Author: Khondkarian Raffi

University of Michigan
Armenian Studies Program
Gloria Caudill Administrator
1080 S. University
Ste., 2603 SSWB
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106
Tel: (734) 763-0622
Fax: (734) 763-4918

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Gloria Caudill, administrator
[email protected]

BRITISH HISTORIAN JOINS ARMENIAN STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Dr. Joanne Laycock, University of Manchester, has been designated the
first Manoogian Simone Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow, announced Prof.
Gerard Libaridian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Dr. Laycock’s research in recent years has covered the British
Armenophile movement and the British response to the Armenian Genocide,
Armenian refugee relief post WWI, and also British travel literature on
Armenia. She has highlighted Soviet Armenian History, especially with
regards to the repatriation to Armenia and homeland-Diaspora relations.

Dr. Joanne Laycock’s doctoral dissertation was titled: Anglo-French
Scholarship on Armenians in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth
Centuries and the Response to the Armenian Genocide (2000-2001),
University of Manchester, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures. Her
article "Armenia: The ‘Nationalization,’ Internationalization and
Representation of the Refugee Crisis," (co-authored with Peter Gatrell),
was recently included in Nick Baron and Peter Gatrell, eds., Homelands:
War, Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia, 1918-1924
(Anthem Press, 2004), 179-200. Her forthcoming publications in 2008
include Imagining Armenia: Orientalism, Ambiguity and Intervention
1878-1925 (Manchester University Press) and "Repatriations in Post
Second World War Armenia," in Peter Gatrell and Nick Baron, eds,
Warlands: Population Resettlement and State Reconstruction in Soviet
Eastern Europe, 1945-1950.

Dr. Joanne Laycock’s research while in Ann Arbor will address the
cultural history of population displacement in modern Armenia, with
particular reference to constructions of ‘home/land.’ Her work will
highlight the various locations and contingent nature of ‘homeland,’ the
complex experience of multiple displacements and return journeys and the
centrality of landscape and material culture in articulating relations
between homeland and diaspora.
The position of Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, has been made possible by the recent gift from the Manoogian
Simone Foundation to the University’s Armenian Studies Program. Dr.
Laycock will deliver a number of lectures to the University and larger
communities during her stay, January through June 2008.

Russia & CIS General Newswire
January 18, 2008 Friday 7:59 PM MSK

Armenia to send more peacekeepers to Kosovo – defense ministry
YEREVAN Jan 18

Armenia’s Defense Ministry plans to expand peacekeeping operations.

"We plan to double the number of Armenian peacekeepers in Kosovo in
2008. The Armenian platoon will be enlarged to a company," Armenian
Defense Minister Mikael Arutyunian said in Yerevan on Friday.

In 2007, the Armenian armed forces continued intensive peacekeeping
operations, Arutyunian said delivering a report on the results of the
Defense Ministry’s work in 2007 and the main tasks for 2008.

"Armenian peacekeepers were rotated in Iraq and Kosovo in 2007. On
December 4, the National Assembly made the decision to extend the
Armenian peacekeepers’ mandate in Iraq for a year," he said.

Arutyunian met on Thursday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Sate
Matthew Bryza. Armenian peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan was
discussed among other issues.

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 20 2008

Paul Goble: `The Day the Soviet Union Died’

20 January 2008 [13:28] – Today.Az

The exact place and time the Soviet Union died continues to be a
matter of debate.

Some say it occurred when Gorbachev handed over the nuclear football
to Yeltsin at the end of December 1991. Others argue it took place
earlier that month when the three Slavic presidents met to do away
with the Soviet leader’s job.

Still others point to the failure of the Moscow coup in August of
that year, the occasion of Yeltsin’s triumph and Gorbachev’s complete
failure to understand what had taken place in his country. And some
say it coincided with the Kremlin’s murderous attacks on the people
of Lithuania and Latvia in January 1991.

