Author: Karabekian Emil

U.S. FORMER SECRETARIES OF STATE URGE CONGRESS TO PREVENT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION FROM REACHING HOUSE FLOOR

ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2007

ArmInfo. U.S former secretaries of state appealed to Speaker of the
House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on not putting the Armenian
genocide resolution to a vote, APA’s US bureau reports. Madeleine
K. Albright, James A. Baker III, Warren Christopher, Lawrence
S. Eagleburger, Alexander M. Haig, Henry A. Kissinger, Colin L. Powell
and George P. Shultz who are playing important role in domestic and
foreign policy of U.S. at present demanded it.

Formers stated that Res. 106 would harm their foreign policy objectives
to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia, also strain
their relations with Turkey, and endanger US national security
interests in the region, including the safety of their troops in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

Influential political figures stated that they do not minimize or
deny the enormous significance of the horrible tragedy suffered by
ethnic Armenian from 1915 to 1923. It has been longstanding U.S.

policy to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and
to urge the government of Turkey to acknowledge the tragedy. They
believe that a public statement by the U.S. Congress at this juncture
is likely to undermine what has been painstakingly achieved to date.

They also recognized important contributions Turkey is making to
U.S. national security, including security and stability in the Middle
East and Europe. The United States continues to rely on Turkey for its
geo-strategic importance. Turkey is also a transit hub for non-OPEC
oil and gas and remains key to our efforts to help the Euro-Atlantic
community bolster its energy security by providing alternative supply
sources and routes around Russia and Iran. Turkey is an indispensable
partner to their efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The popularly elected Turkish Grand National Assembly might react
strongly to a House resolution, as it did to a French National
Assembly resolution a year ago. The result could endanger their
national security interests in the region, including their troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and damage efforts to promote reconciliation
between Armenia and Turkey. The formers strongly urged Nancy Pelosi
to prevent the resolution from reaching the house floor.

YEREVAN WATER VOWS TO INVEST MILLIONS TO IMPROVE WATER SUPPLIES

ARMENPRESS
Sept 26 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: A chief executive of the Yerevan
Water company said today it has invested $8 million since 2006 January
1, to improve water supplies and waste water removal operations in
the Armenian capital.

Serge Popoff, director general of the company, managed by French
General des Aux, said $3.5 million were invested in infrastructure
improvement and $2.5 million were spent on acquisition of new
equipment.

Serge Popoff said the company expects to get an $18 million credit
from the World Bank to further improve water supplies and waste
water removal and buy new equipment and machines. He said 17 million
more of US Dollars, to generate from tariffs, will be invested into
the company.

According to him, about 80 percent of drinking water is lost on the
way to customers. The objective, he said, is to reduce water losses
50 percent in the next ten years. By that time 95 percent of Yerevan
residents will be having 24-hour water supplies.

Popoff also said a new modern laboratory, worth 120 million Drams,
will be established for regular checks of water quality.

"NUMBER OF DIASPORA ARMENIAN STUDENTS DIMINISHING"

Panorama.am
19:40 25/09/2007

"The number of Diaspora Armenian children in Armenian schools is
diminishing," stated Hratch Tadevosyan, head of the education
ministry’s department of Diaspora education, at a meeting with
journalists.

"Diaspora Armenian children will have problems in the future, as
their culture and education differs from other citizens," he added.

Tadevosyan stresses that the problem is current. "It is necessary
to develop a unified program for these schools, which will contain
educational materials, teaching methods, and textbooks," he said,
adding that all this is on the agenda. There are now eight textbooks
foreseen for use by Diaspora Armenian students.

According to his statistics, there are now 150 schools, which give
classes one day a week, operating in different countries of the
Armenian Diaspora, and this number is increasing. The speaker noted
that the education of Diaspora Armenian youth is the foundation of
maintaining Armenianism, adding sadly that there are many countries
in which Armenian youth cannot speak Armenian at all.

ARAX RESTAURANT SERVES RAMADAN MEALS FOR ECONOMIC PRICES

Al-Bawaba
September 16, 2007 Sunday 11:03 AM EST

The Lebanese ARAX restaurants chain famous for its falafel, Sandwiches
and shawirmah that recently opened its first branch in Al-Madinah
al-Munawwarah Street opposite Ibn Al-Hayhtam Hospital is preparing
to receive the holy month with a special Ramadan offer that meets
the diverse needs of the public, and suits their economic situation.

ARAX Sandwicheria will be serving a wholesome economic meal containing
soup, appetizers and other food items from the Sandwicheria menu,
in addition to the special Ramadan drink, Tamir Hindi. This hearty
meal is served at an economic price, less than the price of meals
during regular months of the year.

