BAKO SAHAKYAN TO ATTEND RA PRESIDENT’S INAUGURATION CEREMONY
armradio.am
08.04.2008 17:49
The President of the Nagorno Karabakh republic Bako Sahakyan arrived in
Yerevan today for a working visit. In the framework of the visit Bako
Sahakyan will participate in the inauguration of the President-Elect
of the Republic of Armenia Serge Sargsyan, the General Information
Board of NKR President’ s Office informed Radiolur.
SARKISYAN INTENDS TO GIVE ARMENIA PEACE AND STABILITY
ITAR-TASS
April 9 2008
Russia
YEREVAN, April 9 (Itar-Tass) – New Armenian President Serzh Sarkisyan
said he intends to be a head of state who will give Armenia peace
and stability.
In his inauguration speech on Wednesday, Sarkisyan said Armenia "will
continue pursuing an active and initiative foreign policy. It will
do its best to ensure a lasting peace and achieve a fair, peaceful
and prosperous settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh."
"We’ll build a strong, proud and democratic state of Armenia where
all is equal under the law," the new Armenian president stressed.
Sarkisyan expressed gratitude to the former president, Robert
Kocharyan, "a person who takes a permanent place in the Armenian
history". Sarkisyan said he is convinced that new generations
would appreciate Kocharyan’s contribution "to the development and
strengthening of statehood".
Addressing the people who voted for him, Sarkisyan noted, "We
had the right to vote not for me. But I’m your president." He
called compatriots for consolidating the state that "will open new
opportunities for moving towards democracy". The president said he
"is ready to exert maximum effort to reach mutual understanding in
the society in order to get rid off polarisation, gross collisions
and dirt".
Sarkisyan called for "building Armenia, which will be homeland for all
Armenians where the atmosphere of mutual respect, love and tolerance
reigns and where our citizens and every family live worthily".
CROPS ARE ONE THIRD OF LAST YEARS
KarabakhOpen
08-04-2008 20:44:36
The minister of agriculture Armo Tsatryan says the pace of sowing of
crops is normal. As of March 31, 1131.3 ha of crops have been sown
which is one third of last year’s index.
The government provided seeds of potato, corn, soy, peas to farmers in
the form of interest-free loans. According to the minister, already
more than 300 tons of potato seeds, 215 tons of peas, 8 tons of corn
and 5 tons of soy have been distributed. Loan is due by October 1,
after the harvest.
Also Armo Tsatryan said in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com that
last year 1185 ha of potatoes was sown. This year 999.6 ha have been
sown by April, compared with 614.2 ha of the same period of the past
year. 213.8 ha of vegetables have been sown against 7.9 ha last year.
According to the minister of agriculture, 12 thousand ha of privatized
and rented land, as well as 1500 ha of the government reserve are
fallow. Half of 300 million drams foreseen for this program has
been disbursed to farmers, the rest will be disbursed in June after
cultivation. According to the minister, another 120 million drams
will be needed.
ARMENIA’S CENTRAL BANK CHIEF SET TO BE NEW PM
Javno.hr
April 8 2008
Croatia
The prime minister`s job will be vacant from Wednesday when Serzh
Sarksyan, who currently holds the post, becomes the country`s
president.
Reuters photo: archive Armenia’s central bank chief looked set to
become the country’s new prime minister after the ruling coalition
voiced support for his appointment on Tuesday.
The prime minister’s job will be vacant from Wednesday when Serzh
Sarksyan, who currently holds the post, becomes president of the
ex-Soviet Christian state of 3 million on the edge of the Caucasus —
a major energy route to Europe from Asia.
Sarksyan’s Republican Party said it would back 48-year-old Tigran
Sarksyan, chairman of the central bank since 1998, for the job. The
two men are not related.
"If Tigran Sarksyan is put forward as a candidate for the post of
prime minister, I anticipate that our party will support it," party
spokesman Spartak Seyranyan said.
Under the Armenian constitution the president appoints the prime
minister after consultations with parliament. The chamber does not
hold a vote on the appointment.