But perhaps the moment that has the best claim to be the occasion
when the Soviet Union died is one that up to now has had fewer
advocates. It occurred a year earlier in Baku, when Moscow sought to
suppress the Azerbaijanis but unwittingly snapped the fraying bonds
of loyalty to the USSR that nation and others as well had felt.

On January 19-20, 1990, a date commemorated this year as every year
by the people of Azerbaijan, Soviet security forces went on a rampage
in Baku, killing or wounding hundreds of its citizens. While the
exact number of victims is disputed, it was almost certainly greater
than the total of all other Soviet police actions under Gorbachev.

The Soviet president and his comrades acted not to protect ethnic
Armenians as they claimed but rather to punish Azerbaijanis for their
increasingly independent stance and to send a message to them and to
all the other republics that their Moscow rulers were prepared to do
anything, including murder, to hold on to their power.

But the brutality of this act of state terrorism – a Soviet tank ran
over the car carrying some senior members of the Azerbaijani Academy
of Sciences, and Soviet soldiers shot people at random on the street
or even those looking out the windows of their apartments – had
exactly the opposite effect that Moscow intended.

In Azerbaijan, the Kremlin’s action convinced even those who had
doubted it before that they could have no future inside the USSR.
Indeed, the day after the killings, many Communist Party members
there, including some of its most senior leaders, tore up their party
cards, an action that showed there would be now going back.

And elsewhere in the USSR the message Gorbachev and the Soviet
leadership hoped to send backfired. Both where many were already
seeking independence from Moscow and where few had yet thought about
it, Soviet actions in Baku 18 years ago today did not intimidate but
rather destroyed the fear that had kept the USSR together.

Besides the need for simple historical accuracy, there are three
reasons for people in the region and the world why it is vitally
important for everyone in the region and beyond to recognize that
January 1990 in Baku was the time and place of the demise of the
Soviet Union.

First, given the difficulties and uncertainties of the post-Soviet
transitions in many of these countries, some members of the older
generation there now view the Soviet past with nostalgia. Having
forgotten the evils of that system, they even tell pollsters that the
Brezhnev years were "a golden age" when they were secure and their
country respected.

Some political leaders across this region even have sought to exploit
such attitudes to build their own power either by arguing, as
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has done, that the end of the USSR was the
greatest tragedy in the 20th century, or suggesting that the peoples
of this region need Soviet-style stability even at the cost of
freedom.

Such leaders naturally do not talk about the violence the Soviet
system visited on individuals and groups whose only "crime" was to
speak the truth and to entire nations – be there Kazakhs, Lithuanians
or Azerbaijanis – whose only "deviation" was to want to have the
chance to determine their own destinies.

Recalling to these people what happened at Baku 18 years ago today is
thus important as a powerful antidote to any who have so forgotten
what the Soviet system was like that they would support its full or
partial return.

Second, with each passing year, the share of the population in the
post-Soviet states who lived under and were shaped by the communist
regime is declining, and in many places, it is falling fast. Few
under the age of 40 today were formed by the communist regime, and
none at all of those who are now under the age of 30.

Because these younger people do not have immediate memories of what
Soviet rule meant, they frequently have a distorted or at least
incomplete view of what it was about and thus are available for
mobilization by unscrupulous politicians who play up what they say
were the "glories" of that system while saying nothing about its
costs.

The danger that young people, who should be the hope of the future,
might help power a return to that past is so great that one
Belarusian paper this week went out of its way to explain to the
generation which never knew the USSR why no one should want its
return

( amp;sn_cat=37).

The Soviet Union, "Salidarnasts’" wrote, began its life as "an
unbridled, cruel and clever monster" but ended as "a powerless,
malicious and pathetic figure," capable of massive but senseless
violence against its own people and others, yet incapable of giving
anyone freedom, dignity, or a better life.

