Author: Kanayan Tamar

STORY OF THE MAYFAIR PALM BEACH RESORT

Orissa diary.com, India
Nov 7 2014

Friday, November 07, 2014

Bhubaneswar: By the year 1830 ,an Englishman by the name of John Spence
had established the Spence’s hotel in Calcutta, making it perhaps
the oldest western style hotel outside Europe, which tragically has
since been demolished, as the Government had encroached and eventually
brought down most buildings around the official ‘Government House’
including the historic ‘Spence’.

In 1841 David Wilson built the ‘Wilson Hotel’ now known as ‘Great
Eastern Hotel’,also ,in Calcutta, which had started out as a bakery
and then became a chronic non- paying hotel but later turned into
a thriving prosperous one, where the Hoi Polloi’ made it a part of
their everyday life and soon established it as the best of it’s kind,
in this part of the world.

In far away Simla, a place not unknown to many, two intrepid hoteliers
from Italy, Signor Faletti and Signor Pelitti had already established
‘The Cecil’, and ‘The Grand’, which had already set the benchmark
in hotels. At that moment a 20 year old, from New Julfa, Armenia,
was struggling to sell his wares from a wheelbarrow in the streets
of Calcutta. By the year 1911, that Armenian, Stephen Arathoon,
had built the ‘Grand’ now known as the ‘Oberoi Grand ‘Hotel, on the
foundation of the burnt down ‘Theatre Royal’, making sure that it
was better than its two rivals, ‘The Spence’s and Wilson Hotel.

No one had really by then heard of Gopalpur and Gopalpur returned
the compliment. Barely 16 kms from Berhampore, the commercial hub
of Southern Orissa, in the Bay of Bengal, it was extremely uncanny
of a young Italian Signor Maglioni ,to mysteriously find home all
the way from Sicily, and establish the ‘Palm Beach’ in 1914 making
it the oldest hotel of the State and probably the first beach resort
of the country.

‘Gopalpur-on-Sea’, how very British the suffix ‘on- sea’ like
‘Middleton- on- Sea’, ‘rankton-on- Sea’, was a palm fringed beach and
Maglioni’s dream fused with the sepia and romance of the langorous
town ,where the silence was broken only by the breakers and the
occasional coconut thudding on the ground.

Originally a small fishing village on the coast of Odisha when it
was so named, after a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna, the ‘Krishna
Gopal’ temple which was built in the 18th Century. Legend has it that
Gopalpur’s sands had witnessed maritime ventures at a much earlier
age when Odisha had flourished as part of the Kalinga Kingdom in the
4th and 5th century B.C. Early colonists to Java, Bali and Sumatra
were supposed to have sailed from here, carrying the seeds of Indian
civilization with them. We, in Odisha, still celebrate this as
‘BALI YATRA’ in November each year, coinciding with the festival of
‘Kartik Purnima’.

Between the two World Wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) Gopalpur was
overrun by the men in Khakis and became the eastern sectors’ base
for ferrying out troops and supplies to Rangoon. The commercial port
became the living symbol of its grandeur and the pulsating lifestyle
was evident in the packed dance floors of the hotel ‘Blue Haven’. In
1945. the World War II came to an end and India inched towards being
an independent, sovereign republic.By 1947 the British had left the
Indian shores and the commercial activity of Gopalpur had dwindled
to a trickle. The once vibrant, emblazoned ball rooms gaped at
open skies. The noisy wharfs moulted and the warehouses became seedy
gateways for derelicts. Gopalpur’s importance dwindled when trade with
Burma abruptly ceased during the war. When the British left India, even
members of rich Bengali homes preferred to holiday in other places and
Gopalpur began to revert to what it originally was -a fishing village.

In 1938,another enterprising ,courageous Indian Hotelier, Rai bahadur
M.S Oberoi had already taken over a closed down ‘Grand’ hotel from
the Armenian Stephen Arathoon and reinvented it with trademark Oberoi
elan’ as the ‘Oberoi Grand’,to make it the most sought after address
in Calcutta. In 1947, on a chance visit to Maglioni’s ‘Palm Beach’
hotel, his keen eyes did not miss the state of disrepair that the hotel
had fallen to. His instinct smelled a bargain and Maglioni was only
too happy to sell it to the Oberoi’s for a paltry 3.0 lacs rupees.,
thereby enabling the Oberoi legend to root itself as the ‘Oberoi Palm
Beach’. As its doors opened, the who’s who of the country ,from Prime
Ministers,to celebrities and royalty left their impressions behind,
along with their footprints on the sands of time.