The Republican party won 65 out of 131 seats in last May’s
parliamentary election. The two other parties in the ruling coalition
also indicated they would support Tigran Sarksyan for the premiership.
Serzh Sarksyan won a presidential election in February which his
opponents said he rigged. He ordered a 20-day state of emergency
on March 1 when eight protesters died in clashes with police in
the capital.
Frustration by opposition activists has grown since the Feb. 19
election — which Western monitors called flawed but enough to satisfy
Armenia’s international commitments.
The activists accused Serzh Sarksyan and outgoing President Robert
Kocharyan of running Armenia as a personal fiefdom for the last decade
and promoting their friends and family from the region of Karabakh.
Tigran Sarksyan’s neutrality — he is not from Karabakh — may have
been an important element in picking him, said political analyst
Alexander Iskandaryan of the Yereven-based Caucasus Media Institute.
"He is not part of the polarisation of politics," Iskandaryan said.
"They needed somebody who is neutral and who is also very
professional."
Eyewitnesses said opposition leaders had been targeting the
anti-Karabakh sentiment at rallies to boost its support.
LYUDMILA PUTINA VISITS PHOTOEXHIBITION IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
April 7, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. First Lady of RF Lyudmila Putina,
who is in RA on a visit, and First Lady of RA Bela Kocharian,
on April 7, visited Yerevan’s Moscow House. The guests watched the
photoexhibition under the title "I and My Family in the Future" that
has opened there. As the Director of Moscow House informed journalists,
the exhibition presenting 46 photographs sent from Moscow is dedicated
to the Year of Family being held in Russia this year.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONCLUDES ALMOST HALF OF ISSUES ON AGENDA OF REGULAR FOUR-DAY SESSION
Noyan Tapan
April 7, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA National Assembly on April 7
discussed 25 bills and legislative packages, concluding in one day
almost half of the number of issues on the agenda of the regular
4-day session. Such a great speed was mainly due to the fact that
the majority of discussed issues were bills envisaging amendments and
additions to the current laws, and these bills were discussed in the
second reading. In all likelihood the vote on bills will be held on
April 8.
Among the bills discussed was the bill on state debt submitted by the
government in second reading. It is for the first time that relations
connected to the state debt of the Republic of Armenia are regulated
by law.
By the bill, the state debt reprsents a sum of the debts of the
government and the Central Bank of Armenia. The components of the
state debt are the domestic and foreign state debts, as well as
state guarantees. The goals of the debt involvement are financing the
state budget deficit and ensuring current liquidity, assistance to
the balance of payment and replenishent of the reserves, as well as
maintenance and development of the domestic state debt market. The
bill stipulates that as of December 31 of the given year, the state
debt shall not exceed 60% of Armenia’s GDP of the previous year, and
if it exceeds 50% of GDP, then the state budget deficit of next year
shall not exceed 3% of the average GDP index in the past three years.
According to the bill, a transaction resulting in a state debt not
in line with these requirements has to be cancelled.
DOORS ARE LOCKED IN FRONTIER VILLAGES
A1+
07 April, 2008
There were about 300 pupils in the village of Voskepar, Tavush Marz,
in the mid-1980s. Today their number has reduced to 138. Over the
past years many dwellers of Voslepar have moved to the Russian town
Stari Oskol. Today residents jokingly name the town "New Voskepar."
As a result of emigration the villages of Koti and Barekamavan have
completely emptied. Forty-four children go to school in Barekamavan
while in 1970 the village had forty-seven first-formers. Over
193 pupils of Barekamavan today attend schools in the Russian
Federation. The village head, Hovik Gharakeshishian, says the village
has 33 students studying in Moscow.
They will hardly ever return to their motherland, he adds.
Although emigration has slowed down, it still continues.
"Kamut" TV Company, Noyemberian.