That system "would have been 85 years old on December 30th" of last
year, the Belarusian paper observed, "But happily the USSR did not
survive to that date." One of the reasons it did not is that despite
its outwardly impressive coercive powers, its people – again be they
Balts, Belarusians or the residents of Baku – no longer respected it.

Having failed to provide any basis for loyalty other than fear, the
Soviet Union was swept away into the dustbin of history it was always
threatening to send others to when people there demonstrated that
they were no longer afraid and that for them, Moscow’s period use of
violence simply underscored the weakness of the system.

Informing this younger generation whose members never lived under
communism about how that tectonic shift occurred in the Azerbaijani
capital 18 years ago today thus can help immunize them against the
duplicitous claims of those who distort the history of the Soviet
past for their own purposes.

And third, many far beyond the borders of what was the Soviet Union
need to learn in detail what happened in Baku and why the events
there played such a critical role in the demise of the USSR so that
they will be able to escape the still-widespread myths about just
what happened here.

On the one hand, because so few people in the West in 1990 looked
beyond Moscow except to those republics with large and active
co-ethnic communities in the West, many analysts there continue to
exaggerate the role of the Russians and those with such ties in the
demise of the Soviet Union while minimizing the contributions of
others.

To say this is in no way to play down the contributions that the
Russians and these others made to the demise of the Soviet system
both by calling attention to other crimes and by their struggling
against the system. These were enormous. But both historical justice
and the possibility of a better future requires a more comprehensive
picture.

And on the other, because so many people in the West then and now
view predominantly Muslim countries like Azerbaijan only through the
prism of their conflicts with non-Muslims and as the objects of
history rather than its subjects, they are unprepared to acknowledge
the independent importance of what happens in these states.

The continuing failure of many in Western countries to do so
reinforces a highly selective, culturally myopic view of the
historical record. And far more seriously, it undermines the chances
that Western countries and the peoples of these countries have to
work together.

Reminding those in the West who have a less than comprehensive view
about what happened in Baku 18 years ago today and the role that the
people of Azerbaijan played in the death of the Soviet Union thus can
ensure that they will be better prepared to help create a future in
which tragedies like Black January will never happen again.

Paul Goble
Baku, January 20

URL:

THIS YEAR RA MINISTRY OF CULTURE TO HOLD CONTESTS DEDICATED TO PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NON-MATERIAL CULTURAL HERITAGE

Noyan Tapan
Jan 16 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. This year the RA Ministry of Culture
will hold a number of contests, each of which will contribute to
development of Armenian culture. Karine Khodikian, the RA Deputy
Minister of Culture, said at the January 16 press conference.

In her words, the Ministry will announce a grant competition of
ethnographic ensembles for the purpose of promoting preservation,
spreading and development of national non-material cultural heritage,
promoting organization of ethnographic festivals. Ethnographic
ensembles having two years’ experience and two concert programs, acting
in various regions of Armenia, who with their activity contribute to
preservation and spreading of folk lore and ethnography traditions
of the given populated area, can take part in the competition. The
competition will consist of three stages. Three winners will be given
grants in the amount of 5m drams (nearly 16 thousand USD) each.

A contest of TV and radio broadcasts will be also announced. The
broadcasts should be 15-30-minute and should be dedicated to some
side of non-material cultural heritage, folk lore, national rituals,
to name but a few. Authors of at least three TV broadcasts can take
part in the contest.

A statuette and a monetary prize of 100 thousand drams will be given
to the main prize-winner of the contest to be held for the purpose
of promoting publishing, publishers’ cooperation, best publishing
technologies.

This year the Ministry of Culture will also hold the first
international fonts’ contest "Font 2008," in which citizens and
organizations of Armenia and abroad can take part. The author of the
fonts to be recognized the best will receive the chief prize and a
monetary prize of 100 thousand drams and the participants taking the
second and third places will be give diplomas.