By taking this step, ARAX Sandwicheria seeks to satisfy the needs of
different crowds in Jordan, particularly students, since the economic
price of the meal is affordable by students. The meal is versatile
and has a unique and tasty flavor at a suitable price, not to mention
that it better suits the Holy Month of Ramadan, which is usually
characterized by high living costs and an increase in finical burden.

The ARAX restaurants chain which has achieved wide fame through its
branches in various Arab and European countries is used to serving
and presenting all that suits the requirements of the local society.

It continues this tradition in Jordan by taking this step. Although
this restaurant was recently opened in Jordan, it insisted on serving
something special in this holy month to satisfy its customers,
as it usually does, something that has contributed to its fame and
popularity for years.

##### ARAX Restaurant:A Lebanese restaurants chain which serves
falafil, sandwiches and shawirmah. It achieved wide fame through its
branches in various countries and is used to serving and presenting
all that suits the conditions and capabilities of the society
in the country. It recently opened its first branch at Al-Madinah
al-Munawwarah street opposite Ibn Al-Hayhtam Hospital in Amman. ARAX
is a Lebanese restaurant which started as a family business in 1949
in the beating heart of Beirut as a Falafil restaurant. Since then,
it started its long journey which is filled with success, serving
shawirmah, sea food, Armenian sandwiches, and the Falafil meal to
which it owes its fame. It is note worthy that the ARAX restaurants
chain has more than 12 branches in Lebanon alone, in addition to
branches in Syria, the United States, and Canada.

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN TASTES HARISA

A1+
[04:07 pm] 24 September, 2007

"Let’s welcome Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan!" the
announcer was heard to say during today’s official ceremony dedicated
to the Musaler (Musa Dagh) battle. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was welcomed
with warm applauses and shouts, "Levon, President!"

The first Armenian President tasted Armenian traditional harisa and
visited the museum of Musaler Heros. Meanwhile the announcer, the
chairman of "Musaler" Patriotic Union, called on the presentees to
welcome the first president once more. The officials of Armavir marz
didn’t like the announcer’s words. The latter tried to correct his
mistake by saying, "Let’s farewell Levon Ter-Petrosyan." This time
he simply omitted the word "president."

The ceremony was attended by Armenian politicians among them Ararat
Zurabyan, Aram Sargsyan, Smbat Ayvazyan, Nikol Pashinyan and others.

Azeri Press Agency

Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan likely to meet
in New York

[ 21 Sep 2007 20:03 ]

Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia Elmar
Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanyan, who will participate
in the 62ndsession of the UN General Assembly, will
possibly have the next meeting on the settlement of
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister
Araz Azimov told journalists, APA reports.
The deputy minister said that the meeting may take
place if Vardan Oskanyan’s contribution to the
improvement of the negotiations is determined and
Elmar Mammadyarov considers it important. /APA/

DANES ARE AN 8.2 HAPPY; AMERICANS ONLY A 7.4

Casa Grande Valley Newspapers
September 18, 2007
AZ

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) – The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan
long ago dispensed with the notion of Gross National Product as a
gauge of well-being.

The king decreed that his people would aspire to Gross National
Happiness instead.

That kernel of Buddhist wisdom is increasingly finding an echo in
international policy and development models, which seek to establish
scientific methods for finding out what makes us happy and why.

New research institutes are being created at venerable universities
like Oxford and Cambridge to establish methods of judging individual
and national well-being.

Governments are putting ever greater emphasis on promoting mental
well-being – not just treating mental illness.

"In much the same way that research of consumer unions helps you to
make the best buy, happiness research can help you make the best
choices," said Ruut Veenhoven, who created the World Database of
Happiness in 1999.

When he started studying happiness in the 1960s, Veenhoven used data
from social researchers who simply asked people how satisfied they
were with their lives, on a scale of zero to 10. But as the discipline
has matured and gained popularity in the past decade, self-reporting
has been found lacking.

By their own estimate, "drug addicts would measure happy all the
time," said Sabina Alkire, of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development
Institute, which began work May 30.

New studies add more objective questions into a mix of feel-good
factors: education, nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender
equality, and perhaps most importantly, having choices.

Veenhoven’s database, which lists 95 countries, is headed by Denmark
with a rating of 8.2, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and
Finland, all countries with high per capita income. At the other end
of the scale are much poorer countries: Tanzania rated 3.2, behind
Zimbabwe, Moldova, Ukraine and Armenia.

The United States just makes it into the top 15 with a 7.4.

