Author: Maghakian Mike

Yerevan should normalize relations with Turkey
ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 19 2005
YEREVAN, April 19 (Itar-Tass) — Yerevan should normalize relations
with Turkey without any preliminary conditions, Armenian Defense
Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said at the National Press Club on Tuesday.
“That does not mean that Turkey will not have to admit the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 or change its position in the
Karabakh conflict,” he said.
Turkey is about to become a EU member, but it will have to reform the
domestic and external policy first, the minister said. Armenia cannot
have a closed border on Turkey because of the EU Neighborhood Policy,
he said.

Le Télégramme , France
18 avril 2005
Génocide : les Arméniens de Bretagne se recueillent
Il y a 90 ans, se perpétrait le génocide arménien.
L’association « Ménez Ararat » (Ararat, la montagne où s’échoua
l’arche de Noé, située en Turquie) regroupe la centaine de familles
bretonnes qui, de Nantes ou Saint-Malo à Quimper, en passant par
Lorient, Saint-Brieuc ou Mûr-de-Bretagne, constituent la communauté
soudée et bien vivante des Arméniens de Bretagne.
Le geste du souvenir
A 11 h, une cérémonie s’est déroulée au monument aux morts, sous une
pluie battante.
Marcelle Ramonet, députée du Finistère et 1 r e adjointe de Quimper,
représentait le sénateur-maire Alain Gérard.
Deux gerbes ont été déposées, l’une par la ville de Quimper, l’autre
par l’association des arméniens. Jean-Pierre Zarfadjian, président de
la communauté, a rappelé les circonstances du génocide du peuple
arménien.
Les faits ont débuté par le massacre de 1.500 personnalités
arméniennes, élus, intellectuels, religieux, le 24 avril 1915.
Rappel historique
« Les Turques commémorent solennellement la mort de Talaat Pacha,
assassin sanguinaire, qui a signé l’ordre d’exterminer tous les
Arméniens. Le texte de son ordre disait : “Le gouvernement a décidé
de détruire tous les Arméniens résidant en Turquie. Il faut mettre
fin à leur existence, aussi criminelles que soient les mesures à
prendre. Il ne faut tenir compte ni de l’âge, ni du sexe. Les
scrupules de conscience n’ont pas leur place ici”. Et J.-P Zarfadjian
a conclu en demandant que les élus tiennent « les promesses faites à
une communauté française, intégrée socialement et économiquement, en
exigeant de la Turquie qu’elle reconnaisse ce qui fut le premier
génocide du XX e siècle ».
Aubade en mairie
Marcelle Ramonet a ensuite reçu les membres de Ménez Ararat en
mairie. Dans sa réponse à M. Zarfadjian, elle a souligné que « ce
génocide est aussi une part de notre propre histoire,… et sa
reconnaissance par le Parlement français n’est pas de la charité,
mais le respect de la parole donnée ». Ruth Ehkirch-Boranian,
professeur de violoncelle, entourée de ses élèves de l’Ecole de
musique de Quimper, a interprété le psaume 23, composé par Jean
Boranian, son père, et un Ave Maria d’un compositeur allemand,
Fitzen-Hagen.
Question d’un exilé
Au pied de la stèle patriotique, Tanguy Jeanjouan avait interprété la
sonnerie aux morts et Nicole Kasparian un chant arménien d’exil : «
As-tu une petite nouvelle de chez nous ? », demande le poète à la
cigogne, oiseau migrateur, symbole de l’exil. « Tu n’as pas répondu,
éloigne-toi ».
GRAPHIQUE: Photo, Legende: Les Arméniens ont été accueillis à l’Hôtel
de ville de Quimper par Marcelle Ramonet, 1 re adjointe au maire.
Ruth Ehkirch- Boranian (au centre), professeur de violoncelle à
l’Ecole de Musique, a donné une aubade, entourée de ses élèves.
–Boundary_(ID_vN6Tv6zdfFWPWvC/sGL+NQ)–

DEMARKING THE BORDERLINE
A1plus
19:34:41 | 18-04-2005 | Official |
On April 18, 2005, the meeting of the co-chairs of the State Committee
on the demarcation of the RA and Georgia borderline G. Gharibjanyan,
RA deputy Foreign Minister, and M. Mikaladze, special ambassador of
the Georgian Foreign Ministry.
The sides found the necessity of quickening the process of demarking
the RA-Georgia borderline extremely important and mentioned the
timetable of the works to be done in that connection.