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND YMCA NGO SIGN CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOL / COMMUNITY CENTER

ARMENPRESS
Jan 17 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, ARMENPRESS: Yukiko Izuma, a representative of
the Japanese embassy in Armenia and Gagik Muradian, chairman of the
Young Men’s Christian Association/Shelter NGO (YMCA/Shelter) signed
today in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. a grant contract
for the first stage of the construction of a school/community center
in Ishkhanasar village of Syunik marz.

The Government of Japan through its "Grant Assistance for Grass-roots
Human Security Projects" will make available an amount of 85,753
USD for this project that will support the community of Ishkhanasar
to promote its sustainable development and enhance the access and
the quality of basic education through the construction of a new
school/community center building.

During the first stage of the project the construction of the
school/community center building will be implemented through YMCA
Shelter with the funds provided by the Government of Japan and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representation
in Armenia.

The first stage is planned to be finalized by the end of 2008. In
the second stage of the project the construction will be finalized
with the participants of other donors.

The village’s population now are 75 families.

Children have their classes in neighboring villages’ school. The new
school building will be for 50 students.

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Jan 15 2008

Understanding the `Other’: Whose `truth’ is Correct ?
Bulent OZDEMIR, Balikesir University

Tuesday , 15 January 2008

When I first came to the United States in 1994 as a graduate of
history major to pursue an MA degree, I had been shocked many times
in the first month that I faced with the same question, the Armenian
genocide. I do not remember how many times the conversation with an
American began with the movie called `Midnight Express’. Although I
was a history major, I had almost no concept of genocide and had
little knowledge about what happened to Armenians during WW I.
Neither in the history books nor in the social memory and
consciousness of Turkish people, the Armenian issue still do not
occupy big importance. Even the bloody terrorist attacks on the
Turkish diplomatic missions did not put the Armenian issue at the
center of national discussion.

If we look at the present position of the Turkish-Armenian relations,
one hardly sees any possible understanding of each other. There are
certain and perpetual obstacles for the reconciliation and
comprehension of the problem. The first one is the politization of
the issue which mostly comes from the Armenian Diaspora. Trying to
force the politicians of different countries, who are actually more
concern with their home politics and their voters than with the
Armenian genocide, to pass resolutions against Turkey is nothing
other than politicizing the issue and widening the gap between the
parties for reconciliation. More importantly this process paves way
to liquidation of history. Needless to say, history has always been
a tool in the hands of politicians. Many national histories of kind
witness to that fact. While the Armenian Diaspora tries to produce
its own version of the history of what had happened during World War
I, Turkey creates its own story, mostly in response to Armenian
claims. The second step taken by both parties is the feeding of the
people with their own biased version of the history of WW I. The
passing of resolutions respecting the Armenian genocide in some third
party countries’ parliaments does not constitute anything for the
historians to use it as the proof of the Armenian genocide. It makes
the issue more complicated and political one. In return to this
activities, Turkey use its political, economic and diplomatic power
to evade the impact of these political activities.

Personal stories and memoirs occupy more place than the archival
sources in the present literature of the Armenian genocide. Since a
huge population of Armenians are living in different countries and
constituting a powerful Diaspora, past social memories and
transmission of these to the next generations become important. In
addition to this, the question of why they live oversea countries may
be asked and have to be answered. Therefore, the Armenian Diaspora
concerning the tragic events that took place almost a century ago
during the World War I, in which all the peoples including Armenians
and Turks living in the Ottoman Empire were paid a heavy price, is
trying to put all responsibility on Turkey’s shoulders which is
totally unfair by any standards. This became an undisputed fact for
the Armenian Diaspora and never to be discussed or even researched.
Accordingly, if one is going to do research and write or talk about
the subject, one has to start with after accepting the truth of
genocide. This attitude simply implies a modern myth. Armenian
Diaspora created this myth and almost equated it with Armenian
identity. Thus, Turks have to be known as the murderers and a killer
nation in all over the world, while Armenians are the victims and an
aggrieved nation.

