Author: Kanayan Tamar

SIRUSHO VA PRENDRE PART AU CONCOURS DU WORLD MUSIC AWARDS, UNE PREMIERE POUR L’ARMENIE

CHANSON-MUSIQUE

En avril prochain se deroulera le celèbre concours mondial World
Music Awards avec remises de prix. Les meilleurs chanteurs et
musiciens de la planète venus des cinq continents, participeront a
ces ceremonies telediffusees en direction des centaines de millions
de telespectateurs. Cette annee, pour la première fois, une chanteuse
d’Armenie, la celèbre Sirousho participera a ce concours selon son site
Facebook. Sirousho -ou Sirusho…a l’americaine…- serait inscrite
(nominee) pour les prix dans les domaines de ” meilleure chanteuse
“, ” meilleure chanson ” et ” meilleur dvd “. ” L’inscription a ce
concours international est deja une grande victoire. Tous ceux qui
desirent voter pour Sirousho peuvent le faire sur le site officiel
de World Music Awards.

Rappelons que Sirousho avec sa chanson ” Qele, Qele ” avait termine a
la 4ème place de l’Eurovision 2008, le meilleur classement de l’Armenie
depuis sa participation au concours europeen de la chanson en 2006.

Krikor Amirzayan

mercredi 15 janvier 2014, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Fantasy league lets economists indulge their animal spirits

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
January 14, 2014

By David Nicklaus ([email protected])

If you’re a numbers geek seeking to fill the gap between the football
and baseball fantasy seasons, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
has a new game for you: Fantasy economics.

The game is based on a ranking system called RePEc, which is short for
Research Papers in Economics. It ranks economists based on how often
their work is cited in other economists’ papers.

The St. Louis Fed, which hosts a RePEc database, recently started a
fantasy league in which economists can be bought and sold using an
imaginary currency called utils. (For those of you who have forgotten
your Econ 101, economists often talk about the util as a hypothetical
unit for measuring utility, or happiness.)

Each new participant in the game starts with 25 economists and 100
utils. The economists are randomly assigned, so you should get some
star players and some also-rans. You can put some of your economists
up for auction, or use your currency to bid on players from other
teams. You also get the fun of deciding which economists should sit on
the bench.

Forget about drafting a Keynes or a Friedman, though: Dead economists
don’t count. The league is perpetual, since economics doesn’t have a
season. You don’t get the daily thrill of fantasy baseball action, but
you do find out once a month how your team is doing. That’s how often
the RePEC rankings are updated.

According to a Business Insider article about the league, fantasy
economics started as an April Fool’s joke dreamed up by Christian
Zimmerman, an assistant vice president at the St. Louis Fed. People
told him it sounded like fun, so he turned his phantom league into a
real one.

If you’re intrigued by the action and want to learn who the Peyton
Mannings and Tom Bradys of the economics world are, the current author
rankings show Daron Acemoglu of MIT in first place, followed by Andrei
Shleifer of Harvard and James J. Heckman of the University of Chicago.

Some of the fantasy rules are probably necessary only in a league of
economics geeks. Debt and short-selling are both banned, for
example. And, alas, you can’t reinvest your football winnings here:
Playing with real money is not allowed.

David Nicklaus is business columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Subscribe to his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter @dnickbiz.

SAFARIAN: POLITICAL FIELD ALREADY PREPARES FOR 2018 ELECTIONS

The political life in Armenia is becoming extremely active, the
secretary of Heritage Party Stepan Safarian told reporters today.

“The text of the agreement on Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union
shall be prepared by May, which means that Armenia will join the
Eurasian economic area until January 1, 2015,” Safarian said.

In his words, “Europe will not sit by idly” and a struggle will
begin around Armenia. “For the political field, three years is a
short period,” he noted.

The second Armenian President Robert Kocharian’s activity is
conditioned by this fact, according to Heritage Party secretary. “I
think the political processes are moving into the plane of three
presidents,” Safarian said.

ARF APPOINTS MANUKYAN TO HOVHANNISIAN SEAT

Tuesday, January 14th, 2014

The Armenian National Assembly building

YEREVAN (Armenpress)-The Armenian Revolutionary Federation on Tuesday
announced that the Chairman of the Supreme Body of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, Mikayel Manukyan, will take the place of
former Member of Parliament Vahan Hovhannisian. The leader of the
ARF’s parliamentary block Artzvik Minasyan announced the decision
to Armenpress.

The change takes place after Vahan Hohannisian was selected by
President Serzh Sarkisian to take the Armenian ambassadorship
in Germany, succeeding the previous ambassador to Germany, Armen
Martirosyan.