A BIT OF MESOPOTAMIA IN SWEDEN
4-3-2008
Since 1967 Christians from the Middle East have been settling in
a Stockholm city suburb. Flowing in from Turkey, Syria and more
recently Iraq, these immigrants refer to themselves as the ‘world’s
oldest Christian people’.
This year, however, fewer Iraqis have been admitted into Sweden after
claims by the government that the conflict in Iraq has stopped. Those
who have made it over the border talk to Olivier Truc about why this
isn’t true
Despite repeated warnings over the public address system the crowd
swarmed onto the pitch at the Södertälje stadium. It was more than
they could resist. Their football team, Assyriska FF, had just beaten
Ostersunds FK 4-2, securing promotion to Sweden’s premier league. That
was last autumn.
In the stands, mustachioed men wearing dark suits and white,
open-necked shirts played with their prayer beads. Behind them,
two enthusiastic reporters were covering the event in Syriac, an
Aramaean dialect, for Södertälje’s Assyrian channel, Suroyo TV,
which is beamed by satellite all over the Middle East.
On the pitch itself, jubilant youths waved flags decorated with
a map of Mesopotamia or a four-branched blue star with a yellow
spot at its centre and red, white and blue flames blazing outwards,
the colours of a once powerful empire, the cradle of civilisation,
now divided between Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. They are
the proud descendants of the "world’s oldest Christian people".
But the setting for this celebration was a sports ground in Sweden,
and strangely it could hardly have happened elsewhere. Over the past
40 years many Middle Eastern Christians have settled in Södertälje,
an industrial district in Stockholm’s suburbs. The first ones arrived
in 1967 when, at the request of the World Council of Churches and
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sweden accepted 200 stateless
Christians from a refugee camp in Lebanon.
Many more have followed. They are so well integrated that they have
their own football teams and members of parliament. Their successful
integration is held up as an example in Sweden, though they have not
forgotten their origins. The last time Assyriska FF made it into the
premier league the team organised a minute’s silence before the first
match of the season, paying tribute to the victims of the Armenian
genocide in 1915 in full view of Swedish television. The Turkish
authorities protested. "Football and politics go hand-in-hand here,"
says a supporter. Some even dream of the rebirth of the Assyrian
nation.
The first waves of immigrants came from Turkey and Syria, but in
recent years they have flocked here from Iraq. "Sweden welcomed 20,000
refugees in 2006, with twice as many in 2007 and mostly from Iraq,"
says Anders Lago, the Social-Democrat mayor of Södertälje. The
pressure on Södertälje nurseries, schools and housing is nearing
breaking point, with some three-roomed flats accommodating up to
15 refugees.
The number of Iraqis being allowed to stay in Sweden has now
dropped. The Swedish Migration Board has turned down three-quarters
of all applications this year, whereas the previous year it accepted
three out of four. The board has justified its change of policy
by claiming that armed conflict in Iraq has ceased. This prompted
widespread criticism from human rights organisations, their fears
being confirmed by the discovery last month of the body of the Chaldean
archbishop of Mosul, Faraj Rahho, who had been abducted on February 29.
In a large flat in Ronna, a neighbourhood of Södertälje now known as
Little Baghdad, the Solrosen organisation helps families with children.
Nursel Awrohum has a massive workload. As with most first-generation
Assyrian immigrants, she is from Midyat, a town in eastern Turkey with
a Christian majority, not far from Qamishli, a Syrian town also with a
predominantly Christian population, where many of Södertälje’s Syrian
Christians originated. "The council schools are packed," she says. At
the Solrosen centre, children are learning Swedish while their parents
are taught to cope with the authorities and Swedish society in general.
Amir and Nadia are waiting for a decision on their cases. One day
in Baghdad, Amir, a Chaldean barber, found a For Sale notice on his
front door.
His father was murdered shortly afterwards. Then in February 2007 Amir
was kidnapped. He has photographs of himself, gagged and covered in
bruises, with a pistol held to his head and a dagger pointed at his
throat. His brother finally managed to find the $15,000 demanded for
his ransom. The family left the country and moved to Sweden, paying
a smuggler $15,000 for each person.