If a nation or a group of people uses the adjectives as massacred,
insulted, humiliated, repressed while defining their identity, it is
not possible for them to have sound thinking and to produce positive
policies. Therefore, even trying to talk to these people in order to
reach a compromise and a setting of dialog would be really hard to
realize. The reason here is that this psychology does not want to
check the authenticity of the claims. In their thinking these claims
are true and there is no doubts about it. If there will be a
compromise, one has to accept these claims as prerequisite. It is
thought that any effort to open these claims up a discussion in terms
of history or academic thinking would be the same thing as discussing
the identity of this nation.

Certain themes are noticeable in the stories of eye witnesses or the
tellers who listened from the eye witnesses. In the first place there
are scenes of death involving violence, killing and torture. The
rhetoric of these stories contains violence and savagery coercing our
imagination. In particular, tragic deaths of elderly, children and
pregnant women are explained in detail. Pillaging, robbing and
raping are common and almost the order of the day. In some books,
presentation of these scenes are very interesting. It is presented
ironically that the Armenians, mostly defenseless women and children,
were waiting to be killed by the cruel Turks who were not at war in
seven fronts for four years and thought only how to massacre
Armenians and tried to find ways to exterminate them. In this
setting, there were no civil population of Turks, no Turkish
families, elders, women and children. Turks were nothing other than
the soldiers, only male population who had been programmed to kill
and massacre Armenians.

Today, Turkish public opinion and its approach to the so called
Armenian genocide is almost totally ignored in the international
circles in general and by the Armenian Diaspora in particular. There
is an Armenian Diaspora debating the issue only with the Turkish
government. It is important to know what the Turkish public think
about the Armenian claims and what their position is. The First World
War is remembered with painful events by the Turkish people as is the
case for the Armenians. The Ottoman Empire collapsed and after a big
struggle against Western imperialism, they were be able to stand up
again by creating a new republic. Almost every Turkish family has
bitter memories regarding WW I. At this point, Turkish people who
lived together with the Armenians for centuries in peace cannot
understand the Armenian claims respecting genocide. They do not
comprehend the genocide claims and think that this is against their
belief and tradition. Moreover, it is asked in full sincerity and
confusion whether they had done such a thing. In fact, this
sincerity, interjection and disbelief in their question constitute
sort of a proof that there were not such a thing as genocide against
Armenians during WW I. In the Turkish intellectual circles, these
claims are found derogatory and too severe to accept, thinking that
even the next generations would be affected by the consequences. Some
parties of the Armenian Diaspora stress that they find not the
Turkish Republic but the Ottoman Empire and in particular the leaders
of Union and Progress Party (Enver, Talat, Cemal) responsible. I am
afraid, this does not change anything for the Turkish people because
as is the case for every nation, Turkish people also consider that
their past and history is a part of their identity.

Another important reason for the Turkish people’s denial of genocide
accusations is the Islam’s prohibition of killing civillians even at
wars. What are the limits of warfare and the position of civilians in
the wars and wartimes according to the Islamic law and tradition is
important to note here.

>From the Muslims’ point of view, Islam is the religion appointed by
God for the welfare of mankind, individually and collectively, in
both worlds. It is based on belief in and worship of God, without
associating with him any partners whatsoever. Belief in and worship
of God requires on the part of a believer deep concern with
creatures, animate or inanimate. The deeper one’s belief in and
submission to God is, the deeper one’s concern for all creatures.
Belief in the unity of God allows no one on the earth to enjoy and
exercise absolute freedom in dealing with creatures.[1]

Islam, literally meaning peace, salvation and submission, came to
establish peace, first, in the inner worlds of human beings
themselves, making them at peace with God, nature and themselves,
and, then, in the entire world and universe. For this reason, peace
and order are fundamental in Islam. It always seeks to spread in a
peaceful atmosphere and refrains from resorting to force as much as
possible. Islam never approves injustice in whatever form it is, and
severely forbids bloodshed. According to the Qur’an: `Whoever slays a
soul not to retaliate for a soul slain or corruption in the earth, it
shall be as if he had slain all mankind, and whoever `gives life’ to
a soul, it shall be as if he had `given life’ to the whole of
mankind.'[2]

