Kurdish in the primary schools, full-scale
broadcasting in Kurdish and to invest in economic development. “This
violence is what we don’t want,” says one man, living with his extended
family under nothing more than a homemade canopy.
Five minutes drive from the river Tigris, which farther downstream watered
the first of humankind’s civilizations, we engage in what seems an almost
surreal conversation. On the one hand, the grandfather, who has fathered 12
children, explains how they make a living with their herd of sheep out of
what appears to be stony, barren land without a blade of green grass to be
seen. On the other, he says, although in their hearts they feel Asian they
want to enter the Europe Union. “Europe will give us peace and give us Kurds
our rights,” he says. “And give us food and jobs,” one of his sons adds.
A few kilometers away is another larger, more prosperous, village that
escaped the war unscathed. The villagers grow wheat and lentils, and
although they say the water is of poor quality, every house has a television
and half the men of the village, as they converse with me in a large circle,
show me their cellphones. The refrain is the same, even from the young men
who hover standing at the back: “We don’t want to fight again. We Kurds want
Europe to accept Turkey. We feel deep in ourselves Asian, but now we want to
be European.”
But how can modern Europe swallow all this? The poverty, the ignorance
(girls are rarely educated out here), and now the renewed boiling of war.
This is not the civilization of contemporary Europe, and probably not even
of ancient Mesopotamia. This is life almost, if not quite, at its most
elementary and unsparing.
The Turkish government is desperate to cement on Oct. 3 the agreement to
begin negotiations for entry to the European Union, but as one senior
official told me, Ankara “seems never to miss a chance to shoot itself in
the foot.” This year Turkey has witnessed the police beating up women
demonstrators in Istanbul, the indictment of Turkey’s best-known novelist,
Orhan Pamuk, for writing that the Armenian accusations of Turkish genocide
in the days of the Ottoman Empire need to be looked at openly and, most
important, the bureaucratic go-slow on implementing what was promised to the
Kurds – thus providing the kindling for a renewal of the insurgency.
Some of Turkey’s liberal voices are driven to wonder what is really going on
behind the scenes. Inur Cevik, who was once a prime minister’s senior aide
and now publishes the English-language newspaper The Anatolian, is described
by one senior European ambassador as someone who “is pretty damned true.” He
told me that he is convinced that parts of the army are conniving with the
PKK to restart the fighting in order to derail the Turkish approach to
Europe. But, for all the ineptness of the Turkish government that gives rise
to such conspiracy theories, the likelihood is that these are rogue
elements.
Moreover, apart from the fact that the high command of the Turkish Army is
firmly pro-Europe, as their mentor Ataturk would have expected them to be,
the PKK itself is also split on Europe, with some elements appearing to
realize that an anti-European stance is not popular in this southeastern
corner of Turkey.
Neither, for all its romantic allure, is the PKK’s occasional talk of a
united Kurdistan. Kurds are impressed with the degree of political and
economic autonomy that the Iraqi Kurds have won during the recent
negotiations on the Iraqi constitution, but they are also aware that it is a
precarious autonomy and that the government of that province is still,
despite elections, essentially feudal, dominated by two families.
Most of Turkey’s Kurds want to be European and are neither seriously tempted
by the PKK or a united Kurdistan. But Turkey still doesn’t know how to bring
its Kurds up to the starting line. And in making this grave mistake it is
probably delaying the chances of Turkey of entering the Europe Union as
quickly as it wants to.

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
PRESS RELEASE
September 20, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]
RE: Assembly Meets with Armenian Parliament Speaker
An Assembly delegation led by Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair
Hovnanian met with Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan in
New York on September 9. The meeting, which focused on building
stronger U.S.-Armenia relations and democratic reforms in Armenia,
also included Board of Trustees Treasurer Edele Hovnanian, Board of
Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian, Board of Directors Member Van
Krikorian and Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.

Ardouny also briefed the Speaker on key legislative issues and
participated with him in various meetings with U.S. government
officials in Washington. Baghdasaryan met with U.S. State Department
officials and several lawmakers including House Speaker Dennis Hastert
(R-IL), House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA), Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and
Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone,
Jr. (D-NJ), among others.
“Armenia has a proud history and is committed to engagement with its
neighbors to promote democracy and regional trade,” Dreier
said. “Speaker Baghdasaryan and I agreed that democracy is critical to
security and stability in the region. I was proud to welcome the
Speaker to the Capitol and look forward to working with him on his
efforts in the future.”
Photographs available on the Assembly Web site at the following links:
Caption: L to R: Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny, Board of
Directors Member Van Krikorian, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament
Arthur Baghdasaryan, Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian,
Board of Directors Chairman Anthony Barsamian and Board of Trustees
Treasurer Edele Hovnanian.
Caption: L to R: Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny, House
Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-CA) and Armenian Parliament
Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan.
Caption: Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, center, with
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), far right, and Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.
###
NR#2005-091

