ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia August 10, 2017 Thursday Armenian Government proposes to introduce temporary customs privileges for the import of modern technologies in agriculture Yerevan August 10 Naira Badalyan. In the agriculture of Armenia, it is necessary to introduce temporary customs privileges for the import of modern technologies. Relevant instruction was announced by Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetian on August 10 at a Government meeting. According to the Minister, for the import of new technologies within the framework of the implementation of state support programs aimed at developing the country's agriculture in leasing agricultural machinery, establishing anti-hail networks, introducing drip irrigation and creating intensive fruit gardens, it is necessary to introduce temporary customs privileges. According to the head of government, in the process of implementing these programs, existing customs duties can become an additional burden for farmers. "Taking into account the fact that local producers do not fully meet the needs of the market, it is necessary to define temporary incentive measures in this area," Karen Karapetyan said. Proceeding from this, Prime Minister instructed Minister of Agriculture Ignatiy Arakelyan, Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan, Head of State Revenue Committee Vardan Harutyunyan to submit proposals on establishing temporary incentives for the import of technologies and measures of state support of local production in agriculture within a month.
Author: Liana Toganian
Music: Jazz instead of fire: “Jazz on the Border” in Tavush
Public Radio of Armenia
Aug 10 2017
15:40, 10 Aug 2017
Jazz will be heard on Saturday night on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
A concert will take place as a part of the traditional “Jazz on the Border” project in Berd, Tavush region. The music performed by the State Jazz Orchestra of Armenia will be heard also in the territory of Azerbaijan.
“We deliberately use very powerful equipment so that our music may be heard not only by our soldiers but only on the other side of the border”, Hayk Chobanyan, Head of the “Spiritual Renaissance of Tavush” foundation said.
The Honey and Berries Festival will take place the next day.
Number of marriages rises in Artsakh
Aravot, Armenia
368 marriages were registered in the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Republic in the first semester of 2017. It grew by 30 percent compared with the indicated period of the previous year (283 registered marriages).
As the Civil Acts Registration Agency of the Artsakh Ministry of Justice reports, most marriages were registered in capital city Stepanakert (142 against 86 of the previous year) and Martakert region (52 against 40 of the previous year).
Armenia’s Investigative Committee Studies Cases of Domestic Violence
Asbarez Armenian News
The Republic of Armenia’s Investigative Committee.
The Republic of Armenia’s Investigative Committee has analyzed 215 criminal cases regarding domestic violence from the first half of 2017.
The majority of the cases concern violence instigated by a husband. Additionally, the committee has studied cases of murder committed by a family member, sexual abuse toward children, avoidance of child care, among other such crimes. There are currently 43 criminal cases sent to the court concerning 46 people.
The phrase “domestic violence” is used according to the wording of the President of the Investigative Committee’s order from November 17, 2017. The order defines domestic violence as “physical or psychological violating actions that take place in a family or a family unit or between ex- (or present) spouses or lovers regardless of the fact whether the violator resided or resides at the same place with the victim.”
Book: Renowned Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan’s 10-volume set to get republished
Panorama, Armenia
A series of events are scheduled on the occasion of the 150th birthday anniversary of renowned Armenian writer Hovhannis Tumanyan. The events will be based on scientific studies, Yerevan-based literary critic Vardan Devrikyan told the reporters on Tuesday.
Mr. Devrikyan informed that the 10-volume set by the prominent writer is set to be republished in the framework of the events. Meantime, the new editions will also feature newly discovered manuscripts and annotations, which were forced to be published outside the volumes. The new publications will have significant differences, featuring numerous in-detail annotations. Two of the 10-volume books have been republished as of now, with the third one set to be republished when funds are available.
“The second volume completes 1914, with the third one concluding the 1917. In total, four out of the ten volumes will cover the writer’s life chronicle.
Vardan Devrikyan also noted that it takes serious measures and time to publicize the works of the merited Armenian writer, properly translating them and presenting to the foreign readership. The literary critic meantime expressed hope that Hovhannes Tumanyan and Komitas will be included in UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.
BAKU: External forces won’t hinder strengthening of Baku-Moscow ties
Trend, Azerbaijan
17:59 (UTC+04:00)
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva – Trend:
Yesterday’s meeting between presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, in Sochi has once again confirmed the obvious postulate – no external forces can and will be able to hinder strengthening of relations between the two countries. This does not only have to do with Armenia but also certain Western forces who believe that Baku must be turned away from the policy of systematic building of strategic relations with the Kremlin.