There are strict rules regulating how war may be conducted. For
example, the following is the order given by Prophet Muhammad to come
until the present day to armies dispatched for fighting:

Always keep fear of God in your mind. Remember that you can not
afford to do anything without His grace. Do not forget that Islam is
a mission of peace and love. Do not destroy fruit trees nor fertile
fields in your paths. Be just, and spare the feelings of the
vanquished. Respect all religious persons who live in hermitages or
convents and spare their edifices. Do not kill civilians. Do not
outrage the chastity of women and the honor of conquered. Do not harm
old people and children. Do not accept any gifts from the civil
population of any place. Do not billet your soldiers or officers in
the houses of civilians.[3]

Current State of Relations Between Armenian and Turkish Societies

Today 70,000 Armenian citizens are working in Turkey.

There are direct flights between Istanbul and Yerevan.

Numerous contacts are taking place between NGO’s, local authorities
and businessmen.

There was great and spontaneous reaction of Turkish people to the
murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink back in January
this year.

Restoration and inauguration of the old Armenian Orthodox Church of
Akdamar in Van, in eastern Turkey was another occasion of good will
and dialog showed by Turkish government.

On both of these occasions, officials of the Armenian Government as
well as representatives from the Armenian Diaspora were invited by
Turkey to share these moments of grief and joy respectively.

What to do now?

Turkish people conceive the events during WW I not the genocide but
the tragedy that befell the Turkish, Armenian and other peoples of
the then Ottoman Empire all alike.

A thorough and objective research by the historians and academicians
around the world have to be done and put the facts on the table.

To this effect, Turkey has opened its archives, including the
military archives of the period, to the entire international academic
community, and has requested all the other parties involved to follow
suit.

Turkey has reason and right to expect the Armenian archives,
particularly the Hunchak archives to be opened.

Turkey proposed to Armenia in 2005 to establish a joint commission of
historians to find out the truth about the events of 1915.

A positive response has still awaited from the Armenian authorities.

Turkey has also stated its readiness to cooperate with all interested
third parties for the conduct of this research activity within their
own archives as well, with a view to sharing the findings with the
international community.

Any impartial observer would admit that Turkey has so far displayed
magnanimity in its willingness to face its past. Hence she stands
ready today to start building a sound future for our next generations
through the establishment of viable and peaceful relations without
delay. For this, a bit of wise thinking and goodwill as well as
refrainment from rhetoric and baseless accusations would more than
suffice. This should not be too hard a task for any responsible
government or parties to undertake. Turkey has amply and repeatedly
manifested her resolve to this effect; now it is high time for the
Armenian side to respond in kind.

—————————————– —————————————

[1] Prophet Muhammad as Commander, (London: Truestar Ltd., 1996) p.18

[2] Qur’an, 24:1-7

[3] Bukhari, Manaqib, 9. See also, Andrew Miller, Miller’s Church
History from First to Twentieth Century, (London Pickering & Inglis,
1963) p. 285.

Bulent OZDEMIR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. of History, Balýkesir University,
Turkey

2007

LEADER OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW UNION PARTY: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN ARMENIA WILL MOST LIKELY BE HELD IN TWO ROUNDS

arminfo
2008-01-09 18:27:00

ArmInfo. The forthcoming election in Armenia will most likely be held
in two rounds, Leader of the Constitutional Law Union Party (CLU)
Hrant Khachatryan said at a press-conference at Friday discussion
club, Wednesday.

To recall, on December 21, 2007, the CLU Board made a statement about
the party’s intention to support the presidential candidacy of Leader
of the National-Democratic Union (NDU) Vazgen Manukyan.