History was being created every day, as the hotel played host to the
history makers.

Maglioni’s Mediterranean Architecture had undergone a makeover by
the Oberoi’s ,but the core of the structure was slowly but surely
giving way to the vagaries of nature and the corroding effects of
the saline sea breeze. The erosion had begun and no amount of hasty
repairs could make it anymore safe for its guests. The Oberois closed
gates in 2002 and decided to distance themselves and sell this piece
of Odisha’s history to any worthy taker.

It was at this time, 2011, that ‘Mayfair hotels and resorts’ stepped
in.To protect, renovate and restore the’ Palm beach’, where history
echoed from every cobble stone, lured by the fact that Gopalpur-on-sea
still stood untouched by the concrete commercialism that had destroyed
nearby Puri’s equally pristine beach and also because Gopalpur had
actually wrapped itself in a romantic mysticism that tugged at history
but refused to drown in its excesses.

While the Resort captures the appearance and feeling of old
colonial with a Mediterranean touch, the outcome is far from simple
reconstruction, renovation or reproduction. To preserve the essence
of the past but blend it seamlessly with the demands of contemporary
life required many original designs and creative re-imaginings.

The blue fret work patterns, rafters, white furniture and artifacts
are all of new design but inspired by and in keeping with historical
antecedents. Through these tasteful and practical adaptations we hope
that the “Palm Beach” will serve a valuable role in preserving of
the best of Colonial, Mediterranean Architecture, religious leaning
and cultural heritage for future generation.

Mayfair has now breathed new life to the ‘Oberoi Palm Beach’ in its
all new avatar- ‘THE MAYFAIR PALM BEACH RESORT’. Its the ultimate
tribute to your senses and helps in stealing your time and mind in
order to find your DNA and recreate you for future generations…Where
always, every time, any day, ‘sometimes the sky looks like the sea
and sometimes the sea looks like the sky’.

FIRST STAGE OF “MUTUAL VISITS OF BUSINESSMEN” ARMENIA-TURKEY PROJECT STARTED

YEREVAN, November 7. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Public Journalism Club and
Turkey’s Economic and Social Studies Foundation announced the first
stage of their “Mutual Visits of Businessmen” program to be held from
November 6 to November 9.

The European Union is supporting civil and public initiatives aiming
at establishing dialogue and contacts between Armenia and Turkey,
head of EU delegation to Armenia Traian Hristea said at the starting
ceremony on Thursday.

The new program aims at consolidating businessmen in advanced
technologies, as well as investors and startups, and it is the first
opportunity of inter-branch exchange, Hristea said.

Both the US and the EU consider it very important to see ties being
established between Armenia and Turkey, US ambassador to Armenia John
Heffern said.

Some 50 beginner entrepreneurs, representatives of investment funds,
information and communication technology experts will participate in
the project.

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey: the
border has been closed since 1993 initiated by official Ankara. The
complications in the countries’ relations are caused particularly
by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan in Karabakh conflict and its
overreaction to the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Empire
being acknowledged across the world.

An Armenia-Turkish reconciliation was initiated by Armenian president
in autumn 2008. On October 10, 2009, the two foreign ministers signed
the protocol about establishing diplomatic relations in Zurich to be
ratified by the countries’ parliaments. On April 22 2010 Armenia’s
president Sargsyan suspended the ratification process saying Turkey
was not ready to continue the process (ratification by Turkey’s
parliament was frozen). -0–

LE HAUT KARABAKH POURRAIT-IL FAIRE PARTIE DE L’UNION ECONOMIQUE EURASIATIQUE ?

ARMENIE

A la question de savoir pourquoi la Crimee peut adherer a l’Union
eurasiatique et pas le Haut Karabakh, Nikolaï Rijkov, copresident de la
Commission interparlementaire armeno-russe, a repondu que le statut du
HK n’etait pas encore determine, alors que la Crimee a ete rattachee
a la Russie par un referendum. >. Le problème du Haut Karabakh etait considere comme
un grave obstacle pour l’adhesion de l’Armenie a l’Union economique
eurasiatique, ecrit RFE/RL, rappelant que lors du Sommet de l’UEE,
le 29 mai, le President Kazakh avait declare que l’Armenie pourrait
adherer a cette Union avec ses frontières internationalement reconnues,
tandis que le 10 octobre a Minsk, il a declare qu’on etait parvenu
a un consensus >.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 31 octobre 2014

vendredi 7 novembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

L’ARMENIE INTERESSEE A APPROFONDIR LA COOPERATION AVEC L’UE

ARMENIE

Alors que l’Armenie s’est jointe a l’Union economique eurasiatique
(UEE), elle est egalement interessee par l’approfondissement de
la cooperation avec l’Union europeenne (UE), avec des engagements
qui ne sont pas contraires aux principes de l’UEE a declare le
vice-ministre des affaires etrangères Shavarsh Kotcharian lors d’un
debat parlementaire

L’Union europeenne reste le principal partenaire de l’Armenie, a-t-il
ajoute, selon Tert.am .