This is not surprising as the question “Who Baku is friends with?” is becoming more and more topical for world powers. Over time, Azerbaijan has become an increasingly significant factor of global and regional politics, and this is due in no small part to the presence of internal political stability in the country, developing economy and Baku’s foreign policy. In other words, building relationships with such a strong, predictable and reliable partner is advantageous for everyone, and this is why, the desire to get Baku into one of the political camps is politically quite understandable.
However, the strengthening of strategic relations with Moscow has always been on the agenda of Baku, and therefore, that is unlikely to be changed. Especially, Yerevan, which has numerously tried to spoil Azerbaijani-Russian relations by complaining, whining and using hidden hints and open blackmail, will never manage to do this. Firstly, Moscow hardly listens to Armenia’s whining and secondly, it never fulfills Armenian requests and demands that are contrary to Russian national interests.
And the fact that strengthening of ties with Baku is in the interests of Moscow raises no doubts.
Modern relations between Azerbaijan and Russia represent an excellent example of a strategic partnership, when two countries have identical views on most key issues. Moreover, these relations are even stronger as they are based on mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Azerbaijan and Russia signed more than 200 interstate, intergovernmental and interregional agreements. In addition, there is an important economic factor – Russia is one of Azerbaijan’s main trading partners, and the development of mechanisms for regional cooperation in a trilateral format generally includes the two countries’ similar approaches to many issues.
By the way, the Russian language occupies a special place in the strengthening of relations between Baku and Moscow, as Azerbaijan, unlike neighboring states, treats with respect the preservation and development of the language in the country. This has the most positive impact on the life of the Russian diaspora in Azerbaijan. And, certainly, Baku trusts the Kremlin in the issue of mediation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement for a reason.
Based on Moscow’s actions, Baku pins certain hopes on Russia not only as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for settling the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the country, which is geographically and historically closely connected with the South Caucasus, but also as a strategic partner with whom the relationship is time-tested.
Sports: Armenia gymnastics team is 3rd by medal tally in Batumi
MediaMax, Armenia
Head coach of the team Hakob Serobyan told Mediamax Sport he was pleased with his athletes’ performance.
“We took young gymnasts to the competition and they did what was expected from them. They are our future and I’m happy we have such a great new generation,” Serobyan said.
Zhora Smbatyan (pommel horse, horizontal bar, rings), Artur Avetisyan (rings), Gagik Khachatryan (pommel horse), and Erik Baghdasaryan (parallel bars) are the members of the Armenian team who won gold medals.
Hovhannes Hakobyan (parallel bars) and Narbe Hakobyan (rings) took silver medals, while Vahe Ghzaryan (floor exercise) won the bronze.
Chess: Levon Aronian participating at 2017 Gran Chess Tour in Leuven
Panorama, Armenia
Armenian GM Levon Aronian plans to take part in the 2017 Grand Chess Tour tournament from June 28 to July 2 in Leuven, Belgium. The Armenian player will play one-round rapid and 2-round blitz events.
As the Chess Federation of Armenia reports, GMs Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Viswanathan Anand, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Anish Giri, Vassily Ivanchuk and Baadur Jobava will play.
One of the greatest hotel owners of the 20th century
Eturbo News
June 11, 2017 Sunday
June 11, 2017 Sunday
One of the greatest hotel owners of the 20th century
U.S., June 11
Julius Manger (1868-1937) was born in Boonville, Missouri. He graduated from the Tulane University Law School. At the age of twenty-eight, he engaged in the coffee business and was later associated with his brother, William, in the construction business in Galveston, Texas. They later located the hub of their business activities to New York City where they built more than 500 homes in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. They also built the Builders Exchange Building in Manhattan and in 1907 traded it for the Plaza Hotel in Chicago, which was the beginning of their successful venture as hotel owners and operators.