IEC OF ARMENIA INTENDS TO RISE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY
SUPPLIED TO GEORGIA BECAUSE OF DECLINE IN USD/AMD EXCHANGE RATE IN ARMENIA
YEREVAN, APRIL 18. ARMINFO. The CJSC International Energy Corporation
(IEC) of Armenia intends to rise the price of the electricity supplied
to Georgia, Deputy Director General of IEC Mels Hakobyan informs
ARMINFO’s correspondent. In his words, the recent decline of the USD
exchange rate in the internal market of Armenia made the transaction on
export of Armenian electricity unprofitable. At present, the company
supplies 1.8 mln Kw/h electricity to Georgia for 2.75 cents per 1
kW/h. In the winter period, IEC supplied 2.5 mln kW/h electricity
to Telasi company, which is a buyer of the Armenian electricity. IEC
intends to rise the prices as much as the USD has fallen. At resent
1 USD is purchased in the internal market of Armenia for 430 AMD as
against 478 AMD at the beginning of the year. The company expected
a relevant decision of the Georgian Energy Commission. Hakobyan notes
that electricity supply to Georgia has started since the end of 2004.
CJSC IEC was founded in May 2003 by RJSC UES of Russia holding
for exploitation of Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade of HPPs. The company is
licensed by the Armenian Commission for Public Service to produce
electricity for 15 years and to export it. Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade of
Sevan, Hrazdan, Argelan, Arzni, Kanakaer, Yerevan HPPs is the main
producer of electricity in Armenia. Its capacity is 556 megawatt, which
is some 18% of the total capacity of the power engineering in Armenia.

BOTH ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS WERE POINTED OUT
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
16 April 05
Nevertheless, summing up the work of the City Hall in the first quarter
of the year, the mayor of Stepanakert Edward Aghabekian evaluated it as
positive During the press conference on April 12 the mayor presented
the work of the City Hall. He promised to remain faithful to the
tradition and publish the work done and to do not forgetting about the
drawbacks. During the press conference Edward Aghabekian dwelled upon
a series of important problems. COMMUNITY BUDGET According to him,
there was a decline in the community budget revenues from disposal
of inventory. In the first quarter of the past year the revenues of
the community budget from disposal of inventory totaled 3 million
drams; this year the revenues decreased by 50 per cent. Nevertheless,
according to the mayor, this is not a low rate and does not impact
the community budget receipts. According to Mr. Aghabekian, those
spheres where disposal of inventory results in improvement of work
efficiency should absolutely be privatized. In reference to the
community budget adoption and execution Edward Aghabekian informed
that the growth of community owned receipts is estimated by 23.4 per
cent against 2004, which will total 27.2 million drams on a yearly
basis. The mayor of Stepanakert noticed that this volume of growth
is estimated for the first time in the last 3-4 years. As to the
results of the last quarter, there was a 6.2 per cent growth in the
community-owned receipts. At the same time he said that three months
is not a long period to make far-reaching estimations but it is enough
to make estimations of certain things. TAX REVENUES One of the major
problems is that the institution of cadastre is not fully formed.
According to the mayor, if in 2004 the tax service collected 605
thousand drams from natural persons, this year more than 3 million
drams of tax revenues is estimated. He added that this year the tax
on property was not heavy for anyone. As to the public taxes, in the
first quarter of 2004 public tax collection totaled 4.3 million drams,
whereas in the same period of the current year collected public taxes
totaled 2.9 million. In the same period the payments of land rental
was 1.312 million drams against 340 thousand in the first quarter
of the past year. DECISIONS In the past three months the City Hall
adopted 14 decisions. He singled out the decision that every year
since 2005 at 12 o’clock on April 24 two minutes of silence will be
kept in the community in the memory of the victims of genocide in
1915. The mayor of Stepanakert also mentioned that as distinct from
other spheres funding of cultural events was funded by 100 per cent.
CHRISTINE MNATSAKANIAN. 16-04-2005

