Author: Kanayan Tamar

“RETRO”: REVELATION OF TIES BETWEEN JULIO IGLESIAS AND ARMENIA SINCE 1990

10:47, 18 March, 2013

This time “Retro” exclusive project introduced by “Armenpress” on the
news history and historical news is dedicated to the revelation of
ties between world famous Spanish singer and songwriter Julio Iglesias
and Armenia. Armenian press of 2013 January was overloaded with the
news about the concert and arrival of Julio Iglesias. The initiative
of the concert belongs to the singer. His Armenian friends used to
tell him he is much loved in Armenia.

Yet not many people recalled the news reported by Armenpress yet
in 1990.

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS: Spanish singer is in Armenia for
already three days and is busy with the preparations of his concert
due on March 18. Iglesias has already met with the journalists,
stated he loves Armenia very much. The singer noted he has caught
Armenians are warm people; his Armenian friends were always vivid
example what he witnessed then. World famous singer had assisted to
the reconstruction of damaged Armenian town Stepanavan in 1990 and
for that reason gave concert in the State of Massachusetts initiated
by Saint Savior Armenian church. This fact somehow remained in the
shadow. Eight thousand people were present at the concert launched
23 years ago, USD 42 thousand was raised, which later by the help of
USA Eastern Diocese was allocated to Stepanavan reconstruction fund.

Iglesias is in Armenia not as an ordinary visitor but a good friend

In the briefing with the journalists the singer noted he is mainly
having concerts in the countries where he wishes.” Regardless the fact
this is my first visit to Armenia, I know much about your country. It
is already 200 years Spain and Armenia are in good relations. Even the
languages have the similarities” singer underscored. In the course of
45 years I had come to know many Armenians, who transfer their culture
to the world. “I am looking forward for my Armenian concert. The
years pass, not much is left to live, and I am glad I am here now,
to get acquainted with the land of my friends,” the singer shared
with his impressions.

Iglesias is going to sing an Armenian song

Spanish renowned singer has a habit to perform a song in a language
of the host country. This time Iglesias is going to sing an Armenian
song. The name of the song is kept confidential. Spanish, 70 year
old singer’s Armenian concert is scheduled on March 18, at Karen
Demirchyan Sports Complex.

Spanish singer and songwriter who has sold over 300 million records
worldwide in 14 languages and released 80 albums, and more than
2,600 gold and platinum records certified. According to Sony Music
Entertainment, he is one of the top 5 best-selling music artists
in history.

Why Kirk Kerkorian Is Important to MGM Resorts

The Motley Fool
March 15, 2013

By Travis Hoium

News yesterday that Kirk Kerkorian has intentions to raise his stake
in MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM ) isn’t something investors should sweep
under the rug before remembering what he has meant to the company over
the years.
Kerkorian isn’t as well known as Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts, or
Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas Sands, but he has played a similar
visionary roll in MGM’s history.

Kerkorian began his dealings in Las Vegas in 1962 when he bought the
land that Caesars Entertainment’s (NASDAQ: CZR ) flagship casino
Caesars Palace sits on. When he sold the land to the company, he ended
up building MGM Grand, and naming it after the MGM movie studio, which
he also owned. Decades later, Kerkorian was behind the merger of MGM
and Mirage, which was the company Steve Wynn built, bringing the
Mirage, Bellagio, and Treasure Island into MGM.

If Kerkorian wants to increase his 18.6% stake in the company, he must
be bullish on both Las Vegas and the economy as a whole.

Bullish on economy

Kerkorian last tried to up his stake in MGM in 2006 when the economy
and markets were going bonkers. After the financial collapse, he
backed off MGM, but now that he’s on board, I think it’s a strong sign
that one of Las Vegas’ biggest investors is bullish on the economy as
a whole and, therefore, Las Vegas.

Kerkorian also has seats on the board, meaning he has insider access
to MGM’s financials. Insider buying is often a very bullish sign for a
stock, because insiders know things about a company’s operation that
goes beyond what outside investors can know.

What this means for gaming stocks

Before you go out and buy a basket of gaming stocks, it’s important to
understand the difference between MGM and other companies. Wynn and
Las Vegas Sands are Asian-centric so, if Kerkorian is bullish on MGM,
it doesn’t really mean anything for them. Caesars is in a similar
position to MGM with high exposure to Las Vegas, but instead of having
exposure to Macau, like MGM does, it has exposure to regional gaming
in the U.S. If you’re bullish on Las Vegas, MGM is the way to go, not
Caesars.