Mikayel Manukyan was born on April 10, 1967 in Yerevan. In 1986
he graduated from the School of Decorative Design at the Yerevan
Terlemezian Fine Arts College. He is a painter by trade.

In 1985-1988 he served in the Soviet Army. Manukyan took part in
the Karabakh War from its very start. He was awarded the Marshal
Baghramian medal for his efforts in the Liberation of Shushi.

In 1992-1988 Manukyan worked in Yerkir daily as a reporter. In 2002
he was appointed to a position in the ARF Supreme Body.

In 2002-2007 he was the Chairman of the ARF Supreme Body.

On May 12, 2007 he was elected as a deputy of the National Assembly
from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation through proportional
representation.

Manukyan is married and has three children.

EU AWAITS INITIATIVES FOR COOPERATION FROM ARMENIA

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Jan 14 2014

14 January 2014 – 12:53pm

Peter Stano, spokesman of European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan
, said that Armenia and the EU had confirmed readiness for further
cooperation at the Vilnius summit, News.am reports.

Stano noted that the EU will help Armenia improve democratic
institutions, judicial system, structures protecting human rights,
civil society. The sides will continue developing trade and investment
climate.

The EU expects Armenia to clarify the fields of bilateral cooperation
compatible with its foreign political course.

WARLICK: SWISS EXPERIENCE CAN HELP RESOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Jan 13 2014

13 January 2014 – 7:51pm

In the Swiss capital Bern, discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh will be
held on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group
James Warlick says today on his Twitter page.

Warlick says that the Swiss experience can help resolve the conflict
in the South Caucasus, Trend reports.

As VK previously reported, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group –
Igor Popov (Russia), Jacques Faure (France) and James Warlick (USA)
will meet in Bern with the acting OSCE Chairman, the Swiss Minister
of Foreign Affairs Didier Burkhalter. The meeting will discuss
the process of a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

ROS-ARMENIA, ROS-PRESIDENT, ROS-PRIME MINISTER, ROS-INTERESTS

The “economic debate” between Tigran Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan
arouses a grin. First of all, because Armenia does not have an economy
and therefore it cannot have an economic policy as the three presidents
of Armenia have successfully handed over Armenia’s economy and politics
to the Russian state corporations and special services.

The Armenian government announces that the guarantor of the country’s
security is the Russian military base in Armenia and CSTO. Armenia’s
borders are guarded by FSB’s Rosgranitsa. Gazprom buys and sells gas,
RAO UEN sells energy. The nuclear power lant is controlled by Rosatom,
the railway belongs to Russia, recently Rostelecom has appeared which
handles communication in Armenia. According to an agreement signed
with Rosneft the latter will set up a monopoly in the petroleum
market. This means that fuel for aircraft will be supplied by this
company, which for its part reduces the chance for cheap air tickets.

What are the heads of state and government doing in Armenia if it is
all controlled by foreigners? What about the “debate” as to who is
better at managing the assets of local oligarchs and the Kremlin and
making sure they are boosted? Or is it all about who will handle the
“Ros” prefix better?

The difference is not big. Earlier part of the money flowing into
the pockets of a few oligarchs was paid to “slush funds”. When they
refused to pay, the money was charged from the citizens of Armenia
directly. This is the thing.

The Armenian economy cannot survive without at least partial
nationalization of sovereign policy and strategic assets. It does
not matter how we are robbed, whether by the criminal oligarchy or
“legitimate” organizations. In the result, the citizens of Armenia
are left without anything that would help develop the economy.

Most importantly, they have not left the right to making decisions
in line with our interests. We act solely for the Ros-interest.

Naira Hayrumyan, Political Commentator 18:55 14/01/2014 Story from
Lragir.am News:

STATUS QUO IN KARABAKH CONFLICT ZONE WILL BE PRESERVED – ANALYST

January 14, 2014 | 13:42

YEREVAN. – The status quo in Karabakh conflict zone will be
strengthened in 2014, says Armenian political analyst Sergey Minasyan.

Minasyan, deputy director of Caucasus Institute, is convinced that
there will be no changes concerning almost all expectations that
Armenia has.

“Armenia’s accession to Customs Union will be accompanied by processes
the elements of which are not familiar even to the actors,” Minasyan
said during a media conference on Tuesday.

Even Armenia’s Economy Ministry and Eurasian Economic Commission are
not aware of infrastructure and transport formats in the direction
of Armenia-Georgia and many other issues.