HEAD OF FRONTIER SERVICE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION VLADIMIR PRONICHEV ARRIVED IN ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
18.04.2005 08:04
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of the Frontier Service of the Russian
Federation Vladimir Pronichev arrived in Yerevan today. The purpose
of the visit is the familiarization with the conditions of the Russian
frontier troops dislocated in Armenia. A number of bilateral documents
and agreements referring in part to the financing of the Russian
troops are to be signed within the frames of the visit.

Advertiser Adelaide, Australia
April 16 2005
Turks’ tribute trip angers ethnic groups
By ANDREA STYLIANOU
MEMBERS of five South Australian ethnic communities are angry over a
planned taxpayer-funded Anzac Day visit to Adelaide by Turkish war
veterans.
They are unhappy with Turkey’s “aggressive foreign policy and past
invasions” of their countries.
The groups have demanded to know if any of the visitors were veterans
of those conflicts.
President of the Greek Orthodox Community of SA Theo Maras said there
had been no consultation by the RSL, which has supported the
initiative.
“The Greek and Greek-Cypriot communities in SA are appalled that
there will be representatives of the Turkish Government who may be
veterans of the illegal invasion and continuing occupation of
Cyprus,” he said.
Others angered by the visit are the Cypriot, Kurdish, Armenian and
Pontian communities.
President of the Turkish Association of SA Dr Kemal Turker said: “All
of us come from different countries and we should not bring our old
animosities to this country.”
The veterans’ visit is an initiative of the Spirit of Gallipoli
Committee. That received funding of $33,000 from the State Government
for a range of events.
The visitors were selected by the Turkish War Veterans Association.
President of the Cyprus Community of SA Marios Panatsos said the
community supported the Gallipoli spirit. “But many of SA’s
Greek-Cypriot community are still experiencing human rights
violations by Turkey,” he said.
Refugee and community radio presenter Khaled Azizi said the Kurdish
community in SA would not welcome the visitors.
President of the Armenian Cultural Association of SA Alec Balayance
said of the visitors: “Anyone less than 70 years old could have
served in the invasion of Cyprus.”
Pontian refugee and president of the Pontian Brotherhood of SA, Peter
Demourtzidis, said consideration should be given to SA’s diverse
community. “There are about 10,000 Pontian Greeks in SA who are angry
over the RSL’s invitation of these Turkish veterans,” he said.
RSL president Jock Statton rejected the criticism. “We are all
Australians,” he said.