A deep dive into MGM Resorts

When MGM Resorts began constructing the CityCenter in Las Vegas, it
was an audacious plan that seemed like a sure bet with its prime
location in the center of The Strip. But Las Vegas hit a rough patch
during the Great Recession and has yet to fully recover, so MGM has
since turned its attention to a new market in Macau. This Chinese
gaming enclave now holds the key to the company’s future, and a new
resort on Cotai may relieve the company from crushing debt. For expert
analysis on whether this former high-flying stock can regain its form
on the back of a growing presence in Asia, you’re invited to check out
The Motley Fool’s new premium report on MGM Resorts.

Fool contributor Travis Hoium owns shares of Wynn Resorts, Limited.
You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his
personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw. The
Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The Indian Express, India
March 17 2013

Aronian pushes ahead

New Delhi, Mon Mar 18 2013

The Candidates tournament came alive in round three, with three of the
four boards providing decisive results on Sunday. Levon Aronian
registered his second win in as many games to maintain his lead, while
victories for Magnus Carlsen and Peter Svidler meant that the Armenian
did not get out of sight. Aronian is currently on 2.5 points while
Carlsen and Svidler follow closely behind on 2. Vladimir Kramnik’s
draw against Alexander Grishchuk meant both ended the first set of
matches on 1.5 points each.

Vassily Ivanchuk, who went down to Teimour Radjabov yesterday,
continued on the downward spiral losing on time once more. Playing
white, Ivanchuk opened with the Trampowsky attack, and took up an
aggressive stance through the initial phase. Aronian calmly weathered
Ivanchuk’s king side attack and once white’s threat fizzled out, black
not just had a promising position but was also up on time. Ivanchuk,
having to make 19 moves in eight minutes, let his position slip
steadily. Aronian had several crushing moves at his disposal, but
instead kept the position complicated, hoping to either win on time or
elicit a blunder from the hard-pressed Ivanchuk. Eventually, though
down on material, Aronian breached Ivanchuk’s defences, cleaning up on
the queen side to bear down on white’s king. However, he could not
complete the formalities, as Ivanchuk’s flag had already fallen.

Radjabov, playing black against Svidler, went for the Samisch
Variation of the King’s Indian defense. Inaccuracies in the opening
saw Radjabov go behind on time and material.

Magnus Carlsen pulled out a typical win, as he kept things tight and
drew a fatal error from Gelfand deep in the end game.

Interfax, Russia
March 16 2013

Armenian speaker visits ex-presidential candidate continuing hunger
strike on central square in Yerevan

YEREVAN. March 16

Armenian parliamentary speaker Hovik Abrahamyan arrived at Freedom
Square in the early hours of Saturday to speak with Raffi Ovannisian,
the leader of the opposition party Heritage and a former presidential
candidate, who is continuing a hunger strike there.

“We discussed some ways to settle the situation. There is no
particular solution so far, but I think we will meet again. Solutions
should be found to problems that have been aired on Freedom Square,”
Abrahamyan said.

Ovannisian is protesting the official results of recent presidential
elections. The Central Elections Commission announced earlier that
incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan was supported by 58.64% of the
voters and Ovannisian by 36.74%.

The Armenian Constitutional Court declined Ovannisian’s lawsuit on
invalidating the election results. Ovannisian started his hunger
strike on March 10.

Abrahamyan suggested also that the political wing of the ruling
Republican Party led by President Sargsyan should arrange debates and
“try to find ways to resolve the situation and make proposals.”

Abrahamyan, however, described as “injudicious” Ovannisian’s proposal
on dissolving the parliament and calling new presidential elections.

va

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 17 2013

Tensions increase in Azerbaijani-Turkish relations

17 March 2013 – 4:36pm
The relations between two regional allies, Turkey and Azerbaijan, are
in a state of crisis once again. The Azerbaijani authorities are
indignant over Turkey’s initiative to establish an air route with
Armenia.

According to media, the Turkish air company Bora Jet is going to start
flights to the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Azerbaijan believes that the
Turkish government has something to do with the idea.

The fact that Turkish President Abdullah Gul immediately congratulated
Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarsgyan on his victory at the presidential
elections was also a very unpleasant surprise for Azerbaijan.

On Saturday a representative of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said
that the Turkish authorities should make an official statement on the
establishment of the Van-Yerevan air route. Officials of the
Azerbaijani presidential staff have expressed the same opinion.