According to Khachatryan, the CLU Board was guided by the fact that
"since 1990 the leading and state structures of the country have been
undergoing regression and clannish administration has been ruling in
the country. The Republican Party of Armenia led by Armenian Prime
Minister Serzh Sargsyan is not able to carry out necessary radical
reforms, Vazgen Manukyan can do this, therefore we decided to support
his candidacy. One shouldn’t forget that the whole state machinery
and the powerful administrative resource support Serzh Sargsyan,
but we’ll do our best to help our candidate win. I think, the second
round is inevitable, and a situation, when despite the second round,
the power would be changed according to the returns of the first round,
would be the most optimal variant", Khachatryan said.

Touching upon Vazgen Manukyan’s opponents, the CLU leader particularly
spoke about Levon Ter- Petrosyan, the first president of Armenia. It
was Ter-Petrosyan who consolidated the radical opposition, however,
many of his supporters, who hope "to get rid of the present
authorities" with Ter-Petrosyan’s help, are still unable to see
him president again, Khachatryan said. He added that right after
Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation in 1998, CLU and ARF Dashnaksutyun tried to
politically assess Ter-Petrosyan’s regime to avoid similar mistakes in
the future, however, this process was softened by Robert Kocharyan’s
administration. "As regards my relations with Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
I’d better not sort out my relationship not to spoil it completely",
he stressed.

ARDSHININVESTBANK TO BE REORGANIZED INTO OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The management of Ardshininvestbank
intends to start the process of reorganizing the bank from the closed
joint stock company into an open joint stock company, the chairman of
the bank’s board Aram Andreasian announced this at the December 26
press conference.

According to him, assets of Ardshininvestbank grew by 34% or over 23
bln drams (about 66.6 million USD) in 2007 on 2006 and will make 93
billion drams in late 2007, while its liabilities increased by 28.2%
(16 bln drams) and will make about 75 bln drams in late 2007. A.
Andreasian said that it is expected that by results of 2007,
Ardshininvestbank will receive a net profit unprecedented for the
Armenian banking system – a net profit of over 4 bln drams to exceed
twofold last year’s index. Thanks to this profit and investments of the
bank’s shareholders, the overall capital of Ardshininvestbank will
amount to about 19 bln drams against 11 bln drams at the beginning of
the year.

In the words of A. Andreasian, it is envisaged that in 2008
Ardshininvestbank will issue bonds of the total amount of 3 bln drams
(about 9.84 mln USD).

It was stated that Landesbank Berlin (Germany) and Atlantic Forfaiting
company (Switzerland) have given 2 million euros with a repayment
period of 5 years for production re-equipment of the bank’s big
customers, while American Express and Byblosbank (Lebanon) have
provided credit lines of 2 million dollars for implementation of
document-related operations.

A. Andreasian said that Ardshininvestbank is in first place in the
Armenian banking system by the amount of credit investments, which will
make 57 bln drams at the end of 2007 (83% growth). Consumer crediting
grew almost 3fold and will make 20 bln drams in late 2007, while
attracted deposits grew by 50% and will make about 15 bln drams at the
end of 2007.

The bank has a representative office in Paris, 49 branches in Armenia
and 2 branches in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

ARMENPRESS

ARMENIAN VERSION OF WINDOWS VISTA TO BE READY EARLY
NEXT YEAR

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian
representation of Microsoft will announce early next
year free distribution of the Armenian-language
version of Windows Vista operating system.
Grigor Barseghian, head of Microsoft Armenian
representation, said the work is in the last stage.
The representation accomplished last year the
Armenian version of Windows XP. Next year it is set to
accomplish also the Armenian version of Windows
Office, which will have also an Armenian language
spelling program.
He said there were fears when they started
preparing the Armenian version of Windows XP that it
would not be popular, but the demand for it is on the
constant rise, he said, especially in areas outside
Yerevan.