The analyst forecasts deadlock in Armenia-Turkey relations that will
lead to a new stage of economic stagnation.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

FAMOUS ARMENIANS JOIN CIVIL MOVEMENT AGAINST MANDATORY PENSION PLAN (PHOTOS)

January 14, 2014 | 16:59

YEREVAN. – Well-known people from the Armenian show business, cinema,
and radio have joined the “We are Against the Mandatory Pension”
civil movement.

They include radio and TV announcer Egor Glumov, actor and opera
singer Arman Nshanyan, director and producer Suren Tadevosyan, and
filmmaker Tigran Khzmalyan, the “Against the 5% Mandatory Pension
Payment” initiative informs.

The initiative members demand the cancellation of the new cumulative
pension plan in Armenia.

The aforementioned pension plan, which came into force on January 1,
2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and voluntary for
those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5 to 10 percent of
the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and mandatorily be
allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will be reimbursed
as pensions once a person turns 63 years old.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

MICHAEL MELKUMYAN. ROBERT KOCHARYAN HAD FOUND THE KEY

January 14 2014

“Prosperous Armenia” faction MP, Michael Melkumyan, believes that
Robert Kocharyan’s arguments, particularly, with regard to construction
related issues, are reasonable. “In 2000-2008, the formula of economic
development was found and it was the construction, which, in its turn,
develops other sectors.” To be more specific, our interlocutor brings
figures that in 2008 there were about 840 billion drams building
capacity, whereas now it is less than 400 billion drams. That is more
than the construction volume went down more than twice, which means
that the investment environment is not favorable.

“And construction means production of building materials, operation
of transport sector, architecture, design works, and work of
professionals. In those times, about 170 thousand people were
employed. In other words, in this sense, to be based on the concept
that there is a construction bubble in the world, which means a bubble
of pledged asset and mortgage asset, I would not agree for Armenia.

Yes, there is such thing in the world, but it is not typical to
Armenia, because the money invested in construction sector in Armenia
was exclusively based on mortgage, there were also others,” said
Michael Melkumyan. Such reverses of the PAP MP refer to clarifications
made the Prime Minister of Armenia, Tigran Sargsyan, to the criticism
presented by Robert Kocharyan at the end of last year. The Prime
Minister’s clarifications were followed by Robert Kocharyan’s response,
which contained references to the mandatory funded pension system,
and the gas agreement signed with Russia. The PAP MP said that in the
parliamentary debates PAP has repeatedly said that the reform does
not inspire confidence. The examples of Slovakia, Argentina and other
countries were brought in, which, in pretty short period of time,
refused the system as a result of political turmoil, by returned
the money to beneficiaries. “I think it’s pretty risky, because if
we are collecting money today to develop financial intermediation,
then to provide appropriate money, the money should be invested in
the place where the economic growth is higher than in Armenia. In
other words, most of these funds will flow out for sure and the five
per cent is a huge burden on the citizen and the state budget.” As
for the gas agreements, Michael Melkumyan especially signifies the
provision of monopoly to Russia until the year of 2043, by selling
“ARG” company, even taking into account the outstanding contributions
of Gasprom related to the fifth power block under the Iran-Armenia
gas projects. Our interlocutor compares this monopoly license with
“ArmenTel” monopoly license, when, in 1998, 25 -year monopoly was
provided to “ArmenTel”, the results of which we have experienced on
our skin, including with regard to the technical development of the
economy. Concluding his speech, our interlocutor notes that speaking
about the construction as one of the main obstacles of the crisis,
refers a question to current Prime Minister: “Who was obstructing,
let them diversify during the five years. And, now, do we have a more
diversified economy? I think, no. In the case when 43 per cent of our
export products are mining: xero-molybdenum and copper concentrate.”

Regarding the development of information technology, which the MP
welcomes, at the same time proves that there are total of six thousand
people working there, and a massive growth in this sector has not
been increasingly felt. Michael Melkumyan reminds that the PAP has
introduced more than twenty initiatives, some of which are related
to the industrial policy, in particular, to the establishment of free
industrial zones in marzes. PAP finds that the development of marzes
is one of the ways to stop Armenians leaving the country. “I considers
the questions of the second president appropriate, grounded, he, as
the head of the country, in his tenure, had found the key. I’m not
saying that the construction would develop forever, but it should be
followed by other steps that were left unfinished.” Robert Kocharyan’s
conclusion to Tigran Sargsyan that “he is hopeless,” Michael Melkumyan
considers that it is up to them. “I am not interfering in these
assessments.”

Nelly Grigoryan

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