Le president de la commission permanente de l’Assemblee nationale sur
l’integration europeenne Naira Zohrabyan a demande des precisions
quant aux domaines dans lesquels l’Armenie ne va pas continuer la
cooperation avec l’UE.

“Cette question ne peut avoir de reponse maintenant parce que nous
avons signe un traite relatif a l’adhesion de l’Armenie a l’UEE
que recemment. Le traite n’a pas encore ete applique >>, a declare
Kotcharian.

“Les experts doivent maintenant definir les limites que l’Armenie ne
peut pas depasser dans le cadre de ses engagements. La chose la plus
importante est que nos partenaires europeens veulent savoir le cadre
dans lequel ils peuvent se sentir libres “.

vendredi 7 novembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

OFFICIEL RUSSE : LE KARABAKH POURAIT DEVENIR MEMBRE DE L’UEE DES QUE SON STATUT SERA DETERMINE

ARMENIE

Cette semaine au Parlement, lors de la 25e Commission
intergouvernementale armeno-russe le chef de la commission, membre
du Conseil de la Federation russe Nikolay Ryzhkov a indique que
le Haut-Karabagh pourrait devenir membre de l’Union economique
eurasiatique (UEE) seulement après avoir clarifie son statut.

En reponse a la question d’un journaliste de pourquoi la Russie peut
entrer dans l’UEE avec la Crimee, et l’Armenie ne peut pas faire la
meme chose avec le Karabagh, Ryzhkov a repondu : “Vous essayez de
comparer la Crimee avec le Karabagh … Je comprends que le Karabagh
est un sujet douloureux pour l’Armenie, pour nous – aussi, mais dans
le cas de la Crimee je ne suis pas d’accord avec vous. La Crimee est
historiquement une terre russe, pendant des siècles, nous etions
sur ce territoire, et nous savons sans faute le fait que [Nikita]
Khrouchtchev etait ivre quand il l’a remise a l’Ukraine. ”

Il a indique que la population de Crimee a volontairement decide de
rejoindre la Russie, qu’etaient-ils censes faire alors ? Dire non ?

“Mettons-nous d’abord d’accord sur le statut du Karabagh et ensuite
nous discuterons de cette question. Si c’est une terre armenienne,
nous serons heureux de la voir dans l’UEE. Pour l’instant cette
question est suspendue. Par exemple, de meme que la Transnistrie …

ils ne peuvent pas devenir membre de l’UEE parce que vous connaissez
les règles, si certaines questions territoriales et frontalières
ne sont pas resolus alors l’adhesion ne peut avoir lieu. Ainsi,
lorsque la question du Karabagh sera resolu, nous serons heureux de
l’avoir pour membre. Et la facon dont elle sera resolue – comme un
Etat separe, ou sous la forme de l’Armenie, la vie va le montrer “,
a declare Nikolay Ryzhkov.

Abordant la question concernant les declarations controversees de
Dmitry Kiselev, qui lors d’une reunion avec un groupe de deputes
armeniens l’ete dernier a regrette que le langue russe soit en train
de disparaître en Armenie, appelant a lui attribuer un tatut officiel,
Nikolay Ryzhkov a declare que Moscou n’a officiellement jamais souleve
la question de la langue russe devenant la langue de l’Etat d’Armenie.

“Franchement, ceci est la première fois que j’entends cela a l’egard
du statut de la langue russe, d’ailleurs parfois le Russe s’est
vu attribue le statut de la deuxième langue d’Etat. L’Armenie a une
langue d’Etat ; En outre, c’est un etat mono-ethnique. Quelqu’un peut
dire quelque chose. Ne l’ecoutez pas >>, a declare Ryjkov.

Nikolay Ryzhkov, 85 ans, est considere comme un politicien
pro-armenien, sur la scène internationale, il se distingue par
ses discours pro-armeniens, la valorisation de la necessite de la
strategie armeno-russe. Dans Gyumri il y a un monument dedie a Nikolay
Ryzhkov avec son visage sculpte sur lui et a Spitak – sa statue en
reconnaissance de sa contribution personnelle a la reconstruction
a la suite d’un tremblement de terre devastateur de 1988. En 2008,
le gouvernement armenien lui a decerne la plus haute decoration
armenienne celle de Heros national.