When William died in 1928, the Manger hotel properties were valued at $22 million and included luxury hotels in Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C. and New York. At one time, the Mangers owned 18 hotels in New York alone and others in Washington, D.C., Boston, Massachusetts and Rochester, N.Y. Some of the most famous Manger Hotels were:
* Manger Vanderbilt Hotel, New York
Opened in 1912 as a luxury hotel with a bath in each of the 585 guestrooms, the 20-story Vanderbilt Hotel was built by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. It was designed by Warren & Wetmore, architects of the Commodore, Biltmore, Ritz Carlton Hotels in New York; Providence Biltmore; Mayflower, Washington, D.C.; Royal Hawaiian, Honolulu; Broadmoor, Colorado Springs; Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Arkansas and Grand Central Terminal.
The Vanderbilt was designed primarily as an apartment hotel with permanent residences to accommodate a new generation of the rich who wanted freedom from household responsibilities. In its time, the Vanderbilt was one of the most widely-admired buildings for its extensive use of terra cotta, fabricated by the New Jersey Terra Cotta Company. The Works Progress Administration’s 1939 “New York City Guide” called its “an example of the eclectic use of Italian Renaissance, Mexican and Adam English design influences.”
In April 1913, Vanderbilt and his valet boarded the RMS Lusitania for a trip to London. The night before the Lusitania set sail, Alfred and Margaret attended the theater, seeing the Frohman and Belasco production of A Celebrated Case. The following morning, the Vanderbilts awoke to find a startling notice in the newspapers. Framed in black, a warning from the Imperial German Embassy reminded travelers that a state of war existed between Germany and Great Britain and anyone sailing on a ship flying the English flag “do so at their own risk.”
The Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. It was later reported that Alfred Vanderbilt removed his life jacket and personally strapped it on to a mother holding an infant. Unable to swim, his act of heroism sealed his own doom.
In 1941, the hotel was purchased from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company by the Manger Corporation and renamed the Manger Vanderbilt.
Manger operated the Vanderbilt through the 1964 New York World’s Fair but then closed the hotel. It was sold for $3.625 million to an investment group headed by John E. Marqusee who converted the first six floors into offices and its upper floors into apartments.
* Gotham Hotel, New York
The Gotham was built in 1903 and was designed by the architectural firm of Hiss & Weekes in a Beaux-Arts style similar to the St. Regis Hotel across Fifth Avenue. In 1920, the hotel was sold to Julius and William Manger for about $4 million. Manger operated the Gotham Hotel until 1932 when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company brought foreclosure proceedings against it.
While the imposing neo-Italian Renaissance Gotham Hotel was one of the few structures on Fifth Avenue which recalled the golden age of luxury hotels, it never seemed to find the favor it sought in part because it was overshadowed by the subsequent openings of the St. Regis Hotel across Fifth Avenue and the Plaza Hotel four blocks to the north. The Gotham suffered from its proximity to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church across 55thStreet which prohibited liquor sales within 200 feet of a church.
* Manger Taft Hotel, New York
This 2,250-room hotel opened in 1926 with designs by architect H. Craig Severance who also designed 40 Wall Street, a 70-story skyscraper originally known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust building.
The Hotel Manger proclaimed itself as “the wonder hotel of New York- a modern marble palace with 2,000 outside rooms, servidors and circulating ice water.” The Manger got into trouble with the feds for reportedly serving alcohol during Prohibition. A raid resulted in the arrest of several bellboys, waiters, and two bootleggers, as well as the temporary padlocking of the building.
After Manger sold the hotel in 1931, it was renamed for President William Howard Taft. The new owners leased the southwest corner of the building for the lobby of the adjacent Roxy Theater.
The Taft Hotel was a Manhattan landmark for fifty years. In its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, it was the largest hotel in midtown, famed for the big bands performing in its Taft Grill which featured live entertainment such as the George Hall Orchestra, Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Tony Pastor. Vincent Lopez’s dance band was one of the most popular of the 1920s and broadcast a radio show from the Taft.
To get an up-close description of life in the Taft, read “Hotel Kid: A Times Square Childhood” by Stephen Lewis whose father was the General Manager for thirty-three years. Filled with hotel anecdotes and childhood experiences, this delightful memoir is informative and amusing.
* Hotel Wolcott, New York
Although it opened on March 1, 1904, the Wolcott remains one of New York’s best-kept hotel bargain secrets. It was designed by one of the most famous hotel architects in the United States: John Hemenway Duncan (1855-1929). He also designed Grant’s Tomb, the Knox Hat Building (Fifth Avenue and 40th Street) and one of the greatest public monuments: the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. In 1923, the hotel was purchased by the Wolcott Operating Corporation, run by William and Julius Manger. They owned and operated the Wolcott until 1932.