Bermuda Sun, Bermuda
April 15 2005
The changing face of Bermuda
By James Whittaker
Bermuda is officially among the most multi-cultural countries in the
developed world – with more than a quarter of the island’s population
coming from overseas.
Government statisticians say the ratio is higher than any country in
the OECD – an economic forum and unofficial `rich list’ of the
world’s most influential countries. The analysis, carried out as part
of the sustainable development research, indicates our culture is
among the most diverse in the world.
And Government stats expert Melinda Williams said the figures showed
that more and more people from a wider variety of countries were
coming to Bermuda than ever before.
For years Bermuda’s guest population has been dominated by Brits,
Americans and Canadians but the picture in 2005 is very different.
Though those countries, along with the Azores and the Caribbean,
still feature heavily – the face of Bermuda is changing.
Evidence, both statistical and anecdotal, tells us that people are
coming from all corners of the world to Bermuda.
The newest and most noted influx has come from Asia. But the island
is home to Ghanaians, Armenians, Zimbabweans, Colombians… the list
goes on.
The Government does not know just how many different nationalities
are here – but, it seems, it’s just about any country you can name.
In a special four-page report we talked to 20 of the island’s foreign
workers about their lives, their homelands and their Bermudian
journeys.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
April 15 2005
City will pay $250,000 to move society
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
GLENDALE — The city redevelopment agency has set aside $250,000 to
help the Armenian Society of Los Angeles pay for temporary space
while the organization relocates.
The group’s temporary headquarters will be a 6,300-square-foot office
at 320 W. Wilson Ave.
In 2003, the redevelopment agency approved a $5 million agreement
with the Armenian Society, exchanging a city-owned property at 117 S.
Louise St. for the ASLA’s 11,000-square-foot space at 221 S. Brand
Blvd., which is part of the Americana at Brand project. The agency
also agreed to help the ASLA with relocation costs.
“When we purchased that property, part of the all-inclusive deal was
we were going to provide them with a (temporary) location for 20
months, so that’s what we’re trying to do,” said City Councilman Bob
Yousefian.
The City Council, acting as the redevelopment agency, voted
unanimously Tuesday to approve the relocation expenditures.
Vrej Agajanian, chairman of the ASLA’s board of trustees, said the
organization hopes to start construction on its permanent site soon.
“My understanding is it will take a maximum of six months. I hope it
will stay that way because otherwise it’s too long,” Agajanian said.
Armenian Society officials hope to be able to move out of the
temporary location in less than 20 months — or soon after — so the
organization does not lose money paying rent.
The 49-year-old, volunteer-run organization has 600 active members.
In addition to running a Saturday school, it has an 80-member choir,
helps orphans in Armenia and does volunteer work in the community.
The organization has started submitting designs for its new location.
It could be 12 to 18 months before construction starts, officials
said.
“Apparently their design needs a lot of work. And so when they get
their design to a point that is passable, they need to bring it
forward so we can start moving this project forward,” Yousefian said.
“Their organization needs to get moving on this.”
The $250,000 approved this week includes $189,000 to set up the ASLA
at its new location for 20 months, several thousand dollars in
contingency costs, and the cost of letting the ASLA’s Saturday school
be held at the old Edison School site on Pacific Avenue.
The city is working to find a more permanent location for the school.
Officials said the city remains on track to stay within its $62.5
million budget for acquiring the 15.5 acres of the Americana at Brand
site.
The ASLA, which is expected to move within a month, is one of four
tenants remaining on the property; the other three have new locations
to move into. There were originally 38 tenants.
“We worked with each of the tenants to find a comparable location to
move to,” said Emil Gatevosian, a senior project manager, adding that
95 percent of the site’s former tenants have stayed in Glendale.
The ASLA was the only community organization that had to move, and
officials said it needed more help than commercial tenants.
“It’s atypical, in a sense,” said Alex Hamilton, a senior project
manager. “It’s not a standard retail-type business.”

AMBASSADOR YEGHISHE SARGSIAN REPRESENTS LECTURE AT DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY
OF FOREIGN MINISTRY OF ROMANIA
BUCHAREST, APRIL 14, NOAYAN TAPAN. Yeghishe Sargsian, the Ambassador
of Armenia to Romania, represented a lecture on the theme “South
Caucasus and Armenia: Developments and Expectations” at the Diplomatic
Academy of the Foreign Ministry of Romania on April 11, covering the
main problems of internal and foreign policy of Armenia, acheivements
of the social-economic sphere, and prospects. As Noyan Tapan was
informed from the RA Foreign Ministry’s Press and Information
Department, representing mutual relations of the Republic of Armenia
with the countries of the region, other states, as well as
international organizations, particularly with the UN, the European
Union, OSCE, NATO, the Ambassador also touched upon in details the
problems of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and
recognition of the Armenian Genocide.