A PACKAGE OPTION WITH THE PHASED REALIZATION
DeFacto, Armenia
Sept 16 2005
A model of the Karabakh issue settlement enabling to combine the
principle of territorial integrity with the nations’ right to self –
determination was outlined at the second session of the PACE temporary
committee on Karabakh issue that took place in Paris on September 12.
On September 15, in the course of the press conference on the
outcomes of the PACE sitting on Karabakh issue in Yerevan RA NA deputy
from Justice Faction Shavarsh Kocharyan informed of the details and
estimated the Paris discussions. According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, the
settlement scheme assumes liberation of the territories controlled
by the NK armed forces, return of the Azeri refugees and conduct of
the referendum on the status’ determination.
In Shavarsh Kocharyan’s opinion, there are some positive shifts in
the scheme; however, it contains danger as well. He believes the
positive aspect is recognition of the fact that Karabakh’s status
should be determined on the basis of the nations’ right to self –
determination. Besides, they realize that Karabakh cannot be an
enclave. Thus, according to the scheme, Karabakh should have a corridor
connecting it with Armenia. Shavarsh Kocharyan noted Armenian party
had managed to withstand the attacks of Azeri delegation, which tried
to raise the issue of Nahkijevan and draw parallel between Karabakh
and Nahkijevan. Representatives of Armenian party stated Nahkijevan
was not an enclave and had bordures with both Turkey and Iran.
Mentioning the negative aspects of the settlement option Shavarsh
Kocharyan dwelled upon the issue referring to a referendum. He said
according to the logic of the scheme’s realization the referendum
will not be conducted in the near future. In his words, the danger
is that return of the territories weakens Karabakh’s stand: status
quo is violated, so Azerbaijan is likely to settle the conflict by
force of arms.
Shavarsh Kocharyan does not accept opinion that the option is like
the one suggested in 1997. “There is significant difference: in
1997 they suggested that we should return the territories, refugees,
and then start talks on the issue referring to the status. Now there
is a solution of the issue referring to the status”, noted Shavarsh
Kocharyan. “It is the settlement’s package option providing phased
realization”, stated he.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO RUSSIAN PAINTING OPENS AT ARMENIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN. More than 40 albums and 35
post cards were presented at the exhibition under the title “Russian
Painting” that opened on September 14 at the Armenian National Library
in connection with the Year of Russia in Armenia. The exhibition
has departments of landscape painting, portrait-painting, as well as
historic and icon painting departments.
According to Gohar Haroutiunian, chief librarian of library’s painting
department, by means of the exhibits they tried to briefly present
the Russian painting from 14th century up to 1990-s.
Exhibitions of Russian incunabular and small books and exhibitions
dedicated to Armenian-Russian contacts were also organized at
the Armenian National Library within the framework of the Year of
Russia. Gohar Haroutiunian said that a display of Russian placards
will be organized in October at the library.

Car bomb rocks Beirut
Al Jazeera
Saturday 17 September 2005,

The blast occured in the Jeitaoui residential quarter

At least one person was killed and 19 wounded late on Friday in a car
bomb explosion in a Christian section of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Police and rescue workers said the blast near a bank and hospital in
the Jeitaoui residential quarter on the southern slope of Achrafieh
hill came just before midnight (2100 GMT).
The explosion, heard several kilometres away, caused numerous fires in
nearby buildings and cars, which were visible from vantage points in
the city.

Security services said at least 15 kilograms (30 pounds) of explosives
were used, either packed inside or underneath a car.
“What we lived this night was like hell,” Eva Nashleklian told Reuters
news-agency as she wiped blood off her arm.
The facade of a four-storey apartment building was completely
destroyed, balconies collapsed, and cars parked nearby were burned
out.
The explosion blew out all the windows in buildings in the
neighbourhood and caused numerous fires, which were visible from
vantage points in the city.
The man killed was a Lebanese citizen of Armenian origin, and one of
the wounded was in serious condition, said police.
A series of explosions have targeted Christian-dominated areas in
Beirut since the February killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq
al-Hariri and 20 others in a huge car bomb.

CATHOLICOS OF GREAT HOUSE OF CILICIA LEAVES FOR GENEVA

ANTELIAS, SEPTEMBER 14, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Aram I,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia left for Geneva early on
September 12. As Noyan Tapan was informed by the Press Service of the
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, His Holiness Aram I, as
the Chairman of the World Coucil of Churches (WCC), will chair the
sittings of the WCC Chairmanship, the executive administration and
special commissions one after the other.

Azeri pressure group desecrates British memorial
ANS TV, Baku
15 Sep 05
A group of members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization’s [KLO]
youth council have spattered black paint over the monument to British
soldiers [who fought against Turkish troops in 1918] not far from the
Martyrs’ Avenue.
This was done in protest against another visit by Deputy Speaker of
the British House of Lords Baroness Caroline Cox to [the breakaway
region of] Nagornyy Karabakh.
The KLO demanded that the memorial be removed from the Martyrs’ Avenue
and that Cox stop her visits to Nagornyy Karabakh.
[Assa-Irada news agency, Baku, in Russian 0400 gmt 14 Sep 05 said that
Cox has become the “tool of Armenia’s propaganda machine”]

ARKA News Agency
Sept 14 2005
ARMENIA’S ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT FAVORABLE FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENTS:
TATUL MARGARYAN
YEREVAN, September 14. /ARKA/. Armenia’s economic environment is
favorable for foreign investments, RA Ambassador to the USA Tatul
Margaryan said at his meeting with OPIC President Ross Conelli.
During the meeting, the Ambassador pointed out that due to the
Government-implemented reforms Armenia is now the leader among
transitional economies.
In his turn, the OPIC President expressed willingness to promote US
investments in Armenia’s economy, cooperate in enhancing the
awareness of US business circles of the OPIC-implemented programs in
Armenia. The OPIC’s largest-scale project in Armenia is the funding
of the remodeling of the Marriot-Armenian Hotel. P.T. -0–