The response the Turkish authorities have made so far appears to have
been insufficient. According to the Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan,
Ismayil Alper Coskun, the initiative of the private air company has
nothing to do with the official position of the Turkish cabinet.

`The Azerbaijani media and society are well acquainted with the
position of Turkey on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Armenia.
However, Turkish ambassadors to Azerbaijan have announced their
positions on this up to now. The Turkish President, Prime Minister,
officials and the Speaker of Parliament have clearly announced their
positions on this issue. The flights from Yerevan to Turkey are
operated by private companies. As media report, these are commercial
flights. Private companies have no problems in Turkey in carrying out
these activities,’ the ambassador is quoted as saying by the APA
agency.

At a rock concert in Freedom Square

A1Plus.am
06:43 PM | MARCH 16, 2013 | SOCIAL

In defense of Raffi Hovannisian’s hunger strike, “Vostan hayoc” and
“Vordan Karmir” rock groups are giving concert in Freedom Square. The
youth tries to show support to the presidential candidate.

Rock concert videos:
!

Mayor of Artashat is not going to give up his job Hovik Abrahamyan’s son

2013-03-17 17:27:36

Mayor of Artashat Gagik Muradian is not going to resign and give way
to the son of the chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia Hovik
Abrahamyan. In an interview with Armenian News – NEWS.am Gagik
Muradian said that the rumors were unfounded.

“These conversations and such claims do not match reality. I only
learnt about this from media, no, anyone did not suggest me this. I
will hold the position until June 2015,” he said, noting that he is a
member of the Republican Party, often meets with members of the
executive body and can confirm that there is no such talk, and he is
sure that will not happen.

To note, that according to media publications, Artashat Mayor Gagik
Muradyan is going to resign. “According to our information, in
contrast to the Mayor of Armavir Ruben Khlghatyan, treatment of
resignation was rejected tip, Muradian’s resignation will be accepted.
According to the released information, the chairman of the National
Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan has long wanted to see his son, Argam
Abrahamian, as Mayor of Artashat and thus make the regional center of
Ararat region more control”, the media stated.

Hunger-strike day 8: Armenians sign petition to back ex-candidate
(video, photos)

15:06 – 17.03.13

A petition campaign is being held in Yerevan’s Liberty Square in
support of Raffi Hovhannisian, the opposition Heritage party’s leader,
who declared a hunger-strike last Sunday to protest the election
results.

A former lawmaker of Heritage, Anahit Bakhshyan, has been at the
protest site since morning to organize the petition. But she wasn’t
able to say how many signatures had been collected, noting that their
number changes very quickly. `We collect [the signatures] and take
them to the office. But the number changes all the time, so its isn’t
right to indicate a figure,’ she told Tert.am.

Hovhannisian, who was Serzh Sargsyan’s key rival in last month’s
presidential election, launched his Revolution of Salute after the
official voting results were announced, claiming that that the
election was rigged to secure the incumbent president’s victory.
Before declaring a hunger-strike, Hovhannisian conducted a tour to
several regions of Armenia. Earlier, he had rallied crowds of
supporters in Liberty Square to dispute the voting outcomes.

Commenting on the purposes of the petition, Bakhshyan said they expect
to gather thousands of signature in that way as a counterbalance to
one signature by Tigran Mukuchyan, the president of the Central
Election Commission of Armenia.

`That is, if one signature is enough there for declaring a president,
we say, with thousands of signatures, that the president is Raffi
Hovhannisian,’ she explained.
Asked about the document’s legal justification, Bakshyan said she was
surprised to hear the question raised. `I am surprised that a question
regarding the legal aspect is being raised in Armenia. This is just a
step. Were there lawfulness, hunger-strike would not be a way for
raising the country’s problem.s But it is a fact Raffi wishes to prove
something through self-sacrifice and to unite as all,’ she added.

ARMENIE-DISPARITION
Le dernier adieu de l’Arménie à Aramaïs Sahakian, aujourd’hui au
Panthéon d’Erévan