TEHRAN BELIEVES THE USA WILL BY NO MEANS RESOLVE TO INITIATE ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST IRAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
Analytical Department
18.09.2007 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ With the very aim of convincing Russia in the
Iranian question, Bernard Kouchner arrived in Moscow. The Ministers of
Foreign Affairs of both countries, together with some other issues,
will discuss the draft of the Resolution of the UN Security Council,
which toughens sanctions against Iran.

According to the French Minister such Resolution will make Iran reduce
its nuclear program. Paris hopes that UNO Security Council will agree
to apply tough sanctions against Iran. Experts think that Kouchner will
nevertheless try to make Russia change its mind and get its support in
UN Security Council, though the possibility for this is not very big.

Together with this, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)
Director General Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed the words of President of
Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which said that Iran denies any intention to
create nuclear weapon and insists on peaceful character of uranium
enrichment, "I don’t think that in this phase Iran displays any
serious threat, that it is impossible to cope with by means of
diplomatic methods. Besides, I would like to emphasize that force
should be implemented only with UN Security Council’s agreement and
that is in case, if there is no other possible options," said IAEA
Director Generals.

According to the chairman of the Committee on International Relations
of the Council of the Russian Federation Mikhail Margelov, Iran must
make its nuclear program absolutely transparent and must allow all the
necessary inspections on the territory of the country. "However the
above mentioned should be fulfilled by toughening the diplomatic and
economic efforts. According to the information provided by the IAEA
no proof of the nuclear program having military character has been
found in Iran. We have no reason not to believe the IAEA. Without
such evidence any military actions against Iran will be unwise,"
thinks the Russian Senator. In this regard it is worth mentioning,
that the war in Iraq was caused by the same "evidence" of Saddam
Husein’s possession of weapon of mass destruction. Later it was found
out, that no such weapon was possessed by Saddam, but it was already
too late as the war had already begun.

According to Margelov, the war with Iran may have unpredictable
outcomes, will lock the Afghanistan-Iran-Iraq circle, will have its
impact on the issue of Palestine, Israel and Syria and will ruin the
last hope for having any stabilization in the whole region.

The words of the French Minister received hostile reception in
Iran. The Islamic Republic News Agency announced that the new
authorities of France try to copy Americans in everything. According
to the official representative of Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mohamed Ali Hossein, the USA is not in a situation to launch any
military actions against Iran with the aim of destruction of the
nuclear objects in the country.

"Iran has strong defensive capacity and we do hope that there are wise
people among the Americans who would not allow any military attack
on Iran, since this would lead to the fact that one day America would
find itself stuck in the region even more," said Hossein.

War with Iran will have its direct say on the countries of South
Caucasus. First of all, all the three countries will have to make
a choice; either to support the USA or to stay neutral. Armenia,
unlike Georgia and Azerbaijan will stay neutral, as for the other
two countries; they may yield to the US pressure. In any case the war
between the US and Iran will be a complete disaster not only for the
region, but for the whole world too.

ARMENIAN TV STATION TO BROADCAST IN ARMENIAN ONLY

Interfax Russia, Russia
Sep 10 2007 8:33PM

YEREVAN. Sept 10 (Interfax) – Armenia’s Public Television Channel
is to broadcast in Armenian only, the channel’s Executive Director
Armen Arzumanian said.

"There will be no return to the Russian language on air of the Public
Television of Armenia," following the introduction of the laws "On
language" and "On television and broadcasting". "I have not seen a
national TV channel broadcasting in several languages," he said.

Meanwhile, all Russian films are broadcast in Russia with Armenian
subtitles, he said.

"We do not exclude that we will make satellite broadcasts in Russian,
English and French," he said.

ARARATBANK" CONCLUDES THE RE-STYLING AND PLANS TO OCCUPY A "TOPPING POSITION" IN THE FINANCIAL MARKET OF ARMENIA

Banks.am, Armenia
September 18

Yerevan, September 18 /Mediamax/. By the end of September, "ARARATBANK"
plans to have concluded the re-styling program, which was started 2
months ago.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of "ARARATBANK", within
the framework of the re-styling, there is the new logotype and the
corporate style established, a new advertisement policy is elaborated.

"The image changes are conditioned by the new stage of development,
at which the bank is at present", the press service of "ARARATBANK"
stated. They noted that "~SARARATBANK" aims at occupying a topping
position in the banking system and the financial market of Armenia".

The press service noted that "ARARATBANK" for the first time in
Armenia is getting ready to hold an Initial Public Offering (IPO),
is actively extending its branch network and the contacts with
international financial structures.