* Martha Washington Hotel, New York
The Martha Washington Hotel opened on March 2, 1903 as the first New York hotel operated exclusively for women. All employees were women with a hostess and chaperones in attendance at all times.
The opening of the original Martha Washington Hotel was the capstone of more than fifty years of poor treatment of women travelers in the United States. Prior to the Civil War and thereafter in the 19th century, the lone women guest was looked upon with suspicion.
* Hay-Adams Hotel, Washington, D.C.
The Hay-Adams Hotel was built in 1928 to designs by Armenian-American architect Mihran Mesrobian in the Italian Renaissance style for developer Harry Wardman. Mesrobian also designed the Carlton Hotel and the Wardman Tower (now the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel). The Hay-Adams slogan is “where nothing is overlooked but the White House.”
The Hay-Adams Hotel was purchased in 1933 by Julius Manger who, at the time, owned 18 hotels in New York City. The Manger family owned the Hay-Adams from 1933 to 1973 during which time the hotel was known as the Manger Hay-Adams.
* Hotel Manger, Boston, Massachusetts
When it opened in August 1930, it was one of the finest hotels in Boston with an unbeatable locational advantage: adjacent to the North Station and the Boston Garden. It contained 500 rooms and advertised: “each room equipped with Tub and Shower; Built in Radio Speaker, (Three-Station Service); Tickless Electric Clock; Servidor; Circulating Ice Water; French Telephone; Full Length Mirror.. New England’s Most Modernly Equipped and Perfectly Appointed Hotel.”
The hotel’s name was changed to the Madison in 1958. Through its early life the hotel hosted National Basketball Association and National Hockey League teams scheduled to play at the adjacent old Boston Garden. The famous Beatles stayed there in 1964 and on September 12, 1964 held a press conference in the Madison Room of the hotel where three college students “crashed” and actually were able to ask the Beatles questions.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s the Madison Hotel, like much of the area around busy North Station, had lost its luster. By then, many of its more than 400 rooms housed homeless and low-income people. The Madison closed its doors in 1976. Ten years later, on Sunday, May 1, 1986 the hotel was demolished by implosion to make way for construction of the “Tip” O’Neil Federal Building, which now occupies the site. The old Boston Garden was torn down in the late 1990s after the construction of the Fleet Center.
* Seneca Hotel, Rochester, N.Y.
Rochester’s new hotel opened on September 14, 1908 in time for the State Democratic Convention. The New York Times (September 13, 1908) reported:
The hostelry in size will compare with the Hotel Astor in New York. Its architecture is in a general way French Renaissance.
The main entrance to the lobby of the hotel is from a private street. This provides a porte-cochere, which affords protection to those alighting from carriages in inclement weather.
By the early 1920s, a 10-story addition was added to the Seneca, making it Rochester’s largest hotel (500 rooms) and the meeting place for New York’s power brokers. The hotel would host many Democratic Party functions featuring such politicians as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.
In 1957, the Seneca was purchased by the Manger Hotel Company and became the Manger Seneca Hotel. The new owners renovated the building and introduced four new dining venues including an executive lounge for men. But with the expansion of the national highway system and the subsequent growth of roadside cabins, motels and motor inns, large urban hotels like the Manger Seneca could not survive. It was demolished in 1968.
Julius Manger died on March 29, 1937 in his suite at the Hay-Adams Hotel. He was 69 years old. He was buried in the Manger Mausoleum in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, N.Y. Architect/designer Franklin Naylor built the mausoleum in 1927 for Dominico Dumbra, but it was purchased by Julius Manger in 1935. It was one of the last hurrahs of the Golden Age of the Mausoleum which ran from around the end of the Civil War to the Great Depression. It is one of the most elegantly-crafted mausoleums in the United States and a suitable resting place for one of the greatest hotelmen of his time.
*excerpted from “Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry” AuthorHouse 2016
The author, Stanley Turkel, is a recognized authority and consultant in the hotel industry. He operates his hotel, hospitality and consulting practice specializing in asset management, operational audits and the effectiveness of hotel franchising agreements and litigation support assignments. Clients are hotel owners, investors and lending institutions. His books include: Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009), Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011), Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013), Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf (2014), and Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016), all of which may be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting stanleyturkel.com