Gayane Lazarian

ArmeniaNow

vendredi 7 novembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

MANEUVERS OF THE ARMED FORCES OF ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH

DEFENSE

Armenian armed forces of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are engaged
in maneuvers, military excercises large-scale multi-day, confirmed
Thursday, November 6th spokesman of the Armenian Defense Ministry in
Yerevan. Artsrun Hovhannisian said that these exercises followed a
well-established organizational structure and were designed to assess
the fighting Armenian forces. “Year after year, these exercises fool
ever more sophisticated in their form and in the skills they require,
and reflect a professionalism meets the requirements of the time,”
he has said.

Responsible of the Department of Defense designated the military
exercises as “multifaceted and diverse,” adding that they involved
both the size of the armed reservists forces. “The goal of any such
exercise is to enhance the combat capability of the armed forces”
and test their responsiveness, added Mr. Hovhannisian. However,
the spokesman of the Ministry neither confirmed nor denied reports
circulating in the press concerning the mobilization of reservists,
merely designate the reserves as an integral part of the armed forces.

Moreover, it has to link these Avitus manouevres to observed tensions
for several months on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He
even believed that the border situation could be currently considered
relatively quiet. Azerbaijan, meanwhile, regularly conducts military
exercises extensive along the contact line between Armenian forces in
Karabakh and Azerbaijani armed forces. The Baku authorities regularly
threaten recpurir the use of force to regain control of areas that
have been freed from the control of Azerbaijan in favor of the war in
early 1990. While uttering threats and developing his martial rhetoric,
Baku pretends to solve the conflict through diplomatic channels, by
continuing the dialogue with the Armenian side under the auspices of
the Minsk Group of the OSCE.

In early August, after renewed tensions in the conflict zone, which
caused the death of twenty soldiers, especially in the ranks Azeri,
Armenia and Azerbaijan were about to restart hostilities when meeting
between Presidents Aliyev and Sarkissain led by Putin in Sochi has
helped bring relative calm. The two leaders sat at the table a few
weeks later, on October 27, this time in Paris, under the auspices of
French President Francois Hollande, who threw them an invitation to
this effect at its South Caucasus tour in May. During the party talks
in Paris, international mediators have urged the warring parties to
demonstrate their ‘political will’ to overcome their differences and
prepare their peoples to embark on the path of sustainable peace.

While the Armenian armed forces are involved in these maneuvers to
avert the possibility of a conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan,
a group of parents of Armenian soldiers killed in their barracks,
away from the battlefield, said that the problem abuse within the
national army still called a solution. The Armenian government had
considered this problem and implemented measures to limit abuse and
mistreatment in the ranks of the army, with some success as figures
show a reduction in the number of soldiers killed out of combat .

However, the associations of relatives of soldiers killed in these
circumstances threatened on November 6 to start a protest campaign,
with a sit-in near the presidential palace in Yerevan if the head
of state does not receive personally. These associations, which had
alerted the public to this problem by mobilizing for several weeks,
in the years before the ministries and agencies, indicated that
they had lost all hope of having their applications reviewed by the
government and were more important than the president for justice. The
main issues defended by these associations relate to complaints from
angry mothers of soldiers killed in the armed forces, including the
suspicious death was assigned by the military hierarchy to suicides
or accidents. Disputed by relatives of the victims, some of whom may
have been driven to suicide because of the abuse and humiliation they
suffered when their death was not disguised as suicide or accident,
in their versions for cover the “blunders” of officers or fellow
soldiers tarnishing the image of the military.

Nana Muradian, the mother of one of these conscripts Valerik
Muradian, who died five years before, had said after a meeting with
Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan last summer that it had obtained the
promise that President Serzh Sarkisian and receive the other mothers
of soldiers. “Qannd we showed Abrahamian photographs and highlighted
the contradictions of investigations, he showed surprise as simple
as files have not been a serious investigation and have not been
resolved,” she had then reported, adding that the Prime Minister had
promised his personal mediation in order to organize the meeting with
President Sargsyan, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
selo the Armenian Constitution.

Gohar Sargsyan (no relation to the president), who is the mother of
Tigran Ohanjanian died in suspicious circinstances the army in 2007,
on his part said the government had indicated that such a meeting was
already placed on the president’s agenda and mothers of dead soldiers
would soon be invited to meet the president in his office. “That
leaves the commander-in-chief of the armed forces to bring us a
response and tell us why our son’s killers have not been brought to
justice.” The police allowed the mothers of soldiers gather near the
presidential palace, but at a distance, however, forbidding them to
approach. President Sargsyan was that day working visit to Moscow.