Le ministère de la Culture a informé qu’aujourd’hui l’Arménie fera ses
derniers adieux ce dimanche 17 mars à Aramaïs Sahakian, humoriste,
écrivain, poète et homme public qui a disparu à Erévan le 14 mars à
l’ge de 77 ans. Une messe a été célébrée samedi à 18h30 à l’église
Sourp Hovhannés d’Erévan (quartier de Gond). Aujourd’hui le public
pourra lui rendre un dernier hommage au siège de l’Union des Ecrivains
d’Arménie dès 12 h puis à 14 h le corps d’Aramaïs Sahakian sera dirigé
vers le Panthéon d’Erévan pour le dernier repos. Né le 24 mai 1936 à
Ardzvachen en Arménie, Aramaïs Sahakian était l’une des personnalités
les plus connus d’Arménie. Il bénéficiait également d’une très grande
notoriété en diaspora et notamment en France où il s’était rendu en
1997 à l’invitation de l’association culturelle « Arménia » de
Valence.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 17 mars 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Whittier Daily News (California)
March 14, 2013 Thursday

Victims of genocide find a voice

By Peter Fullam, Staff Writer twitter.com/peterfullam

WHITTIER — One of the stalwarts in the fight to tell the truth about
history, Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt, offered a few simple words
to live by, for everybody, but especially to the students, who have
more years ahead of them, she noted, at her talk Wednesday night at
Whittier College.

“When you see evil, say ‘no,'” she said.

Lipstadt is perhaps best known for winning her libel trial in London
in 2000 against David Irving who sued her for calling him a Holocaust
denier and right-wing extremist in her 1993 book, “Denying the
Holocaust.” The judge found Irving to be a Holocaust denier, a
falsifier of history, a racist and an anti-Semite, according to Emory
University, Atlanta, where Lipstadt is a professor of modern Jewish
history and Holocaust studies.

She gave the 2013 Feinberg Lecture, this year titled, “Genocide and
Justice – A Retrospective Look at the Trial of Adolph Eichmann,
Jerusalem 1961.” Lipstadt’s book, “The Eichmann Trial,” marked the
50th anniversary of the Eichmann trial.

It was the first time in 2000 years that Jews were allowed to sit in
judgment of non-Jews, she said.

But the most important legacy of the Eichmann trial, she said, was
that it gave a voice to the survivor.

“It had a forensic impact, a legal impact in terms of war criminal
trails, but I think it also more importantly it gave a new stature to
the voice of the survivor. That the world listened,” she said in an
interview before her lecture.

“It isn’t that survivors of the Holocaust hadn’t spoken about what
happened to them before that. They had. But the world listened to them
in a way it hadn’t listened to them in a way it hadn’t before. ”

During her lecture, Lipstadt told the story of one German soldier who
helped the Jews escape the Nazi “final solution.” If more of humanity
acted in similar ways, the world would not have Holocausts, Rwandas,
and Armenian genocides.

Lipstadt said she took an unlikely route to opposing Holocaust
deniers. It began at the suggestion of two renowned Jewish historians.
Given their stature, she agreed, thinking it would be a one or two
year job.

“They said to me, ‘Deborah, you really should work on this topic.’ And
I said to them, … ‘What are you, nuts?’ I didn’t say it that way
because they were such distinguished men, but basically that was my
reaction. This is like flat earth theory. Who takes them seriously?
But they said to me, ‘We think its a real problem.’ ”

She came to the conclusion that they were correct.

The world is now reaching that stage now, she said, as Holocaust
survivors die off and there will no longer be witnesses to the
genocide who can tell the story.

The Eichmann trial fits the pattern, because like virtually every
other Nazi war criminal who was tried for his crimes, Eichmann did not
deny that the Holocaust happened.

“Eichmann was an unrepentant anti-Semite,” said Lipstadt. “Even 11
years after the Holocaust, 1956, in Argentina, he talks about how
happy he was to have participated in the murder of the Jews.

“David Irving never hurt, as far as I know, never hurt a person. But
he’s motivated by that same kind of anti-Semitism. Motivated by that
same kind of hatred. ”

The Holocaust was the most well-documented genocide in history. And
many other genocides likewise are well-documented and have many
witnesses.

“The thing to understand about deniers is that it’s not like they
didn’t get the memo that it happened. They didn’t see the documents.
They skipped the book that would have convinced them. If only they had
read one more book, seen one more document. It’s not that at all. It’s
that these are people who are motivated by an anti-Semitism. These are
people who are motivated by racial prejudice. These are haters. ”

Lipstadt said that while Hitler tried to destroy a people, the
Holocaust deniers are bent on trying to destroy the history of what
happened. And once you start destroying history, while it may not lead
to another genocide, it’s a very dangerous thing, she said.

The Feinberg Lecture Series is made possible through an endowment by
the late Sheldon Feinberg, a former trustee of Whittier College, and
his wife, Betty, to invite scholars to the college to discuss
historic, religious and political issues encompassed by Judaism and
its role in a changing world.