Metropolitan News-Enterprise, CA
Dec 27 2007

Retired Superior Court Judge Kehiayan Dead at 80

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haig Kehiayan has died at
age 80.

Kehiayan, a longtime resident of the Santa Clarita Valley, died
Tuesday. Information regarding services was not available as of late
yesterday.

A longtime Republican, Kehiayan was appointed to the bench by Gov.
George Deukmejian in 1998. He was elected in 1990 and reelected in
1996, and he continued to hear cases by assignment after his
retirement in 1998.

Attorney Lee Kanon Alpert, a friend who had known Kehiayan for 30
years, said that he would be missed terribly. Alpert called Kehiayan
a `good lawyer,’ and a `great judge,’ and said that he had a
no-nonsense style that made him very effective. Alpert said these
characteristics carried over from Kehiayan’s days as at litigator.

`He had an incredible sense of humor,’ Alpert said. `He was a great
strategist and was tough as a trial attorney and a litigator, but
always with a smile and a gentlemanly way.’

Retired California Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian, who swore
Kehiayan in as a judge, agreed.

`He was the sweetest human being,’ Arabian said. `I never heard a
bad word about him, and never heard him utter a bad word about anyone
else.’

`Haig was truly a prince among men,’ former Los Angeles District
Attorney Robert H. Philobosian said. `This is a great loss to the
community. He was always unselfish and thinking of others. He was a
loyal friend to many of us in the Armenian American community and
among the judges and lawyers.’

Kehiayan graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1945, and then
joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, rising from the rank of
seaman 2nd class to seaman 1st class and receiving the Victory Medal
World War II.

After the war, he attended college at USC where he engaged in private
real estate sales and various part-time employment while a student.
Upon graduating with a degree in public administration in 1950, he
served as right of way agent for the California State Division of
Highways, Los Angeles, until 1956.

During this time Kehiayan also attended Southwestern Law School,
where he graduated cum laude in 1955, and was admitted to the State
Bar of California in 1956. He also engaged in post-graduate studies
in medical-legal anatomy at the College of Osteopathic Physicians &
Surgeons, part of the USC Medical Center, from 1958 to 1959.

Kehiayan began his law practice in Los Angeles in 1956, practicing
first as a sole practitioner, and then with the law firm of Kehiayan,
Herman & Stromwell from 1963 to 1965. He then practiced with the
firm of Kehiayan and Herman from 1965 until 1967, when he became
partner in the firm of Oliver, Sloan, Kehiayan & Vargas.

In 1969, he began practicing in Mission Hills, where he engaged in
general practice. He became partner in the law firm of Kehiayan &
Herman in 1978, and then in 1981 became president of Haig Kehiayan,
ALC, specializing in real estate, small business, and probate cases
until his appointment as a judge.

Prior to his appointment, he was a member of the American Arbitration
Association from 1965 to 1988, serving as an arbitrator with the Los
Angeles Superior Court and the San Fernando Valley Arbitration
Program from 1979 to 1988.

Kehiayan was a member of the American Bar Association, the Los
Angeles County Bar Association, and the San Fernando Valley Bar
Association, where he served as president from 1986 to 1987. He was
also a member of the California Judges Association, the Armenian
Professional Society, and served as a delegate to the California
State Bar’s Conference of Delegates

He was appointed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to
two terms on the Los Angeles County Economy and Efficiency
Commission, serving from 1981 to 1986, where he rendered a report on
efficiency and economy in the courts.

Kehiayan was also an adjunct professor at California State
University, Long Beach, where he lectured in law at the School of
Nursing, and an instructor at Anthony Schools where he taught real
estate and contract law.

Deukmejian told the MetNews that Kehiayan had always been
hard-working in private practice, and that he thought Kehiayan had
made an excellent judge who approached his duties in the same manner.

Alpert agreed with this assessment.

`He was the finest judicial officer you could ever find,’ he said.

Kehiayan is survived by his wife, Judy, and by his children and
grandchildren.

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