Friday, November 7, 2014, Gari © armenews.com

ARMENIA’S PREMIER DEEPLY CONCERNED OVER SEX-SELECTIVE ABORTIONS

13:39 * 06.11.14

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Armenia’s Prime Minister Hovik
Abrahamyan stated that Armenia is the last in the world in terms of
reproduction of population.

He dwelt on the issue of sex ratio during pregnancy and childbirth.

“As a citizen, Armenia’s premier, and as father of two daughters I
am extremely concerned over the social environment which results in
our losing thousands of future mothers now,” Mr Abrahamyan said.

The premier instructed the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry
of Health to prepare a comprehensive program to resolve the problem
and submit it to the government by next March.

Armenian News – Tert.am

UNE CARICATURE D’ERDOGAN EN ALLEMAGNE SUSCITE LA COLORE D’ANKARA

TURQUIE

Le ministère turc des Affaires etrangères a convoque lundi
l’ambassadeur d’Allemagne a Ankara pour denoncer la publication dans
un livre scolaire allemand d’une caricature du president turc Recep
Tayyip Erdogan le representant en chien.

Ce dessin, initialement publie en 2011 dans le quotidien allemand des
affaires Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a ete repris dans un livre
destine aux lyceens de l’Etat regional (Land) du Bade-Wurtemberg.

Sous le titre “les Turcs en Allemagne, une histoire reussie”, il
represente M. Erdogan en chien de garde, tous crocs dehors, devant
une niche barree de son nom.

“Nous condamnons fermement la publication dans un livre scolaire d’un
dessin qui insulte notre respecte president et tous les Turcs qui
vivent en Allemagne”, s’est insurge le ministère turc des Affaires
etrangères dans un communique.

“Il n’y a pas de place dans les democraties pour ce type d’incitation
a la haine, a la xenophobie et a l’islamophobie”, a ajoute le texte.

Sollicite par l’AFP, un porte-parole de ce ministère a indique que
l’ambassadeur d’Allemagne Eberhard Pohl y avait ete convoque pour
s’expliquer.

M. Erdogan a fait traduire a plusieurs reprises en justice des auteurs
de caricatures jugees offensantes. Le mois dernier, Musa Kart,
caricaturiste au quotidien d’opposition Cumhuriyet, a ete relaxe
après avoir ete mis en cause pour un de ses dessins.

L’actuel chef de l’Etat, qui a dirige sans partage le gouvernement
pendant onze ans avant son election a la presidence en août dernier,
est regulièrement denonce par ses adversaires pour ses “derives
autoritaires”.

jeudi 6 novembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

KAREN MIRZOYAN: PROGRESS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS WILL BE POSSIBLE ONLY WHEN NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS INVOLVED IN THE TALKS

by Ashot Safaryan

arminfo
Thursday, November 6, 09:42

Progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process will be possible only
when Nagorno- Karabakh is involved in the talks, Nagorno-Karabakh’s
Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoryan said in an interview with Atsakhpress

He said that the meetings of the Armenian and Azeri presidents are
important as they help to preserve stability in the region. “The key
message of these meetings is that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be
resolved peacefully. And this is in line with the position of the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mirzoyan said.

He stressed the importance of the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s
independence by California (the United States), New South Wales
(Australia) and Gipuzkoa (Spain) and said that Nagorno-Karabakh
continues building parliamentary and other ties with other countries.

He also stressed the importance of the decision to form Nagorno-
Karabakh-European Union Friendship Group.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 2014: AZERBAIJAN IS AMONG COUNTRIES WITH HIGH LEVEL OF RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

18:09 05/11/2014 >> POLITICS

Azerbaijan shows a high level of religious intolerance. This is stated
in the report “Religious Freedom 2014,” prepared by Aid to the Church
in Need (ACN). The report is published in CatholicCulture.org.

According to the report, among 20 countries that show a “high”
level of religious intolerance, 14 are Islamic states: Afghanistan,
Central African Republic, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The other six of them – Azerbaijan, Myanmar, China, Eritrea, North
Korea and Uzbekistan – are ruled by authoritarian regimes where
Muslims are prominent among the victims of religious persecution.

ACN studied 196 nations. The report found a high level of religious
intolerance in 20 countries. The situation is deteriorating in 55
countries, and only 6 countries have shown improvement.