Nadia, who defines herself as Chaldean, arrived here from Baghdad
in 2007.
Masked men had kidnapped, beaten and tortured her 23-year-old son. She
had to pay $25,000 to prevent him being turned into "mincemeat", as
they threatened. When they let him go they gave him a note saying:
"Leave everything behind or we will rape your 18-year-old girl." Nadia
fled to Sweden, where one of her daughters was already living. "In
Baghdad, we heard that in some mosques the imams were saying there
was no point in buying houses from Christians because they would be
leaving the country anyway."
Though their numbers are dropping steadily there are still about
700,000 Christians living in Iraq (3% of the population). Two thirds
of them are Catholics — mainly Chaldean, Syriac or Aramaean Catholics.
"Even though we cannot accommodate them properly, because there is so
much demand, the refugees from Iraq still want to come here, because
what they are looking for above all is security," says Awrohum. "And
for them security means family, and people with the same language and
background." They all want to live in Södertälje, where almost a
quarter of the 80,000 inhabitants are Christians from the Middle East.
"In the past two years Södertälje has taken more Iraqi asylum
seekers than the US," says Sait Yildiz, a town councillor and one of
the leaders of the Assyrian Federation in Sweden. "I quite understand
why the Swedes are a little bitter.
"In a way everyone expects the Iraqis arriving now to integrate
easily, in view of our past success," says Aydin Aho, the manager of
the Assyriska FF football club. Aho himself is a typical example of
this process. He was born in Midyat in 1972, arriving in Södertälje
two years later with the biggest wave of migrants.
"I was part of the first generation to grow up here and, like my
contemporaries, I grew up with the federation and the holiday camps
where we all got together. Football was a social thing," he explains.
"But the Swedish welfare state is not what it used to be," Aho adds,
"and the churches and federation no longer play the same role. There
isn’t the same sense of solidarity. Now there’s a serious risk that
the Iraqis will remain second-class citizens."
–Boundary_(ID_Eax3TWRguzc8tQ3A+x bXIA)–
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM TO BE BUILT IN WASHINGTON
ARMENPRESS
April 4, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: Arpi Vardanian, the Armenian Assembly of
America (AAA) Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Country Director, said at
a news conference today in Yerevan that construction of the Armenian
Genocide Museum in Washington will start soon.
She said the construction is expected to be over in 2010. The museum
will be in the National Bank building that was built in 1925. The
building is close to the White House.
"It will be not only Armenian Genocide Museum, but also a museum of
Armenian culture and history for foreigners to have better knowledge
of our nation," she said.
She said, " We had a protracted battle for having this museum in the
USA. It was opposed vehemently by the Turkish community."
She said the idea was welcomed also by Armenians of Washington during
public debates on March 27.
She said the museum will have on display documents, photographs,
other material evidence proving the fact of the Armenian genocide. It
will be closely cooperating with Genocide Museum in Yerevan.
She said the construction is funded by different organizations and
individuals.
KARABAKH FOREIGN MINISTER: ‘AZERBAIJAN HAS BECOME A SLAVE OF ITS OWN POLICY’
arminfo
2008-04-03 15:46:00
ArmInfo. ‘Azerbaijan has become a slave of its own policy. We know
how to reply it and we can give an adequate reply to it’, – the
NKR Foreign Minister Georgiy Petrosyan told journalists as ArmInfo
correspondent reports from Stepanakert.
He also added that Azerbaijan strives to such an option of the conflict
settlement which fully meets its demands without any compromise. The
Armenian parties should revisit their positions in such a situation,
the minister said. Georgiy Petrosyan is sure that the Kosovo precedent
makes Baku occupy an agressive position. Asked about the course of
the negotiating process, he replied: ‘If everything is not agreed on,
it means nothing is agreed on’. At the same time Petrosyan emphasized
that freedom of people and independence of the NKR cannot be a topic
for discussion. ‘We adopted it and fixed in our Constitution’, –
Georgiy